Melissa has always wanted to go so the famous Mayan Riviera on the Yucatan peninsula so when shopping for plane fares for our Easter break with the kids, I plugged in some comparisons with some other destinations and it came out being way cheaper than some of the other choices. The other big bonus was direct flights to Cancun from Charlotte. Before I knew it, spring break was upon us and off we went.
We arrived fairly late in the afternoon on the 12th and spent an hour driving to our first stop which was a place called Jolie Jungle. JJ was was in the middle of nowhere south of Cancun and a good ways inland. It was run by a Frenchman and his local wife and was a bit strange because the only visitors other than us was the Mexican military. About 12 guys from the military were hanging out at the pool when we arrived so the kids felt weird about joining them. However, they were nice and it seemed the family that runs the place likes them around as it discourages some of the extortion that some places in the Yucatan face. Although I tried some half hearted night birding, the true birding did not start until the next morning.
A couple tips when visiting the Yucatan for a birding trip:
1. Download the Merlin Bird ID App and preload the Yucatan package. It makes it easy to check what the local birds are and check the calls and songs.
2. Download the complete Maps of the Yucatan on GoogleMaps so you can navigate around without needing WiFi. We were able to navigate everywhere without being online everywhere we went.
First good bird in the still dark was a Middle American Screech-owl which did not cooperate for photos but it did fly around us a bit.
This Woodcreeper had me a little confused but I finally IDed it as an Ivory-billed. The bill was the right color but seemed a bit short to me. However, I saw another later and the other ones found in this area look totally different.
Ant-tanagers were abundant and brazen but tend to stay in the shadows so good clear shots were hard to come by. This was the Red-throated which has a more contrasting face and throat. It seemed the Red-crowned stayed higher in the trees and none of the photos came out good.
The Spot-breasted Wren is a skulking son of a gun so I never managed a good unobstructed shot.
Squirrel Cuckoo
Yellow-billed Cacique - a long overdue lifer for me. Strange for a blackbird in that it skulks through the jungle.
Masked Tityra - seen plenty of these in CR.
Black-headed Trogon - not too many possibilities for Trogons in the Yucatan so ID was easy peasy.
Here is another Ivory-billed Woodcreeper with the expected longer bill.
Bright-rumped Attila - never came out for a proper crushing.
Butterfly IDs will come later.... Anyone have a guess?
Female Red-throated Ant-tanager.
Tropical Gnatcatcher
There was a ton of common migrating warblers with BT Greens and Magnolias being the most prevalent but I was focusing on the Yucatan specialties.
This close-up of a Red-throated Ant-tanager female really shows the contrasting throat.
Groove-billed Ani.
Yucatan Woodpecker! The area around the bill base looks like it is dipped in yolk. There are a ton of Golden-fronted Woodpeckers around but I had no trouble differentiating as the Yucatan WP is much cuter and less gregarious.
Northern Barred-Woodcreeper.
We only stayed one night at Jolie Jungle so before lunch we set off for our first foray at one of the famous Cenotes. Per Wiki: "A cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. Especially associated with the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, cenotes were sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings."
The folks at Jolie Jungle recommended Cenote Verde Lucero as you can jump and zipline into the refreshing pool. It was awesome!! I will save those pics for the next post. Cheers.
We arrived fairly late in the afternoon on the 12th and spent an hour driving to our first stop which was a place called Jolie Jungle. JJ was was in the middle of nowhere south of Cancun and a good ways inland. It was run by a Frenchman and his local wife and was a bit strange because the only visitors other than us was the Mexican military. About 12 guys from the military were hanging out at the pool when we arrived so the kids felt weird about joining them. However, they were nice and it seemed the family that runs the place likes them around as it discourages some of the extortion that some places in the Yucatan face. Although I tried some half hearted night birding, the true birding did not start until the next morning.
A couple tips when visiting the Yucatan for a birding trip:
1. Download the Merlin Bird ID App and preload the Yucatan package. It makes it easy to check what the local birds are and check the calls and songs.
2. Download the complete Maps of the Yucatan on GoogleMaps so you can navigate around without needing WiFi. We were able to navigate everywhere without being online everywhere we went.
First good bird in the still dark was a Middle American Screech-owl which did not cooperate for photos but it did fly around us a bit.
This Woodcreeper had me a little confused but I finally IDed it as an Ivory-billed. The bill was the right color but seemed a bit short to me. However, I saw another later and the other ones found in this area look totally different.
Ant-tanagers were abundant and brazen but tend to stay in the shadows so good clear shots were hard to come by. This was the Red-throated which has a more contrasting face and throat. It seemed the Red-crowned stayed higher in the trees and none of the photos came out good.
The Spot-breasted Wren is a skulking son of a gun so I never managed a good unobstructed shot.
Squirrel Cuckoo
Yellow-billed Cacique - a long overdue lifer for me. Strange for a blackbird in that it skulks through the jungle.
Masked Tityra - seen plenty of these in CR.
Black-headed Trogon - not too many possibilities for Trogons in the Yucatan so ID was easy peasy.
Here is another Ivory-billed Woodcreeper with the expected longer bill.
Bright-rumped Attila - never came out for a proper crushing.
Butterfly IDs will come later.... Anyone have a guess?
Female Red-throated Ant-tanager.
Tropical Gnatcatcher
There was a ton of common migrating warblers with BT Greens and Magnolias being the most prevalent but I was focusing on the Yucatan specialties.
This close-up of a Red-throated Ant-tanager female really shows the contrasting throat.
Groove-billed Ani.
Yucatan Woodpecker! The area around the bill base looks like it is dipped in yolk. There are a ton of Golden-fronted Woodpeckers around but I had no trouble differentiating as the Yucatan WP is much cuter and less gregarious.
Northern Barred-Woodcreeper.
We only stayed one night at Jolie Jungle so before lunch we set off for our first foray at one of the famous Cenotes. Per Wiki: "A cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. Especially associated with the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, cenotes were sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings."
The folks at Jolie Jungle recommended Cenote Verde Lucero as you can jump and zipline into the refreshing pool. It was awesome!! I will save those pics for the next post. Cheers.
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