Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

A short Mexican retrospective…

Anne, Donna, Mike, and I all arrived home safely this afternoon, after an uneventful flight, and I believe we are all in agreement that we had a fabulous time in Mexico. The scenery was amazing, the food was fantastic, and the people were wonderful. I did not, however, make it into Estabrook this afternoon, so I have to mine my trip pictures one more time, and I took about 1600, just of wildlife, so I still have a few from which to choose.

I’ve had the good fortune to show you a white ibis before, from my layover in Orlando, and here are a couple more from Laguna de Manialtepec on Saturday. In case you couldn’t already tell, we had thick cloud cover all morning, which made being out on the boat much more pleasant, and it also made it a lot easier for me to avoid overexposing my shots.

I’ve shown you American avocets, as well, at McKinley Beach right here in Milwaukee, of all places, and here’s one more, though it’s in nonbreeding or immature plumage.

I heard multiple claims this trip of spotting bright-red male vermilion flycatchers, but I never knowingly laid eyes on one myself. Instead, I did see several female or immature ones, and here’s one more of the little cuties at the ruins just outside of Tehuacán on Sunday afternoon.

At the Helia Bravo Hollis Botanical Garden on the other side of Tehuacán Monday morning, I got another chance to capture an image of a curve-billed thrasher, which I first saw in Big Bend National Park.

Finally, here’s a banner metalmark butterfly (Thisbe lycorias) that has seen better days but still looks pretty sharp, also at the botanical garden.

Alright, the weather forecast for tomorrow morning looks great, and with any luck I’ll be over my jet lag by then, so I can’t wait to see which fall migrants might still be in town. If I see any, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Tehuacán!

We made it back to Mexico City today and returned the rental car with no new scratches, dents, or tickets. Woo Hoo! I even have a few pictures to show you, and please allow me to present them in chronological order.

First, here’s one more picture from our amazing outing on the Laguna de Manialtepec. There were plenty of vultures soaring overhead and perched in the trees around the lagoon, and they were mostly all either turkey vultures or black vultures, of which we’ve seen plenty, but one was not like the others.

As it soared over, we could see that it had a yellow head, which made our guides very excited, but I was a little surprised when they actually turned the boat around for a better look. Well, if I thought that was surprising, you can imagine my shock when we soon found the bird standing right on the riverbank feasting on some big fish lying there. With an eye-level look like that, we couldn’t help but positively identify it as a lesser yellow-headed vulture (Cathartes burrovianus).

Then, yesterday morning before we left Puerto Escondido, we hiked down the street to a breakfast place, and on the way, look Mike helped me find in the trees across the street: our very first scrub euphonia (Euphonia affinis).

The fun didn’t stop when we sat down to eat, either. The open-air restaurant looked out over a field with some trees, and look who Donna spotted lurking in one of those trees: our very first and very shy russet-naped wren (Campylorhynchus humilis).

Then it was time to get on the road, and when we arrived in Tehuacán, yesterday afternoon, we drove up to the nearby archeological site. There, amongst the carefully excavated and partially restored ruins, we found our first gray-breasted woodpecker (Melanerpes hypopolius).

Finally, before we got back on the road this morning, we paid a visit to the fabulous Helia Bravo Hollis Botanical Garden in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve. There, we saw thousands of cacti, from tiny to giant, a few, shy birds, and this tiny butterfly, a creamy stripe-streak (Arawacus jada).

Now it’s time for me to get some sleep so I can get up early to catch our flight back to Wisconsin.

More from Laguna de Manialtepec…

Today we drove from the coast back up into the highlands to the small city of Tehuacán. We saw a couple nice sights before we got on the road, and a couple more after we rolled into town, but it’s getting late, so here are just a few more sights from our big outing yesterday.

I got to show you a plain chachalaca from Belize last year, but it turns out they come in a variety of flavors, and here’s a West Mexican chachalaca (Ortalis poliocephala).

I also showed you a white-fronted Amazon from nearly the same location in Belize, and it turns out that their range extends all the way up to southern Mexico so here’s another of the same.

Finally, we saw more than just birds and butterflies, and here is my very first American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus). We stayed out of the water, but some tourists have been more adventurous and ended up paying a price.

Tomorrow we drive back to Mexico City, return the car, stay one more night, and fly back to O’Hare Tuesday morning. With any luck, that’ll give me a chance to show you what we saw today.

Wildlife of the amazing Laguna de Manialtepec

As I mentioned yesterday, we headed out before sunrise this morning to check on the wildlife at the nearby Laguna de Manialtepec. What I didn’t mention is that Anne arranged for us to take a boat ride with the fabulous Lalo Ecotours, and I must admit it was one of the most amazing tours it has ever been my pleasure to experience. Donna and Mike came with, and you know Donna is a real stickler for not counting a bird that she didn’t positively identify, and we counted 75 distinct bird species, I kid you not.

