The Road to San Blas

Posted on February 7, 2020 by Lisa Rest

We had beautiful weather for the entire trip, which made the drive from Puerto Vallarta to San Blas, Mexico, along the Pacific coast in the state of Nayarit, that much better. It’s a long drive, and we made several stops along the way to look for birds. Some were familiar, like Yellow Warbler, Nashville Warbler, and Summer Tanager which visit my habitat during spring and summer.

We had San Blas Jays and Golden-Fronted Woodpeckers in abundance. The Golden-Fronted are common in Texas, but the San Blas Jays are endemic to Mexico.

We encountered some doves and Painted Buntings foraging along a dirt road…

Inca Doves, Ruddy Ground-Dove, Common Ground-Doves

White-Winged Dove – in a non-characteristic view

I don’t know where I saw this heron, but the camera doesn’t lie, so we must have encountered it on that day. I don’t see Yellow-Crowned Night-Herons very often, especially juveniles.

At some point it was temporarily cloudy along the way. So you may wonder why I am including these very dark pictures. The Cinnamon-Rumped Seedeater is of some significance in that it has been split from the White-Collared Seedeater, which makes it an endemic species. And such a close encounter with some Black Vultures seemed friendly enough.

One of many Grayish Saltators on the trip.

We would see Sinaloa Wrens again. Which didn’t stop us from searching for a species called “Happy Wren” which we heard quite often, but hardly saw it once.

This could have been our only Gila Woodpecker. I had thought it was already on my life list but it turns out I haven’t seen it before, except in a field guide, so I am glad I have proof.

We would see Rufous-bellied Chachalacas again, but for a large bird they are amazing difficult to capture.

Our first Citreoline Trogon. I was surprised to find I actually got a fairly decent picture.

Later in the day, we were on the beach, and this lone Willet gave us good, if distant, views as it expertly navigated the shore.

An assortment of beach bums were gathered – Brown Pelicans, Black Vultures, Magnificent Frigatebirds, various Herons – I think a man had left them some food.

Not to be forgotten, a proud Turkey Vulture

We were assured all cormorants would be Neo-tropical…and most of the terns were Royal.

Before we checked into our hotel, we stopped at a historical site, El fuerte de la Contaduria, when we arrived in San Blas. It’s situated on a cliff overlooking the ocean. I wish I had paid more attention to the historic significance which our guide, Steve, was trying to impart to us, but I was pretty tired from traveling by then. I believe the statue is of Don Jose Maria Mercado.

One thing I do remember is Steve reading the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, The Bells of San Blas.

A version of what happened at the fort is nicely summarized here.

I hope to make some progress over the weekend. I am fading into the sunset to process more pictures.

Back to Panama (in Pictures)

Posted on February 8, 2019 by Lisa Rest

The last two days or so of my trip to Panama in March of 2017 have been sitting on my laptop languishing, never processed… perhaps just waiting for the depths of a testy winter to remind me of warmer climes. I can’t think of a better time to revisit the tropics, at least vicariously. And I am looking forward to visiting western Panama next February.

So here are some pictures from the last day at the Canopy Lodge and then from the hotel grounds in Panama City where I had several hours before my flight home. For the most part the tanagers and the Wood Rail above were at the lodge and all the rest of the pictures were my last day in Panama City.

Golden Hooded Tanager – this was the best image I could get, he kept eluding me.

Blue-and-Gold Tanager

Social Flycatcher
Orchard Oriole
Spotted Sandpiper
Yellow Warbler

Red-Crowned Woodpecker

Great-Tailed Grackle

Osprey
Brown Pelican
Panama Canal

It’s been an exhausting two weeks, but things are getting back to normal, except perhaps for the weather. Getting used to the new car, busy with work and choir rehearsals… thinking a lot about my book but not getting much writing done. Watching the days getting ever-so-slightly longer!

Back to Panama, Day 1 continued

Posted on April 25, 2017 by Lisa Rest

Orange-Chinned Parakeet

More birds from the first full day of a short but colorful trip. It’s always a delight to see parrots and parakeets, after you’ve managed to distinguish them from the leaves of the trees into which they blend so well. Orange-Chinned Parakeets were our most common psittacine species.

The picture below is as close as I got to the tiny spec of “orange chin” this bird is named for. I’ve come to the conclusion you can only “see” it in the field guide illustrations.

