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.
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.
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.
