February 14-23, 2013
I think almost birder who has traveled to west Mexico would agree that the recipe for creating a great trip has to involve a journey into the high elevation areas of the
Sinaloa highlands that are only accessible from the Durango Highway, the only major route over the Sierra Madre Occidental. There is no other way to see the incredible Tufted Jay as well as numerous other fantastic high elevation Mexican endemics! The other element to a great tour has to be a trip to the lowlands of Nayarit and the area surrounding the town of San Blas. No where can you see such fantastic diversity of birds within such a short distance in western Mexico. This tour did them both and did them in style and the numbers and great looks speak for themselves! The other addition to this recipe is a great group…which we were very fortunate to have on this trip! The following is a wrap up of our most recent tour to the area.
Day 1 – Airport arrivals and pickups all went well. Once everyone was settled into their rooms at the beachfront Hotel La Siesta, it was downstairs for dinner at the world famous Shrimp Bucket which was an excellent way to start the tour! Lots of calamari and fun was had by all. For our first night, together, the group seemed awesome and ready to bird! The only downside of the evening was finding out that there was going to be a Valentine’s Day music party in the courtyard in front of our rooms! It would have been nice if the hotel had warned us about it when we made our reservations…but, oh well! I thought it was cute that an hour before it started they sent someone around to knock on all the doors and invite the hotel guests! The good news was that the music was actually pretty nice…old Mexican tunes done by a trio. Nice music to fall asleep to!
Day 2 – We did a quick breakfast on the “malecon” right on the ocean…nice real estate for sure! One big plus was that people were getting lifers while polishing off their peach yogurt! For some the Blue-footed Boobies on the big rocks just off shore were a new bird! Then it was time pack up the van and get on out of town and on to the La Noria road. Well, that was the plan anyway…but we found a trio of Rufous-bellied Chachalacas on the way and just had to stop for them! Once out of the van I knew we would be there a while since that spot is always SUPER birdy. It turned into an hour and a half with great birds all over the place! Purplish-Backed and Black-throated Magpie-Jays, Yellow-Winged Caciques, Red-billed Pigeon, Sinaloa Crows, Yellow Grosbeak, Happy and Sinaloa Wrens and a whole lot more!
Finally we pulled ourselves away and drove on to the intersection with Highway 15 and the road to the town of La Noria. I stopped at my favorite fig tree positioned in a rather nondescript spot . Here we found our first Citreoline Trogon, Black-capped Gnatcatcher and Golden-cheeked Woodpecker, as well as some Rufous-backed Robins and more looks at Happy Wren. Our next stop was the turn off to for the old Hacienda de Las Moras, once an amazing old tequila farm now converted into a place for events. Here we spent another hour working on lots of buntings and sparrows, including Rufous-winged, Clay-colored, Lark and White-crowned. We also saw Painted, Indigo, Blue, Lazuli and Varied Buntings, and our only Loggerhead Shrike and Lucy’s Warbler of the trip. Just up the road we came to the stock pond where we got our first looks at the imposing White-naped Swift, a bird Endemic to West Mexico and the largest swift in the world with a wing span of 26 inches
By now the heat was catching up with us, and more importantly… hunger! I had recently discovered a cool little restaurant right at the entrance to the town of La Noria called El Sazon de Abuela Tina. As it was the first time I was there, the food was awesome. Burros Prietos, blue corn tortillas stuffed with Mexican ricotta cheese with a mild chili sauce over it, accompanied by marinated nopal cactus pads and a small steak! The lemonade, made like a margarita with salt in it and served in an old clay mug, was amazing! No one had the guts (pun intended) to try the Sopa de Ombligo (belly button soup) which indeed looked interesting… I came to find out later was not really made from belly buttons, although the photo in the menu sort of looked like it might be! After lunch we were treated to what I refer to as the river of Yellow-Billed Caciques. There must have been a hundred of them in all that just kept coming out of a ditch! There were also a number of Orange-fronted Parakeets making sure that there was plenty of sonic disturbance in the area.
