Hot, Tired and Owls 31 de Marzo, 2008

Whew, I thought that we would be stuck in Bonampak with our crazy friends, Esteban y Susan! But luckily, dad managed to somehow drag us all out of Bonampak and then drive us to Palenque, pick up our stuff, pick up a couple who wanted to go along with us folks and then hit the road. Our first stop was in Campeche at a restaurant/campground to eat and set up. The food there was ok and there were turkeys and chickens walking all over the place. After we finished popping up, I walked around the campground once and saw a male Altamira Oriole calling but not a lot other than the oriole. We stayed there one night and then went to the Calakmul ruins near the restaurant (well, sort of near, 2 hours isn’t that bad) and I saw 4 lifers-Ocellated Turkey, Lesser Greenlet, Olivaceous Woodcreeper, and a male Pale-billed Woodpecker. We also climbed up a huge structure that was the second tallest in the place (the tallest was a pyramid partly covered by grass and shrubs a little way off). We all were really hot and all had at least a mild sunburn. Lucky the wind was whipping so we all were in luck.
After going to the ruins we headed back to our camper with Nate and Nichole (the couple), ate lunch, and put the trailer down. When we left for Bacalar it was about 3:30p.m. When we got to Bacalar it was sunset and we had to pop-up fast so that we wouldn’t be setting up in the dark. I didn’t see that many birds (they were probably already nestled up in their sleeping perches) so I helped set-up and then relaxed (ahhhhhh). We ate dinner at a spaghetti restaurant, which was pretty good in my opinion and had great limonada minerales. I had a pasta dish with spicy peppers and butter. After a delicious dinner we came back to Big Poppi and hit the sack.
The next morning I woke up at 5:45 to grackles and a high hooting sound I couldn’t identify. So birder that I am, I got out of my very cozy bed, dressed, grabbed my binos off a shelf and went outside. I walked over to the sanitarios and met Nate. He said he wanted some toilet paper so I walked back to Poppi and grabbed the roll. As I was passing a tree next to our trailer I saw an unusual bump on a branch. I thought it was just a bump until I looked at it in my binos. Then I saw that it was actually an owl! I looked closer and saw that it was a pygmy-owl and either Northern or Ferruginous (I hoped it was Ferruginous because it is one of my favorite birds). Then Nate started calling to me to hurry up so I hustled the sanitary paper over to Nate (the owl still on my mind). Right after I had handed the paper to Nate I hurried to the tree and saw that the owl had moved to another tree on the other side of our pop-up. After I had located it I looked closely and then looked it up in my Howell and Webb Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Under range I found that Northern was in northern Mexico, Central American Pygmy-Owl was in the Chiapas rain forest, and Ferruginous was the only one on the Yucatan Peninsula. So it was pretty easy to figure out what species it was (Ferruginous). I was so excited because that was the bird I had first looked at in National Geographic’s Birds of North America that helped teach me to read when I was five!! It is also my 2nd favorite bird (second to Golden Eagle).
After I had admired the beautiful owl for a while I walked near the shore (we were in a lagoon) and saw a Spotted Sandpiper and some grackles bathing. I also saw a pair of Limpkins and Snail Kites! The Limpkins were wading out into the shallows and gulping down fish and the pair of kites were hunting snails near some reeds in shallow water. I jumped in the lagoon and swam as close to the kites as I could without disturbing them and watched them for a while; soaring, diving, and sometimes hovering above the water and picking off snails. It was a beautiful sight to watch (especially swimming 20 feet in front of them).
Oh, I almost forgot to describe the lagoon! Ok, the lagoon is actually more like a bay and is a popular place to swim in (especially at the campground) because it has clear blue water and has a sandy bottom. It is also a good birding spot-kites nest on little islands, cormorants rule the water, and there is plenty of waterfowl. Fair amounts of people (mostly extranjeros) have bought houses next to the lagoon and there are a couple of nice hotels. But the town is mostly about the lagoon and Cenote Azul (limestone hole filled with river water from 100-200 feet below the ground) across the road. We went there today (Monday) with Nate and Nichole and had great ceviche (kind of like pico de gallo but with shrimp, onions, and vinegar). Teslin and I also explored the cenote, which was about 70-100 feet deep. There were tons of fish including the big hunkers and little tiny minnows. We threw in tortillas and they all went bonkers! All the tortillas disappeared within 20 seconds and then they started looking at my leg! I quickly got out of the water before hungry fish ate me up!
Nate and Nichole are leaving tomorrow morning and are hitchhiking to Tulum, a beach town 220 mile from Bacalar. We are probably leaving tomorrow too (although we might stay here another night just for the swimming)!