minus eight, plus two

Many of you have probably heard about Tropical Storm Alex paying us a visit. It arrived Saturday evening and had cleared off by Sunday afternoon... we mostly just got a lot of rain and some wind / "squalls". Monday's weather was perfect so it turned into release day! The 2 Golden-fronted Woodpeckers and 4 Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers were released on-site in the morning. The Woodpeckers (above) were completely finished with us and didn't hang around for very long. The Flycatchers were a bit more confused and hung out for a while trying to figure out what was going on. We drove to Bullet Tree a bit later and released the remaining 2 Euphonia (I lost another on Friday morning) into a delicious berry tree. Good luck little guys!

A House Wren arrived on Monday evening. She had hit a ceiling fan in San Ignacio. Her wing was pretty trashed and, unfortunately, she didn't make it past Tuesday. Those guys are really stress prone, plus she probably had some head trauma and who knows what else. Another baby came in on Wednesday. It was found on the ground the road the El Pilar. It's a passerine and... that's all I know. Time will tell, I suppose. He's mostly uninjured. It's always not ideal to raise a kid by itself since they can get confused. We'll see how it goes...

The Chachalaca has been moved to an "outside" aviary ("outside" because she has no exposure to the elements). She's flighted now but she's still got awkward teenage plumage. The parakeet is still a parakeet and the grackle is still sort of a grackle. She is flying a bit though which is promising and she's FINALLY eating all on her own. That took way too long. The Roadside Hawk had surgery on her eyelid last week. So far so good. She's opening her eye all the way but she'll be examined this week to see if the lid has healed together.

I was able to get off the property on Tuesday to "get browse". We did get browse... we just threw a little hiking and jungle machete-ing and birding in there as well. It was nice to get off the property for a bit. We've been invited to lunch in Santa Familia tomorrow. It's going to happen, even if I have to take the baby along with us.

Five and a half months down... how is it July already??