birds

[Steve Davy]

Approaching a ridge several beautifully lit White Hawks...

Hideous creature! What was God thinking when he made that one?

[Tad Eareckson]

Must've been running low on pigments at that point.

2016/01/07

Rolled from Crystal Paradise with Geraldi Tut - one of the sons of the proprietor - guiding.

Target area was Spanish Lookout - to the north across the Macal River via another hand-cranked ferry. Savanna habitat. Savanna as a consequence of agricultural practices - pretty much all Mennonite - rather than the natural ecological influences. (Would otherwise be forest.) But savanna can hardly help but be really cool wildlife turf.

Started getting nice shots at several species of parrot which would've been all but impossible in forested areas. And mostly on the fences along the roads:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8650094@N05/5357916551/

ksbirder
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kesterc/14653470401/

Kester Clarke

Scissor and Fork-Tailed Flycatchers - two more birds of which I couldn't get enough. And I got half decent at distinguishing them with less than ideal advantages.

Drove into the forested area surrounding Aguacate Lagoon and scared up a Keel-Billed Toucan. Would've looked like:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eatsandretreats/8544943546/

Eats & Retreats

if it had been at the other end of the cooperation scale.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eugeneus/12259792335/

Evgeniy Polikarpov

(Still feel like going back to Trinidad and beating the crap outta Roodal for that bullshit he pulled with my Channel-Bills.)

Back out in the open was way more than happy to get a couple of these:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48218520@N06/8517693038/

Vince Filteau
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28926940@N08/2779977796/

Aaron
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68782989@N03/13002134663/

Dawn Scranton
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andymorffew/12433375625/

Andy Morffew
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christiansanchez/14536654813/

Christian Sanchez

And having just now done a bit of research I'm ecstatic to have gotten them. They've been totally or virtually nonexistent in the country until a bit after the beginning of this century and now you could probably count the number of them on your fingers.

Healthy supply of White-Tailed Kites...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/slomaggie/6289814950/

Maggie.Smith
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robodonnell/12331601213/

Rob O'Donnell

A pair of Aplomado Falcons was a joy for which I was ill prepared.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgamboias/14900942633/

Rosa Gambóias

And Lesser Yellow-Headed Vultures are also known as Savanna Vultures and this was savanna...

Ric
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16898659@N07/4765333786/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdtimm/4458707384/
Cláudio Dias Timm

Always nice to see Kestrels...

Walter Baliero C.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/walterbaliero/5885578173/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikedee-photos/6344453549/
Mike & Doris

...but just got females.

[Tad Eareckson]

2016/01/08

Morning excursion - freestyle (sans guide). What I had initially thought was a large pile of crap in the drive proved to be a brown hen taking it easy in the sun. Got out of the car, lifted her up to the tune of a mild squawk set her back down in the sun off to the side.

http://green-hills.net/
Green Hills Butterfly Farm in Belize

Down the road and around the bend from Crystal Paradise. Definitely worth the stop and price of admission. Nice tour of rearing operation and the hummer feeder area was swarmed beyond description. Probably a good idea to stay outside of a five yard radius without proper eye protection. Got a few new species landed on my finger.

Headed back to Spanish Lookout, hit the Western Dairy on the main drag in for lunch (again), proceeded on to our birding turf.

http://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3796/33009548881_7c16b29f88_o.png


Struck out on the Caracaras but scored beautifully - even more so than previously - on the Aplomados and nailed a pair of Laughing Falcons...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24083365@N07/17178938067/

Pam Hawkes - Calgary
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brodmanns17/3572550740/

Kurt Brodmann
http://www.flickr.com/photos/featherbrain1223/15369168821/

David Hollie

...over a separation of maybe a quarter mile.

Then a Jabiru came in and started stalking the field, progressing towards a female Kestrel hanging out a few feet off the deck on some scrub. Then a Northern Harrier...

Tony Tong
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonytong/4426613424/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/53066200@N02/12242793045/
Frank

...comes over and takes a mild shot at the Jabiru - which doesn't dignify the effort with so much as a glance.

