Belize Adventures

March all wrapped up

2008-04-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Pretty much the same routine as February (and every other month, really). No Harpy sightings but we did see the Lovely Cotinga at Oro and Calera. Who says they're rare?? Caught a few more fun birds like the Crimson-Collared Tanager.

Hired two new techs so now the bird crew theoretically consists of 6 people if we were ever all in the same place, but that seems to be incredibly difficult to do for some reason. We did flyovers of the Bladen in a teeny little plane but more on that later. The savanna burned to a crisp. That was new for me. My mom and aunt came down for a visit to experience the jungle and what not but that also needs its very own posting. That seems sufficient for now...

So after looking through my pictures I found a few more birds of interest. A Pygmy Kingfisher. Super tiny, unband-able (-ible?) and lost in the jungle?

A couple of male Black-throated Shrike Tanagers

Not sure why it took me so long, but I finally hiked upstream a bit at Oro and it is really quite stunning up there. I'm sure it gets even better if you keep going but I'll take what I can get.

Bladen Flyovers

2008-04-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

We went out for one day to do flyovers of the Bladen. Conveniently, the previous day it had rained pretty much all day (so much for the so called "dry season") which made getting out just that much more exciting. Hence the rather muddy truck.

The plane was a little thing but some how you could squish 6 people in there including the pilot.

The entrance road to BFREE with the throughly charred savanna.

BFREE from above...

The Bladen from above. How you are supposed to find an eagle nest in all this mess I don't know but it was fun none the less.

A quick summary of February

2008-04-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

So, February...a trip up to Richardson and Oro, where we caught our third Barred Forest-Falcon and a male Royal Flycatcher. Did a couple more school visits at nearby villages. Went to the zoo, which is quite nice, by the way...more on that later. Saw the Harpy Eagle up close and personal (at the zoo). Granted I could go into much more detail on pretty much everything here but I know it's really the pictures that keep you coming back so we'll just leave it at that.

A rather stunning male Royal Flycatcher

A Plain Xenops and Wedge-billed Woodcreeper

Barred Forest-Falcon numero 3

Freaky Wood Thrush with a Botfly or some other nasty thing on it's face!

The leaning tower cake. Slightly scary to look at (and yes it is being held together with toothpicks), but oh so delicious. Chocolate cake with cheesecake filling, all smothered with chocolate icing. A heart attack waiting to happen. Amazing!

We also had a little Chinese New Year celebration. The kids spiced up the kitchen with lanterns and did a shadow puppet show. Quite festive.

Everything since January

2008-04-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

Terribly sorry for the massive delay in posting new stuff. Despite the fact that I have been AWOL for the past couple of months now, I am still alive. For some reason the blog motivation seeped away for a bit there, or maybe it was motivation in general, maybe I'm just a lazy bum. At any rate, let's see if I can recap the past two months. The end of January does seem to be a horribly long time ago so I'm not sure my pea-sizede brain will be able to remember everything that happened. This may just turn into a collection of pictures with not so much in the way of commentary. But, at least it will be something new, right?

King Vulture Falls

2008-04-02T15:45:00.000-07:00

After Tikal, we swung by Mountain Pine Ridge in western Belize to check for more Orange Breasted Falcons. We went to King Vulture Falls, which is fairly appropriately named considering the vultures are all over the place there. Sitting on the rocks at the top of the falls, perched in nearby trees and soaring over the canyon. Also found the Orange-breasted Falcon, though the look wasn't quite as spectacular as at Tikal.

