Birding Sayulita

 Jan 10 2016 Sayulita Nayarit Mexico.

Visitors normally flock to Sayulita to shop, surf and party. That aside it was a flock of black-throated magpie jays that interested me. I hadn't seen any so far on the trip and they would fair game for my ever growing life list. I was told there was a flock near the Pacifico bus stop. There was, but unfortunately they took off before I could get a shot. I didn't matter I had my tick.
The town of Sayulita is a rambling collection of over priced souvenir shops, restaurants, and surfboard rentals thirty minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. On the plus side the birding proved to be very good.

I only had two hours to bird so there was no time to lose. I made my way down to the beach, best known for its good waves. There a small creek snaked its way across the sand into the ocean. Close-by an outcrop of rocks looked promising. When I arrived there were several people harvesting oysters but few birds. After they had left birds began to return to feed on the plentiful supply of crabs and fish caught in the rock pools.

Yellow-crowned night heron.

First in was a yellow-crowned heron. Overhead an osprey hunted, dived and took off with a fish so large it could hardly fly.

A yellow-crowned night  heron swallows a crab.

               Snowy egret and great egret, another of the series of multiple species in one frame.

Female and male great-tailed grackles feed on crabs close to the waterline

Elegant tern squabble and flex their wings.

Spotted sandpiper.

Hop, skip and jump, a spotted sandpiper tries out for avian olympics.

White Ibis juvenile.

Working in unison, a small flock of juvenile white ibis feed in the creek upstream of the beach.

Soon my two hours were up and besides it was almost 11 a.m. and it was getting too hot for birding.

"It's never too late to start birding"

John Gordon

Langley/Cloverdale

BC Canada