Mexico Part 2: Nosing into the Neotropics

 

After a fun overnight on the coast of Sonora, Mollee, Cedar and I headed southeastwards to the town of Álamos, the primary destination for our northern Mexico road trip. Nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental, Álamos got its start as a silver mining town back in the 17th century. It was one of the biggest and most important towns in northwestern Mexico for a couple hundred years, but lost a great deal of its population and prestige in the early 1900s when the silver mines closed. It was only in the middle of the 20th century that it had somewhat of a resurgence, after Americans and Canadians "discovered" the colonial architecture and scenery of the town and turned it into a tourist destination. Since then people from the area have started flooding back (one might say they *ahem* remembered the Álamos), and these days it's a prosperous town with a well-developed tourism economy and some absolutely beautiful old-school Spanish architecture.

The route to Álamos

Bird-wise, Álamos is an attractive destination as it's at the northern end of the west Mexican tropical deciduous forests, and has quite a bit of reasonably intact habitat surrounding it. Technically it's still the subtropics and most of the birds there could also be seen in Arizona, but for people like us driving south from the border, it's the closest spot where one can see proper Neotropical birds like parrotlets, chachalacas, amazons, woodcreepers, and ground sparrows. For me, it's still the only place I've properly birded anywhere close to the Neotropics, and even though this was a repeat visit there were a good number of lifers for me that I had missed my first time.

It was a 5-hour drive from Bahía de Kino down to Álamos, mostly through the low, flat coastal desert. August is monsoon season so the desert was surprisingly green, and the drive was interspersed with a couple of sudden, torrential desert cloudbursts. It was still bloody hot though- somewhere above 100 degrees fahrenheit- so we mostly stayed in the car rather than risking heat stroke looking for desert birds. East of the city of Navojoa, we began to enter the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental, a lovely landscape of forested mountain ranges interspersed with wide valleys. 20 million years ago it was all a big, Andes-style volcanic mountain range, but when the Farallon Plate was subducted and the San Andreas Fault formed, the Baja California peninsula separated from western Mexico and the mountains were pulled apart, creating the many miniature ranges in the area. One of these is the Sierra de Álamos, a jagged mountain range of volcanic rock that looms over Álamos to the west, and signaled our arrival as we drove in. It was with some trepidation that I pointed out that that was where we were going to be the next day, as I knew the hike that was in store for us...

We were staying at El Pedregal Hotel and Nature Lodge, which as one might guess is the most popular spot for birders visiting Álamos. It was, shall we say, a bit of a stretch for us budget-wise, but it's a beautiful hotel right in the middle of a big wooded area filled with wildlife, and the owner Jen has been very enthusiastic about promoting birding, as well as being generally active in parks and conservation around Álamos. Splitting the cost three ways, it was a worthwhile investment. We felt better about our choice of venue as we drove into El Pedregal and were immediately greeted with an Elegant Quail foraging on the side of the road! Endemic to western Mexico, this was one of our main target birds for the trip and I got far better views than I'd gotten the previous visit.

Elegant Quail

The entrance to El Pedregal

It was late afternoon by the time we checked into our rooms and dropped out things, but there was still daylight left and we wanted to walk around more after being in the car for hours. There was a nice bird bath complex outside the main office of El Pedregal, which had many Inca Doves and Common Ground Doves coming in for water, along with the ubiquitous White-winged Doves, perhaps the most common bird in Álamos. I noticed some commotion above us and realized that there was a nest of Groove-billed Anis, including some truly pathetic-looking fledglings. The parents even came in to feed them while we were watching- one of the benefits of staying in a bird-friendly spot. Several brilliantly-colored Painted Buntings came in to the bird bath, and Mollee spotted a Plain-capped Starthroat perched above the feeder, my first Álamos lifer of the trip. Many Thick-billed Kingbirds and Tropical Kingbirds were hanging around the lodge, along with a flock of Sinaloa Crows, another Mexico endemic. A huge Sonoran Spiny-tailed Iguana was hanging out next to the small pool, and a Goode's Thornscrub Tortoise was ambling along the ground nearby.

