Black Rock Lodge Day 5 - Mountain Pine Ridge

Was watching the Superbowl instead of writing this post (always an excuse oops!). 

Today was the coldest and wettest day of the trip! I felt cold at some points! Not a -20 windchill typical February day in Ontario cold, but for here it was chilly. We left bright and early to maximize our time on the mountain pine ridge.

The roads took us through a new landscape. Gone was the broadleaf forest and in with the sandy/silty pine. 

The path to the Slate Creek Lookout was quite overgrown and the road was absolutely terrible. Muddy and uneven and it took all the power of our truck to get our way out of a treacherous muddy area. We finished the last portion on foot with hopes of a Cotinga, but the elusive species decided it did not want to be seen.

Victor pointed out the Schippia concolor, a palm tree endemic to Belize.

Unfortunately the wet and cold weather limited hawk movement so we didn't get the variety we were hoping to see, but we did see two bst Falcons and a White Hawk. This Gartered Trogon was cute. Oh and we heard two Little Tinamous with their haunting whistles, and a Mayan Antthrush.

After the lookout we drove along some roads deeper into the pine ridge with the targets being Rufous Capped Warbler, Grace's Warbler, Rusty Sparrow, Gray Crowned Yellowthroat, Azure Crowned Hummingbird and Black Headed Siskin, all lifers for me. These species favour habitat found within the MPR. Our first stop allowed us to see the first three birds listed above as well as Hepatic Tanager (should have been a lifer for me if not for one found by friend of the blog Markus in Oakville last year). 

 Rufous Capped Warbler.

Rusty Sparrow

The Grace's Warblers were lovely, photos aren't the greatest but I will upload them at a later date.

Victor kept doing this even whistle, a toot-toot-toot... whenever we would stop along side of the roads. The whistling stirred up the birds a bit however at one point in time I heard something whistling back and was told it was a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl!

We managed to track it down above a restaurant and had lovely looks.

This owl is a diurnal meaning it is a daytime hunter of small song birds (makes sense why the whistling stirred up some birds).

Another drive down a sketchy road yielded some Gray Crowned Yellowthroats! 

This is a bird I had been wanting to see, it's cool to see the southern counterpart to our Common Yellowthroat (which I also saw today).

We heard a strange vocalization and then a Laughing Falcon flew over our heads and landed in a nearby Pine! 

What a neat looking bird!!! It kept bobbing it's head up and down, not sure what that was about. They exclusively hunt snakes! It seemed very chill but we left the area to give it some space.

At this point in time we had one area specialty left, the Black Headed Siskin. Finches are a unpredictable species so we just had to keep driving around. Eventually, while driving through an abandoned logging village, we saw a flock of 30 birds flush from the grass. At first I thought they were Morelets Seed Eaters but we saw tremendous black and yellow in flight and sure enough there were our birds!

As we were observing the siskins, we heard a bugiling sound from near by which Victor ID'd as a Montezuma Oropendula. We drove to the source of the sound but all we saw were grackles.

We heard the sound further off. I don't know how Victor found it but he managed to bring up a distant bird in the scope that was our bird.

We drove closer and got to see it from a medium distance. They are quite large birds, larger than I thought. 

What a stylish bird.

On the drive home we finally caught up with a Clay-Coloured Thrush!

At a stop attempting to search for Painted Buntings, we saw 2 blue Grosbeaks, 2 Barred antshrikes and 2 squirrel Cuckoo.

Blurry pic of the Barred Antshrike.

A nearby field had two Created Caracaras cuddling.

Bonus Lessons Motmot picture from the drive. 

Black Rock Lodge Day 4 - Are Kentucky Warblers Trash Birds?!

Last spring I saw a Kentucky Warbler at Point Pelee National Park with my parents. It was one of the highlights of my birding year. I think (and still do) it is such a cool looking/acting bird. It walks along the ground and blends in very well for something that looks so distinctive.

Today I was spoiled with looks of them. The title was definitely clickbait though because they are a joy to see.

Unfortunately Fernando, our guide for the first 3 days had to attend a training course this weekend, he was a fantastic guide. He recommended his friend Victor who we briefly birded with and he showed us a Squirrel Cuckoo!

What an awesome looking bird. It was just mousing around feeding on some bugs and we had tremendous looks.

We decided to have a chill day around the lodge, so we didnt have any guided tours or outings planned, it gave us a chance to put our skills to the test and bird at our own pace! 

We walked around the lodge and had a great experience with a Yellow Breasted Chat, a former nemesis bird for us in Ontario. Much like with the Kentucky, it is tremendous to have such great views.

This butterfly was really pretty, according to INaturalist it is of the Sisters genus.

On our walk to Vaca Falls, there was this gorgeous large dark blue butterfly I saw for a brief moment and I wasn't able to get a photo of it, wish I knew what it was. I have some more butterfly pictures that I'll have to find.

