Polka Dot Pigeons and Gathering Geckos

I haven't really done any birding since I've been here.  All of the birds I've seen are either from our balcony or on our walks with Nell to the nearby lake.  There is a dove which we see most mornings.  Once I had the binoculars on it I could see that it has a black collar with white dots hence my name for it, the Polka Dot Pigeon.  (All doves are pigeons but not all pigeons are doves.)  Myanmar has some really wonderful pigeons which I hope I'll see at some point.  There is an Imperial Pigeon and Mountain Imperial Pigeon for instance.  The local impressive but illusive bird is the Greater Coucal.  I've only seen it a few times since we've been here but was pleased to have correctly identified it as a Coucal from the first glimpse.  The really common birds are the house crows, which are a smaller version of our carrion crows, the house sparrow and the ubiquitous common (not imperial) pigeon.  At the lake we see at least 2 kinds of egrets but I've yet to separate them out and a green bee-eater which is very pretty.  There are quite a few lbjs (little brown jobs) which I've yet to identify and a sunbird (the east's answer to the hummingbird) which I've seen a few times too.  The local songster is the common myna bird.  They are so good at learning bird calls that they have already confused me several times.  They are a member of the starling family and when you know what a starling sounds like, the myna bird sounds like a starling which has had singing lessons.

Animal life of the non-avian kind has so far has been limited to the numerous street dogs and less numerous street cats, two kinds of rat (large and medium), a small tree squirrel with a black tip to its tail, a large snail (to Lindsey's delight) and lots of geckos.  Unfortunately, the Yangon gecko is a small, fleshy coloured and nondescript little creature.  This morning we had one in our kitchen sink.  I had to gather it into a mug just like you would a spider and then quickly put a spatula over the top to stop its escape.  I released it in the garden under one of our palm trees.  We have two palm trees complete with whatever palm trees have.  I don't think they are coconuts but I'm not really sure.  We seem to have two kinds as one nut is orange and one is green.  I don't think the orange ones are just under ripe green ones because both kinds have fallen so far.  We are not in danger much from them although Nell might be.  Maybe a dog helmet coconut protector might be in order...