Eastern and Northern Yucatan

We finally got around to birding the Yucatan: Cancun, Puerto Morelos, Coba, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Chitzen Itza, Rio Lagartos and Cozumel. Present on the trip were myself, my wife, our 4 and a half year old daughter and our 2 and a half year old daughter.

Itinerary: February 23: Flew direct from Boston to Cancun on Jet Blue for $270 a person each way, arriving at 10:40p.m; we had a credit with Jet Blue that we applied. Stayed in Cancun for 2 nights, stayed in Coba 2 nights, stayed in Felipe Carrillo Puerto 2 nights, stayed in Rio Lagartos 2 nights, stayed in Cozumel 2 nights, stayed in Cancun 2 nights. March 9: Flew direct from Cancun to Boston on Jet Blue.

Lodging:
Cancun: Stayed Feb 23 to Feb 25 at Hotel el Rey del Caribe in downtown Cancun. The first night was a late arrival and the second night was due to our promise to ourselves to stay at least two nights anywhere since packing up and leaving after one night with two little ones is not fun. I liked the hotel, while my wife found it tolerable. It was 93$ a night, which includes tax and a nice breakfast. The inside patio of the hotel is filled with tropical plants and they have a swimming pool. The room had air-conditioning and a tv with cable. It was quite quiet. The hotel informed us that if we told them three days ahead of time of our arrival they'd arrange for a van to pick us up at the airport for $36, which we did. A taxi would have been more expensive and a bus much less expensive but more inconvenient. We went to the Plaza de las Palapas to eat quesadillas which we had read about in one of our tourist books and they were tasty! See www.reycaribe.com at (998) 884-2028. Use e-mail if they are not answering the phone.
Coba: Stayed Feb 25 to Feb 27 at the Villas Arqueologicas Club Med, within a short walk of the ruins. No tv, but a good air conditioner. Very quiet at night. While in the pool we had visits from a cinnamon hummingbird and a pauraque serenaded both nights for a long time. They also have a tennis court. We paid 912 pesos each night, which is about $90. The hotel is nice and sits in front of a large lagoon, or what I'd call a lake. Call (984) 206-7000.
Felipe Carrillo Puerto: Stayed Feb 27 to Feb 29 at Hotel Esquivel. There is a restaurant called La Casona or something like this and I had seen a report mentioning a hotel with this name, so it may be the same. Hotel was cheap at 400 pesos a night, or about $40. We got a big room with a strong air conditioner and a big tv. At the front they have coffee which is reasonable and usually hot. This hotel abuts the main plaza and both nights the girls got some thrills as the older one drove a little electric powered toy car with the younger one as a passenger around the plaza; they are rented at 10 pesos for 10 minutes. Call (983) 834-0344.
Chitzen Itza: One of our splurge hotels, we stayed at the Hacienda Chichen Itza. We stayed in the Thompson Cottage, not Suite, and it was very nice. You can bird while relaxing on the porch, walk around the grounds, or even, and surprisingly productive, lounging at the pool. We paid 160$ + tax, which brought it to about 180$ a night. Nearby are Mayaland, which is not so dense with plants, and the Villas Arqueologicas Chitzen Itza, which also has not such nice gardens. The room had nice air conditioning and no television. Call (985) 851-0045 or visit their very nice web site.
Rio Lagartos: Searching the web, we found the Hotel Punta Ponto. Some people have the impression there are no hotels in Rio Lagartos. Rio Lagartos is small so any hotel is almost ideal location wise. Punta Ponto gives great views right over the river. You can see flamingos flying by in the morning, both pelicans floating around during the day and I saw a lesser yellow-headed vulture from the upper patio area. The propietor is very nice and will give you a nice light breakfast, coffee and bread, quite early. We paid 1000 pesos for two nights. The stay was near perfect but for some noise at night: The first night I had to call out to some drunkards in the street to be quiet and they left. The second night some psycho-dogs were barking for a good while. Both of these are to be expected in a small Mexican town so we weren't surprised. What was surprising is that all the other hotels we stayed in were luckily very quiet. Call (986) 862-0509.
Cozumel: We stayed two nights at the Coral Princess Hotel and Resort, which is near the airport. It was nice. We paid 154 per night with an ocean view and breakfast, coming to $344 for two nights after taxes. We liked the hotel as it was quiet and had a ladder going into the ocean where you could snorkel and see several species of fish. The room had airconditioner and television. We booked through expedia.com.
Cancun: Our second stop in Cancun was for unwinding & beach time. We booked three nights at the Westin Resort Spa, which we liked quite a bit. It had a Kid's Club where they had activities for the girls to do. The weather was windy more than half the time which was not nice, but you can't ask for everything. We booked through expedia.com and paid $682.59 for the three nights. We stayed in the Royal Beach Club part of the hotel where they had a continental breakfast and appetizers each day. In reality, the breakfast was significant and the appetizers also, so that basically breakfast and dinner were covered.

