Yucatan – Birds, Biospheres and Ruins January 10-19, 2012 More photos of this tour can be seen at this link http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdgeek/sets/72157629576901914/ One of the beautiful things for me about birding on the Yucatan Peninsula is the subtle shift of habitats as you travel from east to west and then south to north.  Unlike a lot of places where less that subtle changes in geography manipulate the habitat, in the Yucatan it happens nearly without noticing the geography at all! Mostly because the countryside is so flat, it is hardly apparent that you are entering a new and fantastic habitat that is generally only manipulated by oceanic influences.  The following is an account of this past January’s birding tour to the Yucatan Peninsula. This trip was our fourth trip to this great place.

A big mob of Yucatan Jays

Many thanks to everyone for a fun trip and to Rafael for keeping us all together and on time throughout the tour! Day 1 - Rafa, our driver, and I picked up everyone at the airport except for Paulette who arrived much later in the evening.  We all headed down the beach in Puerto Morelos for dinner at restaurant La Playita, a very small family run place right on the beach where we had an awesome first dinner in the form of a tasty Yucatecan seafood feast!  Then, it was back to the hotel to prepare ourselves for our first morning of birding.  There is nothing like sleeping with the sliding doors open with the cool ocean breezes and the sound of the sea to go to sleep by. Day 2 – Rafa and I set up a simple breakfast on the outdoor patio of the hotel and without further ado we were heading out to the Jardin Botanico.  The Jardin was nice enough to open early for us and provided us (mandatory for early entry) with a wonderful guide by the name of Dalia who was admittedly not the best with the birds, but wonderful with the plants and a really nice person.  We did see some good birds too!  Highlights were the Yucatan Vireos and a HUGE flock of Yucatan Jays that gave us wonderful looks.  Jim entertained us with some amazing acrobatic skills on the balance benches, and fortunately when he flipped over backwards he didn’t cause too much damage to himself!  Watching him do that trick was a good reason for keeping him off the suspension bridges that were used to train the Flying Wallendas! In the town of Tulum, we had a wonderful lunch at Charly’s complete with a splattering of the local hippie crowd and a visit to the awesome gift shop.  Then it was off to the seaside ruins of Tulum and a look at what could be the most beautiful of all the Mayan ruins, arguably the most dramatic location of any Mayan ruin.  The birding was a bit slow compared to some of my other visits, but we did get to see an exceptionally large migrating flock of Indigo Buntings, a couple of Palm, Yellow and Yellow-throated  Warblers, which were neat to see.  We also got to experience some of the teaming masses of tourists that made it hard to believe that the world was in economic crisis!  This was actually the case throughout most of the Yucatan this year….it was a thriving and full of tourists everywhere!

A Summer Tanager at Tulum

After having our fill of Tulum, we finished up our travel day by continuing south to Felipe Carrillo Puerto and our home for two nights at the Hotel Casa Regina.  This town is one place in the Yucatan where you are unlikely to see the teaming masses of tourists!  From our point of view, we were the only foreigners in the entire town and the place truly feels Mexican and even Mayan!  It is, after all, the heart and capital of the Mundo Maya. We enjoyed the first of two wonderful Yucatecan meals with dinner at the Faisan Y Venado Restaurant. Day 3 – The 5:30 a.m. breakfast in the guide’s room was the standard fare and it got us out and on to the Vigia Chica Road nice and early.  I think the Vigia Chica road is one of my favorite birding roads in Mexico.  It is surrounded by great habitat, there are some open areas to get good looks at birds and there are always surprises to be had.  The fog kept things nice and cool and the birding was pretty good most of the morning.  Some of the bigger highlights were Black-headed Trogon, Rose-throated Tanager, Black Catbird, Yellow-billed Cacique, the only White-collared Seedeater of the trip, a quick look at a Yellow-faced Grasquit, a number of Mangrove Vireos were cool to get long looks at, the always exciting Keel-billed Toucan, a White-bellied Emerald nesting and a quick glide by from a Short-tailed Hawk. After lunch back in town we took a nice siesta before going back out to the Vigia Chica Road for some really good afternoon birding.  Although we did not get a bunch of new stuff, there were hundreds of parrots and parakeets all afternoon and birds were everywhere, and finally we good decent looks at Yucatan Parrots. We had dinner back at the Faisan y Venado, enjoying more Yucatecan food and good service. After dinner, we strolled to the main plaza to enjoy the local dessert, Marquesita’s, a crispy crepe filled with a choice of fillings. Always a highlight! Day 4 – Going from Felipe Carrillo Puerto to Ria Lagartos was the longest drive of the trip, which amounted to about 3.5 hours total…not bad at all.  Along the way we stopped in Vailladolid for a great lunch at a very unpresumptuous location that I was indirectly turned on to by Rick Bayless, the nearly famous Mexican chef who owns a couple of high-end restaurants in Chicago.  The place was empty as it was the last time I was there, and the taxidermied Occelated Turkey was not looking any younger, but the seemingly endless stream of excellent Yucatecan food that came from the kitchen was fantastic! We made a stop for birds after lunch at the ruins of Ek Balam, just north of town where we got good looks at Turquoised-browed Motmots and watched Jim and Patty climb up (and then down) the main pyramid! In the little fishing village of Ria Lagartos, we spent the night at the simple, little hotel called Punto Ponto  right on the edge of the estuary. This

