Rafa and I spent a very nice night at the Garza Canela in San Blas after dropping off our clients in Guadalajara, we were lucky enough to hit the tail

Collared Forest Falcon in Singayta

end of the culinary festival and got to sample some very special dishes!  The following morning we headed out to the Singayta area to get Rafa a few more life birds.  It was a bit slow on the road, but we did manage to ultimately get great looks at a very cooperative Collared Forest-Falcon that had been teasing us all morning.

Our plan worked out well and met Mario and Gaby right on time.  Rafa and I had already pulled together all the food and drink and we were off for Copala arriving in time for dinner at Daniel’s before they all headed out for the night.

We were off pre-dawn for the high country!  We were all excited to be in the mountains and I was excited to show these guys a bunch of new birds.  Our first real stop was in the pines where Rafa and I had Gaby and Mario put breakfast together for us just like we would do on a tour!  We had a great time pretending to be outrageously demanding and rude.  Fortunately, none of my clients would ever be as bad as Rafa and I were!  While we were eating we got looks at a Blue-throated Hummingbird, Blue Mockingbird and our first Red Warbler!

Yes! A Tufted Jay on the road!

My hope was that a flock of Tufted Jays would pop in for a visit while we were eating breakfast, but after a while things slowed down and we opted to move on.  It didn’t take long for us to find the them, however!  Not 2 miles down the road, I rounded a corner and there on the road was a Tufted Jay trying to remove something edible from the pavement!  I quickly pulled over on a very convenient pullout and we spent the next several minutes watching a flock of at least 14 birds interact and fly back and forth across the road…fantastic!  Sometimes these birds can be rather skittish, but this time they were completely comfortable with us being in the middle of the flock and they seemed far more interested in eating than worrying about us! In the end it turned out that this was a very important sighting for other reasons as we would not see the jays again on this trip!

Next stop was the old ranch site at the famous birding location near the Barranca de Liebre.  Right out of the van, we had marvelous looks at Russet Nightingale Thrush, Red-headed Tanager and Rufous-capped Brushfinch.  A bit more looking around and we found more Redstarts of both varieties, Tufted and Buff-breasted Flycatchers and Rufous-capped Warblers.

Soon we were off and down the hill towards the best site for Green-striped Brushfinch.  Things started out a bit slow, but this is not that

What the birds were after at the ranch site!

unusual for the high country in November.  I was really happy just to be birding in the high country of Mexico with some of my best buddies and showing them some new places!  But soon I had to start getting serious about birds again, the warblers had found us!  It was one of those special birding moments that I will never forget.  As soon as one person would call out a bird and everyone would get on it, someone would call out another, it was amazing.  In all there were a dozen species of warblers alone, plus another dozen birds that included White-striped Woodcreeper, Mountain Trogon, Pine Flycatcher and Mexican Chickadee.

The walk down the road continued to produce all sorts of birds, so by the time we got to the Green-striped Brushfinch stop, I was pretty confident that we would be successful.  Sure enough, with just one blast of the tape two brushfinches made there way up the drainage and eventually gave us all really good looks.  Along with them came a family of Golden-browed Warblers who also were quite accommodating!

We went back up the hill and made out was to one of the world’s most beautiful locations for lunch – the canyon rim of the Barranca de Liebre.  Once again, Rafa and I took pleasure in pretending to be overly demanding clients towards Gaby and Mario while they put together a great canyon side lunch.

Some high flying Military Macaws were very entertaining!

Birding had slowed down with the warming day and we took a short drive back out of the Barranca area and towards the cabins that the ejido had built for guests.  Once again birding was pretty slow and only a few of the trees that have been fruiting in previous years were producing this time.

We drove back down the mountain to the Petaca road where things were a bit more exciting!  The Petaca area has hardly a bit of untouched habitat left, but that seems to suit many species of birds just fine.  We got lucky with Rusty-crowned Ground-sparrow, Rusty Sparrow and had a beautiful pair of Military Macaws circle us a number of times and then eventually land in a small cave in the cliff face.  With the scope we could watch them preening and walking around in the cave…it was very cool!

A very cooperative Berryline Hummingbird

The day was getting long and we were all pretty whipped, so we opted to call it a day and headed back down to Daniel’s for dinner.  It was good to do the list and rehash all the great birds that we had seen that day.  After dinner, we all walked into town to see the church and visit the old part of town. Copala is a neat place but too bad a quarter of the buildings on the plaza are abandoned and not doing very well at all!  I am afraid that the Butter Company hotel and bar may be at a point of no return as it is really tumbling down.

After a great nights sleep  with a only a few jake brakes cutting the nights silence, we chowed down a simple breakfast and were off to the Panuco road just a short distance from the hotel.  Admittedly, it was not the best morning I have ever had on the Panuco road, but we did see a lot of neat birds with some work.  We eventually got a Colima Pygmy Owl to come in and with him came Golden and Black-capped Vireos, Blue Bunting and two Golden-crowned Emeralds!  We also got lots of good views of Military Macaws, the Panuco road must be one of the best places anywhere to get good close looks at this fantastic bird.

We ended up pulling out of Daniel’s about 11:00 a.m. and made our way down to Mazatlan.  The boys had never been there so we wanted to spend at least a couple of hours ‘turistiando’ around the historic old town of Mazatlan! After strolling the Malecon and taking lots of funny pictures, we treated ourselves to a delicious seafood lunch before making the drive back home to Alamos! It was a great trip and I was so happy to share some fun times with Mario, Gaby and Rafa!

Colima-Jalisco

November 2011

Private trip for the Raskin Family

Day 1 – After only really getting lost once on the drive into downtown Guadalajara, Rafa and I arrived at the hotel for the Raskin clan ahead of

The Volcanos at Sunset

schedule!  With an improved mental map of the layout of downtown Guadalajara, we were out of there in fine fashion any off to do some birding!  Our first stops were only an hour out of town at the Sayula and Zapotlan lagoons.  Although it was a bit early in migration, we were still treated to good looks at a number of northern migrants at these fine shore birding areas.  There were a few Pectoral Sandpipers and lots of Least Sandpipers, along with the usual assortment of waders and numerous duck species.  Also in attendance were at least four American Pipits. Then, it was off to Sapotalan Lagoon just outside of Ciudad Guzman where we embraced the reverie while we birded side by side dozens of families enjoying their Sunday afternoon, “domingiando” as they say in Mexico.  Nothing like your first look in a spotting scope at a beautiful bird to get you interested in birds…hopefully we made a few new birders out of those kids!  We had

Training new bird guides

good looks at Cassin’s and Western Kingbirds, which is always a nice thing to go over early in a tour, and there were a couple of Vermilion Flycatchers around for eye candy appeal.  I was a bit surprised by the unsolicited calls of a number of Soras and we had our first looks at Ruddy Ducks. We ended the day with dinner on the plaza with lots of music and awesome Enchilada Suizas!

Day 2 – We were up early for a big breakfast in our room then on the road by 6:20 a.m.! It was certainly in our favor to have had the time change recently so that it did not get light until 7:00 a.m.!  We didn’t waste much time getting up the slopes of Volcan de Fuego, and on to better high elevation habitat. At one of our very first stops we were rewarded with a few birds in a very popular fruiting Bursura tree.  It was a trifecta of Tanagers with Western, Flame-colored and Hepatics all doing battle with a trio of Vireo species that included Hutton’s, Warbling and Cassin’s.

Pushing on to even the higher elevations required some technical vehicle traversing and some rather intense landslides and serious rut

Volcan del Fuego

maneuvering…and this was after someone had been “working” the road! With only some difficulty and one or two second runs at obstacles, we managed to make it all the way to the park entrance before one final landslide stopped us.  This was a great place to do lunch!  While Rafa was working his wonder on the lunch, Frances and I had wonderful looks at a Red Warbler darting about, and suffered a bit trying to get decent looks at an incessantly monotonous Blue-throated Hummingbird that would not stop chirping, but we never did find the guy.  Re-energized after lunch we all hiked up the road where we encountered our first Gray Barred Wrens, as well as Hermit and Townsend Warblers and a retiring Mountain Trogon.

The fog rolled in kind of heavy and it got down right cold! It seemed like a great time to begin our decent to the lower elevations.  This turned out to be a fine idea as we basically stopped every time that we exited the fog where bird activity tended to be excellent!  Our best stop had to have been the side road to the microwave tower.  On this stop we managed to pull out the highlight of the day!  Besides the fact that there were a lot of birds here, the hoots of my Colima Pygmy Owl brought in a very agitated Chestnut-sided Shrike-Vireo that was content to give us all excellent protracted views!  It was great for everyone to get this lifer and it was a bird that I had not seen for a couple of years.

Stripe-headed Sparrow

Then we started the drive back to Ciudad Guzman stopping along the way for some fine sunset photos of the volcanos. We had dinner at the ‘Patio’ restaurant just off the plaza.

Day 3 – In the morning I opted for going back up to Volcan de Fuego mostly because it is so much more pleasant to bird than the road up to Volcan Nevado, far less dust and no traffic to speak of…not to mention a lot of great habitat.  It is harder to get to really good fir forest, but there is always tomorrow for that!

Our first new bird was an Inca Dove right on the paved road in Atenquiqueon.  Once leaving pavement, we made our first stop not more than a mile on to the dirt road.  Right out of the car, we had our first new bird for the trip; a family of Stripe-headed Sparrows was hanging around some old corrals and gave us protracted looks and decent photos to boot!

We then made two long stops that took up most of the morning in shady oak canyon areas collecting the birds. Finally, good looks in the scope at Blue Mockingbird!  Also had Arizona Woodpecker, a not so accommodating Crescent Chested warbler, Tufted Flycatcher, more Red-faced

Collared Towhee

Warblers (quickly becoming the most common bird of the tour!), Golden Vireo, nearly annoying numbers of Slate-throated Redstarts, and a Happy Wren that sang itself silly but never came out for us to see.

Then we bolted up the hill for the microwave towers, this time going beyond our Chestnut-sided Shrike Vireo stop from yesterday. Getting out of the van I heard the distinctive calls of a Collared Towhee and with just one quick play of the IPod, we had 4 or 5 birds allowing us fine views and photos!

Our near midday walk down the road from the microwave was slow, so we jumped in the van and moved down to the main road for a nice ‘green’ lunch at the junction.

The afternoon turned out to be a lot of ‘birding’, but not a lot of ‘bird watching’!  It was very slow with only a few new birds here and there, including shabby looks at another Mountain Trogon.  But we did have a nice walk and we did run into a group of Mexican Jays which has very recently been split into Trans volcanic Jay.  We ended the day once again with dinner at the ‘Patio’, this time with yesterday’s promised Chiles en Nogada that were not really worth waiting for!

Gray Silky Flycatcher

Day 4 – In order to get some more time in the fir forest, today we went up Volcan Nevado.  It is a good move going up this road during the week as I think only two or three cars passed us the entire morning.  The weekend would be an entirely different experience with hoards of folks headed up to beat the heat.  Our first stop was to enjoy a massive chorus of Green-Violet Ear Hummingbirds, content to be clicking away along with lots of White-eared and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds and there was even a Calliope or two getting in on the fun.  Walking the abandoned two tracks was relaxing and abundant with birds.  Once again we got quick looks at Red Warbler, our only Grace’s Warbler, a couple more Collared Towhees, as well as our first Mexican Chickadees of the tour.

Then it was up to the fir forest and the massive flower packed ditches that make up the habitat near the entrance to the national park.  Here we got our best looks at Gray-silky Flycatchers and a surprise visit from a very interested Cinnamon-bellied Flower-piercer, a bird that can be very difficult to find on the volcanos.  Then it was time for the next BIG surprise of the day!  Driving along I happened to notice a slight movement on the right hand edge of the road, immediately I recognized it as a Long-tailed Wood-Partridge that quickly made its way off the road and into the brush.  I pulled over quickly and got out the Ipod.  After only a couple of blasts, a small group of Wood-Partridges started calling on the opposite side of the road!  I warned everyone to watch the other side of the road because I knew that the separated member wanted to be in the comfort of friends!  Within seconds, the one that I had seen wandered out on to the road ran out into the middle of the road, stopped briefly for us to get binos on, and then ran to hook up with the rest of the covey!  Fantastic!  They were quick yet satisfying looks at this interesting and difficult to see central Mexican endemic!

We picnicked within the boundaries of the park, grateful for another one of Rafa’s outrageously good salads.  Right after lunch an unsolicited

I love these long drives!

Mountain Pygmy Owl started calling in the distance.  We never did get a look at him but it was good to know they are up there!

It was a 3 hour drive to Autlan this afternoon and we made one stop along the way for some agricultural field birding, after Rafa noticed that there were a lot of raptors around.  Sure enough, we ended up seeing White-tailed Kite, Swainson’s Hawk, White-tailed Hawk, Kestrel and Peregrine Falcon within only a few short minutes.  One big surprise was having a small covey of Northern Bobwhite dart across the road as we were headed back to the main highway.  At the highway, I pulled over for a minute so that we could drink up some wonderful views of Groove-billed Anis feeding in someone’s yard!