Literature & Reports We used two tourist books: Moon Handbooks Yucatan Peninsula, Including Chiapis, 9th edition and Frommer's Cancun, Cozumel & the Yucatan 2008. The latter contains a nice foldout map. Both provided useful information. As for "birding books", we brought 3: The wonderful "A Guide to Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America" by Howell and Webb, "The Sibley Guide to Birds" by David Sibley and "A Bird-Finding Guide to Mexico" by Steven Howell. The sites we visited are essentially taken from the last book. I also made use of several trip reports from the web: Jason Hill, March 4-11, 2006; Richard Carlson, Jan 13 - Feb 1, 2004; Lars Olausson, H-E Persson, Jan 22 - Feb 5, 2007; Chris Spagnoli, May 25 - June 4, 2002; Barry McLaughlin, March 13-29, 2007; Gruff Dodd, May 26 - June 3, 2002 (Gruff's got great trip reports); Daniel Kronauer, Frank Rheindt, Dec 14-22, 2000; Feb 13-19, 2000 report from the birdseen.co.uk website; Feb 10-20, from Chapter 8 of Yucatan Peninsula and Belize 2001 trip report from barenz.com.

Car Rental & Driving We've always rented with Alamo and we did so for our car usage on the mainland. On the morning of the 24th I walked over to the bus station and took the bus to the airport and walked to the Alamo agency. We rented a Jetta, which has a very big trunk and is a fine drive in general. For some reason we got an automatic, which was alright. We turned it in on the 4th of March at Playa Del Carmen. I found out from Alamo at the airport in Cancun that you can drop the car in Playa Del Carmen for $24 bucks extra. We had planned to take the bus after to Playa after dropping the car in Cancun but this was a much better option. The total price for rental was $7,439.20 pesos, which was what we were told in the airport we'd pay. We reserved on Expedia and may have gotten a better rate. But as usual, there are extra fees you pay when you get the car and this is not a surprise given we've rented before in Mexico. I think the total we paid was fine. On Cozumel we rented with Thrifty; had actually rented with Dollar via expedia.com, but in Cozumel thrifty and dollar have a shared operation. We paid $1273.95 pesos for two days which is fine. But we had gotten the car when it was dark and it seemed in fine condition. When we returned it they pointed out a dent on the body, but under the car; this was a pt-cruiser and the body wraps under a little. I indicated I had no part in putting it there, wouldn't have looked for it when I got the car, and certainly had no chance of seeing it in the dark. They claimed that any damage that comes in on a car and was not on their records is the responsibility of the renter and charged me $880 pesos, or about eitghty dollars. Funny thing is that when I picked the car up I showed them a little dent on the car that they didn't have on their records. I will try to get motivated to lodge a complaint, but we'll see.



Detailed Report

February 24: After breakfasting and walking around downtown Cancun with the kids, we took a late afternoon trip to the Ruta de los Cenotes. This is a road that starts right across the highway from the Botanical Garden in Puerto Morelos and has an arch you go under at the beginning. It turns out that the road has been significantly widened and raised for the first 15 Km. We found things pretty quiet and as the sides of the roads were filled with shrubbery and trees which had been cleared did not stop at any potential trails to hike along as it would have been a task just to get over the cleared greenery. We did go about 11 Kms to a cenote which has recently been "fixed up" and has a reasonable road a few Kms long to it and for a fee you can swim in it. We had an enjoyable conversation with the owner of the cenote about the cenote, weather, etc. We also enjoyed watched a monkey which was tied to a tree as a pet at a house along the main road. As far as birds go, we saw 16 species: starlings, turkey vultures, black vultures, grackles, tropical mockingbird, white ibis, roadside hawk, northern parula, yucatan jays, ruddy ground-dove, american redstart, vaux's swifts, white-browed wren, white-eyed vireo, black-throated green warbler, eurasian collared dove. The yucatan jays were beautiful and observed fairly closely for a long time. We saw yucatan jays at least six times during our stay in Mexico. The collared dove's are not shown in this area in Howell and Webb and we've seen them in another part of Mexico were they are also not shown by Howell and Webb. The starlings were a little surprise also.

