A Brit abroad

Viva Mexico! Part 4 - Tulum and Akumal

Tulum is a great place to visit, especially if you can get to the ruins before the hordes of tourists arrive. Birding the vegetation in and around the ruins can be excellent, although the impressive cliff-top setting and deserted white-sand beaches to the south are worth the trip by themselves.

The path to the ruins can be crawling with orioles, especially early in the morning. Here are a pair of Black-cowled Orioles.

I saw both Black-headed and Violaceous Trogon (pictured) here.

The Plain Chachalacas were also relatively approachable.

Wood Thrush, Ovenbird, and Northern Waterthrush were found skulking in the understory, as was a single Yellow-billed Cacique. Amongst the ruins themselves were many Tropical and at least one Couch's Kingbird, Palm and Yellow-throated Warblers, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Spot-breasted Wren, Rufous-browed Peppershrike and Bright-rumped Attila to name but a few. Overhead wheeled a mixed flock of Vaux's Swift, Cave and Ridgway's Rough-winged Swallows. The local Iguanas are rather friendly too!

As the day heated up, we decided to head for the beach. Here I am diligently scanning the skies for frigatebirds :-)

Back at the hotel I ran into probably the largest bug I have ever seen - some sort of Rhinoceros Beetle I presume.

Our last stop of the holiday was the resort town of Akumal, famous as a turtle hatchery in the summer, and also for its lagoon which holds a wide variety of tropical fish. The main attraction here is snorkelling, although Great Kiskadee, Spotted Sandpiper, Little Blue and Tricolored Herons were easily seen around the lagoon on our visit.

The gardens of the town itself held a similar variety of birds to Tulum: Black and Gray Catbirds, White-eyed and Yucatan Vireos and Clay-colored Robins were all around our hotel. Hooded Orioles were abundant (this photo digibinned by Andrew)

... as were Tropical/Couch's Kingbirds - anyone like to venture an ID on this silent bird?

This Ruby-throated Hummingbird was the only hummer I managed to identify other than the ubiquitous Cinnamon Hummingbirds.

We didn't venture much further from the hotel that day - think we were still suffering from the previous night's margaritas! In total we saw 126 species, of which 24 were lifers, and just as after my first visit to this amazing country, I found myself thinking about emigrating. A full trip report will follow shortly!

Farewell to the Yucatan:

Posted by rjhall at December 17, 2004 9:37 PM