Midwest Birder

Tiscornia Park - Photo story

2009-11-25T14:24:00.026-06:00

Tim Baerwald found an Ancient Murrelet in southwestern Michigan on the eleventh (see Caleb Putnam's blog for photos and videos from the day it was found). This is a species that is normally spends the winter in the cold waters of the North Pacific off the coast of Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, Kamchatka and Japan (more life history information here). This is an exceptionally rare bird in the Great Lakes (WI has 5 records, this is MI's 9th) and even more exceptional is how confiding and "chaseable" this bird has been (it has been present for two weeks and counting). Most murrelet records are of flybys or just one-day wonders...
Tom Prestby decided that he was going to return from Whitefish Point the long way around the lake in order to see this bird and I decided to meet him over there. I got there at about 11:15AM on the 23rd and within 30 minutes the ten or so birders gathered there with myself were enjoying looks at the bird! Tom arrived shortly thereafter and we spent the next few hours enjoying not only the murrelet but two adult Little Gulls, a subadult Parasitic Jaeger that harassed Bonaparte's and Ring-billed Gulls offshore for about an hour, and a fairly close Red-necked Grebe!
My best digi-scoped shot of the Ancient Murrelet through my Kowa 88.

A typical view of the bird that seemed to spend more time underwater fishing than above!
Another look at the distinctive way murrelets dive with their wings.
I helped this fisherman net this impressive Steelhead from the pier.
Tim Baerwald, the finder of the Ancient Murrelet holding a young Bonaparte's Gull he helped untangle from a different fisherman's line.
The Red-necked Grebe just north of the pier.
After Tom had his fill shooting the murrelet and little gulls I borrowed his new Canon D40 and had fun shooting pretty much everything that flew by (like this Little Gull)!
Adult LIGU hovering over the water.Flyby of one of two LIGUs present.
First of many Bonaparte's Gull photos.
BOGU approach.
Another BOGU after grabbing a small fish right in front of us.
A young Bonaparte's showing off their nice contrasting upperwing pattern.
Yet another Bonaparte's Gull (one of my favorite species).
The best shot I managed of the murrelet with Tom's Canon D40.The consolation prize for Tom and I was a stop at New Buffalo where we picked up 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (an adult, 3rd winter, and 2nd winter) as well as two adult Thayer's Gulls (THGU being a Michigan bird for Tom and I)! The adult LBBG is on the bottom left and one of the THGU is on the far right and about halfway up (heavily hooded head, dark eye, and the large white apical primary spot).
A beautiful day to be on Lake Michigan in late November!

Stateline Beach Thayer's Gull

2009-10-28T20:00:00.002-05:00

Present on October 18th on Stateline Beach (Winthrop Harbor, Lake County, IL) and also observed sitting on Wisconsin waters. It was the only consolation prize for those of us hoping the previous day's glaucous-winged gull would reappear...

Late migrants in Racine County

2009-10-01T18:56:00.003-05:00

Today I saw my "first of fall" sightings for a whole slew of late migrants, unfortunately signaling that the majority of the passerine migration is coming to an end... Among those was Lapland Longspur, Dark-eyed Junco, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Purple Finch, and Winter Wren.

Also of note was a young Glaucous Gull that seems a little bit on the early side (poor digiscoped shot on the distant breakwall from Carre-Hogle Park in Racine, WI

Also here is a poor shot of a flock of geese going over my house on Sept 30 that contains Canada, Cackling, and Snow Geese:

Buff-breasted Sandpiper - Wind Lake Sod Farms

2009-08-24T20:35:00.005-05:00

I haven't been able to get out and bird as much as I would like this August and was getting the itch to go shorebirding since right now is prime time for lots of the more sought after species (Buff-breasted Sand, Western Sand, any large shorebird, or a Eurasian stray). So this evening I decided to go hit the Wind Lake Sod Farm, the traditionally productive spot for "grasspipers". The Sod Farms are rather spread out across several square miles of fields interspersed with soybeans and corn so it isn't a cake walk finding where the shorebirds are here (google earth screenshot below with mapped noteworthy sightings). I purposely had waited until after the tractors and workers who frequent these fields during the day had gone home so I wouldn't have them flushing the shorebirds up or giving me grief for parking along the side of the road... My first stop yielded a nice and close American Golden Plover among some Killdeer, always a treat to see. I continued scanning when I noticed hundreds of birds flushing from a very distant tilled field to my west. The sun angle was pretty rough so it was hard to discern much on the birds but my impression was that most of them were starlings, killdeer, and swallows. I continued panning though in the hopes of noticing some other shorebirds kicked up. Then I got on a tight group of fairly large shorebirds that had the streamlined front loaded look of pluvialis plovers to me. I whistled my best imitation of Black-bellied Plover (acquired while out in Cape May hearing them go over the seawatch multiple times daily) and to my surprise they turned and came flying right over me -- 25 American Golden Plovers! They continued on to the east and I lost sight of them. Just then John Winze pulled up and we decided to work our way down Burmeister Rd. to the east. After four fruitless stops we stopped and were scanning a field of mostly dead sod scraps to the north of the road and we immediately began picking up golden plover and we figured this is where my flyover flock earlier had put down. Then I noticed the lone Buff-breasted Sandpiper out towards the back of the field in the midst of the golden plovers (29 total AGPL in that field). We enjoyed better looks after driving further down the road as it fed. Unfortunately the bird was right at the limit of what can be digiscoped and still be identifiable. Below are the only two images I got that you can sort of tell anything from... We also had 3 Common Nighthawks, a Bobolink, and at least 80 Brewer's Blackbirds in the area. I would suggest that people stop and scope every field as it is very easy to just quickly scan over buffies.

Early July Willet

2009-07-12T20:51:00.005-05:00

After successfully tracking down one of the California Gulls that has been hanging out at Winthrop Harbor (just south of the WI line) on Friday, I headed north along the lake checking beaches. I managed to bump into my second lakefront Willet of the year (the other being a mid-May bird on Bradford Beach in Milwaukee). It's a tad on the early side for large shorebirds to be going south, so I was pleasantly surprised to find this bird. I was even more impressed at how cooperative it was, allowing fairly close approach and staying very still. The harsh mid-afternoon light and heat waves were the main things I had to cope with. Below are a few of my favorite shots of the 40 or so I managed before it was flushed by a couple other people and flew further up the beach.

Variation in 1st summer Little Gulls

2009-06-12T22:13:00.009-05:00

I enjoyed studying two young Little Gulls that have been recently frequenting the Manitowoc Impoundment on June 11th. One of the birds was obviously more advanced in its plumage and showed a mostly hooded head with a prominent white patch on the forehead. This birds dark carpal bars were also much more evident when just scanning over the flock.I was able to get several shots of this bird with its wings up (something I failed to get on the other bird). One of the shots is almost head-on, but the comparison of the LIGUs upperwing and the prominence of the carpal bar in flight really contrasts with the adjacent first summer Bonaparte's Gulls (see right). And finally, here is a shot of three adult male Aythya species in one field of view (LESC on the right). Not something you see everyday in June on Lake Michigan!

Texas trip update

2009-04-13T23:48:00.010-05:00

Currently enjoying a hotel room in San Antonio, TX before embarking on the grueling 8 hour drive out to Big Bend National Park tomorrow morning. Thus far the trip has been highly successful garnering each of us (Caleb Putnam, Tom Prestby, and Sam Galick) many lifers and ABA birds.
Below is Tom Prestby's account of our first eight days:

"I spent the last week birding in south Texas with Sean Fitzgerald, Caleb Putnam from Michigan, and Sam Galick from New Jersey. We saw 258 species of birds, by far my highest trip total ever. The following are the day by day highlights:

Sunday, April 5^th

Sean and I arrived at the Houston airport a couple hours before Sam and Caleb so we found some green space outside and conducted a stationary count. The biggest surprise was flushing a roosting Chuck-wills-widow from a small hedge nearby, the bird then took shelter in the parking garage of the airport. Doesn’t seem ideal but at least it’s a dark place. A small hawk flight also occurred with numerous Broad-winged and Swainson's and much to my delight a dozen of my lifer Mississippi Kites. Once the group assembled we headed to Galveston and birded there the rest of the day. Here we saw very good numbers of shorebirds, herons, gulls, and terns just about everywhere we stopped.

Monday, April 6^th

We started the day birding at Brazos Bend SP where we camped the night before. We woke up to the song of many southern passerines that would be with us for the rest of the trip and eastern hardwood species like Red-bellied and Pileated Woodpecker that we would not see the rest of the trip. In general, warblers were slow-- the highlight was a Prothonotary singing close to our campsite. From here we slowly birded our way down the coast to Aransas NWR. The main highlight along this drive was great views of several White-tailed Hawks. The highlight at Aransas was 2 lingering wintering Whooping Cranes seen from the observation tower- a life bird for all of us. Good numbers of shorebirds, gulls, terns, and ducks were seen from here as well. Scanning the ocean from here yielded us a couple unexpected species like Common Loon, Red-breasted Merganser, and Lesser Scaup. Next, we walked the Rail Trail where we saw our first (of many) Least Grebe of the trip and our only Purple Gallinule of the trip along with many other common marshbirds. We camped at Goose Island SP that night and were treated to a chorus of Paraque and Barred, Great-horned, and Barn Owl as we pitched our tents and went to sleep.

Tuesday, April 7^th

We woke up early and started our birding at South Padre Island. We saw some new warblers and other passerines but not nearly as many as we were expecting. We only saw 10 species of warblers on the island. Next stop was Laguna Atascosa NWR. The main habitat here is very dense thicket which is very reminiscent of the tropics. Here we were immediately exposed to many of the south Texas specialties with great looks at species such as Green Jay (on the right), White-tipped Dove, Long-billed Thrasher, Olive Sparrow, and Plain Chachalacha. At Alligator Pond we had great looks at the Masked Duck that has been present for several weeks—another life bird for all of us (it's getting pretty tough for me to pick up new ducks in the ABA area... I think Spectacled Eider is the only other life duck that regularly occurs that I haven't seen). Next, we birded the long auto tour where we saw large numbers of shorebirds, herons, gulls and terns including over 100 Reddish Egrets and quite a few Gull-billed Terns. Technically our rarest bird was a male Greater Scaup that we photographed, this species is fairly rare down there this late in spring.

Wednesday, April 8^th

We started the day on Port Isabel Road where we found one of the Aplomado Falcons on its nest, lots of singing Cassin’s Sparrows (left), a very obliging White-tailed Hawk, and good numbers of grasspipers, ducks, and herons. We were stunned to count 43 Least Grebes in just two ponds on this road. We whiffed on Botteri’s Sparrow. Then we went back to Laguna Atascosa NWR where we staked out the no-show pair of Blue Buntings. Next we checked South Padre Island again but the birding was even slower than the previous day. After looking for passerines we walked out on the jetty on the south end of the island and found the Purple Sandpiper (right) that has been lingering with Ruddy Turnstones and Sanderlings. We spent the night at Bentsen SP where we were greeted by Paraques, Lesser Nighthawks, and Eastern Screech-Owls.

