Although there’s been extraordinarily little snow this season, we have been beleaguered with long stretches of sunless gray days, and by mid-January desperately needed some sunshine. The gloom was finally enough to make my more fiscally responsible better half start to crack–when I caught her looking at flights to warmer lands I knew it was time to strike. Luckily San Juan, PR is an easy nonstop ride from our New England base.
After setting up shop at the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar, we were hungry and thirsty, anxious to shed our New England winter traveling clothes for lighter garb. It seems wrong, but I got my first lifer, one of the many personable Greater Antillean Grackles, in swim trunks with a cervesa in hand.
We booked a rental car and headed up to El Yunque, the only US National Forest that is a tropical rainforest . The rebuilt visitor’s center is beautiful and accessible, with the opportunity to peek into the canopy as well as to get up close and personal with a few endangered Puerto Rican Parrots. We never ventured much beyond the center, but very much enjoyed the birding around its woods and gardens.
The boy and I saw endemics and common Caribbean birds, as well as old familiar friends, such as Semipalmated Plovers, spending the winter in a more welcoming climate. We weren’t at all hardcore about birding, and were mostly just happy to get some rays, put a toe in the surf, and greet the birds as they came. Still, I picked up 16 lifers and could probably get another dozen with focused effort on a future trip. Which I hope is soon.