We did take today off after working very hard on Friday. With Elder and Sister Osbourne we went to the Kula Eco Park that is on the Coral Coast. It is advertised as a bird refuge and the Osbourne's wanted to see it because Fiji has a bird that is found nowhere else in the world. They became interested in it because Sister Osborne loves bird, but more importantly there is one of these birds depicted in a mural in the Samoan Temple. It took us about two hours and $30 FJD to get into the park. The park had only one of these birds.
 |
| The Red-Throated Lorikeet at the Eco Park The bird is about 18 cm. long. |
Third hand the story goes something like this. Because there are no Red-Throated Lorikeets in Samoa, the ancient Samoans would come to Fiji just to steal this Lorikeet. It seems their red feathers are highly prized in Samoa. Because the Samoans were so afraid of the fierce, human flesh eating Fijians, the Samoans would come in at night hoping to capture some of these birds and get away safely. At home they would pluck the red feathers and use them in their traditional dressy attire.
Sister Osborne told me the rare bird was the blue crested Lorikeet, however, when I was getting the picture for this blog, it was obvious that the blue crested Lorikeet looks nothing like the one we saw and they have few red feathers. A conundrum! However it was fun seeing this bird knowing that it is the national bird of Fiji.
Today this bird is all but extinct. None were found on Viti Levu or Vanua Levu the two main islands of Fiji in 2002.
We did get to see other birds, and animals of Fiji. Interesting.
 |
| Iguana and Scott |
 |
| Wow! Scott's shirt is great camouflage for this snake. |
 |
| Typical Parrot |
 |
| More Parrots |
 |
| Ever wondered why peacocks are colored the way they are? Well, now you know. |
 |
| Can you see the peacock? She is there. |
I hate to ruin the beauty of this page, but leaving out the fruit bat would be unthinkable. They are everywhere in Fiji. The night air--every night--is filled with their screeches. The bats in these pictures are smallish compared to the ones we see in our backyard and elsewhere in Suva.
 |
| Eating lunch upside down. Notice the white hair/fur on the back of this bat's neck. |
Getting food from the tray.
It is really creepy to me the way they use their wing claws
for hands. Fruit Bats are very territorial. The night air is filled with the screeched of these bats as they fight over space and food.
As you can see in this picture they use these claws to
move about. One night as we were eating outside we
noticed what looked like monkeys swinging from branch
to branch in the tree over head---it was bats.
Ate at the Warwick Resort which is also on the Coral Coast--Viti Levu's nicest resort area outside of Denerau Island. Great food. Nice day. Good Company.
No comments:
Post a Comment