Winter Mexico Tour Y2K16, Days 9-10: Rancho Primavera and Barranca El Choncho

One of the specialty birds of Nayarit and Jalisco is the illustrious Rosy Thrush-Tanager. We lucked in to one back at La Bajada, but Rancho Primavera is really the place to go for these birds. Bonnie, who runs things at the ranch, knows exactly where to look for them on the property, and we were lucky enough to find an exceptionally confiding pair feeding next to a trail.

They aren't so hard to find if you are looking in the right places, because they loudly thrash around in the leaf litter, tossing aside detritus with great ceremony.

The male got really close to us...not the best conditions for photos, but absolutely crippling looks. This is a real facemelter.

There is no shortage of Yellow-winged Caciques on the property, and considering their love of fruit, getting great looks at them is no difficult task.

Such strange crests. Very greasy and pliable, much like my own hair.

San Blas Jay is another specialty at the ranch and was another group lifer. They look a lot like Purplish-backed Jays, but are smaller with paler backs. They also are really hard to find around San Blas.

A group of them often hangs out near the main ranch house, waiting for peanuts.

The Blue Mockingbird that came to the feeder below our house never got old. Here it is again, in all its unskulky glory.

Of course, alluring Black-throated Magpie-Jays are on the property as well, but they are not as bold as some of the other feeder birds.

This is an improbable bird. Probable in abundance, but not existence.

Streak-backed Orioles are everywhere in western Mexico. Everywhere!

Flycatcher Jen unwittingly lured in a herd of horses. She is still down there, just another part of the herd.

How can I not post another Yellow Grosbeak?

Now this...this is a combo. Yellow Grosbeak and not-wild-but-technically-free Jasmine the Lilac-crowned Parrot.

Our view from the porch at Villa Carpintero, the house we rented on the property. Nice, eh?

Other highlights of birding the property were West Mexican Chachalacas, a vagrant Eastern Phoebe, the Military Macaws (lifer!) that fly over the property every morning, and the Red-breasted Chat that I barely saw but can't count. I got gripped off on that bird a couple other times during that trip, which really hurt then and still hurts now. Ugh. We also birded the La Providencia Road, which is higher in elevation (mid-elevation pine forest) and apparently is a good spot for Eared Poorwill...which we dipped on, but not without getting our only Gray-collared Becard (lifer!) of the trip. If you bird that road, note that the eBird hotspot is actually mapped (currently) at a road north of where the correct road is; it has a lot of interesting piney habitat, and the road is not heavily traveled. Could be a good spot. We did not have time to bird the La Biota Road, which I hear is quality.

Rancho Primavera was a great spot to bird and a great place to stay, and thanks to Bonnie for the birding tips and the recommendations on where to grab food in El Tuito. If you want to see what our bird lists from the property look like, you can go here and here. Don't forget to check Rancho Primavera's website, and finally here is the first post from Rancho Primavera in case you missed it.

After we said goodbye to Rancho Primavera, we headed south towards Autlan. Some convenient roadside wetlands produced some decent birds, and are worth a quick look. We were surprised by the amount of good habitat there was during the drive, and it seems like there could be good birding just about anywhere there was thorn forest if you happened to be there at the right time of day. Eventually we got to the area where Hurricane Patricia made landfall the previous year, and the damage to the forest was obvious and extensive. When we arrived at Barranca El Choncho in the afternoon, it was clear that the forest here had taken a big hit from the hurricane as well. The barranca was not very productive for us, and it looks like some of the habitat at the top of the barranca has been cleared...however there is still nice habitat left in the canyon and it may still indeed be a worthwhile stop early in the day.

Up next...Puerto Los Mazos, Microondas San Francisco, and beyond...

Winter Mexico Tour Y2K16, Days 8-9: Rancho Primavera

After Tecuitata, we headed south for fertile new birding grounds, in a new state and different time zone, no less. We lurked south through the sprawling gringo-orgy that is Puerto Vallarta, and it wasn't long after that we arrived in El Tuito, where we turned off the highway toward Rancho Primavera. We had been looking forward to birding Rancho Primavera very much, where I had rented a house for us, because we knew A) there was good birding on the property and B) there was geri birding on the property. That's right friends, Rancho Primavera is that rarest of rarities...a place in Mexico that actually feeds birds! Sure, there are countless lodges in Central America world-renowned for the great birds that their feeders bring in, but that phenomenon has yet to take hold in birdy Mexico. Luckily, Rancho Primavera does have some feeders, and thus some quality confiding birds. So, for the sake of conversation and public disclosure, if you know of ANY place in Mexico that is good geri birding, leave a comment! Dipper Dan knows of a place in Los Alamos, and I once saw a Wedge-tailed Sabrewing at a feeder in Tamaulipas, but that's all I know of.

