Sounds of Mexico: Birdsong on the Yucatan Peninsula

11/04/22 • 30 min

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What does one do when visiting Mexico on a family vacation? If you’re me, then I suspect you would beg for a few hours to record sounds and promise to be back before the rest of the family noticed you were missing. And if you’re still me, you decide to leave the resort property and hike into the jungle telling no one, including security, where you were going, but that’s a different story for a different day.

Welcome to episode 22 of the Nature is my Jam podcast! As always, I’m happy to see you again. This week, we are in a small jungle area a few miles outside of the resort where we were staying on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The resorts in Mexico are stunningly beautiful and cater to your every need, but are a horrible place for trying to record nature sounds. Knowing I could not get a clean recording at the resort, I plotted a course to a nearby Cenote that would take me through a couple of small towns and into a more secluded area of the surrounding jungle.

Have I mentioned it was hot and humid? I mean, it was HOT and HUMID. As the sweat soaked my clothes and the sun did its best to bleach what’s left of my hair, I suddenly became okay with, “I’ll just keep going until I see or hear something cool.” I watched Iguanas sunbathing and the cutest rodent I’ve ever seen scurry into the undergrowth as I approached. The animal I later learned is called an Agouti. I have no pictures but they look kind of like a short-haired Guinea Pig to me. The highlight, however, was getting to a Spider Monkey casually stroll past me as I contemplated the ethics of trying to take it home with me.

Okay, Wassom, six paragraphs in and we still don’t know what you recorded this week. Well, let’s get to it then! I found a small section of jungle where I could hear birds and other wildlife scurrying through the underbrush (is it called underbrush in a jungle?). I recorded for two hours and got some amazing sounds, albeit with a bit of background noise from another resort and what sounds like maybe some construction. I could only identify a Great-Tailed Grackle, Great Kisadee and a Hooded Oriole by sight. Not sure if their sounds are in this recording, though. I heard a member of the Dove family as I was editing this episode but didn’t see any. The database in my birding app is sparse for Mexico, so my apologies that I wasn’t able to provide a species list this week.

Recording Summary:

Date and Time: 10/30/2022 | 11:00 AM
Location: Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Landscape/Feature: Small jungle area a few miles from a beach resort
Conditions: HOT, HUMID with RELENTLESS SUN
Recording Device: Zoom F3
Microphone(s): Sonorous Objects SO.1
Digital Audio Workstation: Adobe Audition

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Recording Summary:

Date and Time: 10/30/2022 | 11:00 AM
Location: Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Landscape/Feature: Small jungle area a few miles from a beach resort
Conditions: HOT, HUMID with RELENTLESS SUN
Recording Device: Zoom F3
Microphone(s): Sonorous Objects SO.1
Digital Audio Workstation: Adobe Audition

Support the show

Thanks for listening! ❤️ Your support means the world to me. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter for daily updates.

Previous Episode

Sounds of Northern Michigan: On the Banks of Twenty-Two Creek

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This episode is for a friend that is fighting the occasional sleepless night. The last episode (wind noise) didn’t help him so I thought I’d record some creeks sounds, in the hopes it does the trick. Here’s to the original hobbit hailing from Lowell by way of East Kentwood and East Lansing. A brother, friend and fellow Spartan.

Welcome to episode 21 of the Nature is my Jam podcast! As always, I’m happy to see you again. This week, we are on the banks of Twenty-Two Creek in my hometown of Traverse City, Michigan. Twenty-Two Creek is a shallow and meandering creek that runs along the North Country Scenic Trail and is a prominent feature in the Valley of the Giants. Its gentle gurgling sounds are the backdrop for views of stunning trees that are hundreds of years old.

While not a simple place to find if you aren’t familiar with the area, I am still surprised that more people don’t know about this amazing section of trail. I can access the trail from Scharmen Road where the NCT crosses. It is less than a mile from the road to get to this section of creek, which sits at the bottom of the Valley of the Giants. It is a beautiful hike and there will be a bench waiting for you where the creek intersects with the trail.

If the name sound familiar, it is because we were at the same location back in July for Episode 7. It is surprising how a few months can change the soundscape of an area so much. In July, the creek greeted us with the sounds of a Winter Wren, only in Michigan during their breeding season. In this episode, the wrens are gone, but we can hear Owls, as well as a persistent voice that I don’t recognize.

I will be in Mexico when this episode gets published and am planning on coming back with some glorious sounds to share with you. Have a great week and look forward to chatting when I return.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and hope you enjoy this episode. Thanks again for your continued support!

Recording Summary:

Date and Time: 10/21/2022 | 04:15 AM
Location: Grand Traverse County, Michigan, USA
Landscape/Feature: Valley of the Giants and Twenty-Two Creek
Conditions: Unseasonably Warm, Clean
Recording Device: Zoom F6 Field Recorder
Microphone(s): Audio Technica BP 4025
Digital Audio Workstation: Adobe Audition

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Next Episode

Sounds of Sleeping Bear Dunes: Beavers at Otter Lake

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Welcome to episode 23 of the Nature is my Jam podcast! As always, I’m happy to see you again and can’t wait to share this episode with you. The weather here in northern Michigan has been unseasonably warm, with temperatures in the low 60s (around 15.5 Celsius for the rest of the world). The leaves have fallen and we would normally gear up for the first big snow of the year, but Mother Nature has other ideas. Fall is my favorite time of year so I’m not complaining! I went to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore yesterday to hike the Otter Creek Loop, which is part of the Platte Plains Trail. It is a roughly 5 miles (8km) loop that meanders through gently rolling hills and takes you along the creek and all the way around Otter Lake. Besides completing the loop and getting in some miles, I also wanted to find some sounds to record.

As I was entering the last section of the trail, I noticed some signs of beaver activity so stopped to inspect. I could see recent chew marks in several saplings and what appeared to be a slick mud slide down to the creek. I assumed this to be a sure sign of one or more industrious beavers, so I came up with a plan to record them working. Knowing my presence would likely dampen their enthusiasm, I quickly configured my gear to record overnight. I would come back the next day to see what sounds I captured. The trail is fairly popular, so I have to believe the beavers are used to human presence, but I always do my best to maintain a respectful distance.

When I returned, I was happy to see there had been additional activity overnight. To my complete surprise, they worked the area immediately in front of my gear and gave me a gift of some amazing sounds. Thank you, beavers!! This might just be my favorite recording of the year. I have several hours of their activity recorded and will do a longer edit over the winter. However, because I’m so excited about capturing the beavers, I want to share this clip with you on the podcast right now.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and hope you enjoy this episode. Thanks again for your continued support!

Recording Summary: