Mexico: Day #4, Aztlan Ecological Park

While doing my pre-trip research I looked at the top eBird hotspots for Guerrero state. Number one was a dormant volcano in the interior part of the state, but number two and three were both for the Aztlan Ecological Park, a 4 kilometer bike path sandwiched between extensive thorn forrest and a dense marsh with some open water. We decided to start at the west end, and work our way across to the crocodile viewing area. We got to the start at around 7, and quickly started racking up species. A large water retention pond was right at the start, and a quick scan revealed 15 Black-crowned Night-herons, with a few Yellow-crowned mixed in. There was also a fair number of Black-necked Stilt around the edges as well. Farther up along the trail, we got brief but good looks at an Olive Sparrow, a side by side comparison of a female Black-chinned and Ruby-throated Hummingbird, as well as a scattering of Tropical Parulas. 

Night-herons galore! And to think only a couple years ago I greatly struggled to even see one! Well, this is Mexico...

We walked for a few more minutes, and then I noticed something strange on the ground ahead of us- it looked like it was moving! Could my dreams be coming true!?? I ran up a little bit, and I was right! An Army Ant swarm! They weren't quite as condensed as I'd seen in Planet Earth, but it was still quite cool! And another good thing I'd done my research, I knew what Army Ant swarms attracted... birds! Surprisingly, birds don't actually eat the ants themselves, but the things they scare up. As the ants march along searching for food, all of the insects, mammals and reptiles frantically try to get out of the way before the army reaches them. And luck was perfectly playing on my side, because this was the head of the army, where the most stuff gets scared up, and where the most birds are waiting! 

Some of the ants, notice all the ones in the background too!

I watched for a few seconds, and sure enough, a flurry of movement caught my attention. A large group of about ten White-bellied Wrens, a harder species of wren in the area were dashing around catching insects! The longer I looked, the more birds I saw! In a super short amount of time I got Nutting's Flycatcher, Bell's Vireo, Brown-crested Flycatcher and Rufous-naped Wren among others! Something else flitted back into the cover of the shade that I didn't recognize. I dashed around to the other side of the tree to get a better look, but the bird was being super skulky. Then it popped up on a slightly more exposed branch. A FAN-TAILED WARBLER!!! A very hard species to get in this area, and although they are recorded about annually, it takes an insane amount of luck, because the only way they end up in this area is by following an Army Ant swarm 20 kilometers or so down from the Sierra Madre, which in Ontario standards is quite small, but for a non migratory species, and in a country where some species entire range is in a space smaller than some of our counties, it's quite large. So in Mexico standards, this was pretty much a vagrant! I was very, very happy with this sighting! 

I actually got to watch it use it's 'fan tail', it would open it quickly and expose the white tips, I suppose it was doing it to scare up prey, so it could see it and then catch it.

Beautiful!

After that excitement, I wasn't sure what else I could really expect from the walk! But literally ten minutes later, I'd added Pacific-slope Flycatcher and Roadside Hawk. It just wasn't going to stop! I took a little side path down to the water (not without being warned by an elderly lady walker about the "big snakes and crocodiles" first). The little open patch had Purple Gallinule, Common Gallinule, Common Yellowthroat, Tricoloured Heron, and Northern Waterthrush! No 'diles (Is that even a word? I mean 'gator is, so why not...) or big snakes. 

Roadside Hawk- Almost more of a Kite-type beak I think

Between there and the end of the trail, I got more of the same types of stuff, but added quite a few new goodies, such as better looks at a Red-billed Pigeon, Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, Rose-throated Becard, Grey-breasted Martin and one of our migratory Swainson's Thrushes! 

Rose-throated Becard

Red-billed Pigeon

An assortment of species, lots of Blue-winged Teal!

An awesome walk, giving me 11 lifers, and 71 species just for those 4 kilometers!

On the drive back to the hotel, I noticed a large amount of shorebirds in one of the ditches that went under the road so we pulled over. They turned out to be mostly Least Sandpipers, but some Black-necked Stilts, Semipalmated Plovers, Greater Yellowlegs and Killdeer were among them, as well as a few Northern Jacanas! This has been a dream bird of mine for a long time, and they sure weren't a disappointment!

How many species do you see in this photo? I can see 5!

Later on, I got lifer Black-vented Oriole at a red light right in the middle of the city!

Lists: Aztlan, Ditch

Mexico: Day #3, Urban Birding

 I got up fairly early again, and spent a few minutes on the balcony birding while waiting for my family to wake up and get ready. While waiting, I actually got one of my target birds for the whole day right there, a pair of Rufous-capped Motmots had landed in a tree across the courtyard! All of the motmots are incredible looking species, and this one isn't an exception! I got great scope views, and my whole family got great looks at them as well. It was a bit far for satisfactory pictures, so I'll leave it to Google to show you how amazing they are! The local flock of West-Mexican Chachalacas also swung by, seeming to have lots of fun trying to manoeuvre their way of the steep construction site.

The destination for the morning was a couple city blocks in downtown Ixtapa, a slightly different habitat than what was surrounding our hotel. More mature thorn forrest, and someone I'd emailed with previously had had several high quality species here, such as San Blas Jay, Greyish Saltator and Lineated Woodpecker. The first stop, we wandered around a semi urban road, turning up several good species such as Happy Wren and Yellow-breasted Chat. I also stirred up a very large, hairy spider from the ground, which I would be interested to know what species it was. If all Tarantulas look like how I picture them, then I don't think it was a Tarantula. An equally large wasp did actually chase it off, which I guess would be a Tarantula Wasp... but unfortunately I'm just a birder, so I don't know much! 

The Happy Wren sure made me happy!

We drove up to another spot where the San Blas Jays had supposedly been frequenting, but by then it was already well after 9, so the birds had started winding down. We got to the little woodlot, and immediately got on a male Lineated Woodpecker! We walked around it's perimeter, with no Jays. On the way back around, I decided to cut through the middle, which proved to be a fantastic decision. In about two minutes, I'd picked up Greyish Saltator, MacGillivray's Warbler, Bell's Vireo, Spot-breasted Oriole and very good, but also very brief views of another Motmot. A very, very productive stop, which knocked many of the harder species!

Lineated Woodpecker, one of the closest living relatives of the great Ivory-billed Woodpecker 

A real Spot-breasted Oriole, not like those introduced ones in Florida 

Greyish Saltator- Unlike any other species I know, if I had to, I'd probably put them in with grosbeaks or cardinals I guess, but they are actually more closely related to tanagers

Bell's Vireo, probably one of the drabber birds of the trip if I'm being honest

The rest of the day was designated for "touristy" things. We checked out the marina, which boasted it's own selection of species, including Mangrove Swallow and Peregrine Falcon. The birds there were also very tame, and used to the crowds of tourists milling around by the water and shops, which proved well for photography.

White-winged Dove, really pretty up close! 

Mangrove Swallows in flight show off their white rump, something quite unique, as no swallows in North America have a field mark quite like this, although I think there is some South American swallows that also have this 

A closer view of the Mangrove Swallow, quite similar to our Tree Swallow from this viewpoint!

After the marina, we decided to spend a few hours on Playa Linda (Playa means beach in Spanish). The water was surprisingly warm, I had expected the Pacific to be colder! I did a bit of a seawatch, and I managed to get two Blue-footed Boobies in with the large flocks of Brown Boobies! There was also plenty of accommodating Royal Terns, Neotropic Cormorants and Chachalacas. Nearby on the beach a Reddish Egret was catching stuff in the surf, and I heard and saw a Belted Kingfisher flying inland with some fish. Darn, the only Kingfisher I have, and according to eBird, the third most uncommon of the four! I decided to follow it inland, to see if I could find some Kingfisher habitat. Right next to the road, there was a pretty polluted estuary filled with Crocodiles which we had seen earlier, simply called "Cocodrilario" (Just means Crocodile in Spanish). I didn't think I'd find much here in the way of Kingfishers, as it was quite small, and literally every single tree- had a nesting wader in it. That's not an over exaggeration. Hundreds of herons, ibis, and storks filled the trees, calling, building nests, and pretty much just crapping everywhere. The water was disgusting, and covered in poop, and where there wasn't poop, there was a crocodile. So not the best for Kingfishers I decided. But just as my parents pulled up with the car and said it was time to leave, something caught my eye- A Green Kingfisher! Sitting on the least crap covered branch of them all overhanging the water. It didn't appear very impressed, and sat very still.

