El Cielo - The cloudforest

A trip back to Brownsville wouldn't quite have been complete without a trip
down to our field station in Mexico - Rancho del Cielo. It's been over a
year since I visited this cloudforest biosphere reserve in North-Eastern
Mexico. The first time I visited El Cielo was back in 1994 as a member of
the Gorgas Science Society at UT-Brownsville.
This was the first time I've been here 'without' a camera. Yep, no camera.
This image of a typical sunrise I post here is from many years ago.
Some of the most spectacular sunrises I've ever seen have been from the
'lookout' - a small wooden platform built overlooking the plains towards the
Gulf of Mexico.
It's always a treat to wake up early in the morning and head out from the
camp while it's still dark. Make your way by headlamp along the trail in the
silence of dawn and find a nice comfortable spot on the platform.... then
wait.
At first, all you see is the beautiful blue dawn sky merging into light hues
of orange at the edge of the horizon. In front and almost beneath you - a
soft blanket of clouds stretching like an ocean all the way to the horizon.
To the south you can sometimes see the peak of 'el Sombrero' sticking up
above the clouds. And as you sit and absorb the atmosphere all around, and
the light hues in the distant horizon gets rich with colour then fades as it
starts getting brighter and then the dawn chorus begins. First its a series
of short, sharp whistles, rising in crescendo until it breaks down in a
flutter of whistles of varying tones - a singing quail. Then, the mountain
trogon, and then the spot-breated wren, and before you know it, a whole
medley of calls break out all around... And then the sun rises over the
horizon. Truly magical.

But it doesn't end there. Once the sun rises over the clouds, it heats up
the surface of the clouds, and now you see the clouds move like soft ocean
waves, getting puffier as the sun gets warmer, and within a half hour the
soft blanket of clouds rises and blows right into the ledge that you are
sitting on. And before you know it, the sun disappears and now you know why
you are in a cloudforest.

The cloudforest part of El Cielo biosphere reserve lies along a 5 mile long,
escarpment along the edge of the Sierra madre oriental. This little ledge is
the transition zone for many species - species like the podocarpus trees
reach their northern-most limit here, while species like sugar maple rach
their southern most limit here, and you'll see both these vastly different
species growing next to each other. This spectacular assemblage of flora
leads to an equally spectacular array of fauna, many tropical species of
birds, mammals and reptiles which reach their northern-most limits here in
this mountain range.

Anyways, I was here just for a couple of days this trip mainly as crew,
helping cook, wash dishes and make margaritas :) but nonetheless it was good
fun. The group that was there was big into birding and butterflies, and anyways here's a link to their blog on the trip - http://birdernaturalist.blogspot.com