It had been a great day of birding, if not a long one!  I was a bit tired and should have been paying better attention, but they call them accidents for a reason.  I had been through that intersection many times before and I knew it was unsafe and unintuitive, so I should have been more alert.  Instead, I missed the not so obvious red arrow and made a left hand turn in front of a speeding Volkswagen.  Boom….my first car accident ever! Fortunately, only my pride and the Volkswagen were seriously hurt, and the insurance adjustor and the police were efficient and very understanding.  The cop didn’t even give me a ticket and he expressed to me that this was hardly the first time that there was an accident this intersection. Not a great way to end the day, but fortunately all was well.

A very cooperative Arizona Woodpecker

Day 5 – This morning we made the short drive out of Autlan and up into the Sierra Manitatlan and the crest of the mountains and Puerto de Los Mazos, an area I refer to as the enchanted oak forest.  Right out of the car we were treated to a very accommodating Blue Mockingbird and a small mixed flock that included Cassin’s Vireo, Happy Wren and Black-and-white Warbler.  Just as we were getting ready to move on, I saw a weird movement in the bush and Rafa called Rusty-crowned Ground-Sparrow!  Sure enough, with just a bit of coaxing the bird gave us a limited but good show, the only one we would have on the entire trip!

We walked a good long way this morning birding hard the entire way. Some of the spoils included good looks at Flame-colored and Summer Tanager, Plumbeous Vireo, Rufus-capped Warbler, Brown-crested Flycatcher, Arizona, Ladder-backed and Gray crowned Woodpecker. We also eventually got great looks at a Colima Pygmy owl after a couple of hours of frustration trying to nail his location down!

Once the birds slowed down it was time for butterflies with numerous species seen and a couple actually identified, I am guessing that the late

This Colima Pygmy Owl gave us the evil eye!

summer rains (unfortunately in the form of major hurricanes) have extended and improved the numbers of butterflies this year.

Getting back to the van was pretty funny.  As I rounded the corner walking ahead of the rest of the group, I encountered a pick-up truck loaded with comically over-armed Special Forces of the state police!  Apparently, they were waiting for someone who had a key to open the gate to the microwave tower.  Always a bit intimidating at first to come face to face with highly armed individuals, but quickly it became obvious to them that I was hardly a threat and they were all honestly interested in all the equipment I had and how I use it to help find and see birds!  They were all really nice guys.  Little did I know when leaving them that in the parking area where I had left the van, I would find another dozen or more police vehicles, and even more highly armed cops meeting for a joint training exercise!  It was pretty funny as all of us arrived at our van and waited for the driver of a truck or two to be moved so that we could actually get out of there!

We were all pretty hungry at this point so we made a dash downhill, now into tropical habitat, searching for a good lunch spot.  Lunch ended up being at a rather unceremonious location perched on a high ditch under a fig tree full of robins. The culinary skills of chef Rafa garnered far more attention than the trash filled ditch that was our dining area!

After lunch it was hot and not too birdy, but we made a stop at Laguna Rosario where we pulled out a bunch of ducks in a rather distant pond and a few White-collared Seedeaters that were working ditch.

We had lots of San Blas Jays

Just before arriving in Barra de Navidad, I thought it might be a good idea to do a little scouting trip up the Arroyo Choncho where we would be spending the morning tomorrow.  It was pretty hot, but we managed to get looks at Louisiana Waterthrush and Lilac-crowned Parrots before calling it a day and heading into town!

We had a great dinner tonight at El Manglarito with lots of fun discussing the mango ice cream.

Day 6 – This morning it was back up the hill to the Arroyo Choncho and had some really great birds.  Super looks at San Blas Jays, Golden-crowned Emerald Hummingbird and a lifer Ovenbird for Francis!  We did a lot of walking on the old dirt road, way past the small lagoon at the top where we were included with a big mob on a Pygmy Owl.  Things got quiet on the way back down but it was a wonderful morning.

Back at the hotel we relaxed with a picnic in poolside at the hotel and David helped me out with a bottle of Cabernet! Once the sun cooled down and our nap was over, we were off for the airport road and a nice afternoon of wetland birding that included three species of kingfishers and lots of waders.

On the way back to town we stopped to buy fruit for the following day’s breakfast and got a

Cinnamon Hummingbird

chance to be closely involved in a Mexican goat round up, complete with a boy and his kid!  Once again we had a really nice dinner at El Manglarito.

Day 7 – This morning we packed up the van and were out of the hotel early for a date on the Playa del Oro road, a good twenty minutes from the hotel.  We ended up having to work really hard for most of our birds and a couple were only heard, including the Flammulated Flycatcher that came ever so close but remained hidden in the bush.  We did have good looks at Yellow-winged Cacique, Scrub Euphonia, Blue Bunting, Orange-breasted Varied and Painted Bunting, as well as Botteri’s and Clay-colored Sparrow.

Today Rafa set us up a great lunch in the shade of a huge rubber tree where we were treated to looks at a pair of Citreoline Trogons and Tropical Parula.

The Playa del Oro road eventually makes its way through a nice big stand of intact dry tropical forest and then ends up at a fantastic beach!  It was all far too tempting for David and I and soon we were both in the waves (substantial ones too!) enjoying a bit of body surfing in the absolutely perfect temperature water!

Orange-breasted Bunting

After a refreshing afternoon swim, it was off to Manzanillo and on up to the bustling city of Colima.  Apparently there is no economic crisis here!  The place was amazingly busy and everywhere we looked there was new construction and lots of affluence spread around, much more than most other places in southern Mexico!

Day 8 – In an attempt to milk the most possible birding out of the tour, I opted for one last drive up Volcan de Fuego, but this time on the moist Pacific side.  We got out of the hotel well before first light and made our first stop in the dark at the village of San Antonio.  We were hoping for owls as I went through the realm of possibilities on the Ipod, but unfortunately we got no responses.

Our one big stop was at Laguna Maria where we competed with a Christian revival group for space in the park.  Birding was a bit slow so we were off once again back down the mountain and made one fantastic stop hoping for a Green-striped Brush-finch that never appeared.  We did however get killer looks at a very accommodating Fan-tailed Warbler, more Collared Towhees and marauding group of Rufous-capped Warblers.

Happy with the mornings results, we were off for lunch and then on to Guadalajara.

It was great to get back to the west central volcanic belt with such a fun loving and interesting group after a couple of years being away!  Thanks to Rafa for all his hard work and to the group for having the idea to do this private trip.  I hope to travel with you all again very soon.

I realize that this tour is quickly becoming but a distant memory being that it occurred more than three months ago, however better late than

Gray Vireo

never I sometimes say!  For me it has actually been a lot more fun going back a couple of months after the fact and taking a second look at the photos and trying to recreate an accurate report of just what exactly we did and saw!  Funny but I had actually ended the tour a bit down about the birds that we did or more accurately did not see.  After gong back through it all I realize that we did pretty well after all!  Here is the story of the Sonora tour from October 2011!

Day 1 – Thursday October 21st. The small but intrepid group pulled out of Tucson ahead of schedule and of we went to the Rio Sonora Valley and on to Hermosillo.  The weather was slightly overcast and the birding was too!  In other words things were not exactly falling out of the trees.  Unlike the previous spring trip the numbers of Sparrows and the like were low at the big Sycamore crossing just south of Cananea. We did manage a few birds but mostly I was interested in moving south and on to bigger fish.One of the interesting no bird moments of the day was finding the big church in Arizpe open to visitors.  I have been here dozens of times and only had the pleasure of going in to the church very few times, and it had been years.  I was happy to see that it was even better than I had remembered it.  It was in excellent condition and the De Anza is still installed in his final resting place in the floor in front of the altar!  Admittedly it is a bit bazaire but hey this is Mexico and I really like the weird addition of the mildly inappropriate missed in with stone cold tradition, rather refreshing I think!

Happy Halloween from De Anza

El Rodeo was closed for some reason so I was forced to do lunch at the second best place in town, which was fine if not way too much food.

A stop at the hot springs got us our first looks at Caracara and a bunch of Lark Sparrows along with Gray, Dusky and Vermillion Flycatchers.

Day 2 – We got out of Hermosillo early and were birding at the big shrine before we knew it.  Well if we had never had experienced a good look at Gray Vireo that was checked off the list, the little suckers were hamming it up!  There was also a splattering of other desert birds including Curve-billed Thrashers, Canyon Towhee and several Black-throated Sparrows.Next stop was at the The San Jose Del Pima arroyo where the birding was decidedly slow, but we got good photos of a Couple of Sonoran Mud Turtles enjoying what was left of the moist areas of the arroyo.Lunch par usual at the ever impressive Yaqui river bridge where we were treated to an invasion of Rock Wrens headed south.Further up the road we beat the bushes at the fig tree for little reward in the way of birds, but thanks to Robins keen eye and unfading interest in Butterfly’s, we were all treated to great looks at a recently described species of butterfly!  The Minerva Owl was only first recognized as a full species in 1994 and is the only butterfly of this tropical family in northern Mexico Opsiphanes blythekitzmillerae. In November 2007 an anonymous online auction bidder

Minerva Owl

paid US$40,800 for the naming rights to the butterfly. It was named after Margery Minerva Blythe Kitzmiller of the U.S. state of Ohio, who died in 1972. Researchers at the University of Florida discovered the new species in a butterfly collection at the Florida Museum of Natural History in 2007. It had been misidentified as an example of another species. The 4-inch butterfly is brown, white and black, and is found in the Mexican state of Sonora. Finally it was on to the high country and the pines with our first stop of many at the nearly world famous glory hole, better known to some as the Barranca.  Indeed it was a bit chilly and late in the day but the birding proved to be good as usual at the Barranca.  We got our first looks at Painted and Slate-throated Redstarts, teased by Blue Mockingbirds and Orange-billed Nightingale Thrushes and worked hard to find what woodpecker was doing the tap taping with no luck.  It was a bit late in the day so we head into Yecora for some chow and some must deserved rest in preparation for what promised to be a big day of birding! As usual we spent a little time at the Yecora black water ponds where we got our first impression that there were a lot of sparrows around this fall!  Lark, Grasshopper, Lincoln’s, Savannah, White-crowned and Vesper to name just a few were in fantastic numbers throughout the wet and scrubby areas around the ponds.  Water birds were comprised of pretty much just the usual suspects including a rather confiding Wilsons Snipe.

Rufous-capped Warbler

The drive up slope was marked by numerous stops searching for highland species.  We found our attendant Mountain Pygmy Owl nearly right away and its presence certainly helped to bring in a few other birds that were not so happy to have it around!  I got maybe my best photo ever of a Spotted Towhee at one of these stops and we had very cooperative White-striped Woodcreepers at just about every location!The first stop on the microwave road was as good as we could have expected, well at least eventually!  After a lot of searching for the Aztec Thrushes that I promised would be there, Robin did come up with one! Eventually we found a couple of them lurking around in the Madrone tree, doing their very best to hide right out in the open!  After lunch we made our second trip to the Barranca and were not disappointed at all!  Right out of the van we had calling Spotted Wrens and Blue Mockingbirds.  Just as we arrived I felt the presences of Black-headed Siskins and not much more unfortunately!  As soon as I got out the words, they flew down the canyon before anyone else could get on them.  Fortunately like with a lot of birds Siskins are creatures of habit and I figured that if we just ignored the site for a little while they would be back.  So off we went trolling

Black-headed Siskin

around for Gray-collared Becards and Gray-crowned Woodpeckers, neither of which we found but at least we were ignoring the Siskins!  I ended up blowing some more time ignoring siskins by chasing down some Rufous-capped Warblers which I got great photos of.  After about 30 minutes I took a rather uninterested look back at the area where the siskins had been feeding…the little boogers were back, I quietly yet quickly called for David and Robin and this time we got the best looks we could have hoped for, what a great little bird it is!

Day 4 – This morning rather than hitting the ponds we forged out to an area that I had not been to for a while.  It is a small drainage on the west side of town past the cemetery.  We ended up not going too far on the road because the number of birds flying in front of us was so impressive!  Once again we were over whelmed by Sparrows, hundreds if not thousands of them and 8 species to boot! Then it was back to the Barranca for one last stop before hitting the road for Alamos. The drive to Alamos was a bit uneventful but we did find the first White-tailed Kite of the season.

Day 5 – This morning we went out to Aduana which due the effects of last year’s frost and this year’s drought probably has less food for the birds than normal, I think we experienced the results of all that.  We did manage to see Chachalacas and nice looks at Mexican Parrotlets but we dipped on the Colima Pygmy Owl and the

Happy Wren

Scrub Euphonias that we had up high in the arroyo in the spring. This evening we went up to the Mirador with some friends to celebrate my birthday which was even more complete with the quick sighting of a Buff-collared Nightjar in the parking lot lights of the restaurant and the Mirador.Squirel Cuckoo in Alamos

Day 6 – The morning run was out to Las Cabras and the Alamos Sewage ponds and once again they proved to be the birdiest spot in Alamos.  Besides picking up a number of the big endemics, the bonus was a good number of shore birds up in the settling ponds, including Solitary Sandpiper.  Other highlites were the Happy Wren and the Elegant Trogon.

