While never really common, we ran into Elegant Trogons in a lot of different places. Look at that thing! Shit!
Thanks to Nathan Banfield, I actually have some pictures from our Mexico trip for ya'll. By now the Mexican Army has deleted all of mine....thanks a lot, amigos. Hopefully they aren't smart enough to figure out where to get a charger for it (I have that, hehe).
I would like to add that all of the birds pictured today can readily be found in the Gomez Farias area and El Cielo Biosphere Preserve, less than a day's drive south of the border.
Black-headed Saltators were the main ingredient of many mixed flocks we ran into throughout our trip. They are hella loud, so listening for them frequently led to other subtropical greatness.
A male Flame-colored Tanager. Believe it or not, they exist outside of Arizona's Madera Canyon (thats a terrible inside birder joke, in case youre wondering).
Pale-billed Woodpecker! We ran into a few of these, close cousins of the Ivory-billed and Imperials.
Our favorite comedor in Gomez Farias. An easy place to see Yellow-throated Euphonia, Masked Tityra, Clay-colored Thrush, etc.
In local BB&B news, I got some Leica 8X50 televids in the mail today, so I reckon I can start birding again. They were a demo pair, so never really got any field use, and I'm fucking stoked to take them on a test drive (insert weird nerd sound here). I reckon I saved about $500 on a new pair. Ebay is rad. I have always said that if anything happened to the pair that I ended up "donating" to the Mexican Army (that was their terminology, not mine), I would not hesitate to go straight back to Leicas...I had no problem staying true to my word. You hear that Leica reps? I am on your team. We can discuss sponsorship and pro deals any time. Of course, Zeiss reps, I'm not complaining about my spotting scope or anything....
I'd also like to relay the news from Gobbler's Knob (not joking about that name), Pennsylvania....Punxsutawney Phil, the 125 year old groundhog and official groundhog of Groundhog's Day, has predicted an early spring. Woohooo! At any rate, this is probably one of the coolest, most underrated and most pointless holiday celebrated by anyone, anywhere, and I hope to participate sometime. Check out the footage here. How has fate conspired to bring hundereds of drunk people together to cheer on a mild-mannered woodchuck? You got me there.
At any rate, Nathan has a lot of great shots from our trip, so expect more on that front soon. Sick.
We ran into Groove-billed Ani flocks a few times on our trip. I now know them to be kindred spirits.
This Clay-colored Robin (Thrush) was doing battle with a giant scorpion in the streets of Gomez Farias. The robin won.
Northern Jacana! Look at this thing! Look at its toes! God.