| | We traveled to Bogota, Colombia, Mexico City, and Puebla, Mexico, the first week of March, on a trip hosted by Camp Counselors USA. We recruited staff for summer camp and also did a lot of sightseeing, including a little birding time. Our trip list totaled 43 species, a pretty short list, but we spent most of our time in the cities and never had as much time as we would have liked for birding.
We started out on the first morning, March 1st, at our hotel in Bogota. It was an upscale urban neighborhood, with lots of landscaping, so we were quickly able to find a few birds. Great Thrushes were everywhere, as were Eared Doves and Rufous-Collard Sparrows. We also found two Lesser Goldfinches on a thistle plant. At the end of the road, near the foothills, we found a Stripe-Headed Brush Finch scratching around in the shade. Then it was time to go to work recruiting staff.
The next morning we walked around the Parque Museo de Chico (Children's Museum) and found a Band-Winged Nightjar perched on a lamp-post. It's always cool to see a nightjar in the daytime, doubly so when it's a lifer. That afternoon, we traveled out to the country with our group to tour the Salt Cathedral in Zipaquira. On the way, we saw Cattle Egrets, Turkey Vultures, a Tropical Kingbird and 3 White-Tailed Kites. Outside the Cathedral, we also found 2 White-Tailed Hawks soaring over the hills.
On March 3, our last morning in Bogota, we found a Black Flowerpiercer perched on a wire near our hotel. We also took the train up to Montserrate, site of the most beautiful flower gardens we saw. Patrolling the blossoms were several Black-Tailed Trainbearers, our favorite bird from our Colombia list. We also had a brief glimpse of a Gray-Throated Warbler. Then it was on to a couple of hours of shopping before catching our plane to Mexico City.
In Mexico City, our hotel was in a much more urban area, and our morning bird walk produced only Rock Pigeons and House Sparrows. We had to wait until our afternoon tour of the Anthropology Museum to see Inca Doves, Rufous-Backed Robins, and Great-Tailed Grackles.
On our second day in Mexico, March 5, we visited Cholula, home to an ancient Aztec pyramid. On the drive there, we spotted a Cassin's Kingbird and a Vermilion Flycatcher. We went to a job fair at the local University, which had a campus nice enough to attract Orchard Orioles, House Finches, and a Barn Swallow. Later, hiking up the pyramid, we found a Canyon Towhee and a pair of Curve-Billed Thrashers.
On our last full day in Mexico, we were finally able to escape for a few hours of good birding. We went to the Parque Ecologico in Puebla, and found a wide variety of birds. Migrants included Wilson's Warblers and Yellow-Rumped Warblers, which were in the same area as Hutton's Vireos, a Berylline Hummingbird and several Blue-Throated Hummingbirds. At a small pond near the aviary (the big dome in the photo above), we found Masked Ducks, Common Moorhens, a Little Blue Heron, and Black-Crowned Night Herons. Just outside the aviary, Monk Parakeets were nesting, and we saw our favorite bird of the Mexico trip, a White-Throated Magpie Jay. The local aviary had a wide variety of tropical birds on display, including toucans, whistling-ducks, forest falcons, macaws, and parrots.
Our final tally of 43 species was a bit shorter than we hoped, but the trip certainly whet our appetite for tropical birding. We'll definitely be back again! And as luck would have it, we saw just enough new species to end the trip with a world life list of exactly 500!
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| | Posted 3/10/2008 9:40 PM - 41 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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