Veracruz River of Raptors Tour, Day 1 and 2

This trip was co-sponsored by Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania and Pronatura Veracruz, who manage the hawk counts in Cardel and Chichicaxtle. Our Hawk Mountain guides were the fantastic birding/naturalist duo, Clay and Pat Sutton.

After an exhausting day of airport security, a two-hour layover in Houston, and customs check-in in Veracruz City, we were met at the airport by our two Pronatura Guides, Julio Gallardo and Martin Sandoval, plus our two drivers, Emilio and Hector.

Julio is a graduate student of biology, specializing in the nesting ecology of the Ornate Hawk Eagle in the Catemaco region of Veracruz. Martin speaks seven languages and specializes in the history and culture of Mexico, especially the state of Veracruz.

We arrived at the Hotel Mocambo at 1:30 am and were given instructions to meet at 5 am for breakfast on the hotel terrace prior to our departure for Cardel. I was struck immediately by the fact that I had taken for granted that the hotel would have elevators, but that was not the case, so we made several trips up and down the stairs hauling cameras, spotting scopes with tripods, and luggage up to our room.

We awoke to a beautiful day, hot, but sunny with large, puffy white clouds. The hotel was built into a hillside, with many terraces at different levels. Breakfast was served on the terrace and consisted of eggs with ham, onions, cheese and spinach, with lots of fresh sliced fruit, and freshly squeezed orange juice. From the terrace we could see the Gulf of Mexico with a surprising number of oil rigs just offshore. We hauled all of our stuff back down the steps and boarded the buses for Playa Chalchihuecan.

Playa Chalchihuecan is a dirt road that passes through several open fields, some areas with large trees, and some scrubby thorn habitats and comes out on a sandy beach. Martin told us that "Chalchihuecan" means "shower of stars" because every year during the Spring Equinox some liminescent dinoglagellites emerge along the shoreline. Many locals come to observe this phenomenon and some say that this water contains many recuperative powers.

When we arrived at the entrance road, we got off the bus and walked the road to the beach. Our first sight was a tree full of Groove-billed Anis. While watching the flock of Anis we began to hear the call of a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl from a short distance away. We all began searching for the owl and finally found it perched in plain sight (but well camouflaged among the branches of a tree). As we watched, a Buff-bellied Hummingbird kept diving at it. Although the owl is small, this hummingbird was tiny in comparison. What guts! In the distance, we could hear a Laughing Falcon calling, but we never saw it.

We came upon a large tree filled with yellow birds: Altamira Orioles, Yellow-winged Tanagers, Social Flycatchers, Boat-billed Flycatchers and Great Kiskadees. It was a great lesson in learning the difference between the latter three. In front of the tree was a small thorny shrub from which a male Blue-black Grassquit kept leaping straight up into the air, landing in the same place and leaping again. This seems like breeding display behavior, which to my northern sensibilities is too late in the season. Is the breeding season so much longer here?

We saw Rufous-tailed, Buff-bellied, and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds nectaring in the Manzanita shrubs (Malvaviscus arboreus), which has beautiful, small red flowers. Three different hummingbirds at once is a real treat for an East-coaster.

Raptors were all around us. A Roadside Hawk sat on an electric wire right above us, posing as we all took pictures. A Gray Hawk was perched in a tree a little further up the road, while a Linneated Woodpecker climbed all around it. And Aplomado Falcons and Collared Forest Falcons were flying above us.

The air simply swirled with Dragonflies and Butterflies, obviously migrating. The whole time we were on this road, a steady stream of both kept passing us by.

We left Playa Chalchihuecan and traveled to the city of Cardel, where the main Hawk watch site is located on the roof of the Hotel Bienvenido. Cardel is one of the two official hawk-watching sites managed by Pronatura Veracruz. It's a small town of about 8,000 residents and seems an unlikely spot for a hawkwatch. Although small by my big city standards, the streets bustle with activity, taxis honking, and the wafting aromas from the street vendors carts is enough to make anyone very hungry.

After checking in and lunch in the hotel restaurant, we made our way up to the roof where the official counters were hard at work. Between 1 and 2 pm 91,000 raptors flowed like a river above our heads. Huge flocks of White Pelicans, White Ibis, Mississippi Kites, and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers passed as well.

It's hard to imagine how the three official counters on duty were able to keep up with the river of birds swirling over our heads. Each of them had 5 different clickers in their hands and their fingers worked non-stop, clicking away and recording this amazing flow of avian migrants. This is a prescription for carpal tunnel syndrome if I ever saw one.

This site is called "The River of Raptors", but until actually standing in the midst of so many migrating birds, the phenomenon is simply unbelievable! The sky was filled with birds, the counters were clicking away non-stop, calling out different raptors as they counted. I literally did not know where to look. It was exciting, and overwhelming, and even exhausting. The bird activity was constant and total raptors counted on this day was 209,570.