Day 7 – Today we did the long and bumpy drive out to Palo injerto, I had taken David out there the previous spring and it was pretty good.  Today was good but not great.  We had hoped for a laughing Falcon but not this time, Purplish-backed Jays were also not to be found.  We did get close to this Greater Roadrunner, but no lesser like we had in the same area the previous spring.  We did manage to get great looks at Black-vented Orioles a Squirrel Cuckoo and a very accommodating Northern Beardless Tyrannulet.

Day 8 – Leaving Alamos for the coast seemed a bit premature with a couple of bird misses, but this was quickly remedied when I saw a large

Crane Hawk

black bird out of the corner of my eye just on the edge of town.  I had to cover a fair bit of ground in reverse, but indeed it was a bird that we had failed to run into on the previous days in Alamos.  An immature Crane Hawk!

The drive through the agriculture was a bit light on birds but the coast made up for it!  Big numbers of shore and water birds had already arrived for the winter and birding was fun except for the huge trucks that were passing by with dredged material.  After a quick lunch we hit the small mangrove area just to make sure that the Mangrove warbler was still around.  Sure enough it came immediately when called, in fact there were two of them.

When we got to the hotel “Playa de Cortez” I went into take a quick nap before dinner.  When I woke up I saw David outside on the pier looking out at were hundreds of birds diving into what must have been a big school of fish.  It was then that I realized that David was looking at life birds! Dozens of the birds he was looking at were Blue-footed Boobies, a bird that is not always easy to find at this location.  He was very happy about this, and I had neglected to mention that this might be possible, so he was doubly happy to have found them on his own!

Mangrove Warbler

Day 9 – On the way over to Estero Soldado we made a quick stop in Miramar where once again we had looks at lots of Blue-footed Boobies.

After breakfast it was for Tucson and the end of the tour, I never get tired of this trip, it is so fun to continuously do this itinerary and experience how much diversity there is in Sonora.

August 19-22, 2011

click here to see more photos from this tour http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdgeek/sets/72157627524398667/

The state mascot of Chihuahua Mexico!

For our Madera trip this year, we were so fortunate to have a great group of six people join us. David Hursh, John Alexander, Ken Clarke, Linda FierroVidal and Bill and Beth Clark were all along for the ride, in search of the Thick-billed Parrot!

Day 1 – Tucson to Nuevo Casas Grandes: We got out of Tucson in good time and made our way to our first and only birding stop on the US side of the border at White Water Draw.  Apparently, we were still a little bit early for fall migration, with very few shore birds around.  We did, however, get the expected great views of the Great Horned Owls and a few migrant song birds.

Next stop was the border and the cursory immigration paperwork that was processed very efficiently. From Agua Prieta, Sonora we made our way east across the wide open grasslands to the juniper-oak woodland of the Chihuahua border where we had lunch and tried in vain for Juniper Titmouse.Once into Chihuahua, we made a stop at the large stock pond on the south side of the highway outside of Las Mimbres, about 30 miles west of Janos. We were treated to the Wilson Phalarope air show, but generally speaking, the pond was not nearly as active as it had been the previous week (on the Northwest Mexico trip).Before calling it a day and heading to the hotel, we headed out to the Laguna Fierro just east of Nuevo Casas Grandes.  The Snow Goose, that we had seen last week on the previous trip, was still there and a number of good migrants including a Northern Harrier, a couple of Gray Hawks, Indigo Buntings and some Baird’s Sandpipers.  Later on, David H. suggested that I come take a closer look at the sandpipers, as there was one that seemed to be a bit different.  I went over and took a look and after what was not nearly a detailed enough study, decided that it was not that different at all and called it a

Shore birding at Laguna Fierro

Baird’s as well.  David would not give it up, and I am glad he didn’t.  After looking at several books and debating the size plumage and color of the bird, I had to agree that indeed the bird was different, and when David suggested Sanderling it clicked…that was exactly what it was!  Unfortunately, this exchange did not take place until after we had left the Laguna and we never took a picture of thebird.  This was the first time I fired Rafa on the tour for not taking  a photo!

We settled into the Hotel Hacienda for the night after a nice dinner in the restaurant.

Day 2 – Nuevo Casas Grandes to Madera: After a quick and festive breakfast in the guides hotel room, we were off at day break for the Sierra Madre and a dose of high elevation birds.  On the way, we made stops at the horse racing track and City Park in Buenaventura, as well as a number of roadside ponds all the way to Ignacio Zaragoza and Gomez Farias.  These roadside ponds can be incredibly rich in the late summer, but it seemed like we might have been a bit ahead of the curve on migration this time.  We did get Ruddy Ducks and a lot of Mexican Mallards and even a Pied-billed Grebe or two.

We stopped for lunch and a view of the ruins at Cuarenta Casas, a rather impressive cliff dwelling a mere 20 miles north of the town of Madera.

The restaurant at A Hacienda in Casas Grandes

We arrived just in time for the first cloud burst of the day, and managed to work our way around it while Rafa found time to set up a lunch for us.  Meanwhile the rest of us were entertained by a pair of Hepatic Tanagers.Our last birding stop of the day was at Presa Pinitas just outside of Madera where we ran into a pair of wayward Double-crested Cormorants.

Day 3 – Madera:  Today was the big day of the tour and it found us doing a relatively early morning,  meeting Saul Torres and his uncle John in front of the hotel at 6:30 am. The morning push was to locate the Eared Quetzal which we had had very limited luck with on the previous tour.  I decide to focus on it for the morning, since the Parrot was pretty much a given if you got to the right spot at any point during the day, and we knew where that spot was!  Our first stop was at a location I had seen Quetzals in before, and in fact we had explored the area a week before, but had missed it. I didn’t want to spend too much time there, but it seemed wise to check it out.  It was a beautiful walk in the rather chilly morning air, but unfortunately we did not find a Quetzal.  However, we did find a couple of other interesting birds along the way.  A pair of Mountain Trogons who apparently had a nest in the area.  To our surprise after running into the Mountain Trogons, and climbing up another several hundred feet in elevation, an Elegant Trogon flew across the road and made its very distinctive

Searching for Eared Quetzals

chortling call.  Not only did we positively identify it as an Elegant Trogon, the bird flew into a cavity where it was feeding young!  Unfortunately, none of us had a GPS, but my guess is that we were over 8000 feet in elevation, a very high nesting record for this species!  Still wanting the Quetzal, we headed back down to the van and onward to our next location.

I had Rafa stay behind and start putting lunch out, while the rest of us started walking up a small side road that mostly traveled down the middle of what was typically a small stream; however the rain from the night before forced a fair bit of negotiating to get through!  We ntermittently played tape and listened for the Quetzals for what turned out to be about 3 hours, a lot longer than I had hoped for with no sign of a Quetzal!  What was turning into a major hike revealed little more in the way of other birds and as the sun began to get warm and I was getting concerned that we might not run  into an Eared Quetzal.  We came to a spot where the road diminished in size and going further seemed like it might be a fool’s errand, so I decided to turn around.

As luck (or skill, or stubbornness!) would have it I had hardly finished suggesting to the group that we turn around and go have lunch, when I heard the whistling call of a close Quetzal.  I immediately checked to make sure that my Ipod was off, as I was a bit in a state of disbelief!  Sure enough, it was a real Quetzal and it was coming closer.  Just then, I saw Rafa coming up the trail wondering where the heck we were…his timing was perfect!  Soon, the Quetzal was flying into a large aspen tree close to us and eventually gave us all scope looks, and it turned out to be a pair!   It was so great to see these birds and we spent a good long time getting to know them and enjoying the show!

Back down the hill to another one of Rafa’s fantastic lunches, which seemed even better after our successes of the morning!

Mountain Trogon outside of Madera

Then it was onward and upward to go get even better looks at Thick-billed Parrots.  Being that it was later in the afternoon; the birds seemed to be much more relaxed and quieter than our visit earlier in the day the previous week. In fact there appeared to be none around when we first reached the meadow and I wondered if that distant view in bad light this morning might be all we got for the day!  Saul ended up “scratching”
the trunk of an aspen where a pair had been investigating a nesting cavity the week before and sure enough out popped the head of Thick-billed Parrot and eventually crawled out to give us a fantastic protracted and close look!  I never get enough of seeing these unique birds!

The drive back down to town was sweet with the two big target birds under our belt, and I for one was rather tired from a lot of hiking at high elevation, but happy with how the day had gone!  David H. treated us to an absolutely hilarious account of the cut throat world of competitive spelling bees.  Fascinating and nearly as bizarre as competitive bird watching!

We made one last stop at the Madera cemetery so Linda could take a few photos and ended up adding Brown-crested Flycatcher to our trip
list, the non-Arizona variety.

We had a rather celebratory dinner complete with nice wine and a strange flan for desert.  You have to admit that if it was not for the great birding you might not travel to Madera just for the food….but it did do the trick, we ate and we had a good time!

storm in Sulfer springs valley

Day 4 – Madera to Tucson: The last day of this short trip is pretty much a travel day back to the Tucson, but we did manage to make a stop
at the Laguna Fierro once again and found a few trip birds and a flock of at least 60 Chihuahua Ravens.  It was nice to get a couple in the scope and really study those guys, not something you get to do all that often.

Once across the border we played tag with some impressive thunder storms as we made our way up the Sulfur Springs Valley and on to
Tucson.  A short but oh-so-sweet trip to the beautiful Sierra Madre for a couple of very special birds! Thanks to everyone for making this a great trip!

Go to Daveed7′s photostream

See more photos of this trip at the above link!

Northwest
Mexico Trip Report

August
11-18, 2011

This is the second year in a row that we’ve run this trip to the beautiful and little visited region of the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua and Sonora. Of

The Pine Forest Parrot!

all of our trips, this is one of the more remote ones we run. We had a great group of five people: David Hursh, George Wall, Kathi Sanders, John and Barbara Perry. David MacKay and Rafael Arenas Wong lead the trip.

Day 1 – Tucson to Nuevo Casas Grandes: We got out of Tucson right on time and it was a beautiful morning for a drive south through the green Sonoran Desert. Our first stop was the Safeway Benson where a few of us took advantage of the Starbucks while we all ordered sandwiches from the most detailed (read: SLOW) sandwich maker in Arizona! Then off we went for a rather meager birding stop at the Davis Ranch before deciding it was time to head for Douglas, the border and Agua Prieta, Mexico! We did make a gas stop in Douglas where I treated David H. to his first ever Scorpion lollipop which he enjoyed all the way to the stinger, although with some trepidation!

We ate our very good Safeway sandwiches on the side of Mexico highway 2 in prime Juniper Titmouse habitat. Unfortunately, no one had mentioned this to the Titmice, so I am still missing this bird for Mexico, although I imagine that a lot of people still are!

It became obvious soon after lunch that Chihuahua had been enjoying some fantastic summer rains! There were pools of water everywhere and eventually we found a big one near Los Mimbres with good off highway access where we spent an easy hour and a half scoping the scene. There were a number of Mexican ducks, several Killdeer and hoards of Western and Cassin’s Kingbirds. Eventually a squadron of 15 Wilson’s Phalaropes entertained us with an airshow that included multiple laps around the pond, and later we heard the call of a Scaled Quail in the brush behind us and eventually got pretty good looks at it before it flew off over the road. We also saw a couple of Black Terns at this location, a bird that is often times hard to find in Mexico.

A rare summer visitor to Chihuahua: Snow Goose

Then it was on to Nuevo Casas Grandes and the Laguna Fierro. Not as much diversity as we have seen in the past but we did see a wayward lone Snow Goose and a distant flyby of a Marbled Godwit.

The Hotel Hacienda was just fine with large rooms and a decent restaurant that was attended by a fantastic staff that took great care of us.

Day 2 – Nuevo Casas Grandes to Madera: This morning we left the west edge of the central plateau and headed south and up in elevation and
into the Sierra Madre. Along the way we stopped in Buenaventura along the river next to the horse race track where we got good looks at a couple of Painted Buntings and a Yellow-breasted Chat.

Then on to the archeological site, Cuarenta Casas, for a nice lunch a view of the fantastic cliff dwellings and a several high elevation
species including some Bridled Titmice, Painted Redstart, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Hepatic Tanager and Pygmy

The awesome cliff dwelling; 40 Casas

Nuthatch.

At Presa Pinitas, we ran into a big flock of Black-eared Bushtits and another flock of even more Band-tailed Pigeons before heading into
Madera for our last stop at the pond for a Rock Wren.

Day 3 – Madera: Today was a trip to Thick-billed Parrot heaven! Hard to say if it was the previous night’s hard rain, the post breeding tie of year or just one of those high elevation mornings. Things were a bit slow getting started as we made a few stops headed up the canyon toward the
home of the Thick-billed Parrots. I had hoped that we would find an Eared Quetzal on the way up the road but bird life was impressively absent as we worked our way up the road. Then it happened, some would say the way it is supposed to, but it could have been better! Out the window of the van I hear the distinctive call of the Quetzal really close to us! We all bail out of the van, scopes flying and tapes a-playing, wandering around the two track road searching the trees for the Quetzals. They seemed to be more allusive than ghosts as they allowed only the briefest of glimpses as they cruised through the dense pines! The birds did not cooperate very well. For a moment it looked like they might stick around and come in, but in the end only Rafa got a marginal look and we were forced to suffice with a great memory of the call of a Quetzal!

