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Back to Baja: Bajamar to Guerrero Negro

 


After I returned from my previous trip to Baja, a combination of work commitments and a pelagic trip ate up most of my time. The pelagic trip gave good looks at a nice selection of birds, including Black-footed Albatross, Flesh-footed and Buller’s Shearwaters, Long-tailed Jaeger, South Polar Skua and Sabine’s Gulls. However, nothing was new for my county list and bad weather caused our last trip to the Santa Barbara Island booby colony to be cancelled.

Birding around Santa Barbara County remained distinctly dull but I had already arranged a nine-day trip to Baja. Wes Fritz joined me and we drove down Friday evening to Bajamar to meet up with Kurt Radamaker. Kurt is a multi-decade veteran of Baja birding and was going to take us down to the legendary Vizcaino Peninsula where the proximity of the arid desert to the coast maximizes concentration of vagrants.

There are numerous good spots on the way down. Saturday morning started with a check around Bajamar and Rio Descanso, but only a few western migrants were present. We then headed down to Parque Riviera in Ensenada. Unlike my visit there a couple of weeks prior, this time we had better luck and found both a Tennessee and a Chestnut-sided Warbler. We also met up with Logan Kahle here who was returning from one of his regular runs down to the Vizcaino. Logan offered some advice on the spots he likes and confirmed that the recent hurricane had “greened-up” the inner part of the peninsula but not the outer part.

A couple of months earlier, Logan had found a Pacific Golden-Plover about two hours to the south, just north of Camalu. Since this would be a Mexico bird for me, we decided to search for it that afternoon. We eventually arrived at beach area where Logan had seen a large flock of Black-bellied Plovers, along with the Pacific Golden. Much to my dismay, there were just a few Black-bellieds visible. Scanning the beach, we could see more in the distance, so we began to work our way south.  As is often the case, there was always one more promising looking area or small flock in the distance and soon we were a couple of miles to the south, where we began to find small lagoons behind the beach that were attracting some shorebirds. We suspected that these had probably never been birded before. We ended up spending over two hours checking this area of the coast. Despite seeing over 200 Black-bellied Plovers, there was no sign of a Pacific. There was a decent spread of other shorebird species, but nothing of special interest, with the best being seven Ruddy Turnstones scattered among the Blacks.

We ended up spending the night at San Quinten and the next morning birded various tamarisk rows around the hotel, including the famous “Double Row”, which is no longer as birdy as it used to be, due to the removal of wet, weedy ditches. Migrant numbers and diversity were pretty poor with the best being a single Black-and-white Warbler.

Leaving San Quinten, we headed south to El Rosario, arriving in the late morning, enjoying excellent looks at an adult Golden Eagle en route. Logan had seen a good spread of rarities a few days earlier and we began to check out promising gardens and parks with trees, especially fruit trees or ones covered in grape vines. The afternoon proved to be one of most frustrating birding experiences I have had. At the first stop, a Yellow-green Vireo popped out for Wes and then Kurt, but I missed it. A hour later we were spread out birding a ditch with water just behind our hotel. Although we were no more than 30m apart, we each managed to see a rarity that none of the others did – Yellow-green Vireo, Chestnut-sided Warbler and Rose-breasted Grosbeak! We later headed out to El Rosario Abajo where I got quick partial views of a bird that was almost certainly a Grace’s Warbler. We spent over a hour trying to refind it and had a Palm Warbler and an American Redstart in the same Tam row, but other than another quick probable view, we unable to confirm the Grace’s. We did all see two Tennessees and a Nashville and the day ended on a high note when we found a Red-breasted Nuthatch, a species that is probably not even annual in Mexico and usually found in eruption years.

The next morning started off in a similar vein back in Abajo with Kurt finding a Chestnut-sided Warbler that neither Wes nor I could catch up with. Back at the tam row though persistence finally paid off when I got definitive views of the Grace’s Warbler. Wes and Kurt were also able to see it but despite a half-hour effort, Wes could not get a photo, as the bird stayed high up in the treetops. Even better for me, while relocating the Grace’s, I found a Blackpoll Warbler up in the tams, a new bird for Mexico for me, although it did not hang around for Wes or Kurt.

Scarlet Tanager

While Wes was trying to photograph the Grace’s, Kurt and I headed back to area nearby where Kurt had had a fair bit of bird activity earlier. While birding an area of bushes with grape vines and scattered eucs, a tanager with all black wings popped up – a Scarlet Tanager. This was the first time I had found one of these as a vagrant, although this species certainly occurs relatively more frequently in Baja compared to California.

Baltimore Oriole

I then headed a few hundred yards inland to check some additional yards but just found a few birds of minor interest such as a Black-throated Gray Warbler. I then got a text from Wes that they had found an interesting oriole while looking for the Scarlet Tanager. I rushed back there and we soon had good looks at a Baltimore Oriole. Even better, while viewing and photographing it, the Scarlet Tanager reappeared for Wes to see.

Painted Redstart

Heading back into the main part of town we stopped at a yard that had had a nice selection of warblers the previous afternoon and were thrilled when a Painted Redstart popped into view. The next stop was for a lunch of fish and shrimp tacos. We could reflect on one of the best mornings I had ever had for finding vagrants. The long drive to Guerrero Negro proved fairly uneventful except for a Zone-tailed Hawk and a quick Gray Thrasher stop. Catavina was quiet except for a Summer Tanager.

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