Having now completed parts one and two of our trip, we departed Cozumel on the morning ferry. Returning to
mainland Yucatan we turned south, passing through Playa del Carmen to reach
Tulum. We decided to break our journey by spending the early afternoon at the
Tulum ruins. These are spectacular, perched on clifftops overlooking the
Caribbean, but overrun with mainly American tourists. The birding was
uneventful – a nice male Altamira Oriole
in song was about the best.
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| Tulum |
It was then onwards to Punta Allen, which is at the end
of a long, narrow spit south of Tulum, flanked by the sea on one side and a
large tidal lagoon on the other. As expected, the road deteriorated rapidly
into a very bumpy track (with the occasional muddy hollow), and it took us an
hour and 45 minutes to travel 50km or so – slow going. I was thankful I’d
booked a bog-standard hire car (Chevrolet Aveo), rather than something fancier.
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| The old bridge at Boca Paila |
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| The road to Punta Allen |
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| Unfortunately one of these didn't make an appearance |
After a nice, no frills lunch in Punta Allen (which is
little more than a fishing village), we back-tracked for 30 minutes to our
hotel, Sol Caribe. This was deliberately chosen for the next three nights due
to its off the beaten track location, and its limited birding opportunities (to
allow some proper R’n’R). This hotel proved to be a great choice, and our
favourite part of the trip. With just eight rooms (of which only three were
occupied), and no other development around, it felt like being on a desert island, and pretty close to paradise. And
actually, there was some interesting birding to be had, with a path tempting
path through the dense palm forest and mangroves at the back of the hotel. The
only downside was the depressing amount of plastic on the otherwise beautiful
beach – the strandline was full of it, and in some places there were patches
metres wide.
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| The beach at Sol Caribe. Not bad. |
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| Hideous amounts of plastic in the standline |
Ecotourism is a big part of Punta Allen’s economy, being
located on the edge of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, and the following day
we took a boat trip with the other two couples in the hotel, who we’d
befriended the previous night in the bar. We then spent an enjoyable four hours
with a local guide. First we cruised around the lagoon, unfortunately failing
to find any manatees (seen the previous day), but coming across several
Bottlenose Dolphins. We also visited a
couple of islets with nesting Roseate
Spoonbills, Reddish Egrets, Brown Pelicans and Double-crested Cormorants. Our guide also drove us straight up to a
young Bare-throated Tiger-heron (one
of the species I’d missed at Rio Legartos) in a patch of mangroves, and other
species included Mangrove Swallow, Tricolored Heron, White Ibis, Magnificent
Frigatebird, Osprey and Common Black Hawk. We then rounded the
point at Punta Allen, seeing a couple of turtles (‘tortuga alba’, presumably
Green Turtles), before heading a couple of kilometres offshore to snorkel on a
reef, which was fantastic – although even to my untrained eye there was
evidence of bleaching.
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| Bottlenose Dolphin |
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| A young Bare-throated Tiger-heron |
After some lunch and sunbathing, I then explored the
mangrove path, seeing frequent Black
Catbird, Banaquit and Yucatan Vireo, as well as Black-and-white Warbler, American Redstart, Mangrove Warbler, Waterthrush
sp. and Dusky-capped Flycatcher,
as well as Great Blue Heron and Belted Kingfisher on the lagoon.
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| Black Catbird |
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| Bananaquit |
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| Yucatan Vireo |
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| Mangrove Warbler |
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| American Redstart |
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| Some cool bats. No idea what species. |
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| Tropical Buckeye |
The following day involved breakfast, a walk along the
beach with some swimming, lunch, some sunbathing and more swimming, and supper,
plus a brief foray down the mangrove path. Bird highlights were Zone-tailed Hawk and Grey Kingbird, both new for the trip,
with a similar selection of additional species as had been seen the day before.
Additionally, a couple of Royal Terns
and several parties of distant Egrets
flew north over the sea, and a distant nightjar (probably a Pauraque) was feeding over the
mangroves at dusk, wrapping up a tough day.
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| The view from our room |
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| Zone-tailed Hawk |
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| Grey Kingbird |
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| Sunset over the lagoon |
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| White Ibises |
Our last morning at Sol Caribe came far too quickly. I
had a final walk down the mangrove path, hearing and then seeing a Spot-breasted Wren, whilst 3 Wilson’s Plovers and 3 Least Sandpipers were on the beach.
Reluctantly bidding Punta Allen goodbye, we bumped our way slowly back to Tulum
(briefly stopping at Boca Paila, where a Mangrove
Cuckoo flew across), checking into the Hotel Azulik. This was an
interesting place, and it felt slightly like style over substance. However, our
room was perched on a cliff overlooking the sea, giving eye-level views of Brown Pelicans flying back and forth.
Other things seen in Tulum included Osprey,
Royal Tern Spotted Sandpiper, and a couple of Yucatan Jays.
