Catch And Release Birdwatching - Mexico 2007 - part 3

The roosters started crowing at 5:00, but I was already awake. I got up and went out to the bathroom, seperate from the main house. I took a shower. I went back in and had some crackers and juice for breakfast. Then I sat on the front porch and read a little of yesterday's newspaper. Then it was time to go.

Today is the day the biology class invited me to join them on a capture expedition. I was to meet them at the hotel down the road at 6:30. I looked through the padlocked steel gate. Alejandro, the professor, waved then went to get someone to open the gate.

Once inside we waited in the lobby for the sleepy-eyed students to show up one by one. The boys were the first to the lobby followed by the girls. My guess is the difference was that the girls all combed their hair and washed their faces. Finally, Susana, arrived only 15 minutes late. Alejandro made a comment that, if my translation is close, was something like "Ah, Susana! Our princess has arrived. May we proceed?" Everyone laughed including the princess. I got the impression that this is the standard operating procedure for the group.

The students are working in three groups, each studying a different environment. The palm forest, the mangrove lagoon, and Guamilule Hill. Alejandro gave me the choice of which group to join. I chose to go with the hill group.

The hill group and the lagoon group went together across the lagoon and along an old road until they found a central spot between the lagoon and the hill. Both groups would be processing their catches there.

The next step was to go out and set up the catch nets. These look like cheap backyard badminton sets with sectioned poles and very thin netting. The difference is that the poles are a little sturdier, the net is much finer, and it forms a trough at the bottom where the birds end up once they fly into the net.

Alejandro explained how these two groups weren't real successful yesterday. He had gone with the palm forest group on the first day and he suspected that the nets weren't set up as effectively as they could have been.

When we got to the first net the boys started setting it up. Alejandro had been right. Many mistakes in the setup. He went through and showed them the intricacies of setting up the nets to be most effective and explained exactly what each change makes.

We continued up the hill to the rest of the nets. The terrain is very steep, very rocky, and full of thorny trees and vines and giant spiders.

I stopped and took a few photos just as an excuse to catch my breath. I was glad they had to stop every few hundred feet to set up another net.

With the nets set it was time to return to the base camp and wait. Again, a difference between the girls and the boys. The boys went to sleep. The girls got out notebooks and guidebooks and started studying. Reminds me of my college days...

After an hour the students went to check the nets. I decided to go with the lagoon group since I hadn't seen that catch area. I assure you, my choice had nothing to do with the steep, rocky, thorny, spider-infested hill!

All the nets were empty. What a disappointed group! Back to naps and studying. That is until one of the girls screamed. A scorpion was about to crawl onto the foot of one of the sleepers. The boys removed the scorpion to a safe location and went back to sleep.

Another hour passed. Back out to the nets. The hill team returned first, holding two small white bags up in the air. They caught two, a hummingbird and a robin.

First, they weighed the birds.

Then they took them out of the bags.

 
Next they measured the length of the beak...

 
Then the length of the wing...

 
The length of the tail...

 
And the leg.

Then they turned the birds over and blew on there stomaches. I asked Alejandro why they do that. He said for two reasons. If the sex can't be determined by plummage, blowing on the underside sometimes reveals the sex organs. The second reason is that they look for fat on the stomach and neck of the migratory birds. If they have fat they are just passing through. If the fat is gone then they are at their wintering location.

Then they place a leg band on the bird.

After all this is done they determine what species the bird is. Some are easier than others.

Some resulted in considerable debate. 

The last thing is to hold the bird up to be photographed, then released.

After the release it was back to a routine of wait, retrieve, process, wait, retrieve, process...

I stayed with the group for 8 hours then called it quits. They stayed for another 3 hours.

While I was with the group they captured the following birds:

1 Broadbilled Hummingbird

3 Rufous-backed Robins

 
3 White-billed Wrens

 
1 Swainson's Thrush

1 Greater Kiskadee

and 1 Common Ground Dove

In addition to the captured birds we also identified these:

Trogon
Black-cheeked Woodpecker
Chachalaca
Yellow-winged Cassick
Groovedbill Ani
Turkey Vulture
Magnificent Frigatebird
Great-tailed Grackle
Snowy Egret
Reddish Egret
Neotropic Cormorrant
Ringed Kingfisher
Oriole


It had been a long, hard day for an old geezer. So, I stopped at the first restaurant at the mouth of the lagoon and had a cold one. Or two...

Another great day in paradise, even if I did break a sweat!

Hasta Pronto, Amigos...