It was nice to wake up to the sound of waves
crashing on the shore just 30 metres from our hotel rooms and American Oystercatchers calling away.
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| A pretty cool place to wake up to right.... |
After a huge breakfast we birded our way back
to the highway some 40kms away and began with a pair of West Mexican Chachalacas beside the track leading away from the
hotel, followed by the first of many Orange-breasted
Buntings, Nutting’s Flycatcher, Thick-billed Kingbird and a Northern Beardless Tyrannulet all
coming in to our owlet impersonation. And it was really cool to see this fly past us...
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| Northern Crested Caracara |
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| A few Orange-breasted Buntings from this morning (endemic) |
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| Thick-billed Kingbird |
A short way further along the road and
more birds came in to our owlet tape including our first Ruby-throated Hummingbird and a showy White-bellied Wren amongst lots of commoner species.
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| White-bellied Wren |
The next stop was great as so many birds appeared
in the trees around us, but this time we saw quite a few Lucy’s Warblers, along with a young male Citreoline Trogon, a Yellow-breasted
Chat scolded away from a brush pile in the field behind us, a Black-and-white Warbler clambered
around the branches of a bare tree right next to us and a Willow Flycatcher called from its perch nearby.
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| Black-and-white Warbler |
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| Western Willow Flycatcher |
As we drove a few
more kilometres we noticed a small pool had lots of birds and my vehicle
stopped to scan the area and resulted in 5 species of bunting coming in and
pride of place went to the two male Painted
Buntings, but there was also Blue,
Orange-breasted, Lazuli and Indigo as well. Meanwhile the front van had cripplingly close views
of a Red-breasted Chat. Once
everyone had seen the buntings, and it was a shame we couldn’t get on to the
calling Purplish-backed Jays we
returned to see the Red-breasted Chat and this time a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl flew in.
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| Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl |
Further on a Bat Falcon was spotted by Julie, before a Grey Hawk and 2 Hook-billed
Kites flew over, and a Green-crowned
Emerald appeared.
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| Grey Hawk |
Oh and we had a cracking male Citreoline Trogon posing right in front of us as well.
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| Citreoline Trogon (endemic) |
Our final stop of the morning, and by now it was almost
11am, finally scored with a female Black-capped
Vireo appearing amidst a flurry of other agitated birds including Bell’s Vireo and Rufous-capped Warbler.
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| Black-capped Vireo |
Then we drove through Puerto Vallarta and further
north towards San Blas, seeing Roadside
Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, our
first Sinaloa Crow, brief Black-throated Magpie-Jays and a
flyover Western Osprey.
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| Sinaloa Crow (endemic) |
Once at San
Blas we checked out some pools and enjoyed an hour’s worth of easy birding, seeing
Roseate Spoonbills, American Avocets, Short-billed Dowitchers, Stilt
Sandpipers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Least
Sandpiper, lots of Blue-winged Teal,
Cinnamon Teal, and lots of American Alligators.
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| Least Sandpiper |
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| Roseate Spoonbill |
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| Tricolored Heron |
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| Dinner time.... |
It was a nice surprise to arrive at such a
delightful hotel in the old town.
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