Report on a Birding Trip to the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, December 2017.

58 Pages·2017·3.97 MB·English

by  Aidan Kelly

Report on a Birding Trip to the Yucatán
Peninsula, Mexico, December 2017.
Aidan G. Kelly

[email protected]

Yucatán Poorwill: Xocen, Yucatán.
All photographs © Aidan G. Kelly unless stated otherwise.

Participants:
Howard Armstrong
Thaïs Armstrong
Aidan G. Kelly
Introduction:
Mexico was a country I had yet to visit, and I thought that the defined area of the
Yucatán peninsula would be a good place to do a first birding trip. The Yucatán is generally a
very safe area of Mexico to do an independent visit. The roads are very good, traffic is light
and people are friendly. Because of the huge tourist industry based around Cancun and Playa
del Carmen, flights, hotels, car hire, AirB&Bs etc. are all readily available. Value is good
especially compared to Europe and the USA.
Overall it was a very successful trip, getting almost all the potential target birds. We
recorded a total of 227 species and managed to see all the gettable Yucatán endemics. Notable
misses for me were Caribbean Dove (none seemed to be calling at this time of year),
Rufous-necked Wood Rail (none recorded at Rio Lagartos) and Rufous-breasted Spinetail.
All of these species are possible to see outside the Yucatán peninsula however. A bonus was
seeing many North American wintering warblers and other passerines at this time year. We
had virtually no rain at all for two weeks and temperatures varied between 26 and 30C
maximum daily, so a very pleasant time to get away from the cold northern winter.
My good friends Howard and Thaïs Armstrong from Washington State decided to join me on
the trip, and we corresponded for a while to finalise a rough itinerary. Because it was over
Christmas and to save some time on the ground, we decided to book most of the
accommodation in advance. Howard and Thaïs did most of this through AirB&B or through
Booking.com.

Logistics, car hire, useful references etc.
We pre-booked a hire car on Cozumel Island with Isis Rent a car.
http://www.islacozumel.net/services/isis/
We went for the ‘chevy with a/c’ option at US$45/day.
This worked fine except than we had our only car mishap of the trip when we went through
some deep rutted pools near the Sewage Works as we tried to find Ruddy Crake, and
managed to get a puncture. It was no ordinary puncture. The sidewall was torn in the tire. We
changed it and brought back the busted one to Isis. Of course, they had no spare, and they
told us that we’d have to pay for a new one, costing about $US80. A good deal for the
company getting a new tire for their car! We did get a Ruddy Crake however so it was worth
it!! !
In Playa del Carmen we pre-booked a car for the rest of the trip through Mex rent-a-car, also
trading as Fox rent-a-car. We paid an extra $30 so that we could drop it back to Cancun
airport and not have to drop it back to Playa del Carmen at the end of the trip. During the
trip we drove about 2200km with this car.
https://mexrentacar.com/en/Locations/14-rent-a-car-in-playa-del-carmen-downtown
This was a Kia Rio saloon car with large boot. It had only 5000km on the clock so was
virtually new. The basic price was quoted as US$400 for 12 days on the website booking,
but in the end we paid a bit more for the option of full CDW and extra driver taken out when
we signed contracts in the office. As expected with a new car, we had no problems with it at
all.
Phone Apps to consider:
One of the most useful things we had for navigating on the trip was the free app maps.me
where we had downloaded the map of the Yucatán peninsula before we left home. This app
gives amazing detail and means you don’t need to hire a sat.nav. with the car hire at extra
expense. You can also put in GPS co-ordinates into the app and it tells you the route to the
exact spot from your current location.
Another fantastic app for much of Central and North America is Cornell’s Merlin BIRD ID
App. We downloaded all the Mexico species available. We used this free app daily in the
field both for confirming the identity of certain species by referring to the excellent photos or
the calls and songs provided on the app. Indeed I only downloaded a few of the Cozumel
Island specials from Xeno-canto.org, and just used the app for everything else.
The main field guide is Howell and Webb’s A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern
Central America. It is very bulky and heavy however and we actually used the Merlin BIRD
ID App more in the field.
Howell’s Where to watch Birds in Mexico was also useful as a site guide, but does not cover
Calakmul.
We referred to many Trip Reports found on the web, mostly from
http://www.cloudbirders.com
The ones by Ross Gallardy, Hakan Thorstensson (x2), David Showler. David Flumm, Raoul
Beunen were the most useful. Trip reports by Birdquest and Rockjumper were also referred
to. Most of these were also on Cloudbirders. A few other trip reports were also found on
Birdforum.net
https://budgetbirders.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/mexico-trip-report_final.pdf
http://www.surfbirds.com/trip_report.php?id=2759
http://www.surfbirds.com/trip_report.php?id=2531
http://www.club300.se/Files/TravelReports/Mexico%20March%202014.pdf
https://www.cloudbirders.com/tripreport/repository/BEUNEN_Mexico_02_2016.pdf
http://www.club300.se/Files/TravelReports/Mexico%20January%202015.pdf
http://www.surfbirds.com/trip_report.php?id=2531

