Subject: birding in NE Mexico
Date: Jan 26 11:59:01 2003
From: Hal Opperman - hal at catharus.net


Tweets:

I returned Wednesday evening from 12 days of birding in Northeastern Mexico
(Coahuila, Nuevo Le?n, San Luis Potos?, Tamaulipas) with a small group of
avid birders that included Seattleite Steve Gerstle and Michael Carmody of
Spokane. The purpose of the trip was twofold: first, to find as many as
possible of the small number of species endemic to this region, and second,
to add to our Mexico lists vagrants and wintering birds that breed farther
north. Indeed, eighty percent of the 346 species on our trip list could have
been found just as easily (or more easily!) north of the border.

Some of the good Mexican specialties we found were Aplomado Falcon, Sungrebe
(at the very northern extreme of its range), Collared Plover, Olive-throated
(Aztec) Parakeet, Red-crowned Parrot (harder to find in the wild than in the
lower Rio Grande Valley in the USA, where escaped birds have become
established), Yellow-headed Parrot, Tamaulipas Pygmy-Owl, Wedge-tailed
Sabrewing, Golden-olive (Bronze-winged) Woodpecker, Spotted Wren, Altamira
and Hooded Yellowthroats, Worthen's Sparrow (flocks totaling 100-200 birds,
a significant share of the world population), Crimson-collared Grosbeak, and
Hooded Grosbeak. Our most significant misses were Maroon-fronted Parrot and
Tawny-collared Nightjar, both difficult to find in winter.

Highlights among the more widely distributed species we saw include:

- two Common Loons on mountain reservoirs (rare)
- one Western Grebe on a reservoir (rare)
- Northern Gannet (5; present in small numbers only in winter along the
coast of Tamaulipas)
- large flocks (1000s) of wintering Greater White-fronted Geese and Snow
Geese with a few Ross's, and 100s of Sandhill Cranes, in coastal lowlands of
Tamaulipas
- Red-shouldered Hawk (2; uncommon winter visitor here)
- Piping Plover (4, on Laguna Madre beaches)
- Lesser Black-backed Gull (4, on coastal beaches)
- 37 Eurasian Collared-Doves along one short stretch of road branching off
to the coast between Tampico and Matamoros but not a single one seen
elsewhere on trip
- Clark's Nutcracker (on summit of 12,200' Cerro El Potos?, one of only two
small populations in Mexico)
- Sprague's Pipit (in short grasslands with open ground, especially numerous
at Falcon Dam)
- superb hunting for wintering sparrows at several locations (best find a
LeConte's Sparrow in thick grasslands along Laguna Madre east of Matamoros)..

I added 59 species to my Mexico list on this trip, bringing it to a total of
705 species.

If you would like to receive a day-by-day summary report and a full trip
list, let me know and I'll send it to you as a Word attachment.

Good luck and good birding!

Hal Opperman
Medina, Washington
hal at catharus.net