Veracruz 2008: Xalapa

Continental stood me up for a full 24 hours, and I was well and truly cross when we finally landed in Veracruz shortly before 11:00 pm Thursday. But to my surprise, I made the bus to Xalapa, and to my delight, it proved clean, even fancy, and as comfortable as I could have wished for the hour-and-a-half ride through the dark.

The kind staff and the noisy Great-tailed Grackles were waiting for me when I arrived shortly before 1:00 am (!), and I slept the sleep of the innocent until the phone rang with my wake-up call the next morning. I ran downstairs to breakfast, past more Great-tailed Grackles on the lawn, and Tamie and I planned our scouting for next October’s ABA Conference in Xalapa and Veracruz.

The first order of business was to deal with the bus company, a meeting made much easier by Robert’s skills as interpreter; that out of the way, the three of us set out in Robert’s van for the Macuiltepetl Reserve, on the slopes of an extinct (or maybe just long-dormant) volcano that rises right from the center of town.

Wide, paved paths spiral up the flank of the mountain, providing great views over the city and–even in the afternoon–good birding. Boat-billed Flycatchers greeted us at the entrance to the reserve:

And our walk up the gentle paths was enlivened by such lovely and such disparate specialties as Slate-throated Whitestart and Blue-crowned Motmot.

The motmot was deep in the shady crater of Macuiltepetl (the “fifth hill”), and no sooner had we turned from our admiration of that tropical beauty than a loud rollicking whistle announced that we were in the presence of Bearded Wood-Partridge; we didn’t see him, unfortunately, but it is one of the small triumphs of Mexican conservation that this declining species has been successfully re-introduced to this small but beautiful reserve surrounded by city. It was here, too, that Robert and I glimpsed a Blue Mockingbird, a species I have seen a mere handful of times in Mexico and Texas.

The afternoon up in the cloud forest was spectacularly wonderful, skin-warm and bright, and the butterflies were taking full advantage of it. The flower patches near the clean, modern restrooms were alive with heliconians:

and a very pretty eighty-eight fed on the sidewalk:

The complex patterns of the undersides are fascinating, of course, but this species was every bit as attractive from above:

I have a feeling that as many conference-goers will be busy with Glassberg as with Howell and Webb at Macuiltepetl!