Started the day at sunrise on the slopes of Volcan
de Nieve, and this time we made it up to around the Km15 marker before stopping.
This necessitated a 6am departure from the hotel, with a quick stop to grab
some coffee and food for breakfast from a gas station… Literally the first bird
of the day was a superb Mexican endemic Russet
Nightingale-Thrush posing beside the track and it really didn’t seem to
mind being watched and photographed as it remained in the same spot for several
minutes. Yes!
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| Russet Nightingale-Thrush (endemic) |
But we were on a mission to find some new hummers and with just a
few hours to spare before the long drive north towards Puerto Vallarta we set
off higher up the volcano to an area that had a lot of flowers. Here we had a
‘hummer fest’ with Mexican Violetear,
White-eared, a cracking male and
several female Rufous, and several Broad-tailed Hummingbirds.
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| Broad-tailed Hummingbird |
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| Rufous Hummingbird |
I was
particularly pleased to catch up with a female Amethyst-throated Mountain-gem which I had missed yesterday.
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| Amethyst-throated Mountain-Gem |
However,
the star bird and after a 21 year wait I finally nailed Colima Warbler – after poor views in Big Bend, Texas when I was
just a nipper! It appeared right beside the track at head height, feeding
quietly in a dense bush and was on view for just a short while but it was close
and in the bag. OH YES! There were also plenty of Gray Silky-Flycatchers, a near-endemic as it just hops over the border
into Guatemala.
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| Gray Silky-Flycatcher |
The other goodie of the morning was a fantastic Red Warbler beside the track and apart
from a large warbler flock containing all the usual suspects we had reached the
end of our time here as it was 11am. When I tell you we finally reached the
hotel on the seashore south of Puerto Vallarta at a little before 8pm, you’ll
understand how tired I was feeling having driven for 9 hours to get here! We
did see a few birds along the road but nothing new and with the prospect of
wifi and field notes to type it was a late night for me! Oh but a calling Common Pauraque was too hard to resist and it gave exceptionally close views and flew around a couple of us repeatedly to round off yet another top day.
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