Belize! Part VI: Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, Mayflower Bocawina National Park, Hopkins

Morelet's Seedeater (formerly White-collared Seedeater) is one of the most abundant and widespread birds in Belize. I was hoping for a Morelet's Seedeater-Morelet's Crocodile combo but it never happened. Photographed at Hopkins Bay Resort.

After Black Rock Lodge, it was time to head over to the coast for the last part of our trip. We made the semi-long drive (by Belize and/or driving with toddler standards) over the Hummingbird Highway without any birding stops, as it rained most of the time...which the Black Rock army ant swarm had correctly predicted, for the second time. We made it to Hopkins in the afternoon, where we checked in to the Hopkins Bay Resort at the very north end of town...this was the first time I've ever stayed at a typical beach resort, and while it worked for our family purposes I wouldn't recommend it to birders visiting here. It's expensive, the birding on the grounds is mostly poor, they spray the beach sand with pesticide every morning (!) and rake up any sargassum on the beach, and they try to claim to be all sustainable despite clearing out large swaths of mangrove forest...not going to be staying there again. On the flip side, I will say I did have a couple great cocktails there, and the resort is right across the street from the old cemetery in town...this is where I lifered Yucatan Vireo, which I was super stoked on, and I also had my first really good looks at Mangrove Vireos a little further north.

Tropical Kingbird are, as one might expect, dirt common in Belize. It's still a nice looking bird though. There were Couch's Kingbirds at several sites but Tropical was generally much more abundant. Photographed at Hopkins Bay Resort.

Hopkins has a lot of visiting foreigners but is also pretty mellow...it's certainly not overrun by tourists and not dominated by sky-scraping mega resorts or anything. There is a great deal of good birding within 45 minutes of town, and with many lodging options it is a sensible place to be based out of for birding in the area if you don't opt for staying at the lodge in Mayflower Bocawina National Park or the rustic Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary cabins. Bordering the west side of town is a huge marsh, which provided some trip birds but more importantly got me my first Ruddy Crake...it was a heard only, but I'll take it!

No matter how many of them you have seen, if Brown Pelicans are plunge-diving next to you, you must stop what you are doing and watch. Or crush. Photographed at Hopkins Bay Resort.

While our lodging sitch in Hopkins wasn't super productive for birdlife, I was able to get out for multiple ace mornings of birding while staying there. One morning I went out to Mayflower Bocawina National Park, just 20 minutes or so up the road. Of course the camera was out of comission at the the time so I've got nothing to illustrate my time there, but the birding was very entertaining and I would definitely recommend a day or two here. Within the boundaries of the park is the Bocawina Rainforest Resort, which gives you excellent access to the area and no doubt has good birding right there on the grounds...I would definitely consider staying there if I return to the area. As for birding the park itself, I was impressed. Highlights included looks at Gray-headed Dove, Blue Ground-Doves, Ornate Hawk-Eagle, and Stub-tailed Spadebills. Here is my eBird list from my visit, if you're interested.

The last birding spot of the trip turned out to be the very best - Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, where I was lucky enough to spend two mornings. Billy had been here before and recommended it highly, and she was right to do so. In doing my research before this trip, I found Cockscomb listed in surprisingly few trip reports despite the blood red pin it sported in eBird's hotspot map...why birders overlook this gem while birding in Belize is a mystery to me. This place is fully legit. Visitors have the option of staying the night here at some rudimentary cabins, but I suspect you have to bring all your food/water/supplies in with you. This was the one place we visited where both diversity seemed very high and bird abundance was staggering at times, and I was super impressed with the quality of birding both days I was there. The place is huge and there are lots of trails to choose from...I totally could have birded there a third day and probably seen a grip of birds I missed the previous days. The entrance road alone is probably worth a whole morning, and the one place I pulled over yielded the only Green Honeycreeper of the trip.

Shockingly, my camera worked one of the days I was at Cockscomb, so here are some more pics!

Northern Waterthrushes are one of the commonest neotropical migrants that winter in Belize. This one would not get out of the path I was walking down so I took its picture.

