Puerto Rico Winter Tour Y2K16: Guanica Dry Forest, Cabo Rojo NWR

This is going to be a massive post...hopefully friends who are about to head to Puerto Rico in the coming days will appreciate it. So without the usual preliminary bullshitting, here we go...

For our first morning on the west side of the island, we checked out the famous Guanica Dry Forest. The habitat here is unique and occupies a very small area; the endemic Puerto Rican Nightjar is almost completely dependent on this habitat, and a number of other great birds are found here as well. We accessed the main entrance (17.979549, -66.881285), which was very straightforward, and birded two different trails. One of the main trails that goes east from the parking area (17.972138, -66.867011) was the most productive...Adelaide's Warblers were singing all over the place (we had still yet to see one) and we heard multiple Key West Quail Doves, a lifer heard-only for all of us. Another Puerto Rican Emerald put in an appearance, which I failed to photograph yet again, but possibly the best bird we saw was this Antillean Euphonia.

I had no idea this was such a facemelting bird! I've seen quite a few euphonia species in Mexico and Costa Rica, and can confidently say that only the legendary Elegant Euphonia tops it in crippleness. Euphonias aren't the most attention-grabbing birds in most of their tropical range (they have a lot of competition), but this species is an exception. Not only did we have great looks, it was also the only one we would see on the trip! Clutch bird.

Guanica is littered with Adelaide's Warblers, and we got plenty of good lucks finally. The Grace's Warbler resemblance is strong. The area was devoid of any North American species.

As with many places on the island, we got more good looks at the bizarre and confiding Pearly-eyed Thrashers. This bird won't make your brain roll over in your head, but it will stick with you nonetheless.

Officer Searcy bends the knee to some Caribbean mushrooms. The dry forest was not all that dry when we were there, but presumably looks quite different later in the dry season and lacks much in the way of exotic fungus.

You were expecting tody pictures, so here are some tody pictures. These are truly hilarious, lovable birds, and are absolutely not worried about hanging out right next to the trail. I suspected that they might be awesome before the trip, and my suspicions were confirmed. Luckily, they are common and widespread on the island, and though they can be hard to spot they are easily located by their little fart sounds they frequently utter.

This bird got remarkably close to us. Better views not desired. Mission accomplished.

Unlike the todies, Puerto Rican Bullfinches do not want to be close to you or let you admire their goodness, so I was stoked to get this shot. Though not at all rare, it is one of the best birds on the island I reckon.

Nerds strut through El Seco during a gluttonous morning of lifering.

If you want to glance at the eBird checklist, it's right here. Not hella species on there, but they are almost all excellent birds and include quite a few lifers for us. The screech-owls on there were vocalizing late in the morning (bizarre), and that was the last we would hear or see of them on the trip.

After this Great Success, we went to do what we do best, which is bird someplace really hot in the middle of the day. Our choice for deploying this highly recommendable tactic was Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge, near the southwestern tip of the island. It turns out Cabo Rojo is a pretty big place, so if you are wondering we birded the trail at 17.980970, -67.168364. This area consists of scrub, grassland and open forest, with a couple small ponds, perfect for birding in the middle of the day with blazing sun. The birding was very slow at first (shocker) but by the time we got back to the car we had seen some decent stuff. There were massive numbers of butterflies around the whole time though, so do check out this area if you are into that sort of thing.

Sometimes when there aren't birds to look at you look at robber flies doing inappropriate things.

We lifered Antillean Mango earlier in the day at the dry forest, but got slightly better looks at this one. Like a great many pretty crippling hummingbirds, they look like shit in bad light, but we caught occasional glimpses of their brilliance during flybys. Getting Antillean Mango meant we swept all five of the island's hummingbirds in four days! This was very relieving considering my hummingbird failure that was the Mexico trip from earlier in the year, which still haunts me to this day. Amethyst-throated Hummingbird, Bumblebee Hummingbird, Mexican Hermit, and Sparkling-tailed Woodstar are going to have to wait. Little bastards.

This little pond on the trail looked like it might have some Masked Duck potential, but as expected there was no Masked Duck.

There was a pair of Least Grebes (trip bird!) with chicks though, which was a soothing, cute and family-friendly consolation. The other trip birds we got were Yellow-faced Grassquit and Indigo Bunting, which have much to offer but lack the character of an ani...

Smooth-billed Anis galore! They are very common in areas with any open habitat on the island and Cabo Rojo was no exception. Anis have almost nothing to offer but character and some greasy shagginess.

Officer Searcy found this very pleasant little nest, which I assume was constructed by an Antillean Mango, though we had emeralds there also.

Near the parking lot we got looks at Caribbean Elaineas, another bird we had lifered earlier in the morning at the dry forest. They have a conspicuous, vireo-like song, and like vireos they were unafraid of belting them out in the middle of the day. Here and the dry forest were the only places we'd get this bird.

Presumably this is the caribaerum subspecies of American Kestrel endemic to Puerto Rico and the Lesser Antilles. Lots of new subspecies available for visual consumption on the island.