Thick-billed Parrot in nest cavity

Then it was on the parrot spot. This turned out to be far better! We could hear the birds long before we got to them which was a very good sign. Soon we were all gathered around scopes getting all sorts of wonderful views of one of North America’s most endangered birds! For some reason this particular bird gives me a good feeling, they seem like they are always happy, squawking about and constantly physically interacting with
one another…it is pretty cool. We ended up spending a good hour and a half getting to know the parrots and then the sky started to get heavy again and this time it looked pretty serious! We scurried down the hill to the van and Rafa and I literally tossed a lunch out for everyone to wolf down quickly before the rain began to fall. After lunch, we started the long and arduous body slamming decent from the parrots back to Madera. Indeed that road is not good at all and it is debatable if it is better than walking!

Day 4 – Madera to Basaseachic: We left Madera under yet another threatening sky, but lucked out with the rain all morning and it did not start
to fall until we got all the way to the Basaceachic. We made a rather nice stop at the big stock tank area outside of Matachi where we were treated to looks at Western and Eastern Bluebirds as well as Mexican and Western Scrub Jays. One of the more interesting things may have
been the rather fearless Black-tailed Jack Rabbit that seem content to watch us watch him at very close range. They sure are a very strange animal!

We got to our off-the-grid casitas at Rancho San Lorenzo. It was a bit too early to check in but we were welcome to use the ramada to set up

Basaceachic Falls in the Fog

lunch, a good thing too because it was raining HARD. After lunch there were enough casitas ready for some of us to move in. Then Rafa, David H. and I decided that we could use a thrashing so we headed off to see if we could hike to the bottom of the Basaseachic Falls and back before dinner! As we left, I didn’t really think that there was any chance that we would actually hike all the way down, and felt even less optimistic as we took our sweet time birding and taking in the dramatic views of the canyon. At one point I realized that indeed we were going all the way down and we had better do it quick if we were to actually make it back before dark!

As luck would have it the rain started back up with a vengeance as we reached the bottom of the falls, but it was a bit hard to tell because the spray from the 1000 foot drop of the waterfall in full flood made it hard to decide what was getting us the wettest. At a certain point, none of it
mattered any more…we were soaked! David H. found an acrobatic Dipper working the slippery hyper vertical wall of a smaller waterfall, picking bugs out from under vegetation. Rafa found an Elegant Trogon female just as we hit the bottom, and about right then two plump birds flew up and vanished down towards the fog shrouded creek below us. I was a bit dumfounded by the way they flew and Rafa was pretty sure they were Black-headed Siskins, but I thought they were bigger. In any case they left, unidentified at least for now.

The power and intensity felt by being just a few meters from this massive waterfall is rather awesome to say the least, and it was a hard place to leave. Well, maybe it was because we knew we had a good 1500 foot climb ahead of us to get back to the parking area!

A family of Hooded Grosbeaks!

Not 100 meters down the trail I saw that weird bird, that had been loosely identified as a Siskin fly off the trail in front of me, but this time it landed on a cable handrail not 12 feet in front of me. Immediately, I thought that it was a Hooded Grosbeak, but it was a juvenile and lacked all the white in the back, and honestly looked more like an Evening Grosbeak. Then the adult flew on to the wire and indeed it was a family of Hooded Grosbeaks! It was amazing that my drenched camera continued to work at all at this point, but I got a couple of marginal ID photos for the world to see! A big surprise for us to find this bird, the farthest north I have ever encountered it.

It was a bit like a death march getting out of that canyon, but we managed to pull it off in a little over an hour and a half, tired but excited about all that we had found down there!

Dinner was held in the big dining hall at the ranch and we had the place to ourselves. We shared some wine and enjoyed some good home cooking while the rain continued to fall.

Day 5 – Basaseachic to Yecora: Although the afternoon would be a three hour road trip to Yecora, Sonora, we had the entire morning to hike to the point where the waterfall drops off the edge of the canyon. It is not a hard hike, mostly a paved trail with some impressive suspension bridges along the way. The morning was crystal clear and the sky a deep blue. We got great views of a very cooperative Rufous-capped Brushfinch on the other side of the river, but generally speaking the birding was a bit slow. After lunch at the ranch, we were off for a

Tiger Flower or Mexican Shell Flower (Tigridia pavonia), a tropical member of the iris family.

fantastically beautiful drive to Yecora.

Day 6 – Mesa Campanero and Yecora area: Our first stop was the Yecora sewage ponds just to see if anything interesting might be around. It was a bit slow this morning with a deep, dark fog covering the entire valley. It didn’t take long to pop out of it once we started to gain elevation. The road up produced the usual suspects of Brown Creepers, Bridled Titmice, Acorn Woodpeckers and Bluebirds galore!

Our first stop on Mesa Campanero started out a bit slow, but once we rounded the corner for the top, we finally got a good flock to come in
to a mob tape of a Mountain Pygmy Owl. Leading the way was a pair of Olive Warblers and lone Crescent-chested Warbler. Then came across the most talked about Olive-sided Flycatcher of all time, who never left his post on the snag directly across from us! David had mentioned a couple of times on that part of the walk that he was hearing a raptor calling up on the ridge, eventually it flew by quickly and quite a ways
below us. At about the same moment a different raptor flew by going the other way, this one was a nice Zone-tailed Hawk. Soon the other raptor

This young Goshawk followed us around for a couple hours

came back and began to harass us by flying by rather close and screeching loudly. We were confused as to what it was. It was a young bird and obviously somewhat confused, almost as much as we were! It looked like a Cooper’s Hawk, but when it came increasingly closer, like uncomfortably close, I began to think it had a structure more like a Buteo. Then it hit me, not literally….but it was a Northern Goshawk! The first one I have ever seen in Sonora! And it was up close and personal. In fact, the bird hung around us nearly all afternoon, and seemed to get annoyed whenever I would put on a tape of Mountain Pygmy Owl!

We had lunch on top of Mesa Campanero and did some more birding on top of the Mesa. A pair of Mountain Trogons had set up shop in the midst of this screeching Goshawk and did not seem too concerned about it. We also had great looks at White-striped Woodcreepers and an Arizona Woodpecker.

The afternoon was waning and I, for one, was chomping at the bit to get down to the Barranca (aka the Glory Hole!) to see what might be around! Well, it was just about as good as it gets, although it seems like I think that ever time that I visit the Glory Hole, it is just a great birding sight. We had great looks at both Nightingale Thrush’s, a pair of Flame-colored Tanagers, Blue Mockingbird, Rufous-capped Warbler, Mountain Pygmy Owl, Lucifer Hummingbird, Brown-backed Solitaire and Spotted Wren. An awesome way to end the day!

Day 7 – Yecora to Hermosillo: We drove directly to the Glory Hole this morning to take advantage of the cool morning and to be there when the sun hit it. Boy, did it pay off! Besides the fact that we cleaned up on a couple of the birds we had missed the previous day, some of the birds that a few had missed before were easy to see. The entire group walked across the highway to try to get a look at a singing Blue Mockingbird while Rafa and I put out a little bit of breakfast. I don’t know why I happened to look up right as the thrush sized bird went over our table, but I did. It landed in a small bush just next to the rest of the group and I immediately called out AZTEC THRUSH! I was shocked, as I figured that we had
missed it because we had not run into it up on the Mesa yesterday. Eventually, a second one showed up and everyone got on them. A great
moment!

After food, a couple of us went down the road to look for Gray-crowned Woodpecker while David H. stayed back an attended to some personal

A Gray-collared Becard

business. As luck would have it, as we walked back toward the van, David appeared from the woods animated by a bird that he had just seen…a Gray-collared Becard! Immediately, I started to play tape hoping that the bird would return so that everyone could get a look. Almost right away it called back and soon enough flew across the road and into a pine tree. It took a little while to get everyone on it, but eventually we were successful! This was, so far, the bird of the morning!

Our next stop was on the road to a little wide spot called Santa Ana. The habitat is a transition from oak woodland to tropical deciduous forest at an elevation of about 2500 ft. We drove off the main road no more than a couple of miles, mostly to find a private spot for the ladies to commune with nature. We ended up at a spot that appeared to be pretty darn birdy. Indeed, we got out and almost immediately got good looks at a pair of Five-striped Sparrows working the opposing bank. Then a nice Yellow-breasted Chat that posed long enough for us to get bored of it. After a while, I decided to try the Gray-crowned Woodpecker one more time, so I played a little tape. Almost immediately, I got a response and in it came to see us! It even got comfortable and started feeding and we all got great looks, and rather lousy photos.

We bolted on down the hill and made it easily through the military checkpoint at San Nicolas, and immediately stopped at the Rio San Nicolas to see what was around. The best birds were the family of Green Kingfishers that entertained us down in the river below. But the heat was beginning to catch up with us after days in the mountains. We had finally moved down into the heat of the tropics!

That Anamis Ridgenosed Rattle snake that got a little too close to Kathy

The next stop and the last one before lunch was at the ‘junior’ glory hole at the big Guadalupe shrine. At first, it seemed like a fool’s errand to even think that a bird would be around in the heat of the day, but then all hell broke loose! It started with a BIG migrating flock of Yellow-green Vireos that numbered close to 20 birds. Then as a pair of Happy Wrens were darting in, and mostly, out of view, Rafa found the bird of the day! A beautiful Fan-tailed Warbler was wiggling its way through the branches above us giving us quite the show! A big surprise to be sure! We also had a Tropical Parula and another Five-striped Sparrow.

We did lunch under the big bridge over the Rio Yaqui. It was hotter than blazes but the only significant shade for miles around. It was hot, but something about being next to the river made it seem a bit cooler.

The last stop of the day was at the arroyo San Jose del Pima where we got a Yellow-billed Cuckoo and not much else as the heat of the day had caught up with us and bird activity was a bit slow.

We spent the night in relative luxury at the Holiday Inn in Hermosillo. After many days in very remote areas of the Sierra Madre, arriving in

Its hard to beat the beauty of the Sierra Madre in Summer

the big city was a bitter sweet! I love being up in the mountains in the summer…On the bright side, Jen joined us in Hermosillo for our last night’s dinner together and a good time was had by all.

Day 8 – Hermosillo to Tucson: Our last day was pretty much a travel day back to Tucson. It was a GREAT trip, so many wonderful birds and experiences in the back country of Mexico. Thanks to all of you for braving the bad news, and coming down to get a first had perspective of what is more of the reality of what is going on in Mexico!

]]> http://www.solipaso.com/summer-birding-in-northwest-mexico/feed 0 http://www.solipaso.com/alaska-2011-2 http://www.solipaso.com/alaska-2011-2#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:56:38 +0000 wpadmin http://www.solipaso.com/?p=1139  

Welcome to Adak

This is the first trip report from this past spring in Alaska where we lead tours for “High Lonesome Bird Tours”.  We have been working for High Lonesome in Alaska  and Mexico for nearly 15 years and look forward to these trips every year.  High Lonesome stresses small groups and high quaility birding tours throughout the world.  For more information on all of High Lonesomes offerings, please go to their website at www.hilonesometours.com.

 Day 1 – We met before dinner and made a quick trip out to Westchester Lagoon where we encountered mostly the usual suspects, several members of the group had been there earlier in the day.  The high numbers of Bonaparte’s Gulls was somewhat noteworthy, numbering in the dozens, and some other great breeding plumage birds, including Eared Grebes, were beautiful to see.  But, honestly, it is hard to get excited about some of these regular birds when you are about to be heading out to one of the best rarity hotspots in North America!  After filling some time before dinner, we were nearly late for another great dinner at Orso. Tonight, I ordered up fried calamari, crab cakes and caprese appetizers for the table, and I had the cashew encrusted halibut as my dinner which was absolutely fantastic! Everyone else’s meals looked darn good, too!

Day 2 – This morning we had a fair amount of time before the flight out to Adak, so we drove up to the trails at the Botanical Garden and did a great walk through the forest.  The birds were not that great, the highlights being a Lesser Yellowlegs in a tree and a Varied Thrush. But it was a beautiful morning and the walk was wonderful. Back for check out at the hotel and a quick lunch at Piper’s…I have to say that the food at Piper’s is pretty good. Nothing special, but they are fast and the quality is good.  We all made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare and met up with the Wilderness Birding group that Aaron Lange was leading. We would be spending the next week exchanging information with Aaron and the three participants out on the island…hopefully information about all the great birds that we’d all be finding!

Once on the plane, and just before take-off,  Aaron came over to sit next to me, and told me that he had gotten a call from Isaac our contact out on the island informing us that power was out on the entire island and it may not get repaired soon!  Then, minutes into the flight the captain came on and gave us word that indeed power was out on the island and it was not looking good that the plane would even be allowed to land at Adak, but he was planning on going for the island anyway! 

Well into the flight, the captain gave us the good news that we would be able to land but that the only place in town that had electrical power

A young Bald Eagle

 was the airport! What great news!  I was, of course, wondering how the heck I would cook anything for dinner with all electric kitchens, and was all of a sudden happy quite happy that I had bought a bunch of lunch meat for cold sandwiches!  Not ten minutes after getting into the airport, the power magically went on all over town and there was much rejoicing! The power was on for most of the week, except for a couple of afternoons when they were working on a more permanent fix to the problem.

