|
2016-11-05 - 3:48 p.m. The theme of the rain & cloud forest seems to be red-- from the bright red underparts of the male Mountain Trogon and Slate-colored Redstart to the all-out downright frankly named Red Warbler. I thrilled when I first spotted the male White-Lined Tanager which-- despite the unexciting name-- is a wonderful red bird. (Its less thrilling mate lurked nearby.) Many, many lifers on this trip already even before we really got out of Veracruz state, but the complete list will have to wait, because it's one of those tours where you always have to be ready to hit the ground running. We spent much of day 3 (Nov. 4) driving to Oaxaca with plenty of stops to bird along the way. In the evening, we ate in the famous square, where people kept coming by to try to sell us stuff and / or play music. I may or may not have bought some "stuff" but it was too cute to pass up. Also, there may have been some margaritas involved. This morning we birded an ancient archeological site that I want to call Yagul. (Yazul?) It was scrub, so the light was great, and I managed to get some nice bird shots, although I'm not carrying a bird camera, since I prefer the viewing to the photography aspect of the birding hobby. The Bumblebee Hummingbird of yesterday was not all that (a lone female whose primarily characteristic of note was being small)but today there was many and many hummingbirds chasing, scrapping, fighting, and feeding. My favorites were undoubtedly the crabby yet beautiful Berylline Hummingbird. I saw a Zone-Tailed Hawk but no one else did. I think there will be others though... Many fine endemics that showed well, although the White-collared Towhee was a scraggly-ass looking bird if you ask me. The beautiful Bridled Sparrow and feisty Bouccard's Wrens made up for the Towhee's rather pathetic appearance...We have also bought some handicrafts and seen what is alleged to be the world's largest tree by circumference. It is a Mexican Cypress. I bet we had bigger ones in Louisiana and they all got cut for timber before 1800!
All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2002-2017 by Elaine Radford
|