Belize! Part V: Black Rock Lodge

Belize! It wasn't that long ago, but it kinda seems like it? So much good 5MR birding since then! Anyways, to continue with the Belize trip...after leaving the Tropical Education Center/Belize Zoo Jungle Lodge and the pine savanna behind, it began to get serious. As we headed west, actual hills and topography began to appear, which we had seen no sign of until then. The flat, lightly-treed savanna gave way to forests...we were now in a very different part of the country. I was amazed to see a Black Hawk-Eagle cruising low over the road while passing through San Ysidro, as I had only seen one before and that one was something like a thousand feet higher in the sky. We were on our way to Black Rock Lodge, one of the most heavily birded sites in the country, where we would spend five luxurious (by my scumbag standards) nights. Black Rock offers great birding on their property along the Macal River (and along their entrance road), and is situated within an hour of a number of other birding hotspots - I would highly recommend it to anyone who plans to bird in the greater San Isidro area or western part of the country.

We arrived in the area pretty early so decided to detour to DuPlooy's Jungle Lodge for lunch. DuPlooy's, which has been recently bought out and renamed Sweetwater or something like that, is another well known birding site and is also adjacent to the Belize Botanic Gardens. I had looked into staying there, but the price was considerably higher than what Black Rock offered, and Black Rock seemed to have comparable if not better birding on site. Lunch was mellow - outside and way up in the forest canopy. I was amazed to see that there was a group of tame Red-throated Ant-Tanagers coming in to check out the trash and lunch plates left behind by guests. This would be the first of 25,000 occasions I wished my camera had not stopped working...we also had good looks at Golden-crowned Warblers from the dining deck, which we would not end up seeing anywhere else.

It was hot and we were too busy with Annie to attempt any actual birding except to and from the car, so it was straight to Black Rock after that. The drive in is a mix of pastures and young forest until the road comes close to the Macal River, and after that the forest closes in for the rest of the very scenic drive (see above photo).

So, as you know I don't have dozens of crushes to share or anything like that, so will abandon any linear narrative here and just mention some of the birds and experiences from the Black Rock area.

I got 10 life birds at Black Rock, which I will list in increasing order of stoke: White-bellied Emerald (common), Ornate Hawk Eagle (poor looks at an immature), Sepia-capped Flycatcher (one and only of the trip), Ruddy Woodcreeper (much more interesting than the average woodcreeper), Northern Schiffornis (heard a great many, got really good looks at one), Dusky Antbird (two or three), Black-crowned Tityra (one on the entrance road), Ocellated Turkey (saw one individual on two occasions on the entrance road), Black-and-white Hawk Eagle (one seen from the farm area by the river), Red-capped Manakin (several, all males).

The manakins were just absolutely crippling and one in particular was absurdly tame. I was floored. Full on birdgasm...that one left a mark. I had kind of forgotten how fantastic manakins are, but the Red-cappeds here (and some confiding White-collared Manakins) rekindled my love. Black-and-white Hawk Eagles are very uncommon and could have easily been missed even if I had specifically been looking for them, and I fully expected to miss them entirely...but amazingly I had high quality looks at one soaring above the Makal River one afternoon. Looking at eBird data, this was the rarest lifer I got on the trip. The turkey was a big bonus, one of the most charismatic birds on the continent.  While they are common and easy to see in a number of places in Belize, none of those places were actually on the itinerary, so this was a significant bonus lifer.

My incapacitated camera briefly came back to life for a few minutes one afternoon. A flock of Olive-backed Euphonias obliged for the occasion.

This is one of a number of species I saw in Belize that I had only seen previously in Costa Rica back in 2012-2013. Many euphonias can be challenging to ID, but male Olive-backeds are really distinctive.

And with this Yellow-bellied Flycatcher photo, the camera fell back into a coma and I was once again free to bird unencumbered. Both Yellow-bellied and Least Flycatchers were fairly common and widespread; I did not see any other Empidonax.

