Winter Mexican Tour Y2K16, Day 5: Ant Swarm!

Just on the south slope of Cerro San Juan, the nerds walked up a side road to see what they could find. Quickly, they hit a solid mixed flock. Hermit Warblers were very confiding and a nice trip bird; bizarrely, this was a life bird for Stilt, which enraged Dipper Dan. We all still wonder how she could have waited so long to see one; she wept openly and without remorse (a history she will no doubt attempt to revise), while Dipper Dan screamed at her in anger. Flycatcher Jen said nothing, plotting her next move to draw more attention to herself. Don Francisco contemplated all the money he was not spending by being in the middle of a Mexican forest. I, the birder philosopher-king, passed judgement on all of them, bitterly telling them they were doing it wrong.

The birds in this flock were unusually confiding. They wouldn't leave; it was a sedentary flock...the kind of flock dreams are made of. This Hammond's Flycatcher anchored it from a fenceline.

Finally, the five gringo idiots realized why the flock wasn't going anywhere...it was sitting on top of an army ant swarm! Massive columns of ants marched across the road, while the birds lurked just overhead, ready to grab insects flushed by the deadly swarm. This heavily-armed caterpillar was found in the midst of the ants, not giving a fuck. It's long, protective hairs repelled ant attacks with great efficiency; it was an unusual addition to one of the ant formations it had become swept up with.

Hepatic Tanagers were quite common during out trip, and were particularly keen on taking advantage of the ant swarm.

Can a bird be both red and subdued? Let this question cause you pain and heartache no more, for the answer is a male Hepatic Tanager.

Confiding bird. I think I like Hepatic Tanagers more now.

The star of the flock was this crippling male Flame-colored Tanager; this species never ceases to melt face.

Different members of the flock would often line up on barbed wire fences, as the ants would travel directly beneath them. This led to a number of amusing combinations of birds sitting in close proximity to each other. Here is the Flame-colored and the female Hepatic.

Painted Redstart (Whitestart) and pineish flycatcher.

A couple Ivory-billed Woodcreepers added a bit of tropical flavor to the flock, which otherwise contained a lot of species that make it to southeast Arizona.

Finally we left the ants and headed downhill in search of new, non-sedentary flocks and other birds. This Blue-throated Hummingbird was the first of the trip.

White-throated Thrushes were encountered on the regular; at least they are more interesting to look at than Clay-colored Thrushes.

Red-headed Tanager was the final group lifer of the day; we found a flock eating coffee berries right next to the road on the way down the road. Crippling little bastards. Getting these birds this afternoon turned out to be critical, because we didn't see any for the rest of the trip!

Pine Flycatchers turned out to be pretty common in higher elevations during this trip. How do I know this? Empids in Mexico are bizarrely cooperative.

Here is a female Mexican Woodnymph; we found this highly range-restricted species in multiple locations. Too bad that luck didn't carry over into many other species of hummingbirds.

Cerro San Juan was fantastic birding; if you are so inclined, our eBird checklist is right here.

If You've Got Two Kidneys Then You've Got One To Spare

Forster's Tern or Angel Of Death?

So check this out.  Last night I slept in General Hitchcock Campground off the Catalina Highway (Mt Lemmon area).  A Whiskered Screech-Owl and the first Flammulated Owl I've heard in many years sung sweet lullabies, but shortly after I fell asleep I was awakened by a Whip-poor-will that was singing enthusiastically next to my car.  If you are not acquainted, a Whip-poor-will is a relatively large, nocturnal bird that simply says, with much gusto and volume, "whip-poor-will!" over and over and over and over again at night.  I've only ever seen/heard a few, so I was stoked to be sleeping next to one.....but it kept waking me up all night.

Early morning at Organ Pipe National Monument.

The deadly and powerful Mexican Jay.

At one point, it invaded my dreams.  I dreamt I was standing in a large house, listening to this Whip-poor-will, trying to figure out where the hell it was.  I looked into a large room to try to find it, and was surprised to see a beautiful, topless, large-breasted girl in a bed.  We started talking, whilst the Whip-poor-will continued unabated.  At this point, I was pretty stoked.  Who gets to see boobs and listen to Whip-poor-wills at the same time? 

Another Broad-billed Hummingbird.  They've thinned out from our cabin lately.  I'll miss them!

This is the massive Blue-throated Hummingbird, the behemoth of hummers that can be found north of Mexico.  They kick around the almost-as-big Magnificent Hummingbirds with impunity.  You can't really see the true scale of this bird in the picture, but its about the size of a Cessna.

Suddenly, I was bombarded with the awful sound that was my alarm clock.  The girl and her bed and the house dissolved into blackness.  It was a quarter after four in the morning, and I was sleeping in my filthy car in a parking lot somewhere on a mountain in Arizona.  The nearby Whip-poor-will, realizing the tragedy that had just befallen me, gave me some more cheerful encouragement before I drove slowly up the mountain.  Hopefully my nocturnal buddy had a better morning than I did.