Despite picturesque views and the abundance of wading birds, our main reason for being at Crooked Tree was to observe Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, so on the morning of 5 March we set off unaccompanied and on foot to scout the area for potential study sites. It was hard to get far because power lines and trees along the dirt road leading inland from the lodge were adorned with all sorts of resident birds, from a Great Kiskadee (above) with insect entrails on its bill to a hyperactive male Vermilion Flycatcher (below) in pursuit of food for his chicks.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

A little further along we had our first intimate encounter with a Cashew tree, a small one overhanging the road. It was covered with tiny, half-inch green and reddish blossoms that emanated a sweetish but not strong odor. We decided to step back a bit to watch the tree for activity; surprisingly, there were no bees or flies or wasps coming to what appeared to be an abundant nectar source.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Eventually, after about 15 minutes or so, a probable pollinator finally showed up and we zeroed in on it through our fully extended 100-400mm Canon telephoto lens. There wasn't much doubt we already had found the object of our quest (above)--a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird flitting about and probing Cashew flower after Cashew flower with her bill. We photographed and watched this bird for a while until she chased off a second RTHU that got too close to the nectar tree. This was all very good news, of course, because the following day our 13 trip participants were due to show up from across the U.S. to study Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Apparently, Kevin Loughlin had advised us well when he told us we could find ruby-throats feeding from Crooked Tree's Cashew blossoms in early March.

With this satisfying news in mind, we wandered further along one of the many trails established on the island by Belize Audubon Society, watching and photographing such birds as a Tropical Mockingbird in a palm tree (above). Eventually we ended up back at Bird's Eye View Lodge in time for lunch--a mouth-watering buffet that included baked Tilapia that had been caught just a few hours earlier in the lagoon. We quickly understood why people rave about Creole-style cooking.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

That afternoon we noted the management had been maintaining a few hummingbird feeders at the lodge--always a good sign--so we added four more to the backyard garden. During a half-hour of observations we saw mostly Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds (above) coming to sugar water but there was also a male Green-breasted Mango and--even better news--at least one female Ruby-throated Hummingbird that might be a candidate for trapping after expedition participants arrived on the morrow.

On the morning of 6 March all four nature guides from Bird's Eye View Lodge got together to talk about places around Crooked Tree where they had seen good numbers of ruby-throats in recent days and past years. One of them, 20-year-old Michael Gillett, had a sharp eye for such things and volunteered to drive us around some of the back roads we hadn't explored on foot. Based on the guides' recommendations and our own same-day observations, we settled on what appeared to be a good place to run mist nets. Later on we joined Michael on a run to the airport in Belize City (above), where we met up with all 13 team members--none of whom lost any luggage en route to Belize!

After greeting our "old-timers" and meeting the newbies it was off to Crooked Tree and the lodge (sign, with Jabiru, at right), where the group had time to check into their rooms and take a look at that same stunning lagoon view we had experienced on our first day. Then, after supper--complete with a complimentary serving of Cashew wine--everyone gathered on the lodge's upstairs patio for a presentation about our past work on Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in the Neotropics--including archival photos of the ten alumni who had gone with us to Costa Rica in years past. As is our tradition, we also announced the group's nickname. Partly to honor the "Pioneers" who first accompanied us to Guanacaste, we decreed these adventuresome travelers would be called the "Belize-Oneers." Corny perhaps, but we thought it appropriate.

Joining us in Belize for 2010 were Costa Rica veterans Anne Beckwith (Durham NC, Krazy '08s Omega); Elisabeth Curtis (Carrboro NC, Lucky Sevens); Mary Kimberly & Gavin MacDonald (Decatur GA, Gamma Niners); Liz Layton (Washington DC, Alpha Niners); Kathy Roggencamp (Carrboro NC, Krazy '08s Omega); Ann-Marie Rutkowski (Rotterdam NY, Alpha Niners); Lisa Schuermann (Charlotte NC, Pioneers); and Gail & Tom Walder (Wilson NY, Crazy '08s Alpha). We were pleased most past expeditions were represented and welcomed three "newbies" to our midst: Mindy Hetrick (Wheat Ridge CO); Judy Lyons (Louisville KY); and Sherry Skipper (Golden CO). What a splendid group!

