Belize! Part I: Arriving at Crooked Tree

Belize is in the books and BB&B is back! I was rewarded with a very pleasing number of lifers, a lot of species I've only seen once or twice before (or heard only), and soaked in the much needed return to the Neotropics. Aside from the potholed condition of a number of the roads, getting around Belize, and birding it, was "relaxed and easy", as some of the tour companies like to name certain tours...which makes me wonder if MAX REBO BIRDING TOURS is still going to pursue the "relentless and stressful" or "bossy and tense" branding schemes they were cooking up? Anyways, I was often birding too hard to be relaxed, and the tension of being surrounded by potential lifers was constantly in the air.

If there was anything to bitch about, it was my new camera body having a major malfunction and being reduced to a paperweight for most of the trip (and no, it did not occur to me bring a spare)...but I'll try to keep my whinging on that topic to a minimum...for now anyways, it arrives at the Nikon shop today...and fortunately had no problems with it while in Crooked Tree, which offers photo ops galore.

The first destination, back on January 5, was Crooked Tree Village, where we stayed at Bird's Eye View Lodge (BEV) for three nights. BEV is right on the edge of Crooked Tree Lagoon and runs guided boat tours (geared heavily toward birders) from directly behind the hotel, as well as a number of other birding tours, and is situated with very good birding within walking distance. When the lagoon begins drying out and getting low, it is possible to walk out of your room and see thousands of waterbirds feeding in the lagoon, but we were too early for that spectacle. BEV is very popular with birders; the Crooked Tree Lodge on the other side of the village also gets a lot of visiting nerds. In addition to all the birding ops, BEV offers three meals a day, has a fridge full of beer you can help yourself to (honor system), and can also whip up cocktails if needed. The air conditioning is nice, and considering that many of the good birding lodges in Belize are either not on the cheap side or are the polar opposite of cheap, the price is right!

Crooked Tree Village is comprised of a mosaic of habitats, with a lot of wetlands (obvi), open areas and edge. Vermilion Flycatchers are absurdly abundant and pretty tame around BEV; this male was having a protracted faceoff with another one a few feet away.

Since you can do a lot of birding without a car at Crooked Tree, we actually had someone from BEV pick us up from the airport instead of getting a rental right away...HOW LUXURIOUS. Made me feel all geri! Rudy, our driver, is also a birding guide, and he pulled over for a random Jabiru (!!!) he spotted foraging near the highway, the first lifer of the trip. This was one of my top target birds and I was obviously stoked to finally see this enormous, stunning monument to charismatic avian megafauna. Jabiru is actually pretty difficult to find in early January (Crooked Tree is famously reliable for them later in winter/spring)...it would have been an incredibly stinging thing to dip on, so seeing one on the drive from the airport was a hell of a way to start the trip.

The next morning at dawn, I followed a strange call north to the Limpkin Trail, which turned out to be another lifer...why hello RUFOUS-BREASTED SPINETAIL it is nice to meet you!!! This ended up being the only one I would see, though their quick and concise three note call is unmistakable (sounds like "i LOVE you" or "i HATE you"...or perhaps "i'll KILL you") and I heard many more during the trip.

Social Flycatcher is, of course, very common in Belize, but were not quite as abundant as I have seen them in parts of Mexico and Costa Rica.

Other lifers I picked up early on were Tropical Pewee (somewhat overdue...or maybe hella overdue?) and Black-collared Hawk, which I found while scoping the opposite shore of the lagoon during a rainy lunch at the lodge. This is a definitely good place to bust out a scope!

Right, I'll have a couple more Crooked Tree posts coming up, so will use this post to throw up some more of the landbirds found while walking around.

How about more flycatchers? Yucatan Flycatcher was on the target list, but I ended up with a resounding dip on that one - Crooked Tree was the only place we visited where they were somewhat expected. We did have lots of Dusky-capped Flycatchers though (which presumably are constantly misidentifed as Yucatan Flycatchers), including this very confiding bird.

Mangrove Swallows were abundant at Crooked Tree and were extremely approachable. Their white rumps are obvious in flight but perched they look very much like Tree Swallows with little white supraloral stripes.

The Tropical Mockingbirds were abundant and approachable too...I'm beginning to sense a pattern here.

Several warbler species that we often strive to see well in the U.S. take on very different personas in Belize...I guess everyone relaxes when they get to Belize. The American Redstarts at BEV were helping to fill the niche typically reserved for House Sparrows, which seem to be absent from most of the country. 

To change things up, Lineated Woodpeckers were neither abundant or extremely confiding, though I fortunately saw them on the reg. Lineated is in the same genus as Pileated, as you could probably guess.

You are probably wondering about the GERI BIRDING...well, the lodge did offer geri birding, but apparently were not yet putting out the fruit feeders they have done in the past (it wasn't high season for birders yet). They did have a cluster of hummingbird feeders which attracted a number of Baltimore and Black-cowled Orioles, the inevitable Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds, and this Green-breasted Mango. I also saw mangos (mangoes???) on the entrance road.

