I loved this shot from Empalme
The idea of this trip was to spend as much time in Alamos searching for the special birds and habitats of the tropical deciduous forest and experiencing the beauty of the town and the people that live in it. I think we accomplished all of that and hopefully more!
Day One - We start off with a big drive day from Tucson all the way to Alamos. Knowing all the turns and twists of the road make it possible to do it in 8.5 hours, but it is not easy and it's a long day no matter what!
We had lunch at the Arbolitos Restaurant in Guaymas,which was a great way to break up the big drive, and then we spent a half hour looking at shorebirds in Empalme before hitting the road for the last 2.5 hours to Alamos. Empalmewas great! There were a lot of good water birds to be seen including about 90 Black Skimmers, many Yellow-footed Gulls (a lifer for most of the group) and one Rosette Spoonbill that flew directly over us.
We arrived in Alamos to a singing Blue Mockingbird at El Pedregal and a wonderful dinner of Chicken Enchiladas served up by Angela and Jennifer.
My best photo from the fig tree frenzy
Day Two - Our first full day of birding took us to the La Aduana arroyo with its dry forest habitat and cut over agricultural fields. As usual, it was really birdy when we arrived and we lucked out by finding the first big fig tree that we came to in full fruit and full of birds! Elegant Trogons, dozens of Rufous-backed Robins, even more Mexican Parrotlets. I think we spent well over an hour staring into that tree and working the fence rows on either side of it. A great start to the morning!
We ended up making it all the way to the town of Aduana with plenty of time to see the church, still decorated up with thousands of flowers from the big Virgin of Balvanera festival that had just ended on Sunday. The church was full of flowers and candles and was very beautiful.
Lunch was a tasty Chicken Panela Vegetable Soup in the palapa at El Pedregal, followed by a welcome siesta.
This afternoon we went of over to the cemetary to see how the fig tree was doing.
The Merlin in the Cemetary
Turns out it was full of fruit, but strangely void of birds except for a great population of Red-billed Pigeons that exploded out of the tree as we arrived. After looking around we noticed the Merlin perched in a window of vegetation in a Eucalyptus tree...the mystery of why there were no small birds in the tree was solved!
Tonight, we made the trek up the hill to the El Mirador Restaurant for a tasty Mexican buffet feast...no shortage of food! We enjoyed Flan for dessert!
Day Three - This morning, we pulled out a little bit earlier for to do the drive to the Mentidero arroyo and the Cuchujaqui river. It had been cold that night, getting down to 43 degrees at El Pedregal. I was hopeful for some elevational migrants that may have gotten a bit too cold up in the Sierra de Alamos and might have made their way down the hill during the night. Well, we wererewarded nearly immediately with a Buff-breasted Flycatcher who came shooting into tape after it was first seen. It hung around long enough for everyone to get get looks at it. Then, we ran into the second elevational migrant of the morning, a Tufted Flycatcher was busy working the stream with a Gray and a Vermillion Flycatcher. Neat to see the three of them hanging out together, often times landing together on the same branch!
The bird of the Morning!
But the bigbird of the morning was about to show up. Joyce called it first, knowing very well that it was a Red-start, but not the one with white in the wings! Sure enough, it was a Slate-throated Redstart, and it gave us an amazing show! Flying back and forth across the river a number of times and perching just over our heads and giving us numerous photo opportunities! A great sighting to be sure!
The rest of our walk to the river gave us great looks at a very cooperative Bare-throated Tiger-Heron who just sat in a low branch as we walked by and took photos of it and any thing else that passed by. Then, there were two Crane Hawks that flew across the river. Like the previous day, by 10:30 a.m. the birdactivity had subsided and we started to make our way back to the van and back to Alamos.
After a great lunch at Luchy's Cafe Luz del Sol, we went back to El Pedregal for a siesta. Our afternoon outing was walking the trails of the Pedregal and getting a bit of an appetite for what we were sure was going to be a great meal.
Along the way the birding was pretty good, but mostly stuff we had seen before on the trip.
The Thanksgiving Motmot at El Pedregal
Thank goodness for the dogs wandering around in the underbrush, they scared up something that ended up perching not more than 15 feet from us. It was a Russet-crowned Motmot! Although I have had Motmots here at the in every month of the year, it can be hard to turn one up in late November without trying really hard. This almost seemed too easy, but I'll take it! It seems even more unlikely that you would see a Motmot, nearly the most tropical of all birds that can be seen here, after a night when the temperature got down to nearly 40 degrees! We got one more fleeting glimpse of Elegant Quail on the way back to the Lodge, but once again not real satisfing.
