| Daytrips & Diversions - More Birding in Zihuatanejo |
by Larry Abrams
If you are one of those birders that has to be on station the moment the sun comes up and you like to bird till it’s dark, I have two spots for you while you’re down here on vacation. How about an hour or two the very first thing in the morning and then an hour or two just before the sun goes down. Me, I like to have my morning coffee and relax before I go out looking for birds. So next month, I’ll let you in on my favorite spot…that’s a place you can’t go to until the sun has been up for an hour or so.
The sun first comes up in Zihuataenjo across the bay at Puerto Mio. Have a taxi driver take you to “a la torre del Hotel Villa Vera en El Almacen en la calle arriba”. That’s the tower of the new time-share hotel Villa Vera on the top road of Puerto Mio. I pay him 30 pesos, as it’s a fairly long trip for him, its 20 pesos if he stays on the low road. When you get out, look up the road in front of you to the large white condo. I would walk towards that condo looking for birds, with the sun now at your back, in the thickets on your left. When you get to the condo, note that there is a stairway down the right side of the building. When you’re ready to leave. A walk down and a left turn on the road will have you in downtown Z in 10 minutes, no need for a taxi. But back to the birds…retrace your steps to the hotel and continue past the entrance until you come to an open gate in the wall. Go through that gate and bear to the right as you do your birding. You should come to an open area where you can look down into the treetops. Now you can turn around and bird your way back in the hotel property itself until you feel it’s beach time. The one time I was there last season (2001), I saw the following birds: ORCHARD ORIOLE, VERMILLION FLYCATCHER, SOCIAL and TROPICAL FLYCATCHER, VARIED BUNTING, GOLDEN CHEEKED and GOLDEN FRONTED WOODPECKER, BLUE THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, WHITE-THROATED MAGPIE JAY, RUFOUS-BACKED ROBIN, and a RUFOUS-NAPED WREN…
In the late afternoon, an hour and a half or two hours before sundown, you can head for the lagoon that is just over the bridge on the west end of the town beach. If you did the morning walk, you had to go over this bridge to get back to town. Anyway, after crossing the bridge turn to your right and either walk along the road or the shoreline for about 100 yards or so. If you’re not lost yet, you should come to a path that takes you out to a little sand spit that will be your closest view across the water to the Mexican naval area that has a night roost where you should see GREAT and SNOWY EGRETS, GREAT BLUE HERON, BROWN PELICAN, and a large flock of BLACK-NECKED STILT. While you’re there, lift your glasses over the town even though you may not see anything with the naked eye. There probably will be GREY BREASTED MARTINS swarming in the sky getting ready to roost and maybe a flock of BRONZED COWBIRDS in the same mood. After checking out those birds on the other shore, work your way back looking at all the shorelines for different birds. I have seen LEAST and SPOTTED
SANDPIPERS, YELLOW CROWNED NIGHT HERON, and a LONG BILLED CURLEW working the mud flats. When you get back to the main shore, turn right for a little way and check out the high bushes that line the lagoon. Besides the LONG TAILED GRACKLES that are everywhere, I have seen SOCIAL
FLYCATCHERS, more herons away from the water, and WHITE -
COLLARED SEED EATERS.
This should be enough birding for the day; I would head for RICO MAR for tamales and the best horchata in town for dinner…
Larry Abrams, La Ropa’s amateur bird watcher, is a regular visitor to Zihuatanejo from the Chicago area. When he’s here, you can always find him at Paty’s Mar y Mar on La Ropa Beach.
November 2001
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