This morning a group of us took to the old basura road just outside Progreso. According to eBird, this no-longer-much-traveled road to the old city dump is the birding hotspot of the entire state of Yucatan, with 259 species recorded to date. It was still too dark to see any birds clearly when we arrived, but having to wait for sunrise is never a problem.
Soon, however, we had enough light to see, and the birds made themselves known. Egrets great and snowy, multiple species of herons, stilts, teals, flotillas of white pelicans, flamboyances of flamingos, and at least one mangrove warbler kept us well-entertained.
Around 7:00 AM, as we were exploring the salt flats, I was startled by some living thing grabbing my trouser leg. (This area is home to a small crocodile population, so one never knows. . . .) The beast in question turned out to be a puppy, seemingly healthy, basically pest-free, obviously used to humans, and equally obviously distressed about something.
Seeing no cars, cycles, or human bodies anywhere nearby and there being no place to hide any of these things on this narrow stretch of road and no homes visible in any direction, we concluded that the little guy had been abandoned. We also wondered if siblings or mom had been taken by predators, leading to the emotional distress. The thought of this little creature forming part of a large reptile's food web led to some distress for us (even though crocodiles have to eat, too).
Fortunately, this part of Yucatan is home to a lot of concerned people, and one of our number is acquainted with Tracy Ginger of Ginger's Jungle Rescue, which partners with the city and local volunteers to rescue, sterilize, vaccinate, and rehome street dogs. To the rescue we went, and back to the kennels went the puppy. A puppy this young and this friendly will not, I suspect, have any difficulty finding a home.
So, we did not get the species count we anticipated this morning, but at least we did get to rescue an endangered creature.
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