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 ABOUTfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanArchive for the ‘Sea Birds’Dec 19, 10 Comment (1)
Good morning from still raining Curacao! I have a fun, whimsical photo for you this morning of a cute little Bananaquit hanging upside down taking a bath under our dripping air conditioner at work. My co-worker Barbara was eating lunch when she raced in and said “Barry you have to see this”! I dropped what I was doing and raced down stairs and slowly took a peek out the window. This is my same little Christmas bird I sent out a few days ago but I guess she decided a break was in order and found this great spot to relax and cool down. This little bird hangs completely upside down and lets the water run from her tail feathers all the way to her beak, it was so much fun to watch! As we watched our other co-workers came in and one by one all huddled close to the window for a viewing of this acrobatic bird. Once the bird was completely soaked it let go and would drop just a few feet below the water and land on a big Sea grape leaf and puff up into a big furry/feathery ball, it was so cool. After the bird left I went out and cleaned the dirty window in hopes she would be back but so far we haven’t seen her, most likely because she is so busy with the Christmas nest and her new babies that will be on the way soon.
Yesterday I was out waking the dogs at 6:30 in the morning! That’s a first. I had to be at work at 8:00 so we did a fast one hour hike and even got a little trail cleaning in. After I went shopping and did the laundry and then made a pit-stop at the beach for some beach glass collecting. Aimee and I are going to put together a pallet full of this glass and send it back home on a container ship, it has so many uses.
Have a wonderful Sunday folks, I am headed out on a long walk with the dogs!! Bye now, Barry
Dec 15, 10 Comments Off
Good morning all, we first want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and say thanks to everyone again for all the support this year. As usual I have a few different Holiday e-cards, one I will only be sending out to the guys only on the list but will post it online for everyone as well. This is a female Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola) who I found yesterday at a nearby restaurant who was very busy building a new nest for her little babies that are soon to be on the way, talk about a festive bird! This is probably the most popular bird on the island. With it’s yellow belly and black back and wings that look like he is wearing a fancy tailcoat. These birds are called “Sugar thieves” or “Sugar Raiders” here in Curacao as they seem to love this food the most. Almost any restaurant you visit during the day you can observe these little beauties flying into the restaurant, landing on tables and looking for sugar, it’s so funny to watch! When not living in a restaurant atmosphere these birds in the wild collect nectar from flowers and snap up small insects. If they are unable to reach the nectar they will simply puncture the base of the flower to get at it, pretty smart if you ask me. These birds also breed all year long building one nest after another, remember the picture I sent last year with a mother Bananaquit in the mouth of the stuffed fish feeding her babies? Anyways, Merry Christmas early and thanks for all the e-cards, we love them all!
We currently have two scientists here from the Smithsonian who are studying fish. Our hopes are that they find this area a wealth of information and possibly want to make this a field station of sorts, would be great to have them here for a longer period of time. I did a short one hour bike ride after work and then a night dive with the sub, am feeling pretty tired today! I better get to work, more later, Barry
Dec 14, 10 Comments Off
Good morning, Aimee and I are waking up so tired after a super fun night out at a fabulous new restaurant celebrating 25 years that the Curacao Sea Aquarium has been open, it was one of the best employee parties I have ever been to! We went to a new place called La Ldea “The Rainforest Mystery”, from the outside it looks like a Mayan temple or something discovered in the Yucatan and the inside was unreal plus some of the best food we have had in Curacao! This is for my bird lovers out there this morning and we have quite a few! This is a giant Frigate bird, one of many that soar all day long above the aquarium and try to grab a free snack from the trainers as they feed the dolphins. If a dolphin misses the thrown fish or for some reason isn’t hungry these Frigates whip down in seconds and pick them up, there is nothing wasted with them around. Frigatebirds are large, with iridescent black feathers (the females have a white underbelly), with long wings (male wingspan can reach 2.3 meters) and deeply-forked tails. The males have inflatable red-colored throat pouches called “gular pouches”, which they inflate to attract females during the mating season. Frigatebirds are found over tropical oceans and ride warm updrafts. Therefore, they can often be spotted riding weather fronts and can signal changing weather patterns. These birds do not swim and cannot walk well, and cannot take off from a flat surface. Having the largest wingspan to body weight ratio of any bird, they are essentially aerial, able to stay aloft for more than a week, landing only to roost or breed on trees or cliffs. As members of Pelecaniformes, frigatebirds have the key characteristics of all four toes being connected by the web, a gular sac (also called gular skin), and a furcula that is fused to the breastbone. Although there is definitely a web on the frigatebird foot, the webbing is reduced and part of each toe is free. Frigatebirds produce very little oil and therefore do not land in the ocean. The gular sac is used as part of a courtship display and is, perhaps, the most striking frigatebird feature. I need to get moving, running real late, more tonight, Barry