I did a good job of hiding the poop in the photo, and also the chain link fence in front of me keeping the Crocodiles from "escaping".

I stared at it for a bit, and then hopped into the car. What an absolutely beautiful bird! And although there was lots of poop and tourists, the Storks, Spoonbills and others were also quite amazing as well. It was quite interesting to watch the Wood Storks fight over nesting material, and vibrate their bills to make a vibrating sound. For such an urban spot, it was really quite cool!

More coming! So many photos to go through, trust me, I could've added a lot more!

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

Goose Galore

For some reason I felt like I'd already used this title for a blog, but apparently not. The name's just too good... But it perfectly describes my last couple weeks! It all started the day before I left before Mexico, when I found two Cackling Geese at Columbia Lake in Waterloo, a county lifer for me. Then of course I was away for a week in Mexico, but during that time, a Barnacle Goose showed up back home in Ontario near Schomburg! Although I desperately wanted the goose, I was perfectly happy birding for Mexican endemics every morning... But as soon as I got back, the Barnacle Goose came to the forefront of my mind. I waited an agonizing week while it was still being seen, and I kept getting comments about how wild it acted, and how likely it was to be accepted by the OBRC (Ontario Bird Records Committee). So I went about my goose-less weekdays, anticipating my trip up to Algonquin Park for some boreal birding, where I was hoping to stop at Schomburg along the way up or down. I quickly began calling Schomburg, 'Scumberg', because I found out that I'd have to wait another few days, because we couldn't stop on the way up, and with big warming events coming the day I was hoping to see it, things weren't looking great. Algonquin was great, and I got year birds Grey Jay, White-winged and Red Crossbills, and although we dipped on Spruce Grouse and Black-backed Woodpecker, it was still a very enjoyable trip. So eventually the day arrived. We got to the lagoons it had been frequenting at about 4:30, supposedly a good time to see it, as it seemed to have a habit of flying off with it's Canada Goose friends at almost exactly 6 pm everyday to feed in the nearby fields, which would make it much harder to find. I scanned the first pond many times, but could only pull up a handful of Canada's, along with some FOY (First of Year) Ring-necked Ducks. I noticed another car driving out of a gated area behind the main pond, so we decided to go check out that area. It turned out to be the sewage treatment yard, which had another pond visible from it's lot. The people there had just seen it! It was a surprisingly easy pick amongst the Canada's, I didn't think that it would stand out so much!

It tagged along with some of the Canada's around it, and they didn't seem to mind. I found this interesting, as many of the previous Barnacle Geese reports I've read about across the continent

often describe them associating with Cackling Geese. There was Cackler's around, but the Barnacle never got too close to them. One of the 8 Cackler's was trying super hard to look like a Canada:

See which one it is? It's a tricky one!

As the sun got lower and lower, the Barnacle seemed to be more comfortable with our presence, and came quite close.

Anyways, truly and awesome goose all the way from Greenland and beyond, and my 430th life bird, as well as my 271st Ontario bird (I plan on increasing this a lot this year!). 

And it doesn't stop there, just last easter weekend, I went up to my chalet for some family time, as well as some patch birding. After a couple of hours birding at "the lagoons", I decided to head back up the hill to our chalet. I was already feeling good about getting Redhead, but just before I left a large flock of Canada Geese flew over. I quickly scanned through them, and found 3 Cackling Geese in a little subgroup of the flock! Not only a patch bird for me, but also a new county bird! The next day while birding there, I bumped into a friend also birding. He told me that he'd had several swans (of all 3 species) at Lake Eugenia, just south of our chalet, as well as 5 Snow Geese! Needless to say, we took a little "detour" out of our grocery run. On one side of the road Trumpeter, Tundra and Mute Swans were all still present, along with tons Ring-necked Ducks, and a good assortment of other waterfowl. And across on the other side of the road... Many many geese! I scanned through, and a single Snow Goose stood out! Apparently the rest had decided to leave. But not only was there many Canada Geese and one Snow Goose, there was also 13 Cackling Geese! My highest count ever of this species!

Here's 5 of the Cackler's. Smaller size, lighter colours, stubbier bill and steeper forehead are all great ID features.

And here's a different 5.

The Snow Goose was a little farther out, but still really nice to see because I don't see them often in Ontario, and when I do, it's usually a lot farther away or just a flyover!

