Yucatan 5/8-5/17--MANGROVE VIREO + 32 Year Birds

Magnificent Frigatebird

Birds you can find on a non-birding vacation. Shari & I are lucky to have friends who own a house in Puerto Morelos, a few miles south of Cancun, and who are kind enough to invite us to visit.  It's mostly sand, surf, and sun, with birds as an added attraction. But just sitting by the pool with Plain Chachalacas walking on top of the wall, 3 species of flycatchers perched on the wires, 4 tropical icterids in the trees, Tropical Mockingbirds singing from the rooftops and flotillas of Magnificent Frigatebirds drifting by overhead, you can build up a pretty good list with a cerveza fría in your hand. 

MANGROVE VIREO

The street they live on is residential for a few blocks and then doglegs to run along the edge of a mangrove. I walked that road most of the time we were there, early in the morning and it was along there that I got my only life bird of the trip, a MANGROVE VIREO. I heard a twangy call I didn't recognize, and Merlin identified it as such and with a little persuasion a couple of them came out for view. They actually make quite a racket. I'm surprised I hadn't come across them before down there (this was our third visit), but then they might not have stood out in the cacophony of birdsong you hear as you walk. The next day I took Shari to the corner where I had seen them, heard the calls, and again, without very much coaxing, two came out of the thickets--like many vireos, they aren't much to look at, but they have their points. They are also very active--dumb luck got me a lousy photo of one. 

About a mile up the road you can cross over onto the playa and walk back to their house. It was along the beach that I found Sandwich Terns, Royal Terns, Brown Pelicans, an Anhinga, droves of frigatebirds, along with lots of Ruddy Turnstones.  

Turquoise-browed Motmot, Ek Balam

We also took a road trip inland to Valladolid, an old colonial town. This gave me an opportunity to start another state list in Mexico--Puerto Morelos is in Quintana Roo, while Valladolid and the Mayan ruins at Ek Balam which we visited, are in Yucatan. Considering that temperature was 101 degrees both days we were there, it is amazing we were able to see some very interesting birds at the ruins, which, of the 3 sites we've visited down there, were certainly the most interesting to me--I had never seen a pelota court where the Mayan played their famous ball game. As we walked around the ruins we saw Rose-throated Becards building a nest, a Rufous-browed Peppershrike, and the most spectacular bird of the trip, a couple of Turquoise-browed Motmots, along with the usual fare of grackles, doves, etc. 

Osprey (ridgwayi)

The last full day we were there, I looked across the street and saw a huge mostly white raptor with dark wings on top of a palapa (a thatched open-sided structure on the roofs of houses). I didn't recognize it, and though it was trying to eat a fish, the mockingbirds and kingbirds were having none of it and were constantly dive-bombing it. It was only after it flew that it became apparent it was "just" an Osprey, but of the subspecies ridgwayi, which don't have the facial mask or breast markings the birds up north have. That was the last new bird of the trip, bringing the total up to 44. As I said, we weren't really birding.

The morning before we left, I sat on the patio around 6:30 and heard all the "common" birds: Tropical Kingbird, Great Kiskadee, Social Flycatcher, Great-tailed Grackle, Melodious Blackbird, Tropical Mockingbird, and had 4 White-fronted Parrots fly low overhead. When we got home on Friday night, the whip-poor-will was going full blast. Quite a contrast for one day. 

Species                    First Sighting
Plain Chachalaca   Casa Carolina
Rock Pigeon   Parque Principal Francisco Cantón Rosado
Eurasian Collared-Dove   Puerto Morelos
Common Ground Dove   Puerto Morelos
Ruddy Ground Dove   Puerto Morelos
White-winged Dove   Parque Principal Francisco Cantón Rosado
Black-bellied Plover   Playa Puerto Morelos
Ruddy Turnstone   Playa Puerto Morelos
Sanderling   Playa Puerto Morelos
Laughing Gull   Playa Puerto Morelos
Sandwich Tern   Playa Puerto Morelos
Royal Tern   Playa Puerto Morelos
Magnificent Frigatebird   Puerto Morelos
Anhinga   Playa Puerto Morelos
Double-crested Cormorant   Playa Puerto Morelos
Brown Pelican   Playa Puerto Morelos
Black Vulture   Playa Puerto Morelos
Turkey Vulture   Casa Carolina
Osprey   Casa Carolina
Turquoise-browed Motmot   Ek Balam
Golden-fronted Woodpecker   Puerto Morelos
White-fronted Parrot   Puerto Morelos
Rose-throated Becard   Ek Balam
Dusky-capped Flycatcher   Puerto Morelos
Brown-crested Flycatcher   Puerto Morelos
Great Kiskadee   Casa Carolina
Boat-billed Flycatcher   Ek Balam
Social Flycatcher   Puerto Morelos
Tropical Kingbird   Puerto Morelos
Couch's Kingbird   Puerto Morelos
Rufous-browed Peppershrike   Ek Balam
MANGROVE VIREO   Puerto Morelos
Green Jay   Ek Balam
Gray-breasted Martin   Propiedad Federal
Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Playa Puerto Morelos
Barn Swallow   Playa Puerto Morelos
Spot-breasted Wren   Ek Balam
Tropical Mockingbird   Puerto Morelos
Hooded Oriole   Casa Carolina
Yellow-backed Oriole   Puerto Morelos
Orange Oriole   Puerto Morelos
Altamira Oriole   Puerto Morelos
Melodious Blackbird   Casa Carolina
Great-tailed Grackle   Aeropuerto Internacional de Cancun

Plain Chachalaca, Casa Carolina