Nov 23, 10 Comments Off
Good morning all, this one is for my bird lovers in Wyoming and South Dakota who share my same love for our feathered friends. This is one of the two Osprey’s (Pandion haliaetus) that we currently have hanging out at and around the Sea Aquarium. Just about every day someone says, did you the osprey catch that fish or did you see the osprey eating that lizard? And of course I always say, “no, why didn’t you call me”?? So yesterday I went for a very short walk and immediately found one of them sitting high a top on the roof at Royal Resorts Hotel. He was perched on the highest peak facing the wind with his wings open trying to dry out his feathers, I assume he had recently dove into the ocean for lunch but missed that shot. As I watched him thru my lens he looked down at me with that big beautiful eye and became very uncomfortable with my close presence and took to the air again allowing me to get this cool shot of his beautiful wings spread wide open! The locals here call these birds, Sea Eagles or Fish Thieves and in Papiamento it’s called; Gabilan Piskado, Gabilan di Lamen and in Dutch it’s called a Visarend. These are by far some of the greatest and most efficient hunters I have seen. They hunt by diving feet first for fish swimming near the surface of the water, sometimes becoming submerged completely. Once the claws have got a hold on it’s prey it is impossible for the bird to retract them and there are known cases in which the osprey has drowned because it had hooked to big a fish. When they do succeed in grabbing the fish and lifting it out of the water they then carry it head first to a fixed feeding station and will spend the next hour consuming it. I will continue to be on the lookout today so if any of you spot him with a fish please call me.
I am running late, talk to you more tonight, bye now, Barry
Nov 7, 10 Comments Off
Good morning all, as many of you know by watching World news we are getting pounded by rain again!! After Tomas passed much of Curacao was buried underwater and still is! Many shops and stores are closed due to flooding and or looting and I am sure after last nights storm they are all right back where they started! Yesterday we had what I called a mini Tomas which was so bad they had to cancel the Amstel Gold Bike race as it hit just minutes before the start. That little storm dropped heavy flooding rain and lasted about an hour but that was nothing compared to the storm we got last night! Aimee was the first to get up last night at around 3:00 and within seconds she was yelling for me to get out here. The thunder and lightning was just deafening and I can’t even describe the amount of water that was falling, our yard and driveway looked like the Florida Everglades! Aimee had a water-proof light and she was running around yelling for the cat which we could hear but could not find and finally I said forget it and get back inside, your going to get hit by lightning! Our back porch was completely flooded and the water was just starting to come inside so I started bailing it out with a big blue dust-pan. We then proceeded to build a water barricade around the porch, both of us completely soaked and the noise from the thunder and the rain was so load we couldn’t hear each other talk! I wish I could say that at times it was funny but it was down right scary, these storms are nothing to mess with. The sad thing is these storms will and are flooding most of the homes on the island, we are lucky to be on the side of the hill. The poor locals that live in the neighborhoods surrounding us are in real trouble. I rode my bike thru there yesterday morning and all the homes had piles of flooded furniture and belongings out in front of each home with people crying and wondering what to do. It’s the closet thing I have ever seen to a real natural disaster. I will try to find you a link to You-Tube of my friends who made the most of the storm and went surfing behind a truck thru the flooded streets this week, it’s unreal to watch! I am so glad that all of our friends are home safe and sound right now and no one is here visiting.
Here is a beautiful Trupial I shot yesterday at work before the first storm hit. This is not what you call a “cute bird”, they are on the aggressive side and down right mean to other birds but they are colorful and make the coolest sounds you have ever heard.
I need to go clean up the yard, driveway and house and try to walk the dogs somewhere, be back tonight. Have a great weekend, Barry
Oct 11, 10 Comments Off
Hi friends, just a quick one tonight as we are both busy on the computers with other projects tonight. We both worked today, I did 2 dive’s, one with a friend and one with the sub so my day went by pretty fast. Everyone was still on a bit of a cloud after hanging out with Royalty yesterday, goes to show you never know who will walk in the door. I was wondering if anyone got to see the Discovery Channel episode that was filmed here last week about the Substation, it aired on Sunday. If not I will get you the link tomorrow and send it you way, they really did a great job with it!!
