Belize 2015: Ambergris Caye

Another spring, another exciting trip to one of my favourite wildlife destinations: Belize. February is the usual slot for my annual birding trip for Tucson-based Borderland Tours. All thoughts of winter, the effects of an overnight bus and two days of travel, the dehumanisation of the absurd Miami Airport “Homeland Security” regime are instantly banished as you board the Tropic Air Caravan flight to San Pedro. And after fifteen minutes over the Caribbean, you are on Ambergris. Even though it has changed beyond recognition in recent years, the island retains the atmosphere of a place to relax. Of course, co-leader Moez and I are not here to relax: we're here to work. Throwing our bags into our rooms, we want to take advantage of the last hour of light by hurrying to the nearest available habitat: the desalination plant. Here we find our first Black Catbird Melanoptila glabrirostris as Mangrove Warblers Setophaga petechia sing their evening melodies. A Clapper Rail Rallus crepitans bellows and a dozen Lesser Nighthawks Chordeiles acutipennis emerge from the mangroves. The birds tell us that we can only be in the Yucatán. 

Mangroves S of San Pedro, with a newly cleared plot.

Next morning we await our pre-dawn taxi to scout potential new birding areas. The dry forest and mangroves have been rapidly cleared south of San Pedro to construct holiday homes, so we are looking for new areas further north. Unusually, our driver does not show up. Still, this is Sunday morning and yesterday night the town celebrated St. Valentine's Day. We take the opportunity to swallow breakfast, then flag down a taxi to “the cut”, where we cross the new Sir Barry Bowen Bridge to the northern part of the island. The habitat is in much better shape here and we quickly find Yucatán endemic Orange Oriole Icterus auratus as well as Plain Chachalaca Ortalis vetula. As the sun burns hotter, we enquire where to rent some form of transport and some friendly hotel guards offer us their bicycles – the perfect way to bird. As we pedal northwards we hear Yucatán Woodpecker Melanerpes pygmaeus and Yucatán Flycatcher Myiarchus yucatanensis and stop to admire a Yucatán Vireo Vireo magister, dapper Mangrove Warblers and a pair of Black-cowled Orioles Icterus prosthemelas. We have already racked up at east 30 Black Catbirds. Bananaquits Coereba flaveola are typically scarce on our Belize itinerary, but we find nearly a dozen here, all of the distinctive Yucatán island subspecies caboti. We have not found Caribbean Dove Leptotila jamaicensis or Caribbean Elaenia Elaenia martinica, species which have all but disappeared south of San Pedro, but they undoubtedly persist here. On a side road to the west across coastal lagoons the beautifully intact mangroves deserve our attention, but we are out of time. Eight Stilt Sandpipers Calidris himantopus feed with the water up to the top of their legs as an immature Hook-billed Kite Chondrohierax uncinatus cruises past – we had already seen a soaring female. This area looks perfect for White-crowned Pigeon Patagioenas leucocephala, although we are perhaps a little early in the year. It is time to return to the hotel to set up logistics and meet the group.

♂ Mangrove Warbler Setophaga petechia

Next morning we're out at first light and ready to show the group the best of the island: the San Pedro Municipal Dump. We know just what our tour participants want to see. As we walk through the adjoining cemetery, the smouldering refuse and abundance of flies look promising. This is insectivore heaven and soon we have seen dozens of migrant warblers and at least 20 Black Catbirds. A Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Tyrannus forficatus is unusual, but the 60 White Ibis Eudocimus albus are staple dump birds, their immaculate white plumage and ink-dipped wing-tips contrasting with their surroundings. A Yucatán Woodpecker announces its presence only a few metres from us, as do Yellow-billed Caciques Amblycercus holosericeus. As we wander back, we have great views of perched male and female Double-toothed Kites Harpagus bidentatus. A lone drake Lesser Scaup Aythya affinis – unusual on the cayes – is the only bird on the water, but a huge American Crocodile Crocodylus acutus has hauled itself out on the sand.

In the afternoon we take a snorkelling trip to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve where we get to swim with Green Moray Eels Gymnothorax funebris, Nurse Sharks Ginglymostoma cirratum and Southern Stingrays Dasyatis americana. We drift over a couple of full-grown Green Turtles Chelonia mydas, close enough to touch as they graze placidly on the seagrass. It can't match the dump for birding, but has its charms.

The next morning we have time to study a couple of Yucatán Vireos before jumping on the flight back to the mainland.

Yucatán Vireo Vireo magister

Birding the Iwokrama Forest, Guyana

Our first day's birding in interior Guyana produced Crimson Fruitcrow and roosting Long-tailed Potoo – close enough that even I could get photos with my decidedly non-professional camera. The Fruitcrow provided prolonged and low-level views and was mobbed by passerines since, unlike most cotingas, it is not entirely frugivorous.

