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Published: March 23rd 2012
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Hi everyone,
So I haven't done many tourist activities yet here in Brazil as I have been saving them for my holidays in a week or so. However, I did break this pledge on Sunday as I headed to the Bird Park, situated near the Falls. The Bird Park surprised me for many reasons, not least because it houses a variety of animals who aren't birds!
Before arriving at the Bird Park, I had received many warnings about the toucans, who reportedly like to stalk you and bite at your legs and ankles. Luckily for me they were happy to just wander around my feet, pose for photos and to attack other visitors instead! Unfortunately the same could not be said for the mosquitoes and wasps who were more than happy to sample me for dinner and to sting me. As with many of the other observations that I have previously shared with you, this next one may sound naive, however, I had never before seen a toucan in real life and I was amazed at how unreal they looked. The are exactly as a child would draw them with their perfectly coloured in faces and beaks, and their
almost comical appearance. Just looking at them made me smile and when they began their little hopping jumping movement I had to laugh to myself. I am now a big fan of toucans, although they were not my favourite resident of the Park, that honour is reserved for a much bigger and more imposing creature.
The Cassowary is the most bizarre bird that I have ever seen. It is native to New Guinea and the surrounding areas and is part of the same family as the Emu and the Ostrich. Some of you may have seen one before, others may have seen it featured on a programme on Channel 4, I had never done either. It was hard to get a good photograph as it liked to stay away from us, which I have to say, photo opportunity aside, I was quite pleased about. I can only describe it to you as a very scary looking ostrich but with the legs and feet of a dinosaur, yes a dinosaur! It is dangerous to humans and can kill quite easily with a kick of its dinosaur legs or a slice with one of its claws, frightening thing. It is fascinating
to watch it move though as it walks exactly as prehistoric animals are shown to, while watching it I could not help but think of Mr. Kirk and the Maths & Dinosaur projects! It is definitely an animal to look into further.
The Park also housed a very large number of parrots who were noisier than even Year 9 on a Tuesday afternoon! They served as a marker of where you were in the Park as they could be heard wherever you were at varying levels of decibel! There were beautiful to look at with their vivid colours and almost glowing brightness of their feathers but it was hard to spend very long with them as they really are quite loud when close up.
There is a separate enclosure for Butterflies and Hummingbirds which was really pretty. The butterflies are beautiful and here they are very big, most of the them were the size of my hand. The Hummingbirds are much smaller than the butterflies and at first are difficult to spot, however once you are tuned in as it were, you can hear them coming. They werereally interesting to see in real life although too quick for
me to get any photographs of them on the move!
The last bird that I have to tell you about made me laugh a little and even now I am not sure why I am volunteering this information as I know that I will be suffering for it later but...share it I will. So there is a bird in the park called, in english, the Southern Screamer. This bird is named after his very loud mating call which can be heard up to two miles away, it is otherwise a bird that you would perhaps miss as you wander around the park as it is not very eye catching and doesn't appear to do very much. Why am I telling you all of this? I am telling you this because the portuguese name for the Southern Screamer is Tachã!
And on that note I think I shall sign off for today, take care and I will speak to you soon,
Tasha
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jonesy
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great news miss alex got a M.O.A.B on COD with a shotgun ,Fabbio killed alduin and saved skyrim, Luke revised, connor successfully completed his lent sacrifice :-D oh and the boring part, we got the breakfast 'yawn'