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| The seaview at Azulik |
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| Brown Pelican |
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| Osprey |
The following day we were up early, arriving at Coba
(just inland from Tulum) at first light. Whilst Amy snoozed in the car, I had a
very enjoyable period of birding around the lake. Highlights were Limpkin, Least Bittern, Purple
Gallinule, Ruddy Crake (2 giving
their trilling call in full view), and best, a Spotted Rail, which eventually gave brief and obscured views once
I’d tracked down its ‘sneezing’ call. Both species of rail were found on small pools
present between the road and the reedbed on the south side of the lake. Great Blue and Green Herons and Pied-billed
Grebe completed the list of wetland birds.
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| The lake at Coba |
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| Productive little pools on the south side of the lake |
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| Ruddy Crake - definitely cutest bird of the trip |
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| Doing some calling |
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| Purple Gallinule |
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| Limkin |
In the surrounding trees, Yellow-bellied Elaenia was new, whilst also present were Hooded, Yellow-tailed and Orchard
Orioles, Ruddy and Common Ground-doves, Indigo Bunting, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Cape
May and Yellow-throated Warblers,
Common Yellowthroat, Melodious Blackbird and Black-headed Saltator. Several hundred Barn Swallows were massing over the
lake at first light, along with a single Rough-winged
Swallow sp. and a Purple Martin.
Two freshwater crocs cruising around the lake completed proceedings.
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| Yellow-bellied Elaenia |
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| A cruising Morelet's Croc |
After breakfast by the lake, we then entered the Coba
ruins site at 8am. This was a bit frustrating as by now I was pushing my luck
with the amount of time I was spending birding, so I wasn’t able to do this
site to its full potential. Nevertheless, Eye-ringed
Flatbill, Rose-throated Tanager
(a Yucatan endemic), and Black-headed
Trogon were new. Additional species included Yellow-olive Flycatcher, Black-headed
Saltator, Yucatan Jay, Yucatan Flycatcher, Rufous-browed Peppershrike, Yellow-throated Euphonia, Orange Oriole, Grey Catbird, Social
Flycatcher, Rose-throated Becard
and Black-and-white Warbler. After climbing the pyramid at Coba (which is the tallest
Mayan structure in the northern Yucatan), we made our way out of the site, then
driving a short distance to a nearby underground cenote, seeing a Black-cowled Oriole but little else.
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| Black-headed Trogon |
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| Eye-ringed Flatbill |
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| Yucatan Flycatcher |
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| Orange Oriole |
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| Brown Basilisk |
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| The pyramid at Coba |
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| Panoramic views of the semi-deciduous forest |
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| An underground cenote |
We
then headed to Punta Laguna, which is a lovely area of protected forest around
a lake, run by the local community. One of the guides took us looking for
monkeys, and we soon had several Spider Monkeys in our sights; less expected
was a single Black Howler Monkey, which are apparently much harder to see.
Birdwise, things were a bit quiet (but it was mid afternoon), with Black-cowled Oriole, Black-headed Trogon
and Anhinga of note.
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| Forest at Punta Laguna |
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| The lake at Punta Laguna |
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| Yucatan Black Howler Monkey. Definitely a male... |
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| Central American Spider Monkey looking gangly |
As we left Punta Laguna, two Rough-winged Swallows were perched on roadside wires. One flew off
as I got out of the car, but the other remained perched, showing a
prominent pale patch on the lores – a feature of Ridgway’s RwS, but somewhat larger than shown in my ID guide, and I
was unable to see the undertail coverts. Here, a Masked Tityra flew across the road, but of particular note was the
sheer number of butterflies around, with hundreds over the road all the way
back to Tulum, such that it was impossible not to hit them whilst driving – I
must’ve killed 30-40 (and dodged as many again). The vast majority were Dark
Kite-Swallowtails.
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| A deceased Dark Kite-Swallowtail |
On our last full day, I left the hotel at 4am (confusing
the hotel car parking staff in the process), and headed south from Tulum. My
target was Sian Ka’an – a Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site extending to some 528,000ha – nearly two and a half times the size of
Nottinghamshire! Most people access this via the Vigia Chico road, from Felipe
Carillo Puerto, but this isn’t really a honeymoon destination, and there was no
way I had the time to get there and back, and do some birding, in one morning.
However, I had spotted what looked like another track on Google Earth, off the
main highway (the 307), and it was this I was looking for in the dark. Find it
I did, but the forest was completely closed in along the track, and it didn’t
look promising for nightjars. So I returned to the 307, turning west towards
Chumpon. Approximately 320m along this road, still in the dark, I found an entrance
to an old quarry on the northern side of the road. No Yucatan Nightjar or
Yucatan Poorwill, but I had nice views of Lesser
Nighthawk on the deck and in flight. As the day dawned, there was a raucous
chorus of Plain Chachalacas, and I
began to bird the forest edge around the quarry (which was very shallow, and
presumably excavated to build the highway). I bagged my first Brown Jays, whilst a Ferruginous Pygmy-owl called and showed
well. Other things included Spot-breasted
Wren, Red-billed Pigeon, Black Catbird, Green Heron, Wood Stork,
Solitary Sandpiper, Aztec Parakeet, Tropical Flycatcher (a flock of 21 taking up and heading north), Boat-billed Flycatcher, Social Flycatcher, Clay-coloured Thrush and Golden-fronted
Woodpecker. A Grey Fox also put in a brief appearance.
