Rounding Up The Usual Suspects

This is NOT a typical mid-January scene in our area. Where is the snow?

I am off to a slow start counting January birds in Ontario this year. Having missed the first two weeks entirely, my husband and I went out both days this weekend to the customary local hot spots to see the usual winter birds. But this winter is unusual. Temperatures have fluctuated greatly with many days above freezing and others well below. Overall, we have had very little snow and what has fallen has melted quickly. Many fields and lawns remain green.

Dark-eyed Junco

I hung some suet and seed outdoors before I left for Mexico and in three weeks, it has barely been touched. I have yet to see a Junco or Downy Woodpecker in our yard this winter.

Saturday was very cold and we went to a nearby park where I usually see many species of small birds, woodpeckers as well as a good assortment of winter water birds. A few Tree Sparrows, Juncos and Cardinals landed where visitors had left seeds but birds like House Finches, Blue Jays, Red-breasted Nuthatches and winter finches were conspicuously absent.

American Tree Sparrow

The next day we drove north of the city where Rough-legged Hawks, Northern Harriers, Snowy Owls, Merlins and American Kestrels are generally easy to find in January. The only winter hawk we saw was a beautiful Red-shouldered Hawk which sat in a tree near a bridge over the river. The trip was worthwhile for that one bird, but I could not believe we did not see one Rough-legged Hawk.

Red-shouldered Hawk

 

Without snow cover, natural food supplies are plentiful for many birds for this time of year. My Ontario January bird count is only 27 birds so far this year. In the past 3 years, I have counted between 55-60 species in Ontario during this month. Hopefully the weather will allow me to make a trip to Lake Ontario on the weekend to improve my count significantly.

Nayarit Yard Birds

Grooved-billed Ani, Hooded Oriole(f), Vermillion Flycatcher, Blue Grosbeak (m) (f), Painted Bunting

The five acres my brother, his family and my parents live on in Nayarit has a variety of bird habitats. There is a meadow where tree seedlings are planted, an orchard which had many ripe citrus fruits, a banana grove, a bamboo stand, a small pond and flowering vines. Sugar cane fields surround the property. I would take a chair, sit in a particular area with my camera and wait for the birds to come. I identified 30 yard birds yet I know there were several species I missed. Some birds, such as the Mexican Yellow-winged Cacique eluded my camera lens as they hid the the bamboo and banana leaves. There is a new tab at the top of the blog with my Big January list to date.

N.Mockingbird, Juv H. Oriole, W. Meadowlark, Loggerhead Shrike, Hooded Oriole(m), Say's Phoebe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesser Goldfinch, Common Ground Dove, Pyrrhuloxia, Say's Phoebe, ??, Lark Sparrow

Mexican Start for Big January Bird Count

I have participated in a January bird count for the past few years. It is friendly "competition" which encourages me to get out during a long, cold month to look for birds in my area. My Ontario counts are very predictable, but this year I have spent the first eight days of the month in two very different parts of Mexico;- Nayarit and Coahuila. I have counted birds on the properties where my family live as well as one outing to the coast which included a boat ride through a mangrove swamp. Unfortunately I could not bring my binoculars and I really have to look for a good pair of travel bins. I have to look up a few birds when I get home so my count is unconfirmed at this time.

Many warblers winter here and I have been aware of them in the treetops but unable to get good views in the vegetation. Blue-gray Gnatcatchers are abundant but I have also identified a few Audubon Warblers and a Nashville Warbler. Perhaps I will have enough information in some blurry photos to add to this category of birds.

I have learned to identify a variety of doves during this trip. The dusty town where my daughter lives seems overrun with grackles, house sparrows and doves. The smaller Inca Ground Doves have beautiful plumage which blends in well when they rest under shrubs in the sand.

In Nayarit the White-winged and Common Ground Doves were more prevalent.

