Cozumel was super nice but I am not sure I would want to spend too much time there, and we felt one night and full day was perfect. At least for this introduction to the Yucatan trip. If I wanted to baste myself with oil and hang out on the beach and go on booze and cruises it would be a perfect place. In my prep for this trip, I saw a place north of the town that would be good for my morning's birding. Most of the trip reports I read said something about a golf resort that you can walk the grounds on so I just drove north until the road almost ran out of pavement and saw the entrance to a gated golf course. I asked the gatekeeper (oddly his name was not Zuul) but he said he did not think I could come in to look for birds and that he was not sure because it was his first day on the job. I tried to charm him into calling his boss but it was 7am and he was not game to wake the big man (Gozer?) on his first day. Birding is half about the adventure so I decided to find my own way and headed further down the dirt lane at the end of the road.
It did not take long to start finding Cozumel and Yucatan endemics and in fact I was super pumped in the end that I took the road less traveled.
Yucatan Vireo - looks kind of like a Red-eyed Vireo but with a honker of a bill and the supercilium is wider in front of the eyes.
Yellow Warblers were everywhere and these were the local versions with extra red highlights on the noggin. They were singing like crazy so I assumed most were breeders.
Bananaquit collecting nesting material - maybe some day this will be a sub-species that is split into full species status.
Tropical Mockingbirds were everywhere.
I am pretty sure this one was a Yucatan Flycatcher but now I can't remember if I heard it to clinch it. No worries dear reader I did get a confirmed one later in the trip. The Yucatan Flycatcher is very similar to the Dusky-capped Flycatcher but the Dusky is smaller.
Black Catbirds were also abundant.
White-winged Doves were signing as well as White-tipped although the White-tipped never were seen.
Ruddy Ground Doves were defying gravity and sitting on wires.
A group of Martins were working the sky and I didn't see any dark ones so I called them Gray-breasted Martins. It is possible they were all female Purple Martins but eBird seems to think Gray-breasted would be more likely. Anyhow, it is a species I had already so I was not too worried about misidentifying this common bird.
Cozumel Vireo! This was the only one I saw and I knew I only had one day in Cozumel so it was a huge relief.
Black-whiskered Vireo
Great Kiskadee
I knew this was a new bird for me but it took a little while to ID it. I am fairly certain it is a Caribbean Elaenia.
Then this one presented itself and I realized I finally had myself a Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet.
Tropical Mocker
Another Ruddy
At this point I was running out of time as I promised the family I would be back at the hotel by 9:30 and I wanted to get some breakfast. I could see some marshy areas and one of my targets was Ruddy Crake but I was totally blind as to where the hot spots would be. However, after playing a quick song from my downloaded Merlin Bird ID app, I had an immediate reply! And let me tell you these little birds are LOUD! I waited thinking the bird would probably never come out and after 10 minutes he popped right out and presented himself for hundreds of photos. Here are a couple.
More from the rest of the day in Cozumel will come in a subsequent post.
Dear readers, I know there are a bunch of you because I can see how many hits I have for each post, but I would love to see who you are. Just in case you didn't know, you can use the "Follow" button on the right hand side in one of the widgets so you don't have to load my URL each time. I personally follow 10 blogs regularly which I recommend and have listed under favorites. That way when I log into blogger I can see any new posts under my reading list. If you don't have a Blogger account then I guess you can't use the follow function. The other perk if you create a Blogger account (its free) is that you can post comments and I would love to get some more that are not my immediate family although I always love their comments too. The Blogosphere is kind of like a cold looking pool or lake, it's best to just jump in and then once you do you will not regret it.
It did not take long to start finding Cozumel and Yucatan endemics and in fact I was super pumped in the end that I took the road less traveled.
Yucatan Vireo - looks kind of like a Red-eyed Vireo but with a honker of a bill and the supercilium is wider in front of the eyes.
Yellow Warblers were everywhere and these were the local versions with extra red highlights on the noggin. They were singing like crazy so I assumed most were breeders.
Bananaquit collecting nesting material - maybe some day this will be a sub-species that is split into full species status.
Tropical Mockingbirds were everywhere.
I am pretty sure this one was a Yucatan Flycatcher but now I can't remember if I heard it to clinch it. No worries dear reader I did get a confirmed one later in the trip. The Yucatan Flycatcher is very similar to the Dusky-capped Flycatcher but the Dusky is smaller.
Black Catbirds were also abundant.
White-winged Doves were signing as well as White-tipped although the White-tipped never were seen.
Ruddy Ground Doves were defying gravity and sitting on wires.
A group of Martins were working the sky and I didn't see any dark ones so I called them Gray-breasted Martins. It is possible they were all female Purple Martins but eBird seems to think Gray-breasted would be more likely. Anyhow, it is a species I had already so I was not too worried about misidentifying this common bird.
Cozumel Vireo! This was the only one I saw and I knew I only had one day in Cozumel so it was a huge relief.
Black-whiskered Vireo
Great Kiskadee
I knew this was a new bird for me but it took a little while to ID it. I am fairly certain it is a Caribbean Elaenia.
Then this one presented itself and I realized I finally had myself a Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet.
Tropical Mocker
Another Ruddy
At this point I was running out of time as I promised the family I would be back at the hotel by 9:30 and I wanted to get some breakfast. I could see some marshy areas and one of my targets was Ruddy Crake but I was totally blind as to where the hot spots would be. However, after playing a quick song from my downloaded Merlin Bird ID app, I had an immediate reply! And let me tell you these little birds are LOUD! I waited thinking the bird would probably never come out and after 10 minutes he popped right out and presented himself for hundreds of photos. Here are a couple.
Dear readers, I know there are a bunch of you because I can see how many hits I have for each post, but I would love to see who you are. Just in case you didn't know, you can use the "Follow" button on the right hand side in one of the widgets so you don't have to load my URL each time. I personally follow 10 blogs regularly which I recommend and have listed under favorites. That way when I log into blogger I can see any new posts under my reading list. If you don't have a Blogger account then I guess you can't use the follow function. The other perk if you create a Blogger account (its free) is that you can post comments and I would love to get some more that are not my immediate family although I always love their comments too. The Blogosphere is kind of like a cold looking pool or lake, it's best to just jump in and then once you do you will not regret it.
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