X-antus Marks the Spot
It was time to explore the waters again, but lightly tread on the birding addiction. I have so many places to visit in Mexico for endemics, but I didn't want to have to work too hard on this vacation. It's nice to have a balance of activities besides birding. So many birders just go birding and miss out on all the other fun stuff.
So I put my bird nerd cap on with those summer beach shirts in mind. I wanted to visit everywhere but the more I thought about it, the more Baja made sense. Back in 2017, I went to Baja, Mexico for some fun and birds as well. I picked up the Gray Thrasher and Belding's Yellowthroats along the San José del Cabo Estuary after a bad hurricane. The place was a disaster. I never saw the Xantus's Hummingbird and it was the last endemic I needed from that area.
a peek into the estuary
It's way less stressful when you have only one bird to find. And it was a great way to travel with Julio and explore the area again after it was rebuilt from the hurricane. And WOW! The estuary has grown back into its tropical lush self and the downtown was much more vibrant. We stayed in an old Mexican building that had 3 floors with a central garden and kitchen that overlooked the plaza. It was perfect. We saved money eating at our place and watched the nightlife and listened to the live music from our rooftop. It was walking distance to everything including the estuary.
Thursday night is a party during their art show
Just steps away from our room, the night life was active on the streets. During the day, San José del Cabo is a quiet town but at night it comes alive. I'm not a huge Cabo San Lucas person as it is overrun by typical tourists but they do have a nice beach there. The tourist sector is built around their world famous marina where you can see lots of marine life, eat, party and shop! San Jose del Cabo is more my speed. And nature lovers will enjoy the estuary just steps away from the downtown.
From the top floor of our apartment
As for other endemic lifer Baja birds beside the Belding's Yellowthroat and Gray Thrasher? For me, there is a "new" endemic known as the Baird's Junco. I had contacted several guides for the services but the prices were out-of-control! They were going to charge around a thousand dollars per person to go up the mountain to find a bird that looks like our Yellow-eyed Junco. That's a lot of beer money! So it was a definite no. Plus talk about overcharging for services which apparently birders will pay for! I am a guide and that's overcharging. 400-500 US dollars for 2 people would be okay. (Pushing it) But still doable. Plus, it represents the Baja culture with its overpriced goods and services. For Mexico, it was way too expensive. In the past, I have enjoyed speaking with local guides about their birds and learn about how the species interacts in their very unique Baja ecosystem. Back in 2017, they charged 250 dollars a day for 2 people. Now it's 2000 dollars? I did several bids from different companies and I know it's hotter than hell, but still.... In Wisconsin, we'd say "yeah no" which means it's a definite no. Baja birds have to be studied more, but it is believed there are many more "new" bird splits that will happen down the road which include an owl, robin and cardinal for starts.
Sr. Frogs got a little crazy
If you do try for the Baird's Junco, go in winter when they drop lower on the mountain. As for that thousand dollars? We easily spent it in Cabo San Lucas on a boat ride and at Sr. Frogs. We saw lots of frigatebirds, California Gulls and Hooded Orioles on this trip. But as the week was moving forward, we hadn't had any luck with the Xantus's Hummingbird.
Pelagic birding
I didn't give up hope but I had limited resources to work with. There were no public hummingbird feeders to watch. Or they were on private hotel property. Also the Xantus's Hummingbird is not as common in San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas during the summer months. The good news is that they are one of the only hummingbird species around the area besides maybe a random Costa's Hummingbird. So we both watched for hummingbird flight patterns.
Where ocean meets the lagoon/estuary
I'm also at the point in my birding career that I am not going to let one bird spoil my vacation time. We still had fun birding and observing all the fantastic Baja birds. I wanted to see where the estuary ended at the beach and view the strip of sand between the crazy ocean and lagoon. On the map, it looked so strange, even artificial. In 2017, the estuary flowed out to the ocean after the massive storm. Today, it was locked in by this stretch of sand which created a lagoon for pelicans, gulls, grebes and egrets! It was a lot of fun to explore and there were a lot of great shorebirds in the area.
For a moment, I feel like I am in western Mexico along the tropcial coast
For as many birders that go to Baja, there's not a lot of information on the Xantus's Hummingbird. Birders were not finding the hummingbird at all. And it was looking pretty grim, but the estuary was were it was at. I felt it in my birding bones. I put my hummingbird experiences to use. And I had a theory. This hummingbird seemed like a cross between our Broad-billed Hummingbird and White-eared Hummingbird. In fact, it looks almost like our White-eared Hummingbird here in Arizona and mainland Mexico.
Follow the locals and you will find real Mexican cuisine
After our birding we stopped at a nice restaurant for some Baja pozole out of the sun. We always kept our eyes out for hummingbirds around the MANY flowering plants. But there was NADA.
A view from our apartment
Another hot balmy day passed and another glorious gorgeous evening in Cabo happened. We'd walk to the beach at night and watch the waves. We noticed the waves were HUGE and that it would be suicide to get into that water. The RIP currents looked so dangerous. It was curious.
