Feed the Birds

Today is our birding tour and we did not feed birds as in Mary Poppins, but we did see them. Our guide Manny picked us up at 7:45 so we were up early and had breakfast in the wee hours. Manny had driven two hours to get us and now we drove 1 1/2 hours to Parque Este, a National Park.

Nothing much to see along the way,but we got a complete history of the Island of Hispaniola  including the countries of Dominican Republic and Haiti. Also passed miles of sugar cane fields which comprise much of the industry here. Many other fruits and grains are grown here and exported around the world, but the biggest industry is tourism. We arrived at La Romana, a tourist town with resort hotels near the park. The water here is very blue and calm.

The Park isn’t much compared to US National Parks. No rangers, no visitor center, but we had our guide to take us around. We parked and were the only ones there. After using bug spray and the one, dirty toilet, we walked along a dirt path. Jeff lost interest quickly and went back to the car to read. I was in bird heaven and really enjoyed myself.

Manny is an excellent guide and has superb hearing. He would say there's a ... and then I would see movement and usually a bird. He had a blue tooth speaker hooked up to an iPod with bird calls and it worked well. We saw a large variety of birds including several endemic species, birds that only are found on this island. My favorite is the Broad Billed Toady. Adorable little guy with gorgeous green feathers and red beak and throat.

Also fascinated by a Hispaniolan Lizard Cuckoo. When he flew his wings were a rufous, rusty color. He was gorgeous and we followed him a while so I could get some good pictures of his red eye ring.

Other birds we saw were the Black Crowned Palm Tanager.

Banana Quit

Best were the hummingbirds. There were so many of two types. The little one is a Vervain Hummingbird and the larger is the Pantaleon Mango Hummingbird. The Vervain is the second smallest bird.  The Mango is a magnificent green with a purple breast. It took a while, but finally a few of them perched long enough for me to get some photos. Manny liked that the little guy did a head bob thing.

Other birds we saw were the Northern Mockingbird, Flat Billed Verio, Greater Antillean Bullfinch, Pearly Eyes Thrasher, Prairie Warbler, Magnificent Frigatebird, Turkey Vulture and the Hispaniolan Parrot. Also the White Neck Crow.

Zebra Butterfly

Hispaniolan Lizard and Curly Tailed Lizard

Finally our time was up and we returned to the car to rescue Jeff and head back to the hotel.

We had lunch at a buffet and then headed to a pool to take a dip and sit in the sun for a while. Big decisions now as we choose where to have dinner tonight. Zen won out and we headed to the main lobby for the hibachi restaurant. The place is huge with 20 tables each with 12 seats. Best meal I have eaten here with chicken, beef and shrimp along with fried rice and vegetables all cooked by a fun performing chef. Now we are in bed, relaxing since I have to let all the food digest before trying to sleep.