Now back to your regularly scheduled digiscoping...geri birding anyone? The big fruit feeder at Black Rock's veranda brings in quite a bit of goodness, like this Yellow-winged Tanager. Oddly, I didn't see anything at the couple of hummingbird feeders they have up, I feel like there is some (substantial?) untapped geri birding potential there. Other stuff that came to the feeding platform included Collared Aracaris, Brown Jays, Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Red-legged Honeycreepers, Variable Seedeaters and Olive-backed and Yellow-throated Euphonias.

This Tropical Pewee was remarkably faithful to using this stick as a launchpad for sallies...forest flycatchers aren't exactly the easiest digiscoping targets so I was surprised to get a few hey-this-isn't-total-rubbish photos through the scope.

Other non-lifer highlights of Black Rock:

White-whiskered Puffbirds. There are so many White-whiskered Puffbirds here. Many of them are ridiculously approachable. They are just begging to be crushed, imploring anyone who passes by to photograph them to their heart's content. I did not know such a bird could be so common and confiding.

Raptors. The raptor scene here is something else. Aside from the lifers mentioned above, we also had Black Hawk Eagle (yes, got the Hawk Eagle Hat Trick here), Great Black Hawks, White Hawks, Gray Hawk, Roadside Hawks (entrance road), White-tailed Kites (entrance road), Bat Falcons (hunting dragonflies over the canyon every day - one of the guides said they were Orange-breasted, how embarrassing), King Vulture (regular) and of course the common vultures. Bring your scope to lunch! I somehow managed to not go up the canopy tower, though I fully intended to, and that is probably a fantastic place to scan for raptors from late morning through the afternoon.

The Vaca Falls Trail. This is a very easy, fairly long trail that I spent a lot of time on. I never got bored with it - very, very good birding, and not just in the morning. There is also a great side trail just past the single unlocked gate that you have to open and close to get through, which cuts southwest (to your right) through the forest and rejoins the main trail again further upstream. Be warned that the trail map of the property they provide you with is awful.

Guides. Other than the falcon miscue (and there really is a pair of Orange-breasted in the area, though I did not see them) all my interactions with the guides were very good, even though I never ended up going birding with one...in retrospect, I would have in order to access Elijio Panti NP and see Tody Motmot and maybe Nightengale Wren. Freddie gave me the lowdown on how to see Ocellated Turkey and I pretty much owe him for that bird.

Food. The food was very good, generally increasing in quality as it got later in the day...the dinners were great. I wasn't so in to the communal eating thing (I hate people) but they are all about accommodating the shit out of their guests there, so if you want your group to have your own table I'm sure that can be arranged most nights. Since we had a toddler that's all we did after the first awkward/disastrous dinner there.

One day we headed out to Thousand Foot Falls on Mountain Pine Ridge to check out that area, which is a very unique habitat. I had read a lot of trip reports that mentioned how gnarly the roads there can get after a lot of rain, but we had no problem with the Isuzu and only engaged the 4-wheel drive for a particularly large puddle right before the waterfall. We ended up not birding much on Mountain Pine Ridge but, most importantly, saw one of the resident Orange-breasted Falcons, which the resident caretaker correctly predicted would be visible perched on a far ridgeline after the clouds coming up out of the valley cleared. I was very grateful to have the scope with me here, as otherwise it would have just been a raptor-shaped speck. And yes, it was a high quality waterfall.

Gratuitous family photo with cloud-cloaked waterfall.

Eventually the view changed from a dense cloud bank to a faraway falcon - this is the view from the Thousand Foot Falls overlook.

On the way back from Mountain Pine Ridge we stopped at Green Hills Butterfly Ranch, which we wanted to check out because Annie could see a bazillion butterflies close up and because it is considered the best place to see hummingbirds in the entire country. It was pretty expensive (I think $20 U.S. per adult) but the butterfly propagation operation they have going on is pretty interesting and the hummingbird situation was as advertised.

With my crusher dead, I had to digiscope for photos, which was ridiculous since many of the birds were comfortable with people standing 10 or 15 feet away. Crushing FOMO was raging but there was nothing to be done except for wallow in the midst of exotic hummingbirds. White-necked Jacobins (left and center) were by far the most abundant species, which I had no problems with because they are facemelting and I have only seen a few before. A hulking Long-billed Hermit (right) or two frequently visited also.

