Parakeets and Other Fauna on Playa Maroma

It wasn't long ago that I wrote about olive-throated parakeets on my visit to Belize. There wasn't actually much to report except that while on a visit to a Mayan pyramid, I watched several fly overhead, failing miserably to capture any photographs of them. Well, I'm happy to write that on my return to the Yucatán Peninsula two months later, I had much better luck.

The two trips to the region were markedly different. The first, in February, was merely a short stop on a cruise where I booked an excursion that comprised a bus trip to the Altun Ha archaeological complex and a return by boat down the Belize River. It was a fantastic journey filled with lots of spectacular wildlife sightings, but no parrot pictures during my short shoreside stay. The second visit in April was an actual six-day land vacation where I flew in and out of Cancun and rented a car to explore a wide swath of Mexico's Yucatán.

This latest trip began with two nights at the Catalonia Playa Maroma resort. It offered an all-inclusive stay at a scenic midway location between Playa del Carmen and Puerto Morelos on Playa Maroma. It was near the northern end of the Riviera Maya, a vast tourism district stretching along the Caribbean coast from south of Cancun past Tulum. The resort's grounds preserved dense, native jungle which proved to be the habitat for lots of fauna. At check-in, a spider monkey and her playful child climbing in the immense lobby palapa gave a preview of the wild animal sightings to come. Soon after, exotic calls of melodious blackbirds sang from the high canopy of trees that enveloped the pathway to my guest room.

The next morning, a raccoon begged for handouts as I waited for a café americano at the lobby bar. Once light began to penetrate the surrounding forest, I wandered the grounds with my zoom lens and camera. I wasn't surprised to see monkeys in the trees but I had to look twice when I observed coatis navigating the spindly branches thirty feet overhead. Agoutis, related to guinea pigs and that I recognized from my trip to Costa Rica a year ago, foraged in the underbrush. A javelina, that I knew from encounters back home in Arizona, startled me when it suddenly appeared in my path. But as fascinating as all this mammalian life was, I really wanted to find some new bird species.

Watching a sublime sunrise on the beach over the Caribbean Sea gave me a chance to see familiar seabirds like laughing gulls, brown pelicans, magnificent frigatebirds, and a type of tern. Waves broke over a coral reef laying several hundred yards off shore. A short sail in a Hobie Cat later in the day gave me an opportunity to snorkel in shallow water with angelfish and trumpetfish.

As I made my way through the pool area, I encountered great-tailed grackles, tropical mockingbirds, great kiskadees, hooded orioles, white-winged doves, tropical kingbirds, and swallows in the wide open space. Back in the murky jungle landscape that lead to the lobby, it was much more difficult to discern some of the birds overhead.

The noisy calls of plain chachalacas helped me quickly locate the birds. Clay-colored thrushes called out with soft, giggling trills. Cantankerous squawks directed me to a group of black birds with bright blue wing and tail feathers - they were Yucatán jays, and, finally, new birds for me! I snapped pictures of another bird in the shadows that turned out to be a completely different variety of jay, the green.

It was at the front entrance to the hotel, near the parking lot and the stately driveway leading to the lobby where I found my most success. I had discovered chattering Yucatán woodpeckers as soon as I parked my car on arrival. The next morning I saw gray catbirds and my first northern waterthrushes pecking in the bordering lawn. Bronzed cowbirds flocked not far away. Throughout the day I witnessed black vultures soaring overhead. On my last morning I spied an osprey perched on a lamppost overlooking the adjacent tennis court. And it was nearby that I finally photographed my first olive-throated parakeets.

Like in Belize, I heard them first, chattering annoyedly like all parrots. One pair, and then another, flew overhead. And yet again like in Belize, I missed my shot. But soon one individual landed in a tree where I could focus my camera.

I had no idea at that moment that they'd turn out to be my elusive olive-throated; I was thrilled to be photographing any colorful tropical bird. Lots of the orioles, tanagers, and warblers from the region migrate seasonally to northern latitudes, but most of us have to travel south to the tropics to catch a glimpse of the showy exotics that stay put year-round.

In fact, toucans, especially the keel-billed, were really the birds I wanted to see on this vacation. In the end, I was again disappointed not to hit that target. But my trip was only beginning; more parrots and even a brand-new trogon were awaiting me on the Yucatán Peninsula over the next few days.