Seeing Red at La Cumbre…(Oaxaca, Mexico): 6 March 2009

We spent the morning birding the La Cumbre road, just off Highway 175 running north out of Oaxaca City, (around 23km north of there). Our main target was the endemic Dwarf Jay that turned up just as we had lost hope at around 11am, when we decided to have a brief scout of the logging road southwest from La Cumbre, when a quick burst of tape brought one of these small blue jays screaming in above us. The bird seemed to be alone and called repeatedly, indicating they have begun the breeding process, as they are said to be virtually silent in winter, when they hang out with the much commoner Steller’s Jays.

For me though the top sighting of the morning was a bird I had longed to see for some time, arguably the brightest bird in the book, the Mexican endemic Red Warbler. None were heard or seen initially despite scouring the abundant warbler flocks up there, that held many wintering boreal warblers such as Townsend’s, Hermit, Black-and-white, and Wilson’s Warblers. Also amongst the warbler horde were a few of the near-endemic Crescent-chested Warblers, a bird that very occasionally also wanders into the southern US. As we hopped out of the car to check another roadside flock, I thought I heard a Red Warbler (see photo), so ‘popped’ the tape, and was very pleased to see a glowing red bird come into the tree above me, sporting a ghostly white cheek patch that stood out in the woodland shadows. Other birds along this pine and oak-fringed highland road were a calling male Mountain Trogon, and many calling Brown-backed Solitaires. In the afternoon we birded around our scenic mountain cabins in San Jose del Pacifico. Overall things were ‘deathly’ quiet with no Hooded Yellowthroats as hoped, although I got lucky with a short sighting of the endemic White-throated Jay closeby.

Monte Alban Allstars…(Oaxaca, Mexico): 5 March 2009

We started our Oaxaca birding trip with some birding around an ancient Zapotec ruins site on the overlooking Oaxaca City. Things were very quiet and hard to come by, although for me in my very first Mexican outing there was enough to amuse, including Slaty Vireo, White-throated Towhee, Gray-breasted Woodpecker, Boucard’s Wren (see photo), Orange-billed Nightingale-thrush, and Blue Mockingbird.

Up at La Cumbre in the afternoon we ran into a Rufous-capped Brush-finch, many noisy Gray-barred Wrens, Rufous-capped and Golden-browed Warbler, Rose-throated Becard, and White-eared Hummingbird.

Pipits and Plovers on the Prairie…(Houston, Texas): 4 March 2009

With a few hours to spare before my flight to Oaxaca City, Mexico I went out birding with Glen Olsen again to the Katy Prairie. We had a great few hours sifting through sparrows, for White-crowned Sparrow among the dozens of Savannah Sparrows, Lincoln’s Sparrows, and few Swamp Sparrows, although the cream of the crop was a hulking Harris’s Sparrow amongst this cryptic crowd. Aside from these we also had a female Pyrrhuloxia, a small party of Cave Swallows, and a number of Loggerhead Shrikes. On the waterbirds front we found a few shorebirds strewn about with some large flocks of Least Sandpipers on some flooded fields, holding a few Pectoral Sandpipers amidst their ranks, as well as a nice view of Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs standing shoulder to shoulder. One dry field held a herd of Long-billed Curlews, although prize amongst the wader horde was a group of seven American Golden Plovers ‘hiding’ within a large group of Killdeer. Another highlight was watching two beady-eyed Sprague’s Pipits just a short distance from a small party of American Pipits. Other sightings included the odd ‘Butter But’ or Yellow-rumped Warbler, and a few Green-winged Teal. Although for me the morning’s showstopper was a brazen Bald Eagle standing sentry over his chosen lake. Finishing the morning with America’s national bird was a great send off.

Bluebirds at Bear Creek…(Houston, Texas): 3 March 2009

My Journey to Mexico via Houston began with an alarming bit of news – that as a UK citizen visiting the US I now needed (as of January) to apply online for an electronic ESTA BEFORE my journey out (a visa-waiver type thing), not something I was ready for when I turned up bleary-eyed for my 04.30am check-in. Swiftly after I checked in I rushed to the internet station in Quito airport and belatedly completed these new formalities online with time to spare. Had the afternoon for a stop over in Houston with a friend, and local birdman, Glen Olsen. Picked up my new Canon 50D and went to play with it over in Bear Creek Park in Houston. Not much happening during a late afternoon visit, just a few Eastern Bluebirds brightening up the park, and the odd Pine Warbler hanging around in the pines (where else).

Mexico Bound...

Off to Mexico for the the next few weeks and so will post when I can. Here is something completely unrelated just to brighten up this post (Flame Bowerbird, PNG).

The Rocky Road to Quito…(Tandayapa to Quito, Ecuador): 26 Feb 2009

After lunch at the lodge we headed back to Quito but were stopped in our tracks by a huge landslide on the main highway back, and had to rapidly re-route in the process. Although this is the middle of the wet season, this year in Ecuador has been an extraordinarily wet one, with multiple landslides in many areas leading to some challenging periods. However, it is all part of the adventure of living in the shadow on the Andes, and one way or another, as we did on this day we get through it somehow, and had some fun along the way! (IT HAS NOW ALL BEEN CLEARED AND THE ROAD IS NOW OPEN)

Tosser on the Trails…(Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Ecuador): 26 Feb 2009

With the group being a relaxed crowd of Finnish photographers, I was surprised to find a single taker for an early morning walk along the Tandayapa Bird Lodge trails. We settled in to the hide with another independent birder who was staying at the lodge, to check again for the Scaled Antpittas that we’ seen a few days before, although were quickly distracted by a number of calling birds in the area. We left the hide therefore in pursuit of these. The first one, a Tawny-throated Leaftosser, a rarish bird on the lodge property tested our patience, as it called incessantly but only gave snatches of itself in the shady forest undergrowth. Patience wearing a little thin, a call a bit further upslope on the Potoo trail had us dropping the leaftosser like the proverbial hot rock. If it would not perform we figured we had bigger fish to fry with the Ochre-breasted Antpitta whistling a short distance away. A little use of the tape and this dumpy little antpitta popped up in some near vines and continued to call away, allowing us to see the characteristic grallaricula ‘shimmy’, where they wiggle their breast from side to side. Not long after having tried and failed to attempt at seeing the leaftosser again, we walked along the trail and bumped straight into a Tawny-throated Leaftosser sat right out in the open in the middle of the path, where we watched it probing away with its oversized bill in the muddy banks on the side of the trail. Along the same trail we also found the regular ‘lek’ of a male Wedge-billed Hummingbird, and were also treated to the site of a strutting Rufous-breasted Antthrush walking along the trail ahead of us.