December 7, 2021 (continued)
In the late afternoon we rolled into the beachside town of Celestún, situated on the west coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. While Celestún shares many commonalities with Río Lagartos such as its ocean-side location, reliance on fishing, presence of mangrove lagoons, and a tourism economy based on boat trips to see American Flamingos, Celestún appears to cater its tourism more so to locals, while Río Lagartos attracts more international tourists because of its proximity to Cancún. We crossed the main bridge over the Ría Celestún and stopped the car for a few minutes to stretch our legs and scope the herons and shorebirds in the shallow water.
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| Tricolored Heron - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
A gorgeous Reddish Egret hunted for minnows only a few dozen meters from where we stood, allowing incredible scope views and reasonable photo opportunities. We also noted several young American Flamingos in this area.
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| Reddish Egret - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
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| Reddish Egret - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
Even better was the Mangrove Cuckoo that flew in and began skulking about a nearby mangrove. These were, by far, the best looks I have ever had at the species. It was a lifer for Laura.
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| Mangrove Cuckoo - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
I had included Celestún in our itinerary as a backup spot for the Yucatan Gnatcatcher and Black-throated Bobwhite. This was a prescient decision as we had missed both of them in Río Lagartos. Laura and I checked in at Hotel Villa Gabriella (which we highly recommend, by the way), our home for the next two nights.
December 8, 2021
I woke before dawn and headed off on my own to bird the scrub located north of Celestún. I did not have much intel to go on other than eBird, but had scoped out some potential birding roads the night before. Laura decided to sit this one out as it had been a very busy few days.
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| Merlin - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
The Yucatan Gnatcatcher was not at all difficult to find and I probably observed a dozen of them throughout the morning.
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| Yucatan Gnatcatcher - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
This species is a relatively recent split. It basically looks like a White-lored Gnatcatcher and is limited in range to the dry, coastal scrub in the northwestern section of the Yucatán Peninsula.
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| Yucatan Gnatcatcher - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
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| Yucatan Gnatcatcher - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
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| Yucatan Gnatcatcher - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
They were not particularly shy, as you can see from these photos!
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| Yucatan Gnatcatcher - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
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| Yucatan Gnatcatcher - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
The birding was excellent at this early hour and I picked up a few new species for my Mexico list including Mangrove Swallow and Palm Warbler. Another Mangrove Cuckoo appeared, Plain Chachalacas were everywhere, and oriole diversity was good.
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| Hooded Oriole - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
The default hummingbird in this area is the Mexican Sheartail, while the standard parakeet is the Olive-throated Parakeet. Both were common in the areas I explored.
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| Mexican Sheartail - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
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| Olive-throated Parakeets - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
Tropical Mockingbirds (or tropmocks as Laura and I call them) were the most common songbird in the Celestún area.
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| Tropical Mockingbird - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
Still missing Black-throated Bobwhite, I changed tactics and searched for sandy roads leading to the beach, as beach scrub seems to be one of the better habitats to find the bobwhite in the northwestern Yucatán peninsula. This was a good decision; moments after taking this photo I flushed a group of 11 Black-throated Bobwhites!
Yucatan Wrens had been a big target species in Río Lagartos but they had almost reached "dirt-bird" status in Celestún...
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| Yucatan Wren - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
Having succeeded with my first two objectives of the morning (the gnatcatcher and bobwhite), I moved to objective #3: searching for American Flamingos visible from shore. Laura and I were not too keen on signing up for one of the tourist boat trips, and though we had seen some young flamingos the previous evening, we were hoping to find some gorgeous pink adults. Using satellite imagery for reference, I explored a series of dirt paths that snake through the mangroves north of Celestún, providing access for the fishermen who frequent these lagoons.
Eventually, I heard the strange calls of American Flamingos in the distance which sound somewhat like a cross between a goose and a chachalaca, and tracked them down.
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| American Flamingos - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
Shorebird numbers were quite good, with one highlight being a massive flock of plovers. They were mostly Wilson's, but with a few Semipalmated and Snowy Plovers mixed in.
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| Wilson's Plovers - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
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| Wilson's Plovers - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
That afternoon, Laura and I returned to the same area hoping for a repeat with the gnatcatchers, bobwhites and flamingos. We hoped that the lighting would be perfect for a flamingo photoshoot with the setting sun behind us.
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| Cozumel Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus cozumelae) - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
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| Black-bellied Plover - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
The gnatcatcher cooperated rather easily but the bobwhites were nowhere to be found. We tromped around in the sand and beach scrub for a little while, finding nothing other then a ton of these Southern Sandbur (Cenchrus echinatus) seeds all over our clothes.
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| Southern Sandbur (Cenchrus echinatus) - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
We paused a few times on the walk out to the flamingos to scope small flocks of shorebirds, finding the expected species. Unfortunately, the big flock of plovers was nowhere to be found.
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| Lesser Yellowlegs - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
The first few American Flamingos of the afternoon flew past us, looking incredibly stretched out with a long neck and gangly legs.
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| American Flamingos - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
Finally, we reached the lagoon that contained a few dozen American Flamingos. We had timed our arrival perfectly; the sun was slinking lower in the horizon behind us while the flamingos, looking impossibly pink, foraged in the salmon-coloured lagoon.
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| American Flamingos - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
This group of four flamingos flew in at a low angle, running in the shallow water as they landed. Not the most graceful birds!
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| American Flamingo - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
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| American Flamingos - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
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| American Flamingos - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
Eventually the sun had crept below the horizon, but the residual light beautifully lit up the coral plumage of the flamingos.
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| American Flamingos - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
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| American Flamingo - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
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| American Flamingo - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
We stayed with the flamingos until it was nearly dark. Our walk out produced several Lesser Nighthawks flying overhead. It had been a good day.
December 9, 2021
We packed up our gear from the hotel and headed out of town, stopping first at the bridge over Ría Celestún. Though I had seen my main bird targets, one potential life bird could be found in the area: the Rufous-necked Wood-Rail. We had struck out on this species at Río Lagartos earlier and figured our best bet was to scan the mangrove habitat on the east side of the Ría Celestún bridge.
Large flocks of herons and ibises left their night roosts and flew over the bridge as dawn broke. A pair of Common Black-Hawks perched prominently above the bridge, half-heartedly keeping an eye on us.
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| Common Black Hawks - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
We searched the mangroves for a good hour or so but had no luck with the Rufous-necked Wood-Rails. The birding was still quite productive, with numerous Boat-billed Herons and an American Pygmy-Kingfisher that provided face-melting views through the scope.
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| Boat-billed Heron - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
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| American Pygmy Kingfisher - Celestún, Yucatán, Mexico |
And with that, we headed east and then southwards. Our destination was the El Remate road in neighbouring Campeche State, where we hoped to have a date with a Spotted Rail.
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