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Post Info TOPIC: Mexico


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RE: Mexico


Stephen McCann wrote:

Which hotel complex did you stay at Mark? It sounds amazing. Thanks.





Bahia Principe, Riviera Maya. There are four hotel blocks within the overall grounds, we stayed at the Akumal, nearest the beach/shoreline.

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Which hotel complex did you stay at Mark? It sounds amazing. Thanks.



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Great BBC4 nature documentary tonight on the Yucatan. Plenty of birds that I saw were featured including Bat Falcon, Gray Hawk, Turquoise-browed Motmot, Brown Jay and others, together with other wildlife. Fascinating part of the world. Part of a series on Mexico. Should be on catch-up for a while.

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Just back from a 14 night stay on the Riviera Maya, south of Cancun, Mexico. Same hotel as earlier in the year. Took the opportunity this time to book two outings with a Dutch bird guide, partly for some specialised, 'local knowledge' birding and partly as a means to reach some outlying areas. The guide is Steven Koevoet and I can certainly recommend him to anyone visiting the area. His website and Facebook pages go under the name of Birding With Steven.

The first trip was a full day to the northern section of the Yucatan Peninsula, initially to an area of farmland around the village of San Juan del Rio, then on to the superb wetland reserve of Rio Lagartos. This is at the northern tip of the peninsula and essentially a large lagoon surrounded by mangroves before you reach to sea. Most of the Yucatan is jungle. We set off at 5am and drove through mile after mile of dense jungle before reaching the delightful farmland areas around the aforementioned village. Very green, rough pasture type land bordered by hedgerows, bushes and trees. Dripping with birds, many wintering in the area from the US.

The second trip was around eight hours and mainly centred around the Muyil ruins, south of Tulum and fringing the northern part of the Sian Ka'an reserve. Cleared areas where the ruins stand, then woodland which leads down through mangroves to Laguna Muyil. We also visited a similar wooded area with cenote at Xel Ha.

The rest of my birding was done, as last time, in the substantial hotel grounds, usually a couple of hours each morning before it got too hot, either on the sea front, over at the golf course or atop the viewing tower. The hotel area was generally quieter than in March with around ten fewer species seen but with nice bonuses such as Lesser Scaup, Ring necked Duck, Aningha, Black cowled Oriole and Altamira Oriole.

Weather throughout hot and sunny and between 28 and 31 degrees celsius at the hottest part of the day.

Trip list as follows :-

Black-bellied Whistling Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Plain Chachalaca
Black-throated Bobwhite
Pied-billed Grebe
American Flamingo
Wood Stork
Magnificent Frigatebird
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture
Osprey
Common Black Hawk
Roadside Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Gray Hawk
Zone-tailed Hawk
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Limpkin
Black-necked Stilt
American Oystercatcher
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Northern Jacana
Whimbrel
Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Least Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Spotted Sandpiper
Willet
Laughing Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared Dove
Common Ground Dove
Ruddy Ground Dove
White-winged Dove
Groove-billed Ani
Squirrel Cuckoo
Ferruginous Pygmy Owl
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
White-bellied Emerald
Cinnamon Hummingbird
Black-headed Trogon
Turquoise-browed Motmot
Belted Kingfisher
Collared Aracari
Keel-billed Toucan
Yucatan Woodpecker
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Lineated Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Bat Falcon
Olive-throated Parakeet
Vermillion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Boat-billed Flycatcher
Social Flycatcher
Tropical Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Masked Tityra
White-eyed Vireo
Mangrove Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo
Yucatan Vireo
Brown Jay
Green Jay
Yucatan Jay
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Mangrove Swallow
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Wood Thrush
Clay-colored Thrush
Black Catbird
Gray Catbird
Tropical Mockingbird
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Black-and-white Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Gray-crowned Yellowthroat
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
American Redstart
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow Warbler & Mangrove Warbler
Palm Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blue-black Grassquit
White-collared Seedeater
Yellow-faced Grassquit
Black-headed Saltator
Grayish Saltator
Olive Sparrow
Summer Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Painted Bunting
Black-cowled Oriole
Orchard Oriole
Hooded Oriole
Yellow-backed Oriole
Orange Oriole
Altamira Oriole
Bronzed Cowbird
Melodious Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Scrub Euphonia
Yellow-throated Euphonia

Photos attached of American Flamingo and Black Skimmer.



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Just back from an eleven night stay on the Riviera Maya in Mexico, approximately fifty miles south of Cancun. There were four hotels on a site covering around two square miles. A variety of habitat including coastline, gardens with shrubs, bushes and trees, a golf course with several pools and finally, jungle. The jungle on the Yucatan peninsula is officially tropical & subtropical broadleaf forest. It's a quite dry jungle, very dense and for the most part, impenetrable. The trip list stood at 71 with 68 of the species being seen within the substantial hotel grounds. The weather was hot and sunny with some cloud. Around 25 degrees in the shade and obviously much hotter in the sun. I used the excellent field guide, 'A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America' by Steve Howell and Sophie Webb, supplemented by 'The North American Bird Guide' by David Sibley. It is necessary to use the latter guide as not all the species in the former are illustrated. Trip list as follows :-

Neotropic Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Magnificent Frigatebird
Little Blue Heron
White Ibis
Snowy Egret
Cattle Egret
Laughing Gull
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Northern Jacana
American Coot
Least Grebe
Ruddy Turnstone
Least Sandpiper
Sanderling
Spotted Sandpiper
Black-bellied Plover
Blue-winged Teal
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
Rock Pigeon
White-winged Dove
Eurasian Collared Dove
Mourning Dove
Plain Chachalaca
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Lineated Woodpecker
Great-tailed Grackle
Melodious Blackbird
Gray Catbird
Black Catbird
Hooded Oriole
Orange Oriole
Yellow-backed Oriole
Black-cowled Oriole
Black-headed Trogon
Violaceous Trogon
White-fronted Parrot
Aztec Parakeet
Keel-billed Toucan
Barn Swallow
Tree Swallow
Cave Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Yucatan Jay
Cinnamon Hummingbird
Tropical Mockingbird
Social Flycatcher
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Summer Tanager
Belted Kingfisher
Black-and-white Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Red-eyed Vireo
Yellow-throated Euphonia
Northern Cardinal
Rufous-browed Peppershrike
Olive Sparrow
Blue Grosbeak
Painted Bunting
Indigo Bunting

Photos attached of Brown Pelican, White-fronted Parrot, Keel-billed Toucan and Great Kiskadee.

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