It’s that time of year again – it’s Tucson Audubon Society’s 25th annual Birdathon! On Saturday 28 April, my team, ‘Birds of Fray’, will be aiming to see at least 100 species of birds between Tucson and Patagonia.
Please consider helping me reach my goal of raising $1,000 for this year’s Birdathon. You can make a donation on my secure Birdathon Web Page.
All money raised goes directly to Tucson Audubon Society to continue their excellent conservation, education and recreation programs, which enhance the lives of birds, birders and the general public right across southern Arizona.
Thank you! :D
 March 20th, 2012  Tags: belize, guatemala, tours After two long days we had a slightly later start today. As we were heading back from breakfast, we finally caught up with the national bird of Belize, something we’d heard the previous two days but not seen, a splendid pair of Keel-billed Toucans. Buoyed by this success, we packed out overnight bags and headed towards the Guatemala border.
After a smooth border crossing we stopped for a while at a marsh alongside the Macal River, which has always been a productive spot. There were lots of herons and egrets, including our first Tricolored and Green Herons of the trip. An Anhinga flew by, while the dozens of Northern Jacana were joined by a few Black-necked Stilts and Blue-winged Teal. Another stop at Lago Peten Itza, a large lake, gave us fantastic close scope views of Mangrove Swallows perched on the soccer goalposts. Around the lake we found many Neotropic Cormorants, a couple of Laughing Gulls and a surprise Royal Tern.
We picked up Marco, our archaeological guide for the day, stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant by the park entrance, and then we were there… Tikal!
After settling into our rooms at Tikal Jungle Lodge, Marco took us to explore the most famous of all the ancient Mayan cities. Tikal is a mind-blowing experience, and by staying overnight we were in the best position to enjoy it to the full. It’s understandably a very popular tourist site, but most people visit as a day trip, so as we were walking into the park for the afternoon, the hordes were just leaving. We had the whole place almost to ourselves.
The temples are indescribable. There’s a tremendous atmosphere of drama and history, with the thick jungle and all its wonderful noises adding to the spectacle. We concentrated on the archaeology but it was impossible to ignore the wildlife. Red-lored Parrots and Montezuma Oropendolas were everywhere, Vaux’s Swifts zipped over the temples, and we encountered several White-nosed Coatis. Family groups of Central American Spider Monkeys entertained us with their agility, while the Howler Monkeys impressed us with their monster-like roars. We added Strong-billed Woodcreeper and Sepia-capped Flycatcher to the list, and watched a Gray Fox climbing one of the temples, looking for a snack. My personal highlight was my first view of a splendid Barred Forest Falcon, which allowed us scope views through the thick jungle.
I’d really been looking forward to climbing Temple IV and experiencing the classic Tikal view, as featured in Star Wars (one of the many blockbuster movies I’ve never seen). There weren’t any millennium falcons flying about, but the views didn’t disappoint. Stunning!
We moved on to the centerpiece of Tikal’s splendor, the Gran Plaza. As we arrived, five Ocellated Turkeys wandered by at a range of a few feet. Wow! We climbed one of the side temples to watch the sun set over this glorious scene. A flowering tree next to the temple gave us eye-level views of feeding hummingbirds, which included Long-billed Hermit, Wedge-tailed Sabrewing, Green-breasted Mango and White-bellied Emerald. As the sun went down, the resident pair of Orange-breasted Falcons, a rare and beautiful raptor, perched on the edge of the main temple to end the day in spectacular fashion. An extraordinary and memorable day!
March 3rd, 2012 Tags: news, tours Just back from a great birding tour of Belize and Guatemala! I’ll have all the details soon…
February 21st, 2012 Tags: belize, tours  El Pilar  Yellow-throated Euphonia Another day, another fascinating Mayan site. Today we visited El Pilar. I really like this particular site, as it’s been left almost how it was rediscovered, essentially a bunch of temple-shaped mounds covered in jungle. The birding at El Pilar is superb!
After adding our first Band-backed Wren of the trip at duPlooy’s, we were on the road. A pair of White-tailed Kites were near San Ignacio, and more new birds were found on the way to El Pilar, including Scrub and Yellow-throated Euphonia and Thick-billed Seedfinch. At El Pilar, the first of many notable sightings was a group of three more splendid Swallow-tailed Kites overhead. Soon after, more large shapes appeared in the sky, which turned out to be two Wood Storks and two impressive King Vultures.
