A friend and I took a little trip south to the middle of the state yesterday. We went to Desert Lake to see if we could find a Cassin's Sparrow that had been spotted there the day before as well as early yesterday morning. In hindsight, we should have started much earlier--probably predawn. It was hot--98 degrees. No shade, no cover, and as the day wore on the biting flies came out. Yikes! Yes, we did get some brief, but good looks at the bird. However, this is incidental to the bigger part of the story.
It has been years and years since I have been in this area. I had forgotten how breathtakingly beautiful the drive was. So hard to stay on the road when you want to pull over and look at the scenery every mile--especially when there is no shoulder on a busy, semi-truck filled highway. Highway 6 passes by a small town called Helper. The last time I went through Helper, it was practically a ghost town. Empty boarded up buildings. Not many people living there, and for those who were, it wasn't easy.
Helper was a railroading center for the coal mining industry and was named for the helper engines added to the trains to get them up the steep grade to Soldier Summit.
I was shocked and delighted to see that Helper is alive and thriving as destination, and an art town. The downtown is revitalized, buildings have been repaired and spruced up rather than torn down. It is wonderful to see. There are art galleries and mining museums and the combination of both. Here is Big John, billed as the largest miner in the world.
And if you don't believe it, check out his shoe size.
I am a huge fan of vintage signs, signs painted on buildings and neon signs. Helper had it all.
Seriously, when was the last time you saw a Piggly Wiggly, much less a sign?
I missed the Dining and Dancing sign.
The next photo tickled me because Helper was a coal mining town. In the '40s during World War II, they were producing 2000 tons of coal a day. The name on the loose crayon is Coal Black.
We stopped at the hot dog stand because the menu board out front announced Huckleberry Floats. Viv and I are huge huckleberry fans and the floats were wonderfully refreshing on a very hot day.
My birding buddy Vivian and I share late January birthdays. Earlier this year we were speculating on how to celebrate. Everything fell into place when I saw an announcement for a birding tour on the Yucatan Peninsula and Cozumel. The goal was to find 250 species in a week. We came close with 216.
Day 1. We flew into Cancun, met up with the other six people in the group and headed to Puerto Morelos, our headquarters for the first three days.
View from the hotel:
After leaving a cold wintery place it was a bit unreal to be in a hot humid environment. The Yucatan Peninsula has two climates: hot and dry and hot and wet. Even though we were there for the hot and dry season we did get a couple cloudbursts: very short, but lots of water.
Our first evening after arrival we started by looking for owls. We didn't see any but we heard three species of owls and a falcon. We did see many bats.
Day 2. Reserva Toh
What a day! So many birds to see that it took us seven and a half hours to walk four miles. We started before sunrise and the first bird we saw was a keel-billed toucan. What a great way to start!
One of the most exciting birds for me was an ivory-billed woodcreeper.
The lineated woodpecker is one of my favorites.
And the fun stuff--
When was the last time you saw a 5" long grasshopper?
Or a spider as large as a 6" circle?
Typical jungle path
Day 3: Cozumel
We were on the road by 6am to get to the ferry to Cozumel. This island is half jungle:
and half windswept rocks and dwarfed scrub on the Caribbean side.
The Yucatan peninsula is primarily limestone. There are miles and miles of fences made of stacked limestone. On the island we saw this fence that stopped us dead in our tracks.
The black inserts are old tv screens. That's a new way to recycle. Below is a more traditional use of limestone.
Day 4: Zona Arqueologica de Coba and Chichén Itzá
We were able to get an abbrevieated tour of Chichen Itza, which was fascinating! We learned that with the new laser imaging technology, archeologists have discovered that the pyramid at Chichen Itza actually has two more pyramids hidden inside. Not only that, but the entire thing is built over a cenote. Cenotes are formed when limestone caves in, leaving a hole that becomes a pool filled with turquoise water. Many of these are large enough to swim or scuba dive in. There are as many as 7,000 cenotes in the peninsula.
Here is a cenote used as a swimming hole. There are suspended plank walks over the top of it. It is more than two stories worth of descending stairs down to the water. Look closely near the top to see two of the plank bridges.
This cenote was a large C shape. Here it is from the other end.
Day 5 - Rio Lagartos, home of flamingos.
We had two birding trips in boats. One by day and one by night. Found some incredible birds on both trips. Rio Largatos is on an estuary filled with mangrove lined channels.
Looking back at the city from the boat.
Day 6: Felipe Carrillo Puerto & Camino Vigía Chico
Our last full day of birding with a 2.5 hour drive back to Puerto Morelos. Here we are back to walking jungle roads. As we walk down the dirt road, this is what we see on either side.
I was very glad we had an experienced guide to spot the birds in here. You can see how hard the light is. Dark at the bottom and hard light at the top.
Later that day, the jungle opened up into a reserve with more Mayan ruins.
Day 7. Quick morning at Reserva Toh before heading to the airport.
Got the most spectacular bird of the trip, the Turquoise-browed motmot
Other stuff.
Fishermen gutting their catch surrounded by the clean-up crew comprised of frigate birds, pelicans and gulls.
Unloading their catch--baby sharks or maybe reef sharks.
Can you hear the music from Jaws?
