More tropical surprises…

It was another day in paradise, out here on Caye Caulker, and we got an early start exploring the south end of the island.

There were a lot of wonderful things to see, but a highlight has got to be my very first adult yellow-crowned night heron. Long time readers will surely recognize the name because we had a juvenile hang out on the pond in Estabrook a couple of times for a while, but I have never seen the full majesty of an adult until this morning.

Another adult we saw for the first time this morning is this little blue heron, although we didn’t have to wait nearly as long for this sighting.

I can’t assert that this next bird, my very first willet (Tringa semipalmata), is a youngster or an adult, but it is for sure not in breeding plumage.

As Anne and I strolled along the edge of the island, often between walls of mangrove, I spied at least a couple of gray catbirds, but there was also a glossy black bird of about the same size. Well, I didn’t get a good luck until we ventured out again this afternoon to investigate the north end of the island, and it turns out that there is such a bird as a black catbird (Melanoptila glabrirostris), and this is what it looks like. Ha!

I was thrilled to see an osprey this morning, and things only got better on our hike back to our hotel when I spotted it with a fish. Thus, you can imagine my joy when we went out again this afternoon and spotted this one in its nest with a nearly grown-looking youngster. Hot diggity dog! They’re making more!

After all the warning signs at Tikal about crocodiles, we were all a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to see one. Well, Anne and I are the lucky ones, because here is our first American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus). “Sorry, Deb!” Even better, as luck would have it, I was able to capture a pretty nice image, without losing any limbs, and if you click on it so you can zoom in, you can even see the vertical-slit pupil in the eye on the left.

Finally, there were a few butterflies around, and I especially enjoyed spotting this one, because I thought it was a monarch, but it didn’t look quite right with those white-ish blotches on the hind wing and a slightly darker reddish color elsewhere. Well, that’s because it’s a soldier (Danaus eresimus), not a monarch (Danaus plexippus), and it doesn’t venture farther north than Florida and Texas.

Tomorrow, we ship out again, but we’re not done with Belize yet, so stay tuned for who we find next.