The hawkwatchers gather on the rooftop of the Hotel Bienvenido where we would be staying for the next several days. Notice the tally of hawks for the day: 213,505. Over 182,000 of these were Broad-winged Hawks. It is amazing to realize that every migrating hawk in the Americas will pass over this point in Veracruz on their way to South America.

We had to pull ourselves away from the River of Raptors swirling around us to head out for La Antigua, but as you can see, leaving can be really hard. We stood in the street and still our eyes were drawn up, for the ever-flowing river continued above us.

At 4 pm we left Cardel and traveled to the small town of La Antigua, the first Spanish colony in Mexico. This river town was established in 1519 by Hernán Cortèz as his base of operations for his army as he made alliances with local tribes and then went forth with the conquest of the ruling Aztec nation in central Mexico. His house, also built in 1519 from local river rocks and coral, still stands. Time (almost 500 years) and tropical vegetation have taken their toll, though, as the walls of the house have become supports for Ficus trees growing up and over the walls.

The first Catholic church in mainland America is also located in this historic town. Built in 1520 by Cortez, El Rosario is immaculately restored and intact. It is absolutely awe-inspiring to look into this tiny 500 year old building. This small chapel is still used for weddings and special occasions for people with the means to pay for this privilege.

The economic level of this town seems very low. None of the houses have windows, there were very few visible cars, and most houses seemed to have dirt floors. But the houses were all brightly painted, and the children, in their highly starched and gleaming white school uniforms, were immaculate.

For a group of avid birders who had just witnessed a spectacular hawk migration and were eager to see more, our historian guide, Martin kept saying "no birds, no birds" as he watched our eyes continually wander to the skies while he was telling us about Cortez, his house, and the church he had founded. Although we were very interested in this history, our minds were definitely on birds. We left the center of the town of Antigua and made our way to the river edge.

We hired two boats to take us exploring along La Antigua River. We got to see Belted, Ringed, Amazon and Green Kingfishers cruising up and down the river. It's so amazing to see them all together so that comparisons can be made regarding size and other identification points.

As we traveled to the mouth of the river where it meets the Gulf of Mexico, we passed huge flocks of Long-billed Curlew, Black-necked Stilts, and American Avocets. There were also lots of other shorebirds: Black-bellied and Semi-palmated Plovers, Greater Yellowlegs, Willets, Spotted Sandpipers and Sanderlings, plus a huge roost of Wood Storks

We got out of the boats near the mouth of the river and walked the beach, passing a tin and driftwood shack that appeared to be someone's home. A flock of 500 White Pelicans migrated overhead. This beach is used for cattle grazing and also for net fishing by the residents of this area.

The sun was setting as we returned to the dock, but our final gift of the day was a Gray-necked Wood Rail standing like a statue on a fallen tree. It never moved as we passed and in the dim light we never would have even seen it except for Julio's keen eyes.

We ate dinner in a restaurant along the river shore. Julio ordered us 5 different types of fish which were all delicious. Following this wonderful meal, we celebrated Clay's birthday with balloons, singing and cake. With full bellies we returned to Cardel for a short night's sleep.

American White Pelican, Brown Pelican, Neotropic Cormorant, Anhinga, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Tricolored Heron, Little Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Wood Stork, White Ibis, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Mississippi Kite, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Gray Hawk, Roadside Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, Short-tailed Hawk, Swainson's Hawk, Zone-tailed Hawk, Crested Caracara, Laughing Falcon, Collared Forest-Falcon, American Kestrel, Aplomado Falcon, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Plain Chachalaca, Gray-necked Wood-Rail, American Coot, , Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, Black-bellied Plover, Killdeer, Long-billed Dowitcher, Marbled, Godwit, Whimbrel, Greater Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper, Willet (western), Least Sandpiper, Gull-billed Tern, Caspian Tern, Sandwich Tern, Royal Tern, Forster's Tern, Black Skimmer, Rock Pigeon, White-winged Dove, Common Ground-Dove, Ruddy Ground-Dove, Inca Dove, Olive-throated Parakeet (Aztec), Squirrel Cuckoo, Groove-billed Ani, Barn Owl, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Chimney Swift, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Ringed Kingfisher, Green Kingfisher, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Lineated Woodpecker, Great Kiskadee, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Social Flycatcher, Tropical Kingbird, Eastern Kingbird, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Tree Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow, Band-backed Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Loggerhead Shrike, Brown Jay, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, American Redstart, Yellow-breasted Chat,Summer Tanager, Yellow-winged Tanager, Blue-black Grassquit, Melodious Blackbird, Great-tailed Grackle, Altamira Oriole,
House Sparrow