We went out for our first bird outing after lasagna and salad. Some people got a lifer with the Tufted Ducks and we had a nice orientation to the in close birding areas. Other bird highlights included a big raft of Black Scoters that we saw diminish in size each day we were there.

While touring around we ran into the Wilderness Birding group and they informed us that they had seen a Smew in Shotgun Lake!  We had gone directly to Shotgun Lake after dinner as I was thinking that lightening could strike twice.  Forrest Davis had found a Smew in that very lake the previous year, so why not check?  But this time, there was no Smew or any other bird in the Lake.  It turns out that the Wilderness group had gone to the lake about 30 minutes before we had. Apparently we were just a bit too late!  And so began one of the frustrating chases of the tour!  How many times did we take trips up there to look in that lake during the week?!

We also had time for a tour of the “town” this evening, including a pass by the liquor store and noticed that it was closed.  Oh well, there is always tomorrow! As we pulled out of the parking lot a native woman came pulling up next to us and asked if we needed to buy booze.  I told her that “need” was not exactly the word I would have used. It turns out she was the owner and happy to open the store even though they normally closed at 8 p.m.  So in we went to get our brews and potions at what you could call Adak prices.  A 12-pack of Rolling Rock beer was $32!

Harley's were everywhere

Day 3 – Well, if I had to say it with all honesty, I would have to admit that today was “the day” in Adak.  Had I known now that the rest of the week was going to be so hard to get new birds, I would have held off on the Laysan’s Albatross until later! As it was, we had an amazing day, with everyone getting three new life birds and in rather dramatic style. 

The first lifer for the group was seen on the Whiskered Auklet boat trip…a trip that is never guaranteed to go since you are at the mercy of conditions served up by the northern Pacific Ocean!  Because of this little detail, it is important to get the groups out to see the bird as soon as the weather cooperates because you never know if you will get another chance.  Waking up that morning, I figured the weather was good enough, but we needed to wait for Isaac’s call telling us when to go to the harbor.  Eventually he called and we were on!  Due to the size of the boat, we needed to split our group up in two, so Carol went with the folks from Wilderness Birding while the guys waited and birded around with me.  Although the trip is not long, less than two hours in good conditions, waiting seemed like an eternity for me. I was worried that the weather could go bad on us at any minute!  On cue the first group returned and we were very happy to hear that they had gotten great close looks at the Auklets and that the weather was holding for the guys, so off they went.  

Two hours later, the boat returned once again and once again they were successful and had looks at lots of Whiskered Auklet’s. Phew, it felt good to get that out of the way!

In the afternoon we headed out for one of the further afield areas, the old Loran Station positioned on the north coast near the area 14

Carol and the well oiled machine

 bombardment zone (I love using those terms in a birding tour write up!)  The road had been bad last year, and this year it was a lot worse!  Thank god for the trusty old “ghost” (what the rental agency called a “van’), with some sly maneuvering we managed to make it over the bad rocks and on to the coast.  I am so glad that we did!  Right away, I could see that it was birdy out at the fog line and it had cleared nicely where we were so the light was great.  We took out the scopes and could see lots of Short-tailed Shearwaters coursing over the tops of the waves and we all continued to scan until I found the first Laysan’s Albatross, just at the edge of human sight limits.  After some work everyone agreed that they had seen a big Albatross like bird, but they were really far away.  We decided to walk over to the cliff edge, a good 300 yards closer, hoping to grab a better view, and it paid off!  The birds were much closer; they had actually moved in towards shore and a couple of them even sat on the water for extended periods of time.  A slam dunk!

Off we went, back towards town for some chow after some great success out at the coast!  As we rolled down the hill into town, I saw Aaron and Isaac parked at the ‘pet cemetery’ (another great birding area description!) and they were waving madly at us.  As we pulled up, we got word that a Hawfinch was

Always the sign of a great birding area!

sitting in the top of the trees filled to the gills with seed and not moving for anything!  Amazingly, the bird was sitting on top of a spruce tree and did not move for several minutes!  We all got scope looks at this beautiful bird!  Wow, another great bird before dinner…the third lifer of the day!

Day 4, 5, and 6 – Not surprisingly, my entries for the following days are a bit slim to say the least. Rather than describe every trip to stare into Shotgun Lake, looking for the Smew that never returned, or naming the 6 Rock Sandpipers that were hanging around the creek outflow, I will spare you!  As it can be sometimes when one is ‘birding on the edge’, it can be really good and the rewards of doing it can be huge and at the same time it can challenge the patience of the most seasoned birders and be frustrating as hell!  I think everyone on the tour would agree that things slowed down significantly after the first full day at Adak.  But this is not to say that we didn’t see some great stuff and certainly added new trip birds every day, but the lack of good vagrants or the appearance of a couple of somewhat expected vagrants just never happened, making for some from frustrating times.  Let’s don’t forget about the huge numbers of Ancient Murrelets or the Tattler chase down the sea wall or the seven Arctic Loons bobbing in the bay!  Or the Steller’s Eider that stayed around the entire week.  You all need to be commended for continuing to work hard for birds up until the very end!

A beautiful adult Bald Eagle

Day 7 – We started off the day with a fresh attitude, but in the end the birds got the best of us again.  We chased the hell out of a Common Snipe at three locations and logged some serious miles in the tundra doing so.  Never did we get what I would say was definitive look at a snipe that I was willing to call anything but a Wilson’s.  The big action of the day was finding a Bar-tailed Godwit in Clam Lagoon and then noticing that there was a little shore bird hanging out next to it.  Unfortunately, we saw this from about a mile away and we were unable to ID the little booger from that location.  So we packed up and off we went on a ‘Peep’ chase to what was at that point the extreme opposite side of Clam Lagoon!  The good news was that after traveling completely around the lagoon, the bird was still there. The bad news was that it was not a rare shorebird at all, it was Ruddy Turnstone.  The last dinner was a festive affair with lots of BBQ chicken and veggies galore.  I have to admit that I enjoyed very much doing the meals for the group and I hope they all feel the same way! 

The rugged coast near the LORAN station

Day 8 – Our last morning of birding was more of the same with only moments of mild excitement to be had.  We did take a nice scenic hike up to Betty Lake which was pretty neat, but offered nothing in the way of birds.  The flight to Anchorage was on time and we were lucky to get the Alaska Airlines ‘Tinker Bell’ plane that only a man confident of his fortitude would feel comfortable boarding!  Certainly, this will not go down as the ‘hottest’ birding trip to Adak from the standpoint of seeing rare birds, but I sure had a great time with a fine group of committed birders and fun loving people.  Even when we were all down due to the lack of birds, the sense of humor rang through, and I want to thank all of you for that! 

Until next time… all the best!

David MacKay

Day 1 – Today is always a big drive…going all the way from Tucson to Hermosillo, on the slow road through Bisbee and crossing at Naco. But, I like the scenery and I love to have lunch with Octavio at “El Rodeo” in Arizpe.  And, today was an absolutely beautiful day!  Not a cloud in the sky and an overnight cold front left us with even a bit of a chill in Bisbee when we stopped to get gas.  The border crossing could have been worse, but took less than an hour.  The customs guys were really nice and the immigration guy did his best to process us fast, although the immigration formalities are always the slowest part. 

For our first stop, we birded at the big arroyo full of sycamores and cottonwoods where we had a great show by a pair of Gray Hawks as well as good looks at Rufous-winged Sparrows, Cardinals, Black-headed Grosbeaks and a White-breasted Nuthatch. 

We had lunch at one of my favorite roadside spots, the “El Rodeo” right at the turn into Arizpe.  As usual Octavio, the proprietor, prepared us a wonderful lunch of Rio Sonora Valley beef in a fantastic chili sauce.  A true Sonoran lunch!

Lunch spot on Yaqui river

Most of the afternoon was the drive from Arizpe to Hermosillo. Our one big stop was at the last crossing of the Rio Sonora, 25 miles from Hermosillo. Here, we were treated to a show by three Green Kingfishers, our first Happy Wren and a Tropical Kingbird, the first one I had seen in Sonora this year.  As night fell on our final leg into Hermosillo, we were treated to the aerobatics of a large migrating flock of Lesser Nighthawks.

Day 2 – What a group!  We were out of the Holiday Inn before 6 a.m. and off to our first stop in the desert, just shy of the big CEMEX plant on Highway 16!  It was a bit slow so we pulled up stakes and headed on up to the big shrine were we saw a few things including a Brewer’s Sparrow.  Unfortunately, after repeated attempts we dipped on Bendire’s Thrasher!

Our next stop, at the big arroyo crossing of the San Jose del Pima, got us a ton of stuff including Varied Buntings, Vesper Sparrow, Nutting’s Flycatcher, Thick-billed Kingbird, Yellow-breasted Chat, MacGillivray’s Warbler, Great Kiskadee and Brown-creasted Flycatcher. 

For lunch,  like to stop under the Rio Yaqui bridge and some time enjoying a fantastic tree full of birds!  A small willow just

Rufous-capped Warbler

north of the bridge was lightly flowering andwas being visited by dozens of birds!  Dave found the first Virginia’s Warbler, and then we proceeded to have visits from Black-throated Grays, Orange-crowned Warblers, Wilson’s and Yellow Warblers, Bell’s Vireos and there was at least one Pacific Slope Flycatchers involved!  A great show for sure and wonderful entertainment for our lunch!

After this good stop, we quickly began to gain elevation and the habitat was changing.  The big fig at the big rock was starting to come back from the unusually hard frost that we had gotten in February, and we got a few good birds as we bounced from one side of the road to the other.  We had great looks at a very accommodating Tropical Parula and Rufous-capped Warblers, and a Five-striped Sparrow flew over our heads and vanished into the brush.

Our next stop wasn’t so fun…all I can say is “pinche militares”!  I have probably gone through the military checkpoint at San Nicholas 40 times in the past 15 years and never have I had anything except professional and pleasant interactions with the boys in uniform.  After what appeared to be a normal,uneventful and friendly inspection, we were off to Yecora.  We were not even out of the inspection area when Mario announced to me that his Leather-man tool was missing from his pack.  Immediately, I put the van in reverse and backed up to the Jefe and told him that we had a problem.  The Jefe went over to the guys that inspected the van and asked them to “reinspect the van and look for the tool”.  I read…”Go back in there and make sure that you ‘find’ that tool”, thinking that the culprit would use the opportunity to miraculously ‘find’the tool.  Well, it didn’t happen that way and after a drawn out discussion with the Jefe where even I was accused of being the one who stole it (even though I had given the tool to Mario as a Christmas gift) we realized that there was no winning this one, and off we went.  It did leave a bad taste in my mouth…I thought this kind of crap was behind us in Mexico. I can’t remember the last time we’d had such an experience. Usually, it’s always good stuff that happens to us!

The Barranca ‘glory hole’ was in fine form tonight! I was a bit worried about how dry things were when we pulled up, between the lack of winter rain and the frost, conditions were tinder dry!  There were more Rufous-capped Warblers, a Blue Mockingbird, Orange-billed Nightingale Thrush, Brown-backed Solitaire and a Gray-crowned Woodpecker, a bird at its very northern limit, and our only White-throated Swift of the tour.

Octavios in Yecora

Got to Yecora to find the restaurantclosed, not a big deal in most towns, but

Wilsons Phalarope

 in Yecora there is no other place to eat!  With very little searching I located Octavio andhe agreed to come open up for us in an hour. That’s the kind of good story we are used to! Sure enough he put out a HUGE carne asada with all the trimmings and it was all we could do to finish it all.  Octavio also “treated” us to a bottomless glass of the local moonshine (Bacanora).

Day 3 – We hit the sewage ponds at just a bit after 6:30 a.m. and there were lots of birds.  Probably the neatest weird thing was the Wilson’s Phalarope that seemed to be a bit lost.  We also had more Virginia’s Warblers and a slightly out of habitat Rufous-backed Robin, as well as a high elevation visit by a Common Black Hawk.

We then headed out of town on our way up to Mesa Campanero.  We made a couple of stops along highway 16 each of them productive in a different way. The first had a very confiding Buff-breasted Flycatcher and a splatering of pine-oak habitat birds.  At the second stop, we had an

Buff-breasted Flycatcher

extremely cooperative Mountain Pygmy Owl that brought in a bunch of other birds to get in on the mobbing action. 

Finally, we reached the north facing slope of the Mesa and good habitat for Mountain Trogon which came in on cue for protracted views!  We also had our first looks at White-striped Woodcreeper, a glimpse at a Crescent-chested Warbler, a number of Tufted Flycatchers and a White-throated Robin!

Mario set us up a very nice lunch lunch at the top in the cool of the pines. It was nice to relax and still see some birds every now and then.  A little walk after lunch produced several Olive, Hermit and Grace’s Warblers,  Hepatic Tanager’s and a Zone-tailed Hawk.

On our way back down the mountain we stopped for a bird that flew across the road. As luck would have it, we found a Pine Flycatcher that ended up sticking around for a good long time!  A great bird to find in Sonora.