All this stuff present and happening pretty much within easy binoculars range from one point... (And I know those goddam Caracaras were hiding out someplace very close by.) This was bird experience Disneyland for me. And no fuckin' guide to pronounce stopping on the side of any road to be too dangerous.

Had to sort through a couple zillion more female Kestrels to nail a male...

Dinuk Magammana
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nature_and_animals/6681445523/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecourson/4407112643/
Steve Courson

Don't know what was going on with that but I'm hoping there was a grouping somewhere else to balance things out a bit.

Waiting at the ferry crossing as the sun was going down (rush hour) a pair of raptors went over fairly low in the opposite direction and baffled the hell outta me. I got a good lock on them and followed them forever - which the terrain enabled me to do - trying to burn ever detail I could into memory. Very falcon-like profile and flight - way out I saw one (maybe both) do a kestrel-hover. But they weren't falcons. Back at the ranch I regurgitated everything for Geraldi and he spat out "White-Tailed Kites" without a trace of hesitation. The low sun had given them colors they didn't have on their own.

[Tad Eareckson]

Another Crested Caracara:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelklotz/11375969003/

Michael W. Klotz - 2013/11/21

This one a genuine Belize Bird at 16°12'57.84" N 089°00'29.62" W - about 76 miles almost straight south of our pair.

Birds one easily gets at the fruit feeders...

Plain Chachalaca:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sloroger/4556244642/

Roger Zachary
http://www.flickr.com/photos/90420045@N02/15599767574/

Jfitzg14
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68961563@N02/16599505368/

tapaculo99

Collared Aracari:

DonHamiltonPhotos.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/78230469@N02/8402067878/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffdyck/8505620396/
Jeff Dyck

Find a dead young (~two foot) Fer-De-Lance:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/philwitt/1325292028/

Philip Witt

(note pit viper pupil shape) near the edge of the Crystal Paradise public area raised veranda overlook. Foul play a near certainty. Not happy 'cause I'd have really loved to have seen a live one. Brought it to the attention of the proprietor. "Probably accidentally dropped by a hawk or owl." (Yeah, right.) Motive, opportunity, ridiculous misleading explanation. They know their guests are highly likely to be ophidiophilic but wanna minimize the possibility of booking drop-off that might come with reports of sightings or somebody getting nailed.

This IS a really dangerous snake as snakes go but...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mudhen/5261958493/

Danny Bales

...ya gotta do something to make it wanna bite you.

2016/01/09

Set out for the El Pilar Archeological Reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna but were advised at a much needed car wash a little shy of the George Price (Western) Highway that the access road was a disaster and diverted to Xunantunich - about which I've commented at:

http://www.kitestrings.org/post8943.html#p8943

A bit before that point I'd encountered a dead opossum and a live turtle.

The possum I'll call a Common. Looked like our Virginia, which is also well in range down there, but had a lot of black in its coat.

The turtle I'll call a White-Lipped Mud.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nclarkii/24109727395/

Pierson Hill
---
Edit - 2017/03/14 12:40:00 UTC

Maybe this Red-Cheeked:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nclarkii/23482968253/

Pierson Hill

would be a better guess.
---
Rescued it and got majorly crapped over.

Hand-cranked ferry four...

http://bassariscus.me/places/belize/belize-2013-blog/
http://bassariscusdotme.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/handcrank-ferry.jpg

Belize 2013 Blog | bassariscus.me

...for across the river and back. Beautiful site, must do.

2016/01/10

Neighbor for a couple doors to the left showed me the iPhone photo of the snake she'd discovered in front of her doorway en route to breakfast. "Yep. Fer-De-Lance." Looked to be the same size as the victim I'd discovered - quite possibly a sibling. She was supposed to email the photo to me. Didn't bother. (Thanks a lot.)

Blew Crystal Paradise. Where there'd been the dead possum the morning before there was now a dead possum and a dead Black Vulture. Felt really bad 'cause I'd deliberately left the possum in place with the thought that that would make things easy for the scavengers. Hilly windy dirt/gravel road. Seemed like that kill would have required intent and luck to pull off.

