INFORMATION BELOW IS PRELIMINARY. MORE TO COME IN NEXT FEW DAYS.

Statistics and Records:

Trip Life Bird Summary:
Florida: 19
Trinidad: 113
Tobago: 17
St. Lucia: 20
Belize: 100

Trip Total: 269
Adds to pre-trip Life List of 629
for Updated Life List Total of 898

Milestones Reached:

Trip Life Bird 100: Yellow-chinned Spinetail (Trinidad)
Trip Life Bird 200: Gray-necked Wood-Rail (Belize)
Life List Bird 700: Short-tailed Swift (Trinidad)
Life List Bird 800: Ocellated Turkey (Belize)
First Bird of the Trip: Eurasian Collared-dove (Miami, FL)
Last Bird of the Trip: Thick-billed Seed-finch (Belize Zoo)

Trip Awards:

And so here are our trip awards. All the candidates were very good, it was almost impossible to make a choice. Any of them would make a great Best Bird, and remember, if for any reason the winner cannot fulfill its duties, the first runner-up will be declared the winner.

As of today, 5/31/00 at 9:30 am, Sharon has done only Florida's, Tobago's and St. Lucia's awards. She keeps trying to lead a normal life.

Notes:
(1) - Sharon defines a Parking Lot Bird as any bird that is visible from where we park the car, generally in an area normally designated as a parking lot.

OVERALL TRIP AWARDS. THE OSCARS. THE EMMIES. THE GRAND PRIZE WINNERS.

References:

Preparing for this trip would have been impossible without several great references, listed below, by trip location.

Florida:

"A Birder's Guide to Florida," an ABA Birdfinding Guide by Bill Pranty. URL for ABA Sales is http://www.americanbirding.org/abasales

Trinidad and Tobago:

"A Birder's Guide to Trinidad and Tobago," by William L. Murphy. I bought this book directly from him. The latest contacts I have are bmurphy@eurekanet.com, or bmurphy@firewire.com. I would not have attempted all the birding Sharon and I did on our own without this absolutely necessary book.
"BIRDS of Trinidad and Tobago," also by William L. Murphy, a helpful cassette of recorded bird sounds of the country.
"A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad & Tobago," second edition, by Richard ffrench. I bought two of these books from Amazon.com, gave one to Kinko's, who cut out the color plates, and made them into a stand-alone booklet for us. We took both copies, left the complete book in the car or room, and carried the plates with us in the field. Great weight- and time-saver. But sometimes, you needed the full book to read about behaviors, etc. THIS BOOK IS A "MUST." I put tabs on the key plates for easy lookup.

St. Lucia:

"Birds of the West Indies," by James Bond. I think I bought this from Amazom.com.
Got my best bird-hunting information directly from Donald Anthony (email anthonydonald@hotmail.com), of the Forest Service. Donald is also a great guide, and I would have to say, a "required luxury" in getting us to the right place at the right time, without getting lost, running out of gas, needing to arrange permits, etc. He could recognize the sounds, and imitate the calls of the forest birds.

Belize:

"Mexican Birds," by Roger Tory Peterson/Edward L. Chalif, a Peterson Field Guides reference. Thoughtout these reports, I erroneously called this book "Peterson's Birds of Mexico." I bought mine from Amazon.com I think. THIS BOOK IS A "MUST." I used this book, together with a Belize birdlist and a couple of Belize internet trip reports to narrow down the possible birds at Chan Chich. I marked the possible ones, so we didn't have to try to pick one hummingbird out of three pages of possibilities, every time we saw a new hummingbird. I also put tabs on the key plates for easy lookup.
"100 Birds of Belize," available from the Belize Audubon Society, 12 Fort Street, Box 1001, Belize City, Belize. We actually picked this book up in Belize City after our Chan Chich visit, but it would have been helpful. Sharon likes photographs better than paintings, and that is a feature of this book.
"A Bird Walk at Chan Chich," by John V. Moore, an incredibly helpful cassette of recorded bird sounds at Chan Chich. You might reach him at 333 W. Santa Clara Street, Suite 1212, San Jose, CA 95113.

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