• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Second rate reporter says what?

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Let’s finish the job.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

We still have time to mess this up!

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road – Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!) – Belize, December 2021, Part 1: Birds of Pook’s Hill Lodge

On The Road – Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!) – Belize, December 2021, Part 1: Birds of Pook’s Hill Lodge

by WaterGirl|  April 1, 20225:00 am| 13 Comments

This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging

FacebookTweetEmail

On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

Our first trip for the “post COVID” period was planned last summer before the delta variant appeared and successfully took place just as omicron was starting. This was a combo birding and snokeling/beach sitting trip. We stayed at three lodges, Pook’s Hill Lodge, Chan Chich Lodge and Turneffe Flats Resort for 3 or 4 night each.

Part one Pook’s Hill Lodge in the jungle covered hills west of the Capital of Belmopan.

It’s a rather rough road in but the surrounding jungle gave us a wonderful warm tropical ambience. A pleasant change from Pennsylvania in December and I saw some gret life birds as well as good looks at some familiar jungle friends like the Keel-billed Toucan (Belize’s national bird)

On The Road - Mike S - Belize, December 2021 part one. Birds of Pook's Hill lodge 8
BelizeDecember 15, 2021

On one sunset walk I didn’t take my camera along, just my binoculars, because i figured it would be too dark for good pics, but this Keel-billed toucan perched high in a dead snag and basked in the light of the sunset and our great guides got him in their spotting scope and then took pics with everyone’s cell phones. I’m no good at digiscoping by hand holding my phone but they we’re great!

On The Road - Mike S - Belize, December 2021 part one. Birds of Pook's Hill lodge 7
Pook's Hill Lodge Belize

Parrot’s fly very fast and don’t often sit still where you can see the, but when they do it’s usually high in a tree with bad backlighting for photography! But I take what views these wonderful and quintessentially tropical birds offer. They are very social and always in pairs or flocks. This is a pair of Red-lored Parrots. (Note: a birds lores are the spaces on the front of their face between their eyes and their nostrils at the base of their bills.)

On The Road - Mike S - Belize, December 2021 part one. Birds of Pook's Hill lodge 6
Near Belmopan, Belize

A white-fronted parrot. It’s partner was sitting nearby.

On The Road - Mike S - Belize, December 2021 part one. Birds of Pook's Hill lodge 5
Green Hills Butterfly Ranch, Mountain Pine Ridge. Belize

One trip we made included a stop at the Green Hills Butterfly Ranch near Mountain Pine Ridge National Park. The ranch raises butterflies and sells them as living chrysalises to butterfly exhibits in the USA. The tour was interesting and informative. I know a good bit about the activity of raising butterflies and giant silkmoths like Lunas and Cecropias, so if really wanted to really study the operation and ask a lot of questions, but it was our first day and wearing a mask in the midday heat was getting to me so I opted to sit and watch their hummingbird feeders, I believe we had 6 or 7 species there. My favorite, although not a lifer, was this Violet Saberwing, which is a very large hummingbird and is my favorite color too! I’d seen them before in Costa Rica, but in rainy weather, not in full sun like this beautiful male was!

On The Road - Mike S - Belize, December 2021 part one. Birds of Pook's Hill lodge 3
Green Hills Butterfly Ranch, Belize

While we were eating lunch at the Butterfly Ranch. my sister spotted a Rufous-tailed Hummingbird sitting on a palm frond about 50 feet or so away and when I looked at it through my camera I saw it was asleep with its head bent over backwards! At first its bill was closed then it gaped a little and then after about a minute it woke up, stretched a little then flew away. We were to fqar away to tell if it was snoring like this hummingbird in Peru.

On The Road - Mike S - Belize, December 2021 part one. Birds of Pook's Hill lodge 4
Pook's Hill Lodge Belize

This is the back side of one of the Cabañas at Pook”s Hill. Almost all the buildings at the lodges we stayed in on the mainland had thatched roofs made from the fronds of the Cohune Palm like this.
The Cohune is a magnificent tree and we’ll see some pictures of them in part 2 of this series. Its of the most used plants by the Mayas both today and in the past. The fruit of the Cohune is a hard oily nut a little smaller than a tennis ball and they can be burned for heat. Pook’s Hill has a Cohune fruit fired hot water heating system and the showers were excellent.

On The Road - Mike S - Belize, December 2021 part one. Birds of Pook's Hill lodge 1
Mountain Pine Ridge National Park

This hilly area we visited in Mountain Pine Ridge National Park does have a lot of pines and some oaks so it is very different from the jungle around the lodge. This beautiful view from an overlook let us see out to distant farmland and ….