Next stop - Guanacaste National Park. Fifty acre forest at the north edge of Belmopan on the Belize River.

http://bassariscus.me/places/belize/belize-2013-blog/
http://bassariscusdotme.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/caracol-black-orchids.jpg

Belize 2013 Blog | bassariscus.me

Then another eighteen miles back up the George Price to the Belize Zoo.

[Tad Eareckson]

2016/01/04

The Belize Zoo

http://garyborjesson.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/ocelots-satire-and-news/

http://garyborjesson.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/ocelot2.jpg

The Ocelot paces me and is growling as I'm walking the path along his big habitat enclosure. Doesn't strike me as the least bit threatening. Strikes me totally as funny.

So I decide to risk my right index finger and kneel down to poke it through the wire and see what happens. Little Kitty knows that when I do this I'm also gonna support some of my weight with my left hand and forearm on a horizontal 2x3 framing board at the two foot level. My right index finger is totally ignored and my left wrist is pinned to the plank in the blink of an eye. I'm wearing a rather new loose knit cotton long sleeve shirt - this:

http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1543/24117074459_97046c9cc1_o.jpg


one - and my first concern is that it's gonna get shredded. But I take some play swats at the paws and Little Kitty retreats leaving everything intact.

The group behind me thinks I'm a zoo staffer. Nope. And then they're not sure whether they've witnessed play or an attack. I tell them that if Little Kitty had wanted to hurt me he'd have hurt me. We go through a few more repetitions. Claws are super sharp and I get lightly scratched and a tiny drop of blood appears. (Cool! Now I can say I've lost a little blood as a consequence of an Ocelot attack!) But it's really touching to see how careful Little Kitty is being to not do any significant damage. (My own goddam four ounce parrot is in a breeding cycle now and really punched a hole in my hand defending territory yesterday morning.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7954666@N04/879615664/

Carrie Meathrell
http://bassariscus.me/places/belize/belize-2013-blog/

http://bassariscusdotme.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/ocelot.jpg

Got my hand licked unmercifully by the White-Tailed Deer.

Read the warning about how major the bite of a Baird's Tapir could be. Hand goes in the enclosure, I'm a little worried 'cause that's one BIG animal. But I monitor her body language, get nuzzled and licked, pet her head.

Let's do another carnivore...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/132165466@N08/21831559780/

Melody Lytle
http://astronomy-to-zoology.tumblr.com/post/39859609916/tayra-eira-barbara-is-a-large-species-of


I risk the finger again, the Tayra presses his neck against the wire so I can scratch it. Shifts for me to do his back. Wants me to stay all day.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgamboias/17283611202/

Rosa Gambóias

Keel-Billed Toucans... No fuckin' way. I can tell with a quarter glance from fifteen yards out that if I put a finger through that wire I'm not gonna be able to get all of it back out. And I'm sure I could've gone into the Harpy Eagles' flight enclosure for an hour and come back out just fine.

[Tad Eareckson]

2016 01/10

The Belize Zoo - again.

http://www.aplusadventuresbelize.com/gallery.html

http://www.aplusadventuresbelize.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/140729_0023.jpg

Hard to resist. For a few bucks the staffers confine Junior Buddy (born at the zoo (as best as I can figure nine years ago last month) to a mother who'd come in as a sheep killer in poor condition) elsewhere in his big habitat enclosure and the humans get caged as illustrated. Big Kitty comes back out and does somersaults on command, hops onto humans cage, gets fed chunks of raw chicken...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belize_Zoo

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/DSC02803BeliZooUnderEnJaguar.JPG

Humans get to touch his feet and tail. Then get heads licked after bringing them up into range. Everybody knows what it feels like to get licked by a housecat and this is many multiples worse. "OK, thanks, but enough now."