Thursday, April 9^th

We started at Bentsen where we were awakened by a dawn chorus which included Clay-colored Thrush and Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet (left) among many of the other valley specialties. The hawk tower had a pretty good hawk flight including good numbers of Broad-winged, Swainsons, and Mississippi Kites. A couple Groove-billed Anis hung out in the area below the tower. We spent the early afternoon birding Estero Llano Grande State Park. Even though it was hot and mid-afternoon we did very well finding our target birds- the young male Rose-throated Becard, the Black-throated Magpie Jay (of captive origin but still very cool to see), the nesting Red-crowned Parrots, and my lifer Green Kingfisher in a small creek. Other birds present were both species of Whistling Ducks, a pair of Cinnamon Teal, and several species of shorebirds. We finished the day at the Frontera Audubon Thicket. Good numbers of the Rio Grande specialties were present here but we couldn’t find the lingering Blue Bunting or Crimson-collared Grosbeak.

Friday, April 10^th

Started the day back at the Frontera Audubon Thicket. After about a half hour of searching we found the female Blue Bunting in the orchard area. It gave brief but very good views as it fed in some of the grasses (allowing me to digi-bin 3 photos of it, only one of which was reasonably in focus - on the right). We tried for the Crimson-collared Grosbeak for another couple of hours but it never showed up. We moved on to Anzalduas County Park but unfortunately it was closed because of Good Friday. We decided to go to the restaurant/bar next door (Pepe’s on the River) so we could at least watch the river from there. Nothing much on the river but we witnessed a big raptor movement. We saw tons of Swainson’s Hawks (see left - at a straight kettle of SWHA) and very good numbers of Broad-wingeds, Mississippi Kites, Vultures, and a couple Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks. However, the real surprise came when we were about to leave. As we were opening the car doors we noticed a medium-sized falcon flying at us that was light colored with dark axillaries. We realized this was not a pale large Merlin or small Peregrine but a Prairie Falcon! This was completely unexpected as Prairie Falcon is supposed to be out of the area by the end of March. After this excitement we headed back to bird at Bentsen for the rest of the day but the hot weather put a damper on bird activity. At dusk we heard a pair of Elf Owls but the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl never made a sound.

Saturday, April 11^th

We started at dawn on the Rio Grande in Salineno. Much to our dismay, two other birders told us that a pair of Muscovy Ducks had flown by five minutes before our arrival, the worst words a birder could hear. It wasn’t long before multiple Green and Ringed Kingfishers gave close flybys. We also heard several Audubon’s Orioles in the trees near the boat landing and after some waiting a male finally gave us a nice look. Just when the birding seemed to be getting dull around 8:30am the group spotted a large black bird with white wing patches flying towards us from the Mexico side of the river- a female Muscovy Duck! She put on a show by circling over us and flying back to the Mexico side to land in a snag across the river. Only minutes later, a pair of Red-billed Pigeons, our other main target bird here, were spotted in the distance on a snag. At first they were very flighty and uncooperative but they eventually settled down on a snag and provided nice scope views. From here we birded the road that cuts north through desert habitat where we picked up Cactus Wren, Black-throated Sparrow and Pyrrhuloxia among others. It was neat to see a Curve-billed Thrasher nest along the road as well (adult Curve-billed pictured on right). From here we worked our way north to Falcon County Park where we found a pair of Vermillion Flycatcher and Verdin and Falcon State Park where we saw more common desert-associated species including an entertaining Roadrunner. We couldn’t find seedeaters in Zapata or San Ygnacio but we picked up Black Phoebe for the trip. After leaving San Ygnacio at dusk we found a field full of Chihuahuan Ravens which were using the field as a roost site. We counted 963 ravens—a very neat spectacle to witness (Sam clicking below).

Sunday, April 12^th

We started at the Zapata Pond but missed Seedeaters again but we did have a nice look at an Ash-throated Flycatcher. Afterwards we tried the Las Palmas trail along the Rio Grande in Laredo but we couldn’t find any Seedeaters here either. We did find my final trip bird though, a male Black-chinned Hummingbird.

I flew back from Laredo yesterday but Sean, Sam, and Caleb went on to the hill country just SW of San Antonio (success on both the warbler and vireo!) and Sean and Sam are continuing all the way to Big Bend NP. I’m sure Sean will post a report from the rest of the trip.

I ended the trip with 10 life birds and another 2 ABA lifers. Congratulations if you made it to the end of this report!

Tom Prestby"

The rest of the trip was a resounding success and Sam and I ended up the trip having seen 314 species in just two weeks moving across TX! The most unusual birds we saw were a high flying migrant Common Black Hawk high above the Chisos Mountains while searching for the elusive Colima Warbler. A very cooperative singing Painted Redstart also in that area. One of the most unusual birds were a pair of Carolina Wrens right along the Rio Grande in Cottonwood Campground. Sam and I didn't think much of it at the time, but it is well NW of where the normally occur in TX... The highlight birds for me personally were seeing Colima Warbler and Common Black-Hawks (pictured below) at close range out at Big Bend NP.

County line waterfowl spots

2009-03-11T21:50:00.004-05:00

Spring has definitely sprung here in SE Wisconsin along the Racine and Walworth County lines. This has prompted renewed checking of my various favorite local lakes, ponds, and puddles in search of the latest migrant waterfowl and/or shorebirds that may have dropped in. Today was no exception, and I checked 11 of the highlighted locations below. Many of them yielded nothing, but most held at least something of interest.
Probably the best bird for this area was a lone Tundra Swan that I actually saw yesterday fly low over my house heading west. Today I checked the large wetland complex between STH 20 and Honey Creek Rd (labeled "Game Farm Wetlands on the above map) and out among the geese was a single swan with a black beak that I presume (bins only) was the same Tundra that buzzed my house previously.
Other things of note included Northern Pintail at 2 locations, Wood Duck at 3 locations, Hooded Merganser at 3 locations, Common Goldeneye at 2 locations, and Redhead (5), Northern Shoveler (3), Gadwall, Common Merganser (18), and Cackling Goose (2) at one location each. Last week this same loop produced Ring-necked Duck (3) and Lesser Scaup additionally.

One of my favorite parts of this season is that the ducks don't really have many places to go so with a little caution you can often get digi-bined shots of these birds without ever having to get out of the vehicle or even have a scope along. Both photos were taken today through my Vortex Razor 8x42s.

Lesser Canada Goose

2009-03-04T21:46:00.011-06:00

I've been checking the same stretch of Sugar Creek near Burlington several times a week in the hopes it will yield more interesting geese. The numbers have been quite impressive for the location (over 4500 yesterday evening) but have been low on diversity since I first found Cackling Geese there a couple of weeks ago. Today I saw a goose that was definitely smaller than the surrounding Canada's but whose beak just wasn't small enough for it to make the cut for a Cackling Goose.
It was very interesting when reviewing my photos of the bird of how marked the difference head angle made when comparing the relative length of the beak compared to the width of the head. I cropped in on two images taken one after the other to illustrate this point (both on the left). Not only does the second shot make the bird look smaller beaked but it also appears to accentuate how steep the forehead is on the bird! Now even the second shot appears to have too long of a beak to be a Cackling, but it is reasonably close (comparison head shot of a Cackling Goose on the right that I photographed at the same location on 2/16)! Here are a few more size comparison shots of the Lesser Canada with other Canada's (presumably Giants).

Birding southern Dane Cty

2009-02-19T21:38:00.003-06:00

Tom Prestby and I spent the afternoon searching for open water along the Yahara River in Dane County. We ended the day at the UW Arboretum in search of redpolls (no luck on them surprisingly). We did have a Northern Shrike pop up right over us when we were near Teal Pond. Since it was the only bird I attempted to digi-bin in the freezing cold yesterday, here's the best I managed. I was frustrated in my attempts to keep my hands from shaking and the quality of the image suffered as a result... Here's Tom's summary of the day:

Sean Fitzgerald and I birded some areas south of Madison yesterday and found a
few fairly early arrivals. We started at Mud Lake where all three species of
swans are still present plus the Greater White-fronted Goose and her four
hybrid kin. 2 "textbook" Cackling Geese were also in with the Canadas. 5
Ring-necked Ducks, 4 Canvasback, and 9 Lesser Scaup joined the large numbers of
Goldeneye and Common Mergansers. We also heard White-winged Crossbills and
Siskins as we scanned the waterfowl. There was a flock of blackbirds including
30 Red-wingeds and 5 Cowbirds on Hwy 51 just south of Mud Lake and a Sandhill
Crane in the marshy area where Dyreson road bends. Most of the water on Hwy B
east of Stoughton is frozen but there was a Pied-billed Grebe in the river
itself.

We couldn't find any Redpolls in the UW-Arboretum but we found a Northern
Shrike near Teal Pond and heard White-winged Crossbills in the Longenecker
Gardens.

Small geese on the move

2009-02-17T22:03:00.012-06:00

This past week has seen a very welcome retreat from single digit temperatures and snow covered ground and even gave the impression of spring. Nearly all of the snow melted away and the day-time high has probably averaged a little over 35 F for the week. Apparently the birds have taken this as their cue to move as blackbirds and waterfowl (geese in particular) have really begun to move north again. I'm afraid their migration will have to take a hiatus as the majority of ponds and flooded fields froze back over only a couple days after they opened up. This has given us the unique opportunity of finding the streams and rivers that are open and going through really nice concentrations of geese earlier in the year than is usual for Wisconsin (late Feb through March sees the bulk of these small geese).
Yesterday my dad and I swung by Sugar Creek near the Burlington Airport and located a pretty decent concentration of ~600 Canada Geese that also had three very small Cackling Geese accompanying them. I was able to take 7 photos of these guys before they flew, of which, three actually show pretty decent detail.The identification of Cackling Geese is not exactly straight forward. There are a whole host of characteristics that could indicate that the bird is a Cackling Goose but only a few that are relatively diagnostic. The size and shape of the beak is one of the best field marks to use. The Cackling Goose is very small and the length of the beak is 50% or less than the width of of the head (compared to 70%+ for Canada Goose). The forehead on a Cackling is also very steep and almost angular compared to the more smoothed over head of the Canada Goose.Other characteristics such as the presence of a white collar at the base of the neck is variable and found in both species. Richardson's Cackling (which is the most likely here in the midwest) also tends to have a lighter colored feathering in the breast.In the above photo it's quite difficult to tell if the left bird has a lighter breast than the adjacent Canada Goose.

