VERACRUZ, Mexico Trip Report
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Day 1 / Sept 25 – Playa Chalchihuecan; Cardel Bienvenido rooftop; |
At Cerro Gordo we walked the tarmac road which was only in use to a police vehicle and a herdsman with cows. Finally the sun broke through and we had good numbers of butterflies including Red Rims and a Violet-washed Banner. Blue-black Grassquits were common in the tall grasses along with a female Varied Bunting. The small trees that lined the road held both Brown-crested and Great-crested Flycatchers, Northern Beardless Tyrannulets, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and a couple of Black-crested Titmouse. A male Canivet’s Emerald perched out in the open briefly but luckily kept returning to the same perch for all of us to view. A couple of Buff-bellied Hummingbirds were picking off insects in the crown of a Gumbo Limbo and we had both Red-billed Pigeons and Montezuma Oropendula’s flying across the lush valley.
A stop at the Xalapa University produced the ubiquitous Wilson’s Warblers, Yellow-winged Tanagers and Social Flycatchers along with close looks at a female Summer Tanager and Baltimore Oriole.
Heading down into the caldera we encountered a small warbler flock including Black-and-white, Black-throated Greens, Golden-browed and Golden-crowns before we were fixated for 15 minutes on a large puddle in the path near the bottom of the caldera that had bathing Clay-colored Robins, Blue-wing Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Blue Mockingbird and a pair of Chestnut-capped Brush Finch.
A juvenile Mottled Owl was found being mobbed by Social Flycatchers and a short distance further along the path we found a parent and an older youngster. Three vireos, Cassin’s, Blue-headed and Warbling rounded out a great morning This is one the better places to see butterflies and there was no shortage of them with Square-tipped Crescents, sisters, Red-striped and Pale Leafwings, Karwinski’s Beauty, Orange Mapwing, Faded Eighty-eights, Black Swallowtails, Narrow-banded Dartwhite, Star Satyr, Mountain Longwings and Mexican Silverspots.
Following an hour inside the wonderful Anthropological Museum in Xalapa, we headed to Xico Falls arriving late afternoon. A pair of Bat Falcons were our first find at Xico, with 2 birds perched a good distance away on wires. Both oropendulas, Chestnut-headed and Montezuma’s, were present in good numbers and while studying the difference between the two, a group of 7 White-crowned Parrots flew into the same tree, with 2 of them alighting near the top of good looks. Late afternoon is a good time for swifts swirling about before heading into the crevices that line the waterfalls and cliffs, and amongst the White-collared we picked out a couple of Chestnut-collared. As we headed back to the bus we came across some birds that briefly landed in the top of a tree and included a pair of uncommon White-winged Tanagers, Rufous-capped Warblers and a Baltimore Oriole. A few butterflies including morphos, Marina patches and numerous Anna’s Eighty-eights.
One final stop on the way out was at an old sand quarry where Striped Sparrows were the stars as they sat up on shrubs for all to see. Lesser Goldfinches and Sharpie also put in an appearance.
Dropping in elevation we had lunch at a restaurant near Los Humeros, an area of Century Plants, Joshua Trees, junipers, pines and wildflowers. This new (to our tour) and unique habitat produced a whole new range of species including Orange-crowned warblers, Western Scrub Jays, Black-chinned, Rufous and Lucifer’s Hummingbirds. Black-chinned Sparrows proved to be sulkers while Western Tanager, Scott‘s Oriole and Curve-billed Thrasher were seen at some distance.
By late morning we were back on the rooftop at our hotel in Cardel where we had small kettles of 10-20 Broadwings, the beginning of Turkey Vulture migration with about 60 birds and 7 other raptors, including 11 Cooper’s, 2 Peregrines and individual Hook-billed Kite, Merlin, Common Black Hawk and White-tailed Kite. As the migration seemed slow we took advantage of the lull and visited the ruins at Zempoala for the remainder of the afternoon. Half the group opted for the guided tour with Bob acting as translator, and the rest joined me as worked our way around the vegetated perimeter. The usual common species were about including Blue-grey and Yellow-winged Tanagers, Melodious Blackbirds, Great-tailed Grackles, Altimara Oriole Ruddy Ground Dove, Wilson’s Warbler, Scrub Euphonia and yes, Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, which enjoying calling during daylight hours, making some of them rather easy to find, and today was no exception. Yellow-throated Warblers are easy to find here amongst the palm trees and we came across Hooded Warbler, Bronzed Cowbird and noisy Black-headed Saltators.
