Monday, January 27, 2020

Cascada el Salto del Nogal

One day when the wind was wrong for paragliding, we hiked in to a nearby waterfall - at 105m (350ft) the highest in the state of Jalisco. We'd been warned that it was a little hard to find, but Google Maps took us straight to the parking area. My gps watch showed about 5 km round trip for the hike, but we wandered around a bit. It's mostly downhill to the waterfall, which means uphill on the way back, about 250m (800 ft) vertical.

Salto del Nogal waterfall

Salto del Nogal waterfall

The countryside around is dry, with cactus, so it was nice to see the water and greenery.

near Salto del Nogal waterfall

A pool above the lower waterfall was full of tadpoles. I kept an eye out for frogs or toads but I never saw any.

tadpoles

There were a number of butterflies around, but only one sat still long enough for me to photograph. According to iNaturalist it's a Texan Crescent. It was fairly small.

butterfly

There are lots of interesting plants and flowers here. iNaturalist suggested these are a kind of marigold.

some kind of marigold?

And these are a kind of paintbrush, possibly Field Indian Paintbrush

paintbrush flowers

These were three different stages of the fruit and seeds on a tree. I'm not sure what kind.

three stages of seed

On our drive back I spotted the red flash of this Vermillion Flycatcher. I recognized it from seeing them in Big Bend National Park in Texas. Like many small birds, it didn't sit still for long. I was hanging out the window of the car while Shelley drove slowly down the road as it moved from perch to perch. I didn't have a long telephoto so this was the only shot that was half decent (and still not as sharp as I'd like).

Vermillion Flycatcher

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