Map of route covered.

We began in Cancun and went in a clockwise direction, ending back in
Cancun:
Itinerary summary:
After some pre-trip discussions and a few minor site additions during the trip, our final itinerary
turned out like this:
16 Dec I arrived Cancun airport 18.20 hrs. Took the ADO bus to Playa del Carmen and then a
taxi to the AirB&B where I met up with Howard and Thaïs who had arrived in Mexico the
previous day from the USA.

17 Dec Took ferry to Cozumel Island. Picked up hire car. Checked into AirB&B. Birding
Cozumel rest of day.

18 Dec Birding Cozumel all day.

19 Dec Birding Cozumel all day.

20 Dec Ferry back to Playa del Carmen. Picked up hire car. Drove to Felipe Carillo Puerto.
Check in Hotel El Faisan y el venado. Evening birding at Laguna Ocom and entrance road.

21 Dec All day birding Vigia Chico Road near Felipe Carillo Puerto.
Stay at Hotel El Faisan y el venado.

22 Dec Morning birding at Vigia Chico Road. Left Felipe Carillo Puerto for Xpujil. Diverted to
Tres Garantias en route where birded until after dark. On to Xpujil and found our pre-booked
Cabanas in town.

23 Dec All day birding Calakmul. Overnight at Xpujil.

24 Dec All day birding Calakmul. Overnight at Xpujil.

25 Dec Birding in Hormiguero ruins near Xpujil in early morning. Took inland route from
Xpujil north to Uxmal. Check in Uxmal Mayan Resort. Evening visit to Uxmal ruins where birded
to dusk.

26 Dec Birded grounds of hotel for a short while pre and post breakfast. Drove towards
Merida and on to Rio Lagartos. Check in Macumba Hotel on seafront. Birded Rio Lagartos area
until after dark.

27 Dec Birding Rio Lagartos area.

28 Dec Morning birding Rio Lagartos. Travel to Valladolid. Check in hotel. Birding Xocen until
after dark. Return to Valladolid.

29 Dec Morning in Xocen area. After lunch in Valladolid went to Ek Balam ruins for afternoon,
before returning to Xocen for nightbirding, arriving back just before dusk. Return to same hotel
in Valladolid.
.
30 Dec Decided to divert to Coba area on way back to Cancun from Valladolid, mainly to try
(successfully) for last realistic target, Yellow-winged Tanager. Lunch at Coba before traveling
back to Cancun. Dropped Howard and Thaïs at a nice AirB&B they had pre-booked near the
airport. They were not flying home until next morning. I flew out on time at 20.35hrs.
Daily Account:

