SABO Home |
Activities | News|
Birding Guide | Birding in Mexico
| Hummingbirds
Photo Albums |
Quizzes | Membership|
People | Links|
Contact SABO
SABO Home |
Activities | News|
Birding Guide | Birding in Mexico
| Hummingbirds
Photo Albums |
Quizzes | Membership|
People | Links|
Contact SABO
|
Tropical Birds of Sonora, MexicoMarch 23-28, 2008Tour package will include:
|
|
|
The Wildlife: |
Early spring in Sonora offers a spectacular combination of fabulous birds and possibility of 20 species of raptors and much more. Bird highlights of previous spring trips include Common Black-Hawk, Gray Hawk, Blue-footed Booby, Magnificent Frigatebird, Yellow-footed Gull, Mexican Parrotlet, Squirrel Cuckoo, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Plain-capped Starthroat, Russet-crowned Motmot, Social Flycatcher, Nutting's Flycatcher, Happy Wren, Black-throated Magpie-Jay, Mangrove Swallow, Brown-backed Solitaire, Blue Mockingbird, Slate-throated Redstart, Yellow Grosbeak, and Streak-backed Oriole. If the winter rains are generous, there may also be a good variety of butterflies and flowers as well. |
|
|
The Leader: |
Sheri Williamson, co-founder and co-director of the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory, has extensive experience in tropical birding, including conducting tours and workshops in northwestern Mexico. Her well-rounded natural history knowledge, enthusiasm, and good humor has earned her a loyal following among birders and other nature lovers. Sheri will be assisted by experienced local guides. | |
|
The Destinations: |
Our tour will begin and end in Bisbee, a mining-town-turned-artist-colony just a few miles from the Mexican border. We'll spend our first night at Navojoa, a bustling agricultural and business center on the banks of the Rio Mayo. Alamos, a charming colonial town founded in the 16th Century, will be our home base for three nights. On the way back to Arizona we'll spend a night in the scenic resort city of San Carlos on the Gulf of California (a.k.a. Sea of Cortez). | |
|
$995 per person/double occupancy for members of SABO, $1025 for non-members,
including transportation from Bisbee, five nights' lodging, all meals,
non-alcoholic beverages, and local guide services; Tourist fees, snacks,
alcoholic beverages, guide and lodging gratuities, and other personal
expenses are not included.. Add $125 for single occupancy. These
tours are limited to 6 to 9 participants. For more information,
contact SABO at sa |
||
Tentative Itinerary:
| March 23 | Bisbee to Navojoa: We'll board SABO's tour bus at 6:00 a.m. and head south, stopping at the Naco border crossing for customs inspection and tourist permits. Our route takes us through rolling grasslands and the oak and pine forests of Mexico's "sky island" mountains As we descend into the lowlands, we'll watch for Harris's Hawks and Crested Caracaras using Saguaros and other giant cacti to survey their desert domain. We'll also check a few lakes and ponds along our route for northbound waterfowl and shorebirds. As the sunset fades over the Gulf of California, we'll settle in at the Best Western Hotel del Rio in Navojoa for dinner and a good night's sleep. |
| March 24 | Lower Rio Mayo and Alamos: It may be hard to get everyone inside for breakfast this morning, because the huge cottonwood trees and ornamental plantings around the hotel will be bustling with birds. We'll fortify ourselves for a busy day with a hearty buffet, then pack up the bus and head toward Alamos, with a short detour into the floodplain of the Rio Mayo where southbound migrant birds mix with tropical residents such as Least Grebe, Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, White-fronted Parrot, Great Kiskadee, and Sinaloa Crow. Pools in the riverbed attract Neotropic Cormorants, Green Kingfishers, and waders of many species. Another side trip on the way to Alamos will take us up a scenic and birdy arroyo and through the old mining town of La Aduana. We'll look for fruiting fig trees that attract Elegant Trogon, Purplish-backed Jay, Rufous-backed Robin, Brown-backed Solitaire, and Streak-backed Oriole and mud puddles that lure hundreds of butterflies, including the spectacular White- and Yellow Angled-Sulphurs. We'll settle in at Rancho Acosta on the edge of Alamos in time for some late afternoon birding at a park where we've seen Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Mexican Parrotlet, the gaudy Blackened Bluewing, and prehistoric-looking Sonoran Spiny-tailed Iguana. Around our motel this evening we may hear (and even see) Buff-collared Nightjars. |
