Spring!

Yes, I know we are still breaking records for cold weather. There is still snow in places, not so much where we are but that is not unusual, even in the middle of winter. On a walk yesterday we did not see any crocuses, but it is still spring.

Proof:
A pair of Canada Geese is checking out the dam.  The frozen dam, but they are apparently optimists.

Snow Geese are flying overhead

and landing on a nearby slough in numbers not normally seen in our area in the spring.

Lots of white and blue geese here. I saw one Northern Pintail along the edge of the slough, but didn't particularly notice any Canadas with them.

More from Mexico

We got a lot of lifers on our recent trip, Ray is estimating 50 but I haven't actually tabulated yet. The tricky part is that we only have photos of a few. Many were glimpses through foliage, or, worse yet, came during the time my camera battery had died and I had left the spare at the hotel.  (Talk about being disgusted with one's self!)

Here are a few more of the new ones for which I do have photos.  Some of my photos, the ones I'm not posting, ID the bird, but are fuzzy or grainy so have no aesthetic appeal.

My goal was to see colourful birds, trogons and parrots being at the top of that list.  Here is the only trogon I was able to photograph.  This Elegant Trogon was directly over our heads, he (she?) sat there for a long time calling something that was somewhere between a cough and the caw of a crow.

Next is a San Blas Jay, a bird that does not live at San Blas.  Something to do with two jays looking similar, and the people naming them thinking they were one. When they separated them out, here is the one that kept the name it didn't deserve. This photo was taken at the Botanical Gardens in Puerto Vallarta where they attract birds with feeders, I think this guy is eating papaya, but we also saw them in a more natural habitat, but further away from my camera.

The new bird we saw the most often, almost everywhere we went, was the Yellow-winged Cacique.  It is pronounced Ka SEEK.  The Spanish speakers pronounce the final e turning it into Ka SEEK eh.

Not colourful at all, but this pretty little bird looks like he should be migrating to Saskatchewan every spring.  The White-throated Thrush.  Formerly called a robin, till the world birders decided that New World thrushes can only be called robins if they have red on their fronts, otherwise they are thrushes.  Apparently birders in the Old World rather resent our using the word robin to describe a bird not related to their robin.  Having seen their very pretty little robin, I can almost understand. However, the New World birders won a partial victory by explaining that the name robin is so culturally accepted here that changing our robin to a thrush would never succeed. No one would use the new name.

Following this same decision, this Rufous-backed Robin gets to keep his name. You will have a hard time seeing the red chest in this photo. Turns out, the Rufous-backed Robin became a bit of a Nemesis bird to me.  He just would not let me take a good photo, no matter where I saw him. This was the best.  From the front he resembles the American Robin with the striped throat of the thrush above.

Another bird we saw several times.  The Stripe-headed Sparrow.

While the above photos were taken in the general area of Puerto Vallarta, the last three photos are  from San Blas.

Shore birds are often easier to photograph. They are more inclined to stand around than perching birds. We didn't see as many new shorebirds because many of the birds here were the same as those we had in Mazatlán.   Two I had been hoping for, and saw, were
the Boat-billed Heron

 and the Bare-throated Tiger Heron.

The last photo is of a Spotted Rail, reportedly a shy bird who surprised our guide by posing for several minutes.  It was late in the afternoon (6:21 local time) and the mangroves were hiding the sun. I changed the camera to a low light setting and was impressed with what it could do.

Birding San Blas

Having visited Mazatlan several times, this year Ray and I decided to go to the place we had heard so much about. The place in Mexico where every birder needs to go.  San Blas.

                                        White Ibis a block from our hotel.

I knew about San Blas mostly from reading a few blog posts.  Unfortunately they were not recent or did not explain how the birders got there.  I’m writing this so others will benefit from what we learned. (Saskatchewan birds will return to this blog soon. I saw 2 Canada Geese today and flocks of Horned Larks.)

                                        View from the old fort overlooking the city.

San Blas is a smallish city about three hours north of Puerto Vallarta along the coast.  We flew into Puerto Vallarta in the morning of February 24, 2014.  To avoid the expensive airport taxis, we walked out of the airport, turned left twice and walked up a ramp and across the busy Highway 200.  Waiting at the bottom of the ramp on the other side was a man saying “Taxi?”  He had a clean, white taxi standing there so I stumbled through “¿Cuánto a la Central Camionera?” and he immediately turned the conversation into English and said 70 pesos.  We said si, or maybe okay, and climbed into the car.  Minutes later he was offering to drive us all the way to San Blas. Now, we had already looked into the price of a taxi to San Blas, and our source, Superior Tours in Puerto Vallarta, had quoted us $220 USD.  Not interested.  We later learned that it is possible to get a taxi from San Blas to pick people up at the airport for $100 to $150 but I think you would need a contact in San Blas to make that arrangement.

                              Inside the bus terminal in Puerto Vallarta.

