Crooked Tree

66 square kilometres of lagoons, creeks, log wood swamps, and pine savanna were set aside in 1998, providing sanctuary to some 300 bird species which call the area home. Crooked Tree Village was settled in 1750, one of the earliest inland European settlements in the country, in the search of numerous different natural dyes produced by plants in the log wood forest. Today a small Creole population of 600 still call the area home, supplementing tourist income with fishing and cattle ranching.

The only sensible way to see diverse wildlife in a wetland is by boat. Fortunately the hotel we stayed at was very active with bird watching by boat and we booked a morning excursion. Despite a brief setback with some persistent early rain we had a great time peering for raptors and herons amidst the greenery.

Snail kites, their incredibly curved bills specialized specifically for eating apple snails, were a constant presence overhead, though their dark colour and the muted skies made for challenges getting a nice exposure.

Crooked Tree is also famous for its wading birds, such as this Green Heron (...shown below not wading...) and there were numerous egrets and other species of heron in the area. Crooked Tree is famous for its Jabiru storks, the largest waders in the Americas, but we were unlucky in spotting any.

The only downside was that, once we were off the boat, there was little to do in the area making our stay a brief one overall as the regional trails were too wet to enjoy a hike, and the Morelet's Crocodiles we had seen on the outing were small but still took the wind out of a more spontaneous trek around.

Introduction to Belize

We spent 2 weeks in Belize, a small Central American country. Kathryn's brother Steven has been living there for the last five years so we were overdue for a visit. Our time was roughly divided into thirds with a portion in the western interior near the Guatemalan border, a portion along the centre and eastern coast, and a portion on the island of Ambergris Caye.

Despite being a small country, Belize has a fairly diverse population. Once a Spanish colony (before Britain took over in 1840 and Independence in 1981), Hispanics remain the largest demographic group, with a sizable Creole population making up the next largest group. Originally a collection of Maya city states, the indigenous people still make up around 10% of the population with a combination of Europeans and Asians rounding out the group.

The motto of the nation, which they believe strongly enough to print directly on the flag is "Sub umbra floreo," which means, "Under the shade I flourish."

Another unique cultural group are the Garifuna, a people of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry which originated on the island of Saint Vincent. Much of the populace were transplanted to Central America in 1796 after a series of conflicts with the English known as the Carib Wars. 

The Garifuna language is an offshoot of Arawak with numerous European influences and in 2001 was declared, along with their music and dances, to be a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible History of Humanity” by UNESCO.

 Interestingly, Belize is not only the most sparsely populated country in Central America, but it is unique for having a far higher population 800 years ago at the peak of the Mayan empire than it does today.

Christmas in Courtenay

My parents bought a townhouse in Courtenay on Vancouver Island in 2024 and this was our second family Christmas out there. For those of you that have never been to the Island, its a stunning mountainous landscape and in winter there's constantly steam and fog rising out from the forests.

There's only about 45 minutes of daylight where its not raining, but if you can be outside in that window its an excellent opportunity for a hike and some gorgeous landscapes.

Neighbouring Comox as an air force museum and, continuing the theme from our last post, they have an annual contest among the units on the base to see who can decorate the preserved aircraft outside in the best way. There were no wrong answers, but this plane with antlers and a red nose was certainly a strong contender for my vote. Kathryn has also really mastered night photography on her phone and got some incredible flares and streaks to bring some extra energy to this picture.

Of course the real Christmas Miracle was Wesley being the centre of attention and getting all the love he so richly deserves. He remains a pretty nervous traveller so bringing him there takes some effort but once he arrived he took right to it, clearly remembering the layout and the different people from his extended stay last year.

Seasonal Lights

Winter in Vancouver is long, dark, and rainy, so we are very grateful to the artists and creators that bring unexpected light and colour to our soggy grey-blue city every year.

Lumiere is a great example of precisely this sort of effort, with an 11-year track record of lighting events around downtown Vancouver. We have enjoyed them ever year and its been fun seeing it expand from a few lit up animals in our neighbourhood to a festival like we get now. This year they had an experience that included laser beams and lights on the trees also lighting up dry ice smoke being pumped through the air. The raindrops were similarly picked up by the light, making for a very cool experience.

