Touky's family

Might be Touky's mom?

Collared Aracaris of the Toucan family are very family oriented birds. Wikipedia says this: "They are fed by both parents, assisted by up to three other adults, probably from a previous brood, and fledge after about 6 weeks, with feeding by the adults continuing for several weeks after leaving the nest. The Aracaris are unusual for toucans in that they roost socially throughout the year, up to six adults and fledged young sleeping in the same hole with tails folded over their backs."

Please read the previous article (The rest of the Touky story) for the background, but while we were caring for an injured baby Aracari, his family returned just about daily for weeks to check on him.

Sometimes only one or two would come but often three or four would visit. They seemed frantic to get their "Touky" back and squawked like you wouldn't believe. Toucans are definitely not song birds, that's for sure!

Occasionally, they would miss a day, but not often and it may have just been that they were here but more quiet than usual and I didn't notice them. It was really heart warming to see.

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The rest of the Touky story

That's Touky!

On June 22, 2009, I wrote about Touky the Toucan (actually a collared Aracari, Pteroglossus torquatus) that we rescued. He was a young bird that El Jefe found in the driveway with a broken leg. On June 26, 2009, I commented here that it didn't seem that his leg was going to heal properly and he couldn't fly. I had a ton of photos to show readers that I just hadn't had a chance to put together and upload. On June 28, 2009, the you-know-what hit the fan, and that was the last you heard of Touky.

Do I procrastinate or what? Most of you know that I was a little busy with serious articles for many months. Careful readers know that I lost access to my laptop along with a bunch of drafted articles and a zillion photos. Luckily, I later found Touky's photos on the external hard drive among my file backups. (This photo is one of his 3-point landings as he was trying to fly.)

So, here we are in April 2011 — and after even more procrastination, June 2012! It's berry season on my Conostegia xalapensis trees (more on this berry tree here) and we had a family of Aracaris in the trees this morning which reminded me to finish the Touky story.

El Jefe found the young bird outside the garage and brought him to me. His foot and ankle were badly twisted. He fearlessly grabbed my finger with his good foot to perch but his other leg just hung loose.

My neighbor said that I should get a cage and just keep him but I was totally against that idea. My goal was to get him back to the wild before his family forgot about him.

I don't have any bird experience except for my chickens — remember that I did save Pancho the Rooster's life, though he is an ungrateful little devil who shows no appreciation whatsoever. But I have read a lot about caring for chickens and remembered reading of using Popsicle sticks as braces to hold the leg steady until the bone heals so I thought I would give it a try on Touky. Here is a photo of my doctoring work.

Initially, I put him in a dog cage but he was so small that he kept getting out between the bars to hop around on one foot. I would find the chihuahuas sneaking up behind him to sniff him. All the dogs were very curious about him and he was very curious about them and the chickens.

Touky had no fear whatsoever of people or animals even though he was completely helpless. He could barely hop on one leg without tipping over and couldn't fly at all. I made it very clear to the dogs that he was My Bird and to leave him alone. Thankfully, for once, they listened to me.

My kind neighbor then lent me a bird cage. At first I kept him in the cage on a table on the terraza to keep him safe from dogs and chickens and roosters. It was guava season and I fed him guavas from our tree, as well as papaya and other fruit. He ate more than his weight in fruit each day.

Since he couldn't perch, I made a little nest in a plastic bowl filled with wood shavings to help support him at night (he would literally tip over with only that big beak to break his fall) and to help soak up some of that fruit on the way out.

Toucans are very family oriented birds. Amazingly, his family came to check on him every single day. They would frantically squawk and he would squawk back. They seemed so distressed so I started putting the cage out in the yard in the shade so they could see and talk to each other — which they did every afternoon and sometimes a couple of times a day when the family would come to visit. The photo above is one day during visiting hours. More photos of the family coming up in another article.

As his leg got a little stronger, I started him practicing perching on a stick. After he got the hang of that, I would put him and the stick in a bush or tree. He sometimes fell out and hobbled away so I'd have to search for him.

