Rio Lagartos not birds

I had so many bird photos that I left the other stuff for a second post. I promise there aren't as many photos this time.

At first I thought this was a Coati but it turned out to be a Raccoon. Another widespread species - from Canada to Panama. Apparently Vancouver island used to be the northern limit of their range, but they have spread north in Canada. Animals that can live alongside humans do better these days.

We saw quite a few iguanas, in the mangroves and near the beaches. I think they were all Black Spiny Iguanas.

We stopped at Petén Mac to stretch our legs and see some different things. "petén" means hummock - a raised area around a freshwater spring. There was a boardwalk through the forest but it has seen better days and required some balancing between missing sections. (Made more interesting by the crocodiles in the water!)

I didn't see a lot of butterflies this trip (not like Costa Rica) and the ones I did see weren't very cooperative. This was a Guatemalan Cracker. "cracker" comes from the noise the males make to stake out their territory.

The stars of Petén Mac were the crocodiles. The Yucatan peninsula is one of the only places where two species of crocodile coexist - American and Morelet's. Morelet's prefer freshwater, and American's perfer saltwater. But here, where it's a mix, it could be either. And to further complicate things, sometimes they interbreed and produce hybrids. After reviewing the photos I think the ones we saw were Morelet's. The first one we saw was in a pool quite close to the ocean with just its eyes showing.

We saw more in a pool along the boardwalk, including a fat little baby crocodile, mirrored in the still water.

They were quite near the boardwalk so I could get some closeups. (several mosquitos around the eye)

As we were leaving, I looked for the first crocodile we'd seen. At first, I was looking in the water where it had been before but then I realized it was out on the beach. It was nice to see it out of the water. The gaping mouth is for thermoregulation, not aggression - it must have been hot lying in the full sun when it was over 30c. It gave us a good view of its mouthful of teeth.

Most people use panoramas (multiple images combined) for landscapes. I used it for the crocodile.

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Rio Lagartos birds

After diving at Akumal, we spent the other half of our trip traveling in the Yucatan peninsula by the new Maya Train. We left our dive gear in Cancun and our first stop was Valladolid. From there we made a day trip to Rio Lagartos to visit the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve. The name "Rio Lagartos" is somewhat misleading since it's neither a river (Rio) nor are there alligators (lagartos). It's actually an estuary with crocodiles. We signed up for a four hour private boat tour with Rio Lagartos Adventures. Shelley and I are not serious birders but we enjoy seeing and photographing them. We didn't see anything too rare, but we did see lots of birds (over 30 kinds) and other wildlife and got some good chances to photograph them. (I'm happier to get a good photo of a common bird than to get a bad or no photo of a rare bird.) It was surprising how many of the birds we also have in Canada, either because they have a large range or because they migrate.

One of the highlights of this location are the American Flamingos. Usually we see flamingos in zoos so it was nice to see them living in the wild. They were feeding in the shallow water by shuffling their feet to stir up the bottom and then dipping their heads in to filter out things like brine shrimp. Although it wasn't breeding season there were still some dominance displays where a number of them would fluff out their feathers and stand up tall in a circle "chest to chest". A group of flamingos is called a "flamboyance" which seems very suitable.

Right from the dock we saw some of the usual suspects - Double-crested Cormorants, Laughing Gulls, and Brown Pelicans. I love the eyes on the cormorants.

I was a little surprised to see American White Pelicans. They were one of my favorites in Saskatoon. I knew they went south for the winter, obviously including to Mexico.

We saw quite a few Magnificent Frigatebirds but only in the air. I took lots of photos of birds in the air but most of them didn't turn out - either too far away or blurry.

Another one we only saw in the air (unfortunately). Roseate Spoonbills.

We saw several kinds of terns - I think this is a Caspian

and I think this is a Royal Tern (in front with the orange beak) and Sandwich Terns (on the right)

and tern-like Black Skimmers with oversized orange beaks. The bottom part of their beak is longer than the top. 

It was hard to get close enough in the boat but there were various shorebirds around - including Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones (in Victoria I mostly see Black Turnstones), Spotted Sandpipers, and Willets.

We have lots of Great Blue Herons at home, but it was still nice to see them. We also saw Little Blue Herons, Tricolored Herons, and Green Herons.

