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Rich Hoyer on his just-completed Christmastime tour to Oaxaca



January 06: Rich Hoyer on his just-completed Christmastime tour to Oaxaca

What a delightful time of year to visit Oaxaca, with Christmas decorations, festivities, and really fun birding. We visited three different Zapotec ruins, including Monte Albán on the first day.

 

The Noche de Rábanos, or the Radish Festival, has to be seen to be believed, with the amazing creativity of Oaxacans on display around the town square.

 

We also visited a rug weaving cooperative in Teotitlán del Valle, including a demonstration on how some of the natural dyes are created.

 

We birded up until lunch every day, seeing well over 275 species of birds, many endemic to Mexico and local to the Oaxaca region. It was still fun to see “our” breeding birds spending winter here including daily Wilson’s Warblers and a few Black-and-white Warblers.

 

Gray Silky-flycatchers decorated the mistletoe-filled oaks in the higher elevations.

 

On our side trip to the more tropical Tuxtepec, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls were at every stop, but it was unusual to have a pair come in together.

 

Among the many tour favorites was a cooperative Golden-olive Woodpecker.

 

We more than doubled the tour’s master list of butterflies this year, and Northern Green Longwing elicited more oohs and ahhs than any other.

 

The botany of Oaxaca is fascinating, and our last morning was in an area famous for its diversity of giant cactus species.

 

We added many new species here, including several adorable White-lored Gnatcatchers.

Posted: January 06, 2017