Crooked Tree

The month of May was an exciting time for Crooked Tree. The first week of May a Cashew Festival is celebrated by Crooked Tree Village. Before I came to Belize, I only new about the cashew nut, which I assumed grew on a tree like other nuts. However, a cashew has a fleshy fruit, and the nut hangs outside of the fruit.

Belizeans also call it the "devil's fruit" because the raw shell contains a poisonous oil that causes skin irritation. Cashew belongs to the family Anacardiaceae, which includes Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and Poison Sumac.

The ripe fruit or cashew apple is yellow to orange-red in color and can be eaten raw. Its surprisingly juicy and a bit tart. There are many ways to prepare cashew- cashew wine, cashew jam, stewed cashews, cashew syrup, cashew fudge, cashew nuts, cashew...

During May, Belize also experiences dry season, evident in Crooked Tree by the cracking mud flats surrounding the shrunken lagoon and vultures feeding on dead fish that have washed to shore (mostly tilapia, which are non-native to Belize). This caused quite a stir in the news.

(News 5 story) Fish kill around Crooked Tree has residents concerned

When the lagoon shrinks the fish also become more concentrated, which attracts a large amount of wading birds. I joined a group of birding enthusiasts for a day at Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. The amount of Wood Storks flying overhead reminded me of a fall day in Minnesota with flocks of Canada Geese filling the morning sky. Scanning through the birds with our binoculars we saw Jabirus, Great Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, and many more. "Find me a Great Blue Heron," said the man who was compiling our trip list. It was like Where's Waldo except we couldn't be sure that the bird was even existed in our field of view. I was happy to spot it first.

Go Nuts!

I ventured up the Old Northern Highway with a group of Volunteers to Lucky Strike Village. Nearby is the most visited Maya site in Belize, Altun Ha, which means "water of the rocks." From the Temple of the Sun God we enjoyed a beautiful Belize sunset.

On Sunday I was woken up by the morning chorus of birds. The sun was just peaking above the trees and glowing like red ember. My bird I.D. skills are pretty good now, I know quite a few birds by sight and sound. I added two new birds to my checklist for Belize. The best find for me was a small group of Cedar Waxwings. First I heard the familiar high-pitched whistle and sure enough they were right above me. Cedar Waxwings are an irregular winter visitor in Belize, some years they are not seen at all. The bird pictured below is a Clay-colored Robin, which has a beautiful song.

Our team, the Gibnuts, didn't show up in full force this weekend so we played a 9-on-9 football game against Lucky Strike. Off to good start, we didn't give up any early goals. However, Lucky Strike scored 2 or 3 three goals before the Gibnuts roared back. I got a short pass from my teammate and was face-to-face with the opposing goalie. I booted the ball with left foot and watched it curve around him into the goal. The second half was much like the first. We gave a few goals and took one for our team. Lucky Strike hit the magic number, scoring 7 goals against the Gibnuts 2. Better luck next time. Go Nuts!