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Birding and Cultural Trips Throughout Mexico
El Pedregal Nature Lodge and Retreat Center
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 | | Alamos Sonora in the green of summer! |
Buenos dias a todos! We've got all sorts of information to share with you in our summer newsletter! A few of the highlights:
Summertime birding trips to the Sierra Madre
More trip dates for 2012-13
Upcoming tours with limited space available
New tour for 2013 - Oaxaca Valley Endemics
New Summer trip for 2012 - The hottest birding in Mexico!
Upcoming Presentations: Birds of West Mexico and Alaska
Fall trip to Gambell, Alaska
End of an era....La Ciudadela is for sale!
Summertime special rates at El Pedregal
Dates for this years southern Sonora Audubon Christmas Counts
A Stygian Owl in Sonora!!!
...and more!
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SUMMERTIME BIRDING TRIPS IN THE SIERRA MADRE MOUNTAINS!
 | | Rufous-capped Warbler |
Madera, Chihuahua
September 11-14
(New Dates...3 spaces left)
During the hot summer months here in Mexico, we like to migrate up to the higher elevations of the Sierra Madre mountains, where the weather is perfect, the scenery is spectacular and the birding is at its best! Lucky for you we still have a couple of spaces available on our Madera trip to see the highly endangered Thick-billed Parrot and the elusive Eared Quetzal! This is a short trip that offers a great opportunity to see some very cool birds and get an introduction to a remote and beautiful area that is not frequently explored by birders and naturalists. Although the focus of this trip is on the parrots and other high elevation species, we will also bird some seasonal wetlands and grasslands of the central plateau and stop to see some fantastic cliff dwellings!
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A big bend on the Copper Canyon train line in the summertime!
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Copper Canyon
September 17-25, 2012
(2 spaces left)
We also have a couple of spaces left on our trip to the Copper Canyon. This trip also travels into the beautiful Sierra Madre Occidental where we find all sorts of high elevation birds while experiencing the breath taking scenery of the Copper Canyon. We also spend some time in the lower elevations, teeming with early migrant shorebirds on the Sea of Cortez, and in the tropical lowlands, home to a number of northwest Mexico endemics. We should see birds like Yellow-winged Cacique, Purplish-backed and Black-throated Magpie Jays, Happy and Sinaloa Wren, Ruesset-crowned Motmot, Yellow Grosbeak, Bare-throated Tiger Heron, Crane Hawk, Common and Great Blackhawk, Elegant Quail and many more. Most trips to the Copper Canyon are offered in the spring and fall when the countryside is much drier, high season tourism is in full swing and the waterfalls are only visible to a active imagination. September offers fine birding and the opportunity to experience the canyon dressed up in all its majestic green beauty and with all the waterfalls pouring down the canyon walls. Being that the Eared Quetzal is a late nester, it is also the most reliable time of year to find them in areas that have historically been excellent nesting locations.
For more information on any of these trips, including a complete itinerary and bird list, please contact us.
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More Birding Trips in 2012 and 2013
November 4-10
(see below for more information)
January 20-26, 2013
January 28-February 7
Durango Highway San Blas (3 spaces left)
February 14-23
Colima Jalisco (NEW itinerary....3 spaces left)
February 26-March 5
West Mexico Birding Odessey - Mazatlan to Manzanillo (SOLD OUT)
March 8-21
Oaxaca Valley (recently added NEW trip)
March 22-28
(See below for more information )
Colorado Grouse and Chicken Trip
(NEW for 2013...4 spaces left)
April 2-10
(contact us for a detailed itinerary)
Yecora and Alamos, Sonora
April 12-20 (with Northern Arizona Audubon Society)
July 8-16, 2013 (recently added dates)
You may have noticed that we are not offering very many scheduled trips this fall, the reason for this is that we are busy with custom and private tours for individuals and organizations. We specialize in creating great custom trips for you and your group! For more information, please go to Custom Trips. We look forward to hearing from you!
www.solipaso.com
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More Information on our New Trips for 2012-2013
Alamos, Sonora: A tropical introduction- We are changing our classic Alamos trip to include a night in the Rio Sonora river valley on the drive down from Tucson. This addition gives our guests the chance to see another beautiful part of Sonora, with its historic colonial towns and abundant natural beauty.  We stay in Alamos, at El Pedregal Nature Lodge, for 4 nights, birding and exploring the exceptionally diverse tropical deciduous forest and the colonial jewel of Sonora. The last night is spent on the Sea of Cortez before ending up back in Tucson. This relaxed paced week-long trip to our home state of Sonora is a great way to get acquainted with birding in the tropics and in Mexico.
Alamos, Sonora: Birds and Music - We ran a version of this trip last year and it was great fun! Each day we went to wonderfully varied concerts, including flamenco guitars, Cuban drummers and chamber music. In the evenings, we would "dress up" and head off the the Palacio for the 'noche de gala' opera performances of world class artists, followed by even more music on the streets of Alamos late into the night! Our mornings were filled with some of the best birding and exploration that Mexico and Sonora has to offer. It proved to be a great combination of activities!