White Hawks were easy to find on the trip...huzzah! Back before I saw my first White Hawks in Costa Rica some years bak, this was a neotropical bird that really stood out in my imagination...difficult to fathom a bird like this without seeing it with one's own eyes. Like a handful of other prominent birds, I literally dreamed about seeing these (as opposed to just fantasizing about it, like usual) before I actually did. Easily one of the coolest raptors I have ever seen.

While not abundant, Pale-billed Woodpecker is another widespread, fairly common woodpecker...but they are huge, exotic, and are in the same genus as the iconic Ivory-billed and Imperial Woodpeckers. The day after I took this photo, I came back and got a glimpse of it (or its mate) almost get taken out by some kind of large, black raptor that went plunging through the trees after it..it was livid.

One of the many idyllic creeks that run through the preserve. I was unsuccessful, but Agami Herons are regularly found in Cockscomb in places like this.

Ruddy Woodcreeper was a lifer back at Black Rock, but I was able to get a few identifiable photos of this bird here in a nice mixed flock.

While not exceptionally scarce, Slate-headed Tody-Flycatcher are notoriously difficult to actually see...so they say. I had no such misfortune with this tiny todyish tyrant of the tangles, a true trip target. Luckily I had the prescience to memorize their song and found this shrub friend (shrub-friend) relatively easily instead of walking by it obliviously as it sang away, which I've probably done with dozens of other neotropical would-be lifers in the past. How embarrassing. 

One of the wildlife highlights of the trip was seeing this tayra! I only knew what it was because we had seen them close up at the Belize Zoo the week before...way to go Belize Zoo for successfully educating a dumb tourist. A tayra is like a giant mega weasel, a wolverine-otter looking thing. Megawolverotter. It paced back and forth across the trail in front of us a few times for good looks before trotting away.

From this angle it looks more like a bear-weasel combo. This was a very high quality lifer mammal - we also saw brocket deer, which the zoo had prepped me for as well. No jaguar sign (Cockscomb is famous for jaguars) but those were two sweet lifer mammals.

Pretty sure this was a lifer creature as well, white-lipped mud turtle (right?). It was crossing the entrance road during a rain storm. I know I am GBRS #7 in the U.S. and all that, but did you know my first real love of wildlife was herps? 

Billy and Annie in action. Billy's action was probably scanning for a Gray-headed Tanager I failed to get her on before it flew away (sorry Billy). Annie's action was sleeping.

Some unphotographed highlights from Cockscomb: absolutely stunning views of a confiding Black-faced Antthrush (the first I've seen, rather than just heard), lifer Yellow-tailed Orioles and Royal Flycatcher, getting the Leptotila hat trick (seeing White-tipped, Gray-headed and Gray-chested Doves in the same morning), and mixed flocks and concentrations of birds of such quality that I was beside myself.

I'll do one more post to kind of summarize the Belize trip for anyone who is thinking about going, but this will about wrap it up! You can thank Nikon for making a shitty product - the lack of photos to sort really enabled me to actually blog the whole trip in an almost respectable amount of time.

ID Challenges: The Worst of The West

Birding...it's not easy. Sure, there are times when you get out of the car, walk over to a group of birders, and they wave their hand at the staggering mega that is sitting there in front of you. Some birders will chase rarities, see the bird, then ask to have the field marks explained to them by others...how easy! How great! What else is great? Harlequin Ducks, Roseate Spoonbills, Elegant Trogons, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, Scarlet Tanagers...those are beautiful, unmistakable birds.

Most birds? Not that easy. Not that easy to find, not that easy to see well, not that easy to identify. I thought I would take the time today to run down some of the hardest families of birds in the western Lower 48...people like lists, after all, particularly birders. There is some overlap here with other parts of the country, but there are distinct differences...for example, the east coast has more terns and thrushes, but less storm-petrels and hummingbirds.

