Naturalist Notes: Rain...

Mystically falling

Countless drops

Crystal clear

Cleansing washing

Making new

© Denise Etienne

Caribbean Flamingo   © Denise Etienne

You may remember that I recently took a trip to the Emperor Valley zoo. They have a beautiful exhibit of the Caribbean Flamingos, if you haven’t seen it as yet you should go check it out!

These birds are quite striking with their long legs and necks, with a height of approximately 3.5 to 4.5 feet tall. Occasionally because of their unique bright pink plumage, they are easily confused with the Scarlet Ibis, but as you can see they are much bigger birds.

© Denise Etienne

Naturalist Notes: Blooming Immortelles

Immortelles blooming   © Denise Etienne

Presently  in the northern range there are countless amounts of Immortelle trees in full bloom. Their bright orange flowers attract numerous species of birds including: hummingbirds, honeycreepers, orioles, one can even observe Parrots and Oropendolas feeding. This tree was especially grown to shade Cocoa and Coffee.

© Denise Etienne

Naturalist Notes: Ocelot

Ocelot at the Emperor Valley Zoo

Today we took a trip to the Zoo. It was my little nephew's first visit and his favorite animal was the baby Red Howler Monkey. For me, I always love seeing the Ocelots. I think they have a mysterious aura about them. They seem so quiet and reserved. This is also the only native wild cat found on the island.

© Denise Etienne

Season Greetings!

Naturalist Notes:New Adventure

This morning the manager and I took a short walk to explore the environment of our new work place, Amanecer~Retreat and Spa. This is a new hotel situated in the 

Lopinot Valley, surrounded by lush rainforest. Originally it was a cocoa and coffee plantation, to date there are numerous other fruit trees.

As we ventured up the quiet road looking at the flora, I decided to imitate the call of the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl to see who or what we would attract. Suddenly the forest became alive with sounds, we heard the Violaceous Euphonia (which is locally called Semp) Rufous-breasted Wren, Golden-headed Manakin and Orange-winged Parrots were squawking as they flew overhead. A family of Golden-fronted Greenlets was peeping at us, luckily we were able to see them. In the distance ahead we caught a glimpse of the Long-billed Gnatwren as he hurriedly disappeared into the bamboo. We also saw quite a few species of butterflies, including the Red Rim, Red Anartia and Blue Transparent, which is really cool because you can literally see though his wings! Amongst all that we saw on our short stroll today, for me the pinnacle was the view of a peaceful, trickling stream of crystal clear water. I hope to keep you posted of more discoveries as time goes along.

Denise Etienne

The Bird Whisperer

Naturalist Notes: People-watching

Earlier on this week I was sitting in one of my favorites spots in Arima people watching, as I like to do ever so often.  About fifteen feet down from me was a street vendor selling CD/DVDS, with him was a medium size music set up. He played Christmas carols, slows, rock, oldies, hip hop, reggae, quite a wide selection of songs, changing them ever so often. It was so interesting to see people from all different walks of life singing or just humming to a song as they passed.  There was an elderly lady sitting right next to me and she was singing away to Stevie Wonder’s “I just called to say I love you”. School kids, Men, Women, Africans, Indians, Douglas, Chinese, as they walked by they were enjoying one song or the other. Even though we are different in so many was, I believe music is one of the many threads that ties humanity together, can you think of others?

Denise Etienne

Naturalist Notes: Doing the right thing

I was sitting on the corner yesterday evening, enjoy the cool breezes that soothes my soul. Then I noticed a young man in school uniform walking by, I’m guessing he wasn’t more than about 13 or 14 years old. In his hand was a small empty soft drink bottle, which he attempted to dunk (as if playing basketball) into a medium sized dumpster that was at the side of a wall. Unfortunately for him, he missed his target and the bottle ended up in the drain.  I must say that I was surprised at what happened next! Even though there were several other pieces of trash on the ground.  This young man stopped, got down into the drain to retrieve his bottle and then placed it where it rightly belonged. I felt so proud of him, I smiled and said loudly, you did the right thing young man!

 There are serious consequences to littering e.g., flooding, causing harm to wildlife…

Naturalist Notes: Patience

It’s been over two weeks since I've hung my bird feeders and all that I have attracted thus far, is ants! To me this really reiterates that one needs to have a whole lot of patience when dealing with our avian friends. I’ll keep you posted, hopefully it won’t be long now.

Denise Etienne

Happy Davali!