The Toucan Man
It seems that my love of toucans is being appreciated across the globe.. in Ohio, no less. One Mr Wingmore, who is establishing his own toucan aviary, wrote to us to ask if he could use one of the photos I took in the Bali Bird Park to add to his own website, where he appears to have no photos of toucans, rather confusingly for a toucan enthusiast and breeder. Maybe it’s an elaborate front for mid-West based organised crime.
Yesterday we went to the Singapore Bird Park. The weather was holding up and we were in shorts and T-shirts, all ready for a happy few hours of toucan-spotting (well, I was, Andy knows that coming along and looking enthusiastic is one of the conditions of getting married to me). As soon as we were in the taxi, the sky darkened and it started to absolutely slam it down. Then the taxi driver got lost and started shouting – “bird park, ya, I tried left, I went right, not there ya.. it’s raining too hard, I can’t see”... for quite a long time. So we joined in the spotting and were helped by the 20 foot high sign painted garishly with unlikely-looking parrots which the driver missed for the third time.
Clearly the rain wasn’t going to stop, possibly for another 39 days and nights, but we didn’t build an empire in these crazy tropical countries by being scared of rain (I am joking for anyone who thinks I’m now wearing a pith helmet and have gone back to the Victorian age) so off we marched. It’s surprisingly difficult to have both of you stood under one umbrella while you take photos in the dry bit and try not to aquaplane off the path in your squeaky flip-flops.
There are lots of walk-in avaries where the birds whistle past your ears in a blur of red, yellow and blue. The best bit is the lory aviary where you can buy little plastic pots of sugary water and they will come and settle on you, fight on you, walk up and down your arm and in Andy’s case, poo on you. All this and bongo burgers under one roof! (thank you James).
Jo 28 January 2007
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