Today, October 6, we were joined by Braulio Malega, our local guide from Ruiz Cortines. We started our day with a lovely breakfast at our lakeside hotel, with grand views of Lake Catemaco, the surrounding hills, and great shows of Merlin and Bat Falcon hunting over the water!We started our morning drive amid intense rain,…

Peruvian Pelicans drift quietly in the afternoon light. Arriving in Peru a day early allowed a day of rest and an opportunity for the possibility of delayed luggage to catch up with us. No luggage was lost on this trip, but the extra time was used well with four of us going birding along the…

Oct 5th – This morning we made a special trip to see another Mexican endemic, the very local Sumichrast’s Wren. This large wren is only found in forested areas with karst outcrops and caves in a very small area of Veracruz, Puebla, and Oaxaca. We drove from Cardel at sea level, to the town of…

Always one of the special days of our Veracruz tour is our visit to the El Mirador Ranch with our host Jorge Muller (above). From Cardel on Oct 4th, we drove up to 1100 meters and the Muller’s family ranch and 19-century hacienda to be warmly greeted by Jorge. After some hot home-grown coffee, and a few birds…

Today, Oct 3rd, we visited Chavarrillo, a small town close to Xalapa and a bit lower in elevation. We were only a short distance from our cloud forest hike yesterday, but the drier climate, vegetation and birds were very different. A male and female Barred Antshrike (above) put on quite a show in the morning’s…

Since we were having such a good time in the Xalapa area, we decided to spend another day here enjoying the birds, the town, and the cooler weather. On a beautiful sunny morning we met our transport and guides in the town of El Zapotal, to embark upon our outing to the Pixquiac River watershed,…

Today, Oct 1st, was our high elevation exploration of the mountains above Xalapa; a big day for endemics. We traveled just a short distance, but climbed steeply to the pine-oak forests of La Joya, at about 6,000 feet elevation. After we and the birds warmed up, the birding was excellent, with just about everything being…

For our first full day in Xalapa on Sept 30th, we started at the Macuilteptl Park, an old volcano, and now a wonderful 80-acre park of cloud forest habitat in the very center of the city. The birding here is always great, and we had a very productive morning. We were awed by a clear…

photo © adrian binns

We started the morning of Sept 29th at Playa Chalchihuecan, a coastal scrub site known for hummingbirds, resident and migrant raptors and passerines, and it did not disappoint. We arrived at sunrise and started right away seeing many new local residents such as Altamira Oriole, Band-backed Wren, Social and Boat-billed Flycatchers and the other look-alike,…

Though the nets were opened at dusk, it was not until the winds had died down and the hands on the clock crept towards midnight that a Saw-whet Owl was caught. I returned to Rushton Farm in Delaware County to join Doris, Lisa, Lou, Sheryl and Lauren for the hourly net check. It was a…

I awoke to find that this weeks 75 degree days here in Philadelphia have given away to more seasonable fall weather. It is considerably cooler – 20 degrees cooler and blustry! Yesterday I did find a few butterflies at the Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in Tinicum, including those pictured below, but this turn of meteorlogical…