Felipe Carrillo Puerto - Part One

After leaving Coba we headed for FCP where we stayed 3 nights at the El Faisan y el Venado at only 45 mex peso a night, very basic but has a good restaurant.  The hotel was situatated only a 5 min drive away from where we wanted to bird the approach road to Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve. The reserve is 1.6 million acres mostly all closed to the public, we birded it from two places, this one at FCP and one other area at Muyil  Unbelieveably during the fortnight we had 3 Northern Potoos, a giant bird when hunting moths.

A basic hotel but you got your own Armadillo!

The approach road to the buffer zone of Sian Kaan - we had Yucatan Nightjar and Yucatan Poorwill here.

Clearings are always good for birds and this garden in the forest was exceptional, birds included; Turquoise-browed Motmot, Blue Bunting, Yucatan and White-fronted Parrot, Aztec Parakeet, Squirrel Cuckoo, Roadside Hawk, Aracari, Red Cardinal, Lineated and Pale-Billed Woodpecker, Rose Throated Becard, Masked and Black Crowned Tityra.....

Coba Part 3

The last of Coba!

Summer Tanager

Turquoise-browed Motmot

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Coba Part 2

We only spent a couple of hours at Coba, arriving mid-morning and leaving after lunch but had plenty of birds in a short space of time..

Green Heron

Limpkin

Northern Jacana

Coba - Part 1

So we flew into Cancun and spent the night in Playa Del Carmen with the sole purpose of being near the ferry to the Isle of Cozumel for our first days birding.  This turned out to be a complete waste of time - it was blowing a gale on Cozumel, everyone was throwing up on the ferry and we only saw 3 birds of any note the Cozumel Emerald, the Westen Spindalis and Ruddy Crake so no photos hence we're straight into day 2 and a stop off at Coba on the way to Fellipe Carrillo Puerta.

Coba Lake

 Anhinga

 Black and White Warbler

Mexico via Greenland!

We booked flights with Thomas Cook direct from Manchester, surprisingly cheaper than any other airline.  The Captain announced almost immediately that due to strong winds we wouldnt be going straight across the Atlantic but flying over Iceland and then the southern edge of Greenland - luckilly it was a daytime flight with no cloud which gave us stunning views whilst flying over Greenland.  To give an idea of the scale these images were taken at 19000 meters elevation, which suggests these are whopping great mountains and glaciers.

The Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

This blog has been a little short on posts the last few months but over the next few days all will change as we start uploading the best of 5000+ images and videos we have taken over the past 2 weeks during our trip to the Yucatan Peninsula in Southern Mexico.  We have birded our way covering around 3000km starting in Cancun where we picked up our car from Easyway and then took the following route; Playa del Carmen to Cozumel to Coba to Felipe Carrillo Puerto to Calakmul to Santa Elena/Uxmal to Rio Lagartos to Tulum.  Accommodation was picked up on route and varied in quality and price and ranged from ridiculously cheap to ridiculously expensive.  Wayne is writing a full trip report and a link will be posted when finished.  A total of 228 species of birds were seen and here’s the first video to get things started, a fabulous forest bird the Mexican Antthrush.

Click link for video http://youtu.be/bt-5WiSz1xw

Hawfinch

Connected with a few stunning Hawfinch over the weekend, a species which is becoming very scarce these days.

Nice views of a local Stonechat

Great Northern Diver

We went to see a nearby Great Northern Diver on a small lake but it never came that close but always a nice bird to see.

Click on the link below to see video footage of this bird

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frhAZKpscUU&feature=youtube_gdata