I’m going to do a couple posts “quickly” (hopefully). We took a road trip to southeastern Belize. This is the Toledo district. We really wanted to see some land but it was not easy to get to this area via boat. So, we rent a car, found a lodge that would take the kittens and off we went for a few days. I’ll talk about the trip more in the 2nd post but as I’ve got lots of wildlife pics. So, I wanted to post these pics first. Then I’ll followup with broader insights of this area. So, on to the wildlife of Toledo District Belize.
Before we took the road trip, we took a lancha for a visit to the Monkey River and Monkey River town. This is in the Toledo district, no reachable by car (you can drive down across the river but then have to take a lancha over to the town. The river is completely protected from growth so it pretty wild. See the cute little bats?There is lots of bird life on the Monkey River. the bigger birds are easier to see from the water. This is a Bare-Necked Tiger Heron. We had seen them before, but not often. This bird is very common in Southern Belize. Such a pretty bird!This is a juvenile Little Blue Heron. They become all blue-gray when adult. Easy to be confused with Snowy Egrets. It was nice to see one close up as seeing the actual birds vs pics helps to cement them in ones brain.This is the Monkey River, so one expects to see Monkeys. This is a Black Howler Monkey. It was very hot and thus, they were mostly draped over the trees resting in the heat. We saw monkeys here, also near Punta Gorda (on the road trip) and heard them howling in the Monkey River and at a lodge near Punta Gorda where we stopped for a drink. Although this area of Belize is very dry, hotter than normal with drying rivers, water shortages and no rain since February, the Monkeys here seem to be hanging in there. They still look healthy. Rains, at least a bit are on the horizon. Everyone is anxiously waiting.We did stop on our Monkey River boat trip to go into the forest to see the monkeys. Along the way, we did see this tiny White-collared Manakin. Manakins have a cute little dance they do to attract mates. We hear them doing their clicks, but could not see the, doing the dance.Amazing, this is the ONLY crocodile we’ve seen on our whole trip from Virginia. He was hiding along the edge of the Monkey River. As we got closer, he retreated into the water.On our way back from Monkey River to Placencia, we stopped at a spot with rather rough water as Manatees like it here. I’d never seen manatees in rough water, but lo-and-behold, there they were! We saw them pretty close. We have seen manatees in several places in Belize and also while in Florida. Belize is doing a good job protecting their manatees (and other wildlife.)On our way to Punta Gorda, we took the back road into town. We saw this large spiny iguana by the road. I don’t know why he was out in the heat. Clearly he was panting so I don’t know why he did not move to the shade to cool off. But, it made for a fun picture.Jim and I love trogons and we were happy that we saw Black-headed Trogans multiple times on our trip. They are one of those really cool birds we always like to see. Sadly, we did not see the other “common” trogon the Slatey-tailed Trogon which is a beautiful green and red. But, we cannot complain!We saw LOTS of Golden-fronted Woodpeckers in Belize. Sort of like a Robin or Jay in the US. They are everywhere. We were so excited with we saw Woody Woodpecker, the Lineated Woodpecker. We’ve seen these guys a few times before, but it is always exciting to see. This guy, the is the Ivory-Billed Woodcreeper. Such a pretty bird which we can only see in Central America and Mexico.Another manakin, this is the Red-capped Manakin! Now isn’t that a pretty bird? Once again, we did not get to see the courting behavior, dang! But so cool to see this guy!I surely wish the moths around our house were as colorful as this guy. he was just hanging on a log next to our car at our lodge.Since we are on non-birds, how about this guy! We do love spiders!We really are on the home stretch. I hope you’ve been enjoying our wildlife adventure. This guy was taken by our bird guide through a spotting scope with my cell phone. He was really good at this! We saw several Yellow-throated Euphonia on our trip, both on Mexico and Belize, but they are sooooo cute!
And, our final bird for the post, …
And our final for this post, also taken through the spotting scope is the Red-legged Honeycreeper. Lots of cute bird species down here not found in the US.
We really enjoyed having an opportunity to see some birds and other wildlife in Belize. It is hard birding from the boat as you only get some of the big birds. You are just not close enough. I WILL followup with a post on our road trip in general and some general thoughts on Belize as we are heading onto Guatemala in a few days.
