Monkey Business

Hola!  Yesterday evening, I think we'd just finished dinner & I'd done the dishes...  and our next door neighbors phoned ...


The monkeys were in the trees behind their house.  Actually, that means they were in the trees behind our house too, but we didn't want to miss them, so hurried next door as fast as we could...

 These are Capuchin monkeys...  there were 3 or 4 climbing around in the tree, eating the nuts that grow there.

 Look Ma!  No Hands! 

 This was one of the smaller ones...  really cute!

 I Just KNOW I can get that bunch of nuts!

This was the biggest monkey...  pictures blurry (it's hard to get a good focus when they're in the trees and move around so fast!

We watched them for quite a while...  Bill had walked down the lane behind our house yesterday afternoon and saw some monkeys there, but didn't have a camera.  This was my first view of the monkeys here.  I was thrilled!

There are also Howler Monkeys here, but we've neither heard nor seen them....  yet.

Another new bird for us...

 The Squirrel Cuckoo

He's a big bird...  as big or bigger than a crow you'd see in the States, but more slender.  Beautiful chestnut brown back...  the underside of the tail has the stripes you'd see on a yellow or black-billed cuckoo.  We saw him last night and again this morning.

We walked into town again this morning....

I'd been hearing the motmot since 5am when I first woke up.  I was lamenting aloud that I hadn't seen one in a while.  We were just about to head out of the driveway, and Bill said, "There's one right there"...

Sure Enough!  

This is the Blue-crown Motmot....  the lower picture shows that tuft of feathers on the tip of his tail.

He's quite a lovely bird and I'm always happy to see him.

The parrot dropped nut shells on us all afternoon.  We didn't see as many tanagers and orioles today.  But another new bird we see fairly often now is the Rufous capped warbler.  I'll post a picture of him in a later post.

I love hearing your feedback.  Several of my blogging friends have been here in Costa Rica and so some things are familiar to them.  And...  you give me good ideas and advice.  Thanks!

The rainy season seems to have arrived a bit early this year.  Right now we are getting our (almost) daily afternoon shower.  Sometimes it's a real crash-banger, but this one is just rain.

Nevertheless....  it's time to close and shut off the computer and modem....  

So...  Happy Easter everyone...  hope the Easter Bunny leaves you a Cadbury chocolate (right, Donna?)....  and you all get to wear your new Easter bonnet!

That's All for Today...