Anne and I spent most of the morning traveling, but we arrived on Caye Cauker, off the coast of Belize, in time for a late lunch. It was a bit of a challenge for me to focus on food, however, because the place was alive with wild and wonderful new birds.
I’ve had the good fortune to see magnificent frigatebirds (Fregata magnificens) years ago, long before we started this operation, but it was great to see them again, and now I can share them with you.
We’ve seen several pelicans before, including American white at Kohler Andrae and great white in Jordan, but this is our first brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis). They are the smallest pelicans, and Anne noticed right away that they were significantly smaller than the huge great white that forced us off the trail in Azraq.
Another newbie for us is this royal tern (Thalasseus maximus), which is “only slightly smaller than [the] Caspian[s],” that we see in Milwaukee.
If we’re on the water, we should expect to see gulls, and the ones here all appear to be laughing gulls (Leucophaeus atricilla), but I didn’t hear a peep out of them.
I only saw ruddy turnstones for the first time this summer in Milwaukee, and here they are again, seemingly asking “what took you so long to get here?”
Last and least, size-wise that is, was this darling little American redstart hopping around the beach, of all places.
Finally, not all the amazing sights were avian, as usual, and here’s a Caribbean whiptail stingray (Styracura schmardae) that has learned to come to shore so tourists can feed it fish.
Tomorrow we’re going to try visiting the forest on the south end of the island, and if we find anything interesting, I’ll be sure let you know.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 