I had a request for a flamingo photo yesterday so I dug this out from it’s hiding spot this evening. This was another photo taken near Puerto Mari at the salt ponds when our friend Karine was here. I remember us pulling over and walking quite a ways me caring my tripod and within minutes car after car saw us and immediately followed! Wild flamingos like many other animals are not keen on having human visitors and will quickly walk away in the opposite direction I suggest bringing a big zoom lens!
I have lots to do, be back tomorrow, Barry
Aug 23, 10 Comments Off
Hi friends, not a whole lot to report this evening. I forgot to tell everyone that when I leave on the 1st, (about a week from now) that there will be NO daily blogs sent out as e-mails! Sorry. BUT, I will try hard to post a new photo every day on my www.coralreefphotos.com site, so you can still go there for your daily dose of “Life on Curacao”. I am in the process this evening of getting 21 underwater photos all ready to go and I will take them with me on the trip and post them when I can on my website, so please tune in when you can. I plan on being very busy every day and just won’t have time to be on the computer but when I return the e-mails will continue for those lucky enough to still be on the list.
Here’s a beautiful Trupial for you all this evening that I found on a dog walk the other day. These birds are very difficult to approach unless of course you are feeding them or your really fast with your camera. I put out corn and other seed every day for my birds here in the yard but the Trupials won’t come near it! The thing they love most is table scraps or just bread! Their sound is so cool! The downside to these guys is that they are mean to other birds, they always chase off my smaller yellow sparrows that’s why I quit feeding them, if they can’t play nice they can go find food somewhere else!
We had a quiet day and the ocean was rough and dirty. Tomorrow I have two friends of mine paying for a sub ride at 11:00, it will be great to photograph them underwater. Off to bed, later, Barry
Jun 23, 10 Comments Off
Good evening friends, I know I said I would send out the little rock crab photo from yesterday but again I can not find a name for him, there is not much info on what lives and grows on this island out there! So instead I have for you a picture I took out my kitchen window yesterday morning during our early morning downpour! This is called an Eared Dove or Zenaida auriculata. All the other doves and birds had flown away to seek some kind of shelter but not this guy he sat there just as happy as could be and the water just ran right off him. The black spots on the wings and behind the eyes make identification easy and the neck often shows an iridescent purplish color. These doves are most at home in the desert and I always see them when walking the trails. When startled or disturbed they fly straight up like they were shot from a rocket disappearing almost immediately. This behavior has earned them the name “Jumpy Dove”. Like all doves it is a seed eater and is quite common on all three islands. Nests are built in bushes, cacti and low trees.
No rain today at least not here at the house but it sure was hot and humid! I rode my bike home at 1:00 for lunch and was soaked to the bone by the time I got there and I only live a mile away? One of our security guards came and picked up our car today and took it to be fixed saving me a ton of time, we may have a new best friend! Aimee is fine and having a wonderful time, it will be two weeks tomorrow, one week to go! Not much else, I am doing a dive at 9:30 in the morning with friends so I better get moving and get my camera put together.
See you again soon, Barry
May 26, 10 Comments Off
Hi all, here’s a new little bird I don’t think I have ever sent out before, this is a male Yellow Warbler. A big thanks to my good friend Gordy for pointing this bird out to me, I am very grateful for any and all photo tips above or below water. I ran into Gordy the other day and he told me there is a little yellow bird sitting in front of the Warden (big Ship) on a stick at the Sea Aquarium. Turns out this bird and his mate have been here for a few weeks and have been seeing their reflections in the ships window and it’s driving the male crazy! The little Yellow Warbler must see this as another male trying to move in on his territory or his lady?? The people in the boat have tried everything to mask the reflection from the inside but he can still see himself and he’s bound and determined to kick his own butt if it’s the last thing he does! The locals here call these little beauties Para di Misa and in Dutch they are called Gele Zanger. The females of this species don’t have a brown hat and are not as brightly colored, we males need all the help we can get, right boys!! I also found out that many older locals call these ”Churchbirds”. Long ago friars of old gave it the name because of the resemblance of a brown cap. The thin bill indicates clearly the insectivorous nature of this bird. Often branch after branch is systematically stripped of it’s insects.