We are offering this trip again in January and we are limiting it to just four (4) participants! We have made a couple of changes to the itinerary, which includes a night in the Rio Sonora Valley in the town of Banamichi, which offers a chance to see another beautiful area of Sonora. And, as on all our Alamos trips, our last night is spent in San Carlos.
This is a wonderful opportunity for a group of friends to experience a very special and personalized trip to Alamos.
Oaxaca Valley - Over the years, we have run a number of tours to fantastically diverse and interesting state of Oaxaca, covering nearly every corner of the state! Now, for the first time, we have put together a tour that concentrates on the birds and sites found within the valley of Oaxaca. We will be staying in one hotel for the entire trip and be doing day trips that will be primarily birding in the morning and include visits to the best archeological sites, craft villages and museums in the afternoons. We will also find plenty of time to sample the wonderful food and culture of the beautiful city of Oaxaca.
Yecora-Alamos in the Summer - We have been telling people for years that the birding in Sonora is never better than it is the first couple of weeks in July...and so, we are very excited to be offering a Yecora-Alamos trip in July of 2013!  This is right at the beginning of the breeding season and just as the forest is turning green and lush! This is a magical time to be down here...the bird song is incredible, the reptiles and insects are beginning to come out and the forest comes alive! Many birds that are non-existent or difficult to find here in the drier season are common in July. In the lowlands, we should see Yellow-green Vireos in huge numbers, Military Macaws are easy to find, Lilac-crowned Parrots fly over the Pedregal, Yellow Grosbeaks are everywhere, and Yellow-billed and Mangrove Cuckoos have arrived. In the highlands, such difficult birds as Aztec Thrush and the poorly known Eared Poorwill can be found in better numbers.
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UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS
BIRDS AND BIRDING IN EXTREME WESTERN ALASKA 
After 15 years of leading bird watching tours to numerous locations throughout Alaska, Dave has finally put together a presentation of beautiful photos and stories about these uniquely beautiful and remote areas he has been exploring! Among the regions covered in the talk are several of the Bering Sea islands including St. Lawrence (Gambell), Pribilof's (St. Paul) and Adak (in the Aleutians), as well as the Seward Peninsula and the Nome area. The presentation will be part of the Tucson Audubon 'Living with Nature' series.
Where: Green Valley Public Library.
When: December 1st, 2012 at 10 a.m.
PRESENTATION FOR NORTHERN ARIZONA AUDUBON SOCIETY
We are happy to announce that we are now members of the Northern Arizona Audubon Society (NAAS) Business for Birds program.
Our hope is to become a part of the very active northern Arizona birding community. As an introduction, we will be giving presentations on the Birds and Habitats of Western Mexico to the membership of NAAS at their monthly meetings in January. In addition, we are pleased to be offering a Yecora-Alamos trip for the NAAS membership in April of 2013 that will help to raise some significant money for the NAAS education fund. So, if you are a member of NAAS, consider joining us for this special trip. If you are not a member, think about joining and getting involved in birding in northern Arizona! Click on the above logo for more information or contact us.
Where: Sedona Public Library and Flagstaff Shepherd of the Hill Lutheran Church
When: Sedona, January 16th and Flagstaff, January 17th...both at 7:00 p.m.
TUCSON BIRDS AND WILDLIFE FESTIVAL
 As proud members of the Birds and Business Alliance members of the Tucson Audubon Society, we are looking forward to participating in the second annual Birds and Wildlife Festival, August 17-19, 2012. Last year, this event was a resounding success and we were happy to participate by having a booth in the vendor area. This year we are going to be there again...Not only will we have a booth, but David will be doing a presentation entitled 'Arizona's Tropical Backyard: The Birds and Habitats of Western Mexico' loaded with great photos of birds and habitats. Where: Riverpark Inn, Tucson
When: Saturday, August 18th at 10:30 a.m.
 We are also offering a post-festival trip to Madera which only has 1 space left! For more information on this trip, follow the link: Thick-billed Parrots of Madera! If you know you can go and want to make sure you get that last spot...contact us! For more information about this great Festival, follow the link below! There are field trips offered all over the greater Tucson area, free talks on all sorts of interesting subjects, the nature expo and more! Come by our booth and say hi!We'll see you there!
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Fall Birding Trip to Gambell, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska!
It has been a couple of years, but we are looking forward to going back to the remote and beautiful Saint Lawrence Island for some serious rarity chasing this fall! For the past several years, a majority of the North American first records for birds have occurred on the remote Alaska outpost of Gambell, only 38 miles from the Russian coast! This is a starkly beautiful land where millions of birds pass on their migration every year. We work with High Lonesome Bird Tours on this trip...David guides, Jen cooks and everyone has a great time! For more information, contact us or go to High Lonesome Bird Tours.
There are only 4 spaces left for this fall trip and the dates are September 1-8, 2012.