A quick two hour drive to Copala was easy except for Mazatlan traffic, and a great opportunity for a nap! We arrived with plenty of time for walking and birding the grounds of the hotel. Right at the big coral bean tree in front of reception we had Cinnamon and Berylline Hummingbirds as well as Plain-capped Starthroat. As usual the late afternoon pass of Military Macaws over the hotel happened on cue, always a treat to see so many of these fantastic birds! Later we made our way down the road to see a Pale-billed Woodpecker kicking the stuff out of a dead tree, apparently making a nest cavity for future use.
The folks at the restaurant stayed open late for us and put on a good dinner. Afterwards, we made a failed attempt at Mottled Owl in the hotel parking lot and thus ended a bird packed first full day!
Day 3 – I got up at 4:15 to get breakfast ready for the gang and they all made it over by 5 a.m. Fruit, Jen’s homemade granola, yogurt and
scrambled eggs got us out the front gate and on the highway at 5:42 a.m.. Awesome! The sun rise was worth the early departure and by the time we got to the pines it was just light enough to bird. BOOM! Like a message from God (if you believed in him), Carolyn called out a Tufted Jay just as I finished explaining that it was possible to see the jays anywhere from now on and sometimes they might be right on the road! Once I found a pull off we were out of the van and playing tape that just might as well have been left in the van. The birds gave absolutely no response to playback! The good news was that John and Dave H had long bailed on the tape idea and wandered down the road to where we had first seen them and were not only seeing them but getting photos! Off the rest of us went running down the highway, to a small dirt road where everyone to get GREAT views of the Tufted Jays as well as a pair of Mountain Trogons that were very cooperative!
With the big target bird out of the way, I could relax a bit. We made a couple of other stops that produced a thing or two, including Calliope, Broad-tailed and White-eared Hummingbirds. But we were on our way to the Barranca del Liebre with the hope of bigger fish.
The old ranch site at the Barranca seemed a bit quiet at first, but with a bit of patience we began to find some birds. Lots of Slate-throated Redstarts gleaning the leaves, Brown-backed Solitaire, Spotted Towhees cleaning the understory and our first looks at Yellow-eyed Juncos got us ready for the surprise… a Russet Nightingale Thrush! In the same area, Dave H clued us in to a Red Warbler and a White-striped Woodcreeper working one of the large oaks, and Carolyn found us a very nice Pine Flycatcher that was posing perfectly for us and giving protracted views of him at every angle!
We then took our first walk down to the famous Green-striped Brush-finch spot which turned out to be a bit of a bust, as the bird came in quickly but disappeared even faster and it didn’t come back! So after some good views of Golden-browed Warblers we decided to give the Brush-finch a break and went up for lunch.
As usual, I set up a picnic on the rim of the Barranca de Liebre where we were treated to a few birds and lots of laughs. Other birds seen on our morning trip down the trail included Olive, Crescent-chested, Grace’s, Red-faced, and the ever impressive Red Warbler!
After lunch, we drove a bit farther up the road to the cabins, where we had fleeting glimpses of Blue Mockingbird, and number of Rufous-capped Brush-finches and a Rusty Sparrow! After more than a bit of work we got really good but skulking looks at Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush that finally came out to playback. Back at the hotel, we had another fun dinner at Daniel’s!
Day 4 – We were off again before 6 a.m. and up into some nice transitional habitat before 7 a.m. where the first light of day was just hitting the forest above us near the town of La Capilla del Taxte. We made a stop on the side of the road with no major target in mind, but there were a lot of birds flying around, and it is amazing how productive some of these trashy ditches with lots of Morning Glory trees can be. Indeed, we were not disappointed this time either! Several Yellow Grosbeaks were showing well in a red, peeling Bursura tree and we got looks at a Sinaloa and Happy Wren. The big bird at this stop had to have been the Bat Falcon that came in and perched on the top of the massive high tension lines that crossed over the highway. He gave us great scope looks and eventually gave us the show of the morning when he stooped on something below us and evacuated the tower at such velocity that we were left speechless…well not this group….but any other group might have been speechless!
