Thursday, June 4, 2009

Birding Colima's Two Volcanos

During the first week of February, I accompanied Laura Kaltenstein of Sitka, Alaska, to the volcanic region of Colima. We visited a number of sites listed in Howell's guidebook and, thanks to Wayne and Susan Colony of San Miguel de Allende, we thoroughly enjoyed Agua Dulce.

Plumes erupted fairly often during our three-day stay

Such beauty! It aches to be climbed.

Laura is in this hedge, really

We didn't have to move far to see birds at Agua Dulce.
As dusk arrived, we drove toward the village of Agua Dulce simply to check it out. On our way back down the hill, we spotted a nightjar along the road. Our look at the bird was curtailed when a car approached. Luckily, Laura was a sport and didn't mind going a ways further and turning around to try to relocate the bird. We did find the bird and had ample time to study it until another car disturbed us. Back in my car, we drove a bit and turned around for another try. We spotted the bird again and had really good looks at it. That's when we discovered that we'd been looking at two different species, not the same bird: a paurauque and buff-collared nightjar. What a double treat for us!

136 species seen:
Least grebe
American white pelican
Neotropic cormorant
Great blue heron
Great egret
Little blue heron
Snowy egret
Black-crowned night-heron
White-faced ibis
Blue-winged teal
Cinnamon teal
Black vulture
Turkey vulture
Osprey
Sharp-shinned hawk
Gray hawk
Short-tailed hawk
White-tailed hawk
Red-tailed hawk
American kestrel
Peregrine falcon
Crested guan (what a racket they make!)
Long-tailed wood-partridge (another lifer for me)
Common moorhen
American coot
Spotted sandpiper
Caspian tern
Inca dove
Thick-billed parrot
Lilac-crowned parrot
Squirrel cuckoo
Groove-billed ani
Paurauque
Buff-collared nightjar
Green violet-ear
Broad-billed hummingbird
White-eared hummingbird
Cinnamon hummingbird
Violet-crowned hummingbird
Berylline hummingbird
Magnificent hummingbird
Citreoline trogon
Mountain trogon
Yellow-bellied sapsucker
Ladder-backed woodpecker
Hairy woodpecker
Gray-crowned woodpecker
Tufted flycatcher
Greater pewee
Least flycatcher
Hammond'd flycatcher
Cordilleran flycatcher
Buff-breasted flycatcher
Black phoebe
Vermilion flycatcher
Dusky-capped flycatcher
Great kiskadee
Social flycatcher
Tropical flycatcher
Cassin's kingbird
Rose-throated becard
Violet-green swallow
Northern rough-winged swallow
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Gray silky-flycatcher
Gray-barred wren
Spotted wren
Canyon wren
Happy wren (finally I got to see this bird - a loud one at that)
Bewick's wren
House wren
Blue mockingbird
Eastern bluebird
Brown-backed solitaire
Swainson's thrush
Rufous-backed robin
Blue-gray gnatcatcher
Bushtit
Mexican chickadee
Pygmy nuthatch
White-breasted nuthatch
Loggerhead shrike
White-throated magpie-jay
Mexican jay
Common raven
House sparrow
Dwarf vireo
Cassin's vireo
Hutton's vireo
Warbling vireo
Golden vireo
House finch
Pine siskin
Lesser goldfinch
Olive warbler
Orange-crowned warbler
Nashville warbler
Crescent-chested warbler
Tropical parula
Yellow warbler
Yellow-rumped warbler
Black-throated gray warbler
Townsend's warbler
Hermit warbler
Black-and-white warbler
Northern waterthrush
Common yellowthroat
Wilson's warbler
Red warbler
Painted redstart
Slate-throated redstart
Rufous-capped warbler
Golden-browed warbler
Yellow-breasted chat
Hepatic tanager
Summer tanager
Red-headed tanager
Rusty-crowned ground-sparrow
Collared towhee
Stripe-headed sparrow
Chipping sparrow
Lark sparrow
Lincoln's sparrow
Yellow-eyed junco
Black-headed grosbeak
Blue bunting
Blue grosbeak
Lazuli bunting
Indigo bunting
Varied bunting
Painted bunting
Yellow-headed blackbird
Great-tailed grackle
Streak-backed oriole
Bullock's oriole
Yellow-winged cacique

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