Sunday birding photos and cooking adventures

Beautiful Bougainvillea on road north near Mata Grande grocery

We biked out to Grand Belizean Estates for some birding this morning, then rode along the road north, still looking for bird life, until it became impassable just before Mata Chica.  It was a very productive morning of birding.  I got to see my first Lineated Woodpecker -- what a cool bird!  Barry had seen several, as he often sneaks out on early-morning birding walks while I'm still snoozing.  I also caught a fleeting glance of a Lesser Yellow-Headed Vulture, but he was gone from his perch too quickly to get a photo.  Here are some of our other sightings:

Mangrove Warbler (male)

Reddish Egret, White Morph

Roseate Spoonbill

Roseate Spoonbill in flight

White-Collared Seedeater

Interesting fruit. Edible or poisonous? I didn't dare try to find out...

Melodious Blackbird

In addition to the photos above, we sighted one or more of the following species: Greater Yellowlegs, Blue-Winged Teal, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Killdeer, Turkey Vulture, unknown plovers, Tropical Kingbird, Great Kiskadee, Yellow Warbler, American Redstart, and Tropical Mockingbird.   

And then there was this "wood duck" way up in the tree!

Neat, huh?

This afternoon was a busy one in the kitchen.  I made a Belizean-style Sweet Potato Pone, very similar to a bread pudding, but with yams instead of bread (much healthier!)  The yams had been freebies from Maria on two different trips to her fruit and vegetable stand, so it was high time to use them.  The Pone was quite tasty, and I can definitely see doing this again around Thanksgiving or Christmas, as it had those warming holiday flavors.  It would have been even better with ice cream or whipped cream on top, but it was still good unadorned.  Next time I'll get Barry to grate the sweet potatoes as that was quite a chore to do by hand.  Lucky guy had left on his bike for town to buy a few veggies for salsa so avoided the odious chore.  Looking on the bright side, I got my upper-body workout for the week!

When Barry got home, he made his blender salsa, and I whipped up a batch of Swiss Chard Enchiladas with the organic Chard we got from Sol Farms this week.  So, our dinner was enchiladas, local tortilla chips, fresh salsa, with Sweet Potato Pone for dessert.  Yum!

Belizean-Style Sweet Potato Pone