After our long, hot mid-day walk we decided it would best to bird more instead of do something reasonable like eat lunch or drink beer. There was a potentially very good shorebird spot just a few miles away, so we lurked over there (17.968347, -67.178826) in the quest for more trip birds.

A Puerto Rican Flycatcher teed up on a power line, but the real draw was the salt flats and lagoon on the other side of the road.

A massive flock of peeps here contained Least, Semipalmated and Western (trip bird!) Sandpipers. Other than this flock there weren't a whole lot of shorebirds though. But we didn't let a few Greater Yellowlegs get us down...Dipper Dan found a distant gull! A gull! The first gull of the trip! We hemmed and hawed over Laughing vs. Franklin's Gull (Laughing is expected, Franklin's is considerably rarer), but I finally settled on first cycle Franklin's, due to the dark and well-defined hood and lack of any gray wash on the nape, neck and breast. The bird did have a bizarrely large bill (not that you can tell in the photo below) but everything else fits Franklin's nicely.

It swam around contentedly picking bugs off the water; we would see it again a couple days later as well, doing the same thing further west. This is, presumably, the rarest bird of the trip. Though we didn't know it, according to eBird someone actually found it earlier in the morning, so I guess we can't really take credit.

There was still one more group lifer we would get that day, but this post is too damn long. ¡Ya basta!

Puerto Rico Winter Tour Y2K16: Ceiba Country Inn, El Yunque National Forest

Pearly-eyed Thrasher is a common and confiding bird in Puerto Rico. I'm not quite sure what to make of them though...they are like drab, friendly, fat-legged super-robins.

Puerto Rico is in the books. Birded, done. Thanks to the marvelous MAX REBO BIRDING TOURS who hired me on as a guide, in eight (8) full days of birding, we tallied 137 species. That doesn't seem like a whole lot coming from California, but to put things in perspective that makes us #18 in eBird for Puerto Rico for 2016! So we did pretty good with the time we had, because it's all about the trip list...or maybe the year birds...ok, lifers. Basically, we birded the northeast end of the island, then west to Comeria (the Plain Pigeon area), the southwest, then along the north coast west of San Juan. For those who have as much time as we did, I think it was a really good route - those focused solely on endemics should focus more on the western half of the island though (none of us had birded the Caribbean before, so there were a lot of new native birds we could get elsewhere). Several target birds were easier, or only seen on the east side of the island.

Puerto Rico...why Puerto Rico when you can go to Mexico? Belize? Jamaica? There are a great many other alternatives for a shortish winter trip, but I had some good reasons to put together a trip to PR.

- PR is part of the U.S., so travelling here is relatively easy and free of hassles. Road systems are pretty good, no passport required, English-speakers aren't rare. Tap water was awesome 2/3 places we stayed.

- PR is small. In the amount of time we had, we covered the island very well, and didn't spend a whole lot of time on the road.

- Endemics. PR has 17 endemic species at the moment, with the island's pewee a possible 18th. If you want to see these birds, Puerto Rico must be visited. All can be seen in a short amount of time.

- Caribbean birds. Caribbean species were almost totally new to us, and this is a great introduction to species that can be found on multiple islands.

- Habitat. Though PR isn't the most species-rich place, there are a lot of places to bird, though some species and subspecies are highly endangered.

- Birding on islands is fucking great.

Some general notes for those planning on visiting:

- We rented a 4x4 Jeep on the advice of Officer John Garrett. We did use four wheel drive several times, as a number of roads were very muddy with deep puddles (i.e. 306 in the Lajas Valley, the access road to Laguna Cartagena). Muddy roads may not be as much of an issue later in the dry season, but having 4x4 available with high clearance turned out to be very useful. We were there at the very beginning of the dry (EL SECO) season.

- Google Maps is only partially effective. Do not expect Google Maps to navigate you through Puerto Rico with ease. Many roads that show up in Google Maps are unmaintained tracks, or private roads that cannot be accessed. Be very wary of shortcuts the app may suggest - it works fine for the real highways though.

- Emergency vehicles often drive with their flashing lights on, even though they may not be in a rush to get anywhere. Semi trucks often are equipped with crazy, extravagant flashing lights for seemingly no reason at all. Do not let this alarm you.

- This is the first place I've visited where drivers seem to have no concern about staying in their lanes, often swerving into oncoming traffic. It is baffling. People also seem to be really into driving with their high-beams on all the time.

- Potholes and topes are everywhere.

- Knowing Spanish is helpful, obvi, but many people speak English....not everyone though.

- Gas is pretty cheap. Food can be cheap or pretty expensive, depending on your proximity to tourist areas. Cheapest lodging is airbnb (we stayed in three different places; two were airbnb apartments).

- Biting insects were mildly to moderately annoying - no-see-ums were worse than the mosquitoes, in my opinion, and the chigger scene wasn't bad. Mosquitoes were the worst in the Guanica area and in other low-lying spots, though oddly absent in some places. Obviously, Zika is a thing here, but we weren't exactly terrified of it.

- We brought a spotting scope. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age. You should bring one too.

- Mofongo is weird.

