There hasn’t been too much happening around here the past couple of weeks. We’re not by any means just sitting around, it’s just a bunch of small projects that wouldn’t interest anyone. We’ve started to get semi-regular rains, and that has really made the plants happy and seems to bring out more of the wildlife. So here are a few pictures of critters we’ve seen the past couple weeks and a couple of our plants.

The other day, in a tree by our front gate, there was a Laughing Falcon. These are medium-sized birds of prey with a wingspan of 31″ to 37″. Judging by how big he looked, I’ll bet he had a 37″ wingspan. The Laughing Falcon’s diet consists mostly of snakes, including venomous ones like the coral snake. Which is weird, because earlier that day we were walking up by the cacao trees and we saw a coral snake for the first time. Maybe the falcon knew it was there and was just waiting for it to come out in the open.

A couple weeks ago, we were sitting on the porch and across the yard walked a big green iguana. He walked over to the front of the garage and sat there for a while. Kelley grabbed her camera and tried to get a little closer for a better picture, but when she got close, he ran off into the bush.

We’ve got this big tree that extends over the driveway that has lately been full of all types of birds and other creatures. We were told it was a “Bob” tree, but I couldn’t find any info referencing a Bob tree. After a lot of research, I decided that it must be a Coccoloba Belizensis tree or wild grape. I wasn’t 100% sure about that name until I finally came across something saying that it’s locally known by the Mayan name Bob.

Anyway for the past month or so, the fruits on “Bob” have been attracting all types of birds. There have been Toucans, Aracaris, red and yellow Trogons, Mot-Mots, Chachalacas, Brown Jays, Thrushes,  Orioles, Social Flycatchers and some we just don’t know what they are.

Besides all the birds, there have also been coatimundis and a couple types of squirrels up there eating the berries. Running around on the ground there are always agoutis picking over whatever drops. I’m sure there are a lot of other critters that we just haven’t seen. The best part is that we can watch all this while sitting on our front porch.

Agoutis are very common around here and we see them just about every day. They are always running around gathering cohune nuts and either eating them or burying them for later. Earlier this year, there was a bigger one with 2-3 babies that were always together. Now we’ll see a big one by itself and the smaller ones by themselves. Just off the side of our porch, we throw our fruit and veggie scraps out as compost. Every morning the agoutis are out there getting apple cores, banana peels, lettuce leaves, or whatever else looks good to them. They’re fun to watch and don’t really seem to mind us being around.

Another bird that has been around lately is the Woodrail. It’s not too often we see them, but with the recent rains they have been around. They are a good-sized bird that is about 16″ long and spends most of their time on the ground. They are not as bold and colorful as the Toucan, but still have a lot of color going on. Their body is olive green, the head and neck are bluish-gray, blending into a brown patch at the back of the head. Their chest is rust color and their belly and rump are black. To finish them off, they have red eyes, their legs are coral-red and their bill is a greenish-yellow. Their colors are not as bold as some of the other birds, but still a very cool-looking bird.

Up until recently we rarely saw Turnip-tailed geckos around here, but over the past year we are seeing quite a few of them. There have always been lots of other lizards around here, but not so many of these. Unlike other lizards, they will only lay one egg that will hatch 13 days later. The Turnip tail gecko has a big tail that is used primarily for fat storage. They will wave their tail and even shed it if threatened by predators. The ones we’ve seen around here are around 7″ long and fat. Supposedly, they have a blue tongue and will bite, which Kelley found out the other day. We were removing one from the casita, and when Kelley grabbed him, he bit onto her finger. They’re not venomous or anything; it just surprised her.

Right outside Kelley’s office window is a big cohune palm tree. The entire trunk is covered in thick green moss. On that trunk, we have a Black Orchid (the national flower of Belize) growing. Even though it’s called a black orchid, it’s actually purple with yellow leaves. The Black Orchid is a rare variety of orchids that can actually flower all year round.

With the rains and the warm days we’ve had, some of our citrus is starting to ripen. Our grapefruits are starting to turn yellow, as well as some of our lemons. The ones I’m most excited about are our mandarin oranges. They are rare to find in the local markets around here, so that makes them even more special; besides that, they are delicious.

There are a lot of different types of wasps down here. Usually they will not bother you unless you disturb their nest or something. Which is why you don’t just reach into a fruit tree before making sure there is not a nest there. The other day we were checking out our mango trees and right in the middle of one was a big wasp nest. The mango trees shouldn’t produce until next summer, so we have plenty of time for them to do their thing and move on before we start sticking our hands in there.

Last year we decided to give up on growing veggies because it took too much of our time. We found a much easier and smarter way to do it. We grow cacao for us to make chocolate. The produce market buys some of our cacao pods right off the tree. They will either pay us, or we will trade for what veggies we need that week. So our cacao tree provides us with what we need to make chocolate and just about any other fruits or veggies we need. This sure beats watering, weeding, and tending to a vegetable garden all the time.

That’s about all for now. It’s a great time to visit, the weather is perfect. Mostly sunny days, temps are 70-90° and lots of wildlife to see. Hope we’ll see you down here.