As I have written before on this site, I consider even a bad day birding to still be a great walk in the woods. And this Monday was not a spectacular birding day. I had stayed up too late on Sunday night doing church accounting, so I got a late start on Monday morning. (The fact that Mexico recently abandoned daylight saving time has made this problem more serious.) It was drizzling off and on all morning, and never sunny, so the birds weren’t active at all. That drizzle, and one bout of rain, made great photography both unlikely, as well as somewhat risky.
But I promised not to complain about any levels of rain in this rags-to-riches year, and I’m not. Since our summer monsoon season finally began, we have had 31 days with rain, and only 7 without. Streams are finally flowing again, and bodies of water are slowly coming back to life. I love to see the new growth on our dozens of oak species. It’s like a northern autumn, but down south, and in July:
Mushrooms were also everywhere:
Most plants are still in their vegetative phrase, but one little plant seemed to be in a big hurry to bloom. It’s three or four leaves, and then about a hundred flowers! The second plant captivated me with its decorative leaves.
As so often happens when I go birding, I was adopted by a couple of local dogs. I am now their new bestie. As so often happens.
Dogs are much more patient with the stop-and-go rhythm of my birding walks, than my wife is.
And a few birds did gift me some photos. The Mexican race of Bushtits always look rakish with their black masks.
A brief mixed flock experience included this Grace’s Warbler, which is one of our relatively few resident warblers down here. (In contrast, we receive many winter migrant species.)
A family of endemic juvenile Spotted Wrens really knew how to show off their warm brown colors. The adults sport more somber shades of gray.
The best sighting of the day, although experimenting with a camera I have yet to dominate did not give me my best photo for the day, was a female Mountain Trogon. Trogons are always easier to hear than they are to see, so I was glad to get a photo (any photo) of this bird.
Since no spot offered a great number of birds, I went ahead and visited several sites of interest to me: Three spots uphill of San Miguel del Monte, a reforesting nursery downhill of the same, and a nearby reservoir which once again has some water in it. So this was not the greatest day of birding I have ever had. But it was still a great walk in the woods.
Loved to have been on that walk with you. There’s something magical about parched land coming to life after good rains.
Mark Twain apparently once defined “a good walk spoiled.” From that perspective, birding is a good walk with potential additional benefits.