Aimee went to a party tonight and I had to stay home with the all the dogs! That’s about it, time for bed. Have a great day tomorrow, Barry
May 21, 10 Comments Off
Hola Amigo’s how are you all this fine evening?? I just got home from a super fun evening at Saint Joris. After work I loaded the dogs and met two of my co-workers, Loet, and Laura and their two boyfriends and off we went for a fun evening of hiking and photography. We started out by walking my new mountain bike trail first and that popped us out at the “palm tree oasis” and from there we followed the waters edge back to the car which took around two hours. Both girls came equipped with cameras and were constantly stopping to shoot something, I think it’s safe to say they had a great time. It’s been so long since I have taken guests out there that I had kind of forgotten just how magical that place can be, it’s really beautiful. We didn’t see any Cara-Cara’s tonight but Loet did find a barrel cactus with five little blooming pink flowers and some real nice pieces of driftwood which they carried all the way back to the car. It was a fun night, the dogs are now asleep and that alone was worth the trip.
Here’s a real cool bird photo I again took out in my backyard yesterday for your viewing pleasure, these are the beautiful Bare Eyed Pigeons. I was hiding in a bush across from them with my 200mm lens and the funny thing is they knew I was there! You can see the look of curiosity and distrust in their eyes, they wanted to fly down below and eat the seed I had laid out but with every click of the shutter it just made them all the more ready to take flight! Here in Curacao the Dutch call these birds Naaktoogduif, say that 10 times real fast! The locals also have a different name as well and they call them Alablanka, in Aruba they are called Barbakoa, Warakoa and in Bonaire they are known as Warbakoa, crazy huh??
We had a really nice family stop by and look at the puppies tonight so please cross your fingers and say a prayer for us. That’s about it, I did a reef dive today and still need to download photos, see you tomorrow, Curacao regards, Barry
May 20, 10 Comments Off
Hi friends, this morning while out working on the new trail with Aimee and Junior this big Cara-Cara landed very nearby to check out what was going on. Here is Curacao and only in Curacao they are called Wara-Wara’s. For once I was smart enough to pack my camera because I have been seeing these big carnivorous birds now every time I am out there so I figured today is the day to start photographing them. I was able to walk directly under the tall cactus he was sitting on with the dogs at my side and he could have cared less, it was great! These birds are magnificent hunters feeding mostly on lizards, iguanas and rabbits but are known to eat just about anything especially fresh road kill. They make the strangest noise I have ever heard from a bird and is very difficult to put into words. Aimee and I have learned to recognize all the different bird calls on the island which makes finding these guys and others a lot easier.
The new trail is a day away from being open and finished! We got so much done in three hours this morning, it makes such a difference when you have a crew all doing something different. My plan is to finish it up on Sunday and have the Grand Opening the following weekend, I will keep you posted.
Two of the puppies still need a home and ASAP as Aimee leaves for the States in June and I can not watch them all myself. Our worse case plan is to find and pay someone to take care of them while Aimee is gone so please help us out if you can, they are incredible puppies!!
I went for a fast one hour bike ride at 5:00 but didn’t seem to have much energy mostly because it was just so hot! The island is still looking pretty green but is in need of another big rain in order to keep it this way.
Long day it’s off to bed, be back tomorrow, Barry
May 15, 10 Comments Off
Good morning all, after work yesterday our friend Tom who will be taking one of the puppies soon stopped by and said, “take the night off on me”!! He paid for dinner and a movie for us while he stayed and watched the puppies and without much argument for either one of us off we went for a fun night out. We went to see Iron Man 2 and it was as great as the first, it was solid packed action all the way thru.
I did a fun dolphin dive yesterday morning out on the reef with our dolphin Annie and our head trainer George and a group of divers from Ocean Encounters. I will also be out this morning as well but this time with Tela and Pasku, the two dolphins on the front of the recent Sport Diver cover so I need to hurry and get moving.
Here’s my little Saffron Finch again, this is the same bird I sent you a few months back as I have a matting pair that now live here at the house. Aimee and I put food out for all the birds about three times a day and I built it next to these beautiful Peacock Flowers making a beautiful backdrop.
I have to go, see you tonight, Barry
Apr 18, 10 Comments Off
Good evening friends, I trust you all had an enjoyable or restful Sunday?? Mine was very busy as usual. I put the bike on the car and took the dogs to Saint Joris to work on the new trail for two hours this morning. This was the first time I got to “do a test run” of sorts on the bike and it was great! This morning instead of trimming brush I took some fluorescent marking tape and marked a whole new loop that now needs to be put in. The dogs and I walked a big area and after doing that I then knew all the best areas for a new trail. We got home around 10:30 after first stopping to feed the three homeless puppies and their mother. Our plan is to grab the puppies on Tuesday evening then Wednesday Aimee can take them all to the vet. The mother is also going to be caught and taken to the doctor to be fixed so wish us luck. I spent a good part of the day making a new “puppy play pen” inside and then went to the store and bought three little collars, leashes and some toys. I also had to buy Clorox, disinfectant, paper towels, food bowls and other goodies in preparation for our new guests.