This afternoon I checked several other locales for geese and turned up (presumably) the same two Cackling Geese along Sugar Creek near Burlington. They were farther away and despite the light being better, I hadn't brought my scope along so a chance to improve on the above images wasn't really there. I continued on and checked an open area on Honey Creek just over the Walworth County line in between the two small "towns" of Honey Lake and Honey Creek. This particular location has an s-shaped bend in the stream that stays open all winter. At least 200 Canada Geese managed to successfully winter on this small area of open water. I figured they would have attracted many more migrant geese and sure enough, over 1000 geese were present in this stretch of the creek. I was lucky and spotted a group of 4 Greater White-fronted Geese roosting on the ice very close to me and edged up to get better photos (still pretty mediocre...why didn't I bring the scope!?). I took ten shots of the birds (below) and didn't think I would do any better at that distance and I didn't want to run the risk of flushing them if I moved even closer so I turned to leave.
A minute later just as I was getting into my car over half the geese irrupted into the air and came flying right over me. I never saw what prompted them to flush, but I located two of the white-fronts and managed to catch them flying over in the midst of a flock of Canada's. It's good to have these guys back, albeit temporarily, now to find some of those small white geese...

In search of a Wisconsin rosy-finch!?

2009-01-22T21:50:00.000-06:00

This morning Tom Prestby and I both made our first winter visit to Grant County in search of the wayward rosy-finch that apparently has decided that Wisconsin beats Colorado as a winter destination... It only took a couple of u-turns for possible crossbills in spruces before we did find some on the eastern edge of Finnemore in a small (less than 35' tall) clump of spruces in front of a small trailer park. The six crossbills were both our first in Grant County but it wasn't until I returned home that I noticed that the male, who had so cooperatively allowed me to digibin him from the car, actually appears to be injured. His upper mandible lacks the normal decurved tip and looks as if its beak is flaking (see photo above)... I'm not sure if this is the result of a collision with a window somewhere in southern Wisconsin or if this is inevitable as these guys get old.

Tom and I arrived at the guy's house who had originally posted the bird on eBird at 9AM and we settled in for the potentially long wait to see this bird come to their feeders. Shortly after we had arrived Chris West showed up, and over the course of the next 5 hour two other birders swung through (Aaron Holschbach and Tom Schaefer). While we struck out on the desired finch, we did see quite a diversity of other finches in his yard. Among these was a nice male Purple Finch, a few House Finches, good numbers of goldfinch, over 18 Pine Siskins, about a dozen Common Redpolls, and a flock of 15 White-winged Crossbills that briefly stopped to check out a small clump of conifers in the neighbors yard. 6 species of finch in the course of five hours in Grant County (furthest county SW in the state) - wow! Here is a photo of just a small glimpse into the almost constant finch buffet line that these guys had spread out (right).

After we left the rosy-finch location we headed down to Cassville and checked the John Dewey Powerplant in Cassville. The previously reported Trumpeter Swans (12) were still present along with 7 Bald Eagles, 2 Belted Kingfishers, and a good number of Common Goldeneye (45). Eastern Bluebirds were seen at 4-5 different locations within 5 miles of Cassville totaling at least 14 birds.

We headed next to Patch Grove where there had been some good recent reports. We found two different flocks of Gray Partridge totaling 18 birds on both the east and west sides of Breuer Rd (north of Lancaster Rd or Patch Grove Rd). Having only seen this particular species one time in Wisconsin, this was probably the highlight of the day for me (4 of the 18 pictured on the left). The windswept "snowscape" had an almost tundra-like feel to it (closing photo below). The partridge were digging down into the snow then using their feet to kick up the dirt presumably in search of corn or small seeds to eat. I have to give these birds props for being so hardy.
The large flock of 600+ Snow Buntings (with small numbers of accompanying Lapland Longspurs) reported by Dennis Kirschbaum was still present at the intersection of Hickory and Maine to the southwest of Patch Grove.

As we made our way back east we picked up a small group of 7 Brown-headed Cowbirds accompanying some starlings and house sparrows near a "messy farm" east of Preston.

We ended the day with 38 species in Grant County, not too bad for half the day spent staring at a feeding station!

The End of a Season

2009-01-21T20:44:00.000-06:00

I've been back in Wisconsin for over a month now, but I feel I should give some closure to the Cape May Seawatching experience. My final few weeks were decidedly colder than the rest of the season and some of the weather was a bit unpleasant to stand out in, but the birds continued to reward. The highlights of my final few weeks included:
A non-waterbird highlight was a very cooperative Ash-throated Flycatcher that managed to stay put for almost a full week after being discovered before I could make it down to see the bird. The duties of the seawatcher don't lend themselves to breaking away for the latest rarity down at the point... It's pictured on 12/3 on the left.
A small flock of 4 Redhead mixed in with a larger flock of scaup on 12/5. This was my only observation of this species during my three months in Jersey.
Lone Harlequin Ducks on 12/5, 12/8, and 12/14 - all female type birds and only one of them was mixed in with any other species of duck, a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers.
Some pretty good movements of scoter considering how late in the season it was. My peak December count was over 11,000 scoters (mostly Black) on 12/6.
I had two days of triple figure White-winged Scoter movement as well (which is nothing for birders from Mass, but I'd never seen numbers like that moving before).
A couple of Red-necked Grebes were seen (including a count week bird for the Cape May Christmas Bird Count).
I also managed a very tardy young Brown Pelican on December 1st, heading north remarkably enough! This was almost a month after my last prior sighting of this species.
A few of the "white-winged" gulls put in an appearance and they included two sightings of a young Iceland Gull (possibly the same bird twice - photo on right) as well as a 1st year Glaucous Gull. While not exactly stop press, a juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull (photo below) discovered that I'd feed inquisitive european gulls and actually was a regular in the Avalon parking lot for a couple of weeks! It was a feisty bird, stealing bread from Herring Gulls and not letting them boss him around! Both Cameron Cox and Michael O'Brien spent a fair amount of time photographing this rarely seen plumage (at least in late fall in NJ) while I chummed the bird in for them.
One more young Black-legged Kittiwake and an adult Little Gull were the only other gulls of note for the remainder of the season.
Always an exciting group, I had several days when I was lucky enough to spot small numbers of alcids moving past. The majority of these birds were Razorbills (10 of them in December including a new Cape May CBC record count of 7 on 12/14). A few of them were only "large alcid sp" as they were too far to identify with any sort of confidence. And last, but certainly not least (in a figurative sense), the highlight of the entire season for me, was a tiny Dovekie that zipped along the bar on literally my final scan of the season on 12/17! The tiny football-shaped projectile whizzing past on wings beating so fast you can barely see them was a sight to behold. Luckily this bird wasn't that far out, because any farther and I don't think there's any way I would notice such a small bird zipping right between the troughs... This didn't take the title of final bird of the project for me though, a flock of Snow Geese appeared overhead as I was packing up the scope. Still a nice finish to a very fun season!
The grand total of the entire season for 2008 was a very impressive 946,935 migrant waterbirds tallied as they winged their way past the 8th Street jetty in Avalon and down to more hospitable clines.
I definitely couldn't have spent an enjoyable season here without the many folks who kept me company, kept me well supplied with warm drinks and snacks, and helped me out on the major flight days. Many helped, but I want to especially thank Jon Kauffman, who did a terrific job not only being the interpretive naturalist and interacting with visitors, but also in spotting and counting birds when it got busy. Special thanks also go out to Gail Dwyer and Shaun Bamford for their constant company even on the "slow days", and also to Tony Leukering, Cameron Cox, Glenn Davis, Michael O'Brien, Sam Galick, and Clay Sutton for their assistance on the mega days and for their willingness to drop what they were doing to come help me out. It was an incredible season and I'm extremely honored to have been a part of a truly spectacular migration phenomenon.
Final photo of the season is of my visiting birding pal Tom Prestby at sunset overlooking the Meadows.

Raptor Banding

2008-11-28T20:20:00.006-06:00

I had the opportunity to accompany several of the hawk banders out to one of the sites where they band raptors here on Cape Island. This was actually my first time observing raptor banding, and it was a real treat watching them "flap" (a pulley system attached to a harnessed up pigeon or starling) and the response we would get from various species of hawk. They caught three hawks during my two hours there, a pretty good total for this late in the season.
My favorite of the three was a young Red-shouldered Hawk that came seemingly out of nowhere (the back side of our blind) and was on top of the pigeon before we even realized! I even got to release this bird, which was also a pretty cool experience. In the photo you can see the pale window that is visible on young Red-shouldered's in the outer primaries (right).
The Red-tailed Hawk that we caught was also a young bird and I definitely have a lot of respect for raptor banders because I wasn't interested in tangling with one of these guys as they go onto their back with talons up as you go to extract them from the net... A majestic looking bird (below), I don't appreciate their aesthetic appeal as much as I probably should. The other hawk they caught was a young male Cooper's Hawk that was interestingly missing several of its tail feathers (a close call with a Peregrine Falcon perhaps?). It was a really fun experience that gave me a further appreciation for a side of birding that I don't often see up close. Bonus birds near the blind were a late (wintering possibly?) Yellow-breasted Chat and a young Northern Goshawk that we observed a couple of times from the blind but that we were unable to lure into the nets...

"November Sea Watching", the case of the missing fair weather fans...

2008-11-26T19:55:00.003-06:00

It shouldn't come as any surprise to me, but as the temperature gauge has plummeted over the past weeks, so have the numbers of visitors to the seawatch. This isn't necessarily a bad thing... Some days I'm glad for the solitude or the presence of a couple of the stalwart regulars who know what to expect and whose company I welcome. The days of the "are you watching for whales?" questions have been replaced by the army of contractors that spend their time here fixing up the million dollar mansions that are vacated for the winter once Labor Day weekend rolls around. The birding honestly hasn't gotten any worse. There are still very busy days, and the diversity of birds that move by during a day has definitely increased. But gone are the days of 40,000 scoters, and 30,000 cormorants. The kicker is, this is the season when the really "good" birds pass by here (and the default shorebird is no longer Sanderling, they have been replaced by the more hardy Purple Sandpiper - below). Whether it's King Eider, Harlequin Duck, Black-legged Kittiwake, Razorbill, or (a potential lifebird for me) the diminutive Dovekie; this is far and away the best season to see any of these really scarce birds. The days with high numbers of birds definitely are more interesting now, but the slow days seem to last forever now that numbness begins to set in on my toes or nose. I have to admit, I've asked myself whether I'm crazy on quite a few rather bitter days. That question really came into focus last week when I was just doing a typical scan of the horizon to see if any Red-throated Loons were sneaking by between the troughs, and I pan my binoculars onto this:

Yep, it is indeed a small canoe, with a pirate-esque sail rigged up and a lone man piloting it on south. Now I shake my head whenever I see small speedboats going out onto the ocean because I've seen how quickly the temper of the sea can change. A canoe, on the north Atlantic in mid-November!?! This guy makes my daily bird vigil in 24 F blowing snow seem positively enlightened! I really wish that I was able to discuss with this man things like the bermuda triangle and the lost marine city of Atlantis, because I have a sneaking suspicion that he would have been able to shed some very interesting little known facts about these topics if he is out in a a "sail-canoe" (I feel I can coin this term) on the open sea at this time of year...
Also, this is unfortunately the first Thanksgiving that I will not be back home for. It's going to be kind of weird. But I wish you all the best and enjoy a day with family and friends!

