Today marked day 9 of the trip. The overarching goal was to travel from the TEC to Las Cuevas Research Station. However, we made a stop to tour the Caracol Mayan ruins along the way!

The tour was 2.5 hours long, and I enjoyed every single minute! Leo (our tour guide) taught us so many Mayan/Belizean history facts! We saw Ceiba trees, and they were huge! The most impressive part of the tour based on the monumental size was climbing the temple/palace of the plaza. The stairs were incredibly steep, but they were so worth it! At the top of the stepped temple, I stood at the highest point of Belize!

On the rest of the tour, it began to rain. When I was taking cover, I got to see some Oropendola montezuma! These are a large species of bird that have black bodies, yellow tails, rufous wings, white cheek patches, and a pointed orange beak. Scott described perfectly how their songs sound like video game noises. I also saw their nests, which they weave themselves, and they look like sacks hanging from branches.

I also saw many other birds: blue-crowned motmot, great-tailed grackles, melodious blackbirds, a type of vulture, a type of hawk, a pileated woodpecker, and (only heard the calls) red-lored parrots.

During the drive from Caracol to Las Cuevas, I very briefly saw scarlet macaws! They were in the distance in tall, sparse trees high in the canopy. I hope to see more!

I gave my rainforest taxon lecture today on birds! I was excited to get to fangirl over my taxa, but sadly, the audio files didn’t work. Even though people didn’t get to hear the bird calls for the species I presented, we will push through TFB-style and still test out our abilities to bird by ear regardless (at least I will)!

Liliana and I are staying in room “Jobillo” at the station. Early tomorrow morning, there will be an optional birdwatch. Since I am extremely tired and am aware that tomorrow is going to be a long day, I plan on going only if I’m naturally awake by then. If my internal timing of waking up allows me to make the morning birdwatch, then I will have so many more sightings to add to my taxon log!

The jungle puts my Belizean ecosystem count to 3 (atoll, savanna, rainforest)!

– McKenna