Jalisco nature photographer Jesús “Chuy” Moreno has been publishing calendars featuring his outstanding photos of western Mexico’s flora and fauna since 2010. Whereas in the past he offered desk agendas in Spanish only, for 2014 he has produced a bilingual wall calendar which sells for 120 pesos.
The photos are by Moreno and fellow photographer Alex Rodríguez and this year the subject is Birds of Mexico’s Wetlands.
Moreno told me he chose this subject “because in this country, lagoons, bogs, mangrove swamps and similar wetlands are in serious danger.” He pointed out that such places are generally considered dirty, unproductive and worthless. As a result, he says, they are either drained and dried up or turned into dumps for garbage, waste and sewage. “However,” says the naturalist, “wetlands are vital to numerous species of migratory birds. Many of them come here from the far north, heading for places far south of Mexico. For them, swamps and lagoons are important rest stops which break up an incredibly long journey, and any damage to these places poses grave consequences for the birds.”
The “Aves de los Humedales Mexicanos” calendar has large (9 by 13 inch) photos and lots of space for jotting down notes for every day of the year. It has pictures of terns, avocets, coots, cormorants, egrets, ibises, teals, stilts, shovelers, grebes, dowichers, sandpipers and, of course, Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, the American White Pelican which can be seen in Lake Chapala by the tens of thousands.The back of the calendar includes thought-provoking comments on wetlands in both Spanish and English. “Amongst the many benefits we receive from wetlands is the prevention of both flooding and droughts, thanks to the sponge-like action they perform, withholding large amounts of water and slowly releasing it. … At the same time, they constitute purification systems, since a lot of toxic residues produced from human activities are withheld and transformed by the vegetation and microorganisms present in these bodies of water.”
The photos in this calendar were taken in the Villa Corona Lagoon, Lake Chapala, Manzanillo and even in what Moreno calls “a puddle alongside the highway to Nogales.” The calendar’s cover photo was taken exactly in that puddle, he says. “It’s a picture of a row of playeritos (sandpipers), a migratory species which comes here all the way from the Canadian arctic. Let me just say a word about this “puddle” because it’s a good example of the sort of wetland nobody cares about. I first began to observe birds in this place 30 years ago. Back then, it was much bigger and you could have called it a lagoon. There were ducks, seagulls, pelicans – all kinds of birds – and I used to bring my students there for bird watching. But as the years went by, more and more portions of this body of water were drained for construction projects, reducing its size until today most of it is gone. That’s the typical story of so many wetlands.”
March’s picture, taken by Alejandro Rodríguez, also has its story. “These are Least Terns, among the smallest swallows in existence. They nest along the shore of the Villa Corona Lagoon. To get a close-up view of these birds, eyeball-to-eyeball, we need to arrive at the shore before sunrise, lie down in the mud and cover ourselves with a cloth. Then we wait, and wait, and wait, until a bird comes right in front of the camera. It’s all part of the job. Unfortunately, this particular shore eventually became a favorite site for racing ATVs and pickup trucks back and forth. Well, the noise they made was disastrous for these birds. One by one all the nests disappeared. Finally there was only one nest left and in this picture you can see the last two baby birds born along this shoreline.”
In Guadalajara, the calendar is available from Jesús Moreno (Cell: 33- 453-2797). In Ajijic, go to Diane Pearl’s gallery on the corner of Colon and Ocampo (tel 766-5683). If anyone purchases 15 calendars, Chuy Moreno says he will be happy to go to the school or organization of their choice to give a free presentation on Wetland Birds or any of the subjects of his previous calendars (such as orchids or the flora and fauna of the Primavera Forest). Moreno’s photos can be seen online at www.portafolioonline.es/jesusmoreno. Click on Galerías.