Ruddy Ground-Doves seem to be one of the commonest and most widespread birds in Belize...I have no problem with that.

Late one afternoon I took a walk on the Woodcreeper Trail, just south of BEV. Not much in the woods besides mosquitoes and a handful of frustrating calls I didn't know, but when I got back to the trailhead I ran into an excellent mixed flock. In the fading light a couple of Rufous-browed Peppershrikes came out for great looks, the only ones I would end up laying eyes on for the trip.

For the Woodcreeper Trail, I should say that it is very intriguing habitat (taller, more intact forest than what is nearby) but I was never able to get in there in the mornings, which is probably a good idea. I felt that Gray-throated Chat could be a possibility on the trail and that patch of forest had a lot of potential. The big trees near the entrance of the trail and in the campground also were pretty birdy and worth looking over. Other nearby walks a birder would be into from BEV include the entrance road and the previously mentioned Limpkin Trail, which will take you all the way back to the lagoon causeway if it isn't flooded. If you want to go for a longer walk, you can go west to the pine savanna for a whole other suite of species, but more on that later.

I'm sure that when the lagoon is lower you can walk the shorelines for quite a ways as well (thus getting to bird the wooded edge as well as the lagoon), though that seems like a chiggery prospect if much grass has grown in.

The cloudwatching on the lagoon was often excellent in the afternoons.

One of the hallmarks of Neotropical birding are the combos. This is the first Solitary Sandpiper-pig combo I have ever experienced.

And I will leave you with this...balls. Straight up pig balls. How does that grab ya?

Much more Belize coverage to come! And no more huge pig balls, I promise.

I came. I saw. I birded. I photographed. I eBirded. I cried because I have no friends.

Dusky-capped Flycatcher was one of the first rarities I laid eyes on earlier this year, in San Francisco. This bird in Gary Bloomfield's yard last week in Arcata was sweet, Mexican icing on the proverbial bird cake. Zehndner Ave., Arcata, CA.

How is that for a title eh? Talk about the birding Zeitgeist. Luckily, I have a plethora of nonbirding friends whom keep me from falling into that dreaded social cesspool that contains birders who only know other birders. Are you a nonbirder? Do you know a birder who has no "normal" friends? Adopt a birder today, or they will be doomed to a life of weird sexual encounters (urgent message for bird nerds: ladies don't have cloacas, men don't have weird corkscrew duck penises) and correcting other people's spelling errors on Facebook. How embarrassing!

Right, just a thought. Last week I was up in Humboldt County, where I got two (2) county birds, Dusky-capped Flycatcher and Franklin's Gull, and my 2012 White-throated Sparrow, Ferruginous Hawk, the aforementioned gull, and a Lewis' Woodpecker in Mendocino County. Great successes, all.

Aside from that trip, birding has been pretty mellow lately. I have not chased any of the hot California birds (Falcated Duck, White Wagtail, Gray Hawk), and I become more and more agitated by the day that I don't have a goddamn Swamp Sparrow for the year. I spent over an hour looking for one the other day and failed...the embarrassment caused by that episode was only forgotten when I got my first San Francisco Ross' Goose at the end of the day. Did I mention I'm not a county lister? Ahem. Right...well at this point, I am really fiending for a few more year birds...Bostick is just a few birds behind me, and I can feel the Fear and Loathing growing in my spine.

I'm not sure if this bird is still being seen or not, although people were finding it on the regular for a couple of weeks or so. It gets bloody cold at night in Arcata, not the sort of place a Dusky-capped Flycatcher should be wintering.

This talented bird even did a Nutting's Flycatcher imitation. And yes, only high-ranking birders will understand this joke.

Aside from Swamp Sparrow, I have a number of other embarrassing misses for the year. No Solitary Vireo of any kind. No Hammond's Flycatcher. No Red Crossbill. No White-headed Woodpecker. No Townsend's Solitaire. This is what happens when you year list without doing a Big Year. But there have been so many other quality birds that I met in 2012 that I cant even think of complaining.

Of course the big news is that I will soon be birding with Corey Finger, one of the bird barons that runs birding uberblog 10,000 Birds. With our birdosphere powers combined, there is no telling what we can find. Hopefully I can convince him to do all of the day's eBirding...

A Great Egret shows off its Victorian almost-crest. Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA.

One of my rare flash shots that I actually like. The white is so intense...

Ah, the pink and green woodpecker, a sight for sore eyes. This is one of the best birds the American West has to offer. This distant Lewis' Woodpecker was at Potter Valley, CA.

Maybe the geese that winter in weird urban parks have it all figured out...there's no hunters! This is the Greater White-fronted Goose of Lake Merced, San Francisco, CA.

Common Goldeneye is one of the many diving ducks that shed their wariness when they winter at  Oakland's Lake Merritt. I wish their Barrow's brethren would do the same... 

