Rich Hoyer led a wonderful trip to Oaxaca over Christmas
The festive atmosphere, great food, cultural attractions, and above all, the great birds made Oaxaca a fabulous place to spend the last nine days of the year 2023. The ruins of Monte Alban and Yagul were complemented by a walk around the amazing carved radish displays for the 126th annual competition in the Oaxaca City square and a visit to an exquisite rug studio in Teotitlán del Valle. In between our cultural stops were bouts of birding where Elegant Euphonia, Red Warbler, Ocellated Thrasher, Slaty Vireo, Bridled Sparrow, Happy Wren, and White-tailed Kite were memorable sightings from the Oaxaca Valley and Cerro San Felipe north of the city. Our two-night side trip to the wetter Gulf of Mexico slope in the north of the state yielded Orange-billed Sparrow, Gray Hawk, Collared Trogon, and White-winged Tanager to name a few favorites among the more than 130 species that this side trip added to the bird list (almost doubling the total in just three days). To top it all off, we got to sample the rich local cuisine highlighted by several kinds of moles in a variety of local restaurants, tasted several varieties the locally produced mezcal, and enjoyed picnic breakfasts and lunches (and even one picnic dinner) in the field prepared by our wonderful driver Basilio.
The complex ruins of Monte Alban are fascinating unto themselves, but they are surrounded by native habitat with many interesting birds.
At the Noche de Rabanos festival, the 2024 winner in the open category was René Williams’ creation titled “Leviathan (The Great Monster of Destruction)”.
We got very lucky to see this Oaxaca Sparrow – not an endemic to the state, but the only bird bearing its name – normally a very shy and reclusive bird in the winter.
We had a marvelous demonstration of the different types of wool and the many natural plants used to dye them before we browsed the Perez studio and bought some of the exquisite rugs.
Boucard’s Wren charmed us from the columnar stems of the organ-pipe cactus Myrtillocactus schenkii below the fascinating ruins of Yagul.
In the pine-oak forests north of town, we scored Red Warbler, Dwarf Jay, Northern Pygmy-Owl and this very cooperative Crescent-chested Warbler.