Saturday 16 Dec. Left Dublin for London Gatwick on Aer Lingus flight at 09.00hrs.
Transfer from South to North Terminal for Virgin Atlantic flight to Cancun. A long 10.5hr
flight. Arrived about 15min late at 18.20hrs local time. Had to then endure horrendous queue
through passport control, eventually getting through at 19.50hrs. Picked up bag. Strangely
there was no Bureau de Change at Terminal 4, so I couldn’t change any cash to Mexican
Pesos. Found an ADO bus ticketing desk and enquired about a ticket to Playa del Carmen.
Bought a single ticket on credit card (190 Mexican pesos). The next bus was leaving in less
than 5 minutes at 20.00hrs, so I had a mad dash out of the terminal building to find the right
bus. Made it just in time.
After about an hour arrived at Playa del Carmen terminus. Tried to take cash out of an ATM
only to have it refused and then immediately got an SMS from my bank asking me to contact
them to verify an attempted and unexpected withdrawal request. Things weren’t going well!
Flagged down a taxi and got him to take me to the AirB&B address that the others were
staying at. Gave him US$5, having no pesos to hand.
After a long day’s travelling it was good to meet Howard and Thaïs and catch up with them
again. They told me they’d had a day of torrential rain for most of the day. Not what I was
expecting at this time of year.

Sunday 17 Dec. Up before 7am. Tried to find somewhere nearby to get some breakfast but
after walking a few blocks we couldn’t find anywhere that was open. We decided to quickly
return to the AirB&B, pack up and check out, and take a taxi the short trip to the Cozumel
Island ferry terminal where we found a Starbucks and got some coffee and sandwiches for
breakfast. Brown Pelicans, Cabot’s Terns and Laughing Gulls were all numerous around
the port.
Saw our first Magnificent Frigatebirds of the trip on the ferry crossing. Arriving at
Cozumel, we walked a few blocks back from the port and found the Isis rental car office.
Picked up our Chevrolet car (US$45/day) and drove the few blocks back to our AirB&B
apartment, which was very spacious and comfortable.
Dumped the bags and finally we were able to get out for some real birding.
Firstly we headed for the overgown Bello Caribe grid area, the dirt road which leads
eventually to the Sewage works plant. We saw some commoner birds but it was already quite
hot and not the best time of the day for birding.
We stopped about 1km before the sewage works and had Palm Warblers hopping along the
ground, also a brief small Woodpecker species (presumably Yucatán) and the first of many
Tropical Kingbirds and Tropical Mockingbirds we were to see on the trip. Then we saw
our first endemic as a small Hummingbird flew in and perched for a few seconds. A male
Cozumel Emerald. A good start. Our first of many Black Catbirds on Cozumel followed.
We entered the sewage work (no one on site seemed to mind our presence) and soon heard
some Ruddy Crakes calling. We played the tape from the Merlin App and quite a few birds
called back from the long dense vegetation. Unfortunately there were very few suitable open
areas where a bird might appear. This might be a challenge….
We flushed a Wilson’s Snipe and a Spotted Sandpiper, and then had stunning looks
at a superb Yellow-throated Warbler hopping around the steps of a building in the Sewage
works. Also present were Yellow-faced Grassquits, White-collared Seedeaters,
Common Yellowthroats, American Redstarts, Black-and-white Warbler and a
Northern Waterthrush. Also nice to see was the Cozumel Island Mangrove/Yellow
warbler known as Golden Warbler, with its distinct orange crown and heavy underparts
streaking compared to Yellow Warblers. We also saw a few normal migrant American
Yellow Warblers too.
The most surprising sighting was a Bobolink, which was not expected on Cozumel. As we
left the sewage works, we spotted the Cozumel race of Bananaquit, with its pale throat and
then our first Orioles of the trip that proved to be a pair of Hooded Orioles. A view of the
endemic form of Coati crossing the road was also nice.

