It's normal for the water to be turned off at 10:00 at night and be turned on again at 6:00 in the morning.... we're used to that. This morning the water did not come on at 6 am... nor 6:30... nor 7:00..... By 10:00 and no water, Bill e-mailed our landlord. Robert e-mailed back fairly fast and went on and on about the problems of the water system... watering the lawns.... the nights off and mornings on... he said everything we already knew, but didn't say why we didn't have water at 10:00... or 11:00. Of course Bill & I have our own theory.... it's Sunday and whoever the maintenance guy is who usually comes to work at 6am had today off and nobody turned it on. We really don't know, but around 12:30 we could hear the toilet tanks filling up .... I turned on the kitchen sink faucets and water shot out.... wooohoooo.... I can do dishes.... we can get showers... life is good again!
A few days ago I wrote that we'd bought some bird seed to attract the birds. So far we haven't had any takers... today I put out an orange hoping the orioles would check it out...
This Baltimore Oriole came for a sip of orange juice around 4pm. We also have the Orchard Oriole, the Bullock's Oriole, the Spot-breasted Oriole (which I've not seen yet) and the Streak-backed Oriole, which is a new life bird for me this trip.
I'll try to get pictures of all of them while we're here.
We also bought a bag of dog food, hoping to attract the foxes that we've been told are around.
It wasn't even dark last evening when this guy appeared...
After Googling Costa Rica's foxes, I believe he's a Grey Fox, the same species we have in the US. Distinguishing marks are the black-tipped tail, the grizzled muzzle and the white throat.
He cleaned up his plate before moving on....
Guess we'll put more dog food out this evening. Can't put it out too early or the grackles carry it off.
As usual we sat outside and had our coffee this morning...
This Magpie-Jay stopped by...
The profile view of him shows the curl of feathers on top of his head.
He's a large bird and has a voice to match!
And across the road...
Another view of the White-fronted parrots.
While not such a great photo due to the long distance away, this does show the red and even some of the blue on their wing feathers.
Since we weren't sure what was happening with the water (and, yes, we do keep a few 6 liter bottles on hand) and after our 6 miles of walking yesterday, we've just kind of hung out at home today.
I'm sure we'll be out and about again tomorrow.
That's All For Today!
That's a beautiful Magpie-Jay. And I love the pictures of the fox!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas Sharon and Bill!
Love all the wildlife.
ReplyDeleteMore excellent pictures sounds like a perfect day.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas!
I had forgotten--we had that same kind of water problem in Mexico one time--the water usually came on sometime before noon. Love your bird photos. That fox needs some food, he looks really skinny!
ReplyDeleteThat's very interesting about the water. I think I'd have to have a porta-potti if you can't flush the toilet until noon. ;)
ReplyDeleteYou really do have an interesting assortment of critters there to watch. Certainly are enjoying all of your photos. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy the sunshine.
ReplyDeleteYou have such beautiful birds there - love the photos. That looks like a young fox? He does seem pretty small, and very cute. :)
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of water being turned off at night and back on again in the morning. Strange.
In short, bird heaven. And a fox or two. I love the furry little devils. There was a litter of pups in the ravine by work and the kits would come up to play on the warm asphalt in the morning. I could (and did) watch at the window for half an hour at a time the little rascles wrestling and play fighting.
ReplyDeleteWe lived in Central America for several years...in the rural areas the water and electricity were never reliable. One the power to our town was out for three days...no one had reported it out, so it didn't get fixed!
ReplyDeleteWonderful pictures, especially of that cute little fox!
ReplyDeleteYeah, same kind of issues with water and electricity when I was in Honduras. The apartment I had in La Paz had a cistern under it and a large tank on top, so while there was electricity and city water they would get topped off, and when they went off the gravity flow from the top tank kept us in water. I didn't realize what a great thing that was until a fellow American moved in upstairs who had lived elsewhere in town previously. He was thrilled to have water all the time. Typically they would turn off the electricity one Saturday a month. If I knew ahead of time I'd head to the city for the weekend. One time they turned off the power in the main city while I was there. It is a different type of life.
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