Cattle Egret

Bloody hell,

there's a lot

more to this

birding lark,

ha ha,

no pun intended,

than I thought.

Having been

entranced

by Darrel's

superb

photographs

at

Green Withens Birding,

I thought I'd

give it a go,

after all it

can't be that

difficult can it?

Having spotted the birds, which took a while, there was the little

problem of i.d., and as for the shots?

Usually, if close enough, the noise of the lens extending, scared

them off, or, if further away, it took me so long to find the

zoomed in spot, in the camera window, they'd flown long since.

I despaired, this was hard. I was miserable, how the hell some

people manage to actually draw birds is beyond me.

Rescue was at hand. Just as I was about to give up, I read

this at Blyth Birder, made me feel much better.

Banana

Produce

Yesterday,

I

was,

mostly,

picking

beans

and

cucumber.

Saturdays

are

when

we

go

and

sell

what

we

have.

It

is

also

our

day

out.

Birds in Grenada

Today was
weeding
more tomatoes,
fortunately,
there were
plenty of
diversions.

A new
Antillean
hummingbird
and nest







with
apologies
for the
quality
of the
photographs













but,
just to
give some
idea of
the size,
here is an
old,
abandoned
nest,
next to
a Coco Cola
screw cap.







A party
was held
by the
Smooth
billed
Anis
in the
bamboo












and
a
Grenadian
fly catcher,
on the
bamboo
stick.

Click and
zoom please.

All
corrections
on
i.d.
welcome.

Bordering on Birding.

Corn Buck
is situated
above the
waterfalls.
We park
close to the
track that
crosses
the river.
A pair of
blackfaced
grassquits
welcome us.
They are
fascinated
with their
reflection
in the wing mirrors.

Still from
the van,
a pair of
Lesser Antillean
Tanagers,
in the peas
tree.




Honestly.









A male
and female.
















Aaah,

Zooms
has
found
the
zoom.













A male
Lesser Antillean
Bullfinch
















shows
his true
colours.
















In
the garden
a
Zenaida
dove














and an
Antillean
crested
hummingbird.
A
camera shy
Grenadian
flycatcher
was also,
momentarily,
present
and an
unseen bird,
that sounded
exactly like
a phone ringing,
had me
confused.

For Chocoholics

There are
still some
cocoa trees
remaining
in Corn Buck,
and despite
years of
neglect
and the
passage of
Ivan,
the remaining
few,
valiantly,
continue
to bear.



The pods
display
beautiful
colours,
from the
deepest mauve,
(not ready yet)
through to the
red
and
orange
and yellow
of maturity.






They have
to be cut
from the tree,
as they do not
fall
by their own
volition.
When they are
cracked open,
with a cutlass,
a sweet, sticky
mass
of creamy beans
is revealed,
which is scooped
out
and left to dry
in the hot sun.


This year,
instead of
taking
the wet beans
to the pool,
we are drying
and, later,
roasting,
them
ourselves.










Hopefully,
this work
in progress
will result
in
our very own
cocoa tea,
or, if I am
really lucky,
chocolate.

Eared Dove

Ross Hill

This is

Ross Hill,

as seen

from

the

shade

of the

Julie

mango

tree.

The

Immortal

Tree

is

in flower,

announcing the arrival of the rainy season.

Acrylic on ply. 12" x 12"

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Spoilt child.

It was a measure of how sick you really were, if, as a small child, growing up in the 1950's post war Britain, when your mother was heard to ask,
"Could you manage a dippy egg, with soldiers?"
The proper response, so as not to sound too enthusiastically well,
" I'll try"
would herald the imminent arrival of a tray, (naturally being sick one was confined to bed) upon which would be, a boiled egg in an egg cup, a teaspoon, with which to hit the top of the egg to remove the shell, attendant 'soldiers', (slices of buttered toast cut into strips of a width that could be dipped into the soft yolk once the top of the egg had been removed) and a cup of weak, sweet, milky tea.

I have a tickly cough,
and a bit of a temperature
no egg cups, toast or butter.

Cocoa riggee for Guyana-Gyal

It was fun
yesterday
flying my
cocoa riggee
kite,

that T made

from

a cocoa leaf,

with

dry fig straw

for tail

and

sewing thread

for twine.