The Lark Ascending

Not quite larks, but definitely on the way up. Today's shot at the September Song Challenge, here The Lark Ascending.

So lovely to wake up to birdsong. Spring is here, the birds are in full voice, and I snuck out early to try to identify a song I wasn’t familiar with. After calming the dog down, I eventually located a Trogon, beautifully coloured, with his deep blue-green back, black and white tail and handsome yellow chest. I’ve never seen one before and am still not sure if it was a Trogon virilis or a Trogon violaceus. Either way, it was the start of a happy day when I ignored my work at regular intervals in favour of birdwatching. I was rewarded by thrushes, tanagers, Great Kiskadees, a sparrow and a Chopi Blackbirds taking their turn at the bird bath, while wrens, Palm Tanagers and various other species sang and swooped about, or hid themselves in the undergrowth where I couldn’t spot them. I think this is the positive side to our long absence, which must have contributed to all this activity – the birds have got out of the habit of being shy around the house.

This afternoon, Kayla took off at speed, straight up an almost vertical bank, and blundered into the undergrowth barking like a lunatic. I followed, slipping and sliding in unsuitable shoes, to make sure she wasn’t molesting the Guans or having a show-down with a porcupine. And there up a tree was … a squirrel? No. Oh dear, one of the neighbour’s cat’s? No. A porcupine? Again, no. It was a coati (member of the raccoon family), the first time any of us has spotted one of those here.

On a sad note, when I took Kayla for a walk, fires were starting all over the hillside opposite. The top had already burned extensively while we were away, but now the fires were among the trees lower down. By the time we returned down the track 15 minutes later, the flames were leaping high and spreading. The firemen had already been once and I called them again when I got home, but they have received so many calls from all over the area that this fire is unlikely to receive attention. If it doesn’t, an awful lot of trees will have burned by tomorrow morning – and with them, so many birds and creatures. A tragedy.