Pigeon Courtship Dance

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Do you recall our post about the Pigeons? I commented on their interesting mating dance. I’m still hoping to get a good video of this filmed in Bolivia of the Rock Doves. However I remembered a video of this ritual that we had recorded in Mexico, and it’s pretty much the same here. (Warning! This movie does not end with ‘Happily Ever After’!)

(Please note: to watch the video again click on the circular arrow on the bottom left of the box above. After our video plays, YouTube may advertise related videos from other people.) 

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The Ubiquitous Finch

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“The finch?”, you’re saying to yourself. “They’re going to show pictures of a finch?”
 
Okay. Admittedly the finch is rather ubiquitous. Sparrows are also in the finch family, so between the two of them there are finches in every corner of the globe, except frigid Antarctica. They’re rather like our friend the pigeon, right? However, while you may not think of the finch as being an exciting bird, did you realize that in southern South America alone, there are at least 77 species of finches? And just in the department of Tarija, Bolivia, it is possible to see 32 of these. So now you should be saying: “Oh, well then I wonder which finch they will show?”

Meet the Saffron Finch.

We were excited to see this bright yellow bird flitting around so we got quite a few

Cyclone Monica and our Fascination with Birds

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We are fascinated with birds. We are fascinated by their antics, their habits, their songs. We are curious to seek out and identify species that are new to us. We love to shoot them with our camera and capture them on film. However, our fascination with birds has not been a lifelong one. The truth is, this fascination started in 2006, and the funny thing about it is we owe it to a cyclone.

In April 2006 we spent three weeks in the ‘Land Down Under’. And as chance would have it, shortly after we arrived in Cairns, in northeastern Australia, Cyclone Monica made landfall. Although Cairns was not in the direct path of the storm, there was still enough wind and rain that at one point the roads in and out of Cairns had to be closed. So we were forced to cancel some of our planned activities and found ourselves ‘trapped’ in Cairns.

Oddly enough, being trapped is what gave birth to our fascination with birds. Our principal motive for going to Cairns was to snorkel. But since snorkeling in a cyclone was clearly out of the question, and we couldn’t leave the city, what were we to do?

The Passion Flower

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If you were hoping to see exotic, this is it! (Well, sort of. More on that later...) Allow us to introduce you to the Passionflower. We found this plant growing in a passage way which led to the first place we stayed in Tarija.

Passiflora incarnata

Its principal characteristic is the strange form of its flowers. As you can see, they

Just a Pigeon?

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I’ll admit right away that the birds you are about to see are certainly not what one might call ‘exotic’. But they were our 'first' birds. Yes, they are Bolivian, but then again, they are global, too. I present to you... THE PIGEONS!

Can anyone name a city where pigeons can NOT be found? I didn’t think so.

Rock Doves in the Plaza Luis de Fuentes, Tarija, Bolivia

Why do I say these were ‘our first birds’? Because the picture above is the first one we took of birds just two days after arriving in our new home of

Our First Giant Spider

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I wouldn't say I have arachnophobia, but I AM extremely scared of spiders. Especially when they are not where they are supposed to be, which is Timbuktu! The photos below are of a spider that we found on the wall near the ceiling above the window.

I typically take photos of objects along with some size reference, like putting my hand next to it. But there was NO WAY I was going to hold my hand next to him for this picture. I mean... What if he MOVED?

As a reference for the size, the white band at the top is about 5-inches high. So this

Compact Beauty- An inhabitant

When I looked more closely at one of the pictures I took of  'Compact Beauty', I saw an incredibly small insect. Check this out:

Bug?!

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Compact Beauty- additional angles

Here are some more photos of the flower in an earlier post that I called Compact Beauty:

This third photo below is of a cluster even smaller than the flowers. It appears to be

Compact Beauty

The photo below is the Lantana camara, from the family Verbenaceae. There is an incredible variety in the Lantana genus. I am amazed at the intricate details of such tiny flowers. (And in case you didn't notice, those are the tips of my fingers on the left side of the photo.)

It is grown in many parts of the world, although it is believed to be indigenous to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the United States. Some common names are: Spanish Flag and West Indian Lantana. It is also known as the Red Sage, Yellow Sage or Wild Sage. However it is not even in the same family as the Sage or the Sagebrush.
 
Update: To see additional photos of this tiny bouquet of flowers, please read "Compact Beauty- additional angles".

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