All in all, a very goose packed few weeks, with 18 Cackling Geese, thousands of Canada Geese, a Barnacle Goose and a Snow Goose! Too bad I couldn't split this up into a few more properly organized blog posts, but Mexico trip writing is already catching up on me. And before we know it, May is gonna be on us! I've already seen plenty of spring migrants, as I'm sure you have too!

Expect Mexico posts to be coming out soon! Good birding, and see lots of geese!

Mexico Intro

I had studied for nearly a year. Calls, ranges, plumages and habitats. I was finally ready, and the time had finally come. A vast amount of biodiversity awaited me in Mexico, and I wasn't going to let it slip through my fingertips because of unpreparedness and lack of ID skill. So by the time march break rolled around, I felt ready. I had corresponded with nearly a dozen people who either lived in or had frequently visited the Zihuatanejo area of Mexico, and I was felt confident about the trip. The city we were going to be staying in, Zihuatanejo, used to be a small fishing village on the South-West coast of Mexico, but the tourism industry had since boosted it to a thriving city, sister to another nearby city, Ixtapa. Having the coast on one side provided habitat for coastal dwelling birds such as shorebirds, but the inland is a vast expanse of rolling thorn-scrub, with some foothills extending all the way down from the Sierra Madre, a massive mountain range to the north packed with endemics. Unfortunately, my trip would be restricted to the coast, or at least very limited interior birding, but thanks to Mexico's insane amount birds, the coast was enough of a challenge as it was.

This map shows my available  birding area. Mainly Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa, but I also had access to Troncones, a small village to the West, and La Barra de Potosi to the East.

My trip was going to be from March 13 - 17, so I hoped that I would be able to get some of the local, year round endemics, but also some early North American migrants.

Endemics:
West Mexican Chachalaca
Golden-cheeked Woodpecker
Lilac Crowned ParrotYellow Headed ParrotSan Blas JayStreak-backed Oriole
Rufous-backed Robin
Doubleday's Hummingbird (endemic subspecies of Broad-billed Hummingbird)
Colima Pygmy-owl

I felt I had a good shot at all of these species. Some would be commonplace, like West Mexican Chachalaca and Streak-backed Oriole, but species like both the Parrots and San Blas Jay would be much harder, with the others somewhere in between.

Florida: Day #3, Canaveral National Seashore

Finally, the last post. For only three days of birding, this has taken way too long to write, and I haven't even started on my Mexico trip yet, and I went to Algonquin last weekend, and Pelee will be upon us before we know it, so I better pick up my pace!

After departing from Hal Scott, we made good time to the seashore. Our first stop was a little outlook onto the Haulover Canal, a fairly well known West Indian Manatee viewing location. When we got there, a Birdwatcher's Digest Magazine birding group was there on a tour, and had also stopped to look for Manatees. I talked a little bit to the trip leader, who I have a feeling is someone really famous, or at least locally famous, leading a Birdwatcher's Digest outing and all... Anyways, they said that they hadn't seen any Manatees, but had had a Bonaparte's Gull cruising the canal area earlier, a species I didn't have for the trip yet. After only a few seconds of talking, a Manatee surfaced right in front of us! It only came up for a few seconds, and I only saw it's back, but still, they are a magnificent animal! They're a lot bigger than I thought they would be, and a lot more... barnacle-y.

I didn't have time to switch lenses, so this shot was all I could manage with my 200-500mm

A while after this excitement, the Bonaparte's came by again. So with one mammal lifer, and a new trip bird, we headed to the Black Point Wildlife Drive. The drive is known for it's waterfowl, wading bird and shorebird numbers, as well as variety. The group I had talked to earlier said they had a Reddish Egret here only a few hours earlier, so I thought we had a good chance at this one. We drove fairly quickly, so as not to waste the fairly small amount of daylight left in our day, so most of the stuff we saw along the way was repeats of previous trips. We arrived at a little pull off area, and I quickly spotted a large flock of shorebirds and waders out in one of the lagoons nearby. I scoped through them, and they revealed to be mainly Least Sandpipers, Dunlin and Semipalmated Sandpipers, with a few Greater Yellowlegs mixed in. There was also good sized flock of gulls, with a single Laughing and several Bonaparte's mixed into the Ring-bills. My dad called me over to ask for the camera to take a picture of an unusual Egret. I rushed over, and standing only a few yards in front of us was a Reddish Egret! This was my last (regularly occurring) North American Heron/Egret, so I was pretty happy! It fed for some time in front of us, allowing for awesome pictures.

