After our final night at Black Rock Lodge we prepared to move on to Lamanal near the northern border of Belize. After breakfast we packed and took a few final photos of the beautiful view across the Macal valley before heading to the vehicles. In the carpark one of the group spotted a Slaty-tailed Trogon, which provided some great photo opportunities as it tried to squeeze as much fruit as possible into its mouth.
Once underway we drove a few miles north and did some birding on the road that leads to Chial. We saw a good selection of birds and photographed Indigo Bunting and Red-billed Pigeon, but the highlight was a Rose-throated Tanager, which perched high in a tree by the road.
We then moved on to bird a quiet road south of San Ignatio, which was close to the Belize Botanic Gardens. We had good views of a Barred Antshrike in a tree by the road and a King Vulture.
Our final stop of the morning was at the Green Hills Butterfly Ranch where we did some birding in the grounds and also toured the impressive butterfly house where they bred many local species. The gardens were productive and we saw White-necked Jacobin, Morelet’s Seedeater and Magnolia Warbler, which we knew well from our trips to the USA. After a brief rain shower (the only rain of the trip) it was a treat to see a Rufous-tailed Hummingbird preening his rufous tail.
The group was given a fascinating tour of the butterfly house in which there were hundreds of butterflies in various stages of development, from eggs to caterpillars, chrysalis and mature butterflies. Being amongst so many colourful flying butterflies in a relatively small enclosure was a remarkable experience and one of the highlights of the day.
The most common butterfly in the grounds was the Banded Peacock and we also photographed the Blue-eyed Sailor, which was another new butterfly for us.
We had a picnic lunch in the butterfly garden and then spent the afternoon travelling towards Lamanal. The final leg involved a 90-minute boat trip, during which we stopped several times to see birds on the river bank, including the colourful Russet-naped Wood Rail. Other highlights were Black-collared Hawk, Ringed Kingfisher and Green Kingfisher.
As the boat trip was taken at a very leisurely pace with lots of birding, we finally arrived at Lamanal Outpost Lodge at 6 PM.
Here we had two full days and we started the first (23 February) with a visit to a Mayan historical site, which was reached after a short boat trip.
There were plenty of birds in the wooded areas around the ruins, including Great Crested Flycatcher, White-crowned Parrot and Northern Waterthrush.
In the late afternoon we had a boat trip to Dawson’s Creek where we saw lots of birds on the river bank and also enjoyed cocktails!
We started 24 February with a pre-breakfast birding session, walking a loop from the lodge to the village of Indian Church. The light was excellent and the birds very active at this time of day, leading to a very productive couple of hours.
After breakfast we returned to Indian Church for a mix of birding and cultural activities in the late morning. I focussed on trying to photograph butterflies, which were abundant throughout the village. The most productive area was a very quiet lane that I came across which led to an agricultural area. With virtually no vehicles using the lane, this was a very undisturbed environment and the butterflies were clearly thriving. After spending more than an hour along the lane, I returned to the restaurant in Indian Church for lunch with the rest of the group.
Maggie and the rest of the group enjoyed the tortilla making activity at a local restaurant.
During the late afternoon we took the boat to a forested area where there were remains of old industrial equipment from the last century, so this part of the day was a mix of industrial archaeology and birding!
In the evening we had another boat trip along the New River where we enjoyed the beautiful sunset and some excellent night birding. As we set off we had our best views of the Mangrove Swallow on one of the rails of the dock.
It got dark soon after we started the cruise so we were reliant on finding the birds by scanning the riverbank, and our guides were amazing at this and we got good shots of several interesting species. We were very lucky to spot a Sungrebe, which we could only glimpse deep inside a bush.
The 25th February started with a pre-breakfast session where we took the boat to Dawson’s Creek and then walked the savannah grasslands. The birds were very active at this time of day and the group saw or heard 83 species. A highlight was getting good photographs of the parrots in the gentle early morning light.
