Thursday, March 18, 2010

Oaxaca and Western Chiapas WINGS Tour: Day 4, El Ocote Reserve and Arriaga

This morning we returned to the Nava's Wren road in the Ocote Reserve, an area rich in species. In addition to seeing and hearing more Nava's Wrens, we saw this male Collared Trogon.

Here's the group in an area showing the limestone rocks that the wren calls home.

Limestone is a rather rare rock in wet tropical areas since it dissolves so readily, so any plants or animals that depend on both the geology and wet tropical climate are correspondingly rare.

There was a surprising diversity of Begonias here.


A lot of big yellow composites like this turn out to be in the genus Senecio, but this one  belongs to some other genus.

This skipper is a Common Mylon, Mylon maimon.

This is a Pale-banded Crescent, Anthanassa tulcis.

This is probably a Viviparous Skink, Mabuya brachypoda. [Jon Campbell thinks this is porbably Sphenomorphus cherriei, the striped litter skink.]

The rest of the afternoon was spent driving to our next base of Arriaga, near the Pacific coast of Chiapas. One roadside stop produced a few of these marvelous gems, Rose-bellied Bunting.

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