Clarice and I recently returned from a good trip to Belize. This was my
fifth and her fourth time in Belize (my first was when it was British
Honduras) but it was the first time we extensively birded there. This
was a Victor Emanuel trip with Victor and Barry Zimmer. I'll try not to make
this sound like a VENT catalogue description of the area, but I will say I
was happy with their services.

I have been impressed with the Belizean efforts at accomodating eco
tourists, and with their efforts at preserving natural habitats along with
their rapid modernization. This is no longer the same country it was in
Aldus Huxley's ("if the earth had ends...") days. The Belize Audubon Society
has worked hard to involve its countrymen in sensing some value (economic or
otherwise) in setting aside preserves, and it seems to be paying off when
compared with the neighboring countries.

We went first to Chan Chich, a couple of miles east of the Guatemalan border
in the northwest corner of the country. Its a comfortable lodge in the plaza
of a small Maya ceremonial site just west of Gallon Jug. Gallon Jug is a
refurbished logging camp that had been abandoned just before the 1960's or
so. Now its airstrip has been rebuilt and it has a post office and school,
but nothing much else other than caretakers and laborers. What looks like
about a few hundred acres directly around Gallon Jug is totally in
agriculture, including shaded coffee plantations and sugar cane, and there
are very wide swaths cleared along the roads. I believe the whole town is
owned by the same family that owns Chan Chich. Outside of the agricultural
area, the forest looks in good shape. It is pretty much all well
established second growth, but it is dense, big, and unbroken for miles.
About seven miles north of Gallon Jug is the Rio Bravo Conservation district,
which buffers the Chan Chich land from the Mennonites around Blue Creek.

I would not call it rain forest (Chan Chich gets about 60 inches a year and
has a severe dry season from around January through May; the lodge manager
told me that in May its so dry that nothing much moves in the forest, and
they worry about forest fires from the field burning-- the lodge wouldn't
last out a forest fire and this is not an area where you could get help
easily). Some of the forest west of the lodge is short, scrubby, tropical
thickets, reminiscent of lots of south Texas. Most of it, however, is
wonderful big trees which, while not "jungle" like La Selva in Costa Rica, is
quite impressive.

A refreshing sign (for Central America) is the lack of hunting pressure.
Anyone who has been to Tikal has seen ocellated turkeys on the park grounds,
but here you see them in the bush, as well as great curassow, crested guan,
and spotted wood-quail. You can spend a lot of time in Mexico without seeing
a currasow outside of a pot. Big raptors are doing well, including ornate
hawk eagles nesting close to the roads. I can't resist a list: king vulture,
gray headed kite, hook billed kite, swallow tailed kite, double toothed kite,
plumbeous kite, white tailed kite, crane hawk, white hawk, great black hawk,
gray hawk, roadside (of course) hawk, short tailed hawk, black and white hawk
eagle, laughing falcon, barred forest falcon, bat falcon, and even kestrels
in the open area around Gallon Jug.

The place of course is full of all the little skulkers that follow the ants
and hide in the thickets. There are some pretty special treats like rose
throated tanager and gray throated chat. I have to admit partiality,
however, to all the little migrants that are gleaning bugs from above the
creek banks: white eyed, and red eyed vireo, blue winged warbler, Tennessee
warbler, northern parula, yellow, chestnut sided, magnolia, yellow rumped,
black throated green, yellow throated, black and white, worm eating,
Kentucky, hooded, Canada, and even Cape May warblers, and lots of American
redstarts, ovenbirds, both kinds of waterthrush, and common yellowthroats.
One high point: spending the evening watching most all of these come down to
a pool in a creek to bathe, fussing with the locals like the thrush like
mourners and preening and fluffing on all the twigs. Then a purple crowned
fairy would hover in, lower its tiny landing gear, and dip its tummy in the
pool, buzz up and back down and completely submerge itself, then hover and
show off its colors. Didn't hurt to have an agami heron and a sungrebe on the
same creek.

After Chan Chich we went to Crooked Tree, a wonderful wetland whose shallow
areas are crammed with life. Pygmy kingfishers like flashlights in the edges
of the thickets, beautiful black collared hawks, collared forest falcons, and
snail kites in the thousands.

We used a local guide who had two boats, and got a good tour of the jabiru,
wood stork, and muscovy duck stomping grounds. This of course is
entertainment, and its hard not to admire his efforts when he showed off
"his" peregrines. A male and female falcon had obviously become used to the
fact that the coots would try to fly from the boat, and would leave their
posts in hunting flights that matched our speed perfectly, requiring the
peregrines to artificially put on the brakes over the boats so as to not get
too far ahead. The female kicked it in to high gear after spotting a flock
of coots in open water, stooping several times as they dove and eluded her.
Of course the guide was watching for that and helpfully slipped the boat in.
Finally one coot got too rattled and tried to take off. Even despite the
artificiality of the setting, it is the only time I have ever been directly
below a peregrine when it folded its wings, built up speed, and applied power
just at the right time to snag a coot about two feet above the water-- and it
was a thrill to watch.

Other good times were had in the pine oak forest just west of crooked tree,
with Yucatan jays and acorn woodpeckers. We also saw something I have looked
for many times in Mexico, but have long ago given up on due to the
persecution. There were a pair of yellow headed amazons in a fig tree.
Though we've seen other pet trade birds like scarlet macaws in Mexico, I
never thought I'd see yellow heads still making it outside of cages.

Finished up the trip snorkling at Ambergris Caye. Tough life.
-------------------------------------
Name: Jerry Broadus
jbroadus at seanet.com
901-16th. St S.W.
Puyallup, Wa. 98371
206-845-3156
Time: 20:18:56