New daily record for Northern Gannet

2008-11-11T20:22:00.003-06:00

Today I got rewarded for a week of counting very little with quite a spectacle. Northern Gannets were incredible to watch today as they were a cloud literally everywhere I looked along the ocean this morning. Gannets are a type of seabird that fly above the water and dive with great speed into the water pulling their wings in towards their bodies at the last second so that they can dive further under water. They will dive up to 30 feet under water after fish and actually dive so rapidly, that they catch the fish on their way back up from their dive. They will typically form large flock over schools of fish and just bombard them from the sky. Watching feeding flocks of gannets is one of the things I do to keep myself entertained on the slow days, because they dive with such grace and are such proficient hunters. Well today, I ended up counting 16,946 of them as they migrated by. This shatters the previous single day record (7,685) for the fifteen years worth of data collection that the Sea Watch has been conducted. While this photo really doesn't do the bird justice, a small fraction of what I observed can be seen in this photo of a feeding flock over a school of baitfish (Bunker) that were being driven close to shore by larger predatory fish like Bluefish and Striped Bass. The fisherman were having a great day along the jetties as well!
(And in case you're curious, there are 39 Gannets in the above photo which represented just .002% of the total I saw today...)

Over halfway...

2008-10-23T12:54:00.009-05:00

So I definitely haven't been keeping up to date on this blog. Part of the reason for this lies in the fact that I have to update Cape May Bird Observatory's blog every night detailing what I counted. This is during my already limited spare time, so this results in me not being overly eager to work on my own blog on my days off. That being said, a brief update is in order. I've definitely settled in and have gotten used to my parking lot where I stand for 10+ hours five days a week in Avalon. The small town is about 30 minutes north of where I'm living down in Cape May with the other counters (down to 4 from 9 last month). I have to be out and counting at sunrise and I stay until sunset.
The count started out quite slow in September (less than a thousand migrating birds total each day). The notable highlight though was a close flyby Leach's Storm Petrel that was seen following 4 days of gale-like winds from the NE. This species is normally a pelagic species (open-ocean) that stays far from land. This was a life bird for me, and an unexpected one at that. Jon Kauffman (the naturalist who is at the seawatch on weekends with me) and I had great looks at the bird as it flew right past us and out to sea. This was actually the first time this species has been recorded in fifteen years of this sea watch being conducted, so it truly was a notable bird for this location and season. Other highlights during that period were mostly passerine in nature, with a surprising number of songbirds flying in off the ocean and landing in the four small Black Pines that are in a yard next to the parking lot (the only semblance of natural habitat for birds like this Pine Warbler, in the wall-to-wall 1.2 million dollar+ summer homes that Avalon is made up of). Among these interesting passerine were late Yellow-throated Warbler among 14 species of warblers total, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Pine Siskins, and Dickcissel (just to name a few).
Big days at the count usually have me quickly on the phone to get some help down as the sheer volume of birds flying past is staggering. There have been several such days, where I've counted over 20,000 migrant waterbirds in a single hour! (90% of which were Black and Surf Scoter - linked photo by Tony Leukering who also happens to be pictured above with me)
This is truly a novel experience for me, and I'm grateful for the number of expert birders who are only a call away who can usually drop whatever they are doing to help out (these days typically come less than 4 or 5 times a season).
That's all for now, but I'll try to give you a few more updates as I finish up the last five weeks of the job.

Welcome to Jersey

2008-09-21T19:11:00.008-05:00

Well I know that I've been remiss in posting to my blog over the past nine months or so... I have lots of excuses, but I won't waste space and time listing them. At least initially, I will attempt to give a weekly update of the season out here in Cape May, New Jersey. I'm the designated counter at the Avalon Seawatch, which has been run for over fifteen years by New Jersey Audubon.

I arrived out here late on the 19th and I've spent the last couple of days unpacking and getting a feel for the area. The weather has been pretty nice thus far as evidenced by this quite worn Red-spotted Purple (above) still hanging on. The birding has been fairly good with a decent push of passerines which includes a nice mix of neotropical migrants and mid-range, later migrants (Red-breasted Nuthatch, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Palm and Myrtle Warbler) just beginning. I've been impressed with the skill level of many of the birders here. Just this morning I continued to learned more about identifying passerines in flight in the not-so-shabby company of Michael O'Brien and Louise Zemaitis (both professional bird guides, illustrators, and authors)!

I begin the official seabird count tomorrow morning at Avalon, about 20 miles north of the southern tip of New Jersey. Dan Berard (the swing counter), and Jon Kauffman (the interpretive naturalist) and I went up to the point and were given instructions and issued our equipment by our bosses. Not too many waterbird moving today, but a semi-early adult Bonaparte's Gull, a pair of male Black Scoters, and a couple of Black Skimmers kept us interested during our hour of watching. I'll leave you with this very interesting looking spider that I found while walking in the dunes near Higbee Beach yesterday...

Just in time for 14 inches...

2008-03-30T20:52:00.003-05:00

I arrived back in Wisconsin last week and quickly began trying to readjust from the 12 hour time difference from Thailand. Imagine my dismay to wake up to a good 7 inches and have it snow the entire next day! I thought I had managed to escape most of the winter...apparently wrong! The saving grace of the tardy snowfall was the large blackbird flock that was attracted to the feeders. Mostly Red-wingeds, but a few grackles, along with a single female Brewer's Blackbirds were also present. This was the first time I can recall ever seeing a Brewer's at the feeders at my folks house.
Spent the ensuing week readjusting to the US, presenting my internship powerpoint in Grand Rapids, and visiting with friends and family. I'm posting this from a coffee shop in Yuma, AZ. I begin solo point counts in the morning. Lots of really cool birds that I've only seen a handful of times before. Sleeping out in the open without a tent, something that you cannot do in WI or MI in the summer. The stars are incredible. I'll try to get some pix and I'll also try to do a few back entries of Thailand...photos are lacking though.

Birding in Thailand

2008-03-13T08:39:00.002-05:00

I'm currently in day 4 of 10 in a whirlwind birding tour of Thailand and have had almost no time to sleep much less spend time on a computer. I will try to update my final day in India, my transit in Sri Lanka, and some of the highlights of birding here in Thailand when I get a chance... 100 lifers and counting though...this place is incredible!

Western Ghats: the hillstation of Valparai

2008-03-07T02:53:00.006-06:00

The past three days I spent birding the Valaparai area of the Western Ghats with Relton. Valparai has by far some of the best birding that I've experience in the ghats. The elevation is higher than in Topslip (3000m versus 2000m) which provides more moisture and cooler temperatures that in turn support more of the evergreen community. There are a whole host of birds that call this evergreen habitat home, among them some extremely local endemic species. It was these birds that we were primarily targeting during our time in Valparai, and we were fortunate enough to observe the very uncommon White-bellied Shortwing at close range. This is one of the rarest birds that I've seen in my life as their limited habitat is being fragmented and cleared for plantations of tea and coffee. They are listed as globally vulnerable by Birdlife International with an estimated global population between 10,000 and 20,000 birds. This was only the second occasion that Relton had ever seen one while not mistnetting, so I count myself as extremely fortunate to have seen one!

During our time there, endemics such as the Black-and-orange Flycatcher, White-bellied Blue Flycatcher, White-bellied Shortwing, and some difficult species like Scaly Thrush, Blue-capped Rock Thrush, and Orange-headed Thrush were all seen well and were all new for me. I also saw many other flycatchers and specialties that I had seen last year, but that are globally quite uncommon; Nilgiri Flycatcher, Indian Swiftlet, Malabar Grey Hornbill, Malabar Whistling Thrush (photo below), and a good raptor in the form of a Common Buzzard (ubiquitous though it may be in the UK and throughout much of northern Eurasia, it’s a rare winter visitor this far south). I also got a nice photo shot with a pair of Greater Flamebacks (left)...unbelievably cooperative!
We spent our two nights in Valparai driving roads through the more rural parts of the area in between coffee and tea plantations and isolated patches of the remnant native evergreen forest looking for owls. It was literally in the 11th hour on our second night that we finally saw our first nocturnal bird, an Oriental Scops Owl, perched on top of a small cement post by a grassy ditch. We saw a nice variety of mammals including Sambar Deer, Barking Deer, Porcupine, Giant Flying Squirrel, Black-naped Hare, and Bandicoot Rat (enormous!).
On our way back down the famous 40 hairpin turn into the lowlands we stopped when we heard birds and located several nice mixed flocks. Most of the species were the same ones we had recorded at higher elevation, but this was the only time we recorded Black-lored Tit, a brightly colored and crested relative to the chickadees and titmouse of North America. We also had the good fortune of simultaneously arriving at the same large snag as a Crested Serpent Eagle, a widespread bird in the hills and mountains of India, but this bird would have definitely flushed if it had already been present and we had then pulled up and stopped. It was extremely cooperative despite the passing buses and trucks that were politely letting us know that they were present by the incessant use of their horns (opening photo).

My first Pratincole!

2008-03-03T05:01:00.004-06:00

Today (March 2) Relton was coming out to Pullambadi to visit and he was supposed to be arriving around 10AM. For this reason I tried to hurry through the survey so I could get back a little sooner. I actually debated not going out as this was my seventh consecutive morning heading out and I was getting a little tired of it (especially after the day before hadn’t yielded much). I’m very glad I did though because I was rewarded with my first ever sighting of a pratincole! Pratincoles are technically shorebirds, but they appear to be sort of a cross between swallows and terns and are extremely long-winged and actually catch insects on the wing much like nighthawks or gull-billed terns. This is a family of birds (seven different species) that are found throughout the old world (Africa, Asia, Oceana, and southern Europe) but that do not occur in north or south america. Ever since I’ve been interested in birds, I would see photos of various pratincole species near watering holes in Africa or see them flying around in the background of discovery channel specials on large mammals in Kenya (yes if you are hardcore enough, bird-watching will have you closely examining any and all videos and photos for any inadvertent capture…there’s no on/off switch…). There is a species of pratincole that is a resident bird in the Indian subcontinent, the Small Pratincole, that had been recorded at Karaivetti in the past but I had not been able to find this particular species despite constant vigilance. Imagine my delight when I looked up, (from my daily search for the crakes) in response to an odd shorebird call, to see a pratincole flying over! I knew that this bird wasn’t the species that I had been expecting because there was too much chestnut on the underwings and the Small is basically black and grey. Two more pratincoles of the same species called and flew over me on their way over the lake following closely behind the initial bird and I rushed to my backpack to grab the field guide to check which species this was. The only other species that was reasonably expected was the Oriental Pratincole which is not common in the southern subcontinent, but they regularly winter in Sri Lanka, so they are transient migrants throughout the rest of the region. Another species, the Collared Pratincole looks similar to the Oriental Pratincole but is quite a bit smaller. This would also be a much rarer record. While they do breed near Pakistan, there are only a smattering of records throughout the rest of India and Sri Lanka. I was fumbling through the field guide and finally got to the page just in time for another two pratincoles to fly over. By their size (similar to the very common Whiskered Terns) and their lack of any white on their wings, I was able to determine that they were definitely the more likely Oriental Pratincole, a new species for me and for Karaivetti! Unfortunately I was unable to get photos of this sharp looking species, but this one so impressed me that I'm going to send you to another site to see this species - gorgeous bird!
Later in the day I finally saw a Pied Harrier as well, a species that while not abundant, occurs in small numbers in the more open grasslands and cultivated areas of the subcontinent. Best photo I have to offer is of the much more common Eurasian Marsh Harrier which I typically will see 6-8 of in a morning there (left). A different individual Ruff was present at the other lake, only one prior record excluding my sighting of 24 several days ago. I was able to get some video of the bird as it sat and preened through my scope, but it was beyond the range of still photos.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but this actually was my final day conducting the survey at Karaivetti. Relton and I are going to be going up to Valparai in the Western Ghats tomorrow for three days of birding the humid rainforest (should see some nice endemics and other specialties). I will then be back in Trichy for a single day and leave for Thailand on the 8th. So I spent the afternoon packing up my stuff and getting ready to leave Pullambadi and my gracious hosts and new-found friends.
We actually returned to Trichy via some grasslands and open scrub habitat in an attempt to locate Eurasian Thick-Knee and possibly sandgrouse. We struck out on both counts, but did have some nice looks at Small Minivet, Short-toed Snake Eagle, and White-eyed Buzzard (on right).