Inca Doves

Some truly pathetic baby Groove-billed Anis

Adult Groove-billed Ani- slightly more dignified, but only slightly

Common Ground Dove

Plain-capped Starthroat- not the most brilliant of the local hummingbirds, but a lifer is a lifer

Painted Bunting

Thick-billed Kingbird

Juvenile Sinaloa Crow

Sonoran Spiny-tailed Iguana

Goode's Thornscrub Tortoise

Clark's Spiny Lizard

American Snout

The rather dramatically named Funereal Duskywing

Elf Butterfly

Blackened Bluewing

We decided to head to the Parque La Colorada, a nice little urban park next to El Pedregal. The park has lots of trails through the scrubby forest, including some leading uphill towards a lookout. It's also the most reliable spot for Russet-crowned Motmot, to date still the only motmot I've ever seen. I had seen the motmots with Josh and Holly a few years ago, but I couldn't remember exactly where on the extensive trail network they were (did I mention that I was a mostly-useless birding partner on this trip?). There were other good birds though- calling White-tipped Doves, a nice Gila Woodpecker, and many calling Curve-billed Thrashers. We spotted both Black-vented and Streak-backed Orioles, including a Streak-backed Oriole nest with a single fledgling hanging out of it as if not sure whether or not it was really worth it to try and fly off.

Thick-billed Kingbird

Curve-billed Thrasher

Black-vented Oriole

Baby Streak-backed Oriole

Gila Woodpecker

Cactus Longhorn Beetle

That evening, we walked into town to enjoy the sights of Álamos. I failed miserably at getting any pictures of the architecture, but it really is quite a picturesque town, with its cobblestone streets and old colonial buildings full of Spanish-style arches and courtyards. We also ended up running into Felipe Guerrerro and Nolan Walker, guides from Arizona who were showing a client around Álamos as well. It's always fun to hang out with other birders, and they were nice enough to share notes from their own birding, though we mostly ended up visiting different places. Nolan is an expert herper as well, and he spent the rest of the week gripping us off by sending us pictures of cool snakes he'd caught along the way.

Álamos scenery

Our destination for the next day was the trail up Arroyo Uvalama, one of the many dry riverbeds on the slopes of Sierra de Álamos. Despite the name of the eBird hotspot, it's mostly a steep, uphill slog up to a ridge leading toward the peak of the sierra- 5 straight miles of uphill hiking, in fact. I had gone up there with Josh and Holly back in 2021 and the three of us were perilously close to heat exhaustion by the time we were finished. 10 miles is far from the longest hike I've ever done, and though the going is steep it's not nearly as technical or strenuous as some other hikes I've done (that would go to Mount Victoria or Gunung Ciremai, among others). What does it, however, is the fact that we chose to do the hike in the hottest, most humid time of the year, turning what would normally be a strenuous but doable hike into flirtation with heat stroke. And yet, here I was doing it again- mostly because I had missed a few key target birds up there and wanted another chance at them, along with there being many lifers for Cedar and Mollee.

We left El Pedregal at 4:30 AM, me having learned the hard way my first up the arroyo that an early start is key. It took us a little while to find parking as the road we had parked on earlier was now fenced off, but we finally started hiking up the arroyo a little after 5AM. The first mile or so of the trail was a gentle uphill along the edge of the arroyo through scrubby forest- full of leaves this time of year that made seeing birds difficult. The birds were singing as the sun rose- mainly common scrub forest birds like Dusky-capped Flycatchers, Tropical Kingbirds, Warbling Vireos, and Varied Buntings. As we walked through the gate that marked the edge of the proper forest reserve, we started seeing some of the better birds like Yellow Grosbeaks and Rufous-backed Thrushes, both of which proved to be extremely common. We heard Elegant Trogon and Rufous-bellied Chachalaca calling, but they were quite distant. A Western Flycatcher was a nice addition to the flycatcher list- or at least it will be in a week or so once they finally lump it and make it a proper tick for us. 

