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This morning we headed out to the Las Moras area of Montaña de Izopo to meet up with John van Dort, the number one birder in Honduras and a top contributor to eBird and the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Hanging out with John for the morning was an experience. I know good birders can do this, but I had never before taken a walk with someone of his birding caliber. While walking along a path, I hear birds. John can hear ten birds at once, point to each direction of the bird calls, recognize the calls and find the birds as though they were his own children. I found this amazing.
Today’s hike was a different kind of challenge. The terrain was often very rocky.
We found a number of hummingbirds, one example is this darling female White-eared Hummingbird.
The hummingbird we were really looking for was the Slender Sheartail. John had seen this species in this area before, so we were on the lookout. The bird showed up, but he perched high on a branch and wasn’t close enough for me to get a good picture. William actually got a better one through his spotting scope, which has a longer range than the lens I was using. Here’s his shot of this wonderful bird. Someday I hope to get a good photo of this one myself.
After spending the morning together, William and I left John to pick up Jenny Grewel of Mythic Hippo Photography at the airport. Jenny will be joining us for the next several days.