Sunset at the beach
The next day we set out to watch a movie in the nearby a/c movie theater. We ate super cheesy cheetos and cheese puffs mixed into the popcorn which was addicting. Mexico offers great varieties of popcorn flavors. You don't have to buy the flavored shakers. They do it for you and then some!!! After the movie, we headed back looking at the beautiful murals around town.
This mural helped guide us to Wal-Mart for our grocery shopping
These murals became landmarks for us as we navigated around the city.
This whale let us know we were back in town out of the jungly estuary
We hiked more around water areas because that's were the concentration of birds existed. We'd hear California Quail and Gnatcatchers, Northern Cardinal, Cactus Wrens, and about a zillion Hooded Orioles and Verdins with a few Scott's Orioles for good measure. But no hummingbirds.
Where there's water, there were lots of birds
Back to my theory. No one had been finding the hummingbird. There were daily reports coming from the birding hotspots and nothing. I knew that Xantus's Hummingbirds were easier on the mountain but we weren't going there. But I also know that several hummingbird species like the Broad-billed Hummingbird will stay around desert scrub and riparian areas. In my mind, there were 2 possible populations of Xantus's Hummingbirds. The one that moved up into the mountain during summer and the few that remained around the riparian area during summer. But what vegetation did they prefer?
After doing more research, I saw it mentioned that they preferred desert thornscrub along riparian corridors. After having extensively studied the estuary, I found some great spots with desert thornscrub approaching the beach and lagoon. We were on our last day. We also noticed that birds, like most hot places, were very active early morning and before sunset. On the last day, we gave it one last try.
BAM! Lifer Xantus's Hummingbird
On a public walkway along the estuary, I noticed plenty of Common Gallinules. And then a family of Belding's Yellowthroats in the desert scrub! And then........one singular hummingbird zipped onto a Sweet Acacia branch! Early morning. Yes. Desert thornscrub. Yes. Hummingbird. ABSOLUTELY! Lifer! My first in over 2 years! My experience and theory paid off and we were rewarded with stunning views of just one beautiful Xantus's hummingbird!
Gray Thrasher
And after that, the Baja endemics truly shined along the trail! Gray Thrashers were out and about feeding young ones.
Least Grebe
A Least Grebe popped up for a quick view before diving below the brackish water.
And then an unmistakable sound that I haven't heard in a few years called from the dark vegetation of the estuary! A rare Groove-billed Ani!!!! You'd find this bird in Puerto Vallarta but on the desert aisle of Baja???? Whoa!!! The Groove-billed Ani is like a spirit bird for me. If they're there, we will find each other. The bird sat and watched us from on top of branch. Several annoying Northern Mockingbirds found our friend and chased the bird off. BUT WOW!!! That was the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae.
Verdin
San José del Cabo is full of beautiful vegetation. There are lots of palms and mango trees. We had some of the mangos that fell off the branches and they were sweet and delicious. Verdins were everywhere.
This was our home for our stay in Baja. Such a great place to stay.
a male Scott's Oriole
While there were plenty of Hooded Orioles everywhere, we'd occasionally have a Scott's feeding from the dates on the palm trees.
a male Hooded Oriole
I like to roll out Merlin to "see" what it hears. While it was very accurate, there were times it would call out a Streak-backed Oriole which would be rare for the area. I tried locating one because maybe? But I was never able to find one. This is where Merlin has difficulties at times. Sometimes it picks out a rarity and other times it calls out some crazy birds. I found that it was 80 percent accurate in Baja. They still have some tweaking to do there.
a male Belding's Yellowthroat
One bird that I did find that was rare (although we were in the right habitat) was a western Yellow-breasted Chat. There was a pair. We were out of their range but again, the habitat was right. I opened Merlin to make sure I was hearing what I was hearing. It quickly ID'd the chats. And because I know this species well here in southern Arizona, as they are a part of my bird tours during the summer months, I was able to add them to my ebird checklist. Their varied and many vocalizations make them an easy ID.
The best part about this second visit to Baja was the relaxed and MANY sightings of the rare Belding's Yellowthroat. They are not rare in this estuary at all. In fact, they are really the only warbler you'll see during summer in Baja. As mentioned before, they were tricky to find back in 2017 after the hurricane but the estuary was in fine shape this time around and their population has definitely rebounded. And might I add, they were a lot easier to photograph than our own western Common Yellowthroats. My first time, I only saw a female. This time around I got to see many males feeding babies and calling on territories.
And while we didn't see any whales or dolphins that the Baja Pennisula is renowned for, we did get to observe so many Munk's Pygmy Devil Rays. They'd jump into the air, hover a second and in unison flap back together as a group into the ocean.
There is a possible split of Northern Cardinal down the road as this is the San Lucas Cardinal subspecies
The Gilded Flicker is a common bird around Cabo Del San Jose
The Xantus's Hummingbird derives its' name from John Xantus de Vesey, a Hungarian zoologist and collector. In 1859, while exploring the Baja Pennisula, he collected and brought a specimen to the scientific community's attention. And like many first discoveries of the time, the bird was named in honor of his discovery. Until next time...
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