Ready To Fly The Coop?

Exactly two weeks from today, look how quickly our little birdies have developed into. Like they are almost ready to fly the coop. And it better be, since that little cozy nest has become too cramped for comfort.

Have not seen any traces of mama Maya during my regular visits, but I know she has been a doting parent. And looks like she is resigned to my incursions into her privacy and that of her brood.

The hatchlings are beginning to take on the shape and colors of the bird that they will eventually become. The once national bird of the islands now estranged from its traditional domicile and consigned to adapting to constrictive urban living.

Not much different to where the species Homo sapiens appears to be half-mindedly heading to?

Week Old Today

They are exactly a week old today, counting from the time I saw them hatched in their nest.

Fine Feathered Friends, at last

Less than a week after being hatched, my two unexpected guests are suddenly looking like the birds they should be. A soft blackish fur now covers their once pinkish bodies. Unmistakable signs of the paraphernalia that when fully developed will enable them to exercise that one distinct quality that differentiates them from most other earthbound living things – feathers for flight.

And the increase in their size is just short of being amazing and stupendous. Though still mostly immobile and confined to the cramped nest, we know pretty soon they will be testing their mettle –in learning to fly.

That day will be the proper time to say, au revoir.

In the meantime, I will insist on exercising my rights as resident intruder.

White Water Rafting In CDO

Sunday morning and the never-empty premier park of the city, Divisoria, stirs up a buzz, but quite different from that of the two previous nights when this park gets transformed as the locale for the weekend night café.

This time it is for the now popular sports activity in the city noted for its river. It is white water rafting, widely patronized by the young uns both from local areas and by hordes of intrepid tourists from across the country.

As the pictures show white water rafting starts in the park. But initially with rafts above the heads of the would-be thrill seekers.

Lashed on top of massively-built vehicles known as the Philippine jeepneys. An unseemly amalgamation of designs and structures reminiscent of WW2 war vehicles, fitted with surplus Japanese engines and parts, joined with generic parts from local parts stores, splashed with tons of paint, and throw in a hippo for good measure. And what you see is this ugly monstrosity that passes as public utility vehicle in many parts of this country.

Less than an hour’s ride going west will bring these eager beavers to the different launching sites, for several hours of fun, frolic, and fear.

Have fun!

Maya Updates

Three days and counting, and these two are still alive – barely, from my vantage point. During the day, the mother visits regularly, though at the first signs of human presence she scampers and soars skyward. She sits at the nest entrance with prominent beak protruding outward.

Looking at the two hatchlings, one gets to understand why it was generally believed that birds were descended from the now extinct dinosaurs and not the present-day lizards. The formers’ young sure look like those gargantuan beasts of old.