Here is a White-bellied Emerald, of which there were several. The other hummingbirds here were Rufous-tailed (obvi), Wedge-tailed Sabrewing, several Violet Sabrewings (great to see those again) and a couple Green-breasted Mangos. Birders who come visit in spring and summer will probably see the pair of Plumbeous Kites that nest there annually, though we were too early for them. There is good forest birding on the property in general, though we did not check out the trails.

White-necked Jacobins are widely distributed and aren't particularly rare in many parts of their range...but they are absolute cripplers! I had to get a facelift after having so many buzz around my head, as my skin partially melted off from their sheer brilliance.

Army ants! I love army ants. They are the faunal spice of the Neotropics. This swarm was on the march a couple different days near the parking area while we were at Black Rock...in fact, while we were leaving, the managers were getting to ready to abandon their office because it was getting overrun by the swarm! If you think honey badger don't give a fuck (remember that?), wait until you meet an army ant column. The attendant bird flock didn't hold anything crazy but it was pretty sweet nonetheless. A couple of guides commented when the swarm first appeared that it was probably going to rain the next day...which sounded bizarre...but they turned out to be right. I am a believer now...army ants predict the weather. You show me ants, and I will show you rain.

People Are Going To Work While We're Getting Cock-Eyed

Upland Sandpiper. Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Montana

In the spirit of Unemployment, I am beginning my morning with some Jim Beam Rye in my coffee. This seems like a proper way to celebrate Thursday.

Today, I offer you no cohesive theme whatsoever, but I do like all of these photos. The sandpiper was one of only 2 out of god-knows-how-many that I saw over the summer (love that prairie) that allowed for close approach. They are life-enhancing birds.

Yellow-winged Tanger. Chavarrillo, Mexico.

This is one of the many Yellow-winged Tanagers that dropped by our hawk counting tower and provided some extra entertainment. They seem well adapted to towns and are easy to come by...maybe one will pop into Texas some day.

Great Blue Heron. San Francisco, CA.

This bird was foraging at the Sutro Baths, ruins of an old bathhouse right on the beach.

TOAD. Chavarrillo, Mexico.

A toadular creature. I have no idea what sort (TELL ME). There were a few living in a little watering hole for livestock outside of town.

Sandhill Crane. Camas National Wildlife Refuge, ID.

I stopped at Camas last May on my way to North Dakota. I had never heard of the place before, but it was full of birds that wanted me to observe the crap out of them. A few cranes were hanging around, including one on a nest.

That's all for today....I've got to finish my 10,000 Birds post and get the rest of Cassowary's interview up...no rest for the wickedly nerdy.

Fight The Mustache Power

Yellow-breated Chat. Hello, Yellow-breasted Chat.

There has been a lot of controversy lately over my mustache. Is it cool? Is it good? Is it hideous? Is it even real? I cannot answer those questions, although I can confirm that it is, in fact, real. Being exactly 50% Korean, it is not the best mustache in the world. It's not really as thick as a proper mustache should be, which I attribute to my Asianness. But its there. This is only the second time Ive grown one. The first was on Buldir Island in 2010. Considering the number of people there (only 4 of us at one point), I could care less about what people would think of my mustachial stripe (thats a bird joke, folks). I was determined to grow a mustache, no matter what the price I had to pay in dignity. We had a competition going between different Aleutian field camps to see who could grow the worse facial hair, and I knew I was a strong competitor. 

After getting picked up by the boat and shaving my disgusting neckbeard off, I wore the celebrated 'stache back on the mainland briefly to a variety of reactions. Some were gleeful. Others could be summed up in one quote: "Oh my god, dude. That thing is fucking ugly." I would like to add that this is the first thing that this person said to me since I last saw him 3 months before. Anyways...I decided to dispense with it before I left Alaska.

One of the neighborhood Yellow-winged Tanagers.

Northbound Swainson's Hawk.

