El Cielo Nature Festival

[GreatAuk]

Just returned from El Cielo in Tamaulipas, Mexico. El Cielo is a UNESCO biosphere reserve renowned for its biodiversity, the northernmost cloud forest in the hemisphere. Very isolated but paradoxically not difficult to get to from here! In four days of birding we saw 187 species, including Elegant and Mountain trogons; Barred antshrikes; Crane and White-tailed hawks; Tamaulipas pygmy owls; four species of kingfisher; Pale-billed, Lineated and Bronze-winged woodpeckers--you get the picture. The great thing is that you can see all of that in a very long weekend and without spending a fortune.

And if you're wondering if I have photos--I don't! It was all I could do just to see everything, much less photograph them all.

I highly recommend it.

[Maestro]

I really need to get there. My wife's aunt is president of UT Brownsville and they are teamed up with the authorities down at the Biosphere for research. She has invited us to go in November when they send a crew down there. Man, that would be awesome. I need to get my passport updated.