The lagoon, now thankfully cleared of water lettuce had Northern Jacana, good numbers of Yellow-crowned Night Herons and a couple of Least Grebes, but we could not find any Boat-billed Herons. On the coastal dunes there was resident dark-morph Short-tailed Hawk flying about and we caught sight of Montezuma Oropendulas flying along the ridge. In the trees along the ridge a Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet began calling and was soon picked up and Great-crested Flyctchers sat out in the open for us. A juvenile Great Black Hawk was also seen as was a small movement of south bound Scissor-tailed Flycatchers. Walking back along the path through the vegetation we came across an Ovenbird and a few of the more common warblers, namely Hooded and Wilson’s. Heading out on the dirt road towards the main road we made a couple of stops for two very cooperative Aztec Parakeets, male American Redstarts and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks.
Back on the rooftop for lunch there were small flights of broadwings very high up. We got to see a kettle of about 75 Anhingas and about 20 Mississippi Kite’s passed through. With the flight heading inland we took off for Chichi but it never really materialized, as they only counted about 4 thousand for the day, whereas Cardel had 6 times that. It was all around a very slow raptor day. We did however get to see a darph morph Broadwing amongst a kettle of 100 plus birds.
This evening we paid a visit to a bat cave in the middle of a cornfield. As the final stretch of the road was too narrow for the bus, we had to walk the final ½ mile. A Roadside Hawk was very vocal and we came across a number of Altimara, Orchard and Baltimore Orioles. We set up our picnic dinner in front of the cave entrance and began our meal. At 7:10 an Aplomado Falcon showed up, patrolling the corn field in search for a final meal before settling down for the night. 5 minutes later the first of an estimated ¼ of a million bats would emerged and we watched in astonishment and awe as the falcon showed off all of its hunting skills as it chased, twisted and turned, hovered and finally caught the bat and took it to a tree to eat.
On this day it was not good to be one of the first bats out of the cave. Both birds successfully picked off these bats before calling it a day and leaving the rest of the bats to go and hunt. While we finished up our picnic dinner under the milky way and with Mars and Jupiter showing well, the bats mainly consisting of Davy’s naked-backed and Peter’s Ghost-faced, began to stream up building in numbers as it progressively got darker. There flight path took them in front of us and around the corn stalks at the corner of the field and on a low trajectory into the night. At 8:30 our taxi (a pick up truck) showed up, we loaded the tables, chairs and half the group and the rest of waited till the taxi returned from dropping the first group off at the bus. It was not long before we were all together and on our way back to the hotel following a wonderful evening.
A short distance away we came across a mixed flock that included stunning looks at a pair of Rufous-capped Warblers; Black-throated Green Warblers in all plumages; a female Black-and-white; Wilson’s Warbler; White-eyed as well as Yellow-throated Vireo and then Yellow-olive Flycatcher which we followed for some distance before it took off deep into the plantation. This was followed by several Bananaquits, one of which was nest building, Blue-winged Warbler, Dusky-capped Flycatcher and a pair of Olivaceous Woodcreepers which showed extremely well. By this point we had reached the next path we were to take and here the activity centered around one tree with numerous Azure-crowned Hummingbirds and Wedge-tailed Sabrewing’s taking center stage and having a supporting cast of Common Bush Tanagers and a Golden-crowned Warbler. The final leg of our walk added Greater Pewee, Violaceous Trogon, Scrub Euphonia and a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, before piling into the farm truck and being herded to the bus.
One cannot forget the marvelous variety of butterflies that accompanied our birding on this bright and sunny morning. They included Zebra, Tiger, Mountain and Crimson-patched Longwing, Rusty-tipped page, Blue-fronted Catone, Klug’s Clearwing, and a fine assortment of Satyrs.
Lunch was taken on the rooftop of the hotel and while the mid day hours were slow, the flights of Broad-wings picked up by 2 pm and over the following 3 hours over 100,000 birds had been counted. Finally what had surely been held up by Hurricane Rita was beginning to show up.Though most were high in the sky we certainly did get our fair share of good views of the raptors. What was noticeably different from past years was that the afternoon flight seemed to be heading southeast towards the coast. A few Swainson’s were picked out, as well as a good showing of Peregrine’s and Mississippi Kites. Both accipiters, single Northern Harrier’s, Zone-tailed Hawks and a White-tailed Kite rounded out a great show.
After a fine buffet dinner we enjoyed a talk by Carole Griffiths of the potential future categorization and separation of raptor families and orders.