Adult Rufous-backed Thrush

Baby Rufous-backed Robin

Female Yellow Grosbeak

Baby Yellow Grosbeak

Western Flycatcher

Western Red-bellied Tiger Beetle

It was only when the trail turned away from the ravine and started climbing up into the sierra that things got properly interesting. We saw our first Sinaloa Wren (another Mexican endemic) singing in the low trees near the trail, and shortly afterward bumped into a flock of Black-throated Magpie-Jays, one of the signature birds of this area. We got close-up views of them, although they insisted on perching in obscured spots in terrible light, apparently their favorite thing to do. We heard the raucous noises of a group of Rufous-bellied Chachalacas near to the trail and managed to track one down to the tree that it was calling from, but it flushed before we could get a good look (the group of cows that had taken an inordinate interest in us there didn't help). Soon after though, Cedar spotted a more distant one perched in the top of a tree, giving me my first look at this species. There were also a couple of singing Yellow-green Vireos, which was a lifer for me, but they never posed for any decent pictures. A thunderous screeching high above us confused us until we realized it was a Military Macaw! Sadly it flew over while we were underneath a thick canopy and remained a very annoying heard-only lifer.

Sinaloa Wren

Black-throated Magpie-Jay

Rufous-bellied Chachalaca

Two-pupil Satyr

Ceraunus Blue

Tropical Leafwing

Pleased to report that the English name of this is Executioner Paper Wasp (Polistes carnifex)

Tropical Tree Lizard

Nelson's Spiny Lizard

Guatemalan Cracker, a surprise butterfly lifer

These cows could have followed us a little bit less closely and that would have been okay

Views from the trail

After about 6 hours of hiking, we finally entered what has always been my favorite stretch of trail, a chunk of denser, leafier tropical deciduous forest with big trees and a little stream that felt more like proper forest and not a steep cow pasture. This summer was hot and dry for Álamos, as it was in the rest of the world, and the forest had been distinctly thicker and lusher on my previous visit. Still, it was a welcome break from the spindly trees and beating sun of the previous stretch. More importantly, the birds were there. We tried playing the call of Colima Pygmy-Owl, one of our main targets, and while there weren't any owls we were almost instantly surrounded by a swarm of angry birds trying to chase off the imagined predator: Sinaloa Wrens, Happy Wrens, Violet-crowned Hummingbirds, Berylline Hummingbirds, Rufous-capped Warblers, Tropical Parulas, Black-capped Gnatcatchers, Wilson's Warblers, and a Northern Beardless Tyrannulet. A bit further up we had excellent looks at a pair of Lineated Woodpeckers, and I was finally able to get a picture of a White-tipped Dove.

Sinaloa Wren

Happy Wren, a cool West Mexico endemic that never seems to be particularly happy

Violet-crowned Hummingbird

Lineated Woodpecker

White-tipped Dove: extremely common, extremely skulky

We arrived to a shaded clearing with a big ruined building that I remembered as a good spot from my previous trip. Sure enough it came through once again, with a calling Colima Pygmy-Owl! It took us a while to finally see it but eventually Cedar finally spotted it perched right above our heads. Every time I see pygmy owls I'm shocked at how small they are and this was no exception- they're tiny even by pygmy-owl standards, barely bigger than a fist and absolutely adorable, although if the swarm of angry warblers and hummingbirds around it was anything to go by, still fearsome predators. A little higher we ran into a family of Rusty Sparrows, and we heard a White-striped Woodcreeper but it never came close to us.

Colima Pygmy-Owl!

Rusty Sparrow

Juvenile Rusty Sparrow

Rhodobaenus lebasii, a cool endemic weevil

Tropical Checkered-Skipper

Also pleased to report that this one is called an Unstable Paper Wasp (Polistes instabilis), because apparently entomologists love giving wasps silly names

The clearing

Classic tropical deciduous forest

Hiking further up, we left the thicker forest and entered an honestly rather uninspiring section of scrubby oak forest, made all the more miserable by the hot sun and steep path. There were theoretically some good birds to be had in this section, such as Blue Mockingbird and Rusty-crowned Ground Sparrow, but the forest was dead quiet as we walked through. It didn't help that we had been hiking straight uphill for 8 hour or so and both the temperature and humidity were creeping into the high 80s, meaning we weren't in the appropriate physical and mental state for careful and attentive birding. It was around noon by the time we arrived at the "helipad"- a flat area on a saddle in the sierra marking the the upper end of the deciduous forest before it transitioned into mountain pine forest. We considered pressing onwards into the pine forest, but it would have meant another few hundred meters of ascent and only one additional bird (Black-headed Siskin), which two of the three of us had already seen anyway. With not a small amount of relief, the decision was made to stop at the saddle and focus on rest, lunch, and hydration. The scenery was beautiful despite the heat, and while the birds were quiet the insect and plant life around us was fascinating. 