Before we get to the list, I should name some Honorable Mentions that didn't quite make the Top Ten:

- Swans. Tundra vs. Trumpeter can be extremely challenging. Luckily, we only have two swan species to really worry about (until Bewick's Swan is split). That's a Tundra Swan up top there.

- Petrels. Petrels are arguably the most difficult of our birds, period. A large suite of them can potentially show up off our coast, very few birders know them well, and they rarely cooperate with boats or come close to seawatching sites. They fly incredibly fast and all come in white, gray, black and brown. However, they are rarely encountered relative to all the other birds we are discussing today; while often seen on repositioning cruises, there are few other instances when you can realistically expect to see them.

- Hawks. Hawk ID is not exceptionally complicated west of Texas, in my opinion, though obviously there are problematic plumages out there. Of course, Accipiters will always be misidentified by everybody, so hawks are deserving of a mention (an honorable one).

- Oystercatchers. This problem is unique to Southern California...Black Oystercatchers are as distinctive as any bird we have, but Black X American Oystercatcher hybrids and our local American Oystercatcher subspecies look confoundingly similar. American Oystercatcher is one of the most overreported birds in the area.

- Plovers. Telling apart American and Pacific Golden-Plovers can be absolutely excruciating. Beginning and intermediate birders will often misidentify Black-bellied Plovers for either Golden-Plover species. The smaller plovers aren't bad though.

- Crows and Ravens. Some birders can't tell crows and ravens apart from one another...well what about Common Raven vs. Chihuahuan Raven? American Crow vs. Northwestern Crow? In some places, these ID challenges can seem almost impossible to overcome, particularly with the crow situation in Washington.

- Gnatcatchers. If you are birding someplace where Black-capped Gnatcatcher can reasonably be found, the other two southwestern species can give you a world of trouble, especially if you don't find yourself birding down there very often and don't know the calls well. They are hyper little bastards, which makes seeing already subtle field marks an extremely taxing ordeal.

And now...the list!

#10 - Sparrows. The western U.S. is blessed/cursed with an impressive diversity of sparrows. The majority of them are migratory and/or have a tendency toward vagrancy, and they are all brown, brown, brown, brown, brown, brown brown...gray, and brown. However, though they are terrifying for beginners, sparrows aren't so bad once you've put some birding years in the rearview, and some of them are downright difficult to misidentify. That said, Spizella sparrows (like the Clay-colored above) can be especially vexing. Savannah Sparrows, one of the most abundant sparrows in the country, are arguably also the most misidentified of them all, as they can pass for Song, Lincoln's, Vesper and Baird's.

#9 - Sandpipers. Show me a rookie birder and I will show you someone who is going to be greatly troubled...by shorebirds, sandpipers in particular. The dowitcher duo is legendary, peep problems are relentless...to put it bluntly, almost every sandpiper species is at a high risk of being misidentified for something else. Those of us on the coast always have Siberian species on the brain, which complicates the picture even further...yikes. However, the "expected" species do become pretty familiar in time.

#8 - Warblers. Spring warblers are decidedly unproblematic, with the exception of waterthrushes (that's a whitish Northern above). However, you may not be aware that there are three other seasons. Most warblers do not have the same snappy facemelt in October that they do in April. They are referred to as "confusing fall warblers" for a reason, though I despise that tired and overused phrase. There are so many identification pitfalls here that there is no point in even starting in to them. Californians have it especially bad, since we have multiple records of almost every breeding warbler species in the country.

#7 - Vireos. Vireos make people very uncomfortable. Seen poorly enough, every single vireo species (with the exception of a vagrant White-eyed) stands a good chance of being misidentified. Just a few days ago on Facebook, I watched (seemingly in slow motion, like a car crash) in horror as a birder sought out the expertise of an expert, to identify a bird she had photographed very well. He called it an Orange-crowned Warbler...it was a Warbling Vireo. At least with a sandpiper you know it's a sandpiper...with vireos, people call them warblers (and vice versa) on the regular. The hardest vireos? Warbling vs. Philadelphia, and Blue-headed vs. Cassin's vs. Plumbeous. That's a Philadelphia above.

