Sure to be Counted

 This time of year, our thoughts turn to the annual Christmas Bird Count (see my November 18 post).  Pictured here, thanks again to Frank Buck, is a bird that will almost certainly be recorded on the Gallon Jug count: the Chestnut Woodpecker, Celeus elegans.   It is a species that, with a little effort, can be seen on any given day here in our neck of the woods.  This particular bird appears to be a  male with its red cheek patch -- females lack this.  Otherwise, the sexes appear alike.  They are richly chestnut in color, even orangish in brighter light.  The Chestnut Woodpecker is fairly large in size.  It prefers dead trees for nesting and foraging in good quality tropical forest which the Gallon Jug Estate and Chan Chich Lodge are fortunate to have.  Join us, if you'd like to see this attractive species.

112th Christmas Bird Count

Thanksgiving is just a few days off and Christmas is right around the corner.  So it seems appropriate to feature the Slaty-tailed Trogon (Trogon massena), festive in holiday colors, for a post about the Christmas Bird Count.  Yes, it's that time of year again ... and we're planning for 21st Christmas Bird Count to be held in Gallon Jug and Chan Chich Lodge.  The date we've selected is  December 31.  So just think, we're going to count birds all day, including the Slaty-tail, and retire to beautiful Chan Chich Lodge on New Year's Eve to compare results and raise a Belikin beer.  What could be better?

Not familiar with Christmas Bird Counts?  Here's more detail from the National Audubon Society: 

Citizen Science in Action
The count period for the 112th Christmas Bird Count will begin on December 14, 2011. 


 From December 14 through January 5 tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the Americas take part in an adventure that has become a family tradition among generations. Families and students, birders and scientists, armed with binoculars, bird guides and checklists go out on an annual mission - often before dawn. For over one hundred years, the desire to both make a difference and to experience the beauty of nature has driven dedicated people to leave the comfort of a warm house during the Holiday season.

Each of the citizen scientists who annually braves snow, wind, or rain, to take part in the Christmas Bird Count makes an enormous contribution to conservation. Audubon and other organizations use data collected in this longest-running wildlife census to assess the health of bird populations - and to help guide conservation action.


From feeder-watchers and field observers to count compilers and regional editors, everyone who takes part in the Christmas Bird Count does it for love of birds and the excitement of friendly competition -- and with the knowledge that their efforts are making a difference for science and bird conservation.
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We'd love to have you join us ... or join a count closer to your home.  Check out the National Audubon Society's website for more details about how to go about signing up online, past count results, why Christmas Bird Counts are important and much more.

My thanks to Frank Buck for the use of his Slaty-tail image!

20th Annual Gallon Jug Christmas Bird Count

Our 20th Annual Gallon Jug Christmas Bird Count, in conjunction with National Audubon Society, was one for the record books. We had perfect weather -- sunny and 80F or so -- and 34 enthusiastic participants.

Our stalwarts from Corozal Town, 3 hours north of us, came down. This includes a retired teacher from Corozal Community College and 4 of his former students, all of whom have become very competent birders over the many years of their participation. Victor Emanual Nature Tours, booked in at Chan Chich, participated as they have done for all 20 counts and contributed some great birds to our efforts. Several other guests at the Lodge also contributed as well as all of us "locals" from Gallon Jug community and Chan Chich Lodge.

We ended up with 214 species -- best count since 2001! -- and just over 3000 individuals. We had been concerned that Hurricane Richard that plowed a path through our area (24 October), would adversely affect the count. And some aspects certainly were "different." The frugivores (fruit eaters) like the toucans and parrots were present only in small numbers, perhaps since leaves and fruits were stripped from many trees during the storm. Presumably they've moved elsewhere to look for food resources while the forest regenerates. Hopefully, we'll be seeing them soon.

Neotropical migrants were conspicuous and represented in good numbers, especially the Gray Catbird which seemed to be everywhere! Warblers and thrushes were also in good evidence.

As far as resident species go, one of the real oddities this year was the White-whiskered Puffbird (Malacoptila panamensis). By no means rare, it is always recorded a few times. This year every team, except at the farm, had several, enough to total 32. It was a record year for them! My personal favorite bird for the count was the White-necked Puffbird (Notharchus hyperrhynchus; above) perched on a sign. Normally this is a bird found high in the canopy. It had been some years since I'd had a good close look at one, and here it was at eye level, posing for pictures.

