Laura and I left the highlands of Chiapas behind, making good time on the expensive toll highways as we drove northwards. Our destination was a small mountain chain, the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas, located near the town of Catemaco in coastal Veracruz state. The rare Tuxtla Quail-Dove is found solely in these mountains, or to be more accurate, in what forest is left here. We broke up the drive by spending a night in Minatitlán.
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| Gray-crowned Yellowthroat - Pantano de Santa Alejandrina, Veracruz, Mexico |
A massive Pemex oil refinery situated on the outskirts of Minatitlán is surrounded by a large wetland complex called Pantano de Santa Alejandrina. This is a favoured location for the Spot-tailed Nightjar. While fairly widespread in South America, the Spot-tailed Nightjar is only found in a few locations in Central America and southern Mexico, and the extensive reed-beds here provide perfect habitat. While early speculation was that the nightjar leaves Mexico for the winter, extensive surveys in recent years have revealed that at least some individuals hang around. I considered a nightjar search, but we were pretty tired after a long day on the road. Without knowing exactly where to search for the nightjars, we decided to skip out on this endeavour. But, we resolved to arrive at the wetland early the next morning for some birding.
November 28, 2021
The morning dawned overcast with almost no wind - perfect conditions for birding. We wasted the first half hour or so by attempting to navigate down roads that appeared to cut through the marsh, only to find that all of these roads were no more than overgrown footpaths (thanks, Google!). At least we heard a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl at dawn, a small consolation for the wasted time.
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| Pantano de Santa Alejandrina, Veracruz, Mexico |
With the day brightening quickly, we eventually found an area on the western side of the wetland complex that seemed to be a suitable birding area. We parked at 17.992127, -94.510282 and explored alongside a dirt path for a few hundred meters until it petered out. A number of trees lined the path and created a sort of island in the extensive grassy environment. An oasis for a high diversity of bird species.
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| Pantano de Santa Alejandrina, Veracruz, Mexico |
In no time at all we had passed fifty species, including highlights like Russet-naped Wood-Rail, Peregrine Falcon, Yellow-breasted Chat, Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, Yellow-tailed Oriole, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Snail Kite and Buff-bellied Hummingbird.
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| Yellow-breasted Chat - Pantano de Santa Alejandrina, Veracruz, Mexico |
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| Cinnamon-bellied Saltator - Pantano de Santa Alejandrina, Veracruz, Mexico |
Migrants from the north were present in high numbers. The most conspicuous of these was Orchard Oriole; I estimated 40 for my checklist.
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| Orchard Oriole - Pantano de Santa Alejandrina, Veracruz, Mexico |
The sputtery trills of various rails rang out all around us. Apparently, both Gray-breasted Crake and Ruddy Crake are found here, but I have not figured out how to tell their main song apart. I think the ones I recorded were all Ruddy Crake, but I need to confirm that. Despite my best efforts we failed at observing any of them either.
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| Least Flycatcher - Pantano de Santa Alejandrina, Veracruz, Mexico |
Birding next to an oil refinery was an interesting experience between the constant clangs and bangs of machinery, the chemical odour, and the ominous flame, ever present on the horizon.
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| Turkey Vultures - Pantano de Santa Alejandrina, Veracruz, Mexico |
We spent some time in the later morning exploring along a stretch of road just north of our original position. The additions kept coming: a flyover Laughing Falcon, a singing Clay-coloured Sparrow, a flock of 20+ Blue Grosbeaks, some Purple Gallinules.
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| Purple Gallinule - Pantano de Santa Alejandrina, Veracruz, Mexico |
It was a good day for falcons with six species recorded. This Aplomado Falcon gave us a show as it soared directly overhead.
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| Aplomado Falcon - Pantano de Santa Alejandrina, Veracruz, Mexico |
These Green Iguanas had found an ingenious way to maximize their sun exposure.
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| Green Iguanas - Pantano de Santa Alejandrina, Veracruz, Mexico |
We left the wetland at 10 AM with 89 bird species, the last being a pair of Muscovy Ducks flying past. We returned in time for "breakfast" at the Best Western before leaving town. They probably assumed that we were a couple of lazy tourists just getting up to start our day, when in fact we were almost 100 species deep into our day!
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| Tropical Kingbird - Pantano de Santa Alejandrina, Veracruz, Mexico |
The Tuxtla Quail-Dove is a rare and enigmatic bird found only in the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas, mountains in eastern Veracruz State. Much of the tree cover in these mountains has been removed and a look at satellite images confirm that the Tuxtla Quail-Dove has a tenuous existence. A single eruption from the nearby volcano might cause its extinction. Fortunately, this volcano has been dormant for many thousands of years.