Even before the Chavarrillo gig, I knew that my godawful mustache would be making another appearance. Again, it was mostly because people don't really care about things like mustache-quality in small town Mexico. And there it was, sprouting up again like a patch of some obnoxious weed. None of the Mexicans thought it was very unusual or especially gross....but I knew the truth. I found that Mexicans either could not grow anything remotely resembling a 'stache, or they could grow totally awesome ones. I was the only person in the country standing in the middle mustache ground.

And so it remains today. As I said, mixed reviews, with people probably just lying to my face. Some probably complement it out of politeness. Others say its disgusting, but are strangely drawn to it. It's difficult to know for sure.

Oso the Lazy Dalmation.

Those are all Mississippi Kites. Sweet. 

Just a dude practicing his flame-thrower skills on a pig. No big deal.

Monday. The worst day of the week. For unemployed people like myself, it is probably the smuggest day of the week, because we can keep the Perpetual Weekend going. We can drink too much the night before, we can go birding in the morning, or preferably both. The possibilities are endless, really. However, we do have sympathy for our poor friends who have to return to their corporate prison cells for the week, so Monday does carry a somber air at times.

Here is some reading material for you. Congressman Mike Quigly has introduced legislation to make federal buildings bird-safe. If passed, this could prevent the deaths of scores of birds that collide with buildings every year. British prime minister David Cameron has accomplished practically nothing in terms of enacting green/environmental legislation. What rubbish! In more positive news, a new species of storm-petrel has been discovered off the coast of Chile, and the massive rat genocide on South Georgia Island seems to be going well. Finally, the world's current celebrity Mallard is nesting at a Giant Eagle supermarket in Ohio.

There you have it. No more birding outings since Mexico, but there is much more to tell. I'll pick up the camera again this weekend when I visit venture capitalist The Grub and the human neutron Neutral Drew at Mono Lake, which is widely known as one of the best places in the world. And then...North Dakota! 

Black-throated Green Warbler.

The Heat And The Clear Blue Skies

One of the many, many Broad-winged Hawks that passed overhead this spring.

April 15, 2011. We are near the end of the peak migration period here, and as an estimate have recorded well over 230,000 migrants so far…I would like to exceed 250,000 before I leave in two weeks, but I’m pretty stoked on what we’ve done here. Last year’s total for this site was under 156,000 for the whole season, so that swells my inner nerd with pride. Especially since I was surprised to find myself being the Lead Counter. That’s a lot of time up on the tower. A LOT. I now feel impervious to the effects of sunlight and shall never get sunburned ever again.

Looking southeast from Swainson's Hawk Bird Observatory.

I was lucky enough to see three (3) Swallow-tailed Kites sail past over the last few days. Things have not been the same ever since. The aesthetic hegemony Swallow-tailed Kites have over almost all other life forms cannot be denied. I look forward to meeting more of them.

Some Mexicans lounging around at sunrise. At top, a Yellow-winged Tanager, a Social Flycatcher on the right and a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher below.

The Mississippi Kites appear and disappear with a flourish. I only became acquainted them during the Summer Of Steve Y2K9, while crossing the country from Ventura, CA to Somerset, PA. Here, like the Turkey Vultures, Broad-winged and Swainson’s Hawks, they can form huge swarms on their journey north. But, they are swarms of joy, flocks of facemelt, kettles of ecstasy. They move with such style and unpredictably that they are the funnest thing to watch here. When they decide to quit a thermal and hed north, they all move in a huge mass, instead of breaking off one bird at a time like the others do. When they stop to take the elevator to the top of the next thermal, they usually take their time more than the birds, so they spend a little more time with us before they continue to seek the horizon. May you be fortunate to meet some of these birds in the coming weeks.

Seagull Steve with the budding mustache of spring (how embarrassing).

Things are simple now…I am in the proverbial groove. I no longer am the only one on the tower every day, which is nice (although I have taken to sleeping next to it, under the stars). My counting skills are reaching a peak accuracy. I have achieved that rare state of mind to expect the unexpected (a necessity here). Plans have been made for my departure and how to do some bonus coastal birding. Now if only my stomach can muster the strength to make it through….

