We arrived to Guatemala on Friday, and spent a great weekend the Aldana family, friends of the NGO I work with. We took a trip to a volcano near Guatemala City to get acquainted to the birds in the region, and master our ID skills before we begin our field work in Coban! We packed up the truck, and headed out, but a huge rainstorm got to us before we made it up to the field station at El Zur! The roads were too muddy so we decided to take all of our stuff out of the truck and make the trek up by foot. We came across a few obstacles along the way, including a few fallen trees, and a river which was created by all the rainfall! We finally arrived at the the soon-to-be field station at El Zur tired, and soaking wet, but laughing at the adventure we just had together.
We got up early the next morning to bird. We saw an incredible variety of species, and the views were unbelievable. Mr. Aldana hopes that one day this field station will be the home-base for future scientists to conduct bird surveys and research. By the end of our weekend we saw nearly 80 species. My favorite was the turquoise-browed mot mot.
The weekend flew by, and we packed up our bags to head back to Guatemala City. What a fun weekend it was, and we are glad to have made new friends along the way with the Aldana's. Tonight we head to Coban where the NGO, Community Cloud Forest Conservation, is located. We are excited to see our research partners and begin our bird surveys this week!
And some more cool shots from our weekend ~