Some of you may remember me saying that I built a bird feeder in our back yard a few months ago. Since it’s introduction into the “hood” it has been very popular and somewhat expensive to feed everyone now. One of our stores sells crushed corn in large bags and if I can find it I buy it because everyone seems to love it. Well our most common resident the Bare-eyed Pigeon as seen here is always the first to arrive. These guys live in a big tree in the desert across the road from our house, there are about fifty of them! I think they have a spy living in our yard because they always show up second after the seed is out no matter how quiet I am! These really are beautiful birds but have kind of taken over my feeding area. Most days when I put out the seed I will just stand there and guard it letting all the little birds come in first and eat, then after 10 minutes I let these clowns have the rest.
Aimee got home early from work today so we both went back to Saint Joris with the dogs and did another hour of trail work, it sure was nice to have some help again!
Talk to you all later, Barry
Feb 7, 10 Comments Off
 Saffron Finch Good evening from Curacao. I am still down and out. My knee is really sore and super stiff making it very difficult to walk on. I was off today and ended up doing the same thing I did yesterday, NOTHING!!
Months ago I built a driftwood bird-feeder out back and since it’s introduction into the back yard it has been a big hit. I mainly only get two kinds of birds with the seed I am using, pigeons and finches. When I first put out the food and water in the morning we immediately get visited by approximately 30-50 pigeons that now live in a tree across the road, they just sit there and wait for me to put out the seed. After the “PIGS” leave, I again go out and put out more food for the waiting finches that immediately got pushed out of the way when the “PIGS” flew in! This is a Saffron Finch or as they say in Dutch and in Papiamentu a Saffraanvink. They say these birds were introduced to these islands in the 70′s by man but no one can quite pin that down for sure. I have around six pair of these colorful birds that now live here at the house, all are a little different in color. If we put out bread or food we always get the Troupials and the Yellow Orioles but the Troupials are too aggressive and seem to be mean towards the other birds so we tend not to feed them as much.
I’m out, we are headed to a friends for dinner, see you tomorrow, Barry
Jan 26, 10 Comments Off
 Brown Pelican Good evening friends of the blog, tonight I have a request photo that was supposed to be sent out last week to a friend who asked for a Pelican photo. This is one of our many local Brown Pelicans that spend their days hanging out at the Sea Aquarium entertaining guests all day long. I once told Dutch who is the owner of the Aquarium that the Pelicans, Frigate Birds and the Iguanas get photographed more in one day then anything else on the property, maybe they should be part of the show?? There are more than half a dozen species of pelicans, but all of them have the famous throat pouch for which the birds are best known. These large birds use their elastic pouches to catch fish—though different species use it in different ways. Pelicans are found on many of the world’s coastlines and also along lakes and rivers. They are social birds and typically travel in flocks, often strung out in a line. They also breed in groups called colonies, which typically gather on islands. In North America, the brown pelican is endangered, but populations are recovering to some extent. The sea birds were devastated by chemical pesticides, such as DDT, which damaged the eggs of pelicans and many other species. The average life span in the wild is 10-25 years but can be longer. They have an unbelievable wing-span of almost 10 feet (3 meters) and can be 6 feet in length and weigh up to 30 pounds, that’s a big bird folks!!The Brown Pelican is the national bird of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and state bird of Louisiana. It is also one of the mascots of Tulane University and is on its seal because of the Louisiana connection.
Well the good news of the day for me is, I got my laptop back today thanks to a new friend traveling to Aruba and another friend bringing it from Aruba to Curacao today, talk about knowing the right people! Many, many thanks to all that helped get this to me, it started in Arizona then to Michigan, then to Virginia, then to Aruba and finally home to daddy! I was off today, I first took the dogs out for a morning of trail work and we re-opened a section of trail that has been closed due to broken glass and loose rocks but it’s open now. After I got home I then spent the whole day doing necessary errands around town, like grocery shopping, banking and the bike shop just to name a few. At 4:30 I took off on the bike and didn’t get home till 6:40. I had a really nice ride tonight joined by a bunch of friends and I only crashed once! Too much air in the front tire I am guessing??
That’s it, have a friend coming over in a minute, I have to go. Peace out, Barry
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