Birding the unbirded road. Blog #2

Yes another Crooked Tree blog. Like I said in the previous blog Crooked Tree is a birding hotspot and it's not just the egrets ,ibises, cormorants, storks and herons that call the lagoon and waterways home.We have vireos, warblers, woodpeckers and whole bunch of other "land dwelling" (I don't think land dwelling is a good term to describe birds) birds. Since I've begun birding I've failed at trying to class the village of Crooked Tree as one sole habitat. I mean it's primarily cashew trees? with Pine, Oak, Palmetto and even few patches of Broadleaf. This mixture offers some good birding.

Crooked Tree

Crooked Tree has been where I've done a lot my birding in my short time as a birder mainly because I spend a lot of time here, my grandfather was born and raised in Crooked Tree so I'm often visiting. I've been birding the same patches over and over so I decided to try somewhere different, there is this road know by the villagers as the Big Pond Road, before the highway was built it was used to connect the villages of Crooked Tree and Carmelita, now that there's a highway vehicular traffic is almost none existent. Perfect for birding!!!!

The beginning of the Big Road

I tried get out before sunrise but I wasn't successful, I managed to start my journey to the Big Pond Road at 5:30. Me and my cousin hopped on our beach cruisers and headed out, we had to ride about 15 minutes through the village before we reached the road.Yellow-green Vireos, Rufous-browed Peppershikes, Clay-colored Thrushes, Thick-billed Seedfinches and a Bright-rumped Attila all participated in the morning chorus.

Birding by beachcruiser

Female Thick-billed Seedfinch

We continued riding along until the sand got too thick for the bikes. We stashed the bikes in the bushes and continued by foot which in my opinion is the best way to bird. Olive Sparrows,White-bellied Wrens and Northern Cardinals were very much present along this road calling from within the brush and some bravely coming into the open. Pale-vented pigeons were quite common and even a few Barred Antshrikes were present with their awesome calls.

The sand got too thick for the bikes.

Not 1 but 3 Olive Sparrows

A very young Vermilion Flycatcher

The road narrows 

The road began to narrow and the vegetation began to change, less signs of humans? yes more birds? yes!!! We came upon what was supposed to be the big pond, the road's namesake but it was more of a marsh it did give me a good look at low flying Aplomado Falcon. A large Oak tree had a great mixed flock of birds such as White-bellied Wrens, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Spot-breasted Wrens, Scrub Euphonias, even a Northern Cardinal and a Buff-bellied Hummingbird were there, that was a treat to see all those birds in that one area.

A young Roadside Hawk

We continued on for a bit along the road but I stopped when a heard an almost mournful call, I listened some more just to be sure and it was certainly the call of a Collared Forest Falcon! in my book that a damn good bird for Crooked Tree. By this time the morning sun was starting to "lick" ( as we Belizeans would say) so we started our journey back passing by a young Roadside Hawk calling for its mom, a male Canivet's Emerald who almost hit me in the face (who doesn't like a feisty hummingbird?) , a Laughing Falcon way off in the distance, two species of warblers the migrant Yellow Warbler (Northern) and the local and very much at home in Crooked Tree Grace's Warbler.

Camp David was found on the way back.

This area was very good for birding it had some very intact pine-oak forest and a nice mix of species I managed to get 70 species but I did  miss some very easy birds to get in Crooked Tree like the Yucatan Jay (how did I miss this jay????)  and Yucatan Flycatcher.

I fear that it may not continue to be that way for years to come because of the fact that I found some property markers and large areas were already fenced off, I could also hear the trucks passing on the Phillip Goldson Highway. I hope when I come back to bird this area it isn't cleared out and made into a cattle pasture ( this seems to be the trend in Crooked Tree).

I believe that the village of Crooked Tree can benefit a lot from bird tourism. But currently from what I can see the village is against conservation which isn't good for the birds. But I believe there is hope that Crooked Tree will change and become a great example of how beneficial a community within a Wildlife Sanctuary can be rather than how detrimental it is.


eBird Checklist:

https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S38634548

Introduction, Birding Spanish Creek Blog #1

My name is Francis Canto Jr, I'm a birder 23 years old from the small Central American country of Belize hence the name of the blog, 501 is the phone code of Belize. I started seriously birding in late 2015 after an Urban Birdwatch organized by the Belize Audubon Society. After that I fell in love with birding and even more with photographing birds, since then I've birded in all of the districts in Belize, seen 415 species and photographed 325 of those species. I decided to start this blog to share my various birding adventures with other while showing them the importance of protecting the vulnerable environment we currently live in.

