Once again, a ceiba tree was host to a forest king. This time, it was not a harpy, but a jabiru pair, nesting along the Rupununi River. It takes a heck of a tree to hold up a jabiru nest.
This nest is probably bigger than the antique oak flat file that takes up the entire center of my studio. Those birds are five feet tall, as tall as people. It's hard to convey how huge the whole affair was, tree, birds, nest and all.And how rare is the opportunity to look into a jabiru nest.
We were to see not one but two different jabiru homes. In the second, a little jabiru princeling.Ceibas are good trees, are they not? What treasures these forest giants hold. No wonder they're sacred all across their range. From tribe to indigenous tribe, everyone respects the ceiba.
I feel pretty certain that I'll never have a better look or photographic opportunity with jabirus than I got in Guyana.
The jabiru soaring overhead reminded me of DaVinci's flying machine, a man hanging from the great jointed wings.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, spring is on hold. It has to rain, it just has to. Dust curls up off the road and the spring peepers are silenced. There are no wood frogs, no mountain chorus frogs, no salamanders. Even the bluebirds, always eager to nest, are holding back. I can't remember a spring like this. When?
12 comments:
What a gorgeous, gorgeous bird.
We've been having a dry spring up here in central Ohio, too, but at least our amphibians still seem to be doing their thing - I was lucky enough to get out to see a big movement of breeding spotted salamanders last week.
This bird is truly magnificent! What a stunning creature. And you must have been thrilled with the opportunity to see the nest.
As for spring, I'm right there with you. Texas is really suffering from a major drought. Consider this: We had an outbreak of thunderstorms little more than a week ago. They dropped up to five inches of rain in two days (some got more). Unfortunately, the ground was so dry that it absorbed all the water--meaning no gains in reservoirs and lakes. Literally none. Spring seems stunted, and I fear it's going to get worse if we don't get some major rain soon--lots and lots of it.
Magnificent bird--love the flying view.
We are dry too here in central PA--while the midwest in ND braces for floods, we are 6 inches down in rainfall. And we had half the average snowfall. This is global climate change in action.
Spring is on hold here in the Black Hills, blizzard for 2 days, no school Monday and Tuesday. Rain, sleet, snow, thunder, lightning, wind.
We had 12" of snow and 82 mph wind gusts...it has been interesting since Sunday it was 77F and sunny!
Not sure how they measured snow exactly, it was all coming horizontally and drifting.
Caroline
Speechless.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I hope I will have the opportunity to see them for myself in the future.
Spring has not arrived here in Southwest British Columbia either. Be patient.
You'll be getting some rain tomorrow, I bet. Rained all day here in IL.
We are getting three to four inches in the next few days... I'll send the front north to you. :c)
Amazing bird and nesting tree.
I've always thought of storks as somewhat gangly, maybe because of size and knobby knees? But, yours seem beautifully graceful--especially gliding high with pointed toes!!
We're having rain against the windows this morning--sending it your way...
Wow!
A brief light rain a few days ago is the first in over a month. Nice nest.
I LOVE Guyana...In fact, I consider myself Guyanese - reborn. I've been fortunate enought to have seen both ceiba trees and a Jabiru myself. When I was in Guyana, I stayed at a field station named - CEIBA, outside of Georgetown. go figure.
Wow, what a cool bird!
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