February 25: We took off early for the Botanical Gardens at Puerto Morelos. We arrived shortly after their opening time of 8am and stayed for about 3 and a half hours. We met up with a couple of birders from the east coast of the u.s. and a couple from holland whom we later saw at the hotel in Coba. They were experiencing some frustation as their book did not illustrate the winter visiting warblers. The gardens have a "loop" trail, but only a portion of it is very wide and smooth so that we could use our two strollers with the little ones. Some birders pointed out that the narrow rough part was not very productive, so we didn't feel bad. We saw 15 species: squirrel cuckoo, brown jay, grackle, black & white warbler, black-throated green warlber, northern parula, northern waterthrush, american redstart, yucatan vireo, spot-breasted wren, white-eyed vireo, great kiskadee, hooded oriole, masked tityra, anhinga. Also possibly saw an orange-oriole. Stopped at the pelican restaurant in Puerto Morelos overlooking the sea to eat and saw: brown pelican, frigatebirds, laughing gull, caspian tern and royal tern. I don't recommend this restaurant. We made our way to the ruins of Tulum before going on to Coba. At Tulum we saw: brown pelican, white-winged dove, hooded oriole, grackle, yucatan jay, and either couch's or tropical kingbird. We had seen the kingbirds previously and didn't listen for any calls/songs which would distinguish them. The yucatan jays came in to a few trees in the main shopping/dining plaza with the grackles while we were eating some ice creams.

February 26: In Coba, the evening before a parauque had been singing in the early evening for quite some time and it's pleasant voice was audible throughout the interior of the hotel. We were into birding mode and skipped taking breakfast at the hotel restaurant and just brought along some snacks as we walked past the lagoon, keeping an eye out on some of the at-times birdy trees just off the road before the parking lot to the ruins, and onto the ruins. We paid about $48 pesos each for the two adults and got into the ruins at 7am. We birded the main ruin complex that you first encountered and then slowly made our way to the main pyramid which I first scaled and then my wife scaled. Great fun! Caution: At about 9pm people people start becoming common on the paths. Many rent bicycles and move about quite quickly while others use tricycle taxis which are pedaled by persons near the front of the ruins. The ruins are quite spread out and the pyramid f rom 7am to 9pm can be very nice walking slowly around! We saw 24 species: rock dove, ruddy ground-dove, yellow-winged tanager, red-throated ant-tanager, northern waterthrush, orange oriole, yucatan jay, black-headed trogon, squirrel cuckoo, masked tityra, social flycatcher, kiskadee, great-tailed grackle, northern jacana, neotropical cormorant, anhinga, hooded oriole, great egret, great blue heron, melodius blackbird, least grebe, blue-winged teal, white-collared seedeater, ivory-billed creeper. Were unable to id a parrot and a hummer. The orange oriole was actually in a tree right in front of the front door of the hotel! As you walk along the lagoon early in the morning be quiet as the birds are rather skittish than one might anticipate.

In the afternoon we took a drive around the lagoon, past the entrance to the ruins and until the road becomes unpaved. At this point we could go no further as a large truck was blocking the road. We then too a road away from town that forked. We rent to the right a little ways, came back and went to the left to the end which is in a little town. It was a n ice drive and we saw 11 species: grey hawk, black vulture, white-fronted parrot, smooth-billed anni, belted kingfisher, cave swallow, rufous-browed peppershrike, bronzed cowbird, baltimore oriole, orchard oriole, ruby-throated hummingbird. The cowbird and anni were on the shore area where the road looses the pavement. 57 species so far, with 9 lifers.

February 27: After a nice evening including the singing of a pauraque that pleasantly filled the hotel, we went again to Coba and this time headed to the third part of the ruins which is reached by going right instead of left at the fork in the trail. We saw 30 species: limpkin, northern jacana, great blue heron, great egret, black vulture, turkey vulture, peregrine falcon, roadside hawk, ruddy ground-dove, cinnamon hummingbird, yellow-bellied eleania, green jay, brown jay, hooded warbler, grackle, barred antshrike, green sparrow, olivaceous creeper, ivory-billed creeper, social flycatcher, kiskadee, masked tityra, white-eyed vireo, rufous-browed peppershrike, yellow-winged tanager, red-throated ant-tanager, altamira oriole, hooded oriole, black-cowled oriole, greyish saltator.

