Day One of this tour is actually covered in the previous post titled 'San Blas, Nov. 8-15' . This trip was an extension of to that San Blas trip.
Day Two - After the first 'bungalow breakfast' in my room, with my fortified group by two new additions for a total of five, we were off to the highlands and our first attempt at the Tufted Jays, a highly endemic bird found only in a very limited area of the Sierra Madre in west Mexico.
Besides the jays there are a number of other great high birds emdemic to the highlands of
Mexico that can be seen in the area.
The construction on the new Durango Highway is continuing and impressive to say the least! In the name of progress, the impact that is being put upon the hills and canyons is a bit shocking. Certainly, it is good that the new road is being constructed primarily in the impact zone of the old road, so the overall impact is concentrated in an area that has already seen quite a bit of development. Even still, it is hard not to gawk at the size of the road cuts and the barrancas being filled with debris. The new highway will have one of the longest and highest suspension bridges in the Americas. Over one and a half kilometers from end to end and get this… 1500 feet above the river at the bottom of the canyon! Likely to become the base jumper's dream!
The first birding stop was the road to the El Batel saw mill, which up until this season was a sleepy little road that led to a couple of ranchos and a medium sized sawmill. Now, it has become one of the supply routes for the construction of the new bridge and the road has been improved and has significant traffic. The good news is that the birds didn’t seem to mind to much. Right away, we had outstanding views of Black-headed Siskins at eye level and close that seemed content to have their photo taken. Other new birds included Grace’s Warblers in big numbers , maybe 8 in one tree. Arizona Woodpecker and Tufted Flycatcher.
The next stop is the place I have to make a name up for. But it is the next right hand turn after El Batel, it is a small road that has a big pull out just as you exit the highway and was deader than dead when we got out of the van. Come to think of it, nearly every stop except the first one of the day was dead when we got out of the van! It was only with rather heavy use of Ferruginous and Mountain Pygmy Owl recordings that we got birds to come out and show
themselves. At this stop, I was losing faith when I played a bit of Mountain Trogon and, low and behold, a female came in out of nowhere! After some quick, and not so satisfying looks, in came the male and we all got protracted views of him and some good photos. Our first Red Warbler was around, but only Larry really got a lousy look. Then came a Slate-throated Redstart with only slightly better views. From that point on, things went dead and we were off again. This time we were on a mission for the Barranca, but only a hundred meters down the road I noticed a car pulled over and a guy video taping something in the woods. I pulled over immediately and jumped out and walked over to the guy. Indeed, he was filming a flock of Tufted Jays that had just moved through. There were lots of Steller's Jays out on the road but I couldn’t get a bead on any of the money birds. The kid with the video camera motioned for us to come up the road and he had the flock! Eventually, we got satisfactory views but you always want better! After the excitement was over, I got a chance to talk to the kid with the camera. It turns out that he works for one of the contractors working on the new suspension bridge and was taping the birds for a presentation that his company wants to do. He wanted to talk and showed us an artists renditions of what the bridge will look like when complete and I must say it is beautiful.
Soon, we were at the Barranca and into the old ranch house clearing staring into the blackberry bushes. After finding nothing but a very cooperative Hammond's Flycatcher, things started to go our way! A Rufous-capped Brush-finch came into a close bush and gave us all nice looks just before the Warbler flock invasion began. Larry was on fire all morning, finding new warblers at each turn of the trail. We all got great looks at the big ones: Red, Red-faced, Hermit, Crescent-Chested and Olive Warblers. All told we had 18 warbler species for the day.
We then did the short walk down the canyon to the water hole. I like the spot a lot as it always has some good stuff, but this time it was bit different. I have never seen such copious amounts of water flowing down what was typically a dry stream! The good news was that there was a Golden-browed Warbler calling as we arrived and was quickly seen by all. After he got bored with us, I put on some Green-striped Brush-finch with the hope of finding another bird that is almost always there. Well, my luck was not with me this time, but as a consolation a Russet Nightingale Thrush came popping up into view in the Brush-Finches normal perch and gave us a great show! Dipped on the Green Stripe today
Then it was back up the hill for a nice relaxing picnic lunch and a visit from some Aussie birders that wandered up from the highway below. As is typically the case, they were very friendly and were still looking for Tufted Jays. I gave them some ideas and encouraged them to leave their hotel in Mazatlan and move up to Copala if they don’t want to wake up at 4 a.m. to find the jays.
After lunch, we made a lame attempt for Eared Quetzal at the “Magic Tree” to find it void of fruit and quiet as hell! So, we were out of there and down the hill.
Driving along the highway, I was interrupted by the sound of Tufted Jays right next to the road,
and the miracle of a pullout lay just ahead! Quickly, we were out of the van and were treated to maybe the best Tufted Jay show I have had in nearly 30 trips to this location. Everyone who tried got great photos and video and the behavioral interactions between the birds were fantastic. One couple appeared to be “kissing” and when I hit the tape several others came in looking like body guards. We estimated that there were between 12 and 15 birds interacting. An awesome site for sure.
The last stop of the day was the road out of La Petaca, a wide spot in the road at about 3800 feet on the Durango Highway. We drove in about a mile and stop at a small drainage with lots of trees and a bit of water. It was super quiet at first, but with just a bit of coaxing with the 'piggy owl' we had things hoping in a big way! What was nothing short of a herd of Golden Vireos came a calling! There must have been 6 or 8. Then came the hummingbirds: Calliope, Rufous, Broad-billed, Berylline, White-eared, Violet-crowned and eventually and Plain-capped Starthroat!
Back to the hotel for a quick dinner at Daniel's with the signature Banana Coconut Cream Pie… Crazy good!