For the late afternoon outing,we went back to the Barranca to see what we might be able to coax out.  Honestly, it was not the hopping place that it was the previous day, but we did manage a few things including some

Group at Mesa Campanero

hummingbirds such as Berryline, Blue-throated, White-eared and Broad-tailed.  After some frustration with some calling, but otherwise non-responsive Spotted Wrens, they finally came up the slope and we all got decent looks.

We were all pretty tired after that big day at elevation so we went back home to the Motel King and to Octavio’s once again for dinner. But no Bacanora tonight and that was probably a good thing!

Day 4 – We packed up and made one last pass through the Yecora black water ponds where the big surprise this morning was a fly-over by a group of twenty Willits headed north!

Then it was one last stop back to the Barranca “glory hole” on our way down the mountain.  We got there at first light of the day hitting it.  As we drove up, I noticed three little birds digging around in the dirt across from us.  Once I got some glass on them I was amazed to see two Rusty Sparrows and a Rufous-capped Brush-finch, two of our morning targets andwe were not even out of the van!  Eventually, we also ran into another big target, Russet Nightingale Thrush, playing around with an Orange-billed Nightingale Thrush!  I was almost giddy that we had nearly swept all of the possible endemics in two days of birding!

Today’s picnic lunch was at the big arroyo just outside the town of  Nuri, where the normal heat of the lowlands finally caught up with us.  Up until this point we had actually been a little bit cold on more than one occasion! 

I made a diversion over to the outflow area of Presa Oviachi north of Obregon. It had been along time since I had been over there and we were doing good on time.  It was not the best of times to be at the damn.  It was hotter than hell and the the bird activity was very low, but it is certainly a place to keep in mind for future tours.  There is a lot of scrubby habitat and a lot of water!

One last quick stop before the last push up to Alamos was at the ‘Golden Gate’, the bridge that crosses the Rio Mayo in Navojoa and holds a lot of great swampy habitat.  It was great to pull up a see a Northern Jacana - a bird that has been tough to get this spring due to the frost and its effect on the water hyacinth.

It was great to get home to El Pedregal and to Jen’s good home cooking and a big hello from los dogs! 

Day 5-I decided to just go for it this morning by making a trip to the Alamos sewage ponds with the hope of getting a bunch of the big birds in a little bit of time, thus hopefully making it easier to figure out where to spend the following  two days. I have to say that the sewage ponds were as good as they ever get!  I think we had something like 70 species this morning includingElegant Trogon, Rose-throated Becard, Rufous-bellied Chachalacas, Elegant Quail, Mexican Parrotlets, White-fronted Parrots, Squirrel Cuckoo, Red-billed Pigeon,

Russet-crowned Motmot

Purplish-backed Jay and Russet-crowned Motmot…to name but a few!  This certainly helped me come up with a plan for the rest of the week, which was to include a trip out of town toward the Sierra Madre and the Rancho Ecologico Monte Mojino land.

Angela served us up a wonderful lunch in the palapa with a view of the feeders that were teaming with birds, even at mid day!

We had dinner tonight at the ‘El Mirador’up on top of the hill over looking Alamos. It was a great Mexican buffet served up with a view of the town.

Day 6 – One of the problems of getting so maybe birds so early in a trip is that you end up having to go to the far ends of the area to see new stuff!  Fortunately, southern Sonora is full of great birds and lots of neat micro-habitats to explore.  I opted for a trip out to Palo Injerto, which is not one of the places that I take groups to often, as it is 18 miles away, but two plus hours of driving time on a very bad road.  As I suspected, it turned out to be well worth the effort for a number of reasons.  First, we got great birds but it is always wonderful to experience true back country Mexico and be in fantasticallyremote habitat!  We had a lot of both!  In the bird department, we got a few more that we were looking for, including Lesser Roadrunner, Rose-throated Becard, a wonderful show from a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl and a Yellow Grosbeak.  On the ‘Mexico Moment’ end of things, we

Lesser Roadrunnerstopped in to visit with Alejandro and Juana at Rancho El Guayabo and to ask Alejandro if he had been seeing anything good. There was not much to see bird-wise, but I did end up buying a couple of really nice Mangrove Cuckoo embroideries that Juana had made. We had an early dinner with my parents, Margo and Richard, at El Pedregal and then went looking for Buff-collared Nightjars, unsuccessfully, out at the road to Rancho Palomar. It would have been nice to see the bird, but just being out under that crystal clear star-filled sky was worth staying up late for!Day 7 - Now we were down to locating some of the harder to find birds of southern Sonora and after yesterday we had two of the three Pygmy Owls. Obviously all we needed now was a Colima Pygmy Owl, not an easy bird to get in Sonora. So I opted to explore the upper end of the Aduana Arroyo, where I had had pretty good luck the the Colima Pygmy Owl this past year, and the terrain is easier than any other place around. As we got to the area where habitat was good I was surprised to find a Sulpher-bellied Flycatcher, who was not interested in sticking around. This is a rather early record for Alamos. At about that very moment I heard the distinctive call of our other Amazon-Colima Pygmy Owl

type parrot, an endemic Lilac-crowned Parrot was flying over us in a big circle, just long enough for all of us to see it.  Just as I started to play Colima tape to try and find the owl, David interrupted me to say that he was looking at another endemic, a Scrub Euphonia!  This was all way too much for me…I couldn’t believe our luck!  I was so excited that it took me a minute to realize that I was hearing a distant Colima Pygmy Owl responding to playback!  Within seconds, the bird came in, andthen a second one and we had it, our third Sonora Pygmy Owl species in a week!  We called it quits early due to the heat and headed back to the El Pedregal feeders and some more looks at the resident Elegant Euphonia!

Day 8– We bid goodbye to Jen, the dogs and El Pedregal and headed off to Navojoa and the coast of the Sea of Cortez. We made one more stop at the bridge in Navojoa and as usual it gave up a rarity as it always tends to do.  This time we got scope looks at a Grayish Saltatorthe first one I have found in the lowlands of Sonora.

Huivulai was pretty good considering that it is early May and a lot of things have already hit the road for the north. There was not a duck to be found which is normal for this time of year, but we had a decent number of shorebirds and a lot of Dunlin, which is not

Clapper Railalways the case, and a bunch of Wilson’s Plovers. Butprobably the best bird of the day was the Clapper Rail that spent nearly the entire time that we were there prancing aboutnot 50 meters in front of us! Absolutely amazing protracted looks at a bird that is often very difficult to find, let alone see! Just when we thought the birding might be done for the day we got great looks at a super cooperative Mangrove“Yellow” Warbler in a very minimal stand of whte mangrove on the side of the road.Then to our hotel at Playa Miramar, outside Guaymas, where we got our first Yellow-footed and Heermans Gulls and were treated to a huge Mexican wedding that turned out not to be that loud at all! We had a nice dinner on the beach at "La Palapa" in San Carlos and lingered until the mosquitos found us and drove us away.Mangrove Warbler

Day 9 – We had breakfast back over in San Carlos and hit Estero Soldado to try to find one or two new birds.  The drive to Tucson didn’t allow for much birding, but in reality there was not too much left that we could add to the trip anyway!  It was a fantastic trip that went off without a hitch and gave us the highest species count that I have ever had on this tour! Thanks to Ken, Lois and David for a great trip!

 Below are some of the better shots of  the morning

Calliope Hummingbird

Blue Mockingbird

Elegant Euphonia

The Elegant pair!

Bullock's Oriole

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Yellow-breasted Chat

The orioles sure love those oranges!

Social Flycatcher

Sinaloa Wren

Plain-capped Starthroat

Nashville Warbler

Hooded - One of four species of orioles this morning

Green-tailed Towhee

Curve-billed hrasher

White-tipped Dove

Lots of White-crowned Sparrrows coming through

Varied Bunting

Gila Woodpecker

Not a great shot, but you can tell it is a Yellow Grosbeak

Black-vented Oriole

Barred Ant-shrike

This year we ran two very different tours to the fantastically diverse and beautiful state of Chiapas, a state that is home to no less than three-quarters of the entire countries avi-fauna. The first tour focused on the foothills above the Pacific coast with a couple of days in the highlands around Tuxtla Gutierrez.  The second and longer tour started in the Tuxtla area and headed into the highlands around San Cristobal de Las Casas and the cloud forest of Lagos de Montebello before dropping into the Lacandona lowlands along the Guatemala border and ending in Palenque.  The dry season turned out to be over, or certainly interrupted, as we had a fair bit of rain throughout both trips, as well as a couple of chilly mornings in the higher elevations.  This made for fewer flowers and maybe slightly reduced bird activity.  We still managed to find 384 speices in the two combined tours and that was without ever visiting a coastal area!

After nearly three days of scouting, our driver, Rafa, and I, picked the first group up at the Tapachula airport.  Off to "El Navegante" for a nice seafood lunch and the biggest chicken soup I have ever seen. I was glad that Eileen was forced to eat it and not me!  Free beer came out in a rather confused manner and surprise… it all ended up being consumed!

Then it was off for some afternoon birding.  Unlike the previous afternoon it was WARM.  A few miles down the dirt road directly opposite of the turn to Puerto Chiapas, we finally got some birds.  Highlights were the Turquoise-browed Motmot, White-throated Magpie Jays, Ferruginous Pygmy Owl and a lot of Wood Storks. 

At the port, we got better looks at the White-bellied Chachalacas and a few hundred pounds of Gray-breasted Martins up on the high tension wires.

A raucous dinner at the plaza was filled with marimbas and singing midgets and a fantastic steak dinners that topped off the evening. Nothing like a singing midget at your table to get a trip off to a great start!  Our first night was spent at the funky and wonderful hotel Casa Boutique Mexicana in downtown Tapachula, a very nice little hotel full of fantastic Mexican crafts and some really nice fine art.

Volcan Tacana

Day 2 – Today we slowly made our way up the volcano Tacana perched right on the Mexico-Guatemala border, but first stopped at the campo experimental just outside of town.  Here we were treated to one of Rafa’s nice field breakfasts, while we got our first looks at a variety of forest birds. Giant Wren nearly the minute we got out of the van.  Then we went after a few Blue-crowned Motmots  that were singing their heads off, but never got more than fleeting glimpses of them.  We made it to the volcano in the fog but by then things got pretty quiet and we really only got looks at a number of White-eared hummingbirds and an Orange-billed Nightingale Thrush before calling it a morning and heading down the hill for lunch.

We had lunch at a nice little place below the volcano,  "Las Alcatrazes", where we had a very cooperative pair White-collared Seedeaters building a nest.

One of our Casitas at Finca Argovia

Just after lunch, the rain set in and we were treated to an intense storm for the entire 1.5 hour drive to Finca Argovia.  The streets of Tapachula were running 2 feet deep with water in some places!  The rain let up as we were getting close to the Finca, but as we pulled into the driveway the sky opened up again.  We were greeted with strawberry ice cream upon arrival at Finca Argovia and opted for waiting out the rain rather than make our way directly to the rooms.  In the mean time, we caught up on the bird list and had a few drinks at the bar! 

Day 3 – We birded the finca grounds which proved to very good for the entire morning and did a recon trip up to Guadalupe and

Wonderful looks at Prevost's Ground-sparrow

got a Townsend’s Warbler, hardly worth the time an effort that it took to get up to the pines on the first big ridge.  However I think everyone enjoyed going up there and the vistas of the fog filled canyons was quite spectacular.

Day 4 – We birded the lower road to the property and got some great birds, even though it was not nearly as birdy as the day before.  Highlights of the morning included the two or three Central American Pygmy Owls that seemed to come into within a few feet of us but were never seen!  Several good looks at Prevost’s Ground-sparrow and a Blue-tailed Hummingbird perched above our head.  After birding we had a nice brunch at the hotel before packing up and heading to Arriaga.  On the way we made a birding stop outsde of the town of Mapastapec where we were treated to a nice pair of Barred Antshrikes and a great fruiting fig tree that happened to be just over a fence from our lunch spot!  As Rafa was setting out lunch, a  pick-up truck came by and literally “dropped off” a guy (maybe Steph’s Dad?!) who had apparently been having a bit too much fun in town.  Although it really wasn’t that funny, the whole scene was a little hard not to laugh about!  There were birds everywhere and even more in the big fig tree next to the lunch site that Rafa picked out.  Arriaga on the way we got Snail kite, and made a stop on the road to Puerto Arista where we got White-faced Ibis and trees full of Limpkins.  I love these little hotel restaurants that do such a good job.  The Hotel Ik-Lumaal has a great menu (and it has English too!)

A curious Rosita's Bunting

Day 5 – After a quick breakfast in the guide’s room, we were off to

There were dozens of Russet-crowned Motmot's!

 explore the “Sepultura” reserve. As is typically the case for this area the brids were cooperative an numerous.  On the drive out we were treated to great looks at an incredible number of Russet-crowned Motmot’s and once at my favorite spot, we got both the Rosita’s and Orange-breasted buntings fast and in good numbers!  We also got good looks at Green-fronted Hummingbird but dipped on the Lesser Ground-Cuckoo a bird I almost always get there.  Then it was back to the hotel for lunch before the drive up slope and north to the Cima de Los Cotorros.  The Cima was cool, lots of Green Parrakeet’s and a bat falcon that got them all excited every now and then.  We also had our first White-eyed Vireo and a Flammulated Flycatcher was calling but tough to see.  Then it was on to Tuxtla Gutierrez for the evening.