#6 - Longspurs. Away from the prairies of eastern Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, we don't even get to see longspurs in spring. When we get them, they always look like rubbish. Lapland (above) can look like Smith's, Smith's can look like Chesnut-collared, Chestnut-collared can look like McCown's. And 90% of the time, you are getting total garbage looks at them. They all look similar, their calls are not drastically different, and they hate being cooperative for birders. That is a recipe for pain.

#5 - Hummingbirds. Unlike sneaky longspurs and skulky warblers, you can typically get really solid looks at hummingbirds. That said, this may not be of much use to you if you are not prepared...male hummingbirds are facemelting birds, but young males (like the Costa's above) and females can be brutal. With the exceptions of Violet-crowned and maybe Berylline, I think every one of our young/female hummingbird species is at an extremely high risk of being misidentified. Don't believe me? Go geri-birding in Arizona and watch the carnage unfold.

#4 - Storm-petrels. I lead a lot of pelagic trips, and I will tell you that no group of birds strikes more fear into the heart of an inexperienced birder than these. When it comes to these birds, people seeing them for the first time completely surrender any attempt at an ID to the leaders on the boat. We could tell them whatever we wanted and get away with it (fortunately, we want to tell them the truth). Other than the lovely Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels (most of the birds above), they are either all small black birds or small black birds with white rumps. Generally, they want nothing to do with the boat you are on and you are going to be really unsatisfied looking a them if there is a big swell that day. New developments in the Leach's complex have everyone reeling. These are the birds your nightmares are made of.

#3 - Jaegers. You probably didn't see this being #3....but the difficulties of jaeger ID are legendary. Even dark Pomarines and South Polar Skuas get mixed up. Trying to ID certain individuals can lead to such circular logic and mental numbness that I am getting tired just thinking about it. Just be happy when you get to see "easy" individuals, like this Pomarine above.

#2 - Flycatchers. You know what? I haven't done a quiz in a while. What do you think this bird is? The answer is at the bottom of the post. Hint: It's a flycatcher.

Flycatchers are just heinous. Think about each gnarly genus we have all lumped into one jaw-clenching, teeth-grinding family...Contopus, Empidonax, Myiarchus, Tyrannus, etc. That's some heavy shit. The first three genera are especially bad. I don't even know what to tell you here, except to advise you that you can at least get close to the right species. Hammond's and Grays are not similar. Willows and Pacific-slopes are not a confusing couple. Buff-breasted do not look like pewees.

Pewees....yeah. Just identify pewees correctly (don't misidentify them for Empids) and you will command at least a small modicum of respect. Don't report an Eastern unless it's calling though, or you will be run out of your state.

#1 - Gulls. Obvi. I have nothing to say about gulls that you haven't heard before. This is a perfectly typical Herring Gull...I bet not many of you knew that.

There you have it, the list, for your edification and mine. Do you agree, or do I have it all wrong? Are ducks and geese deserving of being on the list? Are alcids alarming? Do Wrentits cause your brain to boggle? I hope not. At any rate, feel free to let us know.


p.s. The quiz bird is a Least Flycatcher. Props if you got it right. And before you descend into a nerdy rage, yes it is a flycatcher that breeds in western states. #notjustavaguerunt

More From The Valley: Aquatic Texans

No megas to report on today, although I did miss being on a Hawaiian Petrel boat on Saturday. It hurts, I won't lie. The only Pterodroma I've seen in California was a Murphy's Petrel, and it was so bloody far by the time I got glass on it that I couldn't make out any field marks to speak of (thus I do not count it, for I am an honorable birder). But before BB&B goes into full fall seabird mode, here is some more terrestrial spring coverage from Texas instead. After all, Texas is notorious for it's awful pelagic trips...not that anyone can blame the birders who organize and lead those trips, but let's face it; the Gulf is a desolate place compared to waters off California or North Carolina.

