Mike in the Wild

Ever since my last visit to Mazatlán a year ago, my thoughts were on a tufted jay, an endemic bird found in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Sinaloa and two neighboring Mexican states.  During that trip, the tour guide taking my ship's group to the mountains even saw one from our bus as we took a busy highway out of the bustling port city.  I never witnessed the bird myself, even when we stopped at several towns in rural communities like Concordia and Copala.   On my return to Mazatlán this month, I sought out the assistance of a birding guide to take me around the area in pursuit of the tufted jay and other endemic birds.  Unfortunately no one was available to escort me on the single day that my ship was in port.  However the tour company Birdwatching Mazatlán did offer me advice on where to go birding in the city.  As a result, for only a ten-dollar taxi ride, I found myself in the city's Parque Central, an extensive expanse of landscaped parkland withi...

I didn't expect to be very busy when I discovered my year-end holiday cruise was stopping in Mazatlán on Christmas Day.  While the cruise line was selling excursions for the day - a city tour, a trip to villages in the nearby Mountains, etc. - I remained incredulous that the tour guides and bus drivers would actually want to spend their Navidad working. Well it turned out that while much of this Mexican port city's population was certainly at home celebrating the holiday, for many of the people it was just another day to wait tables, sell crafts, and drive tourists to the beach.   Nonetheless, I decided to have a very quiet day with a leisurely breakfast on the ship followed by a morning stroll through the oldest part of town.   While so much of the United States was experiencing dangerously cold temperatures and blinding snowstorms, Mazatlán was unbelievably pleasant with clear skies and temperatures in the 70's.  I couldn't give myself a more wonder...

Mazatlán is known for its near perfect winter weather and its wide, golden-sand beaches, making it a popular destination for Americans during the cold months.  Within sight of its tourist zones, its large commercial port reminds you Mazatlán is also a center of fishing and agriculture for the Mexican state of Sinaloa.  In addition, a large brewery and two power plants signal that industry of all varieties fuel the local economy.  However I disembarked my cruise ship with a much less lucrative activity in mind: birding. The ports on Mexico's tropical west coast attract many species of seabirds.  Magnificent frigatebirds, brown pelicans, cormorants, brown boobies, and sea gulls are just some of the birds that greet arriving ships in these harbors.  From Mazatlán's own port, I boarded a small boat with twenty-five of my Majestic Princess passengers shortly after the cruise ship's arrival.  We were setting off to explore the bird life that inhabit the estuary t...