Veracruz has existed in my mind as the
humid costal plains around Chichicaxtle, Cardel and San Isidro for as long as
I’ve known it years that I have had to know it. Around here, a person gets so accustomed to the wilting heat
that any temperature below about 24 degrees C is cause for putting on a
jacket. On clear days, however, it
is still possible to see snow on top of the Pico de Orizaba about sixty miles
to the west. There are altitudes
in Veracruz that rival and then surpass those of the western US. This year I’ve had the pleasure of
discovering this side of Veracruz, which is probably the most beautiful part of
this state.
One of the sites I have come to know best
is La Joya, a favorite birding spots among the VRR crew. The town itself is charming on it’s
own. It is composed of a lot of
wooden building and is bifurcated by the highway to Mexico city where vests and
hats are always being sold. It
features a lot of restaurants that serve rabbit, a freakishly high concentration
of cheese shops, and a lot of homes heated by wood stoves. It’s the kind of aesthetic that I
appreciate.
The main attraction however, is a gravel pit surrounded by
second-growth pine forest just outside of the town of La Joya. Sentiments about private property are
somewhat different in Mexico, so a person can freely walk into the gravel pit
and around the trucks and start birding, but we usually ask for permission at
the office anyhow. Usually the
response is a mixture of warm welcome and total confusion as to why gringos
with binoculars chose here as a tourist destination.
For a Californian birder, the mixture of
species in La Joya is a strange amalgamation of familiar birds, seemingly
familiar birds, and stuff you have never seen before. There are Stellar’s Jays and Acorn Woodpeckers occupying the
soundscape just like in the Sierra Nevadas, and many things such as the
Mountain Chickadees and the Dark-eyed Juncos have just been replaced by their
equivalents the Mexican Chickadees and Yellow-eyed Juncos. Then there are things like Gray-silky
flycatchers, trogons, and the fabled Red Warbler that have no parallel in
California. It is a pleasantly
surreal feeling to be amongst the familiar and the strange, to be in Mexico wearing
a coat and battling the wind and rain rather than the heat and humidity. It is a beautiful place with a little
bit of both of the places I love.
Sorry I don’t have a camera to share
photos. Soon!