On The Road - Mike S - Belize, December 2021 part one. Birds of Pook's Hill lodge 2
Mountain Pine Ridge National Park, Belize

…the best birds we saw here were 3 soaring King Vultures. The biggest vultures in the new world besides condors. They are magnificent birds with black & white plumage, but they are rather shy compared to Turkey and Black Vultures so much harder to get close to.

On The Road - Mike S - Belize, December 2021 part one. Birds of Pook's Hill lodge
Pook's Hill Lodge Belize

Pook’s Hill Lodge did have electricity and decent wifi, but they lighted the mainlodge and dining area with kerosene lamps. Seeing them and with that fait smell, It really took me back to my cabin camping memories of many years ago!

Coming soon Belize 2021 Part 2, Chan Chich Lodge and Gallon Jug Farm

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Late Night Open Thread: The Qatar World Cup Draw
Next Post: COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, March 31 – April 1 »

Reader Interactions

13Comments

  1. 1.

    eclare

    April 1, 2022 at 6:38 am

    That toucan is gorgeous…those colors!

  2. 2.

    MagdaInBlack

    April 1, 2022 at 6:48 am

    Kerosene lamps smell does that for me too.

    Love the toucan ?

  3. 3.

    Mai Naem mobile

    April 1, 2022 at 7:01 am

    Because I like to point out stupid stuff, your first pic says Dec.2022. Belize is on my bucket list. They just decided to kick off Lizzy as their head of state – right after Wills and Kate came and visited recently which i thought was pretty funny.

  4. 4.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 1, 2022 at 7:45 am

    Nice photos!

    A parrot and some toucans.

  5. 5.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    April 1, 2022 at 8:57 am

    @schrodingers_cat: Thanks! Nice drawings!

  6. 6.

    MelissaM

    April 1, 2022 at 9:02 am

    I never would have guessed hummingbirds slept like that! Don’t they get that crick in their neck like I do??

    Lovely photos!

  7. 7.

    Albatrossity

    April 1, 2022 at 9:03 am

    Very cool pics from a great birding destination. King Vultures!

    Re the snoring hummingbird, this might be good reading.

    Looking forward to the next installment!

  8. 8.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    April 1, 2022 at 10:16 am

    @Albatrossity:  Thanks, The raptor pics will in 2 weeks, next week is pics of Chan Chich Lodge and some other colorful birds.

    It doesn’t actually surprise me about the hummingbird snoring being possibly a stress reaction, A lot of animal behavior we think is cute has nothing to do with cuteness and often is a fear reaction like with these viral slow loris videos.

  9. 9.

    J R in WV

    April 1, 2022 at 10:21 am

    Amazing pics, from the lantern-lit lodge to the toucan, and everything in between!!

    Thanks for sharing! We love this weekly feature, and I wish I had time to share more right now myself.

  10. 10.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    April 1, 2022 at 11:05 am

    @MelissaM:  I know right. It looked so uncomfortable. I’ve seen pics of sleeping/torpid hummingbird before and they just sort of hunker down at night and when it’s cold. Maybe this on was hot and that is a way to cool off. I know I felt overheated that afternoon!

  11. 11.

    munira

    April 1, 2022 at 11:21 am

    Fascinating birds. Love the sleeping hummingbird (who it seems is not snoring).

  12. 12.

    tybee

    April 1, 2022 at 3:03 pm

    nice pics.

    we were in belize last may but on the coast for snorkeling and fishing.

    next trip will be into the hills for birds…

  13. 13.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    April 1, 2022 at 5:46 pm

    @tybee: The last part of this series will be of our snorkling trip to Turneffe Atoll. I just want to go back and do it all again!

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • Torrey on Thursday Morning Open Thread — Nancy Pelosi: Every Day Is A Matter of Life and Death (Apr 18, 2024 @ 9:26am)
  • Baud on Thursday Morning Open Thread — Nancy Pelosi: Every Day Is A Matter of Life and Death (Apr 18, 2024 @ 9:24am)
  • cain on Thursday Morning Open Thread — Nancy Pelosi: Every Day Is A Matter of Life and Death (Apr 18, 2024 @ 9:24am)
  • Harrison Wesley on Thursday Morning Open Thread — Nancy Pelosi: Every Day Is A Matter of Life and Death (Apr 18, 2024 @ 9:22am)
  • cain on Thursday Morning Open Thread — Nancy Pelosi: Every Day Is A Matter of Life and Death (Apr 18, 2024 @ 9:21am)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!