Reflections, A Colombia Blog

All birds are beautiful, in one way or another, IMHO.   For some,it's the color, others it's the attitude; the photographer just captures the beauty that's there.     Black-headed trogon Gartered trogon White-collared manakin, whose wings create a sound like a whip snapping (click on the 2nd recording) Great kiskadee   Black-cowled oriole Yellow-throated euphonia Bat falcon, handsome fellow Swainson's thrush   This Clay-colored thrush thinks he's pretty!  He could often be seen looking at himself in the mirror behind the bar at Table Rock lodge.     I think I did add some artistic flair to these last three:   Great-tailed grackle Great-tailed grackle eyeing a potential mate? or rival? My all-time favorite from the trip, a Fork-tailed flycatcher              

 Enjoy these close-ups ...   Western willet Great egrets Brown pelican Lineated woodpecker Northern potoo Ferruginous pigmy-owl Yucatan woodpecker Yellow-crowned night heron (juvenile, I think) Blue-black grosbeak Bare-throated tiger-heron Squirrel cuckoo Yellow-crowned night heron Rufous-tailed hummingbird Green jay

The drive down from the jungles of western Belize to the southern beach town of Placencia was uneventful, save the disappointment that the ice cream shop we'd be told to visit was closed on Sundays.  Ah well, ice cream would surely be in our future. Placencia lies at the southern tip of a 21-mile long peninsula so narrow that at times the sea is barely more than a stone's throw in each direction.  It was no doubt at one time an isolated, sleepy fishing village, but now sports an airstrip with regular flights from Belize City and a large enclave of expats with mansion-esque residences sited in green-lawned developments (we met a couple in Table Rock, originally from Oregon, who moved there permanently about 10 years ago). The town, itself, is quite pleasant, with lots of open-air restaurants and bars, a sidewalk entirely separated from the road system, and a fantastic gelato shop! We had a nice 2-bedroom, 2nd floor apartment a short stroll to the beach; we were thankful for its...

Birds gotta eat, and they exhibit all kinds of interesting behaviors when hunting for the food they like, whether insects, fish, or the juice of flowers.       Always fun watching woodpeckers poke and hammer to find their morsels.  Here a Pale-billed woodpecker, top left, a Golden-olive top right, and a Chestnut-colored woody, lower right.       Woodpeckers aren't the only birds to probe for insects; below, a White-necked puffbird has a feast of termites in this huge mound high in a ceiba tree.   The Gartered trogon, right, is also eating termites, but only incidentally, as it's main task here is to carve out a nice comfortable nest in this mound for its expected brood. Speaking of young, we watched this adolescent Osprey, below, cry to be fed, looking this way and that for its parent.  Maybe the successful fisher below right?            We saw many other water birds feeding in and around Caye Caulker, inclu...