Quetzal in our midst

Our first guests this week were bird watchers and came up to Hush Valley Lodge specifically to seek out the Quetzals. Kevin had seen two Quetzals earlier in the week so we were hoping they'd get lucky. Roberto mentioned that Quetzals have been spotted just up the road from where he lives. When Eileen and Brian showed up, we let them know and the next morning they were up bright an early and headed down to Copey to see if they could spy this elusive bird.

Well, they did get lucky! And then, while on the tour with Kevin later that same day, a Quetzal flew overhead. That is lucky!

(Click here to read Eileen and Brian's guestbook comment)

Then, this morning I drove our current guests (Peter and Delisa) down to Copey to see if we could see one. I parked the SUV near the large municipal water tanks and it didn't take long to see several pairs of Quetzals fly across the road and settle in a tree up the hill (about 100 metres away). None of us had a zoom lens and I had forgotten our binoculars, so although still thrilling, we were a bit disappointed we could not see them clearly. So, I decided it was worth driving back home (20 minutes or so... no biggie). I grabbed the binoculars and we headed back down to the same spot. It seemed awfully quiet... we didn't see any Quetzals at all. We walked up and down the road... then Peter waved Delisa and I over. The binoculars did the trick! The Quetzal was quite camouflaged within the foliage, but there it was... no matter how many times I see this bird, it never gets old... so special. (Since I don't have a zoom lens, I had to blow the picture up, which makes it quite blurry... sorry about that.)

 Then after lunch, Peter and Delisa caught their dinner... and ours, too.

Peter and Delisa are staying with us until Tuesday morning. They fly back to Montana after enjoying several days at the beach and now our place. They said it was really hot down on the coast and really like the temperatures at our elevation... we couldn't agree more!