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| Lesser Nighthawk |
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| The quarry on the Chumpon road |
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| Brown Jay |
I then returned to the Sian Ka’an track, located at the
KM181 marker on the highway 4km south of the Chumpon junction and signed to
Faro de Vigia Chico. Parking the car a short way down the track near the
entrance (at the Caseta Chumpon), I walked east for a couple of hours (not even
scratching the surface of this huge protected area). The birds were patchy, and
I failed to see some of the specialities that others see when accessing this site
from Felipe Carillo Puerto. However, new species came aplenty, with Roadside Hawk, Blue Ground-dove, Smoky-brown
Woodpecker, Tropical Gnatcatcher,
White-bellied Wren, Tawny-crowned and Lesser Greenlets, Red-legged
Honeycreeper and Red-crowned
Ant-tanager, whilst an ant swarm yielded Red-throated Ant-tanager and Tawny-winged
and Ruddy Woodcreepers. The ant
swarm was particularly impressive, but only lasted for 10 minutes or so after I
found it and wasn’t attended by that many birds – although a male Hooded Warbler was very nice.
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| The Caseta Chumpon entrance to Sian Ka'an |
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| Red-legged Honeycreeper |
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| Red-throated Ant-tanager |
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| Hooded Warbler |
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| Roadside Hawk |
A noisy band of Yucatan
Jays followed me for at least half an hour, which rather impeded my birding
for a while, but other birds included Caribbean
Dove, Amazon sp. (Yucatans?!), Yucatan Woodpecker, another
unidentified Woodcreeper sp. (seen
only briefly, possibly Olivaceous), Yellow-olive
Flycatcher, Dusky-capped Flycatcher
(plus unidentified Contopus and
‘tropical’ flycatchers), Brown Jay, Spot-breasted Wren, Black Catbird, Red-eyed Vireo, Magnolia
and Black-and-white Warblers, American Redstart, Northern Waterthrush, Scrub
and Yellow-throated Euphonias, Olive Sparrow and Black-cowled Oriole. On the mammal front, another Grey Fox showed
well near the Caseta, and there were several Yucatan Squirrels around.
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| Yucatan Jay |
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| Spot-breasted Wren |
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| Ruddy Daggerwing |
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| Field's Groundstreak |
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| Grey Fox |
However, the undoubted star was an Ocellated Turkey. This
is a species that most tours travel to Calakmul to see (another couple of hours
drive south of Tulum), and I had resigned myself to the fact that this was one
of the endemics which I had no chance of seeing. However… barely a couple of
hundred meters down the track, I spied a large bird off in the distance. And it
looked a lot like a turkey! It slowly walked towards me, and I slowly walked
towards it, getting better and better views of a superb Ocellated Turkey – what an absolute stunner. It eventually ran off
into the undergrowth. Incredibly, it had reappeared by the time I returned,
giving me another close encounter. I just hope a hunter hasn’t shot it by now.
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| A distant lump of a bird... |
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| Ocellated Turkey. Stunning. |
The drive back to Tulum was punctuated by a couple more Brown Jays (interesting that I hadn’t seen this species further north in the Yucatan), and a Pale-billed Woodpecker flying across in front of me. And like yesterday, there were literally thousands of butterflies, again nearly all Dark Kite-Swallowtails, and many being struck by vehicles.
Our final day dawned, and we drive north to Cancun, breaking
the journey with a visit to the botanical gardens in Puerto Morelos. Being the
middle of the day, it was rather quite on the bird front, but I had my best
views of the fortnight of Green Jay
(and finally worked out their call!). Spider Monkeys and Yucatan Squirrels
showed well, but there was no sign of any Agoutis.
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| Green Jay |
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| Yucatan Squirrel |
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| Pavon Emperor |
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| A Longtail sp. (Eight-spotted?) |
And so ended a fantastic trip (I mean, honeymoon). I
clocked up 225 species, of which 190 were ticks, plus 10 species of mammal
(excluding various unidentified bats). Bird
of the trip was undoubtedly the Ocellated Turkey, but my first hummingbirds and
frigatebirds, and a whopping 22 species of wood warbler, were major highlights
too. Of the 17 or so Yucatan and Cozumel endemics (depending on which taxonomy you follow
and exactly where the Yucatan Peninsula starts and finishes), I missed four –
Yucatan Amazon, Cozumel Vireo, Yucatan Nightjar and Yucatan Poorwill, plus Cozumel
Thrasher (but given this species seems likely to be extinct I wont count that).
I also missed a couple of other coveted
species like Black Skimmer, Collared Trogon, Keel-billed Toucan, and Collared Aracari.
But these
are all good reasons to come back to this beautiful part of the world one day.