After a couple of weeks, he started to try to fly but without much success. He would make it a few feet and end up in a 3-point landing: beak and both wings. The dogs would run after him to see if he was okay. Until his "cast" was removed and he was able perch without me placing his twisted foot around the stick, flying wasn't a great idea. My worst nightmare was that he would fly outside our wall and then find himself helpless with no one to protect him. Though his foot seemed to be getting a little stronger, apparently the brace was not going to straighten it out.

I didn't want him to get used to the cage, so during the day I would leave the cage door open so he could hobble out when he felt like it, which he often did. Our Conostegia trees had berries, so to keep him in practice of feeding himself, I would take him to the tree, stand on something so we could reach, and hold a branch of berries down to him to let him pick his own while he was perched on my other hand. We would also put him in the guava tree so he could peck at his own fruit. His family would land in the tree and squawk at him to come with them. "I can't! I can't!" he would cry.

Gradually we gave him more and more freedom. Some days when the news was hot and I was busy, I would forget to go outside to get him to put away in the cage in the late afternoon. He would squawk loudly when the sun started going down to remind me.

One day when I went to get Touky to put him away for the night, I couldn't find him anywhere. "I can't find Touky! Where's Touky?! What happened to him?!" I was sure that El Jefe was going to tell me that Chloe the Rottweiler had eaten him or that the chickens had ganged up and attacked him or something equally gruesome. J told me that he flew away.

"How do you know?" I asked suspiciously. "Well, I put him in the guava tree and his family came for him. He flew away with them." There was just something about the look on his face.... I had an idea that he was trying to protect me from something, but I didn't press it any further. I just hoped that it was true. I was worried that Touky's leg wasn't strong enough so that he could take care of himself.

A few times over the months, I thought I heard Touky but I could never get a close enough look to know if it was him or not.

One morning about 6 months later, I woke up very early for some reason. I was walking through the hallway on my way to make a pot of coffee when I glanced toward the terraza and saw a bird standing on the floor outside. Initially I thought it was a bird who had flown into our windows and been stunned. The bird turned and in the dim light, I saw the unmistakable toucan beak. Even more interesting, just then Chloe walked up to the bird and the little bird stood beak to nose with the 75-pound rottweiler without flinching.

"TOUKY! Touky, is that you?!" I ran outside and reached down to pick him up. He wasn't afraid at all and didn't try to get away. I said his name again and he squawked at me. I looked at his leg and sure enough: He had that poor twisted foot but he was still able to use it to hang on. It was Touky! I was so excited. I wanted to get a photo and wake up El Jefe to see this miracle. As I was carrying him upstairs — you aren't going to believe this — he laid his head on my chest! He remembered me! I know this must sound too fanciful to believe, but it's true! It happened!

I grabbed the camera and took Touky out on the upper terraza where the light was better. But in my fumbling to get him into position on one hand and the camera in the other hand, Touky decided he had had enough of revisiting civilization and flew away so I never captured that photo. This one is an earlier photo with me feeding him berries. That fuzzy little head made me laugh every time I looked at him.

Every time I see or hear the Toucans in my trees, I call out, "Touky? Is that you, Touky?" Mostly they ignore me, but the other day, one perching in the guava tree stared at me for several minutes, turning his head from side to side while I stood in the open window just a few feet away from him, asking, "Touky? Touky?"

I couldn't see his foot, so I can't be sure, but I like to think that it was him.

Related articles:

Touky the Toucan

Touky's family (for photos of his daily visitors. I'll be posting this tomorrow.)

I'm so sorry, Stubby

Baby gecko next to a 1-inch key ring

I was washing dishes when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. Taking a closer look at the stack of dishes to be done, I discovered this teeny-tiny little gecko about 1 1/2 inches long.

He kind of reminded me of a tadpole. I put that one-inch key ring in the dish to give you an idea of his size. I tried to shoo him away but all he would do is run from one end of the dish to another. Okay, fine, Mr. Gecko. Take your time. I'll finish the dishes later. (Good excuse, huh?)


Geckos are a good thing in the tropics. As I've learned from my friend Steve, seven geckos were introduced to Honduras in the La Lima area outside of San Pedro in 1978 by Dr. Gene Ostmark, a scientist who was famous for his work in developing different varieties of bananas. Geckos have since spread over much of the country. Geckos eat bugs, flies, and mosquitoes, not groceries, and do no harm. They don't bother people or pets and aren't too messy.