Day Three - This day can only be described as 'dripping with hummingbirds'! My absolute favorite part of what I do is running into what I call a bird phenomena , a moment
when you experience something in the bird world that is unusual or fantastic in some way. It can be seeing a Peregrine Falcon knock a duck out of the air, watching a warbler glean a flower or seeing hundreds of shorebirds lift off of a mudflat. I have been very fortunate over the years to have been lucky enough to have seen many amazing bird shows. But the one that I had today sits up there with one of the most amazing events I have experienced. We arrived at the La Petaca road early and it was still very COLD, we were all wishing that we had put on another layer and Larry was dreaming of his long underwear back at the hotel! We toughed it out for a while and boy did it pay off! I spotted a mixed flock out the driver side window and pulled over, although it was hard for any of us to get excited about leaving the comfort of the warm van with heat cranked up! But there were birds out there and lots of them. As soon as I got out of the van I could here the zippy chipping of Red-headed Tanagers, a bird that we barely saw in San Blas. Eventually, we found a flock of them including at least three males along with two Flame-colored Tanagers. The icing on the cake was the Crescent-chested Warbler that was hanging out with them!.
After things died down a bit we decided that it was time to look for some sun, at the first opportunity we pulled over and found big patch of Red Salvia, the first we had seen. Some hummers were working it, but the bird at this spot was probably the Orange-billed Nightingale Thrush that never showed itself. Soon, we were off again in search of more warming sun and found what I would guess was a Red Salviapatch that measured more than 10 acres in size...I actually have no idea how big it was because we could not actually see how far up the mountain it extended. In any case, it was a huge patch and it was alive with hummingbirds! The main tenders were Beryllines which were represented by numbers that we could only guess were in the hundreds. There were also Violet-crowns, Broad-billeds, Black-chins, Rufus, Calliope. Plain-capped Starthroats and at least one male Costas. Our big target was a Bumblebee Hummingbird, but even after 2 hours of searching the field of flowers we never could come up with one.
The rest of the morning was a bit of a bust...the birds were hard to find and not very many. We made stops at the El Batel saw mill, trolling for Eared Quetzal and dreaming of Aztec Thrush and we stopped in a couple of spots to the east hoping for the same before eventually having lunch at the new road.
After lunch we went back to the hummingbird heaven but once again dipped on the Bumblebee.
We got back to Copala for a quick trip to see the beautiful downtown and then hung out in the parking lot of the hotel waiting for the Macaws and photographing a 'flock' of Plain-capped Starthroats and watching Magpie Jays rob guavas off of the neighbor's tree. While all this was going on, a large flock of Vaux’s Swifts moved in over head and were soon followed by a good sized flock of White-naped Swifts, a west Mexican endemic and the largest swift in the world!
Another great dinner at Daniel's and some much deserved rest.
Day Three - Our last morning of the tour took us to the Panuco road to try and find some of the missing low elevation birds. We made the short drive across the valley from Daniel's and the moment that we stepped out of the van, I heard them! Flying across the opposing ridge to the west, I saw at least a dozen Military Macaws gaining altitude and crossing over
the ridge to the next valley. I got everyone on the birds and we watched all but one eventually make their way over the ridge and out of sight. One lone bird decided against the trip and ended up circling a number of times before heading directly towards us and giving us a great close up look before disappearing over the same ridge. An awesome way to start the morning.
We started our morning walk heavily energized by the Military Macaws and ready for the next big bird. It didn’t take long for the first of several Black-capped Vireos that we would find throughout the morning to give us a great show on the opposing up hillside. Great to see good numbers of these little guys on their wintering grounds. One of the highlights for me was finally getting good looks at Rusty-crowned Ground-Sparrows after trying so hard to find them throughout the tour!
Much like the San Blas area, the lower elevations of the Durango Highway experienced a huge monsoon this past summer and it went into October. The upside of this is that there is water in places that I have not seen in 12 years of leading tours to these areas. The downside is that the vegetation is still super dense and the flowers are taking their sweet time to bloom. By now, I would have expected a lot of flowers on the Panuco road, but as it was we hard saw any. The result of this is that we dipped on two big hummingbird species - Bumblebee in the highlands and Golden-crowned Emerald in the lowlands. We'll just have to give them both a shot in another location someday!
After lunch, we headed into downtown Mazatlan to drop Larry, Andrea and Len off at their hotel and Rig, Mike and I drove to Alamos!
Thanks everyone for a fun trip to the Sinaloa highlands and some great birding
Black-headed Siskin
The star of the show
The new Durango Highway
and the miracle of a pullout lay just ahead! Quickly, we were out of the van and were treated to maybe the best Tufted Jay show I have had in nearly 30 trips to this location. Everyone who tried got great photos and video and the behavioral interactions between the birds were fantastic. One couple appeared to be “kissing” and when I hit the tape several others came in looking like body guards. We estimated that there were between 12 and 15 birds interacting. An awesome site for sure.
The last stop of the day was the road out of La Petaca, a wide spot in the road at about 3800 feet on the Durango Highway. We drove in about a mile and stop at a small drainage with lots of trees and a bit of water. It was super quiet at first, but with just a bit of coaxing with the 'piggy owl' we had things hoping in a big way! What was nothing short of a herd of Golden Vireos came a calling! There must have been 6 or 8. Then came the hummingbirds: Calliope, Rufous, Broad-billed, Berylline, White-eared, Violet-crowned and eventually and Plain-capped Starthroat!
Back to the hotel for a quick dinner at Daniel's with the signature Banana Coconut Cream Pie… Crazy good!
Day Three - This day can only be described as 'dripping with hummingbirds'! My absolute favorite part of what I do is running into what I call a bird phenomena , a moment
Hummingbird Heaven
Plain-capped Starthroat
Military Macaws at Panuco Road