One of the few pleasures here has been the gardens – not only the beautiful trees and bamboo but also the birds that live there. There are dozens of kites (types of eagle/hawk) to be seen daily circling lazily in the sky or perched along the roof, the brilliant lime green parrots who seem to always be in pairs when in flight or up to a dozen at a time perched in the trees. Some tiny little black feathered birds who sing with amazing volume for such a little creature. Crows by the millions and enough to invoke memories of “The Birds”. In the spring there were what appeared to be a flock of butterflies – what is the grouping for butterflies? – that turned out to be miniature birds (measuring about an inch in height) by the dozen, flitting between shrubs.

And this little owl that we discovered on one of our after lunch strolls around the gardens. Today I finally remembered to bring in my camera and he posed nicely for me. My lens really wasn’t up to the job but even so these came out better than I hoped considering. This little man lives high in a hollow in a tree with his wife and family and usually stands guard against the tree, his feathers so perfectly camouflaging him against the bark that you can only really see him if he moves his head or blinks his big eyes. On tiptoes he might just measure 6 inches!