Laura and Jay in Mexico 2005 - Day 2

Random Recollections

• Each day started the same. Breakfast at 5 am, board the buses before 6 am, and settle back for approximately an hour's ride to the day's birding spot. Our two buses went to different places each day to avoid overload on the surrounding habitat. Therefore, one had to make sure it was the "right" bus to board. One lady (Yvette) thinking she'd get a good seat with a view, boarded what she thought was her bus early. Getting there early, the bus was practically empty so she had no familiar faces to help confirm that the bus was hers. It wasn't. Meanwhile, on the correct bus her husband (Crawford) thinking she was still in the restaurant or motel room, was waiting for her arrival. Promptly at 6 am the buses started pulling away from the curb. Crawford yelled "Alto!" and someone jumped out of our bus to flag down the other departing bus. Cuidad Mante is a busy, bustling city at 6 am. So when the buses started rolling, the traffic stacked up behind them. You can imagine the bottleneck that was created when two buses abruptly stopped and caused a traffic jam. Did anyone hear any horns? But Yvette was pulled from the wrong bus and hurriedly placed on the correct bus, red-faced and chagrinned. This was an important visual aid to the rest of us; no one ever made that mistake again.
• Let's talk about Malu. She was our travel agent. She made sure I got the proper food; she was the one I asked a hundred times, "does it have any milk in it." She was wonderful and I trusted every food she put down in front of me. However, the food wasn't as low fat as I would have liked and this gave me a few problems. I asked Malu if I could get something low fat and she replied in jest, "We Mexicans don't know how to do low fat." Nevertheless, I enjoyed our culinary delights and made the best of the situation.
• Our first full day of birding took us to Gomez Farias for a quick look at the Bat Falcons that always perch on the same two utility poles outside of town. The male put on a show for us by flying around the female calling loudly and swooping towards her in his effort to dislodge her from the pole. She didn't budge so the male flew back to his perch trying to figure out his next move. At Gomez Farias we boarded four-wheel drive vehicles that took us higher up into the mountains to bird the little community known as Alta Cima. I watched birders jockey for the best position on the trucks but I also noticed Gary Waggerman head for the last vehicle. (Gary has been doing research in this area for the last thirty years and I suspected he knew something about that last vehicle that the others didn't know). So Kathy and I boarded with him in the last truck. I quickly found out his reasoning: The truck had a canopy (rain threatened a few times), but the important little detail I failed to notice (which he didn't) was the padding placed on the side boards. As the truck labored up the steep, rocky mountain road, we were jostled back and forth and the extra padding on the side boards was a blessing. No longer will I complain about riding in the back of Bill's pickup. Mountain trails are full of switchbacks and overhanging branches, but all trucks would stop when a bird was spotted. The lead truck had a recording of the old familiar Tarzan call and the driver would blast this call whenever the convoy starting rolling. I thought it hilarious; others thought it a way to scare off the birds. Nevertheless, it added to the ambiance of the sounds of the tropical highland forest. On our truck was Gary Waggerman, Ann and Sandon (Sandy), Gaylon and Jan (both programmers and he had a PDA with a field guide on it), Crawford and Yvette (from Santa Fe) (she taught band instruments and he played the bassoon and had perfect pitch). So I guess you could say we were all a captive audience and got to know each other better. It was day 3 that Crawford asked if we were related to Alfred. No prompting on my part. He's only the second person I've met who has asked that question. Interesting to see who paid attention during their history classes.
• Alta Cima was an open area within the forest, allowing us a better chance of seeing the birds. Two Crested Curassows were caged; that was an interesting sight. Poinsettias the size of small trees grew and flowered there as did orchids. Several buildings had thatched roofs. Also oak trees with acorns the size of tennis balls towered among the tall trees. More than trees and flowers resided there though because I had a small invasion of miniscule seed ticks crawl up my forearm after lightly brushing against a bush. Kathy sprayed my arm with DEET and that took care of most of the ticks. Until I came down the same trail and inadvertently brushed up against the same bush and literally had thousands of ticks migrate to my vest and arm. This time the nurse who was following our group helped swab off the ticks with a cotton ball and alcohol. A "kodak" moment seemed in order. From then on Kathy would grab my torso and pull me to the middle of the trail in her efforts to prevent another close encounter.
• Also on this day Kathy took her first fall. (The word “first” would suggest she took more than one fall; you'll have to read further to find out how many). It happened as we were going into a dense undergrowth area to get a better view of some birds. All of a sudden I heard a commotion behind me and turned to look just as Kathy was going down. Luckily a woman named Pam grabbed her and I grabbed her other hand and this prevented Kathy from going down. She did, however, sprain an ankle. Luckily it wasn't bad enough to keep her from birding. She learned on that day why she had worn high top hiking boots.
• We ate our box lunches at Alta Cima and it took the rest of the afternoon to come off the mountain. Supper was in Gomez Farias, followed by an evening of owling. It was a full moon that night and our guides did their best to find us some owls. They just didn't cooperate and we came home owl-less. We did see one Pauraque (nightjar) in the middle of the road; or rather the participants that sat up in front of the bus got to see the bird before it flushed. We got in late to the motel (around 10 pm), cleaned up, fell into bed, and dreamed of tomorrow.
• By day's end we had 85 different species of birds seen by the participants that day.