On the group's first full day in Belize everyone was up at 6 a.m. with breakfast a half-hour later. Although we had hoped to be able to walk from Bird's Eye View Lodge to our study site, the location recommended by our guides was too far to carry all our banding gear, so that first field day BEVL guide Rudy Ramirez drove everyone a couple of miles to a two-acre grove of Cashews on the property of Recia Tillett (above). On this start-up day we reviewed techniques for attaching mist nets to poles as the group deployed nets in places that looked suitable for capturing ruby-throats. Team members--most using their experience from past years in the field in Costa Rica--had ten nets up by 8 a.m., so it was just a matter of waiting to see if any hummers would get snared. (The Walders, above right, made sure their 42-foot-long mist net was sufficiently "baggy" to snare hummingbirds.)

At 10:30 a.m. field work was interrupted momentarily as a second BEVL van drove onto the study site, bringing Ernesto Carman Jr. from the airport. Ernesto, our long-time in-country guide in Costa Rica, was supposed to arrive two days earlier but got caught up in a scheduling conflict. We welcomed him gladly as he made rounds of the site, getting hugs from those he knew from previous expeditions and introducing himself to our three new helpers.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Although we saw several Ruby-throated Hummingbirds feeding on Cashew nectar--and even observed several instances of territorial chases--we caught no RTHU on our first day. We DID catch a non-migrant hummer, however, an intensely colored adult male Buff-bellied Hummingbird (above). This individual surprised us because its underside (below) was actually rich chestnut, very unlike the much paler immature buff-bellied we banded a few years back as the first and only state record of the species for South Carolina.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

We simply released the buff-bellied after taking photos--our permit from the Bird Banding Laboratory doesn't allow banding of resident, non-migratory Belizean species--but we did band a Black-and-white Warbler, two American Redstarts, a Yellow Warbler, and a Northern Waterthrush. All these are Neotropical Wood Warbler migrants that might be encountered when they return to North American during the upcoming breeding season.

Shortly before noon we closed our mist nets, gathered them and the rest of the field gear, loaded the van, and returned to Bird's Eye View Lodge for lunch. Since there was activity at the hummingbird feeders in the garden beside the lodge, we decided about 1 p.m. to deploy four lightweight collapsible Dawkins traps we had squeezed into a checked bag for the flight south. (Don't even ask how many questions the customs agent at Belize airport had about our luggage contents!) These simple traps--which a hummer enters and then "catches" itself when it can't figure how to back out--were very effective during fall migration 2009 at Hilton Pond Center, so we were hopeful they would work as well in Belize. We unfolded the traps, hung feeders inside, attached various counterweights (barbecue grill at right) to stabilize the set-ups in the breeze, and waited to see if anything would enter them. Something did: Numerous Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds. We tended the traps with Ernesto and together removed a half-dozen or so aggressive and apparently agitated rufous-tails from the traps in less than an hour. Although these were resident birds we did NOT band, we certainly got the chance to examine them closely for similarities to ruby-throats the rufous-tails consistently chased away. Finally, at 2:10 p.m. a smaller hummer sneaked into a trap and we had our first Ruby-throated Hummingbird captured in Belize.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

From a distance we thought from the bird's white tail tips it could be a female, but as we got closer to the trap we saw heavy throat streaking and specks of red glittering in the gorget, making it a second-year male that must have hatched up north in the summer of 2009. It being 7 March 2010, we were a bit surprised this bird was no further along in acquiring his full red gorget--the sure sign of an "adult" male. After all, by now observers already were reporting migrant male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds arriving in Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states, so this in-hand bird seemed pretty far behind with his molt. A check of the hummer's right wing revealed his primary molt also was incomplete, with the outer three flight feathers still old and worn; to our knowledge, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird never attempts a northbound flight from Central America without a complete new set of primary feathers. After applying band number L43001 to this still-immature ruby-throat, we marked him with temporary non-toxic purple dye (above) to allow us to make further observations upon release. Even if we caught no more RTHU during our stay in Belize, the capture of L43001 would make the expedition a hummer banding success. (NOTE: We use purple dye to mark our Belize hummers, turquoise in Costa Rica, and green at Hilton Pond Center. Observers in the U.S. and Canada should be alert for color marks on feeder birds this spring as these ruby-throats move north. Such sightings can be reported to RESEARCH.)