Then it was back to the lodge for some time waiting for the Blue Mockingbird to show, but it never did.
Our Thanksgiving Dinner was awesome! Turkey, Filet Mignon, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Apple Celery Stuffing, Pear Orange Relish, Green Beans and the best pies. One was a Pear Tarte and the other was a Plantain Pie! Jen's meal was made with all locally available ingredients...and it was excellent! Angela joined us at the table and it was a fine evening.
Day Four - This morning, we were off to the sewage ponds in "Big Blue" my 4x4 Ford van that is a necessity for forging the 'stream' to get down to the best birding areas. Unfortunately, it was not the best birding I have seen, but we did eventually manage to get Sinaloa Wren but dipped on most of our targets of the morning. I think the cold nights have things hunkered down or maybe moving down to lower elevations. Some evidence of this might be the number of Tufted Flycatchers that we saw today.
After a tasty 'leftover' lunch...Turkey Soup and Turkey Sandwiches and Pie...Jen took us on a town / shopping tour this afternoon, but we also managed to take the binoculars too. Turns out the only new bird of the tour was a Bronzed Cowbird that we found on a wire, but the shopping and the stop at my Mom and Richard's for a tour of their hacienda was a lot of fun!
Floating the Rio Mayo
Day Five - Today, we were off to the Rio Mayo and a full day of floating the river. No matter what this is always a birdy trip and today was no exception. Right off the bat, we were seeing Black Hawks and both Kingfishers. The water was flowing big and the sky was crystal clear. We made the hike up to the Petroglyphs and got a couple of new birds. A Happy Wren finally showed up and Purplish-backed Jays came in for a quick and not very satisfying visit.
Ivan had lunch set up and waiting for us a Tres Hermanos and it was all we could do to extract ourselves from our chairs and get back in the boats. It was wonderful sitting in the shade and watching the river flow by.
We made one last stop on the river at the village of Santa Barbara where we visited the old church and got to see the antique irrigation system in operation! The visit to Santa Barbara was bitter sweet...I love the feel of the old town and I have a lot of fond memories of the place. But, today I learned that my old pal Octavio had passed away. He was the patriarch of the town. Not a big surprise really, he was over 100 years old. I'm going to miss him...he was a great man.
Day Six - We bid goodbye to Alamos and El Pedregal and hit the road for the coast and eventually the night at the Playa de Cortez Hotel in Miramar. We made one last stop at the fruiting fig in the Aduana arroyo, where I was surprised to find the latest Painted Bunting that I have seen in Alamos, and it was a beautiful male too! We had more looks at Elegant Trogon and the usual suspects from the other day were all in attendance. The Elegan Quail, however, were not anywhere to be found. Our next stop was the microwave tower at Cerro Prieto and a try for the Five-striped Sparrow. I was a bit pessimistic as they can be tough this time of year and I had dipped on them on the October tour. But as luck would have it, Frank got a look at one lurking around in the rocks and sort of responding to playback. Eventually, we all got pretty good looks at the thing, but it was not easy.
Then to the bridge over the old Rio Mayo channel in Navojoa, where things were pretty quiet. The big surprise of the morning was the flock of 7 Snow Geese that came over us as soon as we got out of the van!
Surf Scooter
The drive from Navojoa to the coast was loaded with raptors and we got multiple looks at nearly all of the species that we saw throughout the tour and 4 Peregrine Falcons which we had not seen on the trip up to that point.
Once at the water, we did great with shore and water birds, bagging basically every possible wader. I think the big surprise was finding two Surf Scooters, not a common bird in Sonora.
After a picnic lunch, we were off to Guaymas with one stop at the big agricultural ditch to look for Burrowing Owls. I see
Burrowing Owl Trio
the things just about every time that I stop, but this time we were treated to the 'trio' - a nice family group hanging out at the entrance to their home.
Jen met up with us for a farewell dinner at Los Arbolitoswhere we were entertained by the size of the whole fish that Frank ordered for dinner, and the reaction of our waiter to the rather well-endowed posterior of one of the other patrons in the restaurant! The poor boy could not stop talking about it! What was the line? "Como unas nalgas de un caballo de Europa!" A memorable night, for sure!
The view from the rooms at Hotel Playa de Cortez
After a relaxing departure from the hotel and a 'bountiful' breakfast in the guide's room, we made out way to the shores of the Estero de Soldado for some final birding, before cruising the strip in San Carlos, doing some last minute shopping at Sagitario, then hitting the road for the border and Tucson.
It was a fun way to spend Thanksgiving. Thank you all for a great trip!