As far as I can tell, all doves sound pretty much the same and they are all well adapted to areas of human habitation. The last dove arrived in North America fairly recently from Europe. A few Eurasian Collared Doves were introduced the Bahamas in the 1970's and the rapidly spread in North America.

El Dia De Reyes 2012

I got this picture from a calendar in my daughter's home and it represents today, The Day of the Kings, which marks the end of the Christmas season. American culture is creeping into Mexico and I saw several plastic Walmart Santas, snowmen, and reindeer outside homes and businesses. Traditionally, Christmas gift giving is on January 6th with the three wise men as the benefactors, but the holiday is not as religious as the Orthodox Christian Epiphany celebrations also happening around the world today.

I sat in Stephanie's late afternoon English classes in San Pedro the last two days. Yesterday I interacted with the students for 20 minutes or so, asking and answering questions in conversational English. They were a very bright group ranging in age from 12 to about 30 years old.

At the end of the class, we shared a traditional treat, the 'Rosca de Reyes' (King's Cake). Shaped like a king's crown, this sweet yeast bread has a small plastic figurine representing the baby Jesus inside. The students told me the person who gets the figure has to make tamales for the special dinner.

I didn't get the surprise which is a good thing as tamales are very time consuming to make. Stephanie is baking a fresh Rosca de Reyes today (recipe here) and it will taste much better than the one from the store. And we had a delicious tamale meal in Tepic last week that will count for the celebration today.

New Year's Fiesta

I am behind in posting due to slow/ absent internet service and travel days. In the past week and a half we have travelled from the north of Mexico, across the Devil's Spine to the coast and inland to Tepic, back to the coast for a day, and then north again through Guadalajara. We travelled overnight on buses so no days were lost (just under 30 hours in bus travel). Safety has not been a big concern and with appropriate diligence, Mexico is as safe as other vacation destinations.

A couple of days before the new year, we drove in from town to find a group of people running around the property. My 10 year old niece excitedly asked us if we wanted to help kill chickens for the New Year's Eve party. My brother has a number of free range chickens and an overabundance of roosters, so they were out to catch three of them. My initial urban North American response was "uggh!", especially since I have not eaten meat for a few years now. But these birds had lived a good life unlike the chickens we eat at home and I put aside my prejudices and judgments to watch the chase.

The job was done and my sister-in-law did the plucking and cooking and made an enormous pot of posole. Posole is a traditional soup in the Mexican state of Nayarit which is made with white homily. Lucy soaked the hard corn in lime to open the kernels and then cooked it with the chicken. It is served with fresh garnishes and lime.

Friends and family gathered for the evening and there were fireworks and a bonfire outdoors as midnight approached. I tried to stay awake but we had been at the beach during the day and my internal clock is still two hours ahead on Eastern time. I went to bed and left the celebrations to younger family members who can still sleep in.

Happy New Year!

From the shores of the Pacific Ocean near San Blas, Mexico

Definitely Not A White Christmas

This noisy rooster lives next door to my daughter and her husband in the city where they live in the north of Mexico. The same neighbor also has a pig and a cow in the backyard. Life is so different here, yet the same in other ways.

Christmas lights blink on houses and on posts on the city streets. Mexicans seem to prefer lots of colour and flashing lights. Stockings hang in the window of a house in the neighbourhood. The holiday season extends to Epiphany and gifts are given on January 6th. There are no Boxing Day sales here.

We stayed outside in the sunshine much of the day trying to absorb as much heat as possible. The cement floor and walls hold the cold which is a good thing when it is 40C outside. But this morning it was 4C when I got up and I layered all my tops and wore a scarf in the house. Our daughter washed out a wool hat and it hung frozen on the line. By afternoon it was 20C outdoors and very pleasant for taking a walk.

Winter weather finally arrived in southern Ontario today and I am very happy my travel day was yesterday. Cool as it is right now, there will be no scraping or shoveling my way into work tomorrow. And that is fine with me.

December 24, 2011