This female Common Goldeneye has the typical gray and yellow bill pattern for her species and gender: Barrow's females usually have an all yellow or orangish bill. Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA.

While birding in the Ferndale bottoms, Rob Fowler spotted a Franklin's Gull foraging right next to the road. You gotta love the bottoms in winter, they are brimming with rarities. I only got a poor picture of it though, so here is a better picture of a similar one. Des Lacs National Wildlie Refuge, ND.

A Western Nashville Warbler. Have you started identifying these birds to subspecies yet? The bird powers at be tell me they might be split into different species down the road. Photographed along the Salt River in the Ferndale Bottoms, CA.

What kind of gore has this Great Blue Heron been getting in to? Pillar Point Harbor, CA.

Making Sweet Sweet Bird Love

An American Coot and Tufted Duck race. The duck, a born Winner, not only challenged the local coot cabal to races, he flogged them regularly...just for being coots. Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA.

Well, between plovering, assisting The Great Ornithologist Felonious Jive in his next cathartic 10,000 Birds post, and a quick and bird-saturated desert camping trip....I don't have much to say today. Work is good, ravens and coyotes are eating plover nests left and right (not good), the migrants are migrating, and the weather is fine. Here are a few pictures from back in the bay, earlier in the year, that I haven't posted yet.

Have a positive weekend...I'm sure you won't have trouble picking up a couple year birds.

A less-frequently seen perspective of Hooded Merganser. From this angle, it is clearly a Rail-headed Merganser. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA.

Glaucous Gull, my one and only for the year. It is a beefy gull. It didn't do much except bob around in front of me, but at least it floated into some interesting light. Golden Gate Park.

Dusky-capped Flycatcher, at this point also my only one of the year. This one also holds the honor of being a very rare bird. Golden Gate Park.

Black Phoebe. Not a rare bird, but master of the two-tone. Golden Gate Park.

American Kestrel. Have you ever thought it odd that we have all these other kinds of falcons around, and none of them hover? Heron Head Park, San Francisco, CA.

A menagerie of shorebirds. Long-billed Dowitchers, Marbled Godwits, and a lot of Willets. Radio Road, Redwood Shores, CA.

Spotted Sandpipers should be adding their summer spots now, but even in winter, their obsessive-compulsive tail-bobbing captures our attention. It seems like predators would have caught on to this strange habit by now...photographed at Heron Head Park.

A Double-crested Cormorant with a mouthful, and then some. You can also see that Double-cresteds take great pride in their magnificent eyebrows. Lake Merritt.

This Iceland Gull, unlike the Glaucous, cannot be characterized as "beefy". It's smallness is what made this particular bird so popular in the first place, and it didn't take much guff from the mud-blooded Olympic Gulls (rear).  Fort Baker, Sausalito, CA.

Another day at the Albany Bulb. Photo by Brittany Lassiter.

The Perpetual Weekend Rolls On...

This Dusky-capped Flycatcher is one of the rarer birds I've seen in 2012, and apart from a few Heerman's Gulls probably the only bird I've seen this year from south of the border. Golden Gate Park, San Francsico, CA.

Having been Funemployed for the whole winter (which, granted, is getting old), a lot of birding has been happening. Birding, in fact, is the key. I have not been lacking in a night life, but the sad fact is that most people I know usually work or go to school during the day. I feel really bad for them, as it prevents them from seeing birds. Fortunately, the birds have been entertaining in the diurnal hours....here are a few images from earlier this winter that I haven't posted yet.

A Snow Goose family. Snow Goose family units are probably much less dysfunctional than American families (human), but losing members to predators and shotguns probably doesn't help. Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA.

American Pipits really know how to strut. Check out that tarsal length! Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA.

A female Mountain Bluebird in the process of disfiguring a Jerusalem Cricket. You should see what a flock of these things can do to a horse....nightmarish stuff. Armour Ranch Road, Santa Ynez, CA.

Black-necked Stilts have both style and class...unless you are near their nests, when they transform into headaches. Radio Road, Redwood Shores, CA.

I don't think I've ever posted a Bewick's Wren shot on BB&B, so I would like to rectify that. Rare, no. Jaunty, yes. Abbott's Lagoon, Point Reyes National Seashore, CA.

Glaucous Gull is another bird virgin to BB&B. I am happy to say, virgin no more! This bird has been present for several weeks at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

I probably should've posted this around Christmas, oh well. White-crowned Sparrow, Lake Merced, San Francisco, CA.

Greater White-fronted Goose, Mallards, Cackling Goose. This is a common fourgy in some parts of the state, but not so much on the coast. Stern's Wharf, Santa Barbara, CA.

Northern Shoveler, an appealing duck. Radio Road, CA.

Everyone likes Great Egrets, I would say they are one of the top 5 birds nonbirders ask me about. "I saw this big white crane next to the freeway last week, yadda yadda yadda...". Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA.

Corvids and raptors do not mix, and the Corvids usually win. Such was the case with this Common Raven and Red-tailed Hawk. Ano Nuevo State Park, CA.