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These are great!


Debbie Grejdus
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CHACHALACA

Chachalaca, chachalaca, chachalaca!
Every time I see one of those cracidae
As it ungainly leaps from branch to branch,
Whether plain or rufous-bellied,
My heart joyfully beats chachalaca, chachalaca, chachalaca!

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"For most birds, migration is a leap of blind faith, an instinctive urge over which they have no real control. The curlew does not "know," in a conscious sense, that coconut palms and placid coral atolls await it in Tonga or Fiji-it can sense only an urgency to fly in a certain direction for a certain length of time, following a path graven in its genes and marked by the stars." Scott Weidensaul, Living on the Wind:Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds

That urge and sense of urgency has instinctively overtaken me, so this birder has gone birding to experience what awaits! As for when I will be back, the answer is blowing in the wind, if not in the stars.

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I have seen more and more Canada geese on the wing as the temperatures drop here.

"There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter..."

~Rachel Carson


Debbie Grejdus
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With some narrative to follow at a later time, the following are the species of birds seen/heard over various terrain in the San Blas, Nayarit Mexico area during my 5.5 days of birding there. Those in bold were my personal favorites (only a little less than half the species on the list!):

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis)
Fulvous Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna bicolor)
Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors)
Cinnamon Teal (Anas cyanoptera)
Northern Pintail
Rufous-bellied Chachalaca (Ortalis wagleri)
Elegant Quail (Callipepla douglasii)
Wood Stork (Mycteria americana)
Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens)
Neotropic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax brasilianus)
Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga)
American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
Great Egret (Ardea alba)
Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea)
Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor)
Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)
Green Heron (Butorides virescens)
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Nyctanassa violacea)
White Ibis (Eudocimus albus)
White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi)
Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja)
Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus)
Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
Common Black Hawk
Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
Gray Hawk (Buteo plagiatus)
Short-tailed Hawk (Buteo brachyurus)
Zone-tailed Hawk (Buteo albonotatus)
Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinicus)
American Coot (Fulica americana)
Common Moorhen
Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus)
Northern Jacana
(Jacana spinosa)
Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius)
Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)
Willet (Tringa semipalmata)
Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)
Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus)
Blue-Footed Booby
Brown Booby
American Oystercatcher

Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia)
Laughing Gull
Red-billed Pigeon (Patagioenas flavirostris)
White-winged Dove (Zenaida asiatica)
Inca Dove (Columbina inca)
Common Ground-Dove (Columbina passerina)
Ruddy Ground-Dove (Columbina talpacoti)
White-tipped Dove (Leptotila verreauxi)
Squirrel Cuckoo (Piaya cayana)
Groove-billed Ani (Crotophaga sulcirostris)
Colima Pygmy-Owl (Glaucidium palmarum)
Vaux's Swift (Chaetura vauxi)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris)
Broad-billed Hummingbird (Cynanthus latirostris)
Cinnamon Hummingbird (Amazilia rutila)
Citreoline Trogon (Trogon citreolus)
Elegant Trogon (Trogon elegans)
Russet-crowned Motmot (Momotus mexicanus)
Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon)
Green Kingfisher (Chloroceryle americana)
Golden-cheeked Woodpecker (Melanerpes chrysogenys)
Gila Woodpecker (Melanerpes uropygialis)
Ladder-Backed Woodpecker
Lineated Woodpecker (Dryocopus lineatus)
Pale-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus guatemalensis)
Collared Forest-Falcon (Micrastur semitorquatus)
Crested Caracara (Caracara cheriway)
Laughing Falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans)
Bat Falcon (Falco rufigularis)
Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)
Orange-fronted Parakeet (Aratinga canicularis)
Mexican Parrotlet (Forpus cyanopygius)
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet (Camptostoma imberbe)
Greenish Elaenia (Myiopagis viridicata)
Greater Pewee (Contopus pertinax)
Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii)
Pacific-slope Flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis)
Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus)
Bright-rumped Attila (Attila spadiceus)
Dusky-capped Flycatcher (Myiarchus tuberculifer)
Brown-crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus tyrannulus)
Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus)
Social Flycatcher (Myiozetetes similis)
Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus)
Thick-billed Kingbird (Tyrannus crassirostris)
Masked Tityra (Tityra semifasciata)
Rose-throated Becard (Pachyramphus aglaiae)
Plumbeous Vireo (Vireo plumbeus)
Cassin's Vireo (Vireo cassinii)
Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus)
Black-throated Magpie-Jay (Calocitta colliei)
San Blas Jay (Cyanocorax sanblasianus)
Sinaloa Crow (Corvus sinaloae)
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis)
Gray-breasted Martin (Progne chalybea)
Mangrove Swallow (Tachycineta albilinea)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Happy Wren (Pheugopedius felix)
Sinaloa Wren (Thryophilus sinaloa)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea)
Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush (Catharus aurantiirostris)
Rufous-backed Robin (Turdus rufopalliatus)
Northern Waterthrush (Parkesia noveboracensis)
Black-and-white Warbler (Mniotilta varia)
Orange-crowned Warbler (Oreothlypis celata)
Nashville Warbler (Oreothlypis ruficapilla)
MacGillivray's Warbler (Geothlypis tolmiei)
American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla)
Tropical Parula (Setophaga pitiayumi)
Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia)
Black-throated Gray Warbler (Setophaga nigrescens)
Fan-tailed Warbler (Basileuterus lachrymosus)
Wilson's Warbler (Cardellina pusilla)
Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens)
White-collared Seedeater (Sporophila torqueola)
Rosy Thrush-Tanager (Rhodinocichla rosea)
Grayish Saltator (Saltator coerulescens)
Rusty-crowned Ground-Sparrow (Melozone kieneri)
Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammacus)
Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra)
Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana)
Blue Bunting (Cyanocompsa parellina)
Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris)
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna)
Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus)
Black-vented Oriole (Icterus wagleri)
Orchard Oriole (Icterus spurius)
Streak-backed Oriole (Icterus pustulatus)
Bullock's Oriole (Icterus bullockii)
Yellow-winged Cacique (Cacicus melanicterus)
Scrub Euphonia (Euphonia affinis)

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You sure did see a lot of birds! That is quite a list. Welcome back!