The view from the saddle

The local herd of cows watching us eat our lunch

Saddle selfie

Broad-billed Hummingbird

Thisbe's Tarantula-hawk Wasp

Some kind of cool flea beetle (Disonycha sp.)

Some kind of grasshopper mantis (Yersiniops sp.)

Pachylis gigas, one of the biggest bugs I've ever seen (it was the size of my palm!)

Marine Blue

Neon Skimmer

Alamos Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus alamosanus), endemic to this little corner of the Sierra Madre Occidental

After some food, hydration, and rest we weren't feeling quite so knackered, although we were conscious of the fact that both daylight and water were in finite supply. We started walking downhill, although we didn't get too far before an interesting call next to the trail stopped us. It took us a while to get on it, but finally Cedar and I got a brief look- Blue Mockingbird! This was one of our long-shot targets for the hike, and we were thrilled as they're quite difficult to find throughout their range. It showed itself a few times for all of us, though never long enough for a picture. Things didn't stop there though; it turned out to be the vanguard of a mixed flock of other very good birds: Berylline Hummingbirds, Painted Whitestarts, Rufous-capped Warblers, and best of all a pair of Rusty-crowned Ground Sparrows! That was another long-shot target, and enough to make all three of us feel much better about schlepping all this way uphill.

Berylline Hummingbird

Rufous-capped Warbler

Painted Whitestart

Rusty-crowned Ground Sparrow! Beautiful birds, although not easy to photograph...

That would have been a great way to end the hike, but of course from there it was another 5 miles of steep downhill on unstable slopes, now in the hottest part of the day. We were mostly focused on making it back to the car before dehydration and exhaustion set in, although we still stopped for some birds and wildlife, including a friendly group of Rusty Sparrows and a beautiful Pacific Coast Parrot Snake that Mollee spotted next to the trail. Even though we had been more prepared this time, with an earlier start and more water, we were still thoroughly exhausted by the time we returned to the car. I can confidently say that the Arroyo Uvalama hike is among the most physically challenging hikes I've ever done- and certainly the most challenging one I've chosen to do twice! Still, it had been a great success, with 63 species seen including lots of tough Mexican endemics, and lifers for all of us. The best part, of course, is that I never have to do it again.

Rusty Sparrow- this one had a messed-up foot although it still seemed to be getting around just fine

Pacific Coast Parrot Snake

Nelson's Spiny Lizard

Blomfild's Beauty

It is with great displeasure that I report that the English name of this grasshopper is Yellow-bellied Boopie (Boopedon flaviventris)

Horse Lubber Grasshopper

Filigree Skimmer

Telephoto landscape of the Sierra Madre Occidental

Once we got to the car, it was all we could do to drive to the nearest Oxxo to load up on electrolytes before we returned to El Pedregal to collapse in our beds. We napped for a couple hours, woke up for dinner, and then went right back to sleep again. We were up and at it bright and early the next morning, though the plan for the day was to stay near to the car and on flat ground. Instead, we spent the morning in the lowlands south of Álamos, looking for open country birds that we were missing- chief among them Purplish-backed Jay, a range-restricted (and generally uncommon) West Mexico endemic I had utterly dipped on my previous visit. Thankfully, Nolan and Felipe and found one the previous day and were nice enough to send us a pin, so we were hopeful even though we knew it was still difficult.

As we drove southwards early in the morning, the scrub was full of birdsong, with many birds taking advantage of the monsoon rains to start their breeding season. Most common were the ubiquitous Painted Buntings, White-winged Doves, and Tropical Kingbirds, but we also saw a Lark Sparrow and a couple of Blue-backed Grassquits. We stopped along a nice-looking stretch of road next to someone's ranch, and almost immediately saw an Elegant Trogon perched nearby. A small group of birds next to the road proved to include Dusky-capped and Nutting's Flycatchers, and even a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl! A beautiful Crested Caracara was perched next to the road along with a Turkey Vulture- beautiful in its own way I suppose.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

Crested Caracara- weird to think that these are falcons, and thus more closely related to sparrows, warblers and parakeets than they are to hawks

Turkey Vulture

As we were about to get back in the car, I heard a raucous call from the bush behind us and realized that it was a Purplish-backed Jay! We rushed to find it and eventually located one located deep within a leafy shrub. Soon after another appeared, and gave us great looks as it flew across the little valley to a wooded hillside. This was another one of our top targets, and certainly one of the can't-miss birds of the Álamos area, so we were thrilled. 

