BRAZIL - For the Birds

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How's that for a beach! It's about 40km back to our place and it's beach all the way! Look closely, how many burrowing owls do you see in this picture? How many did you see in the last picture? You should've seen two of them side-by-side. This is what a curious owl looks like. This is what a PO'ed owl looks like! Don't know what kind this one is. We only saw the one while we were out. Doesn't look too happy about being photgraphed either. This the south end of north bound quero-quero and it's baby in the foreground. The proper name of it is a southern lapwing or something like that. He is kind of the equivalent of Vancouver's dumpster divers but a little more sophisticated. They use horse and carts instead of grocery carts. They go around and collect all of the recyclable materials from the garbage stands, etc. and sell it at the depots. He's got himself quite a load! ...and here's an example of a PO'ed quero-quero. These birds really seem to have short tempers - it must be the humidity! This is another version of a street cleaner or recycler - the common vulture. Usually encountered along the side of the road cleaning up after the road-kill. This guy appears to be practicing his karate kick - I guess if the road-kill isn't comletely dead he helps it along. How's this for fresh seafood. There's the restaurant and there's the boat. Get your fish (peixe) and shrimp (camarao) right here. ... and if you want a little fresh honey on something - how's this for a bee hive? Hmmm, or is it a wasp nest? In either case I think I'll continue buying my mel at the mercado. Here's another baby quero-quero ... ... and a very vigilant guardian hovering nearby! Ok, enough of this wussy, nice guy stuff, let's get serious! Well, yeah, I guess the vulture was sorta serious but wait for the next series. Here's on animal that didn't get home last night. He became part of the food chain or as Darwin might say 'The gene pool has just been improved'. At this point there about 3-4 other hawks/eagles hovering overhead just waiting to be invited for dinner, hence the watchfullness. He decided it might be better to relocate and for some reason decided not to fly. Maybe he knew he was being photographed. I guess I should have warned you about this picture ahead of time, sure hope you aren't eating right now. Man-o-man, am I glad I'm a human and can select more appetizing meals for myself!. Oops, I guess he took that as an insult. He's heading off to eat in privacy. Bom appetito! What a watch dog! There he is guarding the front door and looks who's coming in the back. Just kind of a neat colourful picture at one of the small fish markets along the coast. Brazilian beaches stretch on for miles and miles and miles and miles and ... get the idea? And they seem to be empty for the most part! Now that's a serious warning. Do you get the message Now we're back at the farm and Chris & Karen's humming bird feeders. Around 4 o'clock in the afternoon these little guys come out in droves. Well, maybe not droves - how about 20-30 at a time. These pictures were taken while standing beside the feeders at an arms length distance, as in you don't need or couldn't use a telephoto lens as they are too close! In fact the breeze from their little wings is rather refreshing.