Rufous-crowned Motmot was one of the endemics that inspired this trip. Luckily, we saw them at many different places, and they would frequently give good looks like right here. Facemelting? Yes. It's birds like this that keep me fantasizing about going south every winter.

I think this is the best way to start off the feeder train. This is a Blue Mockingbird, a highly desirable (if not uncommon) bird. As you can see, it is not skulking in the dark undergrowth being a pain to see, it is boldly eating out of a papaya in plain view. If you have seen these birds before, I think you can appreciate how mind-blowing it is to actually see one calmly eating out in the open.

The first Blue Mockingbird I saw was many years ago, in Southern California. People still grumble about that bird, which was denied natural vagranthood by the Bird Police. Luckily, I have seen many since then, but none like this! This bird lived in the shrubbery around our rental house and we would see it on the regular.

As I mentioned, because Rancho Primavera has nice habitat on the property, we saw many big mixed flocks during our stay. This Black-throated Gray Warbler, slurping up an inchworm, was in a flock with Magnolia and Chestnut-sided Warblers, the only ones of the trip.

The abundance of western migrants in that realm is something else...such high densities of these species compared to most of the U.S.

Jasmine the free-flying-but-not-really-wild Lilac-crowned Parrot lives at the ranch. It's a bit surprising to be birding somewhere and all of a sudden she just shows up on your shoulder. Jasmine liked Stilt the most.

Jasmine did not like Dipper Dan as much as Stilt. Dan and Jasmine did not have a conventional relationship.

(White-throated) Flycatcher Jen, being a newly sociable being, relished her time with Jasmine, a fellow sociable being.

The first morning at Rancho, I had some serious issues with my lens fogging up. I liked this shot of a male Yellow Grosbeak (!!!) enough to try to rescue this image though.

Yellow Grosbeaks love the feeders at Rancho Primavera. Could this be the best place in the world to get point-blank looks at this species? I would put a lot of pesos on it.

Is this not an amazing bird? This is the bird that dreams are made of. Mexican dreams.

Grayish Saltator are common birds in West Mexico, they seem to be in just about every mixed flock you find if you are low enough. I like them well enough, but it is not birds like this that make me think about going south every winter.

Our trip did suffer from a lack of sparrow diversity, but at least there were Stripe-headed Sparrows practically everywhere we went. I had previously only seen a handful in Costa Rica, so it was a bit of a surprise to see so many, especially considering how striking they are. Expect to see a bunch of these at the Rancho Primavera feeders.

The west coast of Nayarit and Jalisco may lack in a diversity of sparrows, but the abundance of buntings makes that fact easier to bear. It was great to see Varied Bunting on the reg, which you have to work for a bit in southeast Arizona (they're not hard at Florida Canyon though).

Black-vented Oriole is one of the specialty birds at Rancho Primavera; they were rumored to be reliable here, and the rumors were true. This life bird (!) was on a hummingbird feeder next to the house we rented. Convenience! Lifers! That is the way of the geri.

I was not mentally prepared for how they look exactly like Black-cowled Orioles, which I'd seen before in Costa Rica. We would go on to only see one Black-vented Oriole away from Rancho Primavera on the entire trip, so I feel like this is the place to go to see this species in the area.

Rufous-backed Robin is a common yet alluring bird, but I didn't manage any pics of them until we got here. Before this trip I'd only seen them as vagrants in California, both times at desert oases. That is not their preferred habitat, it turns out. Seeing birds where they are supposed to live is weird, right?

I kid, I kid, save your indignant righteousness for another post. Rufous-backed Robin is happy right where Rufous-backed Robin belongs. More from Rancho Primavera coming soon!

Winter Mexico Tour Y2K16, Days 7-8: Isla Del Rey and Tecuitata

Dipper Dan, Flycatcher Jen and Stilt (nerds) stroll giddily toward a flock at Isla Del Rey.

Remember when I said that was the end of San Blas? Well...I lied! I'm a liar! Live with it!

On the morning of Day 7, we left San Blas returned to Lower Singayta to rebird it. The birding was ok...the new bird shine that we enjoyed here for our first morning in town had begun to wane a bit and it wasn't quite as good as on that first day. Such is life. However, we did get a group lifer, which a Washingtonian had scouted for us...White-throated Flycatcher! This was a milestone lifer for Flycatcher Jen, which cements this bird as...you guessed...her spirit bird! So, if you run into her, she now prefers to be called White-throated Flycatcher Jen. You can see our eBird list here.