The activity around the seasonal freshwater pond was bustling with White Ibis, both Night-Herons, an assortment of egrets and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks going back and forth. Several Anhingas perched quietly while Amazon, Ringed and Belted made considerable noise as they criss-crossed the pond occasionally successfully diving for fish. Amongst the Blue-winged Teal there were individual Green-winged Teal and Shoveler as well as 3 Cinnamon Teal. Pied-billed Grebe and Least Grebe both showed well as did a family of Jacanas while a Moorhen flew some 30 yards over the rushes and dropped out of sight. A Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, several small groups of White-winged Doves and all ages of Vermillion Flycatchers, Common Yellowthroat and Northern Waterthrushes were all seen. We could see that small kettles of raptors were rising from the woods around us, so we headed back to Cardel in the hopes of getting a good flight.
The rooftop was hoping throughout the lunchtime hours with never ending lines of birds and vortex’s rising for hundreds of feet – we had hit the “river of raptors”. Though it started out along the coastal dunes they came closer to the hotel as the winds shifted slightly pushing them further inland. A Hook-billed Kite, several Peregrines, a Northern Harrier and about half a dozen Swainson’s including a dark morph added to the excitement. The official count between 11 and 12 was over 35,000 broad-wings and 10,000 Turkey Vultures followed by over 20,000 in the next hour. We all felt that the count was very low, but then again none of us do this every day. From here it was onto to Chichicaxtle 5 miles west of town where the numbers continued to pile up. Overall the produce a quarter of a million birds, the largest number to date this season. The narrow flower bank between the football field and the sugar cane fields was watched carefully for over and hour and a half producing good looks at a Buff-bellied Hummingbird and the briefest of views of a female Mexican Sheartail. The inactivity no doubt due to a steady wind that certainly made it favorable for the raptors but not the resident passerines.
Only a short distance away is Rio Escondido (hidden river valley) were we did get to see the tail end of the day’s migration with several large kettles of several thousand birds. Blue-black Grassquits were common as well as being vocal; an Altimara Oriole was perched nicely as was a female Indigo Bunting and our target bird the Grey-crowned Yellowthroat did produce a good view for several in the group before disappearing into the tall grass.
A single Pinnated Bittern was a great find as it stalked the perimeter of the pond picking off frogs. A single Mangrove Swallow was on a wire besides a Vermillion Flycatcher and Inca Dove. A large body of marsh produced a Jacana with young, Blue-winged Teal and a Purple Gallinule while a very small small grove of trees held Ruby-throated Hummingbird, male, female and immature Green-breasted Mango, Northern Parula, Common Tody Flycatcher and 2 pairs of Bobwhite Quail. From here we stopped briefly at the northern end of the Alvarado Wetlands near the Tlacotalpan tollbooth where Osprey and Great Black Hawk were perched and a male Snail Kite flew beside the vans looking for apple snails in the wet ditches.
Following lunch besides the river in the historic town of Tlacotalpan where Green Herons, Mangrove Swallows and Laughing Gulls were active along the river, we continued south. A flock of about 20 Black Terns were spotted flying in unison up the river, likely as a result of the windy conditions. By mid afternoon as we neared Catemaco it had begun to rain and as we pulled into our hotel it had picked up. With one more stop planned we quickly settled in and then headed the short distance to Nanciyaga. Unfortunately by the time we got there the rain picked up, but we were still able to pick up Ringed and Green Kingfisher, Keel-billed Toucan, Collared Aracari, Kentucky Warbler and hear Ruddy Crake.
After diner in town, where the garlic Talapia was out of this world, we checked the internet to get the latest on tropical storm Stan which was heading in our direction. With two major sites and the Mexico satellite showing that a Hurricane warning had been posted for some of the Veracruz coast and with the projected path heading towards Veracruz City at 7mph with an expected landfall of Wednesday evening, we decided that it would be best to head away from any possible danger in the morning.
It was not that a vehicle could not get through, it was that the workers wanted to be paid and no one was willing to come with the money. I pulled out 20 pesos and we were on our way. The journey was very slow, taking considerably longer that we expected, and though we did go through patches of heavy rain, the winds were not that bad. An hour and a half into the journey we pulled into a Pemex station, but the electricity was out, so we were unable to get gas. We did get word that Stan was only a few hours away from hitting the coast between Catemaco and Alvarado (further south and far sooner that any of us were lead to believe) as a category 1 hurricane! We continued, seeing more evidence of downed trees, extensive flooding besides the road even a wash out or two and traversed a couple of low water spots.
