Learning Curve

Every once in a while when you're birding you have some moments where you are just overwhelmed with a diverse group of species, birds everywhere you look. The type of thing where you are compelled to bird and say oh just one more. Usually it occurs during migration in Ontario if you are lucky however this morning, I experienced it as soon as I stepped out the door. 

Right beside our place is an overgrown lot that for Rondeau birders, would kind of remind you of a tropical version of the maintenance loop.

I went out with my mom at 6 and was greeted with a chorus of white winged and Eurasian Collared Doves as well as chips and songs of yellow, yellow rumped warblers and american redstarts. I was an ID expert putting all my "pre-birding" to good use, identifying Tropical Mockingbirds and Yellow-Throated Warblers left and right... until it all came crumbling down with my first woodpecker of the trip. Could it be a Yucatán Woodpecker? An endemic bird that is high on my list of targets? or is it the Golden Fronted Woodpecker, a bird that is nice but one that I expect to see lots of on this trip (proving to be the case so far). All of my knowledge evaporated and I was forced to take some pictures and consult the field guide at a later time. My birding ego continued to take a dip with Orioles. There are a lot of combinations of masks and colors and back patterns in order to differentiate the main species on the island ( Altamira, Orange, Orchard and Hooded). The majority of the identifiable birds were Hooded, but I hope to get better with these as we continue.

The morning excitement came from two Common Black Hawks which joined the party at the "Belize Maintenance Loop." They were quite loud and showy, real handsome birds as well. 

The Black catbird Is the sister species of the very common and widespread Gray Catbird (which gets its names because it's calls which sound like meows) used to be called the Ambergris Catbird due to their restricted range to this part of the world (I think I need a source here lol). Throughout the day we managed to see a couple of these which real great!! They have a nice purplish sheen to them, hope I can hear one and look forward to having more views of one of my target birds. I have a video that I shall upload when I'm home.

We decided to venture to "Secret beach". It was on the lagoon side of the island and involved driving through an interesting habitat of mangove swamp that turned into a semi grassland depending on the level of development in the area. The mangrove area was so cool to drive through. Even cooler was the sighting of a Crocodile? in the swamp. My it was big, at first we thought it was two separate creatures! It was very chill just swimming cooly through the water. We managed to get some great views. Also in the swamp were dozens upon dozens of waders. Tricolored Heron, Green Heron and White Ibis were the most abundant species. However we also had views of Yellow-Crowned Night Heron, Snowy Egret, Reddish Egret, Little Blue Heron, Great Blue Heron and Roseate Spoonbill.

The roseate Spoonbill were tremendous. Although we didn't have any up close looks, seeing these dashes of pink fly overhead and make their was across the sky was a real treat. We also saw what I think was a Wurderman's Heron. - an intermediate morph of a Great Blue Heron, something I have read about and always hoped to see.

Other highlights were seeing Short Billed Dowitchers, Black necked Stilt, Blur-Winged Teals, Neotripic Cormorants and a lone Anhinga along the mangrove swamps area. 

On the way home the Iguanas started to reveal themselves. After not seeing any all day, at about 12:20 I saw one sunning itself on a rock near our lunch spot (Sunny Palace near secret beach) and on the way home we saw them everywhere!!! I guess just since we knew to look for them then we actually saw them but it is wild to see reptiles in the wild with such regularity.

Update: Magnificent Frigatebirds are still awesome. I took a dip in the ocean and it was splendid to be swimming around having 7 of them fly overhead. I have yet to see them do anything except just soar majestically, They surely must eat right???

As I write this, I am listening to some music from a resort next door and every once in a while I hear this soft "tsch tsch tsch" coming from a bush or high up in a palm. I assume it is coming from some sort of insect or maybe even that gecko I saw last night but always fun to have a mystery to solve.