Across the border - Tikal

2008-04-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

I wrapped up January with a trip to Tikal. The actual trip to Tikal was almost, if not more, exciting than the actual ruins. Basically it involved a series of car malfunctions coupled with numerous social calls, making the trip just from BFREE to San Ignacio about 10 times longer than necessary. First we (Wilfred, William, Pedro and I) got stuck in the mud on the way out of BFREE, which took a good 30 minutes of jacking up the car, piling sticks under the wheels, pushing, shoving, you name it, to get out. Next was a stop in Trio village to drop off William, then a stop in Bella Vista, then a stop at Mamanoots (a resort - another story), at which point we (or someone) noticed one of the tires on the truck was looking rather low. While moving the truck closer to the air compressor the whole tire went flat. Fantastic! We inflated the tire and drove up the road to the gas station. Lucky for us we were actually fairly close to one. Close inspection of the tire revealed not just one puncture, but a whole series of holes. Time to bust out the spare, right? Too bad it was the original spare from '94 or something and had been dry-rotting under the truck for the past 15 years, but it still looked good...until you inflated it and tried to drive on it...which we most certainly did. A good 30 seconds out of the gas station the truck starts to shake, and continues to get worse, but drive on we do. Eventually the shaking gets so bad we can't drive faster than 40 mph and we pull over to investigate only to find the most warped tire you have ever seen still on a car that is actually trying to go somewhere. However, this sad excuse for a tire is our only spare, so we continue wobbling down the highway at 25-30 mph until we finally reach a garage...at lunch time...so no one is around. The owner was nice enough to lend us his tools and had a used spare tire so we did a little switcher-roo. Granted the "new" tire wasn't exactly the same size as all the others but at least it wasn't warped beyond recognition and splitting apart. After that little fiasco the rest of the trip to San Ignacio was really quite pleasant despite the fact we were a good 3 hours later than intended. Wilfred and I pick up Joe, who at this point has been dutifully sitting on the side of the street waiting for his so called friends to pick him up for the past 3 hours. There is some more tire rearrangement and finagling that happens before we head to the Guatemalan border. Passports get stamped, money exchanged, and eventually we are on our way (except for the brief stop to get gas and fiddle with the wiring of the headlights so they actually work), hurtling down a large and very bumpy dirt road in the dark.

On to the ruins...very large and very impressive. Can't say I really know that much about them though since we spent a lot of time looking at birds. Whoops. Ummm, you can see a lot of birds from the ruins... if you're reading this, you're on the internet which means you can look up everything you ever wanted to know about Tikal if you are really that curious. I'll just give you the pictures...

Our hotel in El Remate

Beer hard at work

The plaza

Crazy steep steps to get up one of the temples.

A scenic view...

and another one

Temple 4 - currently getting a face-lift

Firetail Creek

2008-01-25T10:20:00.000-08:00

A few pictures from my little weekend venture up Firetail Creek. Ashley and I inaugurated "Spa de Firetail". Have to say it was a pretty good time. Quite amazing to sit there and realize that you are in fact in the middle of a jungle but it is also just your backyard.

More Pics from the Wonder Trip

2008-01-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Extra pictures that I neglected to put in that last post mostly because I didn't have time. However, semi-unfortunate circumstances have given me more time. William, a co-worker, got sick and so we had to come back from the jungle earlier than planned. Actually we made it to Richardson camp (someday I'll get a map on here so this all makes sense) before he decided he couldn't go any farther (4pm). Setup the hammocks, realized we didn't have any pots to cook in because we had left them farther up at Calera (our intended destination), waited for and hour before William wanted to go back to BFREE. So, we packed up and started hiking. Most of which ended up being in the dark. Amazingly enough we managed not to get lost and William didn't die, although we did have to abandon his pack. Which brings me back to the beginning of this little...oh blast, I can't think of the word...whatever, basically now I have time to post a few more pictures starting with a ripe wild cocoa pod...

William eating the cocoa fruit, some what psychotically (not sure if that's really spelled right)

Scrub Euphonia

Violet Sabrewing - a female, not quite as impressive as the males but still quite lovely
Wedge-tailed Sabrewing

Eye-ringed Flatbill

And finally, a couple pictures from Oro...trees and whatnot

Trio School Visit

2008-01-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

Part of this whole project is educating the public about the importance of conserving the protected areas and the animals that live there, like the Harpy Eagle. So, we have a number of schools in the surrounding area that we are going to visit. The first of which was Trio (try-o). The Marlin kids (the resident kids at BFREE), their teacher (Ashley) and I created a life-size Harpy Eagle that we named Reina (Queen in espanol) to give the kids an idea of just how impressively big those birds are. She turned out amazingly well.
I have to say we were pretty proud of ourselves. Reina was a big hit and the visit went well. The only downer is that there wasn't anywhere to set up the mist nets to catch birds so my "bird banding" station was kind of lame. The falling over mist net in a blazing hot field just didn't quite do it for some reason...The kids still got a kick out of touching it, so that was good I guess.
Hopefully the other school visits will be equally successful (or more so if we can catch birds)!

