May 5, 2015, Teotitlan del Valle, Mexico 鈥 Happy Cinco de Mayo! Today, many of my friends in the States will go to Mexican restaurants, wear sombreros, and get shlocked on margaritas and Corona in the spirit of fiesta鈥攃elebrating, basically, Cinco de Drinko. Meanwhile, here in Mexico鈥ost people won鈥檛 do much of anything at all.
Many Americans think Cinco de Mayo is Mexico鈥檚 independence day, but that鈥檚 not true (it鈥檚 actually on September 16, which is the most important national holiday in Mexico). The fifth of May technically honors an obscure 1862 Battle of Puebla when the Mexican army beat back an invading French force鈥攅ven though France took the whole country a year later. Today, people in Mexico鈥檚 state of Puebla will remember the victory on May 5, but it鈥檚 not a national holiday. According to Eric, if you ask someone here in Oaxaca about it, they might not even know what Cinco de Mayo is! The tradition has been embraced more enthusiastically north of the border ever since American beer companies popularized Cinco de Mayo in the 80s.
Eric and I celebrated the Battle of Puebla this morning with a Rose-bellied Bunting, which gave me a buzz way better than beer! This particular bunting is endemic to the isthmus of southern Mexico and it鈥檚 a radical-looking bird. The patch of forest where the buntings live is dry, thorny, and scrubby. It鈥檚 also one of the windiest places in Mexico, and the whole area is backdropped by hundreds of wind turbines (Eric did the environmental impact assessment for this wind farm, and says that bird collisions are minimal here鈥攖he main ecological impact is actually the footprint of the access roads). The windmills colored today鈥檚 sunrise with a certain Don Quixote character.
Coming up on May 9, I鈥檒l be celebrating something else, too: eBird, the website (and revolution) where I track my bird sightings, is hosting the first-ever global 鈥渂ig day鈥 to celebrate diversity and conservation. Thousands of people around the world are planning to go birding simultaneously on May 9 and contribute their sightings to eBird. The idea is to see how many species of birds we can find collectively in one day! Will participating birders spot more species on May 9 than I will see this entire year? Who knows鈥攂ut it鈥檚 a fun idea. If you鈥檇 like to join in, check it out: http://ebird.org/globalbigday
New birds today: 17
Year list: 2411
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