In October 2024, I had a wonderful trip to Mexico (4 days of birding from CDMX down to the coast of Veracruz and back up to CDMX via a different route, with lots of different habitats along the way). The well-planned itinerary was put together by local guide Miguel Aguilar, and we were blessed with generally excellent weather and great birding on the whole trip. The yield was a very satisfying 208 species for me, with 75 lifers, and I got pictures of about 94 species.
There were some special finds, such as all the endemics (some hummers, wrens and warblers), as well as 2 owls (neither of them new, but always great to see). But most special were the wonderful habitats (scrubland, desert, coast, pine forest, cloud forest) we explored. I was amazed at the natural beauty of Mexico, and am already planning my next trip, to Oaxaca in 2025.
* Important Note* - this is the trip where I really learned how to use eBird properly, including editing my personal lists (separate from the group lists I have been a part of multiple times before) and how to add images. As such, because of the ease of tracking my lists and having an easier way to find images, I will be using eBird regularly from now on. This will change how I have been doing things in important ways:
1) I will update my eBird account by adding all my prior lists; this is where I will track my species counts across various regions I have birded. I will no longer update my life and regional lists on my website on the "My Life Lists" page above, which has been a rather tedious endeavor
2) I will have all my images going forward attached to my newer eBird lists. I plan to continue to upload them to this site, but will not need to make the extra effort to label them (for the general regional images)
3) I may continue to add and label images to the separate pages which I have created for special groups of birds, such as hummers, raptors, owls, etc., as I am not sure eBird has the capability to look up all my hummer images, for example
For those interested in looking up my eBird lists/images, you will need to log in and look me up by my username nchitale.
There were some special finds, such as all the endemics (some hummers, wrens and warblers), as well as 2 owls (neither of them new, but always great to see). But most special were the wonderful habitats (scrubland, desert, coast, pine forest, cloud forest) we explored. I was amazed at the natural beauty of Mexico, and am already planning my next trip, to Oaxaca in 2025.
* Important Note* - this is the trip where I really learned how to use eBird properly, including editing my personal lists (separate from the group lists I have been a part of multiple times before) and how to add images. As such, because of the ease of tracking my lists and having an easier way to find images, I will be using eBird regularly from now on. This will change how I have been doing things in important ways:
1) I will update my eBird account by adding all my prior lists; this is where I will track my species counts across various regions I have birded. I will no longer update my life and regional lists on my website on the "My Life Lists" page above, which has been a rather tedious endeavor
2) I will have all my images going forward attached to my newer eBird lists. I plan to continue to upload them to this site, but will not need to make the extra effort to label them (for the general regional images)
3) I may continue to add and label images to the separate pages which I have created for special groups of birds, such as hummers, raptors, owls, etc., as I am not sure eBird has the capability to look up all my hummer images, for example
For those interested in looking up my eBird lists/images, you will need to log in and look me up by my username nchitale.