American Redstart, Cozumel Black Catbird, Cozumel
Iguana sp. Sewage Works, Cozumel. Magnolia Warbler, Cozumel.
Since it was now fairly hot, and bird activity was quiet, we decided to head back to San
Miguel for a lunch of chicken tacos. We then headed south from San Miguel and drove down
the narrow road to the overgrown abandoned housing complex grid near Hotel Presidente.
Look for the horse-riding facilities on the left as you go south. Here we eventually had good
views of Yucatán Woodpeckers, but generally it was slow birding. We decided to return
early tomorrow morning instead when we hoped it would be livelier birdwise.
Cutting our losses we decided to head back to San Miguel and head out the Cross Island
Highway towards the San Gervaiso ruins, supposedly a good area to look for Yucatán
Nightjar. Our hopes were dashed however when we arrived at the entrance gate along the
main highway to find that it was closed! Thaïs volunteered to speak to the security guard on
the gate, but we weren’t getting in!...
It seems that the gates close around 4pm so you need to be inside the gate before then if you
want to try for the nightjar along the access road, a few km in. We only had about a half hour
before dusk so looked at the map.me app to see if we could find any other tracks off the main
road nearby. We couldn’t find anything decent but did drive up a track on the opposite side
of the road closer to San Miguel with scrappy habitat. We had brief views of a few parrots in
flight, but too brief to identify anything. We got excited then when we found a dull Myiarchus
flycatcher. Photos later proved that it was a Dusky-capped Flycatcher and not the Cozumel
Island race of Yucatán Flycatcher, which is supposed to be duller than the ones on the
mainland.
As darkness fell, no night birds were in evidence, which wasn’t surprising as we were
in poor habitat. We returned to our AirB&B and then went to a local restaurant in San
Miguel for chicken fajitas, fairly pleased with our first day, or rather half day’s birding on
Cozumel.
Monday 18 Dec. Got out to the grid of trails near the Hotel Presidente soon after first light.
Birding quite slow at first but gradually we started seeing a few of our targets. A Blue-grey
Gnatcatcher of the Cozumel race was nice. Then a Rufous-browed Peppershrike of the
Cozumel race, with much duller underparts than the birds on the mainland. As we slowly
walked around the grids we eventually picked up and had good views of two Cozumel
Wrens. They look quite different than House Wrens on the mainland, but are still classed by
many authorities including I.O.C. as a race of House Wren (beani). A nice bonus was when
we noticed a movement in a tree above us that proved to be a female Rose-throated Tanager.
Another Cozumel Island race, but also a very welcome lifer eitherway. Two White-crowned
Pigeons also showed well too, and our only two Caribbean Elaenias of the trip.

Rufous-browed Peppershrike, Cozumel Caribbean Elaenia Cozumel.
On arriving back to the car for some snacks we met a local man who told us we should walk a
trail that lead to a cenote (natural limestone pool) as it has lots of birds. We drove about a
kilometer or two towards the main road and saw the trail to the right off the road. We noticed
a small patch of water to the left after about 20min walk, but were expecting something more
impressive, so kept walking. After another 20 min we realised that that small area of water
had to have been the cenote, so we turned back. Before we turned back however we had nice
views of 2 Cozumel Emeralds at some flowering trees and a stunning Blue-winged
Warbler. Back at the cenote a gorgeous Hooded Warbler was hopping around through the
undergrowth. Otherwise things were quiet however.
Because there had just recently been a lot of rain with large puddles on the roads, the cenote
was probably not attracting birds to drink.
As we continued on back to the road and the car, we came across our only two Cozumel
Vireos of the trip and had nice views of this attractive and distinctive species. This took the
pressure off, as it was the last of the endemics we were targeting.
Cozumel Vireo, Cozumel. Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, Cozumel.

Yellow Warbler, Cozumel. Palm Warbler, Cozumel.
We decided to drive back to the main road and travel further south along the island towards El
Cedral, stopping for a chicken fajita lunch in a roadside restaurant. We paid a small fee at a
barrier to visit the El Cedral area. We weren’t interested in visiting the ruins, which were
closed anyway, but the gardens and weedy fields nearby. We also intended to stay until after
dark to try for nightbirds.
We weren’t too long out of the car before we picked up a Yucatán Vireo and had nice views.
Amazingly this was to be our only sighting of the whole trip.
A nearby garden was alive with birds including Tennessee Warbler, Magnolia Warbler,
Northern Parula, American Redstarts, Bananaquits and best of all a stunning male
Painted Bunting. We soon saw a female nearby too.
As we walked the road we picked up a Green-breasted Mango (again our only one of the
trip) and two gorgeous Summer Tanagers, as well as an unexpected Clay-coloured
Thrush.