Early Doors

Birding on a new continent brings different challenges and different rewards.

The challenge - most of the birds here I've never seen before (i.d. nightmare!)

The reward - most birds I've seen are lifers!

Most of the first 2 days have been spent settling in, meeting people, etc, with very little spare time. The moments to myself that I have had, though, have allowed me to start getting to grips with the birds here. The Vermillion Flycatcher (at the top of the page) is fairly common. It had the honour of being my first confirmed Mexican lifer! I've noticed 4 males and 1 duller female around Tequis.

The next was this Inca Dove. I believe they're common throughout Mexico close to human habitation. The water fountain that it is drinking from is right outside my (temporary) bedroom window and has allowed me phenomenol views, not just of the Doves, but also the more familiar Passer domesticus.

After a while, some Lesser Goldfinches turned up. The female of the species is pictured here. Like with the Vermillion, the male is a lot brighter.

I've seen Great-tailed Grackles frequently. They're long tail and social behaviour reminds me of Magpies from the UK. We had a tour of the school yesterday and the Grackles were lined up on the roof. I also noticed Barn Swallows nesting in school. I'd guess the reason for the late breeding (compared to UK) is that they are taking advantage of the insect abundance during the rainy season.

There were some big storms this afternoon actually. I had a walk down to the San Juan river once they'd cleared up, and, as well as finding a flock of 50 Lesser Goldfinches, managed to add 3 more lifers to my budding Mexico list. First, a Golden fronted Woodpecker hurtled overhead, before landing on a bare tree and showing nicely. Underneath it, I picked out something that looked very similar to a Great Grey Shrike. It was actually a Loggerhead Shrike, the only Old World Shrike to be found in Mexico.

A fine male Cassin's Kingbird also showed well, perched up on a distant cactus - classic Mexican birding!

More news to follow...