In the afternoon four of had become quite conscious of a gaping hole...in our life lists. We had never seen Purplish-backed Jay. So despite the bitter, borderline violent protests of Dipper Dan (who had seen them), we got a panga and headed over to Peso Island, which is really called Isla Del Rey. After about a half hour of birding, we found a flock of them along the main trail. Life lists no longer gaped, only mouths. Stoked!

Shortly after the jays departed, we got out to the beach on the west side of the island. A big flock of birds loafed to the south, near the base of the breakwater. California Gull was a trip bird here, and a boring one at that. The scenery was nicer.

A confiding Common Black-Hawk was hunting in the dunes right above the beach. I'm used to poor to mediocre looks at these birds, so a brazen flyby unobstructed by bullshit vegetation was a great change of pace. And who knew black-hawks hung out in dunes? There is nothing these birds can't do.

Mmmm...black-hawk crush. This is one of those species I remember seeing in field guides as a kid...I never thought I would see one, yet here I was standing on goddamn sand dune, crushing the shit out of one. I've seen a lot of black-hawks over the years, but every now and then I'll see a bird like this and get a weird flashback...I never thought I would see this. You see, this is the kind of damage you can do to yourself if you become a hopeless nerd at such a young age.

Common Black-Hawk on a dune. Suitable habitat. Now we know.

Despite the black-hawk's mellow ways, this American Oystercatcher left me chuffed. Not only was this a quality trip bird, it was a frazeri. This is the subspecies that shows up in California, which confusingly also looks like Black X American Oystercatchers, which are fairly common in SoCal and in coastal Baja. I've written and worried extensively about that here.

Note the jagged breast band, a classic trait for this subspecies.

The white wing stripe often does not extend onto the primaries in frazeri, which is the case for this bird. In the photo below, you can also see some dusky coloring on the white uppertail stripe, another trait the nominate subspecies lacks. Its cool seeing these birds where you know they aren't just hanging out and boning down with Black Oystercatchers, for the sake of ID of course.

If you are so inclined, here is our eBird checklist from that afternoon. Oh, it is totally possible to circumnavigate the southern part of the island, but only at low tide! We learned that the hard way.

On the morning of Day 8, it was time to head south for real. We would bird one more site in Nayarit, above the little town of Tecuitata, which is one of the new hot shit birding spots in the area. I copied down the instructions included in the excellent Birds of Passage, and even managed to find Teodoro (the first Mexican Miracle of the morning) who have us the green light to head up the hill away from town. He said we had to talk to someone else (I forget his name) in order to pay the birding fee, but said we could pay after we were done birding. We found the right parking spot mentioned in Birds of Passage, and eventually even found the guy we were supposed to pay a couple hours later on the trail (the second Mexican Miracle of the morning). It seems they are pretty serious about developing ecotourism here, and with the high quality birding the area offers it's a perfect fit. I will say one thing that Birds of Passage left out...when you park, the road that goes left is much longer (and thus preferable) than the road that goes up the hill to the right; if you go right, you will probably have to turn back around after a little while. The habitat is great in both areas though.

Shortly after parking, we found a massive flock of birds feeding in the fruiting trees. Many Black-throated Magpie-Jays adorned the trees. This remains a bird that I am not comfortable with looking at...they are just too crippling.

Much of the flock was made up of Yellow-winged Caciques, loud, flashy birds with funny crests that do not at all fit in with other birds I've seen. There is something different about them, and it's not just the way they can devour an avocado.

Citreoline Trogons are always nice to gaze upon. What is not nice to gaze upon, I can say from experience, are Colima Pygmy-Owls...I walked up on one and flushed it from about 15 feet away at eye level before I knew it was there, just to have it fly into the forest, never to be seen again. I am not counting it. Colima Painful-Owl is more like it.

Golden-cheeked Woodpeckers are everywhere, but they are flashy birds.

We had some great mixed flocks that morning; one of my favorites had Yellow, Black-headed and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks all in the same combo/binocular view. As Flycatcher Jen mentioned over at I Used To Hate Birds, this was Don Francisco's trigger bird when he was a kid, as he solemnly and ceremoniously told us at the very beginning of the trip. Looking at a Yellow Grosbeak is like looking into fully-realized Frank's soul.

I was really stoked to get this as a lifer a couple days before in La Bajada...its not like I'm going to run into one of these in southeast Arizona anytime soon. What an absurd head.

Overall, Tecuitata was great birding and I would highly recommend it to anyone birding in Nayarit. Lots of great, mid-elevation habitat, and big mixed flocks. The checklist from the morning is right here.