This was a fantastic morning of birding! A number of the more interesting birds were at an ant swarm where the trail/road forks to go to the two distant parts of the ruins. We met an english couple at the part of the ruins we went to and I was at the time getting peaks of the sparrow. He played the song on an i-pod and the sparrow came more into the open, but before doing so we got great looks at the male and female barred antshrike! He then played a green jay and a few more birds popped up, including the black-cowled oriole. Again, the early morning seemed to be fairly key.

The falcon was perched atop a very tall radio tower at the entrance to the ruins. The eleania was near the lagoon. The saltator was in a tree out in the open en route to the ruins across the road from the lagoon.

We slowly drove on to Felipe Carrillo Puerto and found our hotel and settled in. We briefly drove part of the vigia chico road and found it very quiet in the afternoon, seeing only: roadside hawk, tropical peewee. Though the later was very well behaved and a lifer! We walked to the pond at kilometer 5 and this was seemingly void of birdlife. We also stopped at the school and asked the administrators for permission to bird the trails in back of the school. A birder was instrumental in getting these trails set up and you need only ask permission, as we read in a birding report. The administrators said that you should be able to push a couple of strollers along the trail with no problem.

February 28: Having had a nice meal at the Faisan y Venado restaurant nearby the night before, we got together ourselves and our snacks and headed to the trail at the school. We got to the trail at around 7am and birded for over an hour. Very unproductive. We didn't get much more than a glimpse at a couple birds and a good look at one. It's impossible to push a stroller and it's hard enough just to walk. But, without strollers, we slowly and quietly walked along. At some parts large trees which have fallen need to be crossed. Afterwards, we went to where we had parked the car, under the trees directly in front of the school building and weren't having much hope for the vigia chica road. We noted birds in the trees and sat down on the little ledge in front and had a wonderful time for about one and a half hours seeing 16 species: jucatan jay, clay-colored robin, black-headed saltator, american redstart, golden-fronted woodpecker, tropical mockingbird, tropical peewee, yellow warbler, brown-crested flycatcher, black & white warbler, hooded oriole, cinnamon hummingbird, indigo bunting, ruddy ground-dove, great kiskadee and orchard oriole. We then drove down the vigia chica for about 18 kms, stopping in various places but in particular at the area around 15km where there are larger open fields under cultivation. We saw 15 species: indigo buntings, roadside hawk, hooded warbler, cardinal, common yellowthroat, white-collared seedeater, king vulture, turkey vulture, black vulture, squirrel cuckoo, groove-billed annis, cattle egret, gray-throated chat, brown jay and lineated woodpecker. We stopped back at the few flowering/fruiting trees at the school and ate some decent food right across at an eatery geared towards students. We had a fantastic show at these trees!!! We saw 7 species: green-breasted mango, wedge-tailed sabrewing, canivet's emerald, summer tanager, rufous-browed peppershrike, grackle, yellow warbler.

The king vulture was seen soaring beautifully against a gorgeous blue sky! The gray-throated chat was in the scrub just up the road from the school. The hummers were just slowly buzzing around, doing a little fighting, allowing for great views. We also caught a quick glimpse of some euphonias. We saw one or more warblerish type birds that seemed to be nashville warblers. I noted there were not really in range here but couldn't postively i.d. them.

In the afternoon we went to Laguna Ocomo, about 11 kms or so down the highway en route to Chetumal, with a large well marked sign. We got there just as the sun was setting. Some herons/egrets were spooked and quickly flew away. Nice were some lesser nighthawks cruising across the laguna and passing right overhead. Afterwards we looked for nightjar eyes in the headlights as we took the dirt road back to the highway and had about four nightjars we saw. We couldn't i.d. them but there hunting tactic is surreal when viewed by just seeing their eyes as they fly up and back down. 89 species with 22 lifers so far!

February 29: We planned to do the trees at the school early in the morning and the scrubby area over the next couple of kilometers beyond the school. Then we'd have lunch, check out of the hotel and slowly make our way to chichtzen itza. We spent a couple hours total at the trees, seeing: yellow-winged tanager, orchard oriole, grackles, kingbirds, clay-colored robins, american redstart, canivet's emerald, grey catbird, yucatan woodpecker, hooded oriole, bronzed cowbird, toucan, melodius blackbird, summer tanager, yellow-throated euphonia, common ground dove. In the scrubby area we saw blue-gray gnatcatcher and barred forest falcon. We noted the english folks just beyond the scrub on the vigia chico road and went again to the lagoon at kilometer five, where it was again quiet but we saw blue-winged teal.

