Harpy Eagle! yeah-ya!

The last trip into the Bladen could only be characterized as "frickin' awesome". The biggest news would of course be the Harpy Eagle that flew right over our heads and then perched in a tree (though not very close) for a good 45 minutes. An adult. Oh yeah. That was indeed the culmination of the trip but everything else prior to that was almost as good. A steady incline of cool birds all building up the big dog, if you will.
At Richardson rain consumed much of the first full day so banding was pretty much a bust. The second day however we caught (among other things) a Royal Flycatcher! Shazaam! Really, that's all I can say about it. An absolutely ridiculous bird. It kept its crown up the entire time and turned its head back and forth. Maybe I can get the video thing figured out...The lookout at Richardson went MIA, meaning we hiked around for 2 hours before we ended up making a new lookout because we couldn't so much find the original one. Apparently the whole idea of marking the trail so that people who have never been there could find it in the wee hours of the morning didn't occur to them when they made the lookout. Oh well, the new one is better anyway...(not that I really have any idea since I never saw the first one) now we are hanging off a cliff face...one false step and you're toast! The view is incredible too...

The hike up to Oro went smoothly. Luckily the rain waited until we had camp set up, had eaten lunch and were setting up nets before it started...and didn't stop...for the rest of the day which meant there was a lot of quality jungle hammock time (my favorite, as I'm sure you've gathered). I did, however, happen to bring a book this time (which I think everyone should read - Three Cups of Tea) so at least I had something else to do other than stare at my feet for 6 hours.
The next couple days of banding were fairly standard with the fun little (ok not so little) addition of a Blue-Crowned Motmot. That and there was terribly confused Pygmy-Owl taunting me. The thing was calling all day (but not at night) right near the banding station and I couldn't find it for the life of me. I mean, I suppose it is kind of like looking for a...well, something the size of a coffee cup that is brown and at least a good 50-60 feet up in a tree that is completely covered in vines. Yeah, not gonna happen. Trust me, I tried whenever there was time between net runs I was wandering around looking up at the trees. Oh, I almost forgot the other exciting event...the attack of the ants. While hanging up the net bags so they would dry I found myself standing in an ant nest and the ants were none too happy. In a matter of, oh, seconds I officially had serious ants in my pants, and every where else. So, in another matter of seconds I was...well, sans most of my clothes in the middle of the jungle, much to the amusement of my coworkers.
Lookout day started off with a couple Lovely Cotingas making a brief appearance. So, when I saw them I didn't actually call them "lovely" cotingas, more like "Expletive" Cotingas, and then Lovely Expletive Cotingas. They are after all one of Belizes' rarest and most beautiful birds. Could the day really get better, you ask? Why yes, although I've already spoiled the biggest news, there's still more. Wait for it...The tricky little bugger of an owl or maybe his cousin, decided to come perch right next to us, maybe 20 ft away, practically at eye level (certainly not 60 feet above us). And then it sat there for a long time, maybe and hour or two. Just chillin. Not even terribly concerned by the strange large humanoids creeping closer and closer, trying to get a good picture. You have to be pretty close because they are so stinkin' tiny you might miss them if you took the picture from too far away. Just picture a little brown speckled coffee cup sitting in a tree, except a million times cuter.
Finally there was of course the Harpy that decided to make its appearance around 12:50pm after we'd been up there for a good 6 hours and where starting to stare off into space. It flew pretty low over the trees kind of from behind us, so at first all we knew was that it was a big bird, then across the river to a neighboring hill, though not in the direction where we had a clear view. We temporarily lost sight of it and were all scrambling around, climbing trees (and falling out of them if your name happens to be Sharna) until William spotted it perched in a dead snag. There was another round of scrambling (and falling) while we all tried to get a good view of it and to confirm that it was in fact a Harpy. William took a few pictures and then ran/slid down the hillside to camp where there was actually a better view. Pedro and I stayed at the lookout and watched...and watched. Eventually, after much yelling that we couldn't actually understand from William we decided to head down. By the time we made it though the eagle had left. Oh well, still sweet while it lasted.
The following day was the marathon hike back to BFREE. Started hiking at 6...it wasn't even light out...not sure what we were thinking because there wasn't even anyone at BFREE when we arrived. But we made it back in 4.5 hours which is pretty fast and then had the rest of the day to hang out (recover from the insane hike) and to look at the Harpy pictures on a bigger screen. Nothing stellar there, but totally identifiable.