Birding above Ocampo
After breakfast at the Cafe “San Francisco”, which has excellent coffee and biscuits, we headed over to Ocampo. We birded briefly in town, but headed up towards the highlands (over 4000 feet elevation), where we wanted to bird before it got late.
I made a new friend today named Guzman. He lives in Ocampo, and has been interested in birds for about a year now. I think he’d like to become a bird guide one day. Guzman had a great sense of humor and accompanied us throughout the day.
On our way up, we saw a campaign slogan that read “Vota para Pedro”. If you’re under 30 and have seen the movie Napolean Dynamite, you’ll appreciate the humor I found in this message.
Also on the way up, we ended up behind a pickup truck which had a bumper sticker that I found shocking. It had an american flag on the left, a confederate flag on the right, and words in the middle which took me a while to make out.
Yankee’s – 1
Rebels – 0
Halftime
I wasn’t shocked so much by the bumper sticker (unfortunately, I’m all too accustomed to this type of stupidity having grown up in Texas), but rather by the fact that the person driving the truck in all likelihood has no understanding what the sticker means. Mexico has a thriving after-market for cars once they’ve reached the end of their life in the US, and no doubt the sticker came with the truck when it was bought by it’s new owner.
We hit the jackpot for birding on a road down to the small town of Gallito (at least Saul and Guzman tell me that’s the name of the town) off Highway 66 between the cities of Ocampo and Tula. This road was notable for two reasons. First, we got great looks at species which can be very hard to see (Blue Mockingbird, Mountain Trogon, Crimson-collared Grosbeak, and many more). Second, the birding stayed good throughout the morning. This was an exciting change from the other mornings of feast or famine.
Mel and I observed a fascinating interaction between a Wedge-tailed Sabrewing (5 inch hummingbird) and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (woodpecker) that defied belief. The hummingbird would swoop at the woodpecker, to chase it off, and then land on the side of a tree like the woodpecker! It spread its tail, and drooped its wings, and sat on the side of a sizeable tree branch like it was a woodpecker. The sapsucker would then swoop at the sabrewing, to chase it off. This behavior continued for several minutes before the sapsucker left the area.
After getting tired and hungry, we headed up to Tula to get lunch. This town is over 400 years old, and looked different than typical Mexican cities. The streets were much narrower, and the whole city was placed atop steep hills, such that walking around was a tiring experience, either going up or down. I continue to eat like a king, and if it’s possible to gain weight while hiking 5 to 10 miles a day, I’ll probably do it.
After lunch, we birded areas lower in elevation down Highway 66, finally reaching Ocampo. Though we found some birds hear and there, it was very slow once again. Since we plan on spending a good deal of time in the lowlands of Llera (we’re scouting there tomorrow), we may come back to the Hotel a bit early on the day we bird this area on the post-festival trip.
Here’s the day’s list for those interested. Species in bold are probably of high interest to those who’ve not birded outside the US before. (H) = heard only.
- Thicket Tinamou (H)
- Great Egret
- Cattle Egret
- Black Vulture
- Turkey Vulture
- Gray Hawk
- Roadside Hawk
- Crested Caracara
- American Kestrel
- Plain Chachalaca
- Rock Pigeon
- White-winged Dove
- Mourning Dove
- Inca Dove
- White-tipped Dove
- Squirrel Cuckoo
- Wedge-tailed Hummingbird
- White-eared Hummingbird
- Mountain Trogon – great looks at males and females
- Belted Kingfisher
- Golden-fronted Woodpecker
- Smoky-brown Woodpecker
- Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
- Bronze-winged Woodpecker
- Olivaceous Woodcreeper
- Ivory-billed Woodcreeper
- Spot-crowned Woodcreeper
- Greater Pewee
- Barred Antshrike (H)
- Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet
- Greater Pewee
- Eastern Phoebe
- Vermilion Flycatcher
- Dusky-capped Flycatcher
- Boat-billed Flycatcher
- Social Flycatcher
- Couch’s Kingbird
- White-eyed Vireo
- Blue-headed Vireo
- Green Jay
- Brown Jay
- Tamaulipas Crow
- Common Raven
- Black-crested Titmouse
- Rock Wren
- Canyon Wren
- Spot-breasted Wren (H)
- House Wren
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
- Brown-backed Solitaire (H)
- Clay-colored Robin
- Northern Mockingbird
- Blue Mockingbird – we had at least 7 of these birds and got great looks today!
- Orange-crowned Warbler
- Crescent-chested Warbler
- Tropical Parula
- Black-throated Green Warbler
- Townsend’s Warbler
- Black-and-white Warbler
- Wilson’s Warbler
- Painted Redstart
- Rufous-capped Warbler
- Summer Tanager
- Blue-gray Tanager
- Yellow-throated Euphonia
- Olive Sparrow
- Chipping Sparrow
- Lincoln’s Sparrow
- Crimson-collared Grosbeak – excellent looks at two males
- Melodius Blackbird
- Great-tailed Grackle
- Bronzed Cowbird
- Altamira Oriole
- Audubon’s Oriole
Hi, Jay, sounds like you are having a great time on the pre-festival scouting trip. I have been posting places you are visiting (when I can find them) on a Streets & Trips map of Tamaulipas. Streets & Trips does not seem to identify a few of the spots but I am enjoying your descriptions and comments. Makes for excellent reading. Keep those postings coming. I’m with your Dad – anxiously awaiting postings of pictures. BTW, I’m assuming you crossed the Rio Grande at McAllen/Reynosa – is that correct?
Nope. We crossed at Brownsville-Matamoros. Mel lives in Brownsville, so it was the most convienent place to cross. On almost all of my entries to Mexico, we’ve crossed at Brownsville. I think it often has quicker access than McAllen (though that’s anyone’s guess), and the roads that lead out of Matamoros are better situated for reaching destinations within Tamaulipas.
I’m looking forward to posting pictures too! Once we’re back, I’ll start processing them and should have some up by Tuesday or Wednesday evening.
Ah, Napoleon Dynamite. Mg found another parody called Anakin Dynamite. It is hilarious! I’ll point to it later.
I’d love to see Tula. Wonder if most participants could maneuver the city’s terrain. Well, you’re certainly having a grand time and whetting my appetite!
Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll make it to the town of Tula itself. It’s another 30 minutes up the road, which means roundtrip, we’d loose an hour in the day. We went because we had no lunch, and we were hungry. On the trip, we’ll have box lunches. Everything’s a trade-off. Less birds will give you more culture. More culture will give you less birds. Still, I think we’ll get a nice experience in Mexico, in addition to the birds.
I found Ocampo and Tula on Google Earth but couldn’t find Gallito. NASA World Wind had all of them, however. The area looks mucho cool. I noticed that this is all on the western (backside) of El Cielo and Alta Cima and it looks so beautiful with the winding road along the valleys. Tula looks dry with a lot of fields for farming. Did it remind you of the area west of Agua Zarca?
I saw a little town up the main river going north from Ocampo named San Antonio. It looks like a place I would love to visit, although it might be a difficult hike to get there. It’s west-northwest of Gomez Farias way up the valley on the western side of El Cielo. I’d love to see Tula to get a feel for an old Mexican town (not a tourist stop).
Hope the birding is as good in a few weeks as it was today. Keep up the good reports.
Tula was really dry. Much dryer than the area west of Agua Zarca (which we visited earlier).