The typical view of Purplish-backed Jay

Purplish-backed Jay!

We got back in the car and drove a little further south to the Arroyo Mentidero, a dry wash that leads to the Río Chuchijaqui, a proper river that winds its way past Álamos. This is one of the best-known birding spots in the area, and it didn't disappoint, being full of birds even in the late morning. In addition to the usual desert birds, a highlight was a flock of several dozen White-fronted Amazons that flew over us squawking. As we walked down the dry riverbed, a commotion to the site alerted us to a White-nosed Coati making its way up the steep slope on the edge of the arroyo, with its baby in its mouth! That was our only good mammal sighting of the trip, but it was a lifer for me and the baby was adorable, so we were very happy. At the river, we spotted a huge Bare-throated Tiger Heron winging its way downstream (a lifer for me), and a juvenile Grey Hawk perched in a distant tree begging for food. On the way back up I happened upon a very showy Canyon Wren, which allowed me to get my first pictures of this species- certainly one of my favorite wrens, both for its appearance and for its beautiful song. 

White-fronted Amazon

White-nosed Coati!

Black Phoebe

Bare-throated Tiger Heron

Canyon Wren

Ceraunus Blue

Variegated Fritillary

Stinking Passionflower with a Pigweed Flea Beetle and some kind of squash bee (Xenoglossa sp.)

Plains Lubber Grasshopper

Acmaeodera scalaris, a cool endemic jewel beetle

Arroyo Grasshopper

Tropical Leafwing

Empress Leilia

Filigree Skimmer

Sleepy Oranges and a Marcellina Sulphur

Another Ceraunus Blue

Zebra-tailed Lizard giving a ride to a Plains Lubber Grasshopper

We headed back to our hotel for a late breakfast and a rest, as we were still pretty beat from the previous day's ordeal. As we were eating we enjoyed the Social Flycatchers, Great-tailed Grackles, and Sinaloa Crows feeding just outside the El Pedregal restaurant. That afternoon we ran into Jen, the owner of El Pedregal who was happy to give us some tips for where to find the birds we were looking for, especially the motmots. As we were talking to her, a Rufous-bellied Chachalaca strutted into view behind her! What I wouldn't give to have that as a yard bird...

Social Flycatcher

Great-tailed Grackle

Rufous-bellied Chachalaca

Western Whiptail

That afternoon, we decided to follow Jen's directions and look for the motmots in Parque La Colorada. It took a while to get to the motmot spot, although there was good birding along the way including a pair of Varied Buntings bringing food to their chicks and a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher visiting a nesting hole in a cactus. Finally we arrived at the right spot, and eventually got good looks at a beautiful (but very skulky) Russet-crowned Motmot. It's amazing to me how much they look like Rufous-crowned Bee-eaters in the Philippines, despite being separated by several continents and millions of years of evolution. 

Female Varied Bunting

Male Varied Bunting

Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher

Russet-crowned Motmot

Goode's Thornscrub Tortoise

Western Mexico Whiptail

Agaeocera scintillans, another beautiful jewel beetle

Diceroprocta semicincta, an endemic cicada

Lyside Sulphur

Glaucous Cracker

Clark's Spiny Lizard

The rest of the day was mostly spent chilling at El Pedregal, where we enjoyed another flock of Black-throated Magpie-Jays, although they still refused to perch out in the open or in good light. That evening we tried a couple of spots for Buff-collared Nightjar, but came up absolutely empty-handed. We decided to call it a night with that, as we were still beat and wanted to do a proper full day of birding the next day. I initially wanted to do all of Álamos in one blog post but given that this one is approaching novella length already I'll leave our last couple of days for next week.