Orange Chin of the Orange-Chinned Parakeet 3-13-17-1564 Below is a Yellow-Tailed Oriole. I saw a lot of different Orioles all at once years ago in Belize and got terribly confused. Luckily this was the only Oriole we had to worry about except for the Baltimore Oriole which we shall see shortly in spring migration in the United States, with many staying to breed throughout the summer.

Yellow-Tailed Oriole

Later in the day we visited some wetlands and caught glimpses of the juvenile Rufescent Tiger-Heron on the left and its parents on the right.

Also present in the wet areas were Northern Jacanas like the one below.

I think I have never seen a Greater Ani before, only Groove-Billed and Smooth-Billed. I was surprised to see the scalloped blue edges on its feathers.

Greater Ani

We had some raptors too. The Gray-Lined Hawk below is a new species for me. What a gorgeous creature.

Gray-Lined Hawk

I’ve seen Zone-Tailed Hawks before, but never really gotten such a detailed view of their feather patterns underneath.

Zone-Tailed Hawk

The Black Vulture below is feather-challenged but still elegant in flight. Black Vultures outnumbered every other kind so you will be seeing more pictures of them.

Black Vulture

I couldn’t resist throwing in a few more pictures of a Plain-Colored Tanager. I’m sure he was pleased I paid so much attention to him.

This Black-Headed Saltator isn’t living up to its name. If it weren’t for the overall shape of the bird and the white eyebrow I would still be trying to figure out who it was.

Black-Headed Saltator

We saw a lot of Yellow Warblers, and there have been a few reported to have made their way to the Midwest in the U.S. already.

Yellow Warbler

This is not my greatest picture of a Rufous-Tailed Hummingbird but I like the branch it’s on.

Rufous-Tailed Hummingbird

Red-Lored Parrots were seen a few times too. This bird seems to be feeding on something here. Looks crunchy, what fun.

There was a Three-Toed Sloth in a tree close to the tower we stayed in. It blended in well but luckily was exposed enough for a photograph.

Three-Toed Sloth 3-13-17-1424 It’s been a busy week, with the March for Science last Saturday, then Choir Sunday at Unity Temple, work, upcoming rehearsal and participation in the Spring Music Festival at Unity Temple-United Lutheran which my friend Linda and I attended last year but this year we are performing Schubert’s Sonatina for Flute and Piano. I managed to get in a swim last night but the rest of the week is clamoring for attention. I’ll be back with more birds from Panama as soon as I can.

Happy Spring!

Nicaragua IV

Posted on April 3, 2016 by Lisa Rest

Springlike weather is still far enough away for me to feel like I can put myself back in Nicaragua with a few more pictures. But it’s getting harder and harder to go backward! One more of these posts and I’m going to have to move on to spring migration.

The bird above and in the pictures below is a Tri-Colored Heron. We took a boat ride around Lake Nicaragua and managed to see some really nice birds. And despite the rocking of the boat I managed to get some pictures.

I feel like this trip cemented the difference between Snowy Egrets (below) and Great Egrets in my brain so I don’t have to think about it anymore.

Below, Southern Lapwings.

Green Herons…

Caspian Terns…

We pulled up to an island in the lake that has been devoted to a habitat for monkeys. Below are pictures of one Howler Monkey, a Spider Monkey and a Capuchin Monkey.

Spider and Capuchin Monkeys 02-25-2016-3104

Sadly we discovered that people were feeding these monkeys bad things like the lollipop the Spider Monkey on the left below is clutching in his hand. I couldn’t tell exactly what one woman was offering to the Capuchin but it appeared to be something like a potato chip.

Back out on the lake, among perched birds were an Osprey and a Black Vulture.

Below, a Northern Jacana.

We came upon a colony of nesting Montezuma’s Oropendolas. Their nests alone are fascinating.

Montezuma Oropendula at Nest 02-25-2016-3190

Montezuma Oropendola at Nest 02-25-2016-3195

Montezuma Oropendola at Nest 02-25-2016-3187

Montezuma Oropendola at Nest 02-25-2016-3182

Below is a Little Blue Heron.

Little Blue Heron 2-25-15-2996 I will be back with one more post from Nicaragua. I hope soon!

Unattached

Posted on August 12, 2014 by Lisa Rest

Cooper’s Hawk, Grant Park

If I were better organized I would only upload pictures I was actually going to use in a blog post, but I am too often compiling posts on the fly and consequently I wind up making last-minute decisions of what to use and never going back to delete the unused, or “unattached” photos.