They sometimes make a clicking sound, but at night, they make an incredibly loud-for-their-size noise, described a chirping call, which Wikipedia says is a mating call from the female. It is so loud that it can be scary the first time you hear it if you don't know what it is, but like trains or crowing roosters, after a while you don't even hear it. At the size of this one, which I would guess is only a day or two old, they are very delicate, so I didn't want to try to pick him up and risk squishing him.

I came back a few hours later to finish the dishes and he was still there in the same dish. Enough is enough, Mr. Gecko, I want to wash the dishes! I tried to shoo him over the edge with my finger. I swear that I didn't touch him. He would run from my finger so I was just trying to get him to run up and over the edge of the dish.



But apparently out of fear, he lost his tail! Some lizards do that when they are trapped or feel threatened. I didn't know what happened at first. I saw another movement in the dish and thought that there were two geckos. When I looked closer, I saw that it was his tail and it continued to wag for a couple of minutes!

He had claimed his territory and wasn't leaving. Finally I took the dish to another room and turned it on its side so that he could run out on the table, where, although embarrassed and now only about one inch long, he posed for another — tailless — photo for me.

I am so, so sorry, Stubby. It will grow back, I promise.

Tiger Mimic-Queen Butterfly

This poor little guy couldn't find his way out of my house. I left the window open for him and eventually he did. He was about 8 feet up the wall. I originally thought it was a Monarch, but upon enlarging the photos, I didn't think so after all.

I think it is a Lycorea cleobaea (or L. halia), common names Tiger Mimic-Queen or Large Tiger. They are attracted to papaya trees.

If you are interested in identifying the butterflies that you see, Discover Life has a great page where you input the colors and distinctive markings and it gives you a list of possibilities. I was able to find this one in two minutes.

Grecian Shoemaker butterfly

Grecian Shoemaker butterfly

I was lucky enough to catch a photo of this beautiful butterfly, which is apparently Catonephele numilia, common name Grecian Shoemaker, Black Velvet or Spotlight Catone.

In trying to identify it, I found photos from southeast Brazil (number 240 on this very long page), Mexico, and a Omaha, Nebraska zoo.

Beautiful colors!

Saturday night excitement

Central American Woolly Opossum

Caluromys derbianus info: [English] [Spanish]

About 8:30 pm tonight, this animal was sitting on the railing on the upstairs terraza, barely 8 feet away from me. Chloe the guard dog was inside with me, off-duty because it was cold and rainy. She had been sound asleep on a pillow in the corner but we all (the dogs and I) heard a noise and she ran to the window to check it out.

Thinking it was a branch falling in the wind, I went back to the computer. Several minutes later, I turned around and saw that Chloe was still standing at the window, staring outside into the dark, perfectly quiet and alert, her tail up, acting like a pointer dog.

"What is it?" I took the two steps to the window, knowing that she couldn't possibly be seeing anything outside down below.

"I don't see anything." I opened the screen to get a better look.

"Eeeeek! A giant rat!" I quickly closed the screen.

Carefully peering through the screen again, I saw that it was too fluffy to be a rat. "No, it's that damn squirrel that takes one bite out of the guavas and then throws them to the ground!"

"What's wrong with it? Why is it staying there looking at me? Why isn't it afraid? Why doesn't it run away?" Thoughts of deranged or rabid animals went through my head.

Then the blogger in me recovered. I knew what I had to do. I got the camera and slowly opened the window enough to point the camera through the opening. Click! Flash! Still the animal didn't move. Click! Flash! It looked at me, turning its head from side to side. Every time Chloe or I made a noise, it moved its head and wiggled its ears as if it was using radar to pick up the sounds.

In the flash of the camera, I could see that it was neither a rat nor a squirrel, but some sort of opossum. Bad news. As cute as this one looks, they kill chickens.

You can see in this photo that it is looking down below, probably trying to decide which one of the birds he wanted for dinner. We had a close call a few nights earlier when something went after the chickens in the middle of the night but Chloe apparently scared it off before it could do its dastardly deed.

