Birds of the Plateau

I come from a family of farmers, gardeners, and all round nature lovers...and I am so glad.  I am proud to inherit that.  

Growing up, my grandparents had a book of birds with an accompanying tape of the bird songs.  I still remember sitting on the floor looking at birds and listening to that tape as a kid.  If I remember correctly, I had hopes of someday seeing an indigo bunting and a scarlet tanager...both of which, I think I realized, actually.  

My cousins and I used to sneak outside with a net and nab birds out of the bird feeders.  To our credit, we tried to create comfortable homes for them in buckets...little beds of grass, sticks for them to perch on, etc.  I'm not so sure that mollified the birds.  It certainly didn't mollify my Nana; she wasn't too impressed.

Anyway, I started taking some pictures of birds on the Plateau to show my grandparents and aunts.  Ironically, I've stated nature photography as one of those jobs I would like if I could have multiple lives.  I don't think I'll be getting any awards for these pictures...birds fly around a lot (why do they DO that?), and they like to pose with their heads cut off by twigs and branches.  So here is the first installment of Birds of the Plateau:

These little guys are called toutrel or zandolit in Creole.  I think they're probably turtle doves.  When they fly, the underside of their wings is a reddish hue.

These bright fellows have a really beautiful, clear, warbling song.  I have no idea what they are called. 

This is a boustabak.  They must be some kind of blackbird/raven, but they remind me of black parrots, for some reason.  They have a screeching, plaintive, somewhat eerie call.

I love these, and I'm a little disappointed at the picture.  They are rather flighty.  Back and wings are a sleek mahogany brown, and underside is white with that beautiful black pattern.  They build these beautiful, globule-shaped nests out of long grass.  The first time I saw one (the wind has a tendency to knock them down), I thought it was a swallow nest.  The eggs are so tiny!

This one's for you, Bum!  It's not a Downy, but we do have these large woodpeckers around.

I only saw this orange and black bird once...maybe they're around, I just don't look hard enough.  He gave me a bit of a hard time as far as pictures go.

This was a treat.  One day, I was sitting in the hammock on my porch and noticed this little guy making his presence known in the tree right in front of me.

He didn't seem to disposed to move on, so I ran and got a camera.  He fluttered around for a few minutes, and then....

...this lovely little lady showed up.  After another minute or so, they flew off together...I'm assuming happily ever after.

Believe it or not, even as I was preparing this post I heard a ruckus right outside my office.  I don't know whether they were mating or fighting over territory, but a couple of hawks (or falcons?) were shrieking and flying at each other.   I startled one of them into a tree.  Their backs are a sort of light reddish brown.

 Afterwards, one perched on a tree in the yard, and I could hear three or so of them calling back and forth to one another.

Some of my favorites are also the most common.  In the morning and evening, the sky is replete with swallows.  They make nests in the thatch, including my roof, where they are always laughing.  It's a bit difficult to capture how many of them can be in the sky at once,  but here is my best attempt.  It is beautiful in the evening when the sky is changing colors, full of darting swallows and, a bit lower, dancing dragon flies.

Although it shows few birds, I love this picture for some reason.  Maybe its the gigantic blue of the God's sky and the glory of God's clouds underneath and the joyous flight of God's birds...

Introducing....

....the young moms!  These are the lovely ladies with whom I will be working in January.  For those of you who don't know, I will begin holding classes with them in various skills.  As of now, these classes will be centered around the kitchen, but I hope in the future we may be able to dabble in a few other things such as flower making (as in crepe/tissue paper flowers) or crocheting (if possible...materials are a problem).  We will see.

Our purpose in doing this is to provide these moms with tools to enable them to escape exploitation and provide for themselves and their kids.  They all face a rather high risk future.  They have a child, but no husband to help support them.  They come from poverty, have a low education, few skills, and live in an area plagued by chronic drought (no garden = no self-sustainable food source)...its not a good situation.  Pretty soon some guy comes along and offers to help...oh, but you have to have a child for him too.  Soon after that, he's moving on...and now you have two.  You're even more desperate when the next guy comes along...and then you have three.

This is the all too common story, and we hope to give these young women the option of escape.  

Not only that, but through a study we will be doing together, I pray that we will all grow in our knowledge of who God is; I pray that they will understand who Jesus Christ is, the great value that he places upon them, the healing He brings, and the peace, joy, and hope they can have in Him.  I pray they will pass on Truth to their kids.

So far, there are four young ladies.  So without further ado:

Rosita and her daughter, Bertha (pronounced BER-ta)

Cerilia and her son, Maickel

Fleurillia and her daughter, Abigael

Mona and her son, Youbensley

This past week, the girls came with their children.  I took coloring pages and pencils, along with some cotton balls, plastic wrap, and glue to dress up the pictures.  I suspected it might be so, but the moms didn't want to let the kids touch the papers.  They didn't want them to ruin them!  So, while the mothers were coloring, I played with the kids and took some pictures. 

Happily munching crackers

Happily munching pencils

 

At least Bertha got to do some coloring.