Birding and Hiking along the Leisurely Trip to Belize City

Jonathan met us at the Dangriga Airstrip and we began birding right away. The weather seemed to be clearing up a bit, but Jonathan told us that the Hummingbird Highway was very rainy with a low ceiling of heavy clouds - not great conditions for birding in the jungle. We dallied along the shore, giving the weather a chance to clear off in the mountains.

Setting up the spotting scope.

Jonathan very kindly took some digiscope shots with my phone camera through his spotting scope.  Here is a series of a very distant great egret as it leaves it rocky perch in the sea.

The vignetting is due to the edge of scope's eye piece.  

Scoping out the birds on the sandbar.

The birds on the sandbar were not bothered at all by our presence, probably because they felt protected by the expanse of water separating us.  Lots of good birds out there.

A group of 7 or so little sanderlings, a black-bellied plover, and a laughing gull having a bath.

A royal tern (lower right) joined them, as did a couple of sandwich terns which are not in this image.

A couple of my favorite sightings of the day were a tricolor heron and a willet.  Alas, no photos.

We moved on to St. Herman's Blue Hole National Park.  Along the highway we set up the scope to see this lovely bird - a white-tailed kite.  These are digiscoped photos that Jonathan took with my phone and his scope.

Look at that fierce face!

Fluffing up against the cold dampness.

The weather was not cooperating and you can see that we struggled with visibility.  But you work with what you get in birding.

The nest of a royal flycatcher.

We heard and had glimpses of many birds at St. Herman's, but with the drizzle and low light, photos were hard to come by.  In the distance we could hear a keep-billed toucan, but didn't even manage a glimpse.  We did get good looks at several hummingbirds - a stripe-throated hermit, a wedge-tailed sabrewing, and a white-bellied emerald.  Also watched a very active lineated woodpecker on a tree just next to the hiking trail.  We hurried back to the van as the drizzle turned to actual rain and continued on our way.  After lunch in Belmopan, the weather cleared a bit, and we paid a visit to one of my favorite places in the world - Belize Bird Rescue.  That stop will get its very own post very soon, maybe tomorrow.  Then it was time to get on the George Price highway toward Belize City with a birding stop at Captain Hook's Shrimp Farm while we waiting for our "to go" shrimp dinner to be prepared.

Looking out over the shrimp ponds near dusk.

Jonathan spotted a clapper rail along the bank of the pond.

They aren't rare, but they are rarely seen.  I was thrilled to watch this bird through the scope as it preened.

We also had great looks at another tricolor heron, green heron, great and little blue herons, yellow-crowned night herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, lesser scaups, anhinga, white ibis,  These birds love their shrimp!

In all we saw or heard 62 different bird species.  And we got to our hotel in time for Becki to have her departure covid test before we ate our shrimp dinners relaxing by the hotel's pool.