Our third day at the Cashew plantation turned out to be exactly as productive as the day before with three Ruby-throated Hummingbirds captured, banded, and released. The catch was two after-hatch-year females plus one immature male with 13 red feathers in its gorget. That brought the total to seven RTHU banded in Belize. We also banded the following Neotropical migrants (new species in gold): Least Flycatcher (1), American Redstart (1), Tennessee Warbler (1), White-eyed Vireo (1), Wood Thrush (1), and Great Crested Flycatcher (1). (In the photo above Sherry Skipper, left, and Mindy Hetrick--experienced banders from Colorado--keep a close watch on their mist net in the hope of catching a hummingbird.)

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Perhaps of even greater interest to the group on 9 March were some resident, non-migrant birds we got to see up-close in-the-hand. We were particularly impressed with the incredible contrast in plumage (above) of the first Acorn Woodpecker we'd ever handled; his jet-black, pristine-white, and scarlet-red feathers were a real treat to behold. We actually caught three other Acorn Woodpeckers that day--including a female with red only on the nape--all of which dived into the net as we were extracting the male above. Acorn Woodpeckers are VERY social, hanging out in family units that gather acorns and store them in holes they drill in dead trees and telephone poles.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Two close-up photos of the bird revealed other interesting attributes. For one, the Acorn Woodpecker's iris (above) was mostly crystalline white, with radiating dark lines--it's brown in immatures--and then . . .

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

. . . when the bird opened his bill we could see his tongue lying in the lower mandible, revealing backward-pointing spines that act like fish hooks when the woodpecker skewers a succulent grub inside a dead tree. (Obviously Acorn Woodpeckers eat more than nuts.) It's curious many tropical field guides say this species occurs within Central America only at elevations of 3,000' or more; the Cashew plantation at Crooked Tree is just 120 feet above sea level and there were lots of Acorn Woodpeckers around.

We also netted an ivory-bill on 9 March. No, not the extinct Ivory-billed woodPECKER that once inhabited bottomland swamps in the Southeastern U.S.--we mean an Ivory-billed WoodCREEPER (above). Woodcreepers aren't at all related to woodpeckers; they're passerine birds in their own family, Dendrocolaptidae. They also don't use their long, decurved bills to peck wood but do cling to bark woodpecker-style and have stiff, stabilizing woodpecker-like tail feathers. (To be honest, the bird above actually could be a Streak-headed Woodcreeper, which differs from the Ivory-billed only with regard to size--the latter is one-third larger--and subtle variations in color/shape of the bill. In other words, the two species are very difficult to tell apart. Since the upper mandible in the photo is a little grayish and the bill is slightly downturned, perhaps we should go with Streak-headed Woodcreeper. It doesn't make as good a story, but it's probably the right ID.) Ernesto suggested after photographing the bird we hold it to a nearby tree and--true to its name--the woodcreeper didn't fly but crept around the trunk, spiralling upward as we tried to follow its vertical progress. With that the Belize-Oneers headed back for lunch at the lodge, anticipating an afternoon field trip to Altun Ha--a significant Mayan city about 90 minutes away.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

En route to the ancient Mayan city van driver/guide Michael came to a quick stop after going past a leafless tree beside the road. As he backed up he uttered an unusual word: "Potoo." It took a minute or two for some in our group, but eventually everybody saw what Michael had spotted while driving 45 mph--a Northern Potoo (above) sitting motionless on a broken limb and looking very much like part of the tree. Through our telephoto lens we could see the well-camouflaged bird was perched on one foot with eyes shut and bill held skyward, sleeping in the afternoon sun and seemingly oblivious to our presence. Potoos, once thought to be relatives of the "goatsuckers"--nighthawks, poor-wills, pauraques and the like--are now in their own family (Nyctibiidae). Like their near-relatives, they are almost completely nocturnal and have huge, gaping mouths with which they capture large insects (and rarely small birds or bats) while "flycatching" in the night sky. A potoo pair lays a clutch of one egg on the end of a snag, with both parents sharing incubation duties.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Click on photo above to open a larger image in a new browser window

With Northern Potoo added to the group's "seen list" of Belizean birds we continued on to Altun Ha, the modern name for a very old Mayan city. There we were met by Ann-Marie Avona, a gregarious and very knowledgeable Creole tour guide who oriented us to the site, about 30 miles north of Belize City on the Old Northern Highway and just six miles west of the Caribbean Sea. This extensive settlement covers nearly five square miles ("small" by Mayan standards) and was first inhabited about 200 BC. The central-most portion of the city includes as many as 500 structures, the largest of which are temple/tomb pyramids built in traditional Mayan stair-step style (above and below). Modern-day interest in the site increased after it was "re-discovered" in 1963 from an airplane. (Local residents, of course, were aware of the ancient city all along and in recent centuries used stones from Altun Ha to build homes in a nearby town.)

