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

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!

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.)

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

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!

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.

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.

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 ….

…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.

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