Outside our window...

Of course there are the monkeys, one of which came into the living room one day while Theresa was working away at the computer (did we mention that?), and then another one just came in the bathroom window and was satisfied with admiring himself in the mirror before I shooed him out.

And of course also outside our window are the Hadada Ibises, which may have a nice-sounding name but their actual sounds, well, the demure bird book describes it as "very, very loud," and Anna, who slept the closest to their early morning hangout spot, will agree with that, since they were her jarring wakeup call ever day.

The latest wildlife outside our window, though, is much much cuter. This is (we're pretty sure) a Pearl-Spotted Owlet. Anna figures in this one, too, because she discovered it outside the guest bedroom window the night we took this photo. Since then there have been multiple sightings. One night an Owlet woke Theresa up in the middle of the night when it crashed against our window, and freaked her out slightly when she went over to investigate and found it pressed against the screen looking in at her. And we have now seen a whole family of them, four or five together. What good company! My New Vision driver said if you hear an owl cry, it means someone is dying, but other than the obvious (someone is ALWAYS dying), we choose not to believe that, since we have heard these critters crying quite a lot.

That, plus the turtle (and whole monkey family) at the pool, and many other much more attractive sorts of birds right here at Salama Springs -- who needs a game park!