Debbie Grejdus
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Thanks Debbie!

Speaking of that list...

Yesterday, around 10 minutes from our home while birding near Cemetery Pond (on the first day of the Day of the Dead), I was thrilled to see two black-vented orioles, an adult and a juvenile-infrequent visitors to where I bird locally. While in San Blas, amidst the opportunity to see so many species of birds including around two dozen Mexican endemics such as these distinctively gorgeous orioles who as adults are strikingly black on top and yellow on their underparts, I saw three black-vented orioles on three separate occasions.

While in San Blas I saw a much more commonly appearing bird in that area than the black-vented oriole, the endemic yellow-winged cacique. One of the most common of San Blas' specialty birds, the caciques as are all orioles are members of the icteridae family of birds. Overall, I saw over a hundred of those caciques in at least 15 different sightings.

Arguably more striking and distinctive than the above mentioned orioles, they are primarily black atop with yellow wings and a black and yellow tail crowned with a Rastafarian-like black crest. Beautiful, highly gregarious (make that loud! loud! loud!) and social, the caciques are hard to miss.

Yet, most "serious" birders, after having already seen them whether once or often, tend to overlook them due to their being so "common." As for me, familiarity with these "cool" and remarkably lovely sentient beings, could never result in contempt or apathy as they are always a special and sought after occurrence.

Heck, in my birding world, even the beyond common great-tailed grackle, who beyond noisily assemble each dusk in and around San Blas' main plaza in the thousands and can be seen virtually in every birding locale there, are also special!

The same specialness can be said for the one and only gorgeous male scrub euphonia (another on top black and underneath yellow bird-coincidentally or not the school colors of Edward Devotion Elementary School) that I saw while in San Blas!

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Day-in and day-out when birding one of the joys of that activity is to see my "old friends" that regularly and consistently occur in and around Cemetery Pond;no matter how often they may be seen/heard such birds as vermilion flycatchers, Western kingbirds, violet-crowned hummingbirds, groove-billed anis, golden-fronted woodpeckers, streak-backed orioles and American coots, just to mention a few, are a natural pleasure to behold.

However, what makes birding even more joyful is seeing/hearing the unexpected. In the last two days, I experienced four such sightings, the first-three-bing! bing! bing!- occured within five minutes of one another.

1. On a tree on the perimeter of the town's junior high school, I saw a, relatively speaking, rather large bird fly in and perch on an easy to see branch. Getting great looks (and photo) of its long banded tail and its raptor-like beak, I pretty much determined (?) that it was a peregrine falcon which is an infrequent visitor to the areas that I bird in. After he flew off, I was sure that it was that bird of prey due to its angular-shaped wings characteristic of falcons. Bing! Bing! Bing!

2. A couple of minutes later, I saw a bird perched on the utility wire that overhangs the pond. No it wasn't such regular perchers there such as a vermie or a house finch or a lesser goldfinch or even a barn swallow. Rather it was my long anticipated best birdy buddy, a male green kingfisher. As written previously, a pair of kingfishers annually appear in the middle of September. Yet, this year due probably to a lack of fish in the pond, I had not seen any kingfishers either there or at Double Garbage Lake. However, he had finally returned as maybe now the fish have returned too as demonstrated by the recent appearance at the pond of fish-dependent birds like snowy and great egrets along with a green heron. Bing! Bing! Bing!

3. Shortly thereafter, overhead in the air I saw a large shore/sea bird. Displaying an unmistakable beak/bill, I was thrilled to see that it was a brown pelican. When I was recently in San Blas, literally I had seen 100s of those pelicans. Yet, in Churintzio and its environs I had never seen one. Bing! Bing! Bing!

4. The next day, I decided to head off to the lake, primarily to view what shorebirds may be there. Just before getting to the lake I decided to check out some trees in a field that oftentimes has either an American Kestrel or a white-tailed kite in them. Alas, there were no raptors in them. However, my eyes detected some movement on the ground in a nearby dirt path which abuts a millet field. To my absolute delight I saw not one, not two, but three lesser roadrunners, an adult and two juveniles, doing their running and hoppingly flying thing. An hour later after my visit to the lake when I returned to that spot I was equally thrilled to see the roadrunners were still there. In my 5 years of birding I may have averaged about one sighting of a road runner per month but never had fleetingly witnessed more than one at any one time. Bing! Bing! Bing!

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CARACARA WHY?

Caracara why
So much confusion?
Anatomically you are a falcon
Yet vulture-like you consume carrion,
Disdaining soaring for a-strutting on and on.
Crested, some say you appear on the flag of Mexico,
Others who believe it to be the golden eagle say "Dios mio no."
Regardless, in all ways, you are one uniquely regal looking pajaro.

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ORIOLE TREE

Oh lofty Oriole Tree
Other beauties fly onto thee
Like blue grosbeaks, goldfinches, hummers and especially "vermie."
Yet why you have your earned name
Is when in a glorious display of sun setting orange flame
Those multiple gorgeous perched streak-backed orioles silently claim their fame.

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