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Here in Mexico, many of the longest living lists belong to full- or part-time birding guides. Now, I’m not a professional, but I’m more than happy to take people to meet the beautiful birds of the southwest of this country. I have not received any payment for doing this, nor do I plan to take any salary in the future. But sometimes I benefit in other ways.
Just two weeks after taking my friend Alberto “Chivizcoyo” to the subtropical town of Paso Ancho to search Sinaloa Martins, another birder from the same forum/chat contacted me to see about doing the same pilgrimage. I didn’t know it then, but René is the #3 birder on eBird’s all-time “Top 100” list for Mexico. And Ricardo, who is #4 on the same list, will join him. I should be in the company of birding royalty.
A very humble note: Numbers 1 and 2 on that list stayed at our home, and also came with me to Paso Ancho. A more-really-humble note: I’m currently at #572 on both lists. The thing is, you can’t reach the birding stratosphere without shedding all earthly attachments, and doing nothing but traveling the country looking for “another species”. I, on the contrary, have a day job, and a family.
In fact, René and Ricardo were looking for the exact same two species that Alberto found, no more, no less. Alberto traveled two hours east of Morelia one day to find the White-fronted Swiftand an hour southwest of Morelia the next day to see the Sinaloa Martin. (He finds both.) René and Ricardo plan to do both in one day: the Martin in the morning, and the swift at night. I have to admit, I had my doubts.
In fact, I have never seen the Sinaloa Martin twice a year, though that’s probably because I just don’t make the relatively difficult journey very often. But, like Alberto’s, it had rained the night before, and I was hopeful.
I don’t need to worry. I told them to watch a certain trio of power/telephone lines, and there they were: 50 Sinaloa Martins! Two Chats with a red breast sang from the trees, one was a male that had just developed his red breast, and the other was already there. A couple of those Black-breasted sparrowsa species René had only seen once, flew across the road. Yellow-winged Caciques and Golden-cheeked Woodpeckers create a noisy chorus.
Yes, Virginia, that’s a big number Sinaloa Martins.
This man Red-breasted Chat is just a teenager. But he clearly felt that he was the right fit.
Blue-black Grassquits are just small things. But their classic song-jump move suggests that they, too, think they really do.
Now, before I continue this story, I must clarify that I have not yet seen the second target species of my new friends, the White-fronted Swift. This bird is so elusive that it was only reported on eBird 27 times, on the day of our trip. I briefly considered traveling with René and Ricardo to Tacámbaro to look for it, despite it being a very difficult day. But, like I said before, I have a day job, and a family.
So there we were, trying to get better shots of Martins, when an unexpected shape is darted overhead. I warned them before Chestnut-collared Swifts is quite common on this site. But we started the wild attempt to take pictures of this one, just to be sure.
There are few birding tasks as frustrating as attempting to photograph a swift. They did not land; in fact, they are physically incapable of doing so. Their flight is very fast, and rarely in a straight line. And they often fly very high. I often notice swifts when looking at soaring birds of prey. In fact, my best option is often to focus the camera on the larger raptor, and then click on the swifts before it tries to focus again.
Fortunately, this swift chose to fly lower than most. Unfortunately, it keeps flying behind the trees. However, somehow René and I managed to get some kind of pictures of it, before it moved.
A quick check of our viewfinders leaves no doubt, it swift had no Chestnut-collar. We checked our guides, and our pulse quickened. René managed to send his best photo to Alberto himself, and… OMG… it’s a White-fronted Swift! First for René, first for Ricardo, first for me, first for Paso Ancho.
René’s best picture is better than this one of mine, believe me.
It was quite early in the morning, we even saw some swifts in the distance. (Of course, we went crazy pretty quickly at this point.) Remember what I said about focusing on swifts? Well, here you are, courtesy of a friendly neighborhood Short-tailed Hawk:
As these swifts looked off into the distance, I could only see the chestnut collars on a pair of adults, and the extra-long tails on a pair of immatures. Another species for today… the Chestnut-collared Swift. But our living White-fronted Swift will continue to stand (fly?) alone.
Some of the scenery is pretty cool too.
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