The huts that we stayed in were connected by a circular walkway on stilts. The center was an attractive “courtyard” with plants and flowers. On the final morning, before we left to head home, Neizer set up his telescope and tripod in the center of the courtyard. Standing virtually in place and turning 360s we looked to see how many birds we could spot. We saw a group of weaver birds, a falcon, an orange-winged parrot, and a hawk.
After this we changed places. We took the binoculars and telescope down to the dock by the river. What followed was something I am not sure I fully believe. Neizer fixed the telescope on a creeper, a bird that resembles a woodpecker. I looked at it. Next, Soren joined us and Neizer told him to check out the bird. Soren gazed into the telescope and commented on how well he could see the three parrots. I took another look. Sure enough, the creeper was gone and three green parrots sat on the branch where the creeper had been. Next, Neizer had another look and said, “Parrots? That is a toucan.” I took a third look. The parrots had flown and a toucan now sat on the very same branch. This happened in about three minutes.
One of the many things that I left out of the last blog post was a side of Neizer that was captured by depicting him as a camouflage-wearing, knife-wielding, Rambo type. Another side of Neizer is that he is at work on a book for children about the animals of the Ecuadorian rainforest. He had this great rant about children in Ecuador getting books about animals that feature elephants, lions, giraffes, hippos, and zebras. He is determined to write a book to let children know about the animals of their own country: Condors, jaguars, giant tortoises, dolphins, anacondas, and macaws.
["Stand" is a catchy song from REM's Green album.]