But we kept birding...

 

One of the resident pair of Orange-breasted Falcons at the Turtle Mountain lookout.

And another orange bird...

The Pakaraimas and Surama

Unbroken forest as far as the eye can see above the Pakaraimas. With the Venezuelan Guayana, this forms the world's largest tropical wilderness. After an hour's flight we curl around ridges into the approach to the Makushi village of Surama, where the majestic Rupununi savannas begin.

 

Kaieteur: not the world's highest waterfall

Guyana Tourist Board has done a thorough job in convincing visitors that this is the highest falls in the world. No matter: this is a stunning place (even if the drop is some 700m short of Venezuela's Kerepakupai-vená).

Rufous-thighed Kite (Harpagus diodon): a new Atlantic Forest breeding endemic

Rufous-thighed Kite Harpagus diodon. By Rick elis.simpson (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Last month, I came across a neat little paper re-examining the migratory status of the enigmatic Rufous-thighed Kite Harpagus diodon, a species usually mapped over a large area of South America east of the Andes and, until fairly recently, assumed to be a thinly-spread resident. Using museum specimen data, and harnessing the power of increasingly popular collaborative avian datasets such as xeno-canto, eBird, the Internet Bird Collection, and especially WikiAves, the authors took a closer look at the facts (Lees & Martin 2014). Their detective work shows how much we often take for granted about South American bird distributions and highlights the enormous value of free data-sharing initiatives. I liked the research enough to write a short news bulletin at the start of the month. The authors do a much better job today on the BOU blog post A tale of two kites. 

These findings are not merely of academic importance. Given that Rufous-thighed Kite is now thought to be an Atlantic Forest breeding endemic and that only 11·7% of this biome remains (Ribeiro et al. 2009), the species could be in serious trouble. Populations at the end of 19th century are likely to have been at least ten times higher than at present (Lees & Martin 2014) and its current rarity may simply be explained as the result of catastrophic loss of habitat.


References

Bierregaard, R.O., Jr, Bonan, A., Marks, J.S. & Sharpe, C.J. (2014) Rufous-thighed Kite (Harpagus diodon). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.) (2014). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/52974 on 30 September 2014). 

BirdLife International (2014) Species factsheet: Harpagus diodon. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/factsheet/22695063 on 30/09/2014.

Lees, A.C. & Martin, R.W. (2014) Exposing hidden endemism in a Neotropical forest raptor using citizen science. Ibis doi: 10.1111/ibi.12207. PDF

Ribeiro, M.C., Metzger, J.P., Martensen, A.C., Ponzoni, F.J. & Hirota, M.M. (2009) The Brazilian Atlantic Forest: how much is left, and how is the remaining forest distributed? Implications for conservation. Biological Conservation 142(6): 1141-1153. PDF

The Curious Naturalist's library: Guyana

In a couple of weeks' time I will be returning to Guyana for a month of bird tours. If you have not considered Guyana as a birding destination, you might like whet your appetite with Chris Collins' 2007 article in Neotropical Birding, Guyana: South America's overlooked birding destination and An update on birding in Guyana, co-authored with Barry Walker. Interested? The one snag with birding Guyana is that there is currently no field guide to the birds of Guyana, so people always ask which identification guides to take. These are my recommendations.

A Field Checklist of the Birds of Guyana, 2nd edition by Mike Braun, Davis Finch, Mark Robbins & Brian Schmidt. PDF.
The definitive published checklist, listing the 814 species recorded as of 2007. Use in conjunction with the following book. An updated list can be found at the SACC website.

Birds of Venezuela by Steve Hilty.

If you can take only one bird guide, this is it. One of the best Neotropical field guides ever written (review), it covers the vast majority of Guyana's avifauna – and a whole lot more besides. Decades of field experience are compressed by this gifted author into descriptions that are at once precise, detailed and even poetic. Voice transcriptions are – to my ear at least –  unrivalled. Not the lightest of field guides, it will reduce that already tight luggage limit by 1.4 kg. It will come in handy for future trips to Venezuela. The same author's Birds of Tropical America is required pre-trip reading.

Birds of Northern South America: An Identification Guide, Volume 2: Plates and Maps by Robin Restall, Clemencia Rodner, & Miguel Lentino.
An encyclopaedic compilation on the birds of the region, with handy maps, reliable text and a huge number of plates covering almost every plumage. A labour of love, the plates are carefully painted direct from museum specimens and are at once painstakingly accurate yet sometimes not quite like the bird as encountered in the field. The only guide to depict everything you will encounter in-country. Many plumages – such as male Black-throated Antshrike Frederickena viridis – are illustrated nowhere else. An enormously valuable reference, and despite weight restrictions it is worth taking this into the field. Volume 1 provides a lot more text.

