Subject: [Tweeters] Marcus Roening
Date: Fri Sep 6 07:26:48 PDT 2019
From: jstewart at olympus.net - jstewart at olympus.net

Good morning,



Do you know Jonathon Vargas?



An excellent birder and guide.

We spent a day with him in South Baja.

His home base is San Blas.



Wings,

Jan



Jan Stewart

922 E. Spruce Street

Sequim, WA 98382-3518

(360) 681-2827

jstewart at olympus.net



From: Tweeters <tweeters-bounces at mailman11.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Marcus Roening
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2019 10:01 AM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Christmas Counts in Mazatlan & San Blas



Hi Tweets,



It is beautiful and sunny outside, now. . . but come January you know you'll be looking for the sun. If you'd like a totally different Christmas Bird Count experience, there are 3 counts near the Mazatlan area in January. And two of these involve having lunch by the ocean with your toes in the sand and sipping on a cerveza, while meeting some great Mexican birders.



The first is Thursday, January 2, 2020 in San Blas, MEX and run by Mark Stackhouse. They gather the night before at La Garza Hotel and parcel out the sections. The second is in Mazatlan on Saturday, January 4th and is run by Rene Valdes. It typically starts in the Marina district. And the third is on Sunday, January 5th at the Tufted Jay Preserve about 2 hours east of Mazatlan up, up, up the Durango highway. Rene Valdes runs this count, as well, and the group will leave early from Mazatlan on Sunday morning. It is worth going for the Tufted Jay alone, one of the spiffiest looking Corvids ever.



Heather and I are planning on doing all three, so feel free to contact me if you're interested and I'll keep you in the loop on when and where folks are meeting.



If you've never birded in Mexico before, San Blas is a wonderful place to start. It is a mostly laid back beach town, with just enough hotels, beaches and restaurants to meet most everyone's needs. The birding is a great introduction to tropical birds without being to overwhelming -; Citroline Trogon, Bright-rumped Attila, Rosy Thrush-Tanager and Lesser Ground Cuckoo to name a few. One highlight is to take an evening boat trip to watch the the Northern Potoo slowly flying with it's mouth agape through the swarms of insects -; an amazing sight (and amazingly for those that have been there before, Chencho is still offering this trip after 20+ years).



One general word about traveling in Mexico during the Christmas season. Christmas through New Years eve is when all of Mexico is on vacation and every hotel near a beach can be filled this week. And on New Year's Eve, even the hotels in town's off the beach can be filled for the big celebrations.



Good birding,



Marcus Roening
Tacoma WA

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