Alamos, Sonora: Institute for Field Ornithology

 

The IFO workshop “Birds of the Tropical Deciduous Forest” was the perfect way to spend a week in southern Sonora. Great food, great company, and great landscapes made up for birding that was a little bit on the lackluster side sometimes. But our group filled the quiet spells with an abundance of good nature and good conversation–and the birding wasn’t always dull.

We were based, as always, at the beautiful Rancho Acosta, where Maria and her staff, as always, outdid themselves for us, and yard birds included such wonders as Mexican Parrotlets.

The local gang of Groove-billed Anis was always good for a show, too, squee-chucking in the surrounding fields and right on the patio.

None of the local birds was as charming or as, well, social as the Social Flycatchers, buzzing and squeaking as they waited for us to join them by the pool on warm afternoons.

As you might already suspect, the grounds of the Rancho and the adjacent greenhouses (now defunct) provided us with some of our best birding. The grassy fields were excellent for sparrows, including Grasshopper and Clay-colored Sparrows. A few Common Ground-Doves joined the abundant Inca Doves and Ruddy Ground-Doves at the greenhouses, and it was there that the ‘best’ bird of the trip appeared, a Yellow-throated Warbler, a fourth or fifth record for Sonora, just a couple of hundred yards from where my party had discovered one in November 2005! Surely this is a returning winterer.

Tempted though we were to linger on the patio and enjoy the birds coming to us, our itinerary took us to a number of sites in and around the tropical deciduous forest of Alamos. Stephanie’s yard, which with her wonted generosity she opened to us whenever we wanted to stop in, was excellent for orioles, including Streak-backed, Orchard, and Black-vented Orioles. The hummingbird feeders were not heavily visited while we were there, but who can complain when Violet-crowned Hummingbird is the dominant species (dominant in number and in behavior alike!)? My other ‘best’ of the trip was at the same location, a Grayish Saltator that dropped in to become the 300th species on my Sonora state list (for not being a lister, I keep awfully careful track sometimes).

We also visited the affectionately named Rio Caca, the smelly and very birdy sewage outflow for the city Alamos. Painted Buntings and fine looks at Gray Hawks were the highlights there, though recent heavy rains had scoured the wash of the vegetation that usually conceals so many birds.

We found the Aduana wash, west of Alamos, equally rough going after the wet season.

But to our startled relief, the vans came out as semi-intact as they’d gone in, and we were rewarded with great views of such local specialties as Red-billed Pigeon and White-fronted Parrot, while a slightly misplaced Osprey soared overhead. It was here, too, that we encountered an apparent hybrid Passerina, showing characters of both Indigo and Lazuli Buntings; I’d rather it had been a pure Indigo, selfishly, but an interesting bird all the same.

Our drives up the tower roads at KM 16 and KM 43, west of Alamos, were both timed for the afternoon, guaranteeing heat, humidity, and slow birding. All the same, as we slowly melted into our boots, we did enjoy such good birds as Five-striped Sparrow, Purplish-backed Jay, and Black-capped Gnatcatcher, the last a very vocal and very aggressive pair that gave among the best looks I’ve ever had at the species. Both those roads have been slightly rearranged with the widening of the highway, and both appear to be less regularly and less assiduously maintained than in the past. Caveas, conductor!

The most species-rich of our days was spent in an excursion to Yavaros, nearly the southwesternmost point in the state of Sonora.

Our principal target there was Mangrove Swallow, which as usual gave stunning views from the wires and flying just overhead. Other notable species here included Reddish Egret; Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons; White Ibis; Wood Stork; American Oystercatcher;  and Elegant, Caspian, Royal, and Gull-billed Terns. Glossy little Sinaloa Crows, abundant and cheeky everywhere in southern Sonora, were especially brash here.

The one real disappointment for me was our morning at the Rio Cuchuajaqui, generally the highpoint of any visit to Alamos. The scenery was even more spectacular than usual, with water flowing heavy not just in the river but, for the first time in my experience, in the Mentidero wash itself.

We did find some of the expected targets, including Nutting’s Flycatcher and Thick-billed Kingbird, but missed several species I would nearly have guaranteed. The most fascinating sight along the Chuchujaqui was provided by a common and familiar species, Belted Kingfisher. Two females were squabbling loud and nasty over the precise boundary of their winter territories, and at one point they landed on the gravel, rattling at each other, crests raised and necks extended to show off the big white collar; after nearly two minutes of this, one of the birds lifted off, the other right on its tail upstream. I’d never seen so embittered a confrontation between two members of this crotchety species, and a quick search of the readily accessible literature (read: google) reveals no account of precisely this behavior.

All in all, we recorded something like 169 species in our week-long workshop, missing several regional specialties but seeing many other great birds. And more to the point of the IFO, enjoying them. A lot! Many thanks to my co-leader, Denis, and to the participants for their patience and excellent questions and answer; the workshop would never have come off without the kindness of Maria del Carmen Acosta, Janet and Mike Abbott, Lori Fujimoto, Steve Ganley, Elissa Lavoie, Michael Marsden, Stephanie Meyer, and Wezil Walraven.

I can’t wait to go back. And maybe next time I’ll go farther south, perhaps, say, to San Blas….