I was so amazed by the first one I saw, I just sat down in a pool chair and watched it flit around an umbrella for twenty minutes completely amazed. I was glad I found another to photograph, because I've done nothing but stare at these photos for the last two weeks.
There are blue birds, and then there are Blue-gray tanagers.
“Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you.” B.B. King
I never really thought of an anthropomorphic, fictional toucan from the cardboard cereal boxes of my youth as a spark bird until this trip to Belize. I used to stare at Toucan Sam on the Froot Loops box in stores and dream of eating those sweet loops and seeing a bird like that some day.
I got exactly one decent photo of the Orange-breasted falcon in Tikal, Guatemala! Just enough to confirm I saw one of the rarest falcons on earth. These birds are already naturally low density, and habitat loss and human conflict are just rapidly reducing their already small numbers.
Yep, the hotel manager was working the overnight and inadvertently checked someone into our room. I think it scared both of us equally.
Nothing will wake you up like the sound of someone coming through your hotel room door at 11 pm. I did not know I could still move that fast as I blasted off the bed and body slammed the door before they could step through.
Apparently it’s two ibis or two ibises. I’m going to say I was conserving words rather than taking a wild stab in the dark.
A tricolored heron puts on his best predator display for the camera near San Pedro, Belize.
Just caught a roseate spoonbill and two white ibis disappearing around a corner at a pond near my hotel. Today was a good bird day. I think I got half the plovers I didn’t yet have.
Goofing off in the Portland airport on our way to Belize.
www.tiktok.com/t/ZThvMRhRF/
These signs are all over Belize. For good reason. If you ignore them, you will likely take out the undercarriage of your car or golf cart.
Sitting in a bar
Me: The signs kind of remind me of the mosque signs in Central Asia without minerets.
Dude at bar: They look like boobs, man, like boobs.
I’ve been having trouble finding birding guides on Ambergris Caye, even though the birding here is spectacular. So, I hired a fishing guide to take me birding in the Bacalar Chico National Marine Reserve. And he found us manatee!!! Different kind of lifer, but I’ll take it.
As I was heading out for a walk along the river, I peeked out the back door of the hotel and turned on Merlin Bird ID for a second just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. It immediately registered a Keel-billed toucan, and I dropped everything. Target birds aquired!
A gartered violaceous trogon for Monday morning. This beauty was buzzing the tower at the hotel and getting hazed by Kiskadees.
I made it to Tikal National Park in Guatemala today, and I’m reminded that these archeological sites continue to tell us new stories to this day. I did not see a Keel-billed toucan for day 2, but you guys, I did see an Orange-breasted falcon!!!
Had breakfast with a Durante of Collared aracaris today,after finding around 35 new bird species, to me, on the San Ignacio Hotel Resort grounds. Skipping the lifer pie today and going straight to the Cuban cigar.
First Belizean bird - Lessen’s mot mot.
Country number 57 - Belize
Someone left a small gift bag on our doorstep yesterday. It was a beautiful ryshnik, (Ukrainian ceremonial embroidery) and I believe it’s because I have flown a Ukrainian flag outside my home for every day of the war. It holds meaning for others who can’t be as vocal as I can.
Got to watch a master class in catching big smallmouth bass in winter on the Columbia today. We were targeting walleye, but these smallies were like, not today.
I have seen this branch. I have never seen this branch with a bird on it. I should probably go to CL more often.
See, that I understand. Apparently, I don’t sing along as much as I just incessantly talk to myself. My entire inner dialogue is external.
Things I’ve learned about myself lately. I cannot use Apple’s conversation awareness mode on their earbuds due to the fact that I talk to myself entirely too much.
I was unaware of just how often I talk to myself until I switched this mode on.
The time has come to fly south again. Who knows what’s good in Belize and Guatemala? We’ve spent some time in Sayulita, MX the last few years but we’re pushing our adventures further south into Central America this year.
Who likes ramen eggs (Ajitsuke Tamago)?
Working on a Slavic food story, so my son and I jetted over to Bend for some of our favorite pierogis.
Thank you!
Watching the country react to the halftime show of Super Bowl 60 was a fascinating look at our own quest cultural significance.
Have a read and subscribe.
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I look for the exceptional over the glamour of the ordinary. I’m probably not alone in that. I will look for extraordinary plumage or character and ignore the Brewer’s black bird and its glowing eye and otherworldly, green, iridescent tibia even as it sits in the sun at a truck stop.
