Guatemala 2008: Memory and Miscellany

What, over with so soon? It hadn’t helped that I’d been under the weather those couple of days, but our week in Guatemala went by far too rapidly. It seemed like we had just arrived when it was time to say goodbye to everyone and to thank Ana Cristina and her colleagues for all their work.

I didn’t take many photos this year, but the few I did bring home all recall an especially good moment during the week.

This snazzy male White-collared Seedeater was feeding in a weedy ditch in the Peten; I had some of my best views ever of this common but sometimes flighty species this year in Guatemala.

Northern Royal-Flycatcher is one of those tropical birds we all grow up fantasizing about; I remember with great vividness the first time I saw Roger Tory Peterson’s painting of one in full exploding-head display–and recall with equal clarity my disappointment in reading Hugh Land on just how rarely that is seen, a proviso repeated almost verbatim in Peterson and Chalif. But then I got to see the bird, and there’s no cause for disappointment even with the crest furled.

The subtle tail pattern, the neat white dots on the wing coverts, and that bizarre hammerhead always make this a bird worth looking at, headdress unfolded or not.

Now that I’ve been to the American tropics a couple of times, Gray-breasted Martin is a reasonably familiar bird; but I can never resist good views of them. This distantly photographed male and his consort were nesting in a metal box on the side of a telephone pole in Flores, and they weren’t the least bit shy about taking the first vital step towards the new generation right out in plain view.

Howler monkeys were equally assertive at many locations, and I came to look forward to their roaring as I fell asleep and woke early in the mornings.