Wednesday, March, 16, 2022
Josué met us at Los Tarrales at six in the morning and we took off heading to a spot where the Slender Sheartail has recently been found. We stopped in at a gas station/coffee bar and I had a very good latte.
After about an hour of weaving along the winding mountain roads passing several coffee plantations (both shade and sun) and then making our way through a maze of streets in the town of San Lucas Tolimán we came to the trail head. We parked the car, gathered our equipment and set off up the trail. It wasn't long before we began to be passed up by people, men and women, young and old, girl and boy, and even some had dogs. One by one they passed us heading up the trail. I began to wonder what all these people were doing out here. They certainly were not in it for the hike or exercise. There were signs stating that this was a protected area and soon I realized that word can mean different things to different people because right behind the sign was an avocado orchard. More on that later.
As we walked we stopped for a pair of Elegant Euphonias. Got some good looks but they were too high up in the tree for a good photo. Dusky and Boat-billed Flycatchers were calling from the canyon side as were Band-back Wrens and the ever present Clay-colored Thrushes. Not too much farther up the trail we came across a singing Blue-and-White Mockingbird. Josué imitated its call and it came straight-away to investigate. We got some pretty good, albeit brief looks at what is so far my favorite mockingbird and lifer #1 for the morning.
From the same spot lifer #2 called from across the canyon. Josué played its call and it obligingly flew towards us and showed off its black face and throat, yellow body, and black wings. This Yellow-backed Oriole was associating with a couple of Baltimore Orioles and a Western Tanager. We heard a Rufous-and-White Wren singing its flute-like song which I have fallen in love with. If you’d like to hear it click this link Rufous-and White Wren and scroll down to the “Top Audio” section of the page.
After several hundred meters of hiking we came upon a couple of large hummingbirds feeding off flowers high up in a tree. They were Rufous Sabrewings. From the same location we had a migrant mixed flock move through the oaks above us. Tennessee Warblers hung upside down gleaning insects from the leaves along with several Townsend’s, MacGillivary’s, Nashville, Black-and White, Black-throated Green, and Wilson’s and a Cinnamon Hummingbird.
Moving up higher into the canyon we heard Red-billed Pigeon and White-tipped doves calling. After a while we came to a grassy hillside with several flowering shrubs and sure enough here comes the Slender Sheartail. Of course we had the briefest of looks at it as it flew rather nervously from shrub to shrub and then we lost it completely. We waited and waited and waited some more. As we were waiting we were pleasantly distracted by a beautiful White-faced Ground Sparrow (lifer #3). We also saw a few Gray Silky-flycatchers fly over.
Josué walked all through the area looking for the Sheartail as Torrey and I hung out near a spot where Josué said it used as a perch. As we waited we saw several Indigo Buntings, a Common Tody-flycatcher and Cabanis's Wren. After about twenty minutes or so Josué came back and asked if we got to see it. We told him that it hadn’t come around. It was then that he sadly informed us that he had looked over from a distance and saw it on the perch. Oh well. After about another twenty minutes Josué amazingly spotted the male perched at the base of a shrub. He put it in the scope and we got great long looks but unfortunately the light was not so great. Do I have to tell you how many bad photos of Slender Sheartail are resting in my trash bin? Since we didn’t get any photos worth sharing, here is one in case you would like to have a look. Slender Sheartail
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| Common Tody-flycatcher |
After appreciating the nice scope views of the Sheartail we began to hike back to the car. Along the way I picked up another lifer when Josué pointed out a Cinnamon-bellied Saltator.Torrey spotted a Broad-winged Hawk and a little later we spied a Sharp-shinned Hawk, but unfortunately not the Guatemala subspecies (White-breasted Sharp-shinned Hawk). We also got very nice looks at a Golden-olive Woodpecker. It called and Josué said that if you hear that call you are bound to have some bad luck. No thanks. I've had my share lately.
As we hiked out we were passed by people going up and coming down out of the canyon. There were women and girls with baskets for harvesting coffee beans, men with huge stacks of firewood tied to their backs, others with large sacks of avocados. I asked Josué if the area was a reserve and he said “yeah. I asked if it was protected and again he said yeah. Later on he explained that all around Atitlan are large farms growing all kinds of things like mangos, coffee, avocados, etc.. etc.. And also activities like wildcrafting plants and cutting of firewood. However each farm or finca as they are known in Spanish are required to set aside large tracts of land that are supposed to remain undisturbed. When you think about it, it’s not really that different from the way we do it at home where on public lands (national forest, BLM land etc.) we allow the clear-cut harvesting of timber, gathering of firewood, rocks, and plants and last but not least the grazing of livestock.
Just before we got back to the trailhead we came upon an area of slickrock that had a small pool of standing and rather rancid water. Which is perfect for butterflies! And butterflies there were by the dozens. I was on cloud nine snapping photos of this one and that one. I knew that we had to leave so I wasn’t taking the time to get the best shots but here are a few. I’ve got losts of work to do when I get home!
Next post will be the second half of this day.
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| Eighty-eight Butterfly |
The "88" butterfly is marvelous!
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