Thirsty Creatures

When things get really dry on Barbados, all living creatures have to extend their search for water. What that means for us is that things come close to and into the house.

When our cats are outside on the deck, we put out a bowl of water for them, and everything comes to share - lizards, moths, ants and even monkeys.

It’s nice to think that we are helping them in times of drought, but we don’t put water out just for them - don’t want to encourage that, especially with the monkeys. They are very cute, but they are also very smart and inquisitive wild animals and show way too much interest in us and our cats.

Hopefully the rains will be along soon and there will be plenty of water and food for all.

If you’d like to read more about Barbados, please visit my other blog, Things Barbados.

Fighting Blackbirds

I was out having my walk one morning a few days ago and heard the familiar racket of blackbirds. As I got closer, I noticed that two males were fighting - nothing new about that, but how they were fighting was what struck me and I’d never seen before.

The two birds leapt at each other feet first scrabbling at chest feathers and heads. At some point the feet of the two birds became locked together and they both fell back onto their tail ends with their feet still locked together.

After a bit of struggling they freed themselves and then proceeded to repeat the procedure. This went on for a few minutes before they finally separated and went pecking around for food with the other blackbirds that watched the fighting for a few seconds before continuing in their search for food.

It was quite fascinating to watch this aggressive behaviour with raised feet trying to do damage to the opponent. Learn something new every day.

If you’d like to read more about Barbados, please visit my other blog, Things Barbados.