After the peek through the open window, Chloe went nuts to try to get to the animal. She knows her job and it is to protect us and the chickens. She ripped right through the screen but I was able to hold her back long enough to close the window. I wasn't so concerned to protect the animal as I was that if the animal jumped, Chloe, in her frenzy, would leap right over the railing to the ground below.

What to do?! What to do?! It's El Jefe's job to handle wild animals, mice, and bugs! I took Chloe downstairs and let her outside to guard the chickens.

Thankfully, minutes later our hero arrived. Chloe ran to the gate, whining "Come quick! There is an emergency!" J knew instantly that something was wrong. I ran to the other side of the terraza, whining, "J! There is an ANIMAL up here on the terraza!" "What kind of animal?" "I don't knooooow! Come up here! Hurry!"

He took a look and I asked, "What kind of animal is it?" "It's one of those 'animals-that-eats-chickens'," as he always calls them. "I'm going to knock it off the railing so Chloe can kill it."

"Oh, noooo ...."

"We have to kill it or it will kill the chickens," he patiently explained.

"Oh, I know, but .... Oh, do what you have to do."

So he did. And she did. He congratulated her for her good work. She felt useful. I felt terrible.

Ugh. The law of the jungle is tough.



Related article: This was our second encounter with one of these. See Ladrones y comadrejas (burglars and weasels)

Guavas are for the birds

Brown Jay chomping down on La Gringa's guava

At least my guavas are for the birds, the fruit fly larvae, and the chickens. I've only had two fruits in the past year. :-/

I walked into the kitchen yesterday and something bright pink outside the window caught my eye. I looked up and my first thought was, "Why am I seeing the inside of the guava instead of the outside?" Then I saw the bird. This is one of many brown jays (thanks to Daniel of Hondubirding for identifying it for me), toucans, squirrels, and other birds that avail themselves of our guavas.

I'm happy to feed the wildlife. I just wish they would finish what they start. Those half-eaten guavas laying on the ground really stink!

I'll leave this tree for the animals. I don't think I can win the fruit fly battle. My neighbor, who was the one who gave me the tree, used to bag his developing fruit to keep out the fruit flies. I'm not sure if he still does that now that his tree must be huge.

For those who don't know, we don't use chemicals in our garden. Under my philosophy, generally I would just get rid of this tree as being unsuitable for an organic garden in this area, but since it is such a boon to the wildlife, I guess we'll keep it.

Here is a video of the greedy brown jay filling himself with guava.




Enjoy! That guava looks mighty tasty.

The Honduran crocodile crisis

Juancho the crocodile

Sorry, I couldn't resist that headline. Taking a break from the democratic crisis to report on the crocodile crisis. ;-)

Juancho the pet crocodile lived the good life for 10 years and now he is going back to the wild.

Kept as a family pet since he was about 6 months old, Juancho lived with the Marcos Hernández family among the children and three dogs in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with no problems, even with the neighbors. "Since they were little, my children were fond of him, to the point that my younger daughter swam in the pool with Juancho and petted his head because he liked to be spoiled," said don Marcos. "Every now and then, he would sit at the gate to watch the people going by."

"Though he is not aggressive, he deserves to live in his natural habitat," said the daughter of don Marcos.

Juancho was transferred by Funapa (National Foundation for the Protection of Animals) to a natural enclosure at Laguna Ticamaya. La Prensa has a short video of his capture here. Here is hoping that Juancho knows how to protect himself and find food after 10 years in captivity. Good luck, Juancho!

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I can't help but mention a couple of the clever reader comments on the La Prensa article. Chepe suggested that Funapro transfer ten crocodiles to the Nicaraguan border to deal with Mel Zelaya should he decide to cross again.

Another reader expressed concern about how the crocodile would survive put into the natural habit without the necessary skills to survive without the help of humans. "He is accustomed to being fed without working," wrote Robbie, adding that any similarity to striking Honduran teachers was purely unintentional.

Touky the Toucan

Touky the collared Aracari

Touky is actually a young collared Aracari (Pteroglossus torquatus), obviously of the Toucan family. Though he looks like a good size, I know that he is young because he has blue eyes and green skin around the eyes. Adults have yellow eyes with red and black skin around the eyes.