Cricket; an exposé

2008-03-03T04:48:00.007-06:00

While speaking with my parents earlier this week my dad suggested that I ask my hosts to take some action shots of me during the daily cricket match that takes place every evening at 5PM. He took quite a few photos, but here are some of my favs, that capture the spirit of the game here in Pullambadi. We play a fairly highly modified version of the game due to the skill level of the players (not too high, myself included!) and the lack of players to adequately defend against a full field. For this reason we actually play only half a pitch and we can not hit the ball at angles behind the batter like you can in real cricket. We also usually have someone from the same team that is batting be the keeper (catcher) due to a lack of people. This takes away a sizable advantage for the defending team as there are many tipped balls that if caught by the keeper are outs. When the keeper isn’t on their team, those don’t count… We also do not play the rule where if the ball strikes the shin’s or foot of the batter on its way to what would have hit the wicket, that would normally be an out. Thus many of the boys stand in front of the wicket and act more like goalies than batters as their shins take the brunt of what should be outs since their batting skills aren’t as good! The bowler is actually standing behind a makeshift wicket that is composed of a footlong section of hollow cement pipe and a large rock. So this is what the other batter is standing behind prior to running after a good hit (or shot as they like to refer to it). I’m amazed at how addicting the game has become during only my month here. When a match is on the tele I actually have to tear myself away. Speaking of which, India pulled off a major upset over Australia (again) in the first of three matches for the championship in Sydney. Very impressive, you should have heard Alan yelling with excitement as India’s star batter broke the coveted century mark of runs for the first time in Australia in his 18 year career! I realize that most if not all of the people who are reading this have almost no idea about the rules and terminology of cricket and I apologize, but I feel that I have to devote at least one blog entry to something that I spent a significant amount of time doing here. I basically went from having only the slightest idea of how it works, to arguing the rules with the best of the boys by the time I was done… I have to say that I think it’s a shame that the game isn’t more widespread in America, I feel that the game is much more fun than baseball. Oh yeah, and due to the fact that each batter can only bat one time, each out is much more significant than in baseball. For this reason the boys will throw the ball ecstatically into the air after a catch or excitedly surround the bowler if he gets a wicket against a batter (like I do against one of the boys below).

Also, pointing a finger up signifies an out. The boys excitedly yell it as “outaa” and I think that as I look back upon my stay here, that will be one of the first things that will come to mind.
I became surprisingly attached to many of these boys during the course of the past month and the look on their faces as I got into the vehicle with Relton and his family on my final afternoon there was rather touching. And that’s as mushy as I’m going to get on that topic. I am going to buy a new bat and send it to the school for them as a final present from their American guest.
The birding was surprisingly slow today after the nice shorebird diversity yesterday. A weather system actually had moved through overnight and I had to dodge a few rain showers during the morning. I suspect this was part of the reason that many of the shorebirds had moved out. In America shorebirds typically move out before a front hits, I don’t see why it would be different here. A Temminck’s Stint was still hanging around, the Baillon’s Crake was seen again, and my first Common Iora of the survey was noted today (on the checklist but had eluded me up until now).
The closing photo depicts a scene seen all too often as the keeper usually wasn't too good and apparently the concept "let nothing get past" hadn't caught on among these fellows (and there were occasional balls that got away from the bowler)... The backside of the schoolyard or boundary as it's called in cricket.

Shorebird bonanza!

2008-03-03T04:24:00.006-06:00

While you weren’t able to read my last blog post due to some difficulties with the telephone lines here, my final sentence ended up being prophetic as today (Feb. 29) I definitely saw good diversity and decent numbers of shorebirds for the first time in a month of conducting this survey. I ended today with 20 species of shorebirds represented by a grand total of 322 individuals. The most noteworthy species of these were probably Broad-billed Sandpiper (6), Curlew Sandpiper (11), and Ruff (24) which had all been recorded on just one prior occasion. They are definitely not common at this inland site, but I think that when the habitat is suitable, like this lake is at the moment, they are probably fairly regular migrants through the area. The Broad-billed Sandpiper was doubly exciting for me though because it was the first time I’d ever seen this species! Larger shorebirds were observed roosting on islands in mixed flocks (Black-tailed Godwit, Black-winged Stilt, Common Greenshank, and Marsh Sandpipers). Three species of plovers were present along with both Little and Temminck’s Stints.
The species total of 20 species is quite good and I can’t think of too many occasions when I have recorded this many species in one day. To put this total in perspective, here are my best recollections of my highest personal single day tallies of shorebird species from each significant birding locale I’ve been to; 17 in coastal Norfolk, UK during March, 20 at Point Calimere, Tamil Nadu (a coastal site so more expected), 21 in coastal Ecuador in January, 24 at the Salton Sea in CA during Aug, ~25 is my highest in WI in mid-May, and ~30 on the upper coast of TX during late April. All of those totals represent solid day’s worth of effort to find that many species and with the exception of Wisconsin, they all involve salt or brackish water.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful but I relocated the wagtail flock and something flushed the group and they all landed close to each other allowing for 14 of the birds in one frame (below)! Unfortunately, the distance involved with most of these shorebird species prevented me from getting even semi-decent photos, I can offer a shot of the habitat with a flock of Black-headed Ibis probing the deeper water/muck (opening photo). This sort of edge is present around about half of the lake and this is where the majority of the shorebirds are located.

Wagtail congregation

2008-03-02T23:10:00.009-06:00

[Note - due to some technical difficulties including more prevalent brown-outs than normal, the phone line rusting through, and an earlier than expected exit from Pullambadi, I have been delinquint in my blog posts. I apologize. This post was written on the 28th...]

Today was fairly standard day with no truly noteworthy species being noted (and I didn’t see my “reliable” crake after I quoted the high percentage of success yesterday…). The highlight for me was a flock of ~20 Yellow Wagtails I noticed foraging in a series of freshly harvested rice paddies. There were local villagers still working fairly close to where the wagtails were and the birds seemed semi-oblivious to the precence of people, so I thought I had a good chance of getting some good photos of the species (which I hadn’t had any luck photographing up to this point). I vaulted the acacia thorn poor-mans fence (piles of extremely thorny branches placed around fields to keep out goats and cows) and made my way out the bund to the edge of the wagtail flock. I then sat down and waited for the birds to get close. After about fifteen minutes several of the birds had made their way sufficiently close to me that I was able to get some pretty good photos of this highly variable-plumaged species. There are three different ages with identifiable differences in plumage (hatch year, second year, and adult), each gender also looks different at every one of these ages. Add in the fact that there are at least seven different subspecies present during the winter in India and variability in plumage that appears to rival gulls, identifying these birds to age and subspecies is proving more than I’m up for! I am getting more comfortable identifying wagtails at least to species, but thus far I’ve only been dealing with Grey, Yellow, Citrine, and the very different looking resident White-browed. This year I haven’t seen any of the White Wagtail complex that seems to be alternately split into several different species and then re-lumped back into subspecies every few years on both sides of the Atlantic (the Brits and Americans have different listing authorities…go figure eh). All this preamble is just to give some sort of an idea of the complexity of this species group. At the same time, I have to say that I’m quite a fan of wagtails in general. Their behavior, calls, and plumage all are fairly unique. They appear similar to the pipits that I’m accustomed to in some respects, but they are much more vividly marked. They also apparently gather in fairly large flocks during migration (roosting in reedbeds like swallows). I’ve only had the good fortune of observing one such large flock (in excess of 400 birds), which I observed flying north fairly high up over a vantage point near Kamaraj Dam in the foothills of the Western Ghats last year. The flock of Yellow Wagtails I observed today is thus actually the largest flock I’ve noted where I was actually able to study the birds. Their habitat preference I noted was quite a bit different from the Grey and Citrine Wagtails I’ve been seeing with some regularity along the margin of the lake. These birds were foraging in dried out paddy field among dried stalks of rice. Perhaps this apparent propensity for drier habitat has been part of the reason I haven’t seen too many Yellow's thus far.
I actually do not have the guide to wagtails (yes they most definitely merit their own field guide!) and the India and Thai guides I have here really don’t do the various subspecies justice… Here are three different individual Yellows I was able to photograph this morning though. Any thoughts/comments as to the age/gender/subspecies of these birds would be most welcome! Side note: the third bird pictured I'm unsure of, it may be a Grey Wagtail, but I think the fact that it has a yellow throat puts it more firmly in the Yellow camp. I could definitely be wrong though (on right).
Alan had the misfortune of developing a puncture today so he was only with me for the first hour or so of the survey before he went into the village of Karaivetti to have it patched. He had ridden on the bike too long before he noticed the flat and there were too many holes to actually just patch it. So a new tube was driven in from Pullambadi by one of the drivers at the school. This took the better part of the morning and I didn’t see him again until I returned to Pullambadi at 12:15PM. The water level is rapidly dropping at the other lake and I think I might actually see some interesting shorebirds there before I’m finished with this survey.

