Moon, Sun, Clouds, and Lunar Eclipse

We've been busy working on several projects.  Biggest one is repairs to our seawall and replenishing the sand on the beach after Hurricane Julia (no, not Lisa, Julia was the one before).   That will take a month or more of hard work by our crew to finish.  More fun is monitoring sea turtle nesting activity.   So far this year there have been 18 crawls, the most we have ever seen.  Of course that doesn't mean there are 18 actual nests; some crawls seem to be primarily exploratory.  I'll do a separate post on turtles once the season is over.  Another ongoing project is documenting birds and I am having great fun with the Merlin App using Sound ID.  They have recently added more Belize birds to the Sound ID feature.  

Did you know there was a lunar eclipse November 8?  The best viewing time for us was between 3:00 and 5:00am.  The sky was crystal clear at 2:00 and I got my first photo at 3:00 with just a tiny edge of darkness showing up.

This is with my phone.  Mitchell should have been here - his moon photos are superb!

Clouds were just beginning to show up and within 15 minutes, the view of the moon was blocked.  So that was it for me.  I went back to bed and didn't get up again to see if the clouds had blown over.  

Two days later, the moon was in her glory rising over Great Monkey Cay.

The moon is looking right at me!

Reflection on a calm sea.

Followed by the every day miracle of sunrise.

Also reflections on a calm sea.

When a light breeze comes from the west, the trees block the wind from the disturbing the surface of the water closest to shore - it can be almost mirror smooth at times.  A little farther out, and you can tell the sea is slightly ruffled.

This morning's sky view was of these super cool clouds.

Like UFOs.

Then all hell broke loose, so Clove and I made a mad dash for home.  No aliens, just 1/3rd an inch of rain in 15 minutes.  Always something exciting going on.

Paradise Indeed

Since getting that giant mess that washed ashore cleaned up, we have had some lovely weather showcasing the natural beauty of Englishtown, Belize.  The photos that follow were all taken in the last 3 days as we strolled along the beach and around our property.

Hermit Crab posing nicely for me.

In fact it was so still thought it might be dead!  But it skittered off a few minutes later.  These guys can move fast!

 We have a fair number of hermit crabs around here and a paucity of shells for them.  I have seen quite a few using small bottles, bottle caps, and even the cap to a marking pen as homes.  I recently found an article describing hermit crab behavior under conditions of shell paucity upon the sudden availability of a new empty shell that was larger than most of the crabs could use.  The crabs queued up in order of size, and once a large crab arrived that could use the new shell, the others would then all advance one shell size.  That was actually here in Belize and the article is here.  Very interesting - you should check it out and be sure watch the video!

A male hooded warbler has been keeping us entertained.  It hangs out around the cabana near the hibiscus shrubs and also in the space just under the cabana near where the water vats are located.  I have seen it perched on the handle of a wheelbarrow and on a flower pot.  Great fun to watch.

Tweety Bird pose.

Watching me watching him.

 The mountains of Honduras to our southeast were unusually visible yesterday.  Usually it is too hazy to see them, but the air was quite clear. 

Mountains of Honduras visible behind Little Monkey Cay.  If you look closely, you can see birds flying in to roost at Little Monkey Cay.  The cay is host to pelicans, magnificent frigate birds, great egrets, white ibises, and other birds.  This is the view from our dock.

 The nearly full moon was a glorious orange color as it rose last night.

It had just cleared the water at the horizon when I took this shot.

 I had been reading about the "staircase to the moon" that Broome, Australia is famous for and decided to see if I could get a staircase here.  I think this almost as good as what the Broome Visitor Centre shows on their website.  Take a look. 

Belize Stairway to the Moon.

 The sea stayed flat all night long and we awoke this morning to a mirror sea surface.

Look at the reflection of the sun peeking under the dock.  I love days that start like this.

I noticed the Tiger Heron out on the dock soon after I took the dawn photos.

All hunkered down.

As I got closer to it, it straightened up and then flew down the beach.  It has wandered up and down the beach several times today and we can hear it even now.

"Don't get too close, now!"

 I noticed its footprints in the sand and saw that something had left a little present for us.

More crap on the beach - literally!

And as I turned to walk back to the cabana, there was the moon again, beginning to set just over the new addition.

A great start to another day in paradise.