The "She Named Him Larry!" Story

The Parotte Ville Bird Sanctuary in Sint Maarten.

It was an ordinary day.  Visiting the island of St. Martin/Sint Maarten, hoping to get in some beach time during our recupera- tion from our recent surgeries.  Slightly overcast today with a few threatening clouds passing in the distance.  

The interior of the sanctuary.

Certainly not a beach day, so we decided to make a visit to one of Sint Maarten's newest attractions, the Parotte Ville Bird Sanctuary which is located directly across the French border on the Dutch side on Bishop Hill Road in Belvedere.  The sanctuary houses some of the world's most beautiful species of birds as well as a variety of indigenous plants.  

Our tour guide Bebe with a few of his friends.

Paid our $10/person admittance fee and entered through the first of two screened doors necessary to keep the birds from escaping.  Carol and I are the only patrons so our personal tour guide is Bebe.  A fantastic guide who is very knowledgable and who obviously loves working with the parrots.  They in turn show their affection toward him with little nibbles on his ear and head.  

Carol was wondering what her new
friend would do in her hair.

Bebe handed each of us a cup holder that he had filled with bird food and instantly the Sun Conures were sitting on our hand.  These beautiful birds are very colorful and if there isn't enough of space on your hand, they will land on your shoulder or head.  Other species we saw were a variety of colors of the Ring Neck Parakeet, Brown Throated Conure, Cockatiel and the Black Headed Caique.  The Black Headed Caique and his mate are newcomers to the sanctuary, arriving a few months ago.  They hadn't interacted with any patrons until all of a sudden the male flew onto Carol's hand and began feeding.  Bebe quickly went to find the owner of the facility, George Parotte, to tell him about their newest edition finally interacting with a guest.  

This guy is trying to tell me something!

Bebe told Carol that they were waiting for the birds first interaction before they named him.  It was now up to Carol to name the bird.  She thought and thought and realizing it was a male, name him ... Larry!  Bebe thought that to be a great name and said if we ever visit again we will be able to see Larry.  The rest of our hour-long visit was great as we had a wonderful time with all the birds in the sanctuary; even the one little Sugar Bird that somehow found its way into the screened in sanctuary.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - Remember to click on photos to enlarge them.

A Conure poses for its photograph.

Birds mate for life and this pair makes a great couple.

Really colorful, but I can't remember what kind it might be.

A yellow Ringneck.

Finally, here is Larry, named after yours truly by my wife.

A blue Ringneck.

This is Alex who is a special type of parrot and who was hiding for most of our visit until Bebe managed to find him and coax him into eating.

A white Ring neck.

The Cockatiel. 

This bird is a Zebra Finch.

An unnamed species.

The Dove which is building a nest and was upset that I took a photo of her nest.