Eurasian Sparrowhawk and an unexpected visitor

2008-02-27T09:37:00.002-06:00

Today there was a nice breeze and I knew it was going to be a more pleasant day to be out, little did I know that the birds would also provide some additional enjoyment. We began our survey at what I’ve begun to call “crake corner” and were able to have nice looks at one and possibly two Baillon’s Crakes (I’m batting 86% on that bird over the last seven days I’ve been out there). Continuing on to the tower we were enjoying our breakfast and counting arriving and departing birds when I heard Blue-tailed Bee-eaters give a rapid alarm call and watched four of them blast past our second story vantage in the tower. I suspected a raptor was present and sure enough, a moderate-sized accipiter was soaring over the edge of the water near a grove of palms and acacias where the bee-eaters had fled from. As soon as I saw this bird I knew it wasn’t the numerous Shikra (the local default accipiter) due to its slightly larger size as well as its darker and more prominent barring underneath the body and tail. I also was able to see the throat well which was clean white on this subadult bird. After the bird had passed along I checked the guide to see if my hunch (Eurasian Sparrowhawk) was correct. The only other possibility, subadult Besra, was eliminated due to the barring on the breast (Besra has streaks) along with the clean throat (Besra has a strong “gular stripe” – central throat stripe). This species is rare in southern India, but not totally unprecedented according to the range maps (a dangerous thing to rely on here!). I’ve also observed Eurasian Sparrowhawk on at least a dozen occasions in the UK and I’ve observed the previously mentioned Besra in the Ghats a handful of times.

We had moved along and were about to leave the second to last stop when a car pulled up along the only road that actually intersects the lake and I was surprised to meet K. V. Sudhakat, a birder from Chennai who had been reading my blog and had taken a slow day at work and driven down to Trichy (about an 8 hour drive…) with several of his co-workers to see Karaivetti and to meet me! It was extremely fortuitous timing as Alan and I were about to leave when he pulled up. Anywhere else along our route it would have been next to impossible for someone in a car to have rendezvoused with us (and I also didn’t know to expect him!). We talked for about 45 minutes, I showed him the ashy-crowned sparrow lark nest and we saw fairly routine things (Osprey [on left], Yellow Wagtail, along with only my second sighting of a couple Red Avadavat’s) while we chatted. He was hoping that I would be leaving via Chennai and I could stop by a local nature club to speak before returning to the US. Unfortunately I’ve already purchased my airline tickets to Bangkok out of Trichy via Sri Lanka, so this would be logistically impossible for me… It was still nice to meet another birder in a country where they are truly the exceptional find though!

The rest of our survey was fairly uneventful but I did see an Alpine Swift over the other lake (my third sighting this year…only one prior record). I also noted only my second Common Kestrel during the twenty-two days I’ve been conducting this survey, remarkable in their absence. One other note of interest, the male Ashy-crowned Sparrow Lark was seen brooding the eggs today. I’m not sure if this has been noted for this species before but this is fairly unusual in most north american passerines (songbirds).

Over the past few days I’ve been devoting more of my attention behind me as I’ve had a second bike to worry about since Alan has been accompanying me. I’ve noted with dismay that both of our bikes seem to share an unhealthy appetite for oil (and I promise you that neither of these bikes have any ties to Halliburton or Dick Cheney). Apparently these bikes could use a tune-up, or possibly need to be retired as I feel confident that my moped is at least as old as I am (Alan’s bike looks to be at least a decade my senior). At the same time this makes me feel comfortingly more a part of the global community. Mixed emotions…

I also would like to take this occasion to share a nightly part of my stay here which involves me going through the old kitchen (that I normally keep closed up) on my way to the “shower” (bucket of hot water mixed with cold tap water dumped over my head). As I open the door and shine my light (usually a candle since this typically takes place during the daily 6-8pm power outage) in the room I hear mass scurrying as a very healthy population of cockroaches all head for cover. I got to test out the macro lens on Relton’s camera on a particularly friendly individual earlier this week. I don’t think it would be fair for me to show you nothing but the avian wildlife that is present in southern India! Yes, I shake out my sheets and clothing every night/morning before I put any of it near my skin! I can’t think of a better way to end this post, so until tomorrow!

Rosy Starlings

2008-02-26T09:02:00.004-06:00

After being skunked on a species that was listed as common on the site checklist for the past four weeks, I finally found Rosy Starlings at Karaivetti today. As a matter of fact, I found three flocks today totaling 78 birds. Apparently the old adage “when it rains it pours” holds true here in south India! The opening photo was taken this past weekend near Calimere where Rosy Starlings were quite numerous. This was the 176^th species that I’ve observed here at the sanctuary of the 208 species that have ever been recorded.

Relton’s son, Alan who is a first year Zoology student at Bishop Heber College in Trichy has decided to skip classes for several days and accompany me on the survey. Today he took great pleasure in the close-up looks we got of a Baillon’s Crake that had eluded his dad last week. We also saw over 380 Bar-headed Geese today, but I was unable to locate the wayward greylag among them. The rest of our count was rather uneventful, we did have more flocks of shorebirds depart and give us flybys than normal (11 Marsh Sandpipers, 25 Common Greenshanks, 9 Black-tailed Godwits, and 5 Little Stints). While investigating the edge of several reedbeds I noticed a nest in the nearby scrub with two eggs whose tenants were given away by the agitated pair of Ashy-crowned Sparrow Larks (male below) that were nearby. I haven’t found that many nests thus far, but I’ve seen a fair number of young birds and adults carrying food or nesting material.

On the return trip to Pullambadi I was amused to watch in my rearview mirror as Alan attempted to overtake a gravel truck that I had already passed only to have his moped max out at the same speed the truck was going. His moped also doesn’t have rearview mirrors, so he hadn’t realized that a bus had been rapidly closing in on him! He definitely looked like a small fish in a big pond sandwiched between those two large vehicles! He safely was able to get back to the left and allowed the bus to pass, no worries.

The children at the school here have become sufficiently accustomed to my presence that they are now calling out my name every chance that they get. My name is typically pronounced here as ‘shohn’ – lacking the ‘w’ that isn’t represented in the spelling, hence confusing for most here. Whenever I respond to my name being called it is 9/10 to get only a “hi” as they aren’t confident enough in their English to say more than this. But they definitely want me to know that they know my name!

Counting distant flocks; apparently an acquired skill…

2008-02-25T09:47:00.008-06:00

CAUTION: this post contains graphic descriptions of birds, different types of bird watchers, and extensive dialogue detailing different methods of counting birds. Read on at your own peril.

I’ve seen this topic addressed numerous times in various birding periodicals and have always enjoyed the sample photos they have where they ask you to estimate the flock. This is very pertinent to birders as many citizen science projects involve the counting of birds to estimate trends in their entire populations (Christmas Bird Counts, International Shorebird Survey, Great Backyard Bird Count, eBird). When I first began doing counts like these I would take one of two approaches; I would painstakingly go through the entire flock and count every single individual, or I would just guess the number. As I’ve been doing surveys that require counts of many distant flocks I’ve gotten a lot of practice in counting flocks and I now usually will mentally divide a flock into sections and count to ten or 20 and extrapolate how many sections there are represented by the rest of the flock for a fairly accurate estimate of the number. If I have time and I’m able to count every individual I will do this, but many times the viewing conditions don’t facilitate this approach. Over the years I’ve found that even my ball-park guesses of a flock are often not far from the mark. A recent flock of Black-tailed Godwits that were flying past the observation tower at Kariavetti gave me a good illustration of this. They were swirling around and flying by too rapidly for me to even count sections and estimate the flock, but I estimated that there were about 80 birds present. I also was able to get a quick photo of them that I knew I’d be able to go back and count them one-by-one blown up later on my laptop screen. I was pleased to find that my gut feel on the flock was only one off, there were actually 79 birds in the flock (I welcome anyone’s correction!). So while not exact, I had arrived at a very close estimation by letting my prior experience dictate my estimate.

This weekend I was out at Point Calimere with Relton and he had arranged for us to go out with a student who is working on her pHD on wading birds at this site. I learned quite a bit about BNHS (Bombay Natural History Society) staff and a very different approach to birding through this experience. BNHS is the largest bird organization and primary source of record keeping for all bird records in India, and as such they view themselves as the experts, regardless of actual field experience (I learned this first-hand). Saturday night I got to watch them band 11 different individual shorebirds representing three species (Common Redshank, Lesser Sandplover, and Little Stint) and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to view these species in the hand. This is where the BNHS staff are definitely highly qualified, they know what they’re doing when it comes to identifying birds in the hand.

The next morning I began to doubt the credibility of the pHD student as she was identifying birds through the scope that I knew were incorrect (distant common greenshanks were labeled as black-tailed godwits). She also apparently was not accustomed to viewing species through the scope at long distance because she refused to believe that the three large distant curlew I had watched fly in and that I had in my scope were Eurasian Curlew, claiming that they were “smaller waders.” At this point I stopped trying to show her things because I didn’t feel like arguing with her. Because of this she missed three (fairly rare) Slender-billed Gulls that flew by in the midst of a large Brown-headed Gull flock.

Later in the day we had driven inland about 20 km to a large lake that we had noticed the previous evening while driving out to the point. The flock of 80 Greater Flamingos that we had seen in the distance the previous night was the primary reason for our return, but we were also curious what the identity of the thousands of shorebirds and terns that had also been noted the previous night. We arrived at the sub-prime time of 4PM and unfortunately the sun was working against us, but we walked out over the rice paddies and began scoping the extensive mud flats. We were pleased to see that the flamingos had called some friends and that flock had multiplied to a very respectable ~500 birds divided among two flocks (115 of which are seen in the closing b&w photo). I was spending my time trying to get identifiable views of the many small and medium-sized shorebirds that were spread out over the flats. Unfortunately the light won this battle and I wasn’t able to turn up any of the hoped for broad-billed sandpipers or stints that I’ve yet to see.