While experiences are all well and good, we were very relieved to find some of our old favourites again this winter after an over-long hiatus. Although we miss having them in our area, we found Davie, Barclay, Luna, and Stanley scattered around downtown as well as this delightful squirrel (that you would be forgiven for mistaking for a fox)

At the top of our list of unexpected surprises was this dragon. Better still, there were enthusiastic people on hand saying "Would you like to ride the dragon and make it breathe fire?" Its design included a tractor seat beside a lever that would open and close the mouth and emit an audible belch of fire.

Other highlights for the evening were fire dancers, opera singers, bubble blowers, and a general sense that the city had come out of hibernation for a few hours. Not so bad for a dark winter night, and at least we don't have to shovel rain...

FWOOSH!!

So what'd I miss?

That was a pretty wild ride wasn't it? If you lived in the same reality as me then you endured the same global pandemic, lock downs, travel restrictions, and general buzzkill that made us all quit trying to anything. Remember when all the buildings in your downtown were boarded shut and you couldn't sit next to your wife on transit? Not really adventure material I am afraid...

Another reason I have been slow to get back into this groove was a 3-year stint at a local tech company. It began as an incredibly rewarding and engaging place to work, but after we were acquired it turned into a capitalist nightmare. There were a ton of great people being run by a few monsters I'd rather not sacrifice further mental bandwidth to and both working there and then spiritually recovering afterwards required some downtime on my part.

 

So that was a little bit of a hiatus, but I'm going to make a sincere effort to reboot this little blog back into a twice-weekly log of our adventures and travels again. We shoot a ton of photos in beautiful and interesting places but only a fraction of a fraction of them are ever put into books, and those are typically hyper-focused to just the very best 10 per trip.

Like the above - that is a wonderful picture of us both that I will never find a better use for....

Christmas Bird Count: COVID Edition

 Kathryn has been participating in the Christmas Bird Count in Vancouver for at least the last six years while I have joined her as often as my CPA study schedule has permitted. Naturally, in 2020 the idea of even having separate groups searching an area without crossing over was deemed to high a risk, and the count was cancelled. Luckily, the barriers to entry of walking and counting birds are incredibly low and we did a count by ourselves in our usual area.

One of the highlights was a small flock of red-breasted nuthatches at a small feeder in False Creek. In total we have seen 1 of these birds in all our years in Vancouver and had a total of 5 in our count, which was pretty special.

 Of course, its not just rare birds that are counted. We ended our day with sizeable tallies for crows (220), glaucous-winged gulls (144), Canada geese (138), and even pigeons (188). This little cluster on Granville Island were particularly pleasing to me as they defied human efforts to scare them away from a prime roosting spot with a fake owl.

It's natural to associate hummingbirds with summer and the tropics, but Vancouver is a year-round home to a sizeable population of Anna's Hummingbirds. Despite their tiny size, they are highly territorial birds with a very distinct and audible call so we typically find quite a few of them.

This little male was obligingly perched in Olympic Village, singing his heart out and flashing is iridescent feathers in a stunning display to either scare of competitor males or attract females.

Flying over Garibaldi Provincial Park

After the the flight lesson orientation, Captain Dave lead us on an hour long tour of his happy place, Garibaldi Provincial Park. The literal jewel of this park is Garibaldi Lake, which is fed by mountain runoff and stunningly azure, due to suspended particles in the meltwater known as "glacial flour." 

This massive body of water is 1,500m above sea level with depths of up to 250m and held back by a lava dam known as "The Barrier." Captain Dave explained that, should there ever be an earthquake of sufficient magnitude, there is a good chance the natural dam will rupture and the lake will spill into the valley below.

Equally stunning, Table Mountain was a humbling testament to the passage of time and a reminder of the awesome power of the glaciers that once covered North America. Much like Siwash Rock or Devil's Tower, Table Mountain is the igneous funnel of an extinct volcano left behind after the softer sedimentary rock around it wore away.

The top is naturally so flat because its formative eruption took place when the entire area was covered in ice so thick that not even a volcano could impact it. The ice above stopped liquid rock and then ground it flat.

Towering at a height of 2,678 meters, the peak of Mount Garibaldi is an amazing sight from the air. The Sentinel and Sphinx glaciers feed the lake below as they recede a little more each year. Despite global warming, these ice fields remain massive, which fissures hundreds of feet deep and jagged rocks poking through into the clouds at the top, evoking the Antarctica flight from "At the Mountains of Madness."