Author Archives: makielb

We had lunch in the town of Santa Maria de Tule. I really liked the mural of Frida Kahlo. Here’s the kitchen when the food was prepared over wood stoves. Then we headed off to see the biggest tree in Mexico. Here is the Montezuma cyprus that has the largest diameter (11.2 m; 37.5 ft)Continue reading “Oaxaca, day-3, lunch and a big tree”

Once again our day started early as we headed up into the mountains. Heading out for the days sightings. One of the great joys of birding in Mexico is being able to see a lot of cacti. This is a velvet bur cactus. A western rhinoceros beetle. One of the larger beetles that we foundContinue reading “Oaxaca, Day-3, Rancho Aranjuz”

After lunch on day-2 we headed into the mountains – for a really exciting day! The trail was along a valley that had cattle and horses. The Mike’s looking up hill for birds. Well, at. least until a horse came trotting by. The horse passed us, totally ignoring us and headed down a trail toContinue reading “Oaxaca, day-2 LaCumbre”

My brother Mark and I went to the celebration of Auntie Carmela turning 100. What a wonderful gathering of family. My Italian family have known the Marino and Del Duca families since the 1600s! They all came from the town of Peschici, Italy. Camela arrive in 1953 with her children Vince and Teresa. Here weContinue reading “A 100th birthday celebration and more”

Having lunch at a restaurant in the mountains named Colibri seemed exciting – which it was. The view from the road might not seem very exciting, but it was deceptive. As soon as we were out of the van we were alreading seeing Mountain-gems. Our table for lunch with the openings facing the forest linedContinue reading “Oaxaca, day-2, Colibre lunch”

Here we are exiting the van on a mountain road in Ixtapeji. I found the high altitude (10,000+ feet) natural history to be the most interesting. I was especially excited to see the tremendous variety of lichens. Yes, I am still working on identifying them. Eric was always on the look out or listening forContinue reading “Oaxaca, day-2, Ixtapeji”

Around lunch on our first day in Oaxaca we visited a weaving shop in Teotitlan. What a wondrful experience. This is one of the weavers who told us about every aspect of the shop from getting the wool from sheep, the different colors of sheep’s wool, cleaning the wool, spinning the wool and coloring theContinue reading “Oaxaca, day-1, Teotitlan weavers”

Our days always started with wonderful breakfasts. Our typical breakfast was at 5:30 AM. Then we headed out for birds. Our first day took us to Yagul, a nature area with ruins. Our driver dropped us off at the entrance to the site where we birded the road to where he parked. I would describeContinue reading “Oaxaca, day-1 Yagul”

Just home after ten wonderful day in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. This was a Washtenaw Audubon Society sponsored trip that my friend Bryn put together. It’s not often that I can go to Mexico and add over 60 birds to my Mexican list of birds which is now over 660. Some of the birdsContinue reading “Just home from Oaxaca”

Over the years I have traveled extensively in Mexico visiting all of the states east of Oaxaca, north to Veracruz and Tamaulipas, as well as Colima, Jalisco and Michoacan in the west. But, this will be my first time in Oaxaca. To say that I am excited is an understatement. As a result of beingContinue reading “Heading off to Mexico”