| Begins in Belize City Saturday afternoon |
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$TBA |
April 18-26, 2009 (9 days, 8 nights)
Single Supplement = $TBA |
Our Belize - Tikal photo tour features visits to a vast wetland area within Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary, lowland tropical forests at Pook's Hill, and the superb Mayan ruins at Tikal Archaeological Site in Guatemala. The focus of our tour will be to photograph a variety of aquatic birds, hawks, falcons, hummingbirds, and tropicl land birds. We'll also have plenty of opportunity to photograph the ruins at Tikal, where an interpretive guide will accompany us for part of our visit, and flowering plants for those with that interest. The tour is led by a professional nature photographer, Laura Fellows, and a Belizean guide, Wilfred Mutrie, who is an expert at finding and identifying birds. Our leaders will work together to maximize opportunities for making photographs of birds and other subject matter, while Wilfred will further assist by identifying the subjects of our photography.
Crooked Tree is a superb place for photographing aquatic birds as well as various species of hawks that feed around the lagoons. We'll take a half-day boat trip on the lagoon, where we should have ample opportunity to photograph birds such as Jabiru, Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Snail Kite, Great Black-Hawk, Black-collared Hawk, and Northern Jacana as well as a variety of herons, egrets, and other birds. The number of birds present depends on water levels in the lagoon, which is why we scheduled the tour in April when water levels are lower than earlier in the dry season.
Pook's Hill is located in a lowland forest area along the Western Highway of Belize. There we'll be able to photograph hummingbirds drawn to the feeders, Keel-billed Toucans which commonly call from the trees near the lodge, and a variety of tanagers and other forest birds.
Famed Tikal Archaeological Site offers superb opportunities to photograph Mayan ruins. An interpretive guide will accompany us during our visit and tell us about the history of the site. We'll also have excellent opportunities to photograph some extraordinary birds. The amazingly adorned Ocellated Turkey is easily photographed at Tikal because it has lost its wariness to humans there. The endangered Orange-breasted Falcon nests at Tikal and commonly perches in open areas where it can be readily photographed. We'll spend some time photographing other birds found in the open areas around the entrance area and along forested roads within the site. Since we'll be accompanied by an expert birding guide who knows the birds, we'll always know what species we are seeing and photographing.
For additional description of this tour, please click on the DESCRIPTION tab above. For information on the places we stay, click on the ACCOMMODATIONS tab above.
Feel free to call us any time at 877-247-3371 (inside US) or 303-325-5188 (outside US) about this tour.
