Lamanai Day 3 Part 2 - Creatures of the Day and Night

We had a new guide for our afternoon walk, Eduardo. He took a look at our target list for Belize on Ebird and formulated a plan. He was very focused and pointed out Kentucky, Hooded, Black-Throated Green and Magnolia warblers based on chip notes. Birds we barely had our binoculars on he had already IDd. 

On the walk we saw a lot of Red-Legged Honeycreepers, they are very beautiful birds, their legs are quite distinctive.

This Black-and-White Warbler was very curious.

Using playback, he called in a Tawny-Crowned Greenlet, a very cool sighting, we had good looks but it proved too elusive for the camera.

We  briefly heard a Mayan Antthrush beside the trail but could not get a sighting.

Later on the walk, based on some chip notes he found some Gray-Headed Tanagers, something that was not even on our radar for things to look out for!

It was a fantastic walk, but the real bonus came when we saw the Mayan Antthrush on the way back! It was about 2 meters away from the path walking along the forest floor. Incredibly hard to see but each of us had great views of it.

After supper we met up with Christian for a walk around the lodge at night! We took up our headlamps and began to see what we could find.

Look how small this frog is!!! It is called Stauffer's Tree Frog. 

🚨🚨🚨IF YOU ARE AT ALL AFRAID OF SPIDERS OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT STOP READING 🚨🚨🚨

One thing you notice in the dark, is that there are

spiders

absolutely

every

where

.

You can see so much eyeshine on the paths, on trees, bushes... it's fascinating.

Checkout these army ants making a bridge down this stair. It's crazy how enivitable they are. Christian told us that they are used for pest control, where the queen would be led inside someone's house and then any pests would flee the house. If a swarm comes into your house, you just leave for 30 minutes and it's just something that happens. Totally different world.

Obviously birds love these army ant swarms and we have seen them go up trees with woodcreepers and Ant-Tanagers gobbling them up.

I will talk about them more in other posts as they are incredible.

Christian also found some sleeping birds! They are sound asleep blended into the leaves. I've never seen a songbird sleeping before ( never really looked)!

This tiny anole was camped out on this leaf.

Christian found this Scorpion (absolutely crazy to pick it up). I've never seen a scorpion before, but I've heard horror stories about people finding them on their pillows! It was incredibly fast and could slip under rocks with ease. 

Under a black light they glow!!!!

Another notable sighting was this Green Tree Frog. Incredible the way it hangs onto the leaf here. I think this was the star of the show for the night. We learned so much!

Lamanai Day 3 Part 1 - Poor Views and Great Views

We woke up inappropriately early today in order to get on the boat and over to the Lamanai savannah for the first cracks of light. 

Some waders getting ready to depart from their roosts.

Driving down the creek in a boat flushed the occasional Heron or Kingfisher and one of these herons happened to be the Agami Heron. It flew in front of the boat and then behind some trees where it landed, sadly for us, out of sight. The whole ordeal lasted 3 seconds. It is a fascinating bird with a very large beak and gorgeous colours and definitely would have liked to have a longer and better view of the bird however I will take it over not seeing it at all.

The savannah itself is a tremendous habitat for all sorts of plants and animals. Christian told us that the Maya people would use many plants for various medicinal uses. Animals found in the savannah include Wild Horses, Armadillo, Jaguar and deer. I tried to take photos of as many plants as I could, we will see if I found anything interesting.

Here is our old friend poison wood. The sap is the thing that you should avoid FYI.

This is a Botteri's Sparrow, a recluse Dry Grassland bird.

The Sparrow along with this Black Throated Bobwhite (Yucatán Bobwhite) were the highlights.

I have never seen a bobwhite of any kind before. So it was nice to see one. However did not hear it's classic bob-WHIIITE vocalization.

Plant life. I know nothing about plants so commentary is rather lacking sorry.

White Fronted Parrots were abundant flying across the landscape.

We even saw one Yellow Lored Parrot which was an excellent find by Christian.

I love Vermillion Flycatchers, they are so cute and small.

In the late morning I went for a largely unproductive walk as it is so darn hot as soon as the sun is up. 

This White-Necked Puffbird was quite charming.

I enjoyed watching it and then later this Female Gartered Trogon.

They are very similar acting birds despite looking so different.

Today was an action packed day so I will follow up with part 2!

Lamanai Day 2 - Boat Cruises Produces Beauties

The day started at 5:45 for our sunrise canoe trip. Absolutely gorgeous sunrise. How nice is this:

The first birds of the day were Snowy Egrets that flew behind us almost looking like small gulls. We paddled to the opposite side of the shore and I spotted a small heron hopping about between the reeds that looked awfully like a Least Bittern. We soon found another! It was fun to see them acting socially as the other two times I have seen this species, they have been by themselves.