The english folk told us there car had been burgled in Tulum while they took a swim. It created a huge mess as money, credit cards, documents, etc. were taken. Their optics were intact and, we were glad to see, their spirits also! We all speculated that the american burn-out hippy wannabees around tulum were likely the burglers.

The couple of trees proved a spectacle of color once again with sometimes four colorful species slowly working their way along the limbs. I'm fairly certain we had seen yucatan woodpecker earlier. The toucans were a super treat: eye candy! One stopped on top of the tree that has no leaves but just flowers and spent a few minutes looking around before flying off to join one or more others. He later came back, stopped in two trees and gave some nice long calls before departing. The barred forest falcon was also an eye opener: just beyond the school where the scrub starts there is an open area to the right with some lone-standing tall trees; it's a little out of it's range here according to Howell and Webb. He was perched on one and shortly after our getting good looks he departed, not to be seen again.

We had lunch at the same luncheonette across from the school, packed up and got onto the wide and empty highway to Chitzen Itza. We stopped twice to observe hook-billed kite and grey hawk and also saw, again, yucatan jays. Strolling around the hotel grounds at Chitzen Itza we saw: yucatan woodpecker, lots of clay-colored robins and lots of melodius blackbirds. 97 species and 25 lifers so far.

March 1 and 2: We arose early and birded the hotel grounds, then made our way to the Chitzen Itza ruins. You can only climb on a very small portion of the ruins now. We went to Mayaland, next to the ruins, for lunch and back to the hotel. We took a break at the pool in our hotel and went back to see the rest of the ruins. In the evening we went to the light show at the ruins which is part of the admission price. The lights of the whole area, chitzen itza and neighboring cities, went out as we were exiting the ruins in the dark. Using the display of a digital camera does more to provide light than one would think! The next morning we birded the grounds and kicked back by the pool. If you lounge by the pool with your back to the "jungle" and looking towards the hotel, a number of pools fly over the pool and hop around in the trees.

We saw 23 species: turkey vulture, black vulture, white-fronted parrot, squirrel cuckoo, ferruginous pygmy-owl, yucatan woodpecker, golden-fronted woodpecker, turqouise-browed motmot, social flycatcher, ridgeway's rough-winged swallow, great kiskadee, rose-throated becard, yellow-billed cacique, masked tityra, green jay, blue-gray gnatcatcher, clay-colored robin, yellow-throated warbler, black-headed saltator, melodius blackbird, summer tanager, grackle, hooded oriole, yellow-throated euphonia.

On the second morning my wife woke me up saying there was a ferruginous pygmy-owl calling. There were two calling and I got great looks at the one nearest our cottage as he was creeping horizontally along a big thick brank in a tree. I ran back for the camera and my wife but he was gone. The first motmot we saw when I tapped a tree next to our cottage just to see how hard it was and he popped out. We saw others at the ruins; look for the bird popping up for insects with the bizarre tail! The swallows were going around the main building at mayaland; in fact, they would zip down some of the open air hallways. The becard was by the pool, as was the cacique, tityra, saltator, tanager, euphonias. The cacique was a surprise and we observed him for a number of minutes. The clay-colored robins are common.

We left shortly before noon, making our way slowly towards Rio Lagartos with a stop at Ek Balam. Ek Balam was a surprise in more than one way. First the ruins that are available for viewing are significant and compact so that one needn't walk long distances; note that you can see Coba's pyramid poking through to the sky way off in the distance from the top of the big pyramid at Ek Balam. Second, although we arrived there in the heat of the day we saw some very nice birds: red-throated becard, violaceous trogon, black-headed trogon, and yellow-faced grassquit. The grassquit were trilling away and you could get quite close. Surprisingly was how small they were!