During this time I was half-listening as the BNHS representative was rattling off numbers for each species. Some of the closer species that could actually be individually counted she was right on for, but when she starting estimating distant flocks my curiosity arose at how some of these numbers were being arrived at. The Painted Stork tally that she gave (450) I would say was less than 1/3 of the birds present…they covered the opposite shore for over a kilometer! She also was vastly over-simplifying species composition and gave a blanket estimate of the extremely large mixed tern flock as 3000 Caspian Terns. I could see hundreds if not more of at least 5 other tern species flying around and perched among this flock… She then asked my opinion (apparently I’d proven myself worthy of identifying these birds in her eyes) on a pair of terns that were sitting in the distance. They were definitely a pair of Lesser Crested Terns which are quite a bit smaller than the Caspian Tern which they sort of resemble by the presence of a crest and reddish beak. When I said this she said no that they were River Terns. I was a bit incredulous as this species doesn’t resemble in any way Caspian or Lesser Crested Tern (the only two species that these birds could have conceivably been confused as that are in southern India). I pointed out the fact that the birds in question had red beaks, visible crests, and had definite black in the wings in flight. She said yes and that it was river tern! I got out the field guide and showed her that river terns have a yellowish beak, no crest, and have almost entirely white wings in flight, not to mention that they are found on large inland waters and not the brackish water that we were dealing with here… At this point she took my guide and studied it for several minutes before returning and confirming (what a relief!) their identity as indeed Lesser Crested Terns! It was at this point that she really floored me by admitting that she had only observed River Tern once before! She grew up in Tamil Nadu where that species is fairly widespread, and she apparently had been out in the field so little that she had almost no experience with a common resident (I’ve seen 6 in 4 weeks here)! Relton told me afterwards that he had thoroughly enjoyed listening to the entire debate as he has had these same sorts of issues with BNHS personal on many occasions. His formal education and doctorate is in social work but he thoroughly enjoys birding and has spent countless hours in the field, but since he doesn’t have the educational credentials to support his identification claims, he has a difficult time persuading them in similar situations as I was in. Unbelievable…

Revenge of the Barn Owl

2008-02-24T21:30:00.008-06:00

We had arrived at Point Calimere in the evening and were awaiting a phone call from the BNHS (Bombay Natural History Society) representative (more on that later) to watch them band shorebirds that they had caught that day. After we had supper in a thatch hut not much larger than the average bathroom in

America

, we decided to drive around some of the roads and see if we could find any owls or nightjars. Shortly after we began we spotted a Barn Owl that was perched on a telephone pole that was very cooperative and even with the darkness and no tripod, I managed a decent photo of the bird (see above). The owl was slowing working its way down a sandy road that led to the coast and we followed this obliging bird enjoying the extended views we were getting of it as it stalked prey on foot and was actively foraging. Once the bird flew we continued along this sandy road and as we progressed it became obvious that if we stopped we were going to get stuck as the sand was getting deeper and looser. Relton continued on until we were a stone’s throw from the Bay of Bengal and we hit a tidal channel that we definitely didn’t want to get stuck in! At this point he attempted to reverse and get the rear-wheel drive SUV turned around so we could go back the way we came. This is when I suspect the Barn Owl was enjoying some sweet vengeance for disturbing his hunting and taking his photo without giving him any sort of compensation (I think the same rules apply to birds as celebrities where if they are in a public place then they are fair game to paparazzi, but good luck explaining that to an owl that probably has connections with the Tamil Tigers and has led your vehicle into a literal sand trap…). The moon was full, the wind was rolling in off the bay, and the beach would have all been extremely pleasant setting if we weren’t standing in front of an SUV that was buried up to its axels in sand… We did manage to get it out by a combination of digging, pushing, and good fortune.

Earlier in the day we had birded our way out to the coast and had several nice photo ops with several species including one of my favorite birds, Common Hoopoe. The odd combination of physical features of this very unique bird make it difficult even to describe, but since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll let this photo do the talking…

Another bird that is unique due to the extremely long length of its tail was also well seen in the garden of some relations of Relton that we ate lunch with. The bird (Asian Paradise Flycatcher, yes quite a mouthful) was begging to be photographed as it sat still for over five minutes and I got some nice shots of it, if only there wasn’t a brick wall in the background!

We had started the morning along the banks of a large river near Trichy and had primarily been looking for several species of cuckoos that are present there. We did see two Plaintive Cuckoos and one Indian Cuckoo (both new for me) along with the much more common Asian Koel, Common Hawk, and Pied Cuckoos. Shortly thereafter we also observed a pair of Ashy Woodswallows perched on a telephone wire right next to the road. This is the same species that I’ve been seeing infrequently at Kariavetti and this was by far the best look I’ve had of this species.

Another new raptor!

2008-02-22T07:45:00.006-06:00

I did the survey in a different order today in an attempt to have a more representative sampling of the areas that normally I’m not getting to until after 10AM (less activity among many songbirds this late in the day). I didn’t see anything remarkably different during this part of the survey, but I did see a Watercock and more waterhens than usual probably due to the earlier hour I was there. I also got a nice photo opportunity of a cooperative Pied Cuckoo during the prime early morning light (below). This is a species that is a brood parasite and lays its eggs in other species nest’s for them to raise (much like the cowbirds do in the Americas). Almost all of the old world cuckoos and their close relations (Asian Koel) do this.

Continuing on my way I drove more slowly along the wooded section of the river/canal that enters Karaivetti Lake. My slower approach was rewarded by a brief observation of an Ashy Drongo. This is a species that has been recorded once at the sanctuary before, but it is uncommon in the lowlands primarily due to a lack of shaded woodland habitat that it prefers (it is the most abundant drongo up in the Ghats). The opening photo is a more artistic capture of the much more abundant Black Drongo that I took at the observation tower last week. The Ashy differs from the Black in being a more slate grey color with a bright red eye. The Ashy is typically found perched on the interior branches of a tree while the Black Drongo will perch out on wires and any sort of exposed and open perch.

A brief stop at the rail location garnered me looks at a Baillon’s Crake again…of course I saw this species on both days surrounding Relton’s visit. I was grateful that the greylag goose at least didn’t rub salt in the wound by not appearing today despite almost the full contingent of Bar-headeds being present (221). The rest of my survey was slow but as I was leaving I watched a Brahminy Kite that had been asserting its dominance over literally everything in the area (including openbill storks and ibis!) begin to scream and climb up towards a very long-winged raptor that was soaring above me. I hadn’t noticed this bird prior to the Brahminy Kite alerting me of its presence and a quick look through the binocs revealed that this bird was a subadult Bonelli’s Eagle, a species that regularly occurs in the plains, but that had never been recorded at Karaivetti before. I actually had seen this species at least three times last year, but this was my first observation of the species this year.

I caught the 3PM bus from Pullambadi to Trichy and had the privilege of being on a bus that was showing some of the latest films on dvd. Apparently police/military brutality isn’t something that is frowned upon here. Most of the scenes that seemed to illicit the most admiration from my fellow travelers were the scenes where one military officer was beating some hapless soul senseless. I honestly was trying not to watch the TV but every one of these beatings was signaled by an almost disco dance beat while the special effects people went nuts with slow motion. I don’t mean like Matrix slow motion or wire-foo, I mean just normal slow motion to a man being utterly battered. Yeah forgive my lack of enthusiasm; I’m accustomed to movies like Fight Club where the fighting actually has some sort of purpose…wait. Okay maybe I can’t claim the moral high ground here, but regardless I was not overly impressed.

A visitor and 0-3 on the main attractions…

2008-02-21T08:56:00.002-06:00

It’s days like this that make one pessimistic. Relton woke up very early and joined me for the survey today in order for him to see several of the unusual species that I have been seeing over the past week (Greylag Goose, Gadwall, and Baillon’s Crake). As my subject line indicates, we struck out on all of these species despite me being 4/5 and 3/5 over the past five days on the two he hadn’t seen in Tamil Nadu before (the goose and crake). I guess this just underlines the fact that one never knows what will see when you go out into the field. Perhaps this is part of the mysterious attraction that birders have to the hobby. I did use his local expertise to help me iron out the differences on the bushlarks that I have been struggling with and this was very helpful. All three confusing species were present today, thus giving ample opportunity to compare and contrast. The song and display flights are one of the biggest clues to the species.

Otherwise today was really a bit on the routine side (if you can species like the above Eurasian Golden Oriole routine…). White-browed Bulbul was a repeat, an Asian Paradise Flycatcher was a pleasant surprise, and we got a good opportunity to study (and photograph) a snipe near the observation tower while we waited for the greylag that never came… We decided that this bird is probably a Pintail Snipe due to the very wide buffy supercilium that is wider than the dark eyeline that comes out from the beak (yes this is one of the only differences between this and the very similar Common Snipe…yikes!). Snipe are usually very hesitant to allow close approach so I cautiously approached this bird under the cover of a stone wall until I knew I was within 20 feet of the bird. I then crawled on my hands and knees and actually stuck the camera around the corner of the wall without actually showing the bird any part of my body other than my trigger finger and found the bird using the large lcd screen on the Sony Cyber-shot. I wish someone could have taken a photo of me getting this photo because I felt pretty hardcore!

I also enjoyed the company of a native speaker as the amount of curious onlookers that felt the need to visit me was greatly dissuaded by the simple presence of someone who spoke Tamil… I also got to learn what may seem to be an intuitive lesson that exhaust pipes on motorcycles can get hot! We had taken a full size bike since there were two of us and the scooter I normally take is a bit underpowered for two men. I definitely have a nice souvenir on my right leg from my momentary lapse of attention. Yet another lesson learned; you won’t see me getting off the right side of a motorcycle again anytime soon!

I will be conducting the survey again tomorrow morning and then taking the bus into Trichy where I will depart with Relton and his family for the weekend at Point Calimere on the coast where we should see many waders.

Non-feathered fliers

2008-02-20T09:06:00.004-06:00

Today the highlight of my day didn’t come in the form of any avian novelties (despite a good day) but instead occurred during my drive back to Pullambadi from Karaivetti Lake. I was on the final 4 km stretch that is much busier and has truck and bus traffic and I was keeping an eye on a small tricycle-truck (I know this sounds like it is literally impossible combination – but it is totally possible here!) that was rapidly closing on me in my rear-view mirror. Sure enough, it honked its courtesy warning that it was passing me (duly appreciated) and accelerated past me. Apparently this particular driver wasn’t that familiar with this road, because he definitely choose the wrong location to slingshot around me! We were fast approaching a series of three speedbumps that had just been added five days prior. The middle speedbump actually more closely resembles a small ramp it is so large. I had already begun braking when he honked and I totally knew what was going to happen and watched in amazement as this “tryke-truck” launched off the middle speed bump going at least 60kph and caught a good foot of air under the tires! He actually almost cleared the third speedbump, and I honestly thought that little truck was going to fall apart it rattled and banged so much upon landing… I then struggled to maintain control of my own scooter as I was laughing so hard at the seemingly impossible event I had just witnessed! The next speedbump a km up the road the vehicle slowed down for…

So yeah, the birds today seemed slow, but I actually topped yesterday’s tally by four species for my best day yet (122)… I don’t know why it seemed slow, maybe I’m just getting used to everything I’m seeing. A few interesting waders were seen including four Painted Storks that gave me a nice flyby (see photo below), I also had only my second sighting of Glossy Ibis today (2 birds), along with a pair of Lesser Sandplovers (formerly Mongolian Plover) that I can thank a male Pallid Harrier for flushing up past the tower. Probably the best bird of the day was a Grey-bellied Cuckoo that is only the second record for the sanctuary (and a new species for me). The water levels at the lake are actually back up to the same level they were at the end of January… This is good for the ducks but not good for the waders that I was hoping to be seeing higher numbers of by this point. All the shorebirds I see are either flybys or perched on the extremely distant small islands out under the rookery. Black-winged Stilts are literally about the only species I can ID at that distance. Yesterday I lucked out and had a pair of the stilts actually foraging on top of floating vegetation (like a jacana) right by the dike. Here’s a shot of a sharp looking adult male (black back rather than brown on female and immature birds) on the right. I didn’t relocate the Gadwall because all the ducks at the other lake were roosting on the opposite shore far beyond the range of my scope.

Another rarity...