Right. Sorry Texans. Despite being impressively unadorned, semi-aquatic Northern Waterthrushes are quite variable in appearance. This is a "yellower" bird with legs on the pink end of the spectrum. South Padre Island, TX.

And here is a "white" individual, with duller legs. This isn't an uncommon variation, despite what some field guides and a lot of birders will tell you. It even appears to have some color on the flanks, LOWA style. Note how heavy the streaking on the breast is compared to LOWA. South Padre Island, TX.

It took me a long time to see a White-rumped Sanpiper...I had seen a grand total of 3 before this year. Thankfully they are a plentiful spring migrant in south Texas, and I even got side-by-side comparisons with Baird's Sandpiper. Pretty sick. Near Boca Chica Beach, TX.

This bird isn't quite as far into it's alternate plumage. Seeing a fish-eating Calidrid is not an everyday occurrence.

Long wings. White rump. Classic.

Hey, it's a Wilson's Plover. Did you know there is a Collared Plover in south Texas right now? It's the second U.S. record. Dan Jones found it, who you may know from the Global Birder Ranking System's Lower Rio Grande Valley Honor Roll. I called up the GBRS statisticians to do some math for me, and it turns out that on average 0.91 Collared Plovers actually occur in Texas every year. Why are they not found? Two reasons...the large amount of shorebird habitat available, and the impressive number of low-ranking birders in the area (mostly visiting birders) who misidentify COPL for other species. A lethal combination, if ever there was one. Near Boca Chica Beach, TX.

Fulvous Whistling-Ducks...birds I have not seen since the 90's. We had quite the reunion. Bummer that these birds are essentially gone from California now. Lake Harlingen, TX.

Fulvous are dwarfed by their more abundant black-bellied counterpart. On one of my last days on my Texas work site, there were hundreds of Fulvous Whistling-Ducks flying around (Willacy County). It was a vexing experience, to be sure. Other spots I turned up FUWD were at Estero Llano Grande and South Padre Island.

Least Bittern. I've had better looks at these skulky bastards, but never with sherbert lores! What a delicious flavor of facemelt. Estero Llano Grande WBC, TX.

The bittern unleashes a deafening bellow in the direction of some prey. Within seconds, a 7-foot alligator went belly up in the pond. Adult alligators are the preferred prey for Least Bitterns...it is known.

Lesser Yellowlegs are quite stylish a few months of the year. South Padre Island, TX.

Graduating the yellowlegs course is an important first step for beginning birders. Overcome this hurtle (Greater vs. Lesser vs. Solitary Sandpiper), and you will find yourself skyrocketing up the GBRS ladder...until you have to take the dowitcher test, that is.

Not only is the south blessed with winning wading bird diversity, the birds themselves are far more tolerant of humans. Here is a fearless Green Heron. South Padre Island, TX.

Maybe the next sushi craze will be consuming fish in this manner (swallowed whole, head first, in the ancient tradition of the Ardeidae).

I'm still looking for a Reddish Egret crush. I should have just crawled out there on my belly like the nerds below, but I was too busy birding and not wanting to wallow in mud. South Padre Island, TX.

Stately, but frantic when it comes to feeding. I wonder what a Reddish Egret would do if prescribed Ritalin. My hypothesis? Starve to death.

The challenges of dowitcher identification seem never-ending. This Short-billed Dowitcher, which actually has a short bill, is probably a male. A few things to note on this bird are the spotting on the sides, steep forehead and gentle (yet noticeable) decurve of the mandible. South Padre Island, TX.

Another Short-billed. Take a look at this comprehensive article on dowitcher ID, you might learn a thing or two.

Like Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Least Grebe is one of the birds that brings in birders from all corners of the country. They're not much to look at compared to some of the valley specialties, but if that doesn't put you off you can get a hell of a look at Sabal Palm Sanctuary (where this bird was photographed).

Hard to get better looks than this.

I failed to photograph Speckled Racer on this day, so this Rio Grande Leopard Frog (I think) will have to do. Sabal Palm Sanctuary, TX.