Jaguars come in third behind Tigers and Lions size-wise. Buddy, I believe, is about 120 pounds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belize_Zoo

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Jaguar-Junior.jpg

You really get a feel for the power and agility of this animal with this experience. The Cockscomb sanctuary (where we found the tracks almost immediately) is believed to have the highest Jaguar population density on the planet.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgamboias/24411653823/

Rosa Gambóias - Pantanal

[Tad Eareckson]

2016/01/10

After recovering from the Jaguar mauling turned left from the Zoo's entrance/exit onto the George Price and headed NE for 0.9 miles to the right turnoff for the Zoo's Tropical Education Center.

http://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2830/33440063475_6c1daafaa8_o.png


Central classroom, activity, lecture, dining building:

http://bassariscus.me/places/belize/belize-2013-blog/

http://bassariscusdotme.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/tec.jpg

With dormitory and cabañas scattered around for lodgers. Stayed at the first/easternmost one of two overlooking a wonderful little mostly U-shaped pond - 17°21'25.54" N 088°32'32.54" W.

http://belizezoo.org/accommodation/accommodations.html

http://www.belizezoo.org/images/stories/ph1.jpg

Looking:

- to the right back towards the approach:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/furtwangl/4740196149/


(A cool little bat flew out from its roost under the pond end of the perpendicular as we first made our way in. (Yeah, I know, ALL bats are cool.))

- the other way:

http://www.belizezoo.org/images/stories/ph%20porch.jpg


(That porch was something like the Asa Wright Nature Centre veranda - in that you could sit there forever without tiring of the wildlife show in front of you. Mostly birds but also:

http://bassariscus.me/places/belize/belize-2013-blog/
http://bassariscusdotme.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/morellet-croc-2.jpg


http://bassariscusdotme.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/morellet-croc.jpg

Fair chance that was the same Morelet's Crocodile we watched slowly making the rounds. I'd guess six feet - the largest at which we got a decent look in the wild.

Scanning above the canopy about 45 degrees left of center there I caught a really spectacular woodpecker chipping a cavity into a dead vertical tree trunk maybe a hundred yards out. Called "Pileated!" which I knew it wasn't but also knew it was close bloody enough.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/segeorge/12624183855/

Sara George

Lineated, Dryocopus lineatus, same genus as our Pileated, pileatus. Female, I seem to recall, as above. Male:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boblewis/25210962300/

Robert Lewis

Had a male Pileated spend an hour or so blasting apart an old fallen Virginia Pine trunk in the warm sun at an easy clear shot from the living room window last month. The Ivory Bill was an unforgivable tragedy but we're lucky to have birds of this genus in good supply. (Had a beautiful extremely cooperative pair of Lineateds on a pole next to the road going up the Lopinot Valley in Trinidad.) Four other birds in the genus - which covers Eurasia in addition to damn near all of the Americas.

Family of Acorn Woodpeckers busy being Acorn Woodpeckers a bit to the right of center and close in.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33502790@N07/9791741075/

Gavin Emmons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdie1925/1459032647/

Nan Moore
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elauer/14035924271/

Liz Lauer
http://www.flickr.com/photos/megumitedros/10918204064/

Megumi Tedros
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aehack/8739970620/

Allan Hack

Yeah, I know you west coast guys don't need to go to Belize to see these things but I'd have had to have been chained to the railing for at least a week to start getting bored. My first encounter with them was 2014/02 at the entrance to the San Diego Zoo - and it wouldn't have been a major bust for me to have been chained there all day either.

The Great Kiskadee:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_kiskadee

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Pitangus_sulphuratus_3.jpg

is everywhere you look in Central and South America (T&T), a good chunk of Mexico, on up into the southern bit of Texas:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andymorffew/12407261525/

Andy Morffew
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elauer/16595252257/

Liz Lauer

but it's a spectacular bird and here is as good a place as any to give it a mention.

After dinner - full darkness - I need to get to the car in the parking area which is on the way in, leave the commons building, and after a fifteen or twenty minute walk arrive back at the commons building. Got some landmarks for use in navigation from the staffers, made it to the car on the second effort. Then got to a fork one split of which would've taken me to the pond cabaña and took the wrong one. Got home on that second effort with a little help.

