Belize Trip Report, 2002

We went to Belize during the week of November 23rd to December 1st, 2002. The places we visited were:

Belize Airport. Here we waited for our bags for 4 hours, so we passed the time with birding, after having to explain to the airport officials that our scope is not a camera. This was quite productive, especially a road from the back side of the airport along a little wetland and a channel to Black Creek.

Placencia. We spent 3 days in this lovely little town. We took a boat trip up Monkey River, which was good for river birds. The forest has been largely stripped of tall trees by Hurricane Iris, so we didn't see much on a jungle walk along Monkey River. We also went out to Laughingbird Caye, where there was a nice group of pelicans diving for fish. We stayed at the delightful Lydia's Guesthouse. Lydia makes the best fryjacks in the world.

San Ignacio. We stayed at some cabins on an unexcavated Maya site in the jungle. These are owned by David Simpson of David's Adventure Tours. This was a wonderful place, high up from the river, from which you could look over the treetops to the birds below. We were fortunate enough to have an army ant swarm in the campground for 24 hours, which brought many species of birds foraging on the fleeing insects. We had the best foraging of our trip here, too, with lots of fresh fruit, pitchers of fresh orange juice, soups, homemade tortillas, stew beans and rice, and much more.

Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. We spent 3 days in this charming village of rural roads along the shore of a big lake. We, the big birders, did not see the superstar bird of this sanctuary, the Jabiru Stork, though our cousins sitting on the other side of the bus saw one from the Western Highway near Belmopan. Oh, well. We took a boat trip up Black Creek with Robert Crawford, and excellent bird guide, whose father Rudy owns the lovely Paradise Inn. We stayed at Raeburn's Rooms, which was simple, but clean. It had a pond in the back yard, and a fruiting "plum" tree that attracted many birds. We ate most meals at Tree and Vee's Fast Food, the only restaurant in town.

Below is our trip list, with some notes.

Happily, we saw not a single non-native House Sparrow or European Starling.

Other Notable Animals

Belize Trip Report, 2002