We kept moving, as our next stop was a reliable Florida Scrub Jay location, but light was fading fast. On the rest of the wildlife drive, we saw another Reddish Egret, a couple Killdeer, and a single Black-crowned Night-heron, among the usual stuff. When we arrived at the seashore access spot, they told us we had less than half an hour before we had to be back out. My parents decided to drive out to the Ocean first, before stopping for Scrub Jays, and I reluctantly agreed, eyeing the dangerously low sun. We sped out to the coast, and watched the sun start to touch on the horizon. A Black-bellied Plover, a Ruddy Turnstone and some Sanderlings. An adult Northern Gannet also came in for a few moments before continuing North! We booted back to the gate, I spotted a medium sized bird perched high up in the scrub on our right. We stopped the car and we were greeted by a family of very inquisitive Florida Scrub Jays! I photographed until the sun was down (which was only a few minutes). Phew! I sure was getting worried, and we'd cut this species pretty darn close! Having the only endemic of the state was a very good feeling :)

These birds were very hard to active and photograph, especially with the setting sun!

So, in summary, on this trip I got 19 lifers and 27 ABA (American Birding Association, basically Canada and the US) lifers, bring my cumulative total up to 328 ABA and 345 life. Awesome!

eBird lists:

Scrub Jays
Seashore
Black Point
Haulover Canal

Florida: Day #2 and #3, Rock Springs Run State Reserve and Hal Scott Regional Forrest

After Apopka, we headed even farther North to the Rock Springs Run State Reserve. The aim of this trip had originally been White-eyed Vireo and Yellow-throated Warbler, but due to my morning success, that was unnecessary and I could turn my focus to some other targets. I felt I had a pretty good shot at Carolina Chickadee, given the habitat was supposedly quite good in the area. My other two targets were Brown-headed Nuthatch and Bachman's Sparrow. The first walk was fruitless, and only turned up 5 species, that I'd already had on the trip several times. Our next stop was a horseback riding place within the reserve, so I was still optimistic. Half way through our ride, I heard something that sounded pretty Chickadee-like but I couldn't be sure, as I'd heard Titmouse the day before making very similar sounds to a Chickadee. But then less than 10 minutes later, I heard a Carolina Chickadee's very distinct song! So much different than our Black-capped Chickadee's! The Carolina Chickadees song is a four very simple whistled notes. You can listen to it here. For the rest of the ride we didn't see or hear much, but just before we finished, I heard an Eastern Bluebird give a few calls, and several Eastern Meadowlarks got flushed up. Back at the stables, I was treated to a tame "Florida" Red-shouldered Hawk, and a flock of trip bird Chipping Sparrow!

On the way back to the resort I saw a Gopher Tortoise just outside of the reserve, but it flashed by the window to quick for a picture.

The next day, we woke up semi-early to head off to the east coast. But before we made it there, I had a little detour planned. My remaining few targets were Bachman's Sparrow, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Red-cockaded Woodpecker, and Florida Scrub-jay. The first three of which prefer semi-open, longleaf pine forrest- which is a pretty uncommon habitat. The nuthatches are a lot more variable in habitat, but the other two strictly prefer this. And the Hal Scott Regional Forrest, which happened to be right on our way, was an excellent example of this rare habitat. So we arrived there around 10 am, which was already too late for Bachman's Sparrow, which are only visible when singing, which is only in the very, very early morning. But I still had hopes of flushing or pishing them out. After about a half hour of walking, and very few birds to prove it, I heard the little toot of what sounded like a tin horn. A Brown-headed Nuthatch! A few more flew in, and the tooted their cute little calls, before moving on.

Another half hour later, and we'd seen and heard several more nuthatches, but nothing else. We found some trees with white paint markers on them- which indicates that a Red-cockaded Woodpecker has nested in this tree, but there was no woodpeckers around to show it. The Red-cockaded Woodpecker is the rarest woodpecker in North America, if not the world, so I guess it wasn't too surprising that we missed it. 

I've got some catching up to do blog-posting-wise, after just coming back from a birding/family trip to Mexico!