Mexico: Day #1 and #2, Resort Stuff

Day one was pretty much a travel day, but our flight did get into the Zihuatanejo (Zi-Wat-En-Aye-O) Airport around 4 local time, so I still had some birding time. As soon as I stepped out of the airport, the 30 degree heat hit me, which I'd have to get used to, because this was the exact weather we'd be getting every single day of the trip. I got lifers Great-tailed Grackle and Tropical Kingbird while waiting for the rental car to get sorted out (which didn't seem to lock, welcome to Mexico!). We then made a quick grocery run, and then headed to our hotel/resort. The grounds themselves proved to be quite good for birds, and from our hotel balcony alone, I got harder birds such as Western Tanager, Short-tailed Hawk and Orange-breasted Bunting.

Female Western Tanager, I unfortunately couldn't manage a pic of the male, but even the female was quite nice!

A really stunning bird! Personally, I like them better than Painted's.

I almost missed this guy come past, the alarm calls of the resident White-throated Magpie Jays drew me back outside!

With a good number of birds off the list already, and a hotel room list of a modest 25 species, with only a few hours of stationary observations, I was pretty happy! I couldn't wait for what the morning would hold, as the high heats during the day apparently make birding not very good in comparison, but I'd disagree!

Starting off at 7 am, me and my mom worked our way up the beach, which yesterday had been filled with snorkelers, sunbathers and parachuters, but it was now pretty much deserted. A good number of Willets were spread along, intermixed with some Whimbrels. But one bird caught my eye, being much longer billed and lighter than the rest, a Long-billed Curlew!!! I didn't really even know that this species was a possibility, and when I checked eBird later, it turned out to be a very occasional coastal migrant with fairly few records! 

And the bill can get even longer! A very cool bird :)

The "Western" subspecies of Willet, possibly soon to be split with the "Eastern"

Splash! Photo ops like this make me remember why I love shorebirds so much!

So many photos too choose from to put on the blog... Oh well.

I finally tore myself away from the photogenic shorebirds and entered some different habitat. A little estuary held some Black and Yellow-crowned Night Herons, and I also got a very poor glimpse of a Red-billed Pigeon! It flew away before I could get a very good look at it, but I was certain with the few ID points I saw, the studying was paying off... We made our way to a road that had ok forrest habitat on both sides, and we saw Groove-billed Ani, Brown-crested Flycatcher, the "Long-crested" subspecies of our Northern Cardinal, and some more Yellow-winged Caciques and their nests.

Grooves on the bill- the name explains the bird!

We walked quite a bit further, and ended up getting a little lost, but it turned out to be a good thing, as we encountered several White-fronted Parrots, my first Parrot species, as well Great Kiskadees, Social Flycatchers, Painted Buntings and Streak-backed Orioles! A very friendly stray dog also tagged along with us for a while.

The 'big' Social Flycatcher; Great Kiskadee! Search up Social Flycatcher and you'll see what I mean!

White-fronted Parrots, very noisy birds!

We headed back to the hotel, and ate some breakfast. I did some more observations from around the hotel, and added Brown Booby, Rufous-naped Wren and Neotropic Cormorant among many, many others. 

We also did a proper grocery stop, and while my parents were buying food, I decided to poke around outside of the store. I was absolutely stunned! I got harder species like Ruddy-ground Dove, Lesser Goldfinch, Western Tanager, Short-tailed Hawk, Scrub Euphonia and White-collared Seedeater!!! Unfortunately I left my camera behind, wrongfully assuming that the grocery store wouldn't be good birding. Welcome to Mexican birding!!!

First two days summary: 57 species, 31 lifers

eBird lists: first day, second day morning, Grocery Store