Empower Women to Save the Red Knot in Mexico

Do you remember that at the end of August, we received an order for 300 flowerpots made from recycled coffee capsules? The things we went through to finish them! We encountered numerous problems, from finding the optimal material mixture to the injection machine failing for reasons we couldn’t understand for almost two weeks. However, in the end, after a lot of struggle, we managed to complete the order by mid-December.

Meanwhile, we continued with the Bird Observation Circle sessions for children. The youngest participants got brand-new binoculars just their size, courtesy of the Cape Cod Bird Club. In December, we celebrated World Migratory Bird Day with a special session where the facilitators dressed up as birds, and our traveling friend “Pizo the Red Knot” joined us, answering the questions the children asked him.

Since early January, we have been attentive to the nighttime spawning of Gulf Grunion, and we recorded several fish of quite considerable size. That made us very happy, as it suggests this will be a good breeding season. And as we already know, after the spawning events, shorebirds gather in large flocks. Among them, we were able to re-observe several banded individuals from here and from Guerrero Negro, Washington, and Alaska. What a great moment it is to spend hours in the field among birds and fish.

In January, we participated in a meeting to consolidate the California Least Tern Working Group. The re-sightings of banded birds that we have carried out are showing that the Gulf of Santa Clara serves as a stopover site, at least for part of the population of the California subspecies. That first meeting will give structure, leadership, and strategic planning to the Working Group.

At the beginning of February, we boarded a boat and headed into the muddiest area of the region, where two enormous mudflats serve as the winter refuge for thousands of shorebirds. The goal was to estimate the number of birds. It was four days of long work, but also fun and very interesting.

Toward the end of February, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) made the official presentation of the “Guide for Identifying Common Birds in the Upper Gulf of California and Colorado River Delta Biosphere Reserve.” This guide is a product of the bird monitoring project we carry out through CONANP’s Program for the Protection and Restoration of Priority Ecosystems and Species. It is a tool we are very happy to share, with the intention of generating interest and knowledge about the bird species with which we coexist, as well as promoting birdwatching tourism in the region.

A little earlier than that, in mid-February, we began conservation actions for the Gulf Grunion and the Red Knot. To do this, we held a review workshop on the biology and ecology of these species to refresh our knowledge and be ready to share it with other beach users. One of the first activities was a beach cleanup to prepare it for the next spawning events, which we expected would be even more massive than those we had already documented. We collected almost a ton of debris: remains of palapas damaged over time, pieces of a retaining wall from an RV site, abandoned fishing nets, and general waste. Then we prepared all the materials we use in the field to delimit areas—pipes, wire, signs, uniforms, and many other details—so that on March 6, together with the team from Pronatura Noroeste and the National Guard, we installed the temporary fence. In 2026, we mark five years of carrying out this action to protect the incubation areas of Pejerrey eggs and the feeding grounds of shorebirds. Incidentally, the timing was excellent, just in time for the spawning events later that same night and the following afternoon.

Throughout these months, of course, we continued our beach cleanup efforts and the Bird Observation Circle activities. The busiest period of the year is coming — Thank you so much for you support, don’t miss the rest of the story of this season in the next report!

Four months have already gone by, and fortunately, we’ve spent them full of activities.

To wrap up the story about the Least Tern breeding season, we can say that in total we re-sighted three adults that had been banded in the summer of 2023 by Pro Esteros and Tom Ryan Ecological Consulting, while birds were also nesting, and this season we banded eight chicks that we hope to see again next summer.

From mid-July until now, we’ve spent several days collecting abandoned fishing nets from the beach—known as “ghost nets” because they pose a threat to coastal and marine species. So far, we’ve collected nearly a ton! One new task we want to start is identifying the materials these nets are made of to determine whether they can be recycled.

And speaking of recycling, or better yet, upcycling, at the end of July our friends from Nawal, a Mexican brand that designs and produces recycled pieces with a social focus, contacted us to invite us to collaborate on the production of decorative flowerpots (3 in tall) using discarded coffee capsules. We thought the idea was great and decided to join the project. To kick things off, Héctor, Nawal’s co-founder, came to give us a workshop focused on creating a brand for our upcycling area and starting production. In that first phase, we made 100 recycled flowerpots. Later, by the end of August, they ordered 300 more!

Without a doubt, those orders were the spark we needed to start putting more energy into this project, which we had somehow stand by. We got back on track, and in September we began creating our own upcycled products, producing the first 200 pieces. This was part of a campaign we called #LlévateLaBasura (some like Take the trash with you), a strategy aimed at encouraging people to rescue waste, but transformed into something beautiful: items made from 100% recovered plastic, collected and transformed in Golfo de Santa Clara, into meaningful pieces that, instead of polluting the beach, now go home with you as combs and flowerpots or earrings, necklaces and keychains shaped like the region’s representative species: the Vaquita porpoise, Gulf grunion, Red knot, and a Sea turtle. Not to brag, but the colors came out absolutely gorgeous. For now, they’re available by request, you ask for details through our social media.

We officially presented these story-filled products at the XXII Congress for the Study and Conservation of Birds in Mexico (CECAM Spanish acronym), where, fortunately, the pieces were very well received. We attended the XXII CECAM not only to showcase the first results of our upcycling efforts but also to give two oral presentations. Tomy and Juanita gave an overview of our five main lines of work in Golfo de Santa Clara: environmental outreach and education, habitat conservation, research and monitoring, waste management and upcycling, and nature tourism. They did an excellent job; many people congratulated them for both their work and their presentation. Meanwhile, Adriana presented a case study on all Pronatura Noroeste efforts for the conservation of the Red Knot and Gulf grunion since 2010. 

As part of the congress there was a seabird-watching trip and what a surprise we had, Tomy spotted a very distant bird that turned out to be a Salvin’s Albatross, a species that had never been recorded in Mexico!

Over these past months, we’ve also carried out several environmental education and outreach activities. We led workshops during the DIF Summer Course, giving five sessions where we talked about the biodiversity that surrounds us. We participated in shorebird counts as part of World Shorebirds Day, and at the Bird Watching Circle, we discussed that topic. We also collect waste in the International Coastal Cleanup and visited community middle and high schools during National Conservation Week to share information and invite more young people to learn about the Protected Natural Area (ANP Spanish acronym) we live in, as well as about birdwatching and how they can take part through the Bird Watching Circle that we continue to hold on the beach every other Saturday.

And regarding the ANP where we live, as we mentioned in our previous report, we’ve been conducting bird monitoring thanks to the Upper Gulf of California and Colorado River Delta Biosphere Reserve. So far, the most noteworthy and uncommon species we’ve recorded in the area include the Snow Goose, Redhead, and Neotropical Cormorant.

The year isn’t over yet—and we still have more activities to come!