We found him with a broken leg. I've been trying to cure him so that he can go back to his family − who come to look for him almost every day. Toucans are social birds that form a serious family unit. I'm so hoping that he gets better before his family gives up on him.

I have so many photos of Touky and his family and video, too, but no time to put it together plus my 'a' key is not working. I have to pound the heck out of it to get an 'a' to come out and that is no fun.  ;-{

Another lizard and one saved from the stew pot

Can you see the lizard?

Chloe was sniffing, whining, and running circles around the chicken coop the other day. My first thought was a snake or opossum, though opossums and the various other related animals are usually out at night. From the upstairs terraza, I was able to spot this lizard hanging on to an elephant ear stem high above Chloe's head. I don't know what kind it is, but if anyone does, I could give a better title to my article.

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Speaking of lizards, we protected our environment again the other day. A guy was throwing rocks up into the large tree in the vacant lot next door. I said "Stop him!" to El Jefe, since the only reason anyone throws rocks up into a tree around here is to knock down an iguana for the stew pot.

El Jefe called out, "What are you doing?" The guy slyly said that there was a pichete in the tree. Pichete is the local name for less valued lizards which are considered pests (not by us).

"Pichete?", asked El Jefe, knowingly. He says that no one would eat a pichete.

"Well.... an iguana" said the guy.

El Jefe told him to leave the iguana alone, that we try to protect them here and the naturaleza (environment). The guy gave him a dirty look and went back to his work 'cleaning' the lot (read: macheteing every living thing down to the soil level to make it uninhabitable for any form of wildlife.)

He probably thought we were only saving the iguana for our own stew pot.

Visitor outside the window

Eyes on La Gringa

I was in the kitchen chopping vegetables when I felt someone watching me. Can you see it in the photo above?

I went to get the camera, hoping it would still be there. It was and he let me sneak up closer to get a better shot. He just watched me and didn't seem skittish at all.


Then I thought I would really push my luck and open the window so that I could get a clearer photo. "No prob," said the lizard. "Here, do you want a profile?"


I think that this is a Basilisk (Basiliscus vittatus), called a garrobo here in Honduras. Kind of a weird, prehistoric little guy, isn't he? There is just something creepy about those elbows and knees. Did you know that this lizard is also called the Jesus lizard because he can not just walk, but run on water?

New neighbors?

Dog translation: What the #*&$?

(Oh, my! Time to take down the Christmas decorations, isn't it? Thanks for the nudge, folks.)

The dogs started barking like crazy the other morning so I looked out to see who was in our side street. It's a dead end street with no other houses and the dogs consider that they should warn us of any possible intruders.

Well, well, well. Shades of the wild west. It was the big, furry kind of intruders, a whole herd of them. I haven't seen cows in the neighborhood in a long time, though you may remember the horse stampede from last year or the sheep traffic jam of the year before.

Hey, I like to see the animals. I wish the cows would stick around to 'mow' some of these overgrown vacant lots, though the cows seem very particular about what they eat and there usually isn't much improvement after they leave. I wouldn't mind scooping up some of the residue that they leave behind for my compost pile either, but that would probably be looked down upon by my neighbors.

One of my neighbors started keeping chickens! When they first visited us, they were bug-eyed to see chickens in our garden. These are people from a wealthy family and although they politely asked about the chickens, and I happily told them how much we enjoy them, I felt a little....I don't know....maybe looked down upon as a pauper who couldn't afford to buy her own eggs. Now they have their own. Bantams just exactly like ours. Will wonders never cease? Though I have an idea that it is probably one of the maids or security guards that is actually caring for the chickens.

Perceptions are a lot different here in Honduras. Do-it-yourself or sustainability type projects always got admiring congratulations from my neighbors in Texas. Here in La Ceiba, it is more likely to get quizzical looks as if they are wondering why I didn't just pay someone to do it for me. That has been my experience from people of all walks of life. This snobbishness or classism or whatever you want to call it isn't going to change me because I enjoy doing things myself, but I have to say that it doesn't feel good to be on the receiving end.

In any case, I don't think that we will be adding cows or sheep to our menagerie. They do too much damage to the landscaping.

