On April 23, 2006 I am sitting out on the porch conducting the spring hawkwatch here in Tlacotalpan and I am approached by a group of people that look like birders... My guests are Angel Montoya, his wife Jennifer and son Woodrow together with Angel's sister and brother in law. Angel tells me that he and his family are here on vaction and that he works for the Peregrine Fund and his wife Jennifer works for the World Wildlife Federation.
Instant camaradeire.
Anyone who gives a damn about nature is a friend of mine.
As I talk more with Angel he tells me that he is a field biologist with Peregrine Fund working on the Aplomado falcon restoration project in the US. How cool is that?
I am the captive audience with a thousand questions!
That afternoon Angel and myself sat on the porch, drank a couple cold beers and counted migrating raptors 5,248.....among them 5,010 Mississippi kites, 16 Peregrine falcons, 13 Turkey vultures, 4 Ospreys, 1 late Swallow/tailed kite, 196 Broad/winged hawks, 6 Swainsons hawks, 1 American kestrel and a Partridge in a pear tree!
In the course of the conversation I mentioned that I had been "digiscoping" Aplomados nearby and asked him if he wanted to go birding the next morning. Angel agreed and early the next morning we headed out to my local patch to bird.
Note. I live in central Veracruz in the tropical lowlands.
The next morning Angel showed up on time, and we headed out to bird. When we got to the area where I had been photographing Aplomado falcons, I scanned the fence line and we found the Aplomado nest!
I was really excited, this is the first time in my life that I had ever seen a nesting Aplomado falcon!
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