Field Guide to the Songbirds of South America: The Passerines by Robert S. Ridgely & Guy Tudor.
Distilled from Ridgely and Tudor's groundbreaking (and backbreaking!) two-volume The Birds of South America, this portable edition comprises more than 1,500 illustrations covering nearly 2,000 species. The accompanying text is short, but wonderfully succinct. Ideal for grappling with those little brown jobs. A valuable reference, but perhaps weight restrictions will consign it to the office rather than the field.

Birds of South America: Non-Passerines: Rheas to Woodpeckers by Francisco Erize & Maurice Rumboll.
A much smaller, almost pocket-sized guide that complements Ridgely and Tudor in coverage. All the information on each species is presented opposite the illustration in a double-page spread. Rather uneven in quality, but can be useful.

Birds of Venezuela mp3 CD, version 2.0 by Peter Boesman. Available as a CD or for immediate download from Birdsounds.nl.
Peter has been recording Venezuelan bird sounds since the 1990s and has already published a CD-ROM (review), mp3 CD, DVD-ROM and now this mp3 DVD. Over the years I have acquired them all and used them constantly. This latest production contains 4,196 recordings of 1,270 species, many of which occur in Guyana. A small number of the featured recordings are my own.

Voices of the Brazilian Amazon / Vozes da Amazônia Brasileira, Vol. 1 by Luciano Naka, Phil Stouffer, Mario Cohn-Haft, Curtis Marantz, Andy Whittaker & Bob Bierregard.
The vocalisations of 350 species of birds on 4 CDs by the region's top bird song experts. This first volume covers Manaus area and the Guianas. I have not been able to acquire a copy, but this has to be good.

Bird voices from French Guiana / Chant d'Oiseaux de Guyane by Alexandre Renaudier & Frenand Deroussen. The songs and calls of 230 species illustrated by 583 recordings on 3 CDs. The cuts are of excellent quality and most of the species are found in Guyana.

Neotropical Rainforest Mammals, 2nd edition by Louise Emmons & François Feer. Slim enough to carry anywhere, this is still the best one-volume guide to our region's mammals.

Mammals of the Neotropics, Volume 1: The Northern Neotropics: Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana by John F. Eisenberg. Not a field guide, but still the only reference of its type. Hard to believe that this ground-breaking publication is 25 years old this year.

Guyana & Guianas Region 1:850,000 Travel Map by International Travel Maps

Don't get lost! Having helped supply their cartographer, Kevin Healey, with information on Latin America in the early 1990s, in my experience, the Canadian company ITMB always seems to publish the most helpful and accurate travel maps. No exception here: the Guyana & Guianas map integrates relief, roads and parks in a clear and practical format. Have a great trip!

Book review: Claxton by Mark Cocker

Claxton: Field Notes from a Small Planet

Mark Cocker
Jonathan Cape | 2014
238 pp. | 14.5 x 22 cm
Hardback | £14.99 / $ 35.00 | ISBN: 9780224099653


I was kindly sent a copy of the forthcoming Claxton: Field Notes from a Small Planet, after reviewing the author's magnum opus, Birds and People.

This collection consists of 140 short pieces that were originally published in the Guardian and other newspapers. Written over a period of 12 years, they are presented in calendar order here, each chapter corresponding to a month – ideal for dipping into over the course of a year. Many of the entries have been expanded to include text which went beyond the original constraints of a newspaper column.

The germ for each note is typically a chance encounter with some natural phenomenon – a bird, an otter, a fruiting tree – which the writer uses to examine the responses deep within himself, to record details apparent only to those who have immersed themselves in the outdoors. Mark Cocker's keen perception of nature, his power of reflection and his gift for putting our common experiences into words make him one of our most accomplished nature writers. This format probably suits his approach more than any other. Each essay is just long enough to allow him to paint the picture. Each observation is a finely-crafted work of art.

It is no coincidence that the author quotes at the start of the book from the greatest of all nature diaries: Thoreau's Journal. Coincidentally, I happen to have spent the past few months slowly savouring Damion Searls' new one-volume selection from the Journal. Thoreau's entries are longer and more demanding, often needing to be re-read and mulled in order to extract their full meaning; Cocker's pieces are concise, highly-distilled reflections which speak directly and immediately to the reader. Delicate and delightful, each vignette makes its impact at once. However, there is a cumulative effect that builds slowly: each additional nature note adds a new perspective to our vision of this place. The author's New England is Norfolk, specifically the village of Claxton, a few miles south-east of Norwich. Although there is a definite East Anglian flavour, these notes will resonate with anyone who has an appreciation of the English countryside.

This turns out to be the sixth book I have read by Mark Cocker. Each has been rewarding, but I suspect that this may end up being the one that I most often pull off my shelves.