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Attack of the Hooligan Bluebird

10,000 Birds

Or rather, to my car… which suffered the fierce attack of a Hooligan Bluebird. I had gone to investigate the area around AtĂ©cuaro, a tiny town to the south of the church my wife and I pastor on the edge of the city of Morelia, Mexico. But it wasn’t until April of this year that it happened to me.

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The Birds are All Right

10,000 Birds

Lake Cuitzeo is Mexico’s second largest lake, and its uniformly shallow waters make it a powerful magnet for dabbling ducks and shorebirds. But here in 2020, the eastern half is also suffering the effects of drought — leaving it shallow enough to keep a fair number of Teals, Pintails, and Shovelers happy.

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So Far, So-So

10,000 Birds

It wasn’t a lifer — I had seen one on Mexico’s east coast several years before — but it was a big surprise to find one in Michoacán. This area did seem to be suffering quite a bit from the drought. Eastern Bluebirds are surprisingly common in central Mexico. It turns out they also winter in my state.

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The benefits of hurricanes in Southeast Arizona

10,000 Birds

Another one of the shining examples of this is the actual proximity to Mexico, and the Sea of Cortez especially. Now please understand, having lived on the Baja for eight years, and suffering thru 6 hurricanes, I would never wish one of these monsters on anybody. The refuge headquarters is about eight or nine miles from the border.

Arizona 158
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An avian wetland ballet

10,000 Birds

This is that time of year here in Mexico, where everything “birds” slows down to a crawl. As much as I suffer, I can’t help but think about what the combination does to the birds that live in this extreme desert environment. Summer time in this part of Mexico means lots of wading birds.

Mexico 146
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Afforestation 2022

10,000 Birds

I try not to talk too much with my long-suffering congregation about birds. And my botanist friend gifted me some cucamelon seeds; this wild cucumber (native to Mexico) looks exactly like a tiny watermelon. Birding in the developing world means being a witness to constant habitat destruction.

2018 193
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Who cares for your ducks in the winter?

10,000 Birds

For my state of Michoacán in central Mexico, Lago de Cuitzeo is an unusually poor site for our specialty, which is west-Mexico-only endemics. Lago de Cuitzeo, which hosts hundreds of thousands of birds each winter, suffers from water overuse by agriculture, insufficient sewage treatment, and unplanned development.

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