Chiapas, Mexico - Let the Field Trips Begin!

We had 5 field trips lined up with excellent leaders for the next 5 days and on each day, we had the opportunity to explore certain areas with different leaders.  Luck of the draw gave us the first group to be going to the nearby charming city of San Cristóbal east of Tuxtla.  At an altitude of about 7200 feet higher than Tuxtla it put us in a pine-oak rain forest.  Our guide, Alberto, had scouted this area in advance and had received permission from some of the native people of Mayan descent to do some exploring on some of their property.  A couple of them even assisted our search and we are indebted to these people in allowing us this opportunity.  These are not lands that people can easily access without permission.

Our target bird was the stunning Pink-headed Warbler.  This bird is endemic to Chiapas and parts of Guatemala and is listed by IUCN as 'vulnerable' due to habitat loss.  The unfortunate part of our visit was that it rained most of the morning, so camera and photography gear was kept under wraps to avoid the moisture.  The good part was the fact that we saw about 6 of these stunning birds.  I would have loved to obtain my own photo of this bird, but I was not able to do so.  I checked out the photo on Wikipedia and was shocked to find the photo being used in Wikipedia is by someone that I know and have birded with in the past, Dominic Sherony.  What a coincidence and I was happy to see his photo being used on the Wikipedia's site.  I contacted Dominic to ask permission to use his photo in my blog and he was gracious enough to allow me to use his photo.  One has to see a photo of this bird to truly appreciate it.  Thank you Dominic for allowing me to use your great photo!!!

Pink-headed Warbler - Photo by Dominic Sherony

We also had really great visuals of another new bird for me, the Yellowish Flycatcher.  I caught a glimpse of one earlier when we had several warblers in one spot and it struck me as a 'Western' type flycatcher from what I could see; a bit similar to Cordilleran or Pacific-sloped that we see in Arizona.  Once the guide saw it he was quick to identify it as the Yellowish Flycatcher.  By that time the rain had subsided a bit and I was able to capture a bad photo of 2 of them together.

Yellowish Flycatcher (What an original name!)

After visiting this unique habitat, we then moved and explored one of the local parks where they had a hummingbird feeder set up that was vigorously being defended by an Amythest-throated Hummingbird. This is another new and beautiful bird for me.  By hummingbird standards, this is a rather large hummer about the same size as the Magnificent Hummingbird seen in Arizona.  

 Amythest-throated Hummingbird

The interesting thing about this one and its defense of the feeder was that the 2 species it was chasing off were a couple specie we have right here in Arizona; the Magnificent Hummingbird and the smaller but awesome White-eared Hummingbird.

 Magnificent Hummingbird

White-eared Hummingbird

While photos were few and far between, it was still a very productive day as I was able to add 15 new species to my life list, even if the rain put a damper on some of the birding.

Will sign off from this post by adding a few other photos that were taken with my iPhone that help to show the uniqueness of this magical place with its forest and many trees draping with bromeliads.

   

    

Chiapas, Mexico - The Beginning

At last, the long anticipated and planned trip for my very first neo-tropic birding expedition had arrived and I was on my way with birding friend from Tucson, Chris Rohrer.  Our destination was Tuxtla Guitérrez, the capital of the state of Chiapas, in extreme southwestern Mexico.  It required one full day of travel on 3 different flights to arrive.  We were to take part in 5 pre-planned field trips, but we scheduled our arrival a day early and we wasted no time the next morning exploring a bit on our own at the Tuxtla Zoo and were joined by Ernie Welsh from NY.  

I began this journey with 495 life birds and it did not take long to hit number 500 on my life list; a beautiful Altamira Oriole.  What I discovered about birding in the tropics?  Photography is much more challenging, due to dark, shady canopies, low light, heat, and humidity.  And of course some of the birds are less likely to offer great photo opportunities than others.  This oriole's range extends all the way to southern Texas and from what I have been told, they are a bit easier to photograph in TX as they are regular feeder birds there.  Looks like a future trip to TX is definitely in order

 Altamira Oriole

The zoo is a great place to find birds flying and inhabiting the area as many know they are protected there and are used to humans.  Since caged birds do not count on a life list, (at least on my list!) one has to have some knowledge and needs to assess what is natural and what is captive.

My number 499th bird was the Plain Chachalaca.  Just love saying their name! They were quite common throughout the zoo and the surrounding area, including just outside the front entrance.

 Plain Chachalaca

I quickly discovered that the wrens in this area have some awesome songs and the diversity of species was incredible.  The first new wren of the trip was this Banded Wren that serenaded us near the entrance of the zoo.  

 Banded Wren

 Number 501 was one of my target birds before the trip even began; the Russet-crowned Motmot.  It is a fairly common bird and before the trip ended, I was able to view many of these unique birds.  But they are not always so eager to pose for photos.  This one, was probably my closest viewing of this bird even though it was overcast and in the shade.  

 Russet-crowned Motmot

Another, but less common bird that has found sanctuary in and around the zoo grounds is the Crested Guan.  Thankfully, they were accustomed to humans and were comfortable in this location or I might have missed out on this bird during my trip.  This is a large bird at about 34" in length.

