My friend Bob from Boise

Robert Whitlatch

A couple years ago I met Robert Whitlatch. He contacted me while I was working in Anchorage, Alaska. Yet again another birdingpal connection. Bob is a birder. He is also a writer and a photographer.

I encourage you to check out the following sites:

http://www.blue-sage-moon.blogspot.com/

Since our meeting in Alaska, we have stayed in touch and have become good friends. We have also done some birding together. In fact, we met up in Seattle on election night, where we celebrated the Obama victory together. Oh yeah! He also visited us in Patzcuaro March 11-18.

And boy did we bird - every day from sunrise to sunset. At the end of this posting is a list of the birds seen.

There's nothing like one of Martin's hamburgers after a day's birding - yummy, yummy!

Back in Boise, where his head was still swirling with all he saw and experienced in Patzcuaro, he wrote a story. That story was shared with friends, one of whom passed it along to someone else and, well, his story is being published in the New Jersey Audubon's spring newsletter. His love of birding has also been noticed by his employer, Alaska Airlines, and they too have included an article in their in-house publication.

Birds seen:

Exit to Zamora (from GDL-Mexico City tollroad):

Great-tailed grackle
House finch
House sparrow
Lesser goldfinch
Varied bunting
Blue bunting
Canyon towhee
Bullock’s oriole
Orchard oriole
Yellow-rumped warbler
Groove-billed ani
Blue grosbeak
Indigo bunting
Rufous-backed thrush
Nashville warbler
Wilson’s warbler
MacGillivray’s warbler
Blue-gray gnatcatcher
White-collared seedeater

Blue-black grassquit
Turkey vulture

Golden-fronted woodpecker
Inca dove
Streak-backed oriole
Common yellowthroat
Cattle egret
Great kiskadee

Further down the road toward Zamora:

Logger-head shrike
White-tailed

Lake Camecuaro:
Western meadowlark
American kestral
Great egret
Cassin’s kingbird
Bushtit
Canyon wrenBullock’s oriole
Rose-throated becard
Muscovy duck
Vermilion flycatcher
Black phoebe
Cordilleran flycatcher
Hermit thrush
Bewick’s wren
American coot
Eastern bluebird

La Colonia (village on way to Zarzamora – above Eronga):
Striped sparrow
Barn swallow
Brown-headed cowbird
Chipping sparrow
Bullock’s oriole (Abeille's)

Old Road from Zarzamora to Erongaricuaro, including Porton Negro area:
Red crossbill
Buff-breasted flycatcher
Greater peewee
Black-headed grosbeak
Collard-spotted towhee (hybrid)
Blue mockingbird
Lincoln’s sparrow
Acorn woodpecker
Elegant trogon
Painted redstart
Grace’s warbler
Olive warbler
Northern flicker
Black-headed siskin
Pine flycatcher
Mexican chickadee
Black-and-white warbler
Yellow warbler
Black phoebe


Columpio (dip in the road beyond Zarzamora):
Yellow-eyed junco
Slate-throated redstart
Crescent-chested warbler
Brown creeper
Townsend’s warbler
Pygmy nuthatch
Blue-throated hummingbird
Mt. pygmy-owl
Cinnamon-bellied flowerpiercer (female)

Ojo de Agua (Tzintzuntzan):
Green heron
Common moorhen
Northern jacana
Spotted sandpiper
Northern waterthrush
Song sparrow
Canyon wren
Common yellowthroat
Black-and-white warbler
Yellow warbler
Black phoebe
Painted redstart
Sora
Bronze cowbird
Snowy egret
White-faced ibis
Black-polled yellowthroat
Cassin’s kingbird
Curve-billed thrasher
Cassin’s vireo

Rio Corucha and Arroyo Frio (south of Tacambaro):
Black vulture
Yellow-winged cacique
Squirrel cuckoo
Stripe-headed sparrow
Thick-billed kingbird
Tropical kingbird
Gray-crowned yellowthroat
Warbling vireo
Orange-billed nightingale-thrush
White-throated robin
Western tanager
Macgillivray’s warbler
Cassin’s flycatcher
Golden-fronted woodpecker
Curve-billed thrasher
Cassin’s Vireo
*Solitary eagle vs. Common black-hawk (I will post separately re this encounter)

Highway between Opongeo and Cerro Burro, near Santa Juana:

Mexican jay
Hairy woodpecker
Mountain trogon
Calliope hummingbird

Cerro Burro:
Horned lark
Pine siskin
Red warbler
Olive-sided flycatcher
Magnificent hummingbird
Steller’s jay
American pipit
Hepatic tanager
White-eared hummingbird
Broad-billed hummingbird
Violet-crowned hummingbird
Calliope hummingbird
Eastern bluebird
Chipping sparrow
House finch
Yellow-eyed junco
Violet-green swallow

American robin

Northern rough-winged swallow
Barn swallow
Turkey vulture
Cassin's kingbird
Golden-browed warbler
Slate-throated redstart
Mex chickadee
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Black-headed grosbeak
Hermit warbler
Black vulture
Red-tailed hawk
Buff-breasted flycatcher
Greater peewee
Collared-spotted towhee (hybrid)

Lake Cuitzeo (north of Morelia):
Lesser scaup
Blue-winged teal
Clark’s grebe
American coot
Ruddy duck
Northern shoveler
Cinnamon teal
Black-necked stilt
American avocet
White pelican
Little blue heron

San Miguel de Allende:
Crested caracara
Northern mockingbird
Cactus wren
Green-winged teal
Mexican duck
Lark sparrow
Black-chinned sparrow
Gray flycatcher
Scott’s Oriole