A weeklong birding tour in Mexico

The job of leading a birding tour is 20% birds, 80% people. No matter how good the birding, if you don’t take care of people’s needs and provide them with good service, they’ll hate the trip. It’s why leading a birding tour isn’t just some blow off job where we get paid to look at birds. Rather we get paid to show birds to people.

I’ve put up pictures from the week. On my scouting trip to Mexico I took over 600 pictures. This week I took 21. That’s the difference when you’re leading a tour.

I found many humbling things to reflect on as I traveled back to the places I scouted a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps most humbling was the realization that for some of the older participants, this was perhaps their last (and for many first) opportunity to visit a place far from home like Mexico. As a guide, it’s too easy to get a little frustrated with how difficult it can be to get people on the bird you’re seeing. Old age, combined with little birding experience, make it much harder for some to see the birds. It’s humbling though to realize that things I take for granted, whether they’re birds I’ve seen many times or places I’ve been before, can bring such joy to participants. That’s the joy of leading trips I think. You experience that happiness for the first time again through a participant’s eyes. Even my body’s abilities, such as my hearing, eyesight, and endurance are a gift I too often take for granted.

Because of the large size of the group, we divided the particpants up into two groups on two buses, each with a different set of leaders. The name of our group was the Sungrebes. The other group was the Saltators. (Both are bird names). At the end of the week, the sungrebes had pulled ahead, seeing 20 more species than the saltators. Both groups saw great birds though.

I really enjoyed getting to know the other leaders in our group. Mike Overton is an expert on butterflies, and an extremely good birder from Iowa. Richard Gibbons is currently a grad student working on his doctorate in ornithology at Lousiana State University. Both of them did an outstanding job with the birds and the participants. I learned a lot from them.

Another great friend I made was Ricardo, a local birding guide who works at a hotel in Gomez Farias. Though he speaks limited english, he’s learned all the birds names in English, and can help people find a bird by describing where it is, even using the clock system. (For example, “tallest green tree at 10 o’clock”). He was also a very good birder.

Talking about Ricardo and his new found job as a bird guide brings me to the broader issue of birding and ecotourism in Mexico. This is often a very depressing subject, as conservation is largely lacking in Mexico and many other Latin American countries. Who am kidding… Conservation is lacking throughout the world, though it’s worse in some places than others. During my week scouting, I came back with a couple of pictures that to me, particularly illuminated problems of conservation in Mexico. Pouching and trapping birds for pets are so senseless, yet they seem to be a part of the culture. In all my travels down here, I’m convinced that the vast majority of people just haven’t made the connection between these actions and their effect on conservation. In this way, I certainly don’t Mexico is unique. The same problem exists back home in the states.

As bad as poaching and trapping are however, they’re not the main threat. Most people simply are not aware than conservation depends entirely upon perserving habitat. The thousands of species that depend on a forest community don’t simply move elsewhere when their home is replaced by a sugar cane field. They die. That’s why it’s so encouraging to see places like the El Cielo Biosphere Reserve near Gomez Farias and see people like Ricardo who are making money off of their knowledge and ability to share their world with outsiders. I deeply hope that these kinds of efforts continue to grow and that Mexicans learn to enjoy and protect their natural heritage.

Back to more light hearted things — we had the coolest bus driver ever. His name was Fernando, and he was perhaps the most jovial man I’ve ever met. His laugh was contageous, and he laughed alot. Richard and Fernando in particular had a good time. Richard would ask him all kinds of questions, and we learned some amusing things along the way. Fernando pointed out a girl wearing a short miniskirt, walking the streets in Mante. “Un hombre” (”a man”), he told Richard with a big laugh, and informed us of a club nearby for transvestites. A few days later, while rounding a mountain curve, a thing of lipstick dropped to the floor from somewhere near Fernando’s seat. Richard and I looked down at the lipstick, and then up to Fernando. “Fernando. ¿Que es el nombre de discotech?” asked Richard. (”What is the name of this club?”) Fernando laughed so hard he cried as as he said, “No, no, no.” We had a great time, and I hope he did too. I’m sure it didn’t hurt that our participants gave him a huge tip.

It would also be inappropriate of me to write this whole post and not even mention Malu Cordoba, who works for Turist Mante and poured her life into this trip for at least a couple of weeks. She stayed up late everynight, taking care of people’s needs and ensuring that the trip went as good as it could. It was a pleasure working with her.

If anyone wants a lot more pictures (and of people, not just butterflies and habitat), along with a detailed description of what we were doing on the tour, you should take a look at my parents website. My mom (who went on the trip) has taken the time to put all this up on their site.