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Tour guide Ann-Marie said archaeologists determined Altun Ha was constructed primarily during the Mayan Classical Period (200-900 AD) and that the city at its peak probably housed 10,000 or more people--half of whom may have gathered on the main square on festival or shopping days. Facing west is the 60-foot-tall Temple of Masonry Altars (above) that probably took a few hundred years to build and in which several priestly tombs were found; the structure's front stairway is flanked by carved heads at ground level and a unique round altar projects from the summit. Ann-Marie told us priests at Altun Ha were extremely lanky--seven-foot giants compared to the typical Mayan who was less than five feet tall--all due to generations of inbreeding for height. Priests were also cross-eyed, the result of their mothers having hung beads on the bridges of their noses when they were infants. In other words, Cross-eyed + Tall = Holy Shaman.

Altun Ha with its proximity to the sea served as a central trading link to interior Mayan cities; it was also a significant ceremonial site but is not believed to have hosted human sacrifices or athletic games. After years--perhaps decades--of drought, the city's infrastructure collapsed and its residents are thought to have emigrated west to Central Mexico by 1200 AD. We were stunned to learn the Mayan Empire in Belize at its peak may have numbered 5,000,000 people--a remarkable statistic when we note the entire country's population today stands at only about 300,000. (Above right, intrepid Belize-Oneers climb a steep stairway to the top of A-6, one of Altun Ha's partially restored pyramids that may have been built on top of an earlier structure.)

In 1965 archaeologists from the Royal Ontario Museum began excavating much of the central site at Altun Ha and discovered a ten-pound, six-inch-diameter chunk of intricately carved jade. This artifact--which depicts the Sun God (Kinich Ahau)--is a Belizean national treasure that resides in Toronto for safe-keeping. Ann-Marie was careful to point out we ought not call Altun Ha a "Mayan ruin" because it isn't. She called it a temple city overgrown with vegetation that, once removed, reveals structures in remarkable condition. Nonetheless, Belizean authorities have done a good bit of restoration at the site to prevent deterioration from foot traffic; parts of the pyramids are being held together by well-disguised modern-day concrete.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

As twilight came over the ghostly city of Altun Ha (above), we tried to imagine what the place must have been like a thousand years ago at sundown, with tall, venerable shamans consulting the Mayan calendar while calling their faithful followers to watch the evening star rise in the east . . . .

DAY 5 (10 March), BELIZE-ONEERS:
"Hump Day"
Lagoon Sunrise Boat Tour
Scouting New Sites
Trapping at the Lodge

After several Operation RubyThroat expeditions to Costa Rica that were eight days long, a few years ago we added a ninth. That set Days 1 & 9 for travel, made Days 2-4 and 6-8 work days in the field, and created Day 5 as "Hump Day" because it was in the middle. Hump Day was intended as a rest day when folks could sleep in a little and take advantage of special amenities that didn't fit the schedule otherwise. That was also our intent for Belize in 2010, but since ALL the Belize-Oneers elected to go on a Sunrise Boat Tour of the Crooked Tree lagoon, everyone got up early anyway. After the tour, there was unanimous agreement our pre-dawn wake-up call was well worth the effort.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Since the Belize-Oneers totalled 15 people (counting trip leaders Hilton & Carman), the guides from Bird's Eye View Lodge decided it would be best to use two boats for the tour--especially because the dry season had been so true to its name the lagoon was getting perilously shallow. Too many people in one boat would surely have run us aground, so after a light snack we boarded two flat-bottomed craft piloted by Leonard and Michael and pulled away from the dock. We'd already had some spectacular views of water birds on the lagoon but when the sun came up (above) and painted the waters an indescribable pinkish-reddish-orange, we knew the day would be extra-special.

Because many birds on the lagoon had gotten used to the daily comings and goings of various watercraft, Leonard and Michael were able to get in fairly close to our quarry--using the outboard engine and trolling motor or, when appropriate, just shutting down and letting boats drift into just the right spot for picture-taking.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Both pilots were adept at keeping their boats between the sun and birds we wanted to photograph, meaning the morning light shined directly on birds such as the Snowy Egret above. One other nice thing about the lagoon trip was it was on flat water; even when boats were moving it was possible to take photos or look through binoculars without getting at all queasy.