Laura and Jay in Mexico 2005 - Day 3

Picture Album

Random Recollections
  • This is the day that brought me the most lifers. It was the day of the Sungrebe swim, the Boat-billed Heron perch, the Great Black Hawk hide, and the Black-crowned Tityra couple. All because of the Rio Frio River.
  • The day started out cloudy, overcast and cool. Cool in the tropics? Yes, at least where we were, it must have been in the upper 50s. It was also a day I didn't carry the camera in the morning for fear that it might rain and I didn't want to risk loosing a camera. So some wonderful photo ops were missed and you'll have to rely on my descriptions. Picture huge trees, lush vegetation, flowing water, cascading water around rocks and you've got the backdrop for our morning birding at a city park. The birds were hopping: Red-billed Pigeon, White-crowned Parrots, Golden-crowned Warbler, Rose-throated Becards, Tropical Parula, Muscovy Duck, Boat-billed Flycatcher, and lots of migrant warblers (Wilson's, Black and White, Black-throated Green, Chipping Sparrow). Throw in a vivid Vermilion Flycatcher as the cherry on top of the ice cream.
  • Next we went to another place along the river. Some construction was taking place on a bridge but we found a suspension bridge that we went across. Well, a few people couldn't walk on the swaying, bouncing structure (Jay being one of them), so he found another route. Meanwhile those that braved the moving bridge were rewarded with great looks at Squirrel Cuckoo, Yellow-throated Euphonias, Yellow-throated Warbler, Indigo Buntings, Baltimore Oriole, and Summer Tanager near a sugar cane field. Making our way down to the river we saw a Louisiana Waterthrush, Black Phoebe, and Green Parakeets. Jay and the other aeroacrophobias got lost and thus the new nickname, Wandering Jay. However, they saw birds the larger group didn't and thus we joked that Jay was slipped a fifty dollar bill to produce "good" birds. From then on whenever one of the guides and a few participants split from the main group they became known as The Fifty Dollar Group. Another lost photo op was the concrete pillars that supported the hanging bridge. Someone had carved graffiti into the pillars; couldn't read the Spanish words but clearly read the name LAURA. It's probably a good thing I couldn't read Spanish.
  • Back on the bus we drove over to La Florida for lunch. This place had a restaurant, a fish farm, get-away cabins, and boat rides. It was on the boat ride we had an opportunity to see Sungrebe Amazon Kingfisher, and Boat-billed Heron. Of course everyone wanted to be in the first boat ride but only ten people could go at one time. The other birders had to wait their turn so we amused ourselves by finding a Lineated Woodpecker, Plumbeous Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, Summer Tanager, Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, and a couple of Black-crowned Tityras, male and female in the trees by the river. But when the first group returned with stories of actually seeing the Sungrebe, Boat-billed Heron, and Blue-crowned Motmot the guides had to choose the next group of ten before twenty birders swamped the boat. Kathy and I somehow heard ourselves volunteering to be in the last boat ride. But good things come to those that wait. Not only did we get to see all of the above-mentioned birds, but we also spied a Great Black Hawk hiding in the shadows next to a huge tree. What an unexpected treat! The final thrill was seeing the Sungrebe for a second time. First sighting it was hiding along the shore next to river overhang; second sighting it swam from one side of the riverbank to the next, directly in front of the boat. No other group had such a look.
  • The evening meal was at a restaurant in Mante. Yvette had to excuse herself from the group because of a sensitive tummy (her words). We all knew she went outside to throw up. Kathy and I sat near Gaylon, his wife Jan, Sandy, and his wife Ann and heard stories of other foreign birding trips. While Malu sent Kathy's meal back to the kitchen three times (no onions, please) Sandy explained how they were robbed at machete-point in Granada. The retelling of the story was more hilarious than the actual event but we were glad it had a happy ending. For this reason, they always travel in a group. Gaylon and his wife told of how they used to work for AT&T (in Virginia) as programmers (they're both computer geeks! yea!), and now they are retired since AT&T outsourced most everything to India. Gaylon explained his work day as thus: 2 hours labor around the house, no more; the rest of the time spent in technological play. Gaylon was holding a new PDA; glad Randy didn't come with me on this trip.
  • Back at the hotel, I took pictures of our room for documentation before we left it too messy. The only room complaint was for the lack of really hot water in the shower. But tepid showers make for fast showers, just in time to fall asleep and dream of the day's river birds.
  • By day's end we had 97 different species of birds seen by the participants.