Sunshine rain or cloudy, early middle or end of year
From dining room or verandah, hammock lawn chair or bar
Always time to pause and soak in sights and sounds
Of nature so near so real unchanged
Birds, dozens of species always here, displaying and singing
Mating calls and territorial rants competing
Pick your favorite any time of day, sight sound or habit
Clay Coloured Robin, Melodius Blackbird, Oropendola, Toucan
Elegant Bare Throated Tiger Heron often on the lawn
Patrolling then snapping up his meal
Hunched down Yellow Crowned Night Heron, digesting last nights crabs
Piercing calls of the Brown Jay, bush policeman or PiamPiam known
Piampiam my email same as the bird, warning of our nature invaded
Howler monkey family in the tree out front
Big old male indiscreetly guttural, asserting family mate and habitat,
Proud prehistoric male Green Iguana, in mating color nodding, bristling
Intruders beware; I’m big and bad,
Crocodile sunning on the dock, wide open jaws ready for unwary prey
For half the year huge trees display, brilliant tropical colors rotating
Full crowns of mauve yellow orange pink and lavender,
Flamboyant flaming orange above and carpeting the ground,
Seeds drying exploding and flying carry on nature’s silent survival role,
Grand Olde River green and clear, or silted brown rolling slowly by
From mountains valleys and jungle to sea and shoreline carrying
Tarpon Snook and Jacks to blend fresh water life with salt.
All this and more, here to enjoy at the River Lodge
The Belize Olde River Runs By It.
Mike Heusner October 8, 2011
