Day 1 – April 21, 2018
We follow the directions given to us by Lydia Lozano, Program Director at the Nature and Culture International office in Alamos. “Follow the road and once you get in town, ask the first person you see where your host family lives.” After seeing the “Guirocoba” sign, we ask the first person we see (a teenager running a small shop on the side of the road) where our host family lives. As it turns out, they live in the yellow house across the street.
We meet our host family: local farmer and our guide, Jesús Antonio Cruz Alvarez (Chuy), his wife, Talita, and their granddaughter, Yaritsa.
Chuy guides us on a walk along the arroyo behind their house as he tells us a bit about the history and habitats of the area. He says that Guirocoba is the Mayan name for Turkey Vulture and describes some places we may be interested in visiting.
Eight-year old, Yaritsa, tags along on our walk and is not only helpful for lifting up cattle fences, but also for teaching us some words in Spanish.
Down in the arroyo we encounter spring migrants and the expected resident subtropical community (link to eBird checklist).
Day 2 – April 22, 2018
Our morning begins with a 30 minute drive to Chuy’s ranch property. We spend the early part of the morning in the upper tropical dry forest and come across two very cooperative Ferruginous Pygmy Owls.
We reach our destination, a small spring on the property, around midmorning. At this time in the dry season, water sources are limited and this one is quite popular. We see many species come down to the spring to drink including: Mexican Parrotlets, a Blue Mockingbird, and a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Spots like this allow for excellent surveying because the entire avian community has to come down for a drink. We hid in the bushes along the stream and watched the birds descend and get close, a strategy we employed frequently on this trip as the bone dry thorn forest was not exactly teeming with birds (link to eBird checklist).
Day 3 April 23, 2018
Chuy leads us up a nearby peak with a small stand of pines, known locally as Los Pinitos. As we work our way through the forest up to the peak where the pines are, we encountered a local deer hunter on his way home. From the peak, we see all the way to Chihuahua in the east and Sinaloa in the south. We hoped the stand of pines would be a bit more extensive, but it is just a few pines at the top of the peak. Nonetheless, we add a few new birds to our list for the area: Acorn Woodpecker, Rufous-capped Warbler, and Gray Flycatcher (link to eBird checklist). Climbing through dense thorn forest in the intensifying heat takes its toll on everybody, clearly not the best strategy to resurvey the area, so we decide to stick to springs and watering holes.
Despite our early start, it is after noon by the time we return to the house. Thankfully, Talita prepared a delicious soya ceviche, a refreshing meal after the long hot walk.
Day 4 April 24, 2018
We continue to explore Guirocoba and split our group in two to cover more area. Devon and James head up the arroyo to a promising watering hole in an otherwise dry creekbed, while Whitney and Ryan continue exploring the area around the spring Chuy first led us to.
Whitney and Ryan find the lush riparian corridor at Rancho Tarahumara is filled with birds escaping the heat of the nearby dry forest. Over 70 species of birds come in to drink and bathe at the springs throughout the day, resulting in some of the best dry forest birding either had seen. These springs and riparian corridors appear to be important for local birds in the dry season, and indeed almost all of the species in the dry forest of this area were present at this spring (link to eBird checklist).
Devon and James find a nice spot in the shade under trees on the edge of the water, out of the relentless sun. Flocks of birds descend on the watering hole, a different community than the one seen up at the spring. This open watering hole is surrounded by brush and short thorn forest so a large number of a diversity of doves, Gilded Flickers, Lark Sparrows, and lots of Blue Grosbeaks show up (link to eBird checklist).
Each group adds new species for the trip, including Purplish-backed Jay and Lesser Roadrunner.
Day 5 – April 25, 2018
Our last day in Guirocoba. We go back to the original spring that Chuy led us to for our last morning of birding, which proved productive once again, adding Bullock’s Oriole to our site list (link to eBird checklist). Our general sense is that little has changed in the avifauna of the area, perhaps because there is a large reserve nearby, perhaps also because thorn forest has little economic value. The charismatic species like Military Macaw, Black-throated Magpie-Jay, and Elegant Quail are all still found in the area. The one big contingent of the community we did not encounter during our resurvey were birds that only occur in Guirocoba seasonally, the nearby pine forest birds that descend in elevation during the cold winter months, such as Pine Flycatcher, Tufted Flycatcher, and Aztec Thrush. We say farewell with much gratitude to our host family and hope to return in the future.
To see an overview of all species we were able to document, check out our iNaturalist project page.