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RANDOM NOTES
SOUTHERN SONORA AUDUBON CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNTS
In an effort to be very organized and allow everyone to plan ahead, the three compilers for the CBCs in southern Sonora have put their heads together and come up with dates for the counts! Once again, with the idea of trying to make it very attractive for our birding pals from up north to come down for all three counts, we have scheduled them all within a one week time frame. Our other thought was to schedule them early in the count month to make it easier for folks to get back home for the holidays. The dates for each count are as follows:
Rancho Ecologico Monte Mojino Count - December 15 and 16: This is a logistically challenging count that actually takes 3 days to do because of the remote nature of the circle! Groups will depart Alamos on December 15 for their areas and the count will be held on December 16, with compilation dinner that evening. Groups will return to Alamos on December 17. This count requires camping out and some hiking. It is a great opportunity to bird one of the more interesting CBCs anywhere. This count is hosted by REMM, a conservation project of Nature and Culture International.
For more information, contact Suzanne Winckler: [email protected]
To read a riviting account of a previous REMM CBC:
Rancho Ecologico Monte Mojino CBC 2012
Alamos Count - December 19: With nearly 30 years of history behind it, the Alamos CBC is consistently one of the better attended counts in Mexico, with a lot of great habitat diversity, a fun and diverse group of birders and a the beautiful town of Alamos at the heart of it all. For more information, email David MacKay: [email protected]
Navopatia Count - December 21: Rounding out the three counts, Navopatia has the potential to produce some very interesting birds with strikingly different habitats than the other two counts. The variety of habitats include estuaries, Sea of Cortez beaches, organ pipe cactus forest, agricultural fields and isolated riparian areas. The count is hosted by the Navopatia Field Station, a very comfortable base to spend the night before or after the count right on the Agiabampo estuary. For more information, email Adam Hannuksela: [email protected]
SPECIAL SUMMERTIME RATES AT EL PEDREGAL 
Because of the hot weather in Alamos, summer has always been our slow time of year. However, we often feel like people are missing out the best time of year in Alamos! May and June are hot and very dry! Then the monsoons come and the dry forest turns emerald green and it is hot and humid! The summer storms, technicolor sunsets, cool mornings and quiet days are worth experiencing! As a way to entice you here, we are offering a special rate for the months of May through September at El Pedregal! Our room rates are normally $100 per night...and for the summer we are offering rates of $85 per night ($1100 pesos)! This includes a full breakfast, taxes and lots of rest and relaxation! Read our stellar Trip Advisor reviews to see what our guests say about their time at El Pedregal!
IN THE NEWS!
The following is a link to an interview that Jen recently did for an online travel blog...a little bit of history about how we got to Alamos and how Solipaso and El Pedregal came to be: MEXONLINE INTERVIEW
A STYGIAN OWL IN SONORA!!!!
In May, we were visited by Dean Latray, who came to bird and explore the Alamos area and enjoy the peacefulness of El Pedregal. David and Dean spent a couple of great days birding and had seen some great birds east of Alamos, including Laughing Falcon and Military Macaws! David then flew off to work in Alaska and we sent Dean off to the Yecora area with one of our local guides, Armando Mejia for a couple of days of high elevation birding. Who could have guessed that they would run into one of the rarest owls in Sonora at an elevation of less that 3000 feet in the middle of May?! It may have been that the bird had come down from the mountains searching for water, or it may have been sick. Congratulations to Dean and Armando for finding this bird and documenting this sighting. We were surprised to find that Stygian Owl is not listed in the Birds of Sonora by Russell and Monson, nor was it on the ebird Sonora list!
THE END OF AN ERA...LA CIUDADELA IS FOR SALE!
Well they say that all good things must come to an end and in this case it is ever so true! La Ciudadela, the 325 year old, 24,000 sq foot converted Spanish fort that we lived in when we first moved to Alamos is up for sale! Yes, after owning the majestic and beautiful building for more than 20 years, Richard and Margo Howells (Dave's mom and stepdad) have decided to pass it on to someone new. Many of you have stayed at the giant old house when we operated it as a B&B and others have been guests of the Howells or guests at one of the major parties that have gone on within those walls! Maybe one of you is interested in buying it or know someone who might be. Here is a link to the website with all the information that you need:
We would love to have you as our neighbors and members of the Alamos community!
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As always, we hope you enjoy our newsletter! It's a rather full one...a reflection of what  life is like for us right now! And that is just our work world! We are happy to be very busy...it makes us feel like we are doing things right! Beyond work...we spent a great ten days at Jen's family home in Inverness, CA, where we spent time w/ family and friends (that's Jen's Dad in the foto!), swam in the bay, hiked, played at the beach, went salmon fishing and ate many good meals. It was a great little vacation! Now we are enjoy Alamos and the green summer and rains. We look forward to hearing from you! Drop us an email and fill us in on what you are doing in your worlds!
Muchos saludos,
David and Jennifer MacKay
www.solipaso.com
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