Following the school visit was a speed trip to Placencia for some ice cream. Considering we don't have our own boat, I think we made it over there and back in record time! Sweet, sweet gelato!

Harpy Eagle! yeah-ya!

2008-01-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

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.

Old News: Calera Trip

2008-01-18T11:30:00.000-08:00

Man, falling a little behind here...
A few photos from our trip up to Calera at the end of December. We actually managed to do everything we were supposed to do for once. Kind of a miracle!

A few fun birds...An American Redstart, a slightly spastic Bright-rumped Attila, and a White-whiskered Puffbird

This was the trip of wildlife gone mad. First we had the joy of being charged by a pack of White-lipped Peccary (wild pigs more or less) on the hike up. Not exactly my idea of a good time, especially after hearing all kinds of horror stories about how they will gore you to death with their tusks! Later, while on the lookout a group of Spider Monkeys showed up and proceeded to get very upset by our presence. Shaking branches, breaking branches, defecating more than you thought possible, grunting and yelling, you name it. And if you ignore them they get even more upset! Crazy!

Outside BFREE: Part 3 - misc

2008-01-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

Some miscellaneous pictures from my wanderings that I either forgot to put in one of the other posts or who knows what...all I know is how can you resist buying chicken when it guarantees a party?!

Christmas in the tropics = uncanny amounts of christmas music, plastic trees (cause they don't so much grow down here) and numerous other gaudy decorations...everyone needs the inflatable fun regardless of whether they've ever actually seen snow

The Shak cat and the Shak selling the bomb-diggity smoothies and salads and veggie burgers. yum!

roadside veggies, very nice.

Mayan Wedding

2008-01-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

A Mayan wedding...I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it had to be good right? It was definitely an interesting (and hilarious) experience, mostly because the priest was the most sarcastic priest I've ever heard, not that I have a lot of experience in the priest department, but I'm pretty sure he takes the cake. And all the hymns were in Ke'kechi (one of the Mayan languages with more q's and x's than you thought possible). It was a crazy combination of a "traditional" western wedding mixed with a bit of Mayan influence. The church part lasted much longer than I expected. It wasn't just your basic "I do" ceremony but also a regular mass...and a baptism. I think that maybe one of the longest periods of time I have spent in a church... Neither one of the couple getting married smiled during the whole ceremony. In fact they looked fairly unhappy for the duration of the wedding. The bride finally cracked one near the end but she was trying pretty hard to keep a straight face.

The food was by far the best part and there was
a ton of it (almost literally). Apparently they had been preparing it for days. All the wedding guests were fed first and then any stray villagers that happened to show up, of which there were many.

The tortilla production line where massive amounts of tortillas were made in a very short period of time.

The fire hearth and cooking of the tortillas.

Outside BFREE: Part 2

2008-01-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

Following San Ignacio we headed to the beach. I drove part of the way...kind of fun because the speedometer is in kilometers so even if you are only going 60-65mph it says 90-100kph and you feel like you're flying. There aren't really lines on the road, passing happens whenever you get a chance and you have to be constantly on the lookout for stray, unmarked speed bumps. They tend to crop up around towns and villages but you can never be sure.

We made a mad dash for the last ferry over to Placencia and left the car behind for the next couple of days which was a nice change. Prior to that there had been a lot of driving. For being a small country, things are still spread out.
Spent one day snorkeling at Laughing Bird Caye (an actual functioning national park). Saw barracuda, lobsters, lots of coral
and colorful fish. Chased a pod of dolphins in the boat, but everytime we got close to them they would dive. Bother. The closing event of the vacation was attending a Mayan wedding...more on that in a bit.

The almost full moon.

Boats at Laughing Bird Caye.

A boat full of...well...boats.

Beach construction or mangrove destruction, depending on how you look at it.