We headed north and had a late lunch and ice-cream in Tizimin. In the drive along the highway to Rio Lagartos there were a good number of nice birds we saw, including: white-tailed hawk (a pair), crested caracara, black vulture, turkey vulture, tropical mockingbird. As we got very near Rio Lagartos we saw: northern jacana, cattle egret, tricolored heron, blue-winged teal, great egret, frigatebird, laughing gull, brown pelican, white ibis. We checked in to our hotel and went over to Restaurant Isla Contoy to meet up with Diego Nunez who we had made arrangements with over e-mail to meet. His family owns the restaurant and he’s typically there or out in the field. Around Rio Lagartos we saw: ruddy turnstones, little blue heron, black-necked stilt, yellow-crowned night-heron and american flamingo. The last four were seen at the end of a short dead end street that leads to a swamp/marsh area. As you're coming into Rio Lagartos, the street will be in the beginning of the town and on your right. 114 species so far, 29 lifers.

March 3: We got to the restaurant between 7am and 7:30am and boarded Diego's boat in Rio Lagartos. The plan was to go to the salt ponds at Las Colorados and bird along the way. It's actually a long trip there, a number of kilometers by boat, and at times we were moving along at a quick clip. We paid $70 for this great roughly four hour trip. We saw 41 species: brown pelican, american pelican, bare-throated tiger heron, neotropical cormorant, double-crested cormorant, anhinga, frigatebird, great blue heron (blue & white variants), great egret, snowy egret, little blue heron, reddish egret, tri-colored heron, yellow-crowned night heron, american flamingos, roseate spoonbill, osprey, common black hawk, crested caracara, merlin, killdeer, black-necked stilt, greater yellowlegs, lesser yellowlegs, ruddy turnstone, sanderlings, least sandpiper, wilson's phalarope, herring gull, laughing gull, lesser black-backed gull, gull-billed tern, caspian tern, royal tern, forster's tern, black skimmers, white-winged pigeon, pigeon, belted kingfisher, great kiskadee, tree swallow.

We saw a few common black hawks and they were quite approachable. We refrained from trying to i.d. the various shore birds seen, though large numbers were seen at las colorados. We did see either snowy or piping plovers. We studied the pair of lesser black-backed gulls for a while, with hope of converting them to kelp! The skimmer's we saw as we were pulling back into port. A couple dove's flew overhead, with the possibility of a zenaida, but the one that stopped was a white-winged.

The propietor of hotel Punta Ponto and Diego arranged for us to go out to the beach on an island in the afternoon to relax and see the sunset. Diego dropped us and came back over an hour later and this was very nice. Before going, from the upper deck of the hotel, which has a great view over the "river", I saw a lesser yellow-headed vulture soaring; the lone soarer at the peak of the heat. En route to the island we made an attempt for pygmy king-fisher but didn't see the bird, seeing instead mangrove warbler, red-winged blackbird, yucatan flycatcher and green heron. At the beach we saw a pair of northern cardinals. 139 species, 31 lifers so far.

March 4: We birded Rio Lagartos again with Diego from about 7:15am to 10:15am. We had a great time and, as he had earlier predicted, had a great raptor day. We met at the hotel and headed out of town, turned left on the highway and when we got to a fork, took the dirt road to the road, marked rancho san salvador. We birded a few kilometers, mainly from within Diego's van and saw: mexican sheartail, yucatan woodpecker, turqouse-browed motmot, dusky-capped flycatcher, vermillion flycatcher, yucatan wren, blue-gray gnatcatcher, tropical mockingbird, indigo bunting, green heron, yucatan flycatcher, common ground dove, yucatan bobwhite, common ground dove, aztec parakeet, lesser roadrunners, groove billed anni, snowy egret, short-tailed hawk, zone-tailed hawk, laughing falcon, collared forest-falcon and a flyover wood stork. We went back to the fork and turned right towards las colorados and stopped after a short distance to take a trail on the right side of the road. Here we got very close to a jabiru nest with two 3-4 week jabiru's in it that we saw from the dirt road at a distance. We didn't see the parent(s) come in while waiting. We also saw a great-horned owl that Diego had seen a couple days ago. We were elated by this time with the 23 species and headed back to the hotel to pack and drive to Playa del Carmen to turn in the car and take the ferry across to Cozumel. The drive was faster than expected, taking less than four hours using the cuota highway.

The bobwhites, a male and two females, were huddled in the dirt road and we got fairly close before they walked away. The parakeets were on top of a bush and had the sun fairly behind them. Great spotting, and only one of many, by Diego! The lesser roadrunners were lazily sunning atop trees. The collared forest-falcon was seen flying and we got great looks at him; third time Diego has ever seen one. I didn't get on the botteri's sparrow and the white-tipped dove Diego saw, so I'm not counting them. 153 species, 38 lifers so far.