Yucatan Wren

place is made better by our very accommodating host Roger.  We enjoyed a seafood meal at the Isla Contoy Restaurant, run by our friend, Ismael’s family. Day 5 – This morning we met our guide for the morning and headed out for the ranches and fields to the east of town.  Our big targets were Yucatan Wren and Bobwhite which most of us got some sort of look at.  Here, we also got our first looks at Mexican Sheartail, our only looks at White-tailed Kite, a distant perched Crane Hawk in the scope, and our only Crested Caracara of the trip.  A few Yucatan Bobwhites flew off the road leaving us without satisfied looks, but a couple of people did manage to get on them before they spooked.  The boat trip at Ria Lagartos was great and gave us looks at a myriad of shore and water birds, including Sandwich Terns and lots of Black Skimmers.  We had a nice lunch back at Isla Contoy before heading south and on to the Hacienda Chichen outside the ruins of Chichen Itza.  Pulling into this restored hacienda is always a magical moment. The grounds are so beautiful and the historic hotel and rooms are elegant and comfortable. Not to mention that that the birding here is great! We enjoyed a great dinner at this elegant hotel. Day 6 – Some folks decided to brave the masses once again and make a visit to the ruins of Chichen Itza, while I took part of the group on a morning birding outing around the grounds of the hotel.  The grounds of the hotel are really an amazing area for birds, and today was no exception.  We had good looks at Yellow-backed Orioles, Green Jays, once again heard Thicket Tinamous, saw lots of Scrub Euphonias and two species of saltators and our only Blue-gray Tanager of the tour. After an all too short stay at the Hacienda, we headed out. We stopped in Izamal for lunch and a quick tour of the world’s second largest open air atrium, second only in size to the one at St. Peters in Rome.  Izamal, known as the Yellow City, has the pride of being the first Pueblo Magico in Mexico, a designation given to only a handful of towns for their exceptional beauty and cultural attributes.  It is called the Yellow City because all of the homes and buildings are painted the same deep yellow color and it is quite impressive.  We had lunch at the famous Kinich, where we were treated to some of the best Yucatecan food of the tour.  We got to the restaurant just beating the Sunday church crowd which turned the place from empty to packed in about three minutes!  After lunch we walked back to the van and saw the only Swainson’s Hawk of the trip soaring above the parking area.