 Crested Guan

The Crested Guan above and the next bird; the Great Curassow, along with many others in this family, are extirpated and/or decimated due to habitat loss and over hunting and can be difficult to locate in their native habitat.  The Great Curassow is even listed as 'threatened' by the IUCN, (International Union for Conservation of Nature).  Luckily, this species has found the zoo grounds to be a safe haven and we were lucky enough to even observe a young chick that was being protected by its mother.

 Great Curassow with chick

 Great Curasso - Female

Great Curassow - Male

Another new bird for me that I have always wanted to see is the Green Jay.  What a beautiful bird and it is another bird that is fairly common in southern Texas, so it is one I hope to also see when I make a trip to TX.  What is interesting about this species, is that the birds in Texas have dark eyes, while the ones in southern Mexico have yellow eyes.

 Green Jay

The last two species of birds depicted in photos for this post are birds that I already had on my life list.  However, I was lacking a decent photo of either one.  The Grove-billed Ani, is a bird that occasionally makes an appearance in Arizona, I was able to see this species for the first time at Sweetwater Wetlands in the Tucson area a couple of years ago, but the only photo I was able to get consisted of a black shape behind a bunch of green leaves.  At least now we can see how it got its name with those grooves in the bill.  This bird is fairly common in these parts of Mexico and before the trip was over, I was to see many more.

 Grove-billed Ani

This last bird, is one that I had added to my life list as a 'heard' only bird a few years ago on a trip into Sonora, Mexico.  They are a rather secretive dove and are more often heard than seen.  Their call is reminiscent of blowing across the top of a wine bottle.  Never had photos before, but finally I now have a photo of a White-tipped Dove.

White-tipped dove

This is just the beginning of an incredible journey and an amazing 118 new life birds for me.  I hit the magical number of 500 on my first day and only 5 days later, I hit the more magical number 600 which will appear on a future blog post.  While I was not able to photograph all the new species, I at least got good enough looks at all those that I added to my list to identify them.  There were a few species that some of the guides saw and pointed out or heard, but if I did not see them well, then I did not add them to my list.  Stay tuned for future posts, but it will be time consuming as I have many photos to process.

Local Meanderings

With a big trip looming in the very near future, but too antsy to stay home all weekend, I ventured out for a couple of brief visits to some local spots.  Both of them were short and sweet.

This first trip was back out to the Baseline & Meridian wildlife area.  I wanted to see if I could relocate a Lesser Nighthawk nest that was shown to me by Walker Noe about a week before.  At that time, all we got to see was the two eggs on the ground and no adult nearby.  

These birds are nocturnal and feed at dusk and dawn and throughout the night.  They rest during daylight hours and rely on camouflage for protection and go unnoticed.  Even the eggs as seen above on the bare ground would not be easy to see.  The next set of photos will show the area where the nest is located in the first photo.  The second photo will narrow the field of vision down and yes, the nest is visible in the second photo, but definitely hard to find.  The third photo will show the female on the nest and incubating the eggs which will normally hatch in 18-19 days.  So this will be a great thing to try and relocate in a couple of weeks to see if chicks have hatched.

Mission accomplished!  Time to depart and not disturb the nest and the incubation.  On the way back to the parking lot, I noticed a pair of Common Ground Doves.  Not a rare bird by any means, but one that is often overlooked by many birders, especially novice birders.  I was pleased that at least one of these birds stopped long enough to allow s couple of photos.

The heat was rising and it was time to leave and as I headed north on the road leading away from this area, I always keep my eyes peeled along the road for Burrowing Owls and once again, I was not disappointed.  It was sitting along the road and I did not even have to get out of my vehicle.  Just drive up along side of and fire off a couple of shots.on the camera.  I think it would almost be a crime to not photograph one of these cuties.

A very big adventure awaits with the beginning staring on Wednesday of this week.  This adventure has the possibilities of many blog posts with many different birds!

Stay Tuned!

Mogollon Rim - Epilogue

Sunday morning we knew it was our day to head back the ugly heat of the valley, but we also wanted to explore the area around the Tonto Fish Hatchery.  Chris had never been there and I always enjoy stopping when I have time.  After enjoying a great breakfast at June's Cafe in Heber, we took to the road and headed for the fish hatchery which is north and east of Payson.

The road to the hatchery itself is a beautiful drive with towering pines on both sides of the road interspersed with a mixture of deciduous trees.  Cordilleran Flycatchers were calling in several places and one of them came out and posed for us in the sunlight.  That does not happen often as this species usually hangs out in the lower to mid level canopy of the trees and is quite often a challenge to photograph in shady conditions.  

 Cordilleran Flycatcher

We also noted Virginia's Warblers calling, but getting a good look at them was quite a challenge.  Finally had one fly into a nearby tree, but it did not want to show itself, so I just raised the camera and focused on where it was and got lucky enough to capture one photo as it decided to take flight.

Virginia's Warbler

Shortly thereafter a Painted Redstart also made an appearance for us as well.

 Painted Redstart

Flowers and butterflies also entertained us as did this Zela Metalmark butterfly that was very attracted to this head of orange blossoms.  What is rather cool was that it had company on the flowers.  We knew the bee was there, but did not notice the small assassin bugs until I looked at the photos.

 Zela Metalmark - With some assassin bugs

Not a great photo of this damselfly which I believe is a Canyon Rubyspot damselfly.  But it was very showy with those red spots on the wings.

 Canyon Rubyspot damselfly

A great ending to a couple of enjoyable days of birding and I know these places will be spots that I return to in the future and I think Chris will as well.