Crooked Tree Day 1

We arrived in Belize at 1:30pm after starting our day at 4am. It took an hour to get out to Bird’s Eye View at Crooked Tree Wildlife Preserve. Our driver was one of the bird guides, so he pointed out numerous birds on the way. We didn’t stop for photos.

It rained the afternoon we arrived, but did get out some between the rain showers. The ground is really soaked. Walking on grass that doesn’t look flooded gives a squish on each footstep. They get 108 inches a year here and it’s the end of the rainy season. The lagoon is about 4 ft above normal.

We went out on the grounds by ourselves before breakfast and saw about 15 different birds.

We learned to bring cameras to breakfast, as it was open to the outdoors. The Yellow-throated Warbler showed up at breakfast.

At breakfast we met a couple that had rented a jeep and were going for a drive in the area. They invited us to come along and we saw a number of birds in a drive of only a few miles.

In the afternoon we went with Guide Rudy and another guest, Kira, on the late afternoon walk. We saw lots of birds on the drive over to the walk and the way back.

The walk itself had lots of mosquitos and not too many birds, so we cut it short and drove over to the water tower area and saw some additional birds.

The acorn woodpeckers hoard acorns in trees, fenceposts and telephone poles.

The lodge asks about food allergies, then cooks two mains with sides attempting to accommodate everyone. So not much choice in what you eat if you have food allergies. Coconut is popular, it’s in the rice and in the beans. It’s actually coconut milk in the rice, it’s a really strong flavor in the rice, not so strong in the beans.

I may be getting MSG in the chicken seasoning. They’ve had it both nights so far and I slept really poorly the second night.