For example, I’ve been able to show you egrets and herons from around the world, but I had not yet managed to see a reddish egret (Egretta rufescens), until this morning. Here is the second one we saw as it frantically tried to catch the fish at its feet, for which I now read they are somewhat famous. The staid folks at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology write, “in the stately and dignified world of herons, reddish egrets are the swashbuckling cousins.“

I did manage to show you Eurasian spoonbills in South Holland, and I glimpsed a roseate on the way to the airport from the Crooked Tree Lodge in Belieze, but I didn’t stop for a picture, So, here is the very first roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) I’ve ever managed to capture on film.

I did have pretty good luck capturing a wood stork on film as it flew over Grenada, Nicaragua, but it was a real treat this morning to have several subjects to choose from who were nearly stationary and at eye-level.

As if that wasn’t enough. Our guides, Lalo and is son Eve, were also able to conjure a couple of boat-billed herons, so I could update the grainy photos I took outside of Tikal in Guatemala.

Speaking of second chances, they also conjured a pair of ferruginous pygmy-owls, so I could replace those distant shots I got of one outside of Antigua, Guatemala.

I’ve had the good luck of seeing several trogons over the years, but I clearly haven’t seen them all yet, because here’s my very first Citreoline Trogon (Trogon citreolus).

Finally, I’ve seen a couple of butterflies with zebra in their names and a couple more called “longwings”, but this is my first ever zebra longwing (Heliconius charithonia).

Tomorrow, we start our drive back to Mexico City to catch a flight back to Chicago, but along the way were going to stop in Tehuacán for a night to see what there is to see. If we come across anything photo worthy, I’ll be sure to let you know, but I’ve still got a ton of content to mine from the pictures I took today, so I’ll have something to show you either way.

Adios, Oaxaca!

We did make the 200-km drive and 1,555-m descent from Oaxaca down to Puerto Escondido on the Pacific coast this afternoon, but before we left, we also made one more hike up Cerro del Fortín before breakfast this morning.

Donna made our first discovery of the day, before we even made it into the park, when she spotted this handsome rufous-backed robin (Turdus rufopalliatus), who looks a lot like the American robins we regularly see in Estabrook Park, but with its name-sake rufous back.

In the same tree as the robin, we also found this stunning, male summer tanager (Piranga rubra). If, like me, you’re wondering how this isn’t a scarlet tanager, that’s because this one doesn’t have the black wings that they do.

Once we did finally get into the park, Donna knew right away that this little darling hopping around close to the ground was a rufous-capped warbler (Basileuterus rufifrons). Sure, I’d love to have a presentable image of this bird that did not include a chain-link fence, but with the way this little stinker hops around, I’m lucky to have a presentable image at all.

Just across the road from the warbler, we found another tanager, this female western tanager (Piranga ludoviciana).

Finally, on our hike back down the hill to our hotel, we found another graphic spiny lizard that wedged itself into a handy crack in a utility pole on the side of the street.

Once we arrived in Puerto Escondido and got ourselves checked into our hotel, we hiked down to the beach for a leisurely late lunch. We did see a couple different terns, frigate birds, pelicans, and a whole bunch of great-tailed grackles, but we were taking the afternoon off, so I didn’t get any pictures. Instead, we’re heading out before sunrise tomorrow morning to the nearby Laguna de Manialtepec, which is supposed to be packed with all kinds of wildlife. Wish us luck!

More sights from Oaxaca…

We were so impressed by what we saw on Cerro del Fortín yesterday morning, that we hiked back up there before breakfast today. One treat was finding more gray silky-flycatchers, which I first excitedly showed you from the central square in Puebla on Tuesday. It turns out that they are quite social, and we counted at least a couple dozen chatting away and flitting around in the trees at the top of the hill. I don’t know if they were emboldened by their comrades or too busy interacting with them to worry about li’l ol’ us on the ground below, but they sure gave us better looks today than we’ve gotten before.

I was thrilled to find our first Mexican woodpecker when Mike spotted this male ladder-backed. Long-time readers may recall that I was first able to show you one from our visit to Big Bend National Park back in 2023, but I sure got a much better look at one today. “Thanks, Mike!”

We’ve seen plenty of eastern towhees and a few spotted towhees, but here’s our very first white-throated towhee (Melozone albicollis). It doesn’t look quite as flashy as its cousins, but at least it’s not as plane as the California towhee.

If it’s flashy new birds you’re after, you can hardly do better than this black-vented oriole (Icterus wagleri), which Mike also spotted for us. That guy was on a roll!

Finally, we took a little tour this afternoon to the Dainzú archeological site, and that’s where I found our butterfly for the day, this tiny ceraunus blue (Hemiargus ceraunus).

I see on the syllabus that we’re due to drive down to Puerto Escondido on the Pacific coast tomorrow, but I hope we get one more chance to hike up Cerro del Fortín in the morning to see who we’ve missed.

Oh, Oaxaca!

As I mentioned yesterday, we woke up in Oaxaca this morning and casually assembled on the rooftop terrace of the fabulous Hotel Azucenas that Anne had found for us. As we sipped our caffeinated beverage of choice and watched the sun come up over the city, this stunning dusky hummingbird (Phaeoptila sordida), a first for all of us, paid a visit to the potted garden growing on the terrace.

