Birding Notes

4:30 PM May 10 I have finally reviewed and labelled my iPhotos for February 19 and updated my birding database. This entry will chronicle the birdwatching activities.

While waiting for our boat to arrive we watched the following Hummingbird on a power wire above us:

I doubt if I will ever get another image of a hummer as good as this one. The little fellow remained on the wire for almost 20 minutes while we watched it and took pictures of it. Now to check the image against the field guides to see if we can put an adjective in front of the name. My first guess is a Lucifer hummingbird, based on my Sibley field guide. However I am lacking a Mexican field guide to see if there are other possibilities. Mary Ann has identified this as a Mexican Sheartail.

As soon as our boat left the village harbour, we saw a raptor in the observation tower. Once again, it obliged by not flying off. It turned out to be a Peregrine Falcon. This was a lifer for both Phyllis and I, although we hope to see one some day in Alberta.

The photos fail to give a proper sense of scale. The hummingbird is actually much smaller than the falcon.

The third lifer of the mornig was a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron:

A short time later I was able to obtain another image of one.

As we were returning to port, we were fortunate to watch two ospreys fighting over a fish that one had caught:

That is some fish!

I made a note of the birds that we saw on this trip. The following birds were also on my list, but I was not able to get a photo of them (and thus I also do not have an accurate time for the observation):

• Yellow-throated Warbler
• Black-and-white Warbler
• Black-crowned Night Heron
• Yellow-breasted Chat
• American Redstart
• Couches Kingbird

I have confidence in the list that was created at the time, and am grateful that we had two birders with us that could make the identification at the time we were watching them. I am adding them to the bottom of my list for this day's observations.

Here is a table summarizing the day's observations.

Name	Photo	Time	Location	ID#	Lifer
Mexican Sheartail	Yes	8:02 am	Dzilam de Bravo	60	Yes
Peregrine Falcon	Yes	8:20 am	"	61	Yes
Great Blue Heron	Yes	8:55 am	on tour	13	.
Great Egret	Yes	8:57 am	"	14	.
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron	Yes	8:59 am	"	62	Yes
Reddish Egret	Yes	9:36 am	"	11	.
Snowy Egret	Yes	9:40 am	"	15	.
White Ibis	Yes	9:41 am	"	30	.
Spotted Sandpiper	Yes	9:42 am	"	63	No
Roseate Spoonbill	Yes	9:45 am	"	34	.
Double-crested Cormorant	Yes	10:14 am	"	32	.
Laughing Gull	Yes	10:15 am	"	07	.
Greater Flamingo	Yes	10:16 am	"	06	.
Osprey	Yes	10:21 am	"	64	No
Southern Roughwing Swallow	Yes	12:11 PM	drive back to unit	65	Yes
Crested Caracara	.	12:30 PM	"	03	.
Mexican Sheartail	.	.	on tour	66	Yes
Yellow-throated Warbler	.	.	"	67	Yes
Black-and-white Warbler	.	.	"	68	Yes
Black-crowned Night Heron	.	.	"	69	Yes
Yellow-breasted Chat	.	.	"	70	Yes
American Redstart	.	.	"	71	Yes
Couch's Kingbird	.	.	drive back to unit	72	Yes

SUMMARY of the session: We saw 23 different birds, including 13 new birds, 11 of which were lifers.