Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Birds of Paradise

Is is just me or is this new Blogger format difficult and unwieldy, especially when it comes to photo handling?  I hate to complain, but usually after a few weeks of a new format, I move on and start to enjoy the new, improved features - just not happening this time.

First of all, a happy 20th birthday to my Eldest, who reads my blog daily, whilst away at university.  Miss you hon, and it was a wonderful two short weeks together.

Eldest and Youngest, all dolled up for gala night on the cruise.

Back to our vacation.  Today, I will share photos of the birds we met along our journey.  Yes, I know they were all in captivity, which makes it more than a bit artificial, but it was also an excellent photographic opportunity - forgive the wire mesh backgrounds in most of the shots.  Try to imagine birds flying freely amid the rain forests. 

That brings me to a enigmatic topic.  We traipsed through the rainforest in Belize for the best part of an hour - wonderful foliage and trees.  I expected the palm trees and overhanging canopy to be filled with the sounds and sights of exotic birds.  In the hour we might have seen and heard a couple small blackbirds, certainly nothing exotic avian-wise, in this relatively untouched natural haven.


Not very exotic, but he was friendly


The Missus and her new-found admirer.




This was the most pleasant, gentle little chap.





Toucan Sam?




Green bill variety.















And that is about all I have to say for today.

 Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

9 comments:

  1. The parrot looks very sweet.As a kid,we sometimes had Fruitloops and I always wanted to see a real live toucan.

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  2. What beautiful birds (and beautiful daughters!) I love the little guy drinking from the cup in your hand.

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  3. You have beautiful daughters. And those are some pretty birds too!

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  4. You have some great shots here of people and of birds and of birds on people. Thanks for letting us see the sights of the warm climate.

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  5. The reason there were no birds in the wild is that they were all vacationing in Ontario. :-)

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  6. Happy birthday "Eldest."
    Great bird pictures and I will ignore the screens.
    Some of my birding friend go on special tours for birding. They come back making sightings of 200 species.

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  7. Oh Gardner, your girls are quite the beauties!!! Here's sendin' Miss #20 a great big old Ozark...HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDEST!!!

    Your pictures are just wonderful, what fun with our fine feathered friends. Sometimes my little wild song~birds will land on my head while I'm fillin' feeders.

    God bless ya and have a glorious day Man!!!

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  8. My goodness your girls are beautiful! Happy Birthday to your eldest! Twenty..oh I wish I were twenty again some days.
    You got some great photos of the birds..they look exotic to me!
    I use a free program called Live Writer to write all my blogs..it is wonderful and you can put photos exactly where you want them..unless you have a Mac..then it won't work for you:)

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  9. I've heard of people wearing a feather in their cap - but a whole parrot, that's taking things a bit too far.
    Seriously though, seriously pretty birds and daughters.

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