Palo Verde National Park

Apparently, the parrot you see in the photo below is not seen very often. Our guide was ecstatic to see it and we spent an inordinate amount of time watching two of them so we knew it must be something special. I failed to remember what kind it was and my simple guidebook does not show it.





Kudos to Colin for capturing this award-winning photograph of a Tiger Heron. Apparently this was a juvenile who had not left the nest yet. The heron was leery of the boat and froze in this position so he would not be seen. These birds actually make themselves tall and thin and touch the branch above to make themselves look like they are part of the tree. How cool is that?!?!

It's a bit fuzzy but here's an osprey coming right toward us!

Here is a list of the birds we saw on this boat ride (I'm sure there were many more but this is all I could remember):

• Bare-Throated Tiger Heron


• Yellow-Crowned Night Heron


• Black-Crowned Night Heron


• Boat-Billed Heron


• Little Blue Heron (very common)


• Great Blue Heron


• Great Egret


• Cattle Egret


• Wood Stork


• Kingbird (some kind)


• Ringed Kingfisher


• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (on the bus ride)


• Mangrove Swallow


• Osprey


• Black-Necked Stilt


• Sandpiper


• Parrot (of some kind)


• Jabiru!!!

This last bird on the list was the most spectacular bird sighting of the day. This is an endangered species and we were extremely lucky to capture a glimpse of this magnificent stork. The birds (we saw two) were over a hundred yards from the river so it was impossible to get a good photograph but we all got a good view of this rare bird using our binoculars. Once again, the guide was beside himself excited about this sighting. I pulled this photo of the Jabiru off the internet so you can see how bizarre it is. It is enormous, standing 53-57 inches tall with a wingspan of EIGHT feet.

What a great trip into this national park. We were stunned by the density and diversity of wildlife on this river trip. I'd do it again tomorrow!

On the drive home we caught a glimpse of the burning sugar cane fields. You have to wonder about this technique in this day and age so I researched the topic a bit. Check out the article below if you are interested:

http://text.lsuagcenter.com/en/environment/conservation/burn_smoke/sugarcane/Prescribed+Burns+Help+the+Sugarcane+Industry+and+Reduce+Smoke+and+Ash+Problems.htm

Burning Sugar Cane Crop