Now I'm off to make my own curtains − for a whole lot of reasons but not because I can't afford to pay someone to do it. ;-)

Toucans in the back yard

Toucan, La Ceiba, Honduras

Oh, how I love to see toucans! I've been hearing them a lot lately. They have a very distinctive call. But usually they are obscured by tree foliage so I can't get any kind of decent photo.


This one posed for us for several minutes. He very kindly waited while I ran downstairs to get my camera. I took several shots and then he waited again for me to go get the extra batteries after mine went dead. Nice guy, this toucan.





While we were watching the toucan, a couple of trees over something furry went running up the trunk. El Jefe said it was a squirrel. I've never seen a squirrel in our garden before and I don't want to either. That was just as my batteries went dead so no photos of him.



These photos aren't great, but I was happy to get them considering how far away the bird was. He was in the fourth tree from the right.

Chloe saves the chickens!

Chloe: Always on guard

Last night the dogs were going nuts. I was really scared.

We have five chihuahuas and one sweet (to us) and ferocious (to others) Rottweiler/Doberman mix. My dogs, I'm sure like most dogs, have different barks for different reasons.

There is the bark! which is a gentle reminder to "Give me a cookie." or "Pick me up."

There is the direct order: bark-bark! which means "Let me in now!" "Hey! It's raining out here."

Bark-bark-bark! (usually from two or three of the chihuahuas) and Woof-woof-woof! (from the Rottweiler) means someone is walking on the street and the dogs are saying, "There are guard dogs here. Watch your step, buddy."

Bark!-Bark!-Bark!-Bark! (from three or four of the chihuahuas) and Woof!-Woof!-Woof!-Woof! signifies imminent danger: "You are getting too close. I'm warning you!"

Last night I was getting:

Bark!-Bark!-Bark!-Bark! Bark!-Bark!-Bark!-Bark!
Woof!-Woof!-Woof!-Woof! Woof!-Woof!-Woof!-Woof!
Bark!-Bark!-Bark!-Bark!

Translation:
Warning! Warning! Warning!
Perimeter breached!
Danger! Intruder on the premises!!


I believed them.

To make matters worse, all six dogs were involved and they were alternately racing to the street side of the house and standing guard at the top of the steps of the terraza as they barked their little heads off sounding much more ferocious than chihuahuas usually do. Chloe has no problem in this department. If I didn't know her, she would scare me when she gets serious about her guarding job.

I made sure all the windows and doors were locked. I went upstairs and looked around from the terraza but it was too dark to see anything. It's not a good idea to talk about security measures but suffice it to say that I was prepared!

Eventually we all calmed down, the dogs first and then me. I assumed that the dogs were protecting us from an animal intruder, not a human one. Chloe particularly does not like snakes and has barked all night long while she kept one cornered.

(You might want to stop reading here if you are sensitive to dead body photos.)

This morning I went out to the terraza to feed the dogs. I walked down the steps to go to the chicken coop to gather the daily egg (Singular. We have 10 chickens and are getting one egg per day, but that is another couple of stories.)

I turned on the sidewalk to head towards the coop and stopped and screamed! And then screamed again. El Jefe came running.

There, arranged neatly on the sidewalk as a display of her excellent kill was this:


I thought it was a huge rat! In the split second while I was screaming, I was also thinking that I wanted to move. El Jefe said that no, it wasn't a rat, "It's one of those animals that eat chickens." An opossum. Chloe protected our flock and captured and killed the vicious predator. We were so proud of her.

Animals in El Porvenir

Here are some photos of animals from El Porvenir, Atlantida, Honduras. I didn't see any pigs on this trip but they are often seen roaming the streets as well.


We had to pause in the road to wait for this bull to pass. I jumped out of the car to take his photo but he kept moving and El Jefe was getting impatient.



We saw a funny rooster fight when one rooster started getting too friendly with another's hen. Unfortunately, we were too far away to get a good video.

Poor baby. Tied up with no place to roam.

Couldn't it be tied up where there is some grass instead of by the side of the road where there is nothing but trash and gravel?



She looks content, but tied up like this in the sun, I don't imagine that she is one of those happy cows who makes really good ice cream.