Sunday, April 29, 2007

Together forever

One of the books published is called “Vista”.


It contains conceptual photography made in Baja California in the 90’s.
One of the images is made of the palm tree that dominated the dry riverbed in which the rancho of the Gonzales family is located.



For the more than 25 years the Gonzales family was visited, there always was this palm tree.



What made this palm tree extra special was that inside the crown, among the leaves, was the home of a pair of “quelelé’s”.
“Quelelé’s” are birds.
They have black and white feathers and are scavengers.
Very proud and domineering animals: other birds like to get out of their way for them.

“Quelelé’s” live in couples.
They bond and stay together all their lives.
Breeding every Spring.

It was always a great joy to see again the Punta Boca del Salado “quelelé’s”.
To see them fly to and from the palm tree.
To see them get off spring.
They were housed in this palm tree for over 10 years.

But last year was this devastating hurricane and the centre hit exactly at Punta Boca del Salado.
There was not too much damage except that the famous palm tree of Punta Boca del Salado was broken in two.


It was blown into two pieces.



An end to an era but also the end of the home for our “quelelé’s”.

How the “quelelé’s” did it is a mystery, but they managed to survive the hurricane, like many other birds.
Somehow they found protection somewhere for the devastating high winds of over 150 kilometres (93 miles) per hour and the extreme rainfall.

These days the pair of “quelelé’s”, around here for such a long time, can be seen sitting on top of the broken palm tree.







Unable to build a new nest on the broken top of the palm tree they selected another palm tree next to Alfredo’s house.
But often they return to where they used to live.

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"Vista" was published by FOCUS Publishers.
ISBN number: 9-789072-216779




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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful seeing the birds, together, back to their tree! Sad to see that the hurricane devastated their nesting places. Still, wonderful that you are able to observe them, year after year, in their habitat. Thanks for sharing the pictures of them and their surroundings.

Anonymous said...

From the photo, your bird neighbor is a Crested Caracara. While referred to as the "Mexican Eagle," the Caracara is actually classified as a falcon. Legend has it that the Crested Caracara is the bird that showed the Aztecs where to establish their capital city.