March 5: Having dropped off the rented car in Playa Del Carmen and taken the ferry over on the 4th, we found we still had time to rent our car in Cozumel for two days. We got the car and went to the hotel, where we met our mother-in-law. In the morning at 7am we headed to the El Presidente grid, just the two of us. We spent a little over two hours and saw: yellow-fraced grassquit, yucatan vireo, tropical mockingbird, palm warbler, yellow-throated warbler, white-eyed vireo, grey catbird, black catbird, bananaquit, cozumel emerald, white-crowned pigeon and yucatan woodpecker.

For the emerald, a nice man working on a house on the last street pointed out that on the back street there is an area with several plants having red flowers that the emerald likes. Sure enough we had a great time watching the hummer. The white-crowned pigeon tends to stay away from the tops of trees and do it's calling, but occasionally they fly across the road for good looks. Note: for this litte area of streets there are a lot of dogs!

In the afternoon we went to the San Gervasio ruins, where we saw a surprisingly good number of birds: rufous-browed peppershrike, black catbird, yellow warbler, vaux's swift, palm warbler, green-breasted mango, cozumel emerald, tropical mockingbird, hooded oriole, blue-gray gnatcatcher, common ground dove, yellow-faced grassquit, yellow-throated vireo. We then drove the remainder of the road through the middle of the island to get to the opposite side where we had dinner while the sun set. Here, and in a pond across the road, we saw: frigatebird, coot, moorhen, grackle, turkey vulture.

The yellow warbler has a light cap on his head, like a reduced mangrove warbler. We could have seen black catbird earlier in our trip but we had the impression they would be easy on cozumel and they were. 161 species, 41 lifers so far

March 6: We'll be leaving Cozumel today and then our birding effectively comes to a halt although we'll be spending three days in Cancun. My wife decided she needed to be with the kids and we thought we had asked the kids to get up early enough times, so I headed out to bird alone at a little after 6:30am to bird for a couple hours back at the el presidente grid. I saw blue-grey gnatcatcher, bananaquit, yellow warbler, green-breasted mango, cozumel emerald, turkey vulture, black catbird, tropical mockingbird, white-crowned pigeon, cozumel vireo and stripe-headed tanager.

On leaving the hotel there was a parrot on top of a tree but the light was not sufficient to i.d. him as either white-fronted or yucatan. Apparently only the latter is a candidate, but I won't count him. As for the vireo, I was walking in the grid and to my side a bird was making a "nuthatchy" sound. I looked and the vireo was creeping along. I pished a little but he just kept crawling back deeper and deeper, even though initially he seemed a little curious. For the tanager, I was leaving and getting to the point that the trees essentially stop and the road intersects back with the main coastal road. A couple birds crossed the path, I stopped the car and looked up at the top of a tree. There was a bananaquit, and just below him was the tanager. I got a good look at the tanager, let my binos down and put them up again and he had vanished. Final tally: 163 species, 44 lifers.

Misc. There were numerous tropical/couch's kingbirds seen and since I had seen them previously I didn't stick around too long to try to see if they called/sand and then separate them. On one occasion one did sing, and it was a couch's. Also, not sure where exactly, but we did see yellow-rumped warbler. So my final count is 165. I didn't keep an eye out for the buff-throated saltator, always assuming the ones that were partly visible were black-headed, so I might have missed one here.

Final List

(1)	Ruta de Los Cenotes
(2)	Botanical Garden in Puerto Morelos
(3)	Coba
(4)	Felipe Carrillo Puerto
(5)	Chitzen Itza
(6)	Ek Balam
(7)	drive to Rio Lagartos
(8)	Rio Lagartos
(9)	Cozumel

