Poco Loco: November 2015

Over the past few years as we have increasingly spent more time living in Celestun, we have gradually made more friends with the locals.

Hiring their services, patronizing their businesses, meeting friends of friends, and volunteering our services in various ways, have all contributed to us gradually becoming a small part of the community.

Even so, we feel very honoured and humbled when a local friend invites us to be part of any personal family event or celebration. Recently, one of our friends invited us to attend a birthday celebration for three of their family members. It was a big event, with her husband and two daughters all having birthdays in the same week.

The families here all seem very close; supportive and loving, and those feelings were very apparent as they welcomed friends and relatives into their home, then later took turns talking about and congratulating the ones having birthdays.

Christianity plays a large part in the every day life of the average Mayan around here and the local minister is always invited to any special occasion and this event was no exception. A guitar was brought along and while the minister played, a few family members sang some songs. Soon after we all took part in singing some hymns and then the minister provided a sermon. We were given a bible to try and follow along through some readings.

As in Canada, food and cake are an important part of any birthday party and this one was no exception.

We started with Octopus and Conch (pulpo y caracol) ceviche with tortilla chips. Then we had seasoned chicken breast rolled up into soft, fresh tortillas.

The kids all had candy bags and marshmallow flowers were passed around for everyone to eat.

Finally it was time to sing Happy Birthday and cut the cake, made locally and very delicious! Soon after everyone ate a piece, the crowd gradually cleared out.

Vermilion Flycatcher

Tropical Kingbird

David Bacab and our birdwatching group along Chunchucmil Road

David Bacab telling us about havesting Chicle from a Sapodilla tree

I have been hearing about David Bacab and his bird-watching tours for several years now and the reviews have always been wonderful! I was especially intrigued as David speaks perfect English.
David has published a very helpful and informative article (in English), "Birds of Celestun Biosphere", but unless you are an expert yourself, you will certainly get a LOT more out of a guided trip with David.

But, as I didn't have my larger lenses here for bird photography, I didn't go on any of the tours myself, until yesterday. This year I brought my Sigma 150-500mm lens and my monopod along specifically so that I could do some bird photos. Along with my Canon EOS 70D (and a bag full of other lenses, just in case), I was ready to go. We got a group of five of us together, and for 720 pesos each, David took us out for a half day and supplied water, juice, coffee and a variety of breakfast goodies.

Our day began with David and his driver Pedro picking us up in a van at our home in Celestun at 6:00AM. We headed out of Celestun for the short drive to the road to Chunchucmil.

The corner is 20 km from the Celestun bridge and locals will know it by the corner where the Federales are usually positioned for their road check.

Once on the Chunchucmil road, we drove only a short distance before stopping and getting out to proceed on foot. This area is VERY rich with a huge variety of tropical birds. As we walked along the road, David would point out various birds, butterflies, etc. as well as flora and fauna. He was extremely informative and quick to answer any questions.

Pedro drove ahead of us and set up a table behind the van with a picnic breakfast. We were all ready for coffee and some snacks by then, having missed most of that as we left so early to start our day.

We carried on walking, hopping back into the van now and then to drive a little further down the road before stepping out again to continue seeking out birds on foot.

My lens was on the 500 mm setting all the time and I was frequently wishing I had an even longer lens. Although we got very close to many birds, they are mostly pretty small so some quality-reducing cropping was inevitable as I put together the photos for this blog.

We spent close to 4 hours gradually exploring the Chunchucmil road area then drove back to Celestun, stopping just before the Celestun bridge to walk along the manglares at the edge of the road, then to the visitor centre on the Celestun town side of the bridge. This gave us a chance to use the public washrooms, then explore the surroundings for more birds.

Our final stop after this was on the beach, just past the public dump on the southern most point of Celestun. Although the drive there was not the most pleasant, around the marina area with some of the worst poverty and quite horrible littering and garbage piles everywhere, it was well worth it once we arrived at the beach. There were hundreds of various birds there and the stop provided some great photo ops to end the tour..

It was a fantastic bird-watching day with a very enjoyable and informative guide in David Bacab. I know that David also provides a variety of other tours as well as multi-day more extensive birding adventures. He can be reached by email at dbacab@hotmail.com and I highly recommend him.

Our final count was 43 birds spotted and I have photos of most of them, along with a few other interesting shots of other species and scenery.

1. Crested caracara

2. Vermilion Flycatcher

3. Social flycatcher

4. Tropical mockingbird

5. Tropical kingbird

6. Melodius blackbird

7. Blue gray gnatcatcher

8. Blue black grassquit

9. Mangrove vireo

10. Altamira oriole

11. Gray necked wood rail

12. Roadside Hawk