December 1: I meet up with Dipper Dan and Officer Adam Searcy and the rest of the MAX REBO BIRDING TOURS group in the baggage claim of the San Juan Airport. Between baggage claim and the rental car center, we get our lifer Zenaida Doves and Greater Antillean Grackles; both species would end up being very abundant, though not obnoxiously so. Without any bullshit, we quickly and effortlessly pick up our Jeep from Hertz, who I am now a big proponent of (Gold Club!). We immediately get lost in San Juan, and then watch a hapless Zenaida Dove get run over by a car right in front of us! Fuck! Finally we reorient and slog through traffic to get east to Ceiba, seeing some roadside Scaly-naped Pigeons and Gray Kingbirds on the way (some of the most abundant birds on the island). We arrive at Ceiba Country Inn, where we would stay the next three nights. The Inn's Puerto Rican Screech-Owls were present as advertised, but we failed to see them despite the birds calling loudly and frequently. There is a SHITLOAD of nocturnal activity around the Inn...coqui frogs, anoles, tarantulas...it was awesome. If being deafened by frogs turns you on, this is where you want to be staying. We got dinner at the Broadway in Ceiba, which was cheap and great.

We saw a staggeringly large number of coqui frogs and anoley things at Ceiba Country Inn, none of which were identified (herpers, feel free to cut loose here), but all of which were appreciated.

December 2: We woke up before dawn and started birding around the Inn. Lifers started piling up quickly...Red-legged Thrush, Pearly-eyed Thrasher, Puerto Rican Oriole, Puerto Rican Flycatcher, Puerto Rican Woodpecker. Adelaide's Warbler, Mangrove Cuckoo and Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo sang from nearby. The Inn turned out to be the easiest place to see the oriole for us on the entire island. Bananaquits were also abundant, and we would see them in numbers practically everywhere we went. 

After a minimal and unimpressive continental breakfast (this place is more like a hotel than a bed and breakfast, which is how it is advertised), we headed up to El Yunque for the day. We birded the gravelled trail behind the visitor's center, and got our lifer looks at Puerto Rican Bullfinch and Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo, which we watched capture a scorpion directly us. I also lifered the tody, which I had missed back at the Inn. Both the cuckoo and the bullfinch are common, but not the easiest birds to see.

Puerto Rican Orioles were common early on in the trip. They are obnoxiously nifty looking.

Lifer Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo, dismantling a scorpion right above our heads.....fuck!

I love cuckoos. This bird is absolutely facemelting.

The next stop of consequence was the Yokahu Tower, where we lifered a Puerto Rican Emerald taking a bath in a leaf. After the emerald disappeared, we were suddenly besieged by lifers.

Puerto Rican Spindalis (this is the only one I would end up photographing, what a bummer)...

Puerto Rican Tanager (competing for Drabbest Tanager award)...

Green Mango (not expecting this today, especially not one so cooperative)... 

and Loggerhead Kingbird (a bird that has evoked much drool from me in the past)...what a stop!

The mango was a definite bonus bird, as they are less common on the east side of the island, and most visiting birders only seem to get them in Maricao. Some other stops in the park weren't particularly noteworthy on the bird front, but walking the Las Minas trails were very productive. Immediately after getting the first Black-throated Blue Warbler of the trip, it started dumping rain so we took cover in one of the great many rain shelters present (really, there are a lot). The birding here was excellent, even though we spent a significant amount of time birding from rain shelters.

The lush forest at Las Minas soaks up the rain.

Nerds avoid soaking up the rain.

Scaly-naped Pigeons are very appealing.

Puerto Rican Bullfinches are common, thankfully. I was really taken by them.

As great as the bullfinches are, it's hard to match the legendary Puerto Rican Tody.

Northern and Louisiana Waterthrushes (above) foraged in the creek (and in a rain shelter) at Las Minas. Check that raging supercilium! This was the only LOWA we would find in PR.

Lots of awesome orchids were blooming in El Yunque...but this is an iris I misidentified as an orchid. Anyways, don't you love the tropics?

We visited El Yunque on a Friday, to avoid the weekend crowds, which I would recommend. The Big Trees parking lot was full but otherwise the people sitch was pretty manageable. We did not try for the Elfin in El Yunque, opting instead to look for it at Maricao ("Elfin-woods Warbler siempre en Maricao" - random local photographer we met). After Las Minas, we randomly ended up in Fajardo, hoping to blunder into some trip birds at accessible beaches. And blunder we did! We got our only Sandwich Terns of the trip, as well as the first Brown Boobies, which seemed to be fairly common.

Pelicans, Sandwich and Royal Terns roost at sunset, while frigatebirds wheeled overhead. Life is better with frigatebirds wheeling overhead. We grabbed dinner at an overpriced place a couple blocks away, but I have no regrets about putting away those damn fine shrimp.

We put these Smooth-billed Anis to bed. We would see many more during the trip.

Back at Ceiba Country Inn, we drank much Medalla and failed again to see the screech-owls, which were very quiet that night. This may have been because a nearby neighbor was blasting some of the shittiest music I've heard in my life...and believe me, these ears are no stranger to shit.

Ugh, so many lifers in one day...the mind reels...More Puerto Rico coverage coming soon!