California does sound good now. Friends, music, girls, cool weather….especially food. Different food. A myriad of foods. Lots of fresh things. Salads. Comida sin tortillas. No more fucking mystery meat! The disappointment amongst the two gueros here is quite tangible when a bizarre looking plate is amiably plopped down in front of us.

Gringo 1: “What is this?”
Gringo 2: “Um, intestines.”
Gringo 1: “What is it from?”
Gringo 2: (sighs) “It doesn’t matter.”.

A juvenile Brown Jay in the killing tree. The Mexican name for Brown Jays is Pepe. Something to ponder.

I won’t do a lot of birding while I’m back in California but I think I’ll be wielding the Leicas over at Mono Lake for a day or two, which is something I highly recommend. When you get to town, just ask anybody where The Grub lives and he will show you many Sage Grouse and purchase you great quantities of drink. For free of course…he is a philanthropist of sorts. Everyone knows him.

When I do get out birding here, its difficult to complain. I got my lifer Barred Antshrike today (finally!) and, unexpectedly, my first Red-legged Honeycreeper. The image of that bird is seared into my retinas (which feels good), and is not something I will soon forget. I also got to add Canevet’s Emerald, Spot-bellied Wren and Blue Mockingbird to my Chavarrillo list this morning.

Wow. This was a really bird-heavy post. Hope everyone’s ok.

Exult My Friendships And Line Up The Bottles

Yellow-winged Tanager!

Hello birders of the world. Today is Monday, March 21, 2011. I’ve been stationed in Chavarrillo for over 3 weeks now, and things that have originally seemed very Mexican are now becoming very normal….for good or ill. The acclimation my past self had warned me of seems to be sinking in. For example, piles of garbage strewn about field, wood and stream are no longer depressing, they are just a part of my ongoing background feeling of malaise now. The gaping hole in the dungeon wall that could loosely be called a window delivers all matter of debris when the wind is up and a healthy number of mosquitoes when the wind is down. Small pieces of cement rain down upon me in my cot at all times. In response to these stimuli, I have subconsciously decided to become an overall dustier person with an acute paranoia of mosquitoes. Why not?

Overall, everything has become less intense, with the exceptions of a couple food incidents (it turns out I can’t stomach menudo, big surprise there). I’m on familiar terms with a lot of the locals and my Spanish comprehension and speaking skills have marginally improved. The big difference is the birds. There are thousands of Turkey Vultures, Swainson’s Hawks and Broad-winged Hawks moving north now in a steady push, as well as a few other new migrant species (Hook-billed Kite, American Kestrel, American White Pelican, Anhingas to name a few). Yesterday I counted over 15,600 individuals, over 10,000 of which were Swainson’s Hawks, answering The Great Call that urges them north to the United States every year. Single flocks can number thousands of birds that melt the face with some intensity.
I have still not been lucky enough to pick up any Crane Hawks or Swallow-tailed Kites, but my bird-faith is running strong. Maybe it’s a good thing…obtaining good views of either of these species could cripple me…convulsions, blindness, projectile vomiting…as it has been said before…the possibility of complete mental and physical collapse Is Very Real…

I have not been keeping track of my year list for El Año Tranquilo, but it is coming along at a steady pace….the Life Birds are more fun to follow along with at this point…this morning I was shocked to see some Grey-necked Wood-Rails scampering around some shitty, almost completely drained irrigation ponds….not a bird I expected to see anytime soon. So sick. Before that…I believe Green-breasted Mango was the last life bird…after seeing a couple of those, I don’t think things will ever be the same. After a very belated viewing of Howell and Webb (the sacred text of birders in Mexico), I have a strong suspicion that I may have recently blundered into a Black-headed Trogon as well…

That’s where things seem to lie right now. I’ve been reading The Beak Of The Finch lately (after Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, which does a good job of not making heroin addiction sound particularly appealing). The book is solid, and is stoking a new kind of interest in Dawin and evolution in general for me. Most of all, I must get to the Galapagos Islands at some point….if anyone would like to sponsor a BB&B endeavor to the islands, I’m ready to go.