The cooperative Squirrel Cuckoo

This afternoon, we made our way into the hilly part of the Yucatan Peninsula, known as the Puuc hills, and our home for the night, Hacienda Uxmal. Another beautiful hotel in classic hacienda style and where there serve a bountiful buffet dinner! Day 7 – Today was a much appreciated layover day at Uxmal that gave us the opportunity to bird and visit what I think are the most impressive ruins on the peninsula.  We were out of the hotel early for some birding on the San Simon Road, on the outside of the ruins where we had our only Gartered Trogon (once called Violacious) and a timid Blue-crowned Motmot. Inside the ruins it was really more about seeing this impressive ruins site than finding lots of birds, although we got a great show from a very cooperative Squirrel Cuckoo and also good looks at Prothonatory Warbler, Wedge-tailed Sabrewing  and a Rufous-tailed Hummingbird. After the ruins we had a big buffet lunch at the Uxmal Lodge before heading back to the hotel for a quick nap. In the afternoon, we went for a long walk behind the hotel to the old abandoned original hacienda of Uxmal.  Along the way we ran into a Yucatan Flycatcher, Yellow-throated Vireo, Yellow-backed Oriole and few Keel-billed Toucans as well as the only Plain Chachalacas that we actually saw on the trip.  The old hacienda is in rather sorry condition, but it was neat to see the building somewhat reclaimed from the forest.  On the walk back we were being somewhat constantly teased by the calls of a distant, yet ever closer Collared Forest Falcon.  Just as we were about to give up on it, he flew into some closer trees harassed by a mob of Brown Jays!  As a last ditch effort, I put on a little Yucatan Night Jar tape, just for kicks, and low and behold I got a couple of call backs but we never did see the bird.  After a nice layover day in this peaceful area, we enjoyed another buffet dinner and a good night’s rest. Day 8 – We spent the morning back out to the old hacienda so that folks that hadn’t gone there the previous afternoon could get a look at it.  It was also a good excuse for some more forest birding and a group photo. We made an early stop at the top of the hill leaving Uxmal to see if the little shop up there had these neat lights that I have at the Pedregal.  Well, he didn’t have them, but he had a lot of other cool stuff made out of gourds and everyone was more than happy to pick up a couple of items.  We then made our way to Celestun on the western side of the peninsula. Our afternoon outing in Celestun gave us more good looks at Mexican Sheartail and Yucatan Wren, but the Bobwhite once again eluded us.

Gray-necked Wood-rail

There was a rather cooperative White-lored Gnatcatcher that posed for photos, and the evening return of hundreds if not thousands of American Flamingos to their night roost was impressive and beautiful. Dinner that night was at an unassuming farolito taco stand that turned out to be absolutely delicious and our home for the night was the Hotel Manglares. Day 9 – Our last birding day turned out to be a huge one!  It started out with a trip back out into the short fog forest north of town, where we got more good looks at White-lored Gnatcatchers, Mexican Sheartail and Yucatan Wren.  Maybe the most impressive sighting of the morning was the aerial parade of thousands of flamingos heading out to their daytime feeding grounds from the roosting area that we had seen the night before. Hoping to have the same kind of luck I had a couple of years previous, I decided that we should do a kamakazi death walk with speeding traffic along the mangrove lined causeway hoping for a look at the difficult to see Rufous-necked Wood-rail.  I was a bit concerned that the tide might be too high for the bird, but it was really our only chance and we had a bit of time before the boat trip.  I know that the participants must think that I am crazy when I suggest that we should walk along this narrow stretch of highway peering down into a rather thin section of trash filled mangrove to find a bird that typically is VERY skulky and shy!  Fortunately, I have only missed the bird in this spot a couple of times or people would be convinced that I was crazy!  Well, this time I thought I might have blown it, as we were nearly to the end of the causeway with no woodrail!  Just as I was about to call it a morning, I saw the flutter of wings below us and got on what was indeed a Rufous-necked Woodrail perched up on a branch!  Then the challenge is trying to get everyone on it, which was only mildly difficult, and fortunately the bird did fly and move, but not too far!

We got really close to the Flamingos

The boat trip was a great way to get rather close to the flamingos, but maybe not as good as the ones we saw in Ria Lagartos.  But the trip into the tall mangrove forest was seriously cool!  While riding in the boat through the canal, we finally bumped into a pair of American Pygmy Kingfishers, a tough bird to get throughout its range.  Then we went to the Ojo de Agua boardwalk and right out of the boat there was what could be considered a rather ‘tame’ Gray-necked Woodrail walking around almost too close for photos. We had our final lunch under a big palapa on the beach and then headed into the beautiful city of Merida for the last night at the Hotel Mision de Fray Diego and a farewell dinner at the Portico del Peregrino. Thanks to all for being such great company and making it so much fun on our Yucatan adventure. It was a pleasure!