We heard several others on the canoe trip giving us 5 at least.

There were numerous Snail Kites around. Crazy the amount of animals that feed on these Apple Snails between the Kites, limpkins, herons, Crocs and no doubt dozens of others.

We saw several Common Tody-Flycatchers which is such a strange looking bird. Almost cartoonish in my opinion.

We didn't see any crocodiles which I think would be quite intimidating in a canoe. A very pleasant morning and we all thought how great it was as kingfishers flew overhead with herons squawking away.

Around the lodge we saw a nice looking male Summer Tanager and this Black-Headed Trogon.

Trogons are just so calm, they just take in everything, tilting their head around looking for bugs or fruit to munch.

The local Bat Falcon was looking for breakfast too.

We went for a mid morning walk visiting an old british sugar mill and an older spanish church. Our guide Christian is very knowledgeable on the history of the Maya people and their interactions with the Spanish and British.

This is a Coati. It almost resembles a raccoon. We have seen them a couple times at the Lamanai Maya site, their tail is so big!

This Ruddy Woodcreeper was enjoying an ant swarm!

This is former sugar mill, I find this tree absorbing the mill to be fascinating.

Many trees were felled by Hurricane Lisa that hammered Belize in Fall 2022.

This tree looks like it is covered in toothpicks.

We ate termites today too! They are very tiny and didn't taste the worst... only problem is I'm not sure if they count as meat for being vegetarian.

On a walk near the lodge in the late afternoon we saw an Ivory Billed Woodcreeper (not Woodpecker). They are a decent sized bird, you often see brown blurs through the forest as they fly across the path and cling on to a tree.

We went on a sunset cocktail cruise, which we thought was going to be mediocre but turned out to be incredible. It was with a two other groups and two guides Christian and Marc.

It was a nice ambiance just chugging along the shoreline as the sun was setting, and occasionally there would be some birds that would fly.

We come to a stop and Christian nudges me and says to look at the tallest tree without any leaves on it. I see a large bird on a large nest.

Jabiru!

This was one of the target birds I had established at the start of my trip that I thought would be so cool to see. The shape alone is unmistakable. We turned around to go back to the lodge and enjoy the last drops of sun.

But then I see what I've been dreaming to see.

We watched it fly to join it's partner in the nest. An incredible memory, one made even better by sharing with my parents.

Lamanai Day 0 - Goodbye Black Rock Lodge

Today was our day to leave Black Rock and to depart for Lamanai. I took one last stroll around the lodge in the morning.

I saw this banded Red-throated Ant-Tanager.

As well as this odd couple feeding on bugs attracted to the compost pile.

Spotted Sandpiper and Russet-Naped Wood-Rail.

I also saw yet another Yellow-Breasted Chat. I again recognize that they, along with Kentucky Warblers are not rare South of Ontario. However they still are so fun to find.

These mushrooms look cool.

This Collared Araçari is always nice to see. They enjoy coming to the feeding station.

We ran into our first guide Fernando at the dining area and got to thank him for the great experience. Him and Victor, our new guide, are tremendously knowledgeable about birds and the natural world. We learnt a lot from them.

On the way to meeting the driver from Lamanai, we made one last stop with Victor at a place near Black Rock where Yucatán species tend to thrive. One main feature of this habitat was Poison Wood, a tree in the same family (the poison family, just kidding) to Poison Ivy, Poison Oak etc.

Here is a habitat shot with the Poison Wood in the center.

The targets were Rose-Throated Tanager, Gray-Breasted Chat and Yucatán Flycatcher. The Yucatan Flycatcher was very obliging, vocalizing frequently and showing well. However the Rose Throated Tanager and the Gray-Breasted Chat gave us a couple vocalizations each and that's it.

We did have great looks at the Canivets Emerald.

Note the fork tail of the male here.

As well as the Green-Breasted Mango.

Such beautiful names for such beautiful birds, both lifers.

Victor really worked hard to find us these life birds.

We said goodbye to Victor and loaded up into the van for Lamanai.

This van took us to a boat where we made the hour long ride to the Lodge. 

Ringed (above) and Belted Kingfishers were everywhere. Ospreys were abundant also.

The guide pointed out some roosting Lesser Nighthawks. Never had such a nice view of a nightjar like this before.

There were several Morelet's Crocodiles, an endemic freshwater croc.

Look st those teeth!

This Black Collared Hawk is so beautiful. They primarily eat fish.

A great start to the day at Lamanai, it is a tremendous area. The number 1 and 2 ebird hotspots for Belize are here so I'm hoping many birds await.