Saturday, June 28, 2008

Bunch of birds from Belize

So we went to Belize in the rainy season and it hardly rained! The birding was not as good as it would be in winter and the bugs had not read the script but we did ok. If you are not sure where Belize is I suggest you go back to High School and finish your education.

Our first five nights were at Chan Chich, just Google it to see what it is like. Lots of birds, good food, start saving!

Our second base was Bird's Eye Lodge at Crooked Tree. It was ok but I can't get as excited about Crooked Tree as some.

The highlights of the trip were mainly birds, especially Great Curassow, Crested Guan, Ocellated Turkey and Tody Motmot. We also enjoyed just being back in the tropics, the sounds, smells and landscape, but not the biting bugs.

Our trip total was 201 with 45 new species, we also had a good haul of animals, perhaps the highlight of which was flushing a Puma about 40-45 feet away at Chan Chich.

Anyway, enjoy the photos.

Male Vermillion Flycatcher


Tody Motmot, the tail ticks from side to side almost continuously.








Two hawks, Short-tailed Hawk above, Snail Kite below.





Short-billed Pigeon in need of enlargement perhaps.














Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, owner of all hummingbird feeders.








A Roadside Hawk in habitat.




Plain Chachalacas but something's got to be.















A Pale-billed Woodpecker destroying another tree.






A Common Paraque pretending to be gravel.













Ocellated Turkey although I can't remember which bit Oscillates.









Norther Jacana, try getting sandals for those feet!


















Mangrove Swallow.










Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture dreaming of great things.














Limpkin, which bit is the kin?




















Tropical Kingbirds although Couch's Kingbirds from another angle.





















Ivory-billed Woodcreeper below.

















Below: Grey-necked Wood-rail skulking.




















Grey Hawk.




















Ferruginous Pygmy-owl with ex-friend.











Fork-tailed Flycatcher.














Crested Guan below, looking inconspicuous.
















Collared Aracari pron: Ar-ass-ari


















Clay-coloured Robin, pron: boring!
















Bat Falcon. Who would think that there would be enough of this little bird to make a Cricket bat out of.






















Boat-billed Heron showing its good side.












Violaceous Trogons below.




























Bare-throated Tiger-Heron.

















Black-cheeked Woodpecker



















Black-collared Hawk.















Acorn Woodpecker, as close to looking like a flying penguin as it is possible to be.



















Tuesday, June 24, 2008

A little bit of film from Belize

Just back from 10 days in Belize, the tiny country in Central America which used to be British Honduras.

We spent five nights at Chan Chich Lodge then five more at Bird's Eye View Lodge. Both sites were very different and had a different suite of birds. We also travelled out from the latter site a bit, seeing just over 200 species. June is a month when not many birders visit Belize, it being the wet season, but we had very hot days of sunshine with rain at night only a couple of times. Visits in winter usually produce 250+ species as the local populations are bolstered by our summer birds.

The four species in the video are Pale-billed Woodpecker, the nearest thing left that equates to a (visible) Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Tody Motmot, an enigmatic little species that is a Chan Chich speciality. The third species is Acorn Woodpecker and the fourth a young Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl waiting for the adult to return with food while panting in the heat and haing the same mosquito problems we were having.

As I work through the photos I'll post a few more.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Looking at a couple of Empids.

Click to enlarge to view properly.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Trying things out

Quiet birdwise so I played around with the Remembird and managed to record a Northern Waterthush singing away. Taking a photo of the bird was more challenging but I managed a snap through the undergrowth. If you have decent speakers on your computer, click on the video to see a couple of shots with the song as a background.

I also continued to play around with the compact Nikon (nothing from Nikon has appeared in the post yet, perhaps they missed my endorsement), the Mourning Dove below was photographed trying to swallow a whole doughnut sideways. Reverting to the Canon, the Northern Flicker was terrorising the ants in the garden and the Hairy Woodpecker posed nicely.

Just for the record, the Remembird seems to be a real addition to the active birders kit. In Montreal its only available from CCFA. If you want to read up on the recorder Google Remembird. The CFA also have a web site. I'll do a full review in a few weeks when I've had more chance to field test it.














Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Tried a few video clips from the small Nikon, not too bad. I also now own a Remembird digital sound recorder and when I figure out how to upload MP3 tracks I'll try a bit of sound. A full report and review of the Remembird will appear here soon.