Outside BFREE: Part 1

2007-12-31T15:00:00.000-08:00

A brief respite from the jungle. Turned out to be quite an adventure really. After making it out of BFREE without getting stuck on the road, Dan, Judy and I headed north to Gales Point. This crazy little peninsula that sticks out into a gigantic lagoon where manatees like to hang out. I guess normally you can see them (the manatees) bobbing around but the water was too choppy so I missed out on that. Did get to see some fun drumming.

The next day we decided to be adventurous...never a good idea. There are a number of signs for sights and parks along the highways so we decided to check some of them out. First we attempted to see David Falls. Upon turning at the sign onto a dirt road we learned that it was another 8 miles to the falls. Ok, no biggie, right. So, we're driving through a bunch of citrus orchards...and driving (this is not the best of dirt roads by the way) until we come around the corner to a huge river that apparently you are supposed to cross because there was another sign on the other side for the falls. Not really in the mood to get the truck stuck in the middle of a river, we quickly nixed that. Next we decided to try 5 Blues Lake National Park. Maybe the state of the park office should have been a sign, but it didn't dissuade us. Driving down another dirt road, through more oranges. The road starts getting progressively worse, but we've already had one botched attempt so we really want to see this place. Eventually the road turns into a foot path, more or less, and maybe an occasional tractor drives through so there are huge holes. And then, we get stuck! In the middle of who knows where, in the mud. Happy Vacation, or not. Ok, so we manage to push the truck out and promptly put and end to that little adventure and get the heck out of there. Not sure what 5 Blues Lake is all about and not sure I care! Following that slightly stressful event, which we could replicate pretty much everyday at BFREE if we so desired, we headed into Belmopan (well, actually we couldn't give up that easily and ended up stopping for all of 15 min at Blue Hole National Park) and checked into a hotel with hot showers and TV! yeah, buddy! Belmopan, for being the capital of the country is actually fairly small and laid back (and more importantly has a couple of good coffee shops). So, let's see, we dropped off my defunct computer in the hopes it could be fixed (not so much), ran some errands and got paid. The following day we went to Belize City to pick up Dan and Judy's nephews in downtown. Now that is a mad house. It took a while just to find them and then to get back out with bikes and cars and people and one way streets. Craziness! The next adventure was finding the doctors office which involved a lot of driving in circles and stopping to ask for directions and driving in a few more circles. When we finally found it the doctor was out to lunch so we went to have lunch as well at a little restaurant by the municipal airport where the planes landed (and took off) right in front of you. Had my first taste of gibnut, not too shabby, then went back to the doctor to fix the parasite problem. Finally we were able to get out of the insanity Belize City and headed back to Belmopan for the night. San Ignacio was the next stop, where we checked out the Mayan Ruins at Cahal Peche and Xunantunich. Pretty impressive stuff.

Xunantunich

More Xunantunich.

View from the top of Xunantunich

The hand crank ferry to get to Xunantunich

Parasites and PC's

2007-12-31T11:30:00.000-08:00

At long last...since it has been almost a month since the last post I suppose I will give a recap of, say, the last month! For starters, where's my search party? does anyone read this thing anyway? I could be long gone by now, trampled by peccary and turned into vulture food. But for real, the real reason behind the blog delay is primarily 2-fold (plus I'm a slacker, which I guess really makes it 3-fold). First, on our last trip into the Bladen I managed to contract a parasite. Nothing life-threatening (or flesh-eating, for that matter) but obnoxious none-the-less and incredibly itchy. I mean, when little things are burrowing under your skin, you are bound to feel them! Benadryl and Cortizone are being added to the jungle survival kit along with the ziplocs. I mastered the drugged-up, half-asleep (meaning eyes closed) application of cortizone. Slept with the stuff next to my pillow for a good week or so. Good times. Anyway, eventually I made it to the doctor who gave me some drugs and now my little itchy friends have died. Sorry, no good pictures of that...

