Green-barred woodpecker

green-barred woodpecker (caprintero nuca roja)

After shooting the short video, I closed the door and the bird flew away from the car …

green-barred woodpecker, Uruguay

… only to settle on a chair outside my office window (also a favorite of the cat).

Green-barred Woodpecker (Colaptes melanochloros)

French: Pic vert et noir
German: Grünbindenspecht
Spanish: Carpintero Real or Carpintero Nuca Roja (Red-naped Woodpecker)
Other common names: Green-barred Flicker; Golden-breasted Woodpecker (melanolaimus group)

(Thanks to Jim Wiemann for the identification)

The art auction

auction

I’ll save for another time why I happened to be at a modern art auction at Castells in Montevideo last night.

The auctioneer appears on the right, elevated. At the left, auction house employees bid on behalf of clients on the phone. The guy in front of the painting is doing the same by mobile phone. The waiter approaching the women has a tray with champagne, whiskey, water (sin o con gas), and fizzy brown high-fructose-corn-syrup water.

The pieces sold from USD 1,200 to over USD 30,000 while we were watching.

Totally irresponsible

Heading up from the beach, I saw a column of smoke rising. Before crossing the dunes, putting my shoes on, I heard men’s voices. Getting to the road, I saw a blazing, untended fire not far from one of the flammable garbage containers.

fuego

Twenty meters further, a woman backed out of her driveway, stopped by me and said ¡Que horrible! I asked her who did it. Los jardineros. But there’s nobody here, I replied. It appears that the gardeners who had been working nearby piled up the brush, lit it on fire, and left for the day.

I’ve mentioned this behavior before, but this is a little extreme.

But hey, it was time to go home.