Inside the bus terminal, we lined up at the Pacifico Futura counter. When our turn came, I stumbled through more of my pre-planned Spanish. 188 pesos per person.  (Less than $20 Cdn)  Next bus: 12:30 p.m.  Less than 2 hours. We could easily people-watch that long. We had been told the last bus of the day to San Blas was at 3, but had no idea when others were, so were pleased to know we would arrive in day light. There was a snack booth and a washroom (5 pesos plus tip for the attendant) and at 12:20 we exited through the back door and looked for our bus. It was a Norte de Sonora second class bus, no washrooms but excellent air conditioning. (Bring a sweater.)  We had been told that Mexican bus drivers gave people receipts for their luggage, but in our three bus rides on the Nayarit coast this did not happen even once. And no one stole our luggage.

                              A group of students who'd ridden the bus for a few miles.

The driver had little regard for the speed limit, though a lot of respect for the topes (speed bumps) and got us into San Blas just before 4, (3 with the time change) after stopping several times to pick up or put down people. There were taxis at the bus stop which we could have taken, but we thought we knew the way to our hotel from the maps we’d studied so decided to walk. It probably would have worked, too, if the bus terminal wasn’t closed because of a strike and they were making do with a kiosk next to the taxi stand.  As it was, we saw some of San Blas as we pulled our luggage behind us, and were able to use a few more carefully chosen Spanish words asking directions, and found our way to the Hacienda Flamingos (an interesting name, given that there are no flamingos in this birdy town.)

 

                                Magnificent Frigatebirds hoping for some fish scraps.

During our time in San Blas, we relied on Mark Stackhouse to get us to where the birds were, and to find the birds for us when we got there.  I understand there are several guides based in San Blas but we chose Mark because I could find his email address (westwings@sisna.com) . He took us, along with Gale and Frank from New York City, and gave us two memorable days.  And lots of new birds.

                                Orange-fronted Parakeet

The first day we did some wetlands close to San Blas in the morning, watched the birds at Mark's feeder over lunch, then after a short siesta break, took a boat out onto the ocean to see the Blue-footed Boobies.

The second day we went into the mountains in the morning, then took the incredible boat journey through the estuaries to La Tovara springs in the late afternoon.  When Ray and I are asked what was our most memorable part of the two weeks in Mexico, that boat ride is what we both say. It was great. Even if I didn't get a decent photo of a Green Kingfisher.  The boat was owned and operated by another local birder whose name I'd come across in my research, Chencho. He was amazing at navigating the boat through the estuary in the dark.

                                  Limpkin                           

We are very grateful to Mark Stackhouse for showing us the birds of San Blas. It was the best kind of holiday.  The kind where you get up early and see great new birds!

                                      Masked Tityra

                                Golden-cheeked Woodpecker

Northern Potoo

Ray and I are currently in Mexico.  Looking for birds.  One place in Mexico is really renowned for being a birder's dream and that is where we have started our trip.  San Blas, Nayarit.  I will do a full trip report on it when we get home to give people the information I found so difficult to find when planning this trip, but today I am just sharing one bird.  The Northern Potoo.

This is the bird in the daytime. It is the king of camouflage.

And this is a Northern Potoo a couple hours later, full darkness, and no, my flash is not that strong. The boatman had a spotlight. Not sure how the Potoo liked it, but it allowed me to take a photo (and see a bird) that I couldn't have done any other way.

Oh, right. The top photo is its back.

Snowy Owl

Among all the bird photos I've taken in the last eight years (since I've had a digital camera) there has been one notable absence. I did not have a single photo of a Snowy Owl. Not even a bad one.  This year I decided to remedy that situation. It has not been as easy as I thought.  Once I started carrying my camera every where I went, the Snowy Owls stopped sitting on the poles near our farm.  Or they sat there when a vehicle was on my bumper and stopping in a hurry was not recommended. Or when I was hurrying to work and had no time to stop. Or, oh no, did it really happen?  When I had left the camera by the door in the house.

Yesterday, however, just north of Birsay, I spied an owl. It's white shape was apparent on the top of a utility pole from some distance so I had time to slow down and pull over. I took one quick shot through the windshield, then got out and snapped two more before it decided to leave. 

Now, of course, I have a new goal.  To get a better photo of a Snowy Owl.

Third Bird of 2014

It was even hard to write that number. As someone said last night, it just turned 2013, how can it be 2014 already?

But it is, and the first bird I saw (and heard) this morning was one of our two Blue Jays. It did not stick around for a photo, however, and I didn't care to take a photo of the flock of House Sparrows that came next, so here is #3.  A female House Finch that I first noticed out my office window yesterday.

A new yard bird and a Lifer all in one

Black-billed Cuckoo

Not a really good photo, but this fellow seems to have an aversion to being seen. I'm happy he stopped at the top of this tree as long as he did.