165 species
11 new birds for mexico
44 lifers
19 endemic to mexico and northern central america

least grebe	3
brown pelican	2, 7, 8
american white pelican	8
double-crested cormorant	8
neotropic cormorant	3, 8
anhinga	2, 3, 8
magnificent frigatebird	2, 7, 8, 9
bare-throated tiger heron	8
great blue heron	3, 8
great egret	3, 7, 8
snowy egret	8
little blue heron	8
tri-colored heron	7,8
reddish egret	8
cattle egret	4, 7
green heron	8
yellow-crowned night-heron	8
white ibis	1, 7
roseate spoonbill	8
jabiru	8
wood stork	8
american flamingo	8
blue-winged teal	3, 4, 7
black vulture	1, 3, 4, 5, 7
turkey vulture	1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9
lesser yellow-headed vulture	8
king vulture	4
osprey	8
hook-billed kite	4
common black hawk	8
grey hawk	3, 4
roadside hawk	1, 3, 4
short-tailed hawk	8
white-tailed hawk	7
zone-tailed hawk	8
crested caracara	7, 8
laughing falcon	8
barred forest falcon	4
collared forest-falcon	8
merlin	8
peregrine falcon	3
yucatan bobwhite	8
common moorhen	9
american coot	9
limpkin	3
killdeer	8
black-necked stilt	8
northern jacana	3, 7
greater yellowlegs	8
lesser yellowlegs	8
ruddy turnstone	8
sanderlings	8
least sandpiper	8
wilson's phalarope	8
laughing gull	2, 7, 8
lesser black-backed gull	8
herring gull	8
gull-billed tern	8
caspian tern	2, 8
royal tern	2, 8
forster's tern	8
black skimmer	8
rock dove	3, 8
eurasian collared dove	1
white-crowned pigeon	9
white-winged dove	2, 8
common ground dove	4, 8, 9
ruddy ground-dove	1, 3, 4
aztec parakeet	8
white-fronted parrot	3, 5
squirrel cuckoo	2, 3, 4, 5
lesser roadrunner	8
smooth-billed anni	3
groove-billed anni	4, 8
great horned owl	8
ferruginous pygmy-owl	5
lesser nighthawk	4
pauraque	3
vaux's swift	1, 9
wedge-tailed sabrewing	4
green-breasted mango	4, 9
canivet's emerald	4
cozumel emerald	9
cinnamon hummingbird	3, 4
mexican sheartail	8
ruby-throated hummingbird	3
black-headed trogon	3, 6
violaceous trogon	6
turquoise-browed motmot	5, 8
belted kingfisher	3, 8
keel-billed toucan	4
yucatan woodpecker	4, 5, 8, 9
golden fronted woodpecker	4, 5
lineated woodpecker	4
olivaceous woodcreeper	3
ivory-billed woodcreeper	3
barred antshrike	3
tropical peewee	4
greenish eleania	3
vermillion flycatcher	8
yucatan flycatcher	8
dusky-capped flycatcher	8
brown-crested flycatcher	4
great kiskadee	2, 3, 4, 5, 8
couch's kingbird
social flycatcher	3, 5
rose-throated becard	5, 6
masked tityra	2, 3, 5
tree swallow	8
ridgway's rough-winged swallow	5
cave swallow	3
green jay	3, 5
brown jay	2, 3, 4
yucatan jay	1, 2, 3, 4
yucatan wren	8
spot-breasted wren	2
white-browed wren	1
blue-grey gnatcatcher	4, 5, 8, 9
clay-colored robin	4, 5
grey catbird	4, 9
black catbird	9
tropical mockingbird	1, 4, 7, 8, 9
starling	1
white-eyed vireo	1, 2, 3, 9
cozumel vireo	9
yellow-throated vireo	9
yucatan vireo	2, 9
rufous-browed peppershrike	3, 4, 9
northern parula	1, 2
yellow warbler	4, 9
mangrove (yellow) warbler	8
yellow-rumped warbler
black-throated green warbler	1, 2
yellow-throated warbler	5, 9
palm warbler	9
black & white warbler	2, 4
american redstart	1, 2, 4
northern waterthrush	2, 3
common yellowthroat	4
hooded warbler	3, 4
gray-throated chat	4
bananaquit (coz. variant end.)	9
yellow-throated euphonia	4, 5
yellow-winged tanager	3, 4
stripe-headed tanager	9
red-throated ant tanager	3
summer tanager	4, 5
greyish saltator	3
black-headed saltator	4, 5
northern cardinal	4, 8
indigo bunting	4, 8
green-backed sparrow	3
white-collared seedeater	3, 4
yellow-faced grassquit	6, 9
red-winged blackbird	8
melodius blackbird	3, 4, 5
bronzed cowbird	3, 4
great-tailed grackle	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9
black-cowled oriole	3
orchard oriole	3, 4
hooded oriole	2, 3, 4, 5, 9
orange oriole	3
altimira oriole	3
baltimore oriole	3
yellow-billed cacique	5