Then, we were off to the turn to La Petaca where we were literally inundated with Black-headed Siskins busy enjoying the seeds in a roadside garden. We also had our first Golden Vireo as well as a fantastic tree full of warblers. It was an amazing array of species to see all at once -Yellow-breasted Chat, two Red-starts, Rufous-capped, Orange-crowned, Black-and-White, Wilson’s, MacGillivray’s, Nashville and Black-throated Gray. Then we went on a bit farther to get our first Black-vented Orioles of the trip and good looks at our first Rusty-crowned Ground-sparrow.
No trip into this part of the Sierra Madre would be complete without a try for the beautiful and difficult Eared Quetzal. We gave it a good try, but I think that all the highway construction may be keeping the quetzals in a less disturbed area. We ended up making another run up to the Barranca where we did a repeat of yesterday’s lunch and once again went for the Green-striped Brush-finch, and got it this time… well, mostly!
We got back home to Daniel’s a bit earlier where Dave H showed us his Pale-billed Woodpecker nest and we enjoyed our dinner and margaritas with
Pancho at Daniel’s.
Day 5 – I always look forward to birding the Panuco Road as it seems like there is always something new waiting to pop up around the corner! One of the most memorable finds were the two Rusty-crowned Ground Sparrows foraging along the upper side of the cut back. We got great looks at Colima Pygmy Owl, a cooperative Squirrel Cuckoo, fantastic looks at the surprisingly beautiful Golden Crowned Emerald and my favorite bird of all time, the Black-capped Vireo. It would be criminal not to mention the fantastic Military Macaw show that we had for nearly the entire morning! We went back to Daniel’s and packed up had some lunch and then made the 3 hour drive to San Blas and our home for four nights, the Hotel Garza Canela.
Day 6 – I know there is at least one new spot in the San Blas area where mid-elevation birding has gotten pretty popular and indeed Tecuitata can be excellent! However after years of going to La Bajada for some of my favorite birds, I still feel that no trip to San Blas would be complete without at least one visit! Today we started out low just outside of the hamlet of La Palma to high, good looks at Rose-throated Becard, White-throated Thrush, Fan-tailed Warbler, Ivory-billed Woodcreeper and Russet-crowned Motmot. The big bird of the morning was most certainly the views we had of Rosy-Thrush Tanager nearly out in the open, and the ‘almost’ view of Black-and-White Owls that called all morning!
After lunch and a siesta at the hotel we headed over to the boat dock for the La Tovara boat trip. We met Chencho, our boatman, at 3 p.m. and went directly to the large mangrove areas in hopes of coaxing out a Rufous-necked Woodrail. It didn’t take long! I think by the time we let we had seen four or five of the bird….and really well! I picked up a few beers at the bathroom stop and we were off for the upper part of the river. But first, Chencho had a surprise for us. He had found a Northern Potoo day roost and, sure enough, the bird was there to give us great daylight views…not something that happens too often! The rest of the trip produced Common Paraque, Boat-billed Herons, close-up and American Crocodiles as well as several more potoos after dark. This is probably the best place anywhere to actually see Northern Potoo.
We enjoyed a nice, late, pre-ordered dinner back ‘home’ at the Garza Canela.
Day 7 – Once again, this morning we went back to La Bajada, this time straight to the upper elevations where we were once again tortured by the Black-and-White Owl calling away but not showing itself. But we did find some neat birds including Red-throated Ant-Tanager.
This afternoon we went out to Chacalilla which got us brief looks at Elegant Quail and a Lesser Ground Cuckoo that responded to playback once and was never heard from again!