Day 6 -  I got a big surprise as we landed at Canyon Sumidero for our morning birding.  The road to the top had been closed for road work  and they were not letting anyone go up to the overlooks!  This was not good!  There were a couple of birds up there that we would have a hard time finding elsewhere. We decided to just walk the bottom section where they would not allow cars, and look for birds while Rafa worked his magic with the head guyof the reserve.  It all sort of worked out.  We got good looks at Red-breasted Chat and Rafa got permission to drive up to pick us up!  Well once we were in there no one was around to stop us from continuing on to the top!  Once we made it around a couple of serious construction sites we made it to the third overlook where we did a little walk to the rim.  Birding was pretty good up high, although getting there kind of late certainly caused us to miss a couple of things.  At one point we did get a Vermiculated Screech Owl to answer back, but it never came in.   Then we were off for lunch at the Jardines de Chiapa where we were treated to a nice Marimba band as we lunched.  After lunch it was off to the highlands for last shot at the Pink Headed Warbler for the mid-west crew.  After a lot of work we got looks at the Mountain Pygmy Owl but dipped on the Warbler and we were treated to great looks atdozens of Rufous-collared Robins.

Day 7 – Today we said goodbye to most of the group after a short but great tour!  There were a lot of high points for me on this tour.  Staying and birding at Finca Argovia, eating on the plaza in Tapachula that first night and seeing so many Russet-crowned Motmots outside of Arriaga. 

The rest of the day was pretty much a chance for us to re-group and get ready for the next tour, but Glenn, Rafa and I decided to head on ove to the Tuxtla Zoo, which turned out to be a  a wonderful experience.  I had always

Even in the Zoo it is an amazing animal

wanted to go to the Tuxtla Zoo, but had never had the time until this trip. I think from now on  I will find a way to incorporate it into all the Chiapas tours.  We spent more than three hours checking out the exhibits and wandering around the grounds and exhibits which are well done and very interesting.

Day 8 or 1 – The weather got rough during the night and the wind was blowing like crazy it brought in some sort of cold front that apparently was affecting the entire Yucatan peninsula and in the morning we woke to rain, fog and more wind.  I was ready to deal with all of the bad weather while birding, but when the traffic on the highway came to a dead stop on the drive to the birding spot I knew we were in for some bad luck.  We waited in the line of stopped traffic for about 30 minutes before I realized that we should just go somewhere else, we were just wasting good birding time.  We found a cool road just a few miles back to the west and birded it for a while, hoping that the road would get opened and we would be able to continue on to Ocote.  Once we covered the entire road we made one more try at getting through where the traffic had been stopped, but after a short wait this time we decided to abort the mission.  Rafa did some quick checking of the map and found a minor route that would reconnect with the spot we wanted to go without taking the main highway.  The road worked perfectly and we eventually got to the spot where I wanted to bird. We birded on and off in intermittent showers that went from mist to downpour, but we still managed to get some birds.  Then I heard the unmistakable call of a Nava’s Wren and I began with a bit of playback.  The bird responded immediately

Aztec Parakeets

and eventually came up to a large rock right in front of us and bounced and sang for us for several minutes.  It was awesome!  After a field lunch, we were off to another spot across the highway called Rio Frances. We had good looks at Aztec Parakeets on the way down and a pair of Rusty Sparrows on the way back up.

Day 9 or 2– Today we went back to Ocote in far better weather than the day before.  We had a great morning with tons of birds: Stripe-tailed

A very cooperative female Violet Sabrewing

Hummingbird, White-bellied Wren and Golden-crowned Warbler. In the afternoon, at the Cerro outside of San Cristobal de Las Casas we finally got an OK look at Blue and White Mockingbird and a fleeting glimpse of White-napped Brush-finch and Band-backed Wrens.  Our night in San Cristobal was nice at the Hotel Diego de Mazariegos.

Day 10 or 3 – This was our last chance for Pink-headed Warbler and as bad luck would have have it we dipped on it once again.  We gave it a hard long try looking in three different locations but it just never showed itself.  We did have some amazing Warbler flocks along the way, finding  a number of great ones including Crescent-chested and Olive.  I’m guessing that the cold front had something to do

Parador Santa Maria

with the lack of Pink-headed Warblers, at this time of year they should have been far more conspicuous. We were fortunate to sneak around a rather serious storm but were treated with views of a couple of inches of hail that had accumulated on the side of the road just as we dropped down in elevation!  We had a nice lunch in downtown Comitan at the Café Portales before a quick stop at Walmart and then heading on to the beautiful Parador Santa Maria for the night.  This hacienda is a 200 year old home that has been lovingly restored by one of the surviving family members. The restoration is well done, but not over done and the place retains an old feel that is hard not to appreciate.

Day 11 or 4– We got out of the hotel early for the quick 20 minute drive to the Lagos de Montebello reserve where Rafa set us up a great field breakfast which we wolfed down before our hike into the cloud forest.  It was wet and cold after yesterday’s heavy weather and this kept the bird activity to a minimum until things warmed up.  Interrupting our breakfast was a pair of Black-headed Nightingale Thrushes who gave us some great looks while we finished up the last of the yogurt.

Day 12 or 5 – Today we spent the entire morning walking the road to Cinco Lagos where we had some good luck with some hard to find birds.  Finally we found both Black-throated and Uni-colored Jay way over head in the pines but we eventually tracked them down.  We also had luck with  Blue-throated Motmot and  heard a Resplendant Quetzal.  The afternoon was a longish drive down towards the Guatemala border and Las Guacamayas.  We made a number of stops along the way, one of the most productive was at KM 305 where we encountered the recently discovered population of Gray-breasted Crakes and we saw  Blue Seedeaters,

A regal Plumbeous Kite

Plumbeous and  Missisippi Kites.  Las Guacamayas is a neat eco-tourism project right on the La Cantun River, that gives youm great access to great birds, pretty much right out the front door.  Tonight we were treated to yet more rain, and at times quite strong!  At one point the power went out and we were told not to expect it to come back on.  The power went out at the same moment that my spot light died while we were attempting to get looks at a Vermiculated Screech Owl that seemed to be calling from accross the river.  I must say that this ranks up there with one of the most embarrassing moments in mybirding life when I realized that the call I was hearing accross the river was not a Vermiculated Screech owl at all!  It was a chorus of hundreds of frogs!  Now, I still swear to this day that thsoe damn frogs sound almost identical to the Owl, but there is a slight difference which is VERY obvious to me now!

Day 13 or 6 – This morning was our one chance to do the boat trip on the Rio Cantun, but just before my alarm went off we were treated to an amazing downpour which didn’t make the idea of boating sound all that inviting.  We waited it out for a while and nearly at the time we had told our boatman to arrive, the rain stopped and we were off for some birding.   Right off the bat, we got looks at what appeared to be a harem of Great Curassows hanging out with a few Creasted Guans. 

One of 5 species of Kingfishers

The Great Currasows numbered 4 females, including  a Barred Morph and a male in the tree.  Then we started to see Kingfishers, Amazon and Ringed were the most common but eventually we got looks at all 5 kingfisher species that one can find in north America, including a rather confiding American Pygmy Kingfisher! Other highlights were great looks at Crested Guan, Aplomado Falcon, Black-faced Grosbeak and Gray-necked Woodrails.  We heard Scarlet Macaws fly over, and Eileen actually got to see a flock of 8 go over the hotel area.  

The afternoon was spent driving three hours to Fronterra Corrizal on the Usumacinta River.

Day 14 or 7 – The breakfast bell rang early today and we were off to meet the boatman  before the arranged time of 5:45 a.m.  I had noticed during the night that the rain had stopped and I was optimistic that we would have good weather this morning.  After a bit of morning fog that burned off quickly it was obvious that we were in for a beautiful day.  There is nothing like Yaxchilan at sunrise when there are no other people around!  l am happy that the rest of the world does not know the benefit of being there EARLY.  I was only  a bit concerned that the booth to buy tickets was closed when we got into town the previous day.  Typically we have to get tickets for an early departure the day before.  Rafa assured me that he would work it out and not to worry about it.  Sure enough once we were at the ruins, the guy who watches the place and has lived there for 22 years was chatty and

asked us what we knew about the earthquake  tsunami in Japan.  It turned out he knew more than us!  He was very nice and

Slaty-tailed Trogon

 “sold” us tickets (that I never saw) to get into the ruin for 200 pesos.  If I had bought them at the office in town it would have been 300, so it seemed like a good deal!  Right off the bat, we were hearing Spotted Wood-quail calling everywhere, and lots of other song coming was out of the jungle.  In the first light of the day, seeing things other than shapes in the forest was difficult.  Eventually, the sun came up and we started to see lots of birds.  Slaty-tailed Trogons gave us an amazing show as they picked termites out of a nest.  A Mealy Parrot perched out in the sunshine for all to see, and a flowering Bombax tree at the top of the grand Acropolis was a feeding frenze of Green Honeycreepers, Hummingbirds, Warblers, Pale-billed Woodpeckers and a number of Tanager

Mealy Parrot

species.  It was easy to spend three plus hours enjoying the ruins and looking for birds.  On the way back to the boat for the ride home I called in a Rufous-tailed Jacamar

Rufous-tailed Jacamar

 and while we were enjoying that, Eileen found a Dot-winged Antwren lurking around in the bushes in front of us…a fine way to end the morning.  

After a quick lunch back at Escudo Jaguar,we were off for the 3 hour drive to Palenque and our last three nights at night at hotel Chan Kah, at the gates of Palenque. 

Day 15 or 8 – We got to the parking lot at the ruins of Palenque just before the gates opened and already there were buses of tourists arriving to get in.  Nearly immediately after entering the ruins, a Bat Falcon passed overhead carrying an unfortunate Red-legged Honeycreeper in its talons!  As Andree and I birded the edges of the cleared areas, Glenn and Eileen worked the grass for butterflies.  Eventually we ended up working the same

Palenque

patch and I decided to try a little tape for Black-faced (Mexican) Ant-thrush.  I admit that it was a bit of a ‘Hail-Mary’ attempt, but almost immediately I got a response from one down in a maintenance area.  We made our way down the trail towards the response of the bird and eventually got to within 20 feet of where we could hear the bird singing.  Just as it looked like the bird was about to come out, I saw some movement in the bushes and for a second thought that we had run into another birder!  It turned out just to be some Italian hippie who had snuck into the ruins without paying!  The good news was that his passing within precious little feet of the bird did not seem to disturb it at all and it continued to respond to playback.  Eventually, with a little repositioning and a bit of luck, the bird came out into plain view on a small trail and looked both ways before darting off into the forest.  Better than average looks at the very special species.

But there was a lot more to be seen at Palenque and we had just scratched the surface.  We popped out of the restricted maintenance area (oops) in front of a fig tree that was in full fruit and full of birds.  My rough count of what we saw in the hour and a halt that we were in front of that tree was over 30 species, not including the Solitary Eagle and the Great Black Hawk that flew over while we were staring into the tree.  It was  a wonderful way to spend the morning.

Bat Falcon at Palenque

After the tree we took some time to explore some more of the archeological site before hoofing it down the 300 stairs to the parking lot below where Rafa was waiting for us.

This afternoon we took a little break before taking the 45 minute drive out to Laguna Catazacapan  which is home to Manatees and where we were hoping  to get a look at a Black-collared Hawk and maybe a Bittern or two.  Well, it turned out that Glenn did get the Hawk, but the Bittern would have to wait.  After birding the shores near town we went to the other side of the lake where I was planning on visiting a spot that had been pretty birdy in the past.  This time the gate to the area was locked but just as I

A Mexican Porcupine

was about to go somewhere else the owner of the adjacent property drove up and encouraged us to following him out to his 20 acres even farther out.  It was a beautiful piece of property with lots of birds, including the first Ovenbird of the trip.  The owner, Eduardo was a  very interesting man who is committed  to protecting this remnant plot of forest on the edge of the lagoon, he was very accommodating and happy to have us as visitors.  I think the high point of the afternoon for all of us had to have been seeing the Mexican Porcupine that Eduardo told us had a den on his property.  On our way out of his ranch we followed him to a short trail into the forest and a tree with a big hole in the side of it.  He began to stick his machete into the hole attempting to wake on the sleeping guy inside.  In a couple of minutes, the absolutely adorable little animal came slowly out of the hole and made its way up the tree and out of harms way. 

After supper we went out ot see if we could turn up an owl or two.  Immediately we got the calls of Common Paraques in the adjacent field and eventually got to see them sitting on the ground.  Then came the Vermiculated Screech Owls that did call back and eventually got closer but never showed themselves, the same was true for the Mottled Owls that came even closer.

