rain, a broken bird, and trail rides

Blog overhaul! I am a fan.

The rains are definitely here. It's been raining every day for... who knows how long. It's been a while since there was a day without any rain. I hope it doesn't stop because as soon as it does, the mosquitoes are going to be out of control. Speaking of pests, the army ants were out almost every day last week. Baby powder works wonders as a deterrent - just in case any of you have to battle the secal. Sometimes I feel as if I'm repeating myself in this blog... apologies if I am.

All the kids are doing well. The Woodpeckers are getting ready to fledge and the Aracari kid loves flying around in the evenings when her cage is cleaned. She was introduced to Elmo today. There were a ton of vocalizations and posturing and no aggression. After a couple of days I'll release her from the carrier and let them have actual contact. They're extremely social birds so the company is good for them both. The Vireo is still not eating on his own nor is he showing any interest to do so (arrgg!). The released Boat-tailed Grackle disappeared for a few days but may an appearance today. She's no longer begging and actually runs from me. Excellent.

Monday consisted of a quick run to Benque Road in search of an "injured parrot". We couldn't find the bird or the people who were supposed to be standing around it, mostly because I apparently am no good at taking directions. Thankfully he got a ride to the clinic but unfortunately, the Olive-throated Parakeet had a severely broken wing. The shoulder, the humerus, the elbow, and the radius / ulna were all broken. No hope of recovering. This job sucks sometimes.

Other than the depressing Parakeet, there's no other news to report. Oh, except that the "seed-eating" White-tipped Dove keeps stuffing himself full of the Chachalaca's diet of fruit. Weird and also unexpected. Seed-eater? What does that mean?

Friday was a real day off and pretty amazing. After an early start, we were on our way to a friend's house in the village of Tea Kettle. It has a beautiful view with a ton of birds, but sadly it was pouring so we didn't get to see much of anything. It eventually cleared up and after a few errands, we headed to Blue Hole National Park. We swam for a bit and saw some excellent birds... no cave spelunking though. One of these days I will see the cave there. We headed back to Tea Kettle and I finally got to ride a horse for the first time ever! We did a trail ride through the jungle and saw / heard so many Mealy parrots. These guys are massive! They're the largest parrot species in Belize. After a fairly good Chinese dinner in Belmopan full of meaty spring rolls (blech) and a few drinks at La Cabana (insert a tilde over the n), we decided to stay in Tea Kettle for the night. I ended up being pretty spoiled with air conditioning, a comfortable bed (my current one is a killer on my back), no mosquito netting, and no various creatures / debris falling on me in the middle of night. There were quite a few Mealy parrots flying about in the morning as well as some Keel-billed Toucans and other miscellaneous passerines. It's hard to return to the confinement that is CASA after experiencing how amazing Belize can be.

Alison left on Wednesday. We were all unsuccessful in convincing her to stay even longer but hopefully she'll be back in a couple of months! (hint hint) I had gotten used to having her here... now it's a lonely and boring.

Perhaps I'll have another real day off tomorrow... now just to find something to do that doesn't take 5 hours to get to by bus or cost a ton of money. Hmmm. Guanacaste National Park, perhaps? Or maybe I'll just lay in my bed all day if the tropical storm / wave decides to make an appearance.