Day 8 – Our first stop this morning was the ejido of Tecuitata, where I hoped to catch up with San Blas Jays, which unfortunately did not happen
(again). We then pressed onward to our ultimate destination, the higher elevation area of Cerro de San Juan. This is always a fun trip because there are so many different endemics than what we see on the other days of the trip. Today did not disappoint! The area was extremely dry much like everywhere else we had been birding, and I was very worried about the lack of flowers. Eventually, we got to a good sized stand of salvia and with some patience, were treated to a number of good looks at Bumblebee Hummingbird. We had a picnic lunch up at the Rancho La Noria where we were treated to a fantastic Spotted Wren show and ended the day above with one last look for San Blas Jay at La Bajada which turned out to be a bust.
Day 9 – The Singayta road started out a little slow but by the end it was a pretty awesome morning. It started out with good studies of three types of Ground Doves and protracted looks at Bat Falcons copulating in a distant emergent tree. Other goodies included Gray-crowned Yellow-throat and numerous vocalizing Fan-tailed Warblers. One of the surprise moments of the morning had to have been the Red-breasted Chat that whipped in to Pygmy Owl tape but was not very accommodating at a weird spot deep in the mangroves…not exactly prime Chat habitat. The other big surprise was that there were no White-throated Flycatchers in the giant fragmitese field. I think this might have been the first time ever that I missed the bird in this spot!
This afternoon we did a trip to the Crocodile Farm which was slow due to lack of water. We then
went on to the new road to Tepic where we found a neat pond full of ducks, waterbirds and lots of parrotlets in the fig trees. We found out nearly the hard way that the new road to Tepic is not finished…it is hardly started, for that matter! No one bothered to put up any warning that the road ended and we nearly crashed into a mango orchard when the road ended abruptly!
Then we made one last run up to La Bajada again where we got nothing but spent a lot of time listening to the Black and White Owl. And we missed the San Blas Jays again too!
Day 10 – We got up early to a quick breakfast in the lobby of the hotel…just enough to fill the hole with coffee and baked goods. Not that the ‘hole’ needed much more filling after the past several days of eating the great food at the Garza Canela! We drove over to the dock and once again met Chencho, this time for a trip up the Rio San Cristobal! It was a beautiful morning, just enough clouds to make the sky interesting and a bit of a chill that did not feel all that tropical! We were on the river by 6 a.m. and headed up river quickly to make the most of our time. Mostly, we had lots of waders and even more Green Kingfishers along the way along with a study in night-herons, including Boat-billed, and every plumage of Snail Kite!
Once at the lagoon we were treated to the water bird delight! Tens of thousands of birds that we could see and who knows how many more were hidden away in the cattails and hyacinth beyond the water. Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, twelve Fulvous Whistling Ducks, hundreds of Woodstorks, Rosette
Spoonbills, Limpkins, every possible heron species, including a number of Boat-billeds. Another big highlight was the show of soaring raptors that
entertained us on the ride back to the dock, including a beautiful Hook-billed Kite in juvenile plumage which is not something that I see on every tour!
Once we got back to the hotel we finished packing up and hit the restaurant for a nice brunch where we completed our final bird list and got ready for the drive back to Mazatlan. On the way, we got one more trip bird, a soaring White-tailed Hawk over the agricultural fields!
We stopped first at the airport to drop off Kathleen and Ken with time to spare and said our goodbyes, before continuing on to Mazatlan proper where we said goodbye to the remainder of the group before Dave H. and I headed off to Walmart and once again back up the Durango Highway to Copala for the night. Once we got to Copala, I threw together a supper of vegetables and pasta with a nice salad for and Dave and I, and we reminisced about a great tour and a wonderful group of very compatible folks! I am very much looking forward to traveling with all of you again soon, maybe to Chiapas and Oaxaca next year!?
The Valentines day dance at the Siesta Hotel
My new favorite restaurant in Mexico!
The star of the show! The highly localized Tufted Jay
A Yellow Grosbeak
A Pale-billed Woodpecker that David found
We got great looks at this Boat-billed Heron
A Mexican Wood-nymph
Rufous-necked Wood-Rail
A beautiful Hook-billed Kite soared over us on the boat trip