Reason 3 – Shorebirds!

The South Stann Creek River is one of the 20 major rivers in Belize. It is the final destination of the Stann Creek watershed. Massive amount of sediment and silicon sand pour into the coastline each season, building and tearing down sandbars at the mouth of the river.

Often, these ephemeral sand spits will build into the middle of the river, and become the perfect resting spot for hundreds of shorebirds. Pelicans, terns, sandpipers, red knots, whimbrels, Wilson’s snipes, red-necked phalaropes, willets, and lesser yellowlegs, along with laughing gulls, herring gulls, black skimmers, and even brown noddies.

The particulate matter in the river feed countless millions of small fish and invertebrates just at the mouth, along the shoreline and even in deeper water. And that is what all these birds are resting from, the feast that a healthy tropical river provides.

At sunrise, if the air is still, you can walk the shoreline and see the water boil with shoals of fish, all trying to avoid the constant onslaught of wave after wave of pelicans and terns from above. And from below, the occasional hunting pack of jacks will rip through the schools leaving bits and pieces of fish for the terns to pick up.

In Dangriga, Nature takes center stage.