Reddish Egrets look similar to the herons. We also saw Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets.

From a distance it can look like an egret, but up close the beak gives away the White Ibis

At first we only saw Wood Storks flying by in the distance, but eventually we got closer to one on the shore. They are funny looking birds.

Some osprey live year round in Baja and Florida, others spend the summers in the north (breeding) and winters in the south. They seemed to be having good success catching fish here.

We also saw Common Black Hawks (also found in the southern US).

We kept getting glimpses of Belted Kingfishers but typically they didn't sit still for photographs. Finally we got reasonably close to this one for a few images.

As we were driving back to town, Diego asked me if I had ever seen a Bat Falcon. I hadn't even heard of them. He showed me a picture that looked like a bit like a kestrel. He said they caught the bats that lived in the cenotes (caves). I said no, and he said we'd stop and see a pair. I was silently a little skeptical - birds, especially raptors, don't usually show up on demand. We pulled over at an intersection and got out. Sure enough, there was a bat falcon on a power pole. A few minutes later its mate showed up. They were a little far away for my lens so the photos aren't great, but it was a nice ending to the outing.

Camera gear is always a compromise on these kinds of trips. For this day I would have loved to have my best telephoto but it's too big and heavy to haul around. Instead I compromised with a smaller lens plus a 1.4x teleconverter. The quality is not as good but it's a lot smaller and lighter for almost the same zoom.

List of birds we saw (click to open)

1. Double-crested Cormorant
2. Pelagic Cormorant
3. Laughing Gull
4. Brown Pelican
5. White Pelican
6. Osprey
7. Royal Tern
8. Caspian Tern
9. Sandwich Tern
10. Belted Kingfisher
11. Black Skimmer
12. Sanderling
13. American Flamingo
14. Magnificant Frigatebird
15. Great Egret
16. Reddish Egret
17. Snow Egret
18. Tricolored Heron
19. Great Blue Heron
20. Little Blue Heron
21. Green Heron
22. Wood Stork
23. Roseate Spoonbills
24. White Ibis
25. Ruddy Turnstone
26. Spotted Sandpiper
27. Willet
28. Mangrove Yellow Warbler
29. Kingbird
30. Common Black Hawk
31. Bat Falcon
32. Black Vulture
33. Turkey Vulture

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Coral etc

Here's a miscellaneous assortment of my remaining diving photos, starting with Christmas Tree worms which I always like. Each pair of "christmas trees" is one worm.

The "trees" are used for feeding and also for respiration. The worm itself lives in a tube inside the coral and will withdraw into the tube if disturbed. I realized afterwards that these next ones were on what I think is Fire Coral. I would have been sorry if I'd brushed up against it while I was focused on photography.

Social Feather Duster worms are somewhat similar but live in groups.

Encrusting Gorgonians look similar but are actually a soft coral rather than a worm.

There are a large variety of corals, soft and hard. The shallow part of the reef was not in great shape, but there was still quite a lot of coral, and deeper the coral seemed in better shape. I wasn't sure if this was a coral or an anemone, but according to iNaturalist it's a Pillar Coral.

Brain Coral was quite common.

I only saw this one Cactus Coral. I've seen it other places and remember its distinctive pattern.

I'm not sure what kind of coral this one is.

There was quite a large area of this healthy looking lettuce coral.

Staghorn coral is one of the faster growing corals. It used to be one of the most common corals but much has been wiped out from a variety of causes. I didn't see a lot of it, but there were several areas where they were growing it on ropes, presumably to "plant" on the reef.

A few more of the variety of corals:

There were also a variety of sponges. Sponges are primitive animals that don't move and don't have complex nervous or digestive systems. They are simple filter feeders.

Apparently this Stinker Sponge smells if taken out of the water, hence its name.

There weren't as many of these vase sponges as we've seen other places.

Green Finger Sponge was a new one to me. When I looked at the photo zoomed in on the computer I saw there was a brittle start on it.

Orange Icing Sponge (the orange part) grows symbiotically with coral.

Sea Cucumbers and Crinoids are related to sea stars and urchins, although the five-fold symmetry is less obvious.

Sea anemones aren't common here but I saw a couple of these Branching Anemones.

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