| March 25 | Alamos and the Rio Cuchujaqui: After an early breakfast, we're off to the Rio Cuchujaqui in search of birds and other wildlife of the tropical deciduous forest, riparian forest, and thorn scrub habitats. We may see noisy flocks of Black-throated Magpie-Jays and Rufous-bellied Chachalacas, Bare-throated Tiger-Herons fishing in sluggish eddies, Plain-capped Starthroats and Violet-crowned Hummingbirds hawking insects over rippling pools, and Black-capped Gnatcatchers and Sinaloa Wrens working streamside thickets. Though the chance of an encounter with a Margay is extremely slim, this is the only place in our tropical travels that we've ever seen one of these feline phantoms. After lunch in town, we'll explore other interesting habitats nearby. A relaxed dinner in a restaurant just off the plaza in Alamos will round out a full and exciting day. |
| March 26 | A Leisurely Float Down the Río Mayo (water levels permitting): This morning we'll be up before daylight to get to a dam on the Río Mayo, where our guides from Solipaso Tours will help us into inflatable rafts and ease us out into the stream. Depending on water levels and releases from the dam, there may be hundreds of herons, egrets, and cormorants fishing in the deep channel below the spillway. It will be hard to keep count of all the Vermilion Flycatchers, Green Kingfishers, Common-Black-Hawks, and Gray Hawks as we scan the trees and skies for less common species. Most of our birding will be done from the rafts, but we'll break up the float with a gourmet lunch beside the river, a walk up an arroyo famous for Spanish colonial ruins, rock art, and the elusive Russet-crowned Motmot, and a stop at an old mission church. We'll be picked up and brought back to Alamos in time for a short siesta before dinner. |
| March 27 | Alamos to San Carlos: This morning we'll spend a couple of hours at birding and butterflying hot spots close to Alamos before heading out on the 5-hour drive to San Carlos. This scenic resort on the Gulf of California (a.k.a. Sea of Cortez) is popular with anglers, boaters, and scuba divers and also appeared in the movies Catch-22 and The Mask of Zorro. The towering crags of Cerro Tetakawi dominate the landscape, while its smaller counterparts are popular gathering places for seabirds such as Brown Pelicans, Blue-footed and Brown Boobies, Heerman's Gulls, Elegant Terns, and Magnificent Frigatebirds. We'll check into our hotel just yards from the beach before doing some exploring of the area's varied habitats. Estuaries and tidal flats around the bay should be teeming with ducks and shorebirds, and a pod of Orcas has been sighted recently out in the bay. |
| March 28 | Nacapule Canyon, return to Bisbee: We'll spend the early morning hours birding in Cañon Nacapule, in the mountains just outside San Carlos. The permanent springs and lush subtropical vegetation of this sheltered oasis support a spectacular diversity of fauna and flora, including species known from nowhere else in the world. The canyon's palm and fig trees should be magnets for a variety of migrating songbirds. From here, it's about an 8-hour drive to Bisbee, including a little more roadside birding and a stop for lunch in Hermosillo. |
Some birds of southern Sonora:
| Least Grebe Blue-footed Booby Brown Booby Neotropic Cormorant Magnificent Frigatebird Bare-throated Tiger-Heron Reddish Egret Tri-colored Heron White Ibis Roseate Spoonbill Black-bellied Whistling-Duck White-tailed Kite Crane Hawk Gray Hawk Common Black-Hawk Great Black-Hawk Solitary Eagle Short-tailed Hawk Zone-tailed Hawk Crested Caracara Laughing Falcon Rufous-bellied Chachalaca Elegant Quail Heerman's Gull |
Yellow-Footed
Gull Elegant Tern Red-billed Pigeon Ruddy Ground-Dove White-tipped Dove Mexican Parrotlet White-fronted Parrot Squirrel Cuckoo Lesser Roadrunner Groove-billed Ani Mottled Owl Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl Pauraque Buff-collared Nightjar Broad-billed Hummingbird Violet-crowned Hummingbird Plain-capped Starthroat Elegant Trogon Russet-crowned Motmot Green Kingfisher Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet Nutting's Flycatcher Great Kiskadee Social Flycatcher |
Tropical Kingbird Thick-billed Kingbird Rose-throated Becard Mangrove Vireo Black-throated Magpie-Jay Purplish-backed Jay Sinaloa Crow Mangrove Swallow Sinaloa Wren Happy Wren Black-capped Gnatcatcher Brown-backed Solitaire Rufous-backed Robin Blue Mockingbird "Mangrove" Yellow Warbler Flame-colored Tanager Yellow Grosbeak Varied Bunting Blue-black Grassquit White-collared Seedeater Five-striped Sparrow Rufous-winged Sparrow Black-vented Oriole Streak-backed Oriole |
 Black-throated Magpie-Jay |
Rancho Acosta |
 Osprey on prickly perch |
 Tropical deciduous forest in bloom |
 Great and Snowy egrets on the Rio Mayo |
 Glaucous Cracker |
All photos, graphics, and text on these pages are
protected by international copyright laws
and
may not be used without permission. Violators are subject to legal and financial
penalties.
SABO Home |
Activities | News|
Birding Guide | Birding in Mexico
| Hummingbirds
Photo Albums |
Quizzes | Membership|
People | Links|
Contact SABO