Double-striped Thick-knee

Day 16 or 9 – The Usumacinta marshes are a vast flood plain that is constantly ebbing and flowing depending on the size of the river of the same name.  Typically, the spring is dryer and the birding is mostly checking the rice and other agricultural areas that have been flooded with irrigation water.  When water and conditions are right this area contains enormous numbers of water fowl and other birds.  As is typically the case, we had to spend a fair bit of time exploring some historically good areas before we found one that was right for the birds we were looking for.  Along the way we were treated to a few other good birds including wonderful looks at Double-striped Thick-knee.  But the bird we were looking for nearly all day was the Pinnated Bittern, a life bird for everyone and one of the specialties of the area.  I had nearly given up after we had scanned several 100 acres of flooded rice at our last stop in the heat of the day, it was starting to look like we would dip on the Bittern.  With precious little rice left to check, Glenn heard a Bittern “pumping” in the distance and Andree and I hoofed it back there to help him try to find it.  Nearly immediately after getting to Glenn, I saw a Bittern standing on a small irrigation ridge about 200 yards back from the road!  I quickly got the scope on it and after the bird finally moved its head I saw that indeed it was a Pinnated!  We all got great looks before the bird took off flying and then landing even closer, where we all once again got even better looks.  Always nice to end a tour with a great bird! 

Day 17 or 10– This morning was our trip to Villahermosa and the end of the tour.  We got Andree to her flight with time to spare and the rest of us went out to look for birds and butterflies for the remainder of the morning.  There were more butterflies than we had seen for many days, although the numbers were still pretty low.  Bird-wise, we added a few birds to the trip list at the marshes, but nothing out of the ordinary.  I have to say that this tour to Chiapas was certainly the highlight of my Spring, and I want to thank all of the participants for making it a success!

Red-crowned Parrots

appeared to be about 16 years old, was fantastic and got us all fed and watered in no time at all…not a small task for this group!

Day Two – Our first full day had us out the door at what is not exactly the crack of dawn hour, but in this case due to the recent change to daylight savings it is not even light until 7:30!  I felt like the ultimate bird guide whimp informing my group that we would not be departing the hotel for birding until 8 a.m!  You would have thought that I just gave them back all their tour money and told them the trip was free! I was happy to announce it and everyone seemed overjoyed to hear it! 

We had a short 15 minute drive to our first birding location and right out of the van we had a singing Long-billed Thrasher and a Green Heron pretending to be a Mockingbird up on the electric wires.  A short walk down the old road into the ‘tropical’ area produced absolutely fantastic looks at Red-crowned Parrots investigating a nesting situation in the truck of an old cottonwood.  We were given protracted looks at them as they carved at the rot with their bills and casually crawled in and out of the cavity. 

Then we spent a few minutes looking around for the White-throated Thrush that was being seen earlier but our attention span was short and we were off to find other goodies.  Kip may never forgive me for not having more time to look for that bird for his ABA list!

We spent a bit of time on the wonderful veranda of the Visitor’s Center at Estero Llano Grande, where we got good looks at a number of species of water fowl and waders while enjoying the shade and the screaming school kids.  Then it was off for a walk to

Mom and her babies

A sleeping Pauraque

 Alligator Lake where we were side lined by two Pauraques sleeping on their day roosts which happened to be on the ground about 4 feet from the trail!  Not only did we get good looks, the photographic opportunities were endless!  At the end of the trail there was not only one alligator, but one giant one with her babies on her back…pretty cool!

We grabbed sandwiches at ‘La Subway’and drove off to the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge right on the Rio Grande and the Mexican border. I figured it would be nicer to eat out picnic style rather than watch people get refills on their big gulps at Subway!

I've never seen so many Green Jays

  Here we sat in the shade listening to the Carolina Wrens and watching a White-tipped Dove crawl through the underbrush.  After lunch, we headed off into the heat and the beautiful trails of the Refuge that make their way past ponds filled with birds.  Even in the heat of the day we found a lot of birds before packing it in and heading back to the hotel for a couple hours off before dinner.  Tonight, we went to Milano’s close to the hotel. It was great food and a lot of fun!  It sort of felt like there might be Texas gangsters making deals in the back rooms of the place.I liked the old funky feel of the place the food was pretty good too!

Day Three – Today was boat trip day and we made the hotel departure a bit earlier to get to the dock before the winds made things too rough.  I had never done a boat trip on a pontoon boat with rattan furniture and old couches, but I have to say that it was rather civilized!  The birding was pretty good too.  We only got brief and distance looks at a little yellow blob that I told everyone was a Mangrove

One beautiful Laughing Gull

Warbler, but that seemed to satisfy most everyone one, why wouldn’t they believe

 me?!  One of the down sides of the pontoon was that we could not get too close to the mangrove due to the draw of the boat.  We got fantastic looks at nearly all of the possible herons and egrets and if people had never seen a Laughing Gull they cannot say that now…we saw thousands of them.  A little added excitement came with the motor on Scarlet’s boat deciding to need a new starter and forced some of us to make some fancy footwork onto the other boat, although not exactly a swift water rescue, it was exciting!  After the trip, we were off to have lunch in downtown South Padre Island.  It was much as I expected lots of T-shirt and surf shops catering to beach tourists and our timing for spring breakers could not have been better.  Maybe as exciting as having the boat breakdown was hearing Eleanor ask Kip “How does a beer bong work?”.  Apparently beer bongs area hot item for spring breakers!

Day Four -Today it was off to the Edinburg Wetlands where we had views of numerous

His big hit was, "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights"

 ducks and other water fowl.  Then it was back to the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge for one more walk around and a visit to the hawk watching area, which we had not done on the previous visit.  Afterwards we grabbed lunch at’ La Subway’and headed back to the hotel to eat it, before some of us took off for a trip back over to Port Isabel to look for some raptors.  The drive all the way back down there was worth it!  We ended up getting great looks at an Aplomado Falcon, a bird that historically was in this area and has now been re-introduced, even if it was re-introduced, it was really neat to see the bird in the US!  The rest of the drive produced an Eastern Meadow Lark, Peregrine Falcon, Crested Caracara and a decent look at a White-tailed Hawk for some.  A pretty good afternoon in very little time, plus I got a good photos of the San Benito water tower and its ode to Freddie Fender.

We met the remainder of the group and headed off to look for the Green Parakeets that have adapted to a rather urban

The urban Green Parakeets of McAllen

environment (serious understatement) in the town of McAllen, Texas.  I was more than a bit pessimistic as we drive down the corridor of big box stores and strip malls, windows down hoping to hear the chirps of high flying Parakeets over the drone of cars and trucks.  Then, without hesitation, Kip pulls into a Lowes parking lot and announces over the radio that he hears Parakeets. Nearly immediately, I see the obvious wing beats of a small flock of parakeets headed over the Chase Bank building and landing on power lines on one of the busiest intersections in McAllen!  I quickly pulled over and got the scope on the birds.  Kip got stuck at a red light but eventually got into the bank parking lot and got another scope on the birds!  It was a fine moment; I love that kind of stuff! 

Hundreds of Broad-winged Hawks!

Day Five – Bentsen State Park was great this morning.  We took the tram out to the hawk watch tower and spent a good long hour watching lots of birds.  We had Ringed Kingfishers, Groove-billed Anis, White-tailed Kite and lots of Broad-winged Hawks migrating to the north. Certainly there were hundreds of them, if not more. Then, we were off for the long hot drive to Rio Grande City and a quick trip over to Roma, a small city right on the Rio Grande with an overlook that peers into Mexico.  There was very little in the way of birds at the fine hour of  ’too-hot thirty’, but this is not to say that there was not anything interesting to look at.  By scoping around the city park on the other side (read: Voyeur) I spotted something that just didn’t look right… For one second it appeared to be a woman in a very short skirt with no top…but with further, yet rapid, investigation, I realized it was a man!  Being the good guide that I am, I put the subject in the scope and invited Chuck to take a look.  I’m not sure that he appreciated the visual but it was pretty funny!  Then, it was back to Rio Grande City and to the hotel, birding in that heat was not something that seemed wise or potentially productive at that point. 

Day Six -  We were greeted this morning by ridiculously balmy 74 degree temperatures and a very deep humidity, enough to make

Finally we got looks at Audubon's Oriole

 one worry about how hot it could possibly get during the day!  Fortunately, it ended up being overcast all day, and as we drove west the temperature actually went down significantly!  By the time we got to Salineno it was rather pleasant and it was nice to walk along the banks of the Rio Grande in a place where there was no development, a relief after all we had been driving through.  We had wonderful scope looks at Ringed Kingfisher, Audubon’s Oriole and Red-billed Pigeon, all south Texas specialties. Then a quick stop at Falcon Dam where we were treated to mostly great looks at Roadrunner and Pyrroloxias but some of us got looks at Northern Bobwhites on the entry road into the park.

Then it was on to our last ‘La Subway’lunch in Laredo and then a stop at the liquor store in Uvalde, where everyone tanked up on spirits for our time at Neal’s.  I got a kick out of the owner when he asked to see every ones ID…not their age, but their AARP card!

We had a nice home cooked dinner at Neal’s before heading back to the wonderful cabins and a very quiet and restful night’s sleep.  I really liked Neal’s Lodge a lot, it has that feel of an old established resort, but everything was in good working order and comfortable.  It is a lot like what we are trying to do at El Pedregal, and think we are on the right track.  Although I had a great time in the Rio Grande Valley, it was really nice to get into the Hill Country and out of the city.

Mr Barred Owl

Day Seven – This morning we had a big breakfast at Neal’s before taking off for Lost Maples State Natural Area.  The light of day came late due to the rather dense fog accompanied by a rather relentless mist.  Our big target of the morning was the Golden-cheeked Warbler. A couple of us actually got on one before we even left the cabins, but after a lot of tramping around in the wet grass by the leaders we finally did get some rather distant scope views of one singing at the tops of the trees.  Eventually, a female appeared in the junipers in front of us, allowing a few others to get a look.

After lunch we packed up and headed off to Utopia and the Sabinal River to look for  a Barred Owl that Kip had found a couple of years back.  As usual, you never know if the bird is still around, but in this case, as advertised, Kip coaxed the puppy in with a few of his best Barred Owl hoots.  It was a great moment and the photos that I got rank right up there with the best I’ve ever gotten, not to mention that we all got fantastic looks at this fabulous bird! 

Tonight we had an early dinner and headed down the road to the bat cave to witness what can be described only as a natural or super-natural phenomenon.  I’ve seen a couple of big bat flights, one actually in Alamos, but I was ill prepared for what we witnessed tonight!  Millions of Brazilian Free-tailed bats (10 to 12 million is the best guess) emerging from a small cave in a procession that went on for nearly two hours.  Prior to the bats exit we got to watch some amazing aerials by a large flock of Cave Swallows that were trading

This guy had run into a pole, we saved him!

 places with the bats for the night.  Meanwhile, several hawks including Coopers, Red-tailed and a Merlin took their turns picking off a bat or two by flying into the massive stream on mammals that looked more like trails of smoke heading off into the distance!  Eventually the number of bats diminished to a trickle, but not until nearly two hours had passed. 

Day Eight – This morning we said goodbye to Neal’s and headed off for the Kerr Wildlife Refuge about an hour and a half to the north. Our big target bird was the Black-capped Vireo and anything else that we might scare up.  The weather was unseasonably cool with temps right around 40 when we got up and very overcast.  We walked a bit of paved road within the Refuge listening for the distinctive song of the Black-capped Vireo.  I have seen many of these birds on their wintering grounds in western Mexico, but had never looked for them on their breeding grounds, so I was excited to see one singing in breeding habitat.  It took a good long while of chasing down the calls of the Vireos before most of the group got a pretty good look at this snappy little bird!  We found a small area with tables to woof down the box lunch from Neal’s before hitting the road to look for the hidden German bakery somewhere in Fredericksburg.  We ended the day in Johnson City and had a nice dinner in town at the Silver K Café, a small place that pushed the limit for our big group and did a great job.

The group at the falls

Day Nine – Today we made a neat stop at the Perdernales Falls State Park on

The Great Horned Owl at the Wildflower Center

 our way to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center outside of Austin, and a good stop it was!  Not only did we end up getting far better views of the Golden-cheeked Warbler, we had a surprise visit by a Red-breasted Nuthatch  (or two?) that stuck around for a while.  Later, we all walked down to have a look at the falls which were indeed quite impressive and got a good group photo to boot!

Our big destination of the day was the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower center outside of Austin, a necessary stop for a botanical garden group!  The center is obviously well funded and beautifully constructed and has very good exhibits and a large gift shop and Cafe, where we ate lunch.  Afterwards the group was given a tour of the grounds by one of the docents before going hog wild in the gift shop!  Unfortunately due to the ongoing drought in that part of the world the woldflower show was a bit meager, but we still managed to see a lot of Texas Blue Bonnets as well as a few other native species.

We drove on down to San Antonio where we spent our last night right on the River Walk…not the easiest thing logistically speaking, but a lot more fun than being trapped out at the airport!  We had a big farewell dinner at a busy Mexican place called “Acenar”, which was a lot of fun. Well, at least until everyone got their margarita bills! 

Day Ten – Today marked the final morning of our tour, an interesting trip through the Rio Grande Valley and the hill country of Texas.  In total we had 196 birds and maybe as many laughs.  I want to thank all of the participants who put up with the Texas guide from Michigan and the guy who followed him around like a tattoo!  I had a wonderful time and thanks to Kip for all his hard work putting the itinerary together…I truly love working with that guy! Thanks ya’ll for a great trip!