In between the car and cabaña trips a Fellow Traveler pointed me to what was probably this species:

http://bassariscus.me/places/belize/belize-2013-blog/

http://bassariscusdotme.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/tarantula.jpg

of tarantula. Unfortunately by the time he got me back to him he'd backed down a little burrow and all I could see of him were some front legs. Still pretty cool. (Couldn't get the scorpion he'd also just scored. Damn.)

One MAJOR BITCH I had about the TEC... The motherfuckers had every square foot of that place lit up like Times Square all night long. Totally destroyed any hope of phasing in night vision, made the sky and a lot of what a naturalist would want to see invisible, bad news for tons of nocturnal wildlife, and an obscene waste of energy and major carbon footprint stomp. Not to mention the total shit example they were setting for their visitors. And check this out:

http://belizezoo.org/accommodation/accommodations.html
Accommodations - The Belize Zoo

Belize Savanna Guest House

Near to the Zoo is another eco-friendly lodge, owned by Natural History filmmakers and great friends of the Zoo, Richard and Carol Foster. Find out more about their guest house here

We are proud to be linked with Belize Savanna Guest House.

http://www.belizesavannaguesthouse.com/index.html
Belize Savanna Guest House - Home/ About Us

WELCOME TO THE BELIZE SAVANNA GUEST HOUSE



The Savanna Guest House and The Foster's

The Savanna Guest House is part of Carol and Richard Fosters, natural history filming base and studio. Many documentaries for Natural Geographic TV and BBC have been made here, including parts of the Planet Earth and Life series, in their twenty eight year career. Richard and Carol have ,so far, won two Emmys and a numerous other awards for their work in Belize and World Wide. The Belize Zoo started here from an animal collection used in filming in the eighties.

The couple is still making films but have now turned their efforts to conservation work, making complete films in house, on various issues within the country. However they still do sequence work for Network T.V. in the USA and UK.

The Savanna Guest House is off the grid and makes its own power and water using solar, battery power and diesel generators. We ask guests to be conservative with lights, when not in use.

http://www.belizesavannaguesthouse.com/uploads/1/0/2/5/10250487/963873_orig.jpg

Sorry but... Finish getting your ecotourism shit together (assholes). (Makes one wonder if they're not also bashing in the heads of Fer-De-Lances when nobody's looking.)

2016/01/11

Another Ferruginous Pygmy Owl as we were mobilizing to roll to Philip S.W. Goldson International, dump the car, get through security, and wait for gawd knows how many hours freezing to death in air conditioned luxury waiting for the flight to MIA.

Miami International... Death march through untold miles of prison-like corridors sterilized for any structure with any faint resemblance of a chair or bench to customs. Tri Rail to Fort Lauderdale, overnight...

2016/01/12

...BWI following evening. Pretty sick for several days thereafter.

[Steve Davy]

I've been trying to figure out what you mean by "The Ivory Bill was an unforgivable tragedy..." and I'm getting a blank.

[NMERider]

Golden Eagle that joined me briefly in a thermal above Highland, CA on Tuesday.

http://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3766/33454613275_a0d7dc93a1_o.png

145014_27 Eagle.png

[Tad Eareckson]

Steve,

Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. Looked like the Pileated but dwarfed it. Dependent upon old growth forests in the SouthEastern US and Cuba. Still in the field guides but probably not flying around anywhere anymore.

Here's a bird - Crimson-Crested - in the same genus from one of my project photographers:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgamboias/24028222076/

Rosa Gambóias

Pantanal - near the junction of Brazil, Peru, and Paraguay.

Jonathan,

Thanks for that Golden and the Cooper's before.

The Golden's a rare treat in this neck of the woods. Last one I've seen was with the Montana Audubon program west of Choteau last June.

No shortage of Cooper's here - 'specially wintering birds - and while I enjoy seeing them I'm real OK with them not spending the breeding season very close by. Always worried about my obnoxious little bird giving me the slip and getting intercepted before I can get her back.

Shot of one of Quinn's relatives back in the old country also from Rosa:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgamboias/15580200161/