After a fantastic breakfast of Huevos a la Mexicana, we headed out for Cerro del Fortín, the hill behind our hotel, where we soon found several more firsts, including this astounding painted bunting (Passerina ciris), which looks like a fake bird, but I can finally attest is very real indeed.

Our first berylline hummingbird (Saucerottia beryllina), which is aptly named after beryl, a green gemstone.

And our first Townsend’s warbler (Setophaga townsendi), which is named after John Kirk Townsend, who, in addition to collecting the native birds he encountered, also collected skulls of indigenous people by stealing them from graves, and who eventually died of arsenic poisoning from the “secret” ingredient in the taxidermy preparations he developed. Sounds like a regular Darwin Award contender, doesn’t he?

Finally, another butterfly granted me a sitting, and this one is a Magnificent swallowtail (Papilio garamas). Nice.

There’s more to write about from today, but I’d like to avoid another late night, so they’ll just have to wait for another day.

Puebla, Mexico!

That’s right, we’re in Mexico, and it’s been a long couple of days, but I do finally have some pictures to show you. We were lucky enough to have two good friends tag along on this trip, Donna, whom you know from the Milwaukee Birders, and her husband, Mike, who spotted the ruby-throated hummingbird nest in Estabrook a couple of years ago, and here’s who they helped me find in our first stop, the fabulous city of Puebla.

Our hotel was right off the central square, and Donna, Mike, and I were out soon after sunrise this morning to see who might be around. Happily, it didn’t take us long to find this little darling, the first gray silky-flycatcher (Ptiliogonys cinereus) for all of us.

After breakfast, we visited the fort overlooking the city, where the Battle of Puebla took place on May 5th, 1862, and we were greeted right away by this little cutie, a female vermilion flycatcher. Long-time readers may recall that I got a nice shot of a male down in Belize.

Mike and Donna ventured into the fort, to immerse themselves in history, while Anne and I strolled around the lush grounds surrounding the fort, where we found the first Bewick’s wren (Thryomanes bewickii) I’ve been able to capture on film.

Back at the central square, Donna spotted what appears to be my first graphic spiny lizard (Sceloporus grammicus).

Finally, we’ve seen several butterflies down here, but the one that sat still for a moment, because she was busy laying eggs, was this striking green-eyed white (Leptophobia aripa).

Lastly, we drove down to Oaxaca de Juárez this afternoon, and we plan to go looking for wildlife in the morning. I’ll be sure to let you know who we find.

And we’re off…

As I mentioned yesterday, I wasn’t able to join the weekly wildlife walk in Estabrook Park this morning because Anne and I were already on our way to our next destination. I still don’t want to ruin the surprise, but when I asked our AI overlords which of the birds that I’ve already shown you might we see again on this trip, this was their top five.

I would be beyond thrilled to see a collared aracari again, like the one we got to see at the Caracol archeological site in Belize.

While they are certainly not the flashiest of birds, these Inca doves from Antigua, Guatemala sure make a cute pair.

I’ve seen great kiskadees, like this one from the Cahal Pech Village Resort in San Ignacio, Belize, all over the place, and it will be a treat to hear their call again.

This cinnamon hummingbird in Granada, Nicaragua was a very patient poser, but I wouldn’t mind having another crack at one that would be willing to turn around and face the light.

Finally, who wouldn’t relish the opportunity to see a keel-billed toucan, like this one at the Cahal Pesh archeological site in Belize, one more time.

With any luck, I’ll have my feet on the ground by late this afternoon, and I’ll be sure to let you know if I see anything.

Hot pursuit…

The wind was already blowing pretty good by sunrise, so I didn’t have high hopes for this morning’s outing in Estabrook Park. The sun was shining, however, so it was a pretty day to look at, in any case.

Once again, I didn’t see any new birds on the pond or the river, but I did get to see our visiting merlin again near the top of a tree on the upstream island in the river.

Back on our shore and a lot closer to the ground, I found this northern flicker, who didn’t depart with the rest of the crew, appearing to warm itself in the sun.

The main event for today came as I went by the dog park on my way to the pond for a second visit. There I happened to notice this Cooper’s hawk perched in the tree that sits inside the fence and nearest to the parkway. As I tried to move to my left to get that stick out from in front of its face, it swooped down and circled the tree several times …

in hot pursuit of this red squirrel, and you can see the hawk peeking out from behind the tree. It reminded me a little of those old coyote and roadrunner cartoons.

It tried again and ended up on the chain-link fence around the dog park.

After the third attempt, it retired to a nearby tree, and I was finally able to get a proper portrait of the frustrated hunter.

Finally, at the far south end, look who else paid us a rare visit.

Boy, today sure turned out better than I expected.

Now, about tomorrow. I won’t be able to join you for the wildlife walk this time because Anne and I will be boarding our flight to our next destination, instead. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but I will post some pictures tomorrow of critters we might hope to spot once we get there.