veracruz river of raptors
Cardel, the main
count site for Pronatura's
Veracruz River of Raptors project. A huge portion, if not the majority, of
North America's raptors migrate through Mexico, squeezed here in Veracruz
between the mountains and the sea. Four or five million raptors can be counted
here in a fall season.
In Cardel, birds are counted from the rooftop of the Hotel Bienvenido, seen here (click to enlarge). Counting there is best in the morning, and with the very strong northerly winds yesterday, the count had petered out by our arrival. A board posted on the wall shows the totals counted the previous day, and the cumulative season total.
This site is often better between 3 and 5
PM. Sure enough, among the ubiquitous mobs of Black Vultures were big groups of
mostly Broad-winged Hawks, peppered with an occasional Swainson's Hawk or
Mississippi Kite. A flock of several hundred birds would swirl in a rising
thermal of air, and once the birds reached the top, they flew off in a line
until they found the next rising column of air. At times, the birds stretched
from horizon to horizon -- truly a river of raptors . We saw
several other species as well: Cooper's Hawk, Zone-tailed Hawk, Crested
Caracara, and Aplomado Falcon.More later...



Sorry we never connected down here in Veracruz. Don't know when you're flying back, but I'm here until Tuesday at the Crowne Plaza down the street.
Posted by: Rob | 07 October 2006 at 07:45 PM