The elusive red-margined Guan

Another working Sunday, but warm with brilliant sunshine, so able to set the laptop up on the porch.

The dogs rushing off into the undergrowth alerted me to the presence of the Guan, and I'm choosing this photo over better ones of other subjects because I was thrilled to be able to get close enough to catch him on camera, albeit at full zoom. Could have done with a telephoto lens.

These birds were very shy and wary of humans - not surprisingly, as they are prized for eating - but seem to be almost rashly confident in their ability to survive nowadays. In size, they're somewhere between a pheasant and a chicken.

After terrible flooding and landslides that devastated an area the size of Wales in January 2011, the wildlife round us changed dramatically. Now the environmental agency is releasing birds and beasts - and, alas, snakes - in our area, but at least it means that we now have one or more pairs of Guans nesting on our property, and others in the neighbourhood. Hopefully, if they survive the dogs' clumsy attempts to catch them, we'll soon see some chicks. That's when the dogs will really be a cause for concern. Last year I saw the parent birds emerge cautiously from the undergrowth, followed by a line of chicks, and parade slowly across the lawn and up the hill. Dogs must have been in the kennel, or there would have been slaughter.