Look at these nerds crawling around in the mud. I feel bad for the girl they dragged along, through the mud, who has to carry their shit. Crazy photogs.

Sandy Thoughts, Key Westerly Shots

I am now the proud owner of a decent Black-and-white Warbler picture. As far as I know Black-and-whites are completely unique in their nuthatchish lifestyle, but I wonder if there isn't an obscure Central or South American warbler that has the same act. Zachary Taylor State Park, Key West, FL.

With both the birding and nonbirding media squarely focused on Hurricane Sandy and associated storms, we here at BB&B feel it must be addressed. First and foremost, I hope all you Northeasterners, birders and nonbirders alike, weathered the storm successfully. It sounds like the storm-waifing was quite good...quite a few birds that were shifted about due to the "Frankenstorm" would be life birds for me. But, of course, lifer-envy is tempered by the significant loss of life and the vast destruction loss and destruction of property that occurred in multiple states.

I really wonder how long our elected deniers of climate change (whom, in my opinion, may as well believe the earth is flat) can publicly continue to stay the course of ignorance. Yes, it is politically expedient in some places to either deny or ignore global warming (as Sir David Attenborough recently noted), but climate scientists are increasingly able to put the pieces together about why the United States seems to be rocked with more and more extreme weather....the obvious answer is, you guessed it, climate change. Scientific American has a great article up on climate change and hurricanes, and why the magnitude of the Sandy Frankenstorm can be directly linked to the loss of Arctic sea ice. I do not doubt that the United States and other nations will act significantly on climate change, but I am fearful of what habitat (for wildlife and humanity) will have been destroyed or seriously altered by the time this happens. Lastly, I will make the obvious point that if this is something you think is important, you should be screaming from the rooftops (perhaps in a flooded neighborhood, where this is the best means of communicating) that no one in their right mind should be voting for Mitt or any Republican candidate in the upcoming election...as Mitt bluntly put it for all of us in the first presidential debate, "I'm not in this race to slow the rise of oceans or heal the planet."

But I digress. Here is another moderate-sized glut of Key West pics. Bird onward.

Great Crested Flycatcher. This bird has the typical big flesh-colored patch at the base of the bill, unlike the bird Christian nailed (with his eyes) in Santa Cruz County (CA) earlier this fall. Indigenous Park, Key West, FL.

Short-tailed Hawks (year bird) were surprisingly not hard to come by. All but one of them that I saw were dark-morphed individuals, which for South Florida are pretty unique looking...they have a very different shape than the only other dark Buteo that is likely to be found in the state (Broad-winged Hawk). Key West Botanical Gardens, Stock Island, FL.

Great White Herons were easy to find in the keys...hard to believe this white thing is the same species as Great Blue Heron. I like the big rusty patch that adds some character to this shot. Key West, FL.

Note the bluish face and heavy bill, good ways to tell these apart from Great Egrets.

The pale legs also set these apart from Great Egrets, although as you can see this bird must not have read the field guides before it came out of the egg.

This monstrosity is a very old Green Iguana. Once they reach a certain age they cease looking like something that is real. Zachary Taylor State Park.

This thing was pretty wild. It looks like a party. Uberblogger Nate Swick informs me it is a Roseate Skimmer. Key West Botanical Gardens.

My only Rose-breasted Grosbeak (year bird) of the trip. This bird acted less like a grosbeak and more like a Connecticut Warbler...a true master of the Skulk & Lurk. Indigenous Park.

Northern Waterthrush is a common bird in the keys, but it can still take some effort to get a good look at one. Finding them is easy though...they are loud and have a distinct call, and have a penchant for taunting birders from the mangroves. Photographed at Indigenous Park.

I took several dozen pictures of this bird at a high ISO, and only came out with a handful of usable pictures. Besides being a denizen of the shadows, the constant tail-bobbing didn't make things any easier. You win this round, waterthrush.

Believe it or not, I have actually taken pictures of humanoids from time to time. This is Booby Brittany on vacay.