A rain delay (it poured for a good twenty minutes) but what a wonderful Sunday afternoon it turned out to be. The turquoise colours of the ocean was an amazing sight to see.
Marta
Sunday Afternoon
Reply
Monthly Archives: August 2011
Tanka
The Turks and Caicos Islands has said a final goodbye to Wesley ‘Tanka’ Williams R.I.P. I only knew him from the enjoyment he gave all of us on the many occasions we were lucky enough to join in the Junkanoo. I searched through my photos and sure enough, there he was………..a giant of a man, a gentle man with a vision, a mentor, a teacher, a no-nonsense man, a coach who encouraged his kids to to be successful in whatever they did. He worked towards giving less fortunate kids a second chance through athletic scholarships and training. He played an important role in helping to develope the Turks and Caicos Culture and bringing Junkanoo to our islands.
Wesley 'Tanka' Williams entertaining the crowds at Junkanoo
Tanka Williams R.I.P.
Marta
Hummingbird Re-Cycles Nest
A new hummingbird appeared and began adding a second storey to the old existing nest
Can you believe it? A week ago, we were surprised to see that our old hummingbird nest in the cactus beside the walkway to our house, had grown taller. It wasn’t a few minutes later, that I heard her! A new hummingbird mama had seen the nest and decided to re-use and re-cycle the old nest. She was busily adding a second storey to the old nest to build it up a little more.
Here's the nest showing the new portion between the two stars.
The nest is totally about 1 3/4 inches and the addition is almost a half inch. Still pretty tiny all things considered. Mama has laid her second egg (yesterday) and is now sitting on the nest leaving periodically to feed.
Here's the nest from the back side showing all the fine strands of cobwebs used as "glue" to secure the nest.
I wanted to show you the new materials and fluff that has gone into recycling the top of the old nest.
A backside view of the Bahama Woodstar hummingbird sitting on a nest with two little eggs
Nesting hummingbird ... how sweet she is!
So here I go again! I’ll keep taking more photos………….I can’t tell you how many I already have but there’s tons!!
Marta
http://www.harbourclubvillas.com
Hummingbirds Getting Bigger Part 2
The two baby Bahama Woodstar hummingbirds are squished into the tiny nest as they continue to grow.
The above photo was taken a month ago and as you can see, the little birds are growing very fast. The nest is glued and held together with cobwebs and this enables the babies to compact and stretch the nest to hold the both of them. Clever little birds they are and when they just get too big, they are ready to fly.
Please check the previous blogs.
From building the nest..http://myturksandcaicosblog.com/?p=2601
To laying the eggs…http://myturksandcaicosblog.com/?p=2616
To the chicks hatching…http://myturksandcaicosblog.com/?p=2699
The chicks getting bigger…http://myturksandcaicosblog.com/?p=2745
One little baby sits almost on top of the other.
At a different angle, the baby birds are definitely getting too big for the nest and sure enough the day after the photo, we missed one flying out of the nest
What excitement as we managed to catch the one baby leaving the nest and making his first flight. The other little one must have been hidden in the bushes and trees.
Here it is.....ready to fly off into the big world!
It's first flight was from the nest to a nearby Opuntia cactus where he perched for a few minutes
Here the baby hummingbird lifts off and flies up into our large bouganvillea
It has been such a joy to take all these photos from start to finish…………right from when we discovered the nest just being built to seeing the eggs hatch and the birds grow and fly away. Nature is so wonderful !!
Now just when I was getting used to leaving my camera behind…………..we have another event unfolding!!!!
Marta
http://www.harbourclubvillas.com
Sapodilla Beach
A red Flamboyant tree (Royal Poinciana) was ablaze with firey red orange blossoms and made a showy foreground for this photo taken with Sapodilla beach in the background.
The Royal Poinciana tree is flowering right now. It has bright red showy flowers that make this tree stand out. Take a look in the Bight as there's quite a few of them there.
My gorgeous daughter posed patiently while I took many photos......thanks babes!
Marta
Tree Frogs in Our Cisterns
Croaking frogs caught in our cisterns........noisy especially when trying to sleep!!
We’ve been hearing frogs croaking at night and yes, two of them managed to get into the cistern under our house. Yesterday, we caught another one that had taken up residence in the cistern under Harbour Club’s gazebo at the pool.
We sent Mike down into the cistern today to capture the little frog........I'm hoping there isn't a mass of froglets down there!!!
Last night, we opened the trap door to the cistern while watching TV. We had read that frogs are attracted to light and we hoped the two frogs would emerge into the living room……umm, I wasn’t too keen on this idea with visions in my head of chasing a fast hopping frog around our living room. Well, Mike peeked around the recliner to find one of the frogs sitting on the trap door ledge which he quickly caught in our pool net.
Here's this mornings tree frog caught in the pool net.
We sent Mike down into our cistern this morning to catch the last remaining frog. He was well hidden up in the pipes but Mike managed to catch him.
Mike frees the small tree frog and we let him go into the bushes and shrubs by one of the villas.
Such pretty camouflage colorations on this little tree frog.
Note the suction type pads which enable these frogs to glom onto cistern walls ?? etc
I’m hoping there weren’t too many tadpoles down in the cistern waters…….we did add bleach this morning.
Marta
http://www.harbourclubvillas.com