Hi all,

Barry and I just got back from Guatemala (to a house with NO power and 
NO phone -- though these just came on). I am not going to regale 
ospreyers with tales of Guatemala -- we will do a trip report which will be 
duly posted on Blake Maybank's web site birdingtheamericas.com -- but 
just wanted  to share some observations about  wintering migrants there.

We stayed at two places, Los Tarreles Reserve, a shade coffee farm and 
ecolodge on the slopes of Volcan Atitlan and at Tikal in northern 
Guatemala. The shade coffee plantation was full of our migrants, 
especially common were Tennessee, Nashville, Magnolia, 
Black-and-White and some Redstarts, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, 
and many many Swainson's Thrushes. We tallied 24 species of 
neotropical migrant warblers there. These birds were more numerous in 
the coffee and ornamental plantings (Tarrales also raises ornamental 
plants for export) than in the untouched native cloud forest.  However the 
latter hosted some Hooded Warblers as well as Wood Thrush. The 
plantations also hosted a fair number of Western Tanagers and a few 
Summer, but no Scarlet. We saw flocks of  30-50 Indigo Buntings (with a 
few Painteds mixed in) in the plantations. The most common vireo was 
Warbling. Empid flycatchers were also common in the plantations and 
forest edge, and we had a great time (hah!) sorting out the species -- 
most were Least, and "Traill's" -- and of these about half appeared to
favor 
Alder. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were the most common hummer out 
of some 12-14 species seen. 

A day visit to the pine-oak forest at Corazon del Boque Reserve found 
some western species, primarily Townsend's and Hermit Warblers, but 
also Tennessee, Redstart, B&W, Parula as well as our target 
Pink-headed Warbler (wow!).

The humid rainforest floor at Tikal is the favored haunt of Kentucky and 
Hooded Warblers, as well as many many Wood Thrushes and a few 
Ovenbirds and Louisiana Waterthrushes. Also, quite a few Nashville, 
Tennessee, Redstart, and Black-and-Whites in mixed floxks with native 
rainforest species. White-eyed and Yellow-throated Vireos were common 
(but no Red-eyes). I saw more Kentucky Warblers in 4 days than in my 
last 4 years in Maryland! Quite a few Common Yellowthroats in the more 
grassy areas. Indigo Buntings flocked with White-collared Seedeaters 
around the hotels. We had to laugh at the Wood Thrushes which staked 
out the covered picnic pavillions and begged for handouts from the 
tourists -- a thrushy fight might ensue if an interloper tried to snatch a 
crumb! We saw few other migrants here but it is a huge biosphere 
reserve and the birds have thousants of acres in which to disperse.

Hopefully most of these birds will survive their Guatemalan vacation and 
return next spring to delight us at Rock Creek or wherever we go to watch 
the magic of migration!

Gail Mackiernan
Colesville, MD



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