Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The Things I see...

Paraguay seems to be the land of opportunity as far as seeing new and strange things on a fairly regular basis. Remember I told you how I had seen a naked man walking in down town Asuncion on Monday? And no, I did not take his picture!

I saw something else quite odd today.

We were driving down a fairly busy avenue which has some beautiful homes. Some of them call to mind the antebellum plantation houses of the old south. I always enjoy looking at them and today was no different.

BUT, look what I saw in the front yard of one...

18 comments:

Joy said...

Is that an ostrich? Cool!


Joy

ABNPOPPA said...

Is that an ostrich? They're not native to Paraguay are they?

Pops

Kimberly said...

That does look like a beautiful home. Do you think the ostrich is a pet?

Brooke said...

Aren't those birds rather ill-tempered?

Maybe it's a guard bird?

Most Rev. Gregori said...

Boy, if I wanted one of those in my yard, the authorities would confiscate it and I would be arrested.

That looks like a beautiful home.

MightyMom said...

they could be raising ostrich for money...I've heard that some sell the feathers and eggs....some eat the eggs....and some keep em like folks keep peacocks.

:-)

Sun Productions said...

That's right across from the school my boys attend. We look for it every day! You are right, there are a lot of fun and strange things to see here. Whole families on motorcycles! Rivers running down the main streets! Trees growing in the middle of the street! I am entertained by the sights just about every day.

Thursday's Child said...

Oh, neat!

CrimeSceneFairy said...

Ooh, so you did have a camera! :D Those things look scary. They should be banned from civilization

Rita Loca said...

Joy, yes it is!,

Poppa, No, I guess he was imported.

I hear that it is indeed a guard bird! It seems ostriches make great protectors!!!

Happy Elf Mom (Christine) said...

LOL and 'round here the best we can do is the pink plastic flamingo.

Webutante said...

Wonderful pic. I almost feel like I'm there with you. Keep this up, love it!

Brenda said...

I've seen one of those at a little store in Luque as well.

Betty said...

I guess it´s the IN animal to have now. We have them here too!

Anonymous said...

Could that be a rhea, which is native to South America?

Once I was visiting Manhattan with a friend from Argentina when we spotted a llama walking on the sidewalk. Fortunately, I had a camera, so the llama-sighting in NYC was not later regarded as another fish-tale.

Anonymous said...

Since the rhea photo in Wikipedia shows rheas with dark-colored "caps" on the top of their heads, as does the bird in your photo, I would tend to go with rhea. The Wikipedia photo of an ostrich did not show the "cap", but rather showed the top of the head the same color as the neck and the rest of the head.

Any ornithologists in the crowd?

Michael said...

Looks like a rhea, a South American relative of the ostrich. They're native to much of South America, south of the Amazon region.

Interesting bird. Not exactly something you'd want for a pet, though...

Rita Loca said...

I will trust you two to know it is a rhea.