Part two: Apparently the mold growing in my computer wasn't good for it. Who would of thought? The "L" key on the keyboard became permanently stuck and would not stop typing and typing...and typing. Makes it a little hard to do much of anything when you can't use the letter "L" and you never know when you will have an entire page of "L"s. Not to worry, after a brief visit to the computer store and a little online research I am now certified in back country computer repair. Ok, maybe not really but I did have to dismantle by computer to get everything to work and now have a sporty USB keyboard. Maybe not quite as portable, but hey, at least I can type what I want, when I want!

So, on to more exciting things...The trip into the Bladen following the last post didn't go exactly as planned, mostly because of the rain. We hiked up to Richardson Camp and did our banding. Caught some pretty sweet birds...

Red-capped Manakin

Plain Xenops - very cute!

Rufous-tailed Jacamar

Barred Forest Falcon - Hello!

The water possum that William ran/swam down one night.

When it came time to go up to the lookout it rained and poured and then got dark so that didn't so much happen. The next couple days we attempted to make it up to Oro, but again the rain kicked in. We ended up spending a lot of time sitting in our jungle hammocks and eventually decided we could be more productive back at BFREE. Once we were back at BFREE the rain stopped (classic) and we were able to do some banding up at Blue Pool (and snail searching, which can be quite lucrative).

The guys, hard at work...looking for snails that is. Found a new species! Can't say we've done as much with the birds.

Slaty-tailed Trogon

The not-so-small tarantula we found while looking for snails.

Mold, mold, mold

2007-12-05T12:15:00.000-08:00

Seriously considering becoming a mold farmer, or maybe studying mold. I mean it grows on just about everything and not slowly either. For a brief moment I thought my wallet might grow legs and walk away it was so fuzzy. Even my computer was sprouting, which has to be a good thing...Or maybe I should buy stock in Ziploc bags and silica beads since those are the main combatants of mold around here.

Anyway, headed back into the jungle again in a day or so for another 10 days. We've had a couple of good days of sun which pretty much guarantees that it will rain on us. So, in the mean time, a few more pictures from the last trip.

Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher: another member of the teeny-little-super guy family (along with Bushtits). this guy like our nets so much we caught him twice.

View from the look out at Oro prior to the sky falling out.

A few of the nets at Calera. yeah, kind of hard to see. that's how the birds feel too.

The Bladen River. One of the few places you can actually drink straight out of the river...and not get horribly ill.

And a few more pictures of our Ornate Hawk-Eagle friend. The super close shots, yeah, not mine. Stole them from a co-worker, so I should probably give him credit...they're Wilfred's pictures.

oh, and a stalactite or is it a stalagmite. blast! you figure it out and let me know! still cool regardless.

additional jungle pics

2007-12-04T12:28:00.000-08:00

dinner: white rice....yummm

Dan with his titanium spork

what, we actually caught birds. crazy!

Tody Motmot, very nice.

Stub-tailed Spadebill (a member of the cutie-pa-tootie family)

A PO-ed White-whiskered Puffbird

A rather large boa that Dan found stalking bats.

Kentucky Warbler, trying to escape the wrath of Sharna (to no avail).

Orange-billed Sparrow (aptly named)

Harpy what?

2007-12-02T14:51:00.000-08:00

11/22/07-12/1/07

And we're back...that's right, we had a harpy sighting. Can't say I saw it, but I suppose that's somewhat irrelevant. and it was a fly by, so no pictures...We saw a lot of other crazy stuff too. Take the tapir that almost walked into my jungle hammock in the middle of the night for example...
The first day we hiked up to Cabrada de Oro. Let's just say that I couldn't actually lift my pack when we started. We were all pretty exhausted by the time we got to Oro. It's not a short hike. Spent the next couple of days setting up nets and banding. Not super productive. 12 birds. The next two days were "Harpy days". Henry and I spent them up on the lookout, while Wilfred and William walked the creek bed transect. They saw a Harpy, we saw a whole lot of tree tops, some parrots, king vultures and white-winged tanagers. Getting to the lookout involves climbing a ridiculously steep hill, which is pretty fun (hint 'o sarcasm). coming down in the pouring rain is even better and as a result I am personally responsible for mass errosion in the Bladen Nature Reserve. Nice view though. We had an Ornate Hawk-Eagle perch directly in front of us for quite a while, twice actually because it liked us that much. sweet!