 White-whiskered Puffbird The forest birding was excellent. A pair of gorgeous White-whiskered Puffbirds were voted birds of the day, but there was a lot of competition: Red-legged Honeycreeper, Rufous-tailed Jacamar and White-collared Manakin ran them close. The new birds just kept coming… Lineated Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Tyrannulet, Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, Stub-tailed Spadebill, Thrushlike Schiffornis, Squirrel Cuckoo and Worm-eating Warbler were all added to the list.
El Pilar is always a good place for parrots, with White-crowned, White-fronted, Red-lored and, my personal bird of the day, a pair of Brown-hooded Parrots, a new species for me.
 Laughing Falcon We ate our packed lunches at a shady picnic table and thought about heading back, but Philip heard a distinctive call and we were straight back into the jungle, looking for a Royal Flycatcher. I didn’t manage to see it but others in the group did. More scope views of Laughing Falcon made it even harder to leave, but we eventually dragged ourselves away.
 Canivet's Emerald We stopped at a nice, sunny bank covered in lush vegetation, which was tremendously productive. Philip knew it as a good spot for Green Jay, which was duly seen, while other birds included Grayish Saltator, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blue Bunting and Yellow-tailed Oriole. The abundant flowers were especially attractive to hummingbirds, with Wedge-tailed Sabrewing, Green-breasted Mango, Canivet’s and White-bellied Emeralds and Rufous-tailed Hummingbird all present.
 Blue Bunting It wasn’t intended to be another long day, but we arrived back at duPlooy’s after dark again. There were just too many birds to come home early! A Common Paraque gave us close views as it rested in the road, which was a fitting way to end the day. We finished with 78 species and everyone got plenty of life birds.
February 20th, 2012 Tags: belize, tours Please note: my big camera lens has packed up so I didn’t take it to Belize this year. Consequently I only took a handful of photos with my phone on this trip. Many of the photos used in this report were taken on previous trips to Belize.
A long, but exciting, action-packed day today. We had the earliest possible breakfast, met Philip, picked up our packed lunches and headed out. A good-sized flock of Olive-throated Parakeets was just waking up along the duPlooy’s entrance road, and soon after, we woke up too!
 Caracol Our first destination was Belize’s flagship Mayan site, Caracol. It’s a stunning place, for birding and more obviously the archaeology. Caracol is a little isolated and close to the Guatemala border, and due to previous security incidents, at present (and for the past five years) it’s only possible to get there at an allotted time, with an army escort. Because of this shortened visit, we concentrated on the stunning temples and picked up what birds and wildlife we could whilst climbing the ruins and learning more about Mayan culture from Philip.
 Caracol We scored another Black Hawk-Eagle soaring over the entrance road, and were greeted at Caracol by a soaring Short-tailed Hawk over the parking lot. It was proving to be a good day for raptors, with nice scope views of a pair of Bat Falcons next to the main temple, the Caana. From the top of the temple, we watched two groups of Yucatan Black Howler Monkeys, totaling nine animals, at close range, which is always a treat.
Despite our hurried hike, the birding was productive. We added White-bellied Emerald, Wedge-billed Woodcreeper, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, White-breasted Wood-Wren and Bananaquit to the list. There’s a fabulous colony of Montezuma Oropendola in a giant ceiba tree, which was a lot of fun to watch, especially when an unwelcome Giant Cowbird tried to investigate their pendulous nests for a quick meal. The oropendolas were not having it at all!
 Rufous-capped Warbler We ate our lunches in the picnic area and moved on. We explored Mountain Pine Ridge, a really different habitat to anything else in Belize. This pine savannah gave us some typical species, including White-collared Swift, Yellow-throated Warbler, Yellow-faced Grassquit, Rusty Sparrow and Black-headed Siskin. Cracking scope views of Laughing Falcon and then three wonderful Swallow-tailed Kites continued our raptor joy. We were reminded of our homes in Arizona when we saw Rufous-capped Warbler, Hepatic Tanager, Acorn Woodpecker and Yellow-rumped Warbler (although the latter were the eastern race, Myrtle).
It was now late afternoon and everyone was tired, especially after the bumpy dirt roads we’d been on all day. Nevertheless, I forced everyone to have one last experience, a visit to the sensational Green Hills Butterfly Ranch. And there weren’t any complaints! We saw several White-necked Jacobins feeding at the hummingbird feeders, and I had a brief glimpse of an Ovenbird, but unfortunately it disappeared before I could get anyone else onto it. But the highlight was Tineke’s guided tour of the butterfly farm, which was a memorable experience, as always. I’ve visited butterfly farms on three different continents, but Green Hills is by far the best.
We arrived back at duPlooy’s after dark, waded into another sumptuous dinner, went through our bird lists and crashed face down on our pillows for a well earned sleep. What a great day!
|
| SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER |
|
|
|
Link: 