We continued on, as did others, until we came to another halt at 11AM with an assortment of half a dozen vehicles in front of us. The word was that the road ahead had been completely washed out. We had no choice but to turn around. A half mile back traffic was again stopped and a number of people were milling around a bridge. Apparently they had been inspecting the bridge that we had just crossed less than 10 minutes ago and noticed that a girder was very loose, but the main support beams were in tack. A number of people, including our drivers felt that it was manageable for smaller vehicles. We all got out and ran across the bridge in the rain and the drivers made in across, with our bags. By the time we drove several kilometers, a number of vehicles had pulled over at the small village of Hidalgo and the word was that the road had been washed out a kilometer to the east.
We were now isolated with no way out. As luck would have we sought shelter in the Victoria café, a three sided concrete block structure with sugar cane thatching over a beamed roof. The floor was wet, not from leaks, but from everyone tracking water in on their shoes and someone had an untrained poodle whose owner did not care that it had left a huge deposit besides the counter. Here also with numerous others in the same position as us we found seats, a few tables, useable bathrooms, and though there was no electricity they were still able to produce a little coffee and a bit to eat. This would be home for the foreseeable future.
Now what? As we sat inside, wet and cold, watching the wind and rain pick up and drop, the good news was that it seemed as though it was not getting worse. We pondered our options (slim to none) over the early afternoon hours. Word came from a policeman who had taken the same route as us and who somehow had reached the village in spite of numerous wash outs. He told us that Stan had turned southwards hitting Catemaco, was moving fast, and would out of here in a matter of hours. Our first reaction was of astonishment. 14 hours previously the update was for a landfall still over 24 hours away from this moment and well to our north. Having tried to do everything to get away from Stan, it turns out that we were almost smack bang in the middle of it!
We drove up the road to check the major wash out, walking the last ¾ of mile due to the unstable bridge. It was horrendous. The small river had risen considerably and bypassed the abutments and washed out a 100 foot section 20 feet deep. There were a number of people there and the word was that someone trying to cross did not make it and was washed downstream. We then drove up and down the road and found one spot where we could just (barely) get cell phone service, as long as one did not move a foot in any direction. A phone call was made to Pronatura headquarters to let them know our predicament and have them get word to the US embassy and consulate in Mexico City that a dozen gringos (along with others) were stranded and to send help. We did get word back that the embassy had been notified about us and that the Mexican army was on its way. Though it sounded great and they could not tell us when that would be, we were left to believe it only if we ever saw them.
Our string of bad luck continued…… one of the phones ran out of power and the other one out of minutes! It was late afternoon and the rain had stopped and it looked as though it was clearing. We all went for a short walk to the village store and this time luck was at least on our side…. they had phone cards – right here in the middle of nowhere! We bought them out and stocked up on candles and flashlights. An army helicopter flew over, much to our surprise which got our hopes up. We waved, cheered and shouted for help, but it never landed, opting to check over the damage and move on. If it had not sunk in before, it certainly had now, that we were in for the night, and possibly the long haul. Considering what we had gone through and what lay ahead everyone was in good spirits. After dark a few read, others pondered (we were so close yet so far to getting out – there was only one wash out between us and ‘safety’) and a handful played rummy before picking what each of us perceived to be the best spot for the night. For some it was a chair, others a table, and others the seats in the van. We were not the only ones; there were at least 5 buses, each with good numbers aboard. This was certainly a day we would never forget.
Bob and Randy checked the other route across the river, which turned out to be very muddy and slippery and we negotiated several mules to help with the crossing. We returned to our base and told everyone the good news - it was moving day! One van took the luggage to the wash out where 5 brave souls made the short crossing that the pregnant woman made an hour before. Locals helped take the bags across by the same means. The rest of the group took the long way around, first picking up custom made walking sticks from those clearing their property of fallen trees, and then having a couple of farmers hold some of our arms and lead us across their flattened field of maize to a rather muddy and very slippery narrow path. After a half mile of slow, careful and at times treacherous walking we reached the small bridge. It was a relief to realize that we were about to actually make it out. The other side was steep for the first hundred yards, but we negotiated it and then it was onto the dirt road, where a taxi took 4 people to the bus and 2 of us followed by foot.
By now numerous people were taking the washed out route using a rope guideline to stabilize them as they crossed. Having taken us about an hour and a half to make our route, it meant that the bags were already loaded on the bus. 23 hours after we were forced to abandon any idea of continuing, we were now on our way. It turned out we were about 8 kilometres from Acayucan (civilization) which is only a short distance from the toll road, which was our goal so that we could escape Stan. So close yet so far! Brunch was most welcome in Acayucan and then it was on to Veracruz City.