Crooked Tree: 

The Crooked Wildlife Sanctuary is located approx 33 miles north of Belize City. It is (or was) co-managed by the Belize Audubon Society, in 1998 it was declared as a Ramsar site based on its wetlands. Crooked is one of the best birding sites in Belize, lagoons, creeks and surrounding habitats offer a wide variety of bird life from the iconic Jabiru to the small inconspicuous White-bellied Wren.

Western Lagoon, Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary 

   

Map of the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary

Spanish Creek Sunday July 30th :

Mr Roni Martinez, known as the chief in Belizean birding circles organized a birding trip to Spanish Creek, it is located south of the Crooked Tree Village and is a creek connecting the Crooked Tree lagoon to the villages of Lemonal and Rancho Dolores.

The trip started off at the Bird's Eye View Lodge where I met up with the group :  Roni, Isaias, Melvin, Meshack, Ernest and Lenny the boat captain from the the lodge, we boarded the boat and headed south to Spanish Creek.

A view of the Southern Lagoon.

Before long we started to come across the regulars that are found around the lagoon, Limpkins, Snail Kites, Belted Kingfishers, Neotropic Cormorants we stopped to check out at Bare-throated Tiger Heron when the group noticed a small, brilliantly yellow passerine hopping about in one of the logwood plants along the lagoon, it was a Prothonotary Warbler one of my target birds for the this trip. But we didn't have only one Prothonotary Warbler we had a total of four in that area, they are some of the first migrants to arrive back in Belize, peak migration is right around the corner.

Limpkin

The brilliantly colored Prothonotary Warbler

We continue our southern journey along the lagoon , we passed what use to be called the "Crake Island" because it was almost guaranteed that you could find the Yellow-breasted Crake, one of the hardest birds to find in Belize, sadly today there was no crake, but we were greeted by a large rufous raptor possibly the most beautiful raptor in Belize, a young Black Collared Hawk. A fish eating raptor, the Black-collared Hawk is easily found in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary, I would go out on a limb and say that Crooked Tree has the largest population of Black-collared hawks in Belize.

I think he knows he's beautiful, Black-collared Hawk

The beautiful Black-collared Hawk

As we entered the Spanish Creek we scanned the banks for the elusive Agami Heron and the lily pads and floating vegetation for any signs of the crake no luck for either. But Spanish Creek did not disappoint we came across a nest building pair of Green Kingfishers, a small roosting colony of Boat-billed Herons, a molting, migrant Osprey ( Pandion haliaetus carolinensis) who probably decided to spend the winter in Crooked Tree ( I think he made the right choice). But it was not just birds we came across we found some huge Morelet's Crocodiles and one of their nests, a troop of Black Howler Monkeys and even a Mexican Tree Porcupine.

Spanish Creek

Part of the nest building duo of Green Kingfishers

Another very photogenic Black-collared Hawk

The Mexican Tree Porcupine wanted nothing to do with us. 

Osprey soaring above Spanish Creek

Heading back out from Spanish Creek we scanned some ideal habitat for the Yellow Breasted Crake, but again no luck. We did manage to find the extremely shy Sungrebe which gave a us a hard time, we were in and out of the vegetation trying to get a good look, we all had some good looks at it, I mean it's a Sungrebe it's worth the extra work to get a good look, no photos but there is always next time. A juvenile Great-black Hawk greeted us a we exited the creek back into the lagoon, that's definitely a sign that I should return as quick as possible. Spanish Creek is a beautiful and unique place, it's great for birders or anyone who just enjoys nature, it's diverse wildlife and scenic surroundings can definitely generate some income for the villagers of Crooked Tree in terms of tourism. They could offer boat or canoe tours and show off this beautiful place while also conserving it one of the reasons is that it's practically pristine, I hope we can keep it that way . We came across a couple fishing camps with some garbage but nothing too serious.

Morelet's Crocodile's nest containing 30+ eggs

Sometimes it's tough being alpha male

Black-headed Trogon on the water's edge

Juvenile Great-black Hawk

Cows in the lagoon.

A big thanks to Roni Martinez for making this trip possible.

eBird checklists:

Southern Lagoon

Spanish Creek

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for the next blog coming up soon.