HUATULCO
Oaxaca, southern Mexico
Saturday, 31st January, 2004
Time ashore about 5 hours
Lifers marked with *
Huatulco is a fairly unspoilt area consisting of several very scenic bays. Our cruise ship was not originally scheduled to stop here, but was a substitution for Cartagena in Columbia, which is not considered a safe place anymore.
We were due to dock at Santa Cruz, Huatulco at noon and would sail again at 5pm, which didn’t give us very long onshore, but fortunately we docked early, allowing us off the ship by 11:30am. We had decided not to take the cruise’s “birdwatching shore excursion”, preferring to do our own exploring – we find we usually see more this way! We found a local taxi and negotiated a US$50 rate for the driver to take us on our own trip to the Rio Copalita, which was a few miles east of our docking point in Santa Cruz Bay. On disembarking we had a good start to our birding day, as a Gray Hawk flew over as we were walking down the jetty.
A 15 minute drive along the Boulevard Benito Juarez brought us to our first stop at the Bocana Copalita, a delightful beach area at the mouth of the Rio Copalita. Around the two cantinas there were Great-tailed Grackles and several very colorful, blue, orange and yellow birds, which we identified as Orange-breasted Buntings*. We spent about 30 minutes walking along the beach and back, where we found Snowy and Great Egrets on the edge of the river. Overhead were Turkey and Black Vultures, Magnificent Frigatebirds, Osprey and a Common Black-Hawk*, which we almost missed. It really pays to look carefully at kettles of vultures, as the white tail band was not easily visible without binoculars! Fortunately, I had a couple of photos to verify my identification, later.
We found that we couldn’t get to the river itself along the beach, so asked our taxi driver, Jesus, to take us further along the road to find a way down to the banks of the Rio Copalita. About a quarter of a mile after passing a disused waterworks building (where the entrance road was closed), we found a turn to the right, which led down a sandy track to the river. Our driver parked his taxi in the shade of a large tree, as it was now about 1pm – not the best time of day to be birding, but we had to make to best of the few hours we had off the cruise ship. Jesus accompanied us on our birdwatching walk, probably wondering what this crazy pair of Brits were doing! He actually proved to have a good eye and pointed out a few birds we hadn’t seen.
On the river we saw Great and Snowy Egrets, Great Blue, Little Blue and Tricolored Herons, White Ibis, Neotropic Cormorants, Spotted Sandpiper and Green Kingfisher. In the scrubby bushes and trees along the sand and gravel banks of this braided river bed, Tropical Kingbirds and Great Kiskadees were common, but we also saw Say’s Phoebe, Orchard Oriole, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Ruddy Ground-Doves and American Kestrel. A Short-tailed Hawk* flew overhead – this one took photos of as we kne wit was new to us and we identified it later with our field guides. On the opposite river bank we could hear some very noisy birds in the trees, and picked out the bright black and yellow colours of a flock of Mexican Caciques* (sometimes called Yellow-winged Caciques) – a large member of the oriole family.
Also seen that afternoon were several species which we just didn’t get a long enough look at to put an identity on them, including a large wren, a pale warbler and an empid flycatcher.
On return to Santa Cruz, we explored a small city park, where there were the usual grackles and Rock Pigeons. In some large evergreen trees we spotted a Rufous-naped Wren and one more of the beautiful Orange-breasted Buntings. Then on our walk back along the jetty to the cruise ship we saw Brown Pelicans, Laughing Gulls and Royal Terns.
Overnight we would sail up the coast of Mexico for our stop in Acapulco, the next day.
32 species with 4 lifers
Trip list for the day:
Magnificent Frigatebird
Neotropic Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Tricolored Heron
Little Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
White Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Common Black-Hawk*
Gray Hawk
Short-tailed Hawk*
American Kestrel
Spotted Sandpiper
Laughing Gull
Royal Tern
Rock Dove
Ruddy Ground-Dove
Green Kingfisher
Say's Phoebe
Tropical Kingbird
Great Kiskadee
Rufous-naped Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Orange-breasted Bunting*
Yellow-winged Cacique*
Orchard Oriole
Great-tailed Grackle
Helen,
As always your reports are very interesting. We birded the Rio Copalita area (entering on foot at the waterworks building) last fall. We did this in late afternoon and got some great birds. I know how quiet it is in mid day, so you did very well. Glad you got to see Huatulco, it is a great little town and does have fantastic birding (although they really lack in competent bird guides). And I agree, the Orange-breasted Buntings you saw are just beautiful!