On this trip, one of the coolest parts for me is finding a bird that I had no idea existed (evidence I didn't study my field guide enough clearly). The discovery and investigation process is exhilarating.

This was the case with this White -Browed Gnatcatcher spotted by my mom. We also had great looks at a Blue Bunting and Greenish Eleanias.

In the afternoon, we bird watched from around the Lodge and finally saw the Black and White Hawk Eagle that is nesting across the river! I have some in flight pics and will update later.

Also a Bare-Throated Tiger Heron.

Victor birded around the lodge with me in the afternoon, he seems very knowledgeable and helped me get a nice look at a female White-collared Manakin. It was very nice of him to bird watch with me, I learned a lot.

At night we found this cool looking moth!

Also this GIANT frog/road. The picture does not do justice.

Tommorrow we are heading to Mountain Pine Ridge, a very cool habitat. There are a lot of really cool birds that we could see there including Great Currasow, Crested Guan, Lovely Cotinga, Tinamous. I would be over the moon with any of those, but am excited to have a great birding day/nature too!

Black Rock Lodge Day 3 - Xunantunich Maya Site

After our night drive last night, we were all feeling quite tired this morning as the howler monkeys woke us up. Screaming to announce a new day.

We met with Fernando after our lunch of Chaya (apparently 4 times healthier than spinach!!!), eggs and Fry Jack (for me) and granola, yogurt and fruit (for my parents).

The birds were not up as early so we did not see as many at the feeder during breakfast.

The Ornate Hawk Eagles were BOTH around the nest 

Driving along the Black Rock Road is incredibly difficult as every 10 meters you have to pull over to checkout what that bird that crossed the road was! At the ornate hawk eagle spot alone, we saw Northern Barred Woodcreeper,

Collared and Gartered Trogon (Collared Pictured Below, the hardest to see due to their specific habitat requirements - Fernando). Seeing the Collared Trogon completed our Trogon Grand Slam!! They are very stately birds, calm relaxed, which is a stark contrast to when your dad points out the bird and you frantically get an angle to see it, getting laser pointer assistance etc. Not that I'm speaking from personal experience...

You can just barely see the white collar of this bird. 

We also finally saw this spot breasted Wren. Took us so long to finally see one after hearing their very loud songs for so long.

We also saw the very elusive White-Eyed Flatbill, look at that eye ring!

This butterfly, called the banded peacock was very common.

We also saw a White-Tailed Kite munching on something in a farm field on the drive . Also Green Jays!! Which are so nice looking and lived up to the hype in my head.

We arrived at at Xunantunich via a hand cranked ferry as we crossed the Mopan river.

Perched on the tree was a male (pictured) and female Amazon Kinfisher. Look at the beak on this lad!

We walked through Xunantunich, which led to some very pleasant birding through the forest. 

This tree is called by the locals "horse balls".

Some expert snapping by Fernando imitating the White Collared Manakin's courtship dance provided us with a view of this cute male.

The temples were fascinating, I've never seen anything like this before.

Read more here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xunantunich

I learnt that Allspice is the seed of this tree:

This beautiful tree is a Mahogany Tree.

This Spiny-Tailed Lizard surveying his (males are gray) domain.

We stopped for lunch and then headed home!

I think this pink tree, called a Mexican Lilac is so lovely. There are many of them around.

On the way home I saw this cool Fungus.

Look at this view, I love mountains.

Another wolf spider camping out on our hammock, this one was huge. If this doesn't give you shivers I don't know what would.

Night Hike Quick Post

Just got back from a 3 hour night drive along Black Rock Road with Fernando. We loaded up in the F150 and drove down the treacherous rocky road with hopes of owls, nightjars and creepy crawlies in our heads.

First of all, the night sky is incredibly beautiful here. Probably exceeding an Algonquin Provincial Park night sky in my opinion, up until now the gold standard in my mind. Seeing them through the mountains almost made it more romantic.

We drove about 10 km in the dark, high beams blasting, spotlights scouting the landscape and NADA. We saw a jaguar, that ended up being a dog and some small spiders, frogs and bats but that was not the excitement we were after.

Wolf Spider I think?

A stop at a stand of trees lead to hearing a Mottled Owl and a Spectacled Owl very faintly via coaxing them with playback. At this time we were tired and kinda dissapointed, we turned around and my dad spots a Mottled Owl!!

It's always cool seeing owls as opposed to hearing.

We then drive through a recently ploughed field (at which I thought there was a non zero chance of us tipping or getting stuck) we had drove through this field on the way there with no luck. On the way back however we saw Common Paraques and TWO Northern Pootoos! They are fascinating. The eye is unlike anything I have ever seen. It looks fake. An incredible bird to see we are all very happy.

We had an incredible morning also but I will have to write it later as I am too tired.