Laughing All the Way

The CBC is still very much on my mind as I begin the process of entering the 19th GJ CBC data at the National Audubon Society's CBC website. So in the meantime, I wanted to share another of Graham Sampson's and the Corozal EAGLEs' photographed birds.

Above is a gorgeous raptor from the Count, the Laughing Falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans). This is a snake-eating falcon as the species name Herpetotheres implies. On a couple of occasions, we've seen them swoop down on snakes that I hadn't even noticed. That's the legendary vision raptors are known for.

As the common name suggests, the Laughing Falcon has the most amazing vocalizations. They'll be getting cranked up for courtship soon. During the next weeks the pair will begin calling back and forth in ringing duet, starting slowly (Ah ha! AH-ha! Ahhhh-ha!), then building up to a crescendo. Sort of like Ravel's "Bolero" for birds...

A Lovely Bird

While I've been going on about the new snake Bruce and I came across, the Corozal birding team recorded several very nice birds on their route during the 19th annual Gallon Jug Christmas Bird Count. Not "just" recorded, but in some cases, also photographed. The Corozal EAGLEs is a student environmental group led by retired Corozal Community College teacher, Graham Sampson. For at least the past decade, he has brought students from Corozal Town to the GJ CBC, after they've driven hours on bad roads and camped in nearby Sylvester Village in order to take part in the Count. We appreciate their contributions!

Particularly, in this case, a very lovely Lovely Cotinga (Cotinga amabilis). Who could not appreciate the vivid iridescent blue and purple colors of this male? ( The female is far less flashy being a sort of nondescript beigy-gray). Despite the gorgeous colors, the cotinga often goes undetected. It is most often found at canopy level while foraging for fruit and can be hard to see. Lovely Cotingas are highly sought after by birders and seen a few times a year in fruiting trees near Chan Chich Lodge. We're glad that Graham and company were able to record this one for the CBC.

CBC Results

In honor of the Christmas Bird Count, I suppose it is appropriate that the first images coming off the camera trap I set more than a week ago are Ocellated Turkeys. This is just one of 33 turkey photos in the series. One thing about the turkeys, as I've mentioned before, once they get in front of the camera, they tend to stay there. And am I glad to see them -- I was beginning to think I'd really lost my touch choosing camera location and set-up.

And .... drum roll please... the 19th Gallon Jug Christmas Bird Count results are in. All told, we counted 202 species, up one species from last year, and 2161 individuals, down from last year. For those that might be wondering, since turkeys are on topic, they totaled 111.

All in all, not bad. Not bad at all considering the deluge of rain we've had over the past several days and nights leaving us in downright swampy conditions.

Countdown to Bird Count

Starting tomorrow evening, we'll be counting turkeys and all the other birds we come across as we kick off the 24 hour Christmas Bird Count period for Gallon Jug/Chan Chich. We'll start out with a night bird count and then count dawn to dusk, the following day, the 31st.

To get an idea from CBCs past, the number of species counted during the 24 hour count period has ranged from 171 to 238. The number of individual birds has ranged from 1,718 to 4,772. These numbers have been somewhat influenced by number of participants (and thus territory covered) as well as weather where, for example, rain has been a factor.

The first table (below, left) provides a summary of the total numbers of species recorded for each year’s Gallon Jug Christmas Bird Count. The second table (below, right) provides a summary of the total number of individual birds recorded for each year’s Gallon Jug Christmas Bird Count.

The image above is one of my favorite Ocellated Turkey photos, taken years ago when we worked in Caracol, in the Maya Mountains. Unfortunately, the turkey has been completely wiped out from Caracol due to hunting. Luckily, they are still numerous here on the Gallon Jug Estate.

Tis the season for CBCs

Tis the Christmas Bird Count season (aka CBC). Some readers may be familiar with National Audubon Society's annual Christmas Bird Count, a "citizen science" initiative that has been ongoing for more than 100 years. Essentially, a group of birders get together and count both individual birds as well as species in a specified count circle during a date range in December/January. That time period has been chosen since migrant species have long since left North America for their wintering grounds ... which means we get to count them, along with our resident birds, here in Belize.

The 19th Gallon Jug Christmas Bird Count is open to local birders as well as guest birders at Chan Chich Lodge. We schedule it for 31 December, adjourning that evening to the Lodge to compare notes and talk birds, birds, birds. Although this is a fun event with some friendly competition, it also contributes to scientific understanding about bird populations (see How CBC Helps Birds). You also can see the Gallon Jug count site information here ... and sign up if you're in the neighborhood! We'd love to have you.