Laura and I had two factors working against us. One of these had been conspiring against us for the entire trip, and the second, a new threat. The first problem was that we were visiting Mexico during November/December, two months in the dry season where birds just aren't vocalizing. Most places we have visited have been eerily quiet and we have had to work hard to find our target birds. Quail-doves are shy at the best of times and are best located by voice. This would not be an effective strategy at this time of year.
The second factor working against us was the weather on the morning of the search. Despite it being a dry time of year, these mountains receive a lot of rainfall and most of it decided to fall during our visit. The precipitation pounded all night long and the winds howled. We drove up the side of the volcano on bumpy mountain roads to our chosen site as the sideways rain scoured every bit of dirt off of our rental vehicle. (At least that unburdened us from taking the car to a carwash to negate a potential "cleaning fee" from the rental agency).
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| Reserva de los Biosfera Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico |
We ate our breakfast wraps, donned our rain gear (umbrellas would be useless in the strong winds) and gave the road a shot. Forty minutes later, our eBird checklist sat at one species: a heard-only Brown Jay. We retreated to the safety of the vehicle to regroup and wait out the weather.
That did not go so well and it was now mid-morning, with no end in sight to the rain. We debated whether we could weather the weather once more, but smartly decided against it. There was no hope of finding any bird, let alone a secretive quail-dove, in these conditions.
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| Aphelandra aurantiaca - Reserva de los Biosfera Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico |
We drove back down the mountain. Finally, some birds! A flock of Tree Swallows poured overhead, joining with a much larger group over the nearby fields. We could not believe our eyes: perhaps 10,000 swallows or more were flying over the field in a massive, swirling flock. Here is 1/10 of it, more or less.
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| Tree Swallows - Reserva de los Biosfera Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico |
As anticipated, the weather abated slightly as we arrived at the lakeside town of Catemaco. This is a popular tourist town due to its high-elevation lake. The streets are rife with peddlers and meddlers, each attempting to sell their boat tours. Their eyes had lit up yesterday when they saw our white rental vehicle. One man even rode beside me for several blocks on his motorbike, not wanting to take no for an answer. The poor weather during today's drive-through had depleted the hoards of boat-tour hawkers and we were able to find a quiet area to park and scan the flocks of roosting gulls and terns. No rarities were lurking with the many Laughing Gulls, though both Forster's and Common Terns were new for our Mexico lists, as were the Lesser Scaup and Least Grebes floating out on the lake.
We finished off our birding for the day by stopping by Reserva Ecológica Nanciyaga. This parcel of lowland forest along the north shore of Laguna Catemaco has amassed an impressive 300 bird species, according to eBird. Unfortunately, the rain picked up its frequency and the birding shut down once again. We returned to our AirBnB, eager to dry off after a wasted morning.
November 30, 2021
Finally, sun and calm weather! We had considered only spending a single morning searching for the quail-dove. Luckily, we had changed our minds and had booked two nights here. We held out hope as we walked down the same section of road as the previous morning, though this time, in beautifully calm conditions.
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| Reserva de los Biosfera Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico |
The air was not filled with bird song per se, but at least a few things were making sounds including Slate-colored Solitaires and White-breasted Wood-Wrens. I played the tape a few times for the Tuxtla Quail-Dove. No dice.
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| Reserva de los Biosfera Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico |
A couple of motorbikes passed us along the quiet roadway, removing any thoughts I had about possibly stumbling across a quail-dove walking quietly along the road. Then, it happened. With a flurry of feathers, a stout grayish-brown dove-like bird flushed from the low vegetation of the road shoulder and across to the other side. The views were good enough to confirm that it was a Tuxtla Quail-Dove! I climbed up the embankment and slowly scanned the forest floor. A few seconds later, and there it was, speed-walking away from me. For around 10 glorious seconds I watched the bird through the sparse understory vegetation, even obtaining a view of the purplish sheen on its back when the light was just right. I was ecstatic!
That was all we would get and, despite walking for the rest of the morning, we encountered no other quail-doves either visually or aurally. Clearly, they are used to the motorcycles going up the road since one had passed the quail-dove's presumed location less than one minute before we walked by and inadvertently flushed it.
Another highlight that morning was a very inquisitive Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush. This was a new species for Laura, and my first visual encounter. Fortunately, it stuck around for photos.
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| Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush - Reserva de los Biosfera Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico |
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| Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush - Reserva de los Biosfera Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico |
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| Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush - Reserva de los Biosfera Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico |
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