Jo Ellen sent me a few pictures from Belize that she agreed to let me share.  First is this wonderful shot of a seahorse at South Water Caye.

This shot of Xunantunich shows the scale better than the shots I included.

Unfortunately Kimya and I went to sleep (to get up early for birding) before this Spix's disk-winged bat was netted at Blue Creek.  The disks function like suction cups to hold on to leaves where the bat roosts.

My most exciting find of the summer around Sacramento was a singing male Indigo Bunting that was at the Bufferlands from 7/10 to 8/23.  Unfortunately, while I saw the bird many times and took nearly 20 people to see it, I never got a decent photo.  He rarely allowed approach closer than about 40 feet.

On 7/15, John Trochet found a singing male Hooded Warbler in the Tall Forest at Cosumnes River Preserve.  The following day, after finding the Indigo Bunting with a small group, we went to Cosumnes to look for the warbler.  We were unsuccessful, but did find a Western Tanager and this Selasphorus hummer, which was probably the female Allen’s that John Trochet had been finding periodically.  These birds have been found nesting in the Tall Forest the last few years.

For two weeks in July it became extremely hot, with highs exceeding 110 degrees.  On Saturday, 7/22, Kimya and I sought to escape the heat by heading to the coast.  We stayed in San Rafael, where it had been 104 during the day.  Early Sunday morning, we drove to the top of Mount Tamalpais, where it was 90 degrees at 8:30.  Down on the edge of Bolinas Lagoon it was only 66 degrees and much more of the escape that we hoped for.  We enjoyed watching over 1,000 Elegant Terns, many shorebirds, and a flyby Peregrine Falcon that stirred the resting flocks.

  Long-billed Curlew

We joined Jack Hiehle for a Sacramento Audubon/California Native Plant Society tour of Carson Pass off of Hwy 88.  Jack is 85, but in great shape.  We were out for 9 hours and walked about 6 miles.  One of the highlights was finding a pair of Pine Grosbeaks and watching their mating displays.

 Male with nesting material in his beak during copulation.

 After mating, both male and female fluttered wings and bent their heads back in display.

The focus of the trip was the wonderful floral display.

 Like this richly colored paintbrush.

 And this Leichtlin's Mariposa lily

  A Clark's Nutcracker working this cone twisted his head upside-down.

 This Belding's ground squirrel was just off the trail at around 9,000 feet.

  The tiny arctic willow:  only the flower gives it away as a species of willow, in the same genus as the many trees and shrubs that we imagine when we think of a willow.

On 8/12, Kimya and I assisted John Schick with the monthly survey of the River Walk trail at Cosumnes River Preserve.  We began at the Barn Ponds, where we found this cooperative Virginia Rail.

Now I am almost caught up, with the next installment being the recent trip to the Ruby Mountains in Nevada.