We were supposed to spend the next four/five days at another site further up stream but all the rain made the river start to rise so we headed down stream instead to Calera. Lots of caves at Calera, fun birds, a big boa.

Here's a list of the birds we caught since I know everyone is dying to know these stats (61 birds, 28 species):

Black and White Warbler	1
Gray-fronted Dove	2
Greenish Elaenia	1
Hooded Warbler	1
Kentucky Warbler	4
Long-billed Hermit	3
Lousiana Waterthrush	1
Ochre-bellied Flycatcher	2
Olivaceous Woodcreeper	1
Olive-backed Euphonia	2
Orange-billed Sparrow	1
Ovenbird	2
Red-capped Manakin	2
Red-throated Ant-Tanager	4
Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher	1
Scaly-throated Leaftosser	2
Sepia-capped Flycatcher	3
Stub-tailed Spadebill	3
Sulphur-rumped Flycatcher	4
Tawny-crowned Greenlet	4
Tawny-winged Woodcreeper	1
Thrush-like Schiffornis	1
Tody Motmot	1
Violet-crowned Woodnymph	2
Wedge-billed Woodcreeper	5
White-breasted Wood Wren	4
White-whiskered Puffbird	1
Wood Thrush	2

Other fun birds we saw: Harpy Eagle, King Vulture, Ornate Hawk-Eagle, Brown Hooded Parrot, White-winged Tanager, Nightingale Wren (sweet song too), Wedge-tailed Sabrewing (a hummingbird)
Animals: White-lipped Peccary, Agouti, Tapir, River Otters, Tirha, Red Brocket Deer

wild cacoa

The infamous jungle hammock...don't get me started.

The inner workings of the jungle hammock.
claustrophobic much??

Ummm, a few more days at BFREE

2007-11-21T10:44:00.000-08:00

11/20/07-11/21/07
Welcome to the rain forest! Apparently rainy season is not quite over. The past few days have been pretty damp. It doesn't rain constantly, just on and off and on and off, occasionally in heavy down pours. The road in is now even worse than before. There is no escape! Bwhaha. So, instead I'm going farther into the jungle. Tomorrow, the bird guys and I are headed up to a couple of our banding sites for 10 days or so. Maybe the rain will hold off...but I doubt it. Harpy Eagles like the rain, right? I mean, the last one we saw seemed to, so maybe this wetness is for the best. In the mean time, a few more pictures of things around BFREE to keep you entertained while I'm gone. If nothing new shows up by, oh say, mid-December, you may want to send down a search party! ~peace out

The kitchen/general hangout spot. Often playing quality tunes.

Shadow, the new dog...

A pretty flower...and that's all I've got for now, but we'll be golden once I get back from this little foray into the bush assuming all goes according to plan, or at least somewhat close to it...

Seriously, it would be a miracle if I could figure out how to get these stinkin' pictures where I wanted them. Too bad the preview on this program is nothing like the actual post. Worthless, I say!

The first few days

2007-11-20T14:00:00.000-08:00

Hello there!
So, I suppose this is going to be more or less a bunch of pictures of my travels over the next few months in Belize. Enjoy!

11/15/07 - air travel is sooo much fun particularly when you start at 3am! Of course it means there is still practically a whole day left when you reach your destination (particularly if that happens to be Belize). Arrived in Belize and headed to Spanish Lookout and San Ignacio with Dan and Judy. A nice little diversion, since I hadn't been to either place. Spent the night in San Ignacio at Cahal Peche. Word on the street is that there are some cool Mayan ruins nearby but I was entirely too tired to check them out. However, that gives me an excuse to go back.

I'm of the opinion that every hotel should have a dinosaur fountain even without a pool!
11/16/07 - Morning in San Ignacio. Quite lovely.
More shopping, this time in Belmopan. Bought a shiny new bike to cruise around the jungle! Headed south and into the jungle - trucks breaking, frozen chickens diving into the mud - all part of the adventure. Needless to say, I'm here now and will be for quite a while!

11/17/07 - 11/19/07 - hanging out at BFREE (that would be Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education)
A few little friends in the kitchen. The cockroach...not so little.