With Mercurial Smile And Incurable Style

Clay-colored Robins/Thrushes are one of the commonest birds here.

Chickens. What is the deal? I know some of you are big on chickens, for reasons I don’t fully understand. They make eggs, which is pretty neat. Nom…nom nom. And I suppose they could be nice to have around…they’re a project of sorts, right? You have to make sure they’re comfortable, healthy, protected from predators, etc. And some people just really, really like chickens.

Well chicken-folk, you need to drop whatever you’re doing right now. I don’t care if you’re doing laundry or nursing a newborn. You need to go to Mexico. Mexico has a lot of chickens. They roam the streets freely. From my tall vantage point at Swainson’s Hawk Bird Observatory, I can see a lot of chickens. Everyone seems to have them. Next to the observatory there is a flock of chickens, two fuzzy and disproportioned Muscovy Ducklings, a couple turkeys and gaggles baby chickens and turklings scampering around. For the most part, they are all pretty quiet and I don’t mind them. What I don’t understand is the rooster that lives among them. For one, he is currently molting, and has been stricken hideous. His neck and most of his disfigured looking head is devoid of feathers. But the main thing is his call. As I mentioned before, we have a sizeable hole in the wall of our relatively unfortified bunker that is aimed directly at the fowl yard. When the rooster decides to crow, it is close, it is loud, and there is nothing between him and me. I normally wouldn’t mind this, but he and the other Chavarrillo cocks think that all night long is the appropriate time to be calling. Honestly now roosters….what the fuck is the point of this? You damn domesticated birds have it all screwed up…you are supposed to wake up when it’s light out. Now that I am a raptor man, the last thing I need to do is be up hours before sunrise…I need to squeeze in as much bunk time as possible between mosquito/flea/possibly also bedbug bites. Other than the bizarre asthetic of being woken up at an ungodly time of day, what is the point of having roosters other than making more chickens? Tell me, chicken people.

An unalluring photo of the alluring Band-backed Wren.

We have a number of Short-tailed Hawks around town that can usually be spotted kiting extremely high in the sky, then making long, spectacular plunges/drops onto their prey hundreds of feet below. I find myself hoping more and more that I will get to witness this happen to Neighbor Rooster…he could feed a whole family of Short-tailed Hawks.
Of course, that’s all pretty unlikely. But I hear his godawful voice every morning and I have to stare at his grotesque chicken neck every frakking day. Familiarity breeds contempt, and all that. I don’t actually spend that much time contemplating chickens…not that there is anything wrong with that.

I See The Same Face In Every New Direction

While never really common, we ran into Elegant Trogons in a lot of different places. Look at that thing! Shit!

Thanks to Nathan Banfield, I actually have some pictures from our Mexico trip for ya'll. By now the Mexican Army has deleted all of mine....thanks a lot, amigos. Hopefully they aren't smart enough to figure out where to get a charger for it (I have that, hehe).

I would like to add that all of the birds pictured today can readily be found in the Gomez Farias area and El Cielo Biosphere Preserve, less than a day's drive south of the border.

Black-headed Saltators were the main ingredient of many mixed flocks we ran into throughout our trip. They are hella loud, so listening for them frequently led to other subtropical greatness.

A male Flame-colored Tanager. Believe it or not, they exist outside of Arizona's Madera Canyon (thats a terrible inside birder joke, in case youre wondering).

Pale-billed Woodpecker! We ran into a few of these, close cousins of the Ivory-billed and Imperials.

Our favorite comedor in Gomez Farias. An easy place to see Yellow-throated Euphonia, Masked Tityra, Clay-colored Thrush, etc.

In local BB&B news, I got some Leica 8X50 televids in the mail today, so I reckon I can start birding again. They were a demo pair, so never really got any field use, and I'm fucking stoked to take them on a test drive (insert weird nerd sound here). I reckon I saved about $500 on a new pair. Ebay is rad. I have always said that if anything happened to the pair that I ended up "donating" to the Mexican Army (that was their terminology, not mine), I would not hesitate to go straight back to Leicas...I had no problem staying true to my word. You hear that Leica reps? I am on your team. We can discuss sponsorship and pro deals any time. Of course, Zeiss reps, I'm not complaining about my spotting scope or anything....

I'd also like to relay the news from Gobbler's Knob (not joking about that name), Pennsylvania....Punxsutawney Phil, the 125 year old groundhog and official groundhog of Groundhog's Day, has predicted an early spring. Woohooo! At any rate, this is probably one of the coolest, most underrated and most pointless holiday celebrated by anyone, anywhere, and I hope to participate sometime. Check out the footage here. How has fate conspired to bring hundereds of drunk people together to cheer on a mild-mannered woodchuck? You got me there.

At any rate, Nathan has a lot of great shots from our trip, so expect more on that front soon. Sick.

We ran into Groove-billed Ani flocks a few times on our trip. I now know them to be kindred spirits.

This Clay-colored Robin (Thrush) was doing battle with a giant scorpion in the streets of Gomez Farias. The robin won.

Northern Jacana!  Look at this thing! Look at its toes! God.