A no-hitter!

I don’t know if it was the weather, which was no worse than yesterday, or me, but the critters in Estabrook pitched a no-hitter today. Oh sure, I glimpsed some deer, a great blue heron, etc., just as a runner might get to base with a walk or an error, but I didn’t get a single picture. Darn.

The good news, however, is that I still have a few pictures left from our recent trip. Phew! So, here are a few from Belize that I haven’t had room to show you yet.

As we were leaving the Caracol archeological site, and soon after Anne spotted her first gray fox, our driver pulled over quickly and said, “there’s a Laughing falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans).” Well, I looked right away, and I thought he was kidding because all I saw was a power pole with one of those high-voltage insulators on top, but that was no insulator! It was a white bird with a jet-black mask: a laughing falcon. When we asked how it got that name, our guide played us a sample of its call, and all was perfectly clear. Do yourself a favor and follow the link, click on the “listen” button in the lower right corner, and be amazed.

Before we left Caracol, I spotted my first ever summer tanager (Piranga rubra). I see that we do get to see them from time to time in Milwaukee, but I have not yet been so lucky.

There was also a clay-colored thrush, which I did see before in Guatemala, but it didn’t let me get a picture as nice as this.

As you may recall, after our short diversion to Tikal in Guatemala, Anne and I returned to Belize to hit the beach on Caye Caulker. Well, neither of us is really into hitting the beach, which is just as well because Caye Caulker doesn’t really have beaches. Instead, it has tropical mockingbirds (Mimus gilvus), which I did not even know existed before this.

The natural coastline of the caye is mostly a band of mangroves with a few gaps, and we found this darling juvie black-bellied plover (Pluvialis squatarola) foraging in one of those gaps.

On my last excursion inland, I thought I saw another hooded oriole, and was glad to have another chance at a better picture. But, that would be too easy, and my sources inform me that this is an immature orange oriole (Icterus auratus), instead. Ha!

Lastly, back at Cahal Pech, were we first visited, one of these amazing butterflies, a Julia Heliconian (Dryas iulia), finally relented and posed for a picture.

I’m off this afternoon to give my talk on my trip to Ukraine back in June at Northshore School for Seniors, and I understand that there are still seats available, in case you want to drop in. If not, perhaps I’ll see you on Saturday, when Friends of Estabrook Park is hosting a “clean-up” event, and believe you me, despite our best efforts, there is still plenty of cleaning up from the flood back in August still to do