2008-02-19T09:14:00.005-06:00

And the species is…Gadwall (and no this isn't a gadwall pictured above...it's an Indian Pond Heron). I find it mildly amusing that I’m finding waterfowl that are really fairly rare in this part of India, but that I’ve seen literally thousands of in either the UK or the US (just like the Greylag Goose). I could just as easily be finding species like Falcated Duck or Bean Goose that would be probably equally rare as what I’ve found, only extremely novel to me, but no…Gadwall and Greylag Goose! Gadwall actually isn’t a new species for Karaivetti, there is one record from 1988 as well. I did find one new species for the sanctuary (and me) today (#207) which appeared in the form of a Red-necked Falcon that zipped along over the rice paddies bordering the dike and did a loop past the shorebird spot probably hoping to surprise one of the fifteen or so shorebirds that are usually present there. This falcon is probably overdue to be recorded here as it is a fairly widespread resident of open areas throughout the subcontinent. It is slightly larger than a Merlin with a yellow cere (the area behind the beak) and a reddish wash across its crown and shoulders on an otherwise fairly grey body with dark primaries. Falcons are generally very impressive birds and this species was no exception. This bird also represented the 300^th species that I’ve observed in India, I’m glad it was a novelty instead of 301…Gadwall!

A couple of Red Avadavats were also my first in India (I’ve seen them in Hawaii where they are introduced just like the majority of the passerines there). Several shorebirds were also of note today including a lone Common Greenshank, two flocks of Black-tailed Godwits totaling 17 birds and a flock of ~80 Pacific Golden Plovers that I observed in flight at the other lake I check. I also think that I have the rail’s number as I saw two Baillon’s Crakes, a Ruddy-breasted Crake, a Slaty-breasted Rail, and a Watercock this morning all within a half hour of each other (normally all very difficult to see). Today was definitely a good day but for some reason there were a number of species that I had seen every single day up to this point that I inexplicably missed (Green Bee-eater, Bay-backed Shrike, Rufous Treepie, and Indian Robin). Despite this, I recorded my highest single day total of 118 species today. It’s days like this that keep me motivated to keep coming out to what are most likely going to be the same birds…

I’ve been watching with interest the behavior of Brahminy Kites as they course over the lakes. This is probably the most common predatory bird present and I’m amazed by the variety of prey I’ve observed the species eating or attempting to catch. These birds are a little smaller than Red-tailed Hawks (more like Red-shouldered Hawk size) but I’ve witnessed them carrying fish that are over a foot long! Most of their prey seems to be smaller fish, snakes, frogs, lizards, palm squirrels (chipmunk sized), and small birds. I’ve watched them stoop on young coots several times but the adult coots go crazy and the young birds dive under water but I’m sure they catch one occasionally. The most impressive catch I’ve witnessed definitely goes to an adult Little Grebe that I watched being carried away still squawking by an adult kite…this grebe is comparable in size to a Pied-billed Grebe and I would have thought that these guys wouldn’t have to worry…apparently this is not the case! Here’s a photo of an adult Brahminy Kite in flight (left) taken near a stand of palms where I suspect a pair are nesting.

Also, the opening photo is of an Indian Pond Heron, a species that is present at literally every habitat where there is even a hint of water. They are quite impressive in flight as their entire wings are entirely white. Apologies for the lack of pertinence to this entry…I don’t have any good photos of any of the species that I was describing earlier… And I tested out the macro mode on the Sony Cyber-shot on this sharp looking dragonfly the other day as well (perched on the camera strap below!). If only birds allowed me to get the camera within 3 inches of them!

When fueling up the moped this morning I was grateful that the same attendant didn’t demand a tip, so I offered him one. I was vindicated in my earlier refusal when he emphatically refused it due to another attendant’s watchful eye!

Since I have been watching more cricket on the tele the boys I play with every evening have realized that they can’t tell me whatever they feel like with regard to the rules! Due to the constraints of the size of our pitch, we play what I would liken to half-court cricket. Normally the batter can actually hit the ball behind him (as long as it doesn’t hit the wicket) which really opens up the field of possibilities while batting. My bowling is erratic at best (that whole one-bounce thing makes things a lot more tricky), although if they let me actually throw (which some of them do) I’m money!

Another observation of a cultural difference between America and India; in America paved roads serve as places for vehicles to travel along, telephone wires to be strung along, and hazards for wildlife to cross. Here those same functions are fulfilled but roads are seen as having many more purposes than what we restrict our roads to in America. For example, roads apparently are the preferred areas to lay out various grains (predominately rice but several others that I don’t know the name of) and have the buses and vehicles that traverse the road do the threshing of the seeds for them! And no, the fact that the rice is bound for human consumption does not mean that it will be listed under some sort of “seconds” or bargain price as a result of this treatment! The fact that hundreds of goats and cows pass along these roads daily (defecating as they go), not to mention vehicles that have never been introduced to an emissions test, doesn’t seem to faze these folks! The rice fields are all being harvested at this time (see photo), thus my observation of their use of the roads…

I’ve also been impressed by the truckers fastidious efforts to extend the fuel efficiency of their vehicles by removing or cutting off their mud-flaps! I can’t even begin to think about the vast quantity of petroleum that is saved by this reduction in the weight of all trucks nationwide (perhaps this would be a good thing for America to suggest as a meaningful solution at the next global climate summit!). I feel confident that the glass lobby here is a force to be reckoned with though. The untold amount of dollars (sorry rupees) spent on replacement windshields for the vehicles traveling behind these trucks due to large chunks of gravel that are tossed up also must function as a boon to the economy (another thing that should be considered as a potential shot in the arm for the US economy). The reality of this situation is that I have to be extremely careful when traveling behind the gravel trucks that frequent 4 km of my daily route. I thought taking beetles to the face was bad!

In case you didn’t notice, the sarcasm is getting a bit pent up as it doesn’t transcend cultural boundaries well so I have to restrain myself here… All for today - maybe tomorrow I’ll find a mega rarity…like a Mallard!

Leave No Lark Behind

2008-02-18T09:03:00.007-06:00

While out in the field this morning, with perhaps too much time on my own with no one to talk to, I decided to name my renewed examination of the various species of larks present after the US Education system’s catch-phrase of a similar title (child and lark obviously switched). I don’t recall who actually coined this phrase, but since I can’t accredit a single person I’m going to give the acolytes to the US Education system (and honestly I think it can use all the praise it can get these days…but that’s another story). Anyway…I drove the dikes around the lake much slower today and was stopping and checking every lark that I saw (probably ~30 or so today). After thinking I had figured out most of the key field marks yesterday when I noted predominately just Oriental Skylarks and Rufous-winged Bushlarks, I realized that I definitely don’t have them all figured out yet! I saw two birds today that I honestly am not sure what species they were. Since the degree of rufous that is shown in the primaries is supposedly a great (and easily seen) field mark, that’s what I’ve been trying to key off of (and since hind claw length is kind of ridiculous to easily see…). The larks seem to enjoy discarding the myth that this is a reliable and easily seen fieldmark. Whether they have their wings folded in such a way that you actually can’t see the primaries while they are perched, or are so worn that you can’t tell if the color that I’m noting is really what is represented in the field guides I have. I really could use a “Bushlarks of the World” in depth guide or something like that. I bet there is one, but I definitely don’t have it here… Anyway, I did finally get a photo of an Oriental Skylark which was represented by a contingent of seven today. These guys are pretty easy as they have a crest and they show much darker wings when they fly up out of the way of my rapidly approaching moped (on left). The opening photo is yet another photo of a Rufous-winged Bushlark from today (ok promise I won’t post anymore of this species…it was less than ten feet away though!!).

While the fact that I’m actually going to the same location every day is getting a little bit tiresome, it’s also presenting me with many more opportunities to photograph many species that are either wary or just not cooperative. The later is true of the Greater Spotted Eagles that I’ve seen every day that I’ve come out here, but they are typically extremely distant and far out of the range of the photographic equipment that I have with me. Today I got lucky and had a Greater Spot soar right over the observation tower. It is a bit tricky to get the auto focus on the camera to grab a hold of a flying bird, so I was very grateful that the eagle gave me three circles directly overhead before moving off. It was a little bright by this point in the morning so the light is rather harsh in the photo, but beggars can’t be choosers! I also resighted the unusual Baillon’s Crake that I observed on the 9^th of February. I saw it in essentially the same location which also happens to be where I’ve been seeing Ruddy-breasted Crake(s) (three flushed yesterday).

Today I had a group of five local women who took a break from carrying firewood to enjoy the shade of the observation tower and see what I was up to. They thoroughly enjoyed looking through my scope at the 168 Bar-headed Geese (incl the lonely Greylag) that were spread out on the water. After several minutes of non-stop emphatic Tamil and gesturing I offered to take a photo of them to at least appease them of whatever they were trying to communicate (this often works to resolve situations such as this). They lined up like they were part of a chain-gang and presented stoic expressions (an apparently common trend as people are afraid of being captured smiling on film…). They were all laughter after seeing the photo on the screen and they then communicated that they would like a photo of them with their bundles of wood on their heads. I obliged them partly so I could continue my count in peace but I was also curious to see how they got these enormous bundles on their head. They would put a sort of towel on the top of their head with a sort of saddle-like depression in the top and they would then lean over into the wood and have another woman help hoist the wood while she straightened up (on left) with the bundle situated above her! I was impressed and with a little coaching I lined them up and took the following photo of them before they set off, each of them shaking my hand before they left. Now that, you don’t see every day in America!

Documentation or data collection?

2008-02-17T09:10:00.005-06:00

The view that greets me along my morning commute…

This morning I had the good fortune of relocating the previously mentioned Greylag Goose in the midst of 147 Bar-headed Geese (my highest count of Bar-headed’s yet). Relton unfortunately was unable to make it out to accompany me on the survey (and hence I didn’t get a chance to bird the nearby grasslands for previously mentioned specialties…). So he missed out on seeing this regional rarity. I texted him when I relocated it and he communicated how important it would be to get good record shots of the bird so it would be accepted by India’s scientific bird community. Well luckily for me, the geese all decided to land on the north side of the sanctuary in view of the observation tower. Normally they overfly me at this location and land among the heron/stork rookery which is at the limit of what I can identify through my scope. So I had more opportunities to get some photographs than the usual 10 second fly over that the geese had given me on my two prior chances of documenting the bird with a photo. I tried using the digital zoom on the Sony Cyber-shot (19x) but after reviewing those photos the results were quite poor. I also tried using the Nikon Coolpix point and shoot camera that Devadass has that I intentionally have been bringing along just for situations like this. This is where digiscoping has a definite advantage over the more limited optical zoom cameras like the cyber-shot. Using my scope, the point and shoot camera was able to derive a much higher quality image of the distant flock. This is incredibly valuable for birders so they are able to document many species of birds adequately that would be impossible without enormous telephoto lens with an SLR camera. All this being said, the flock of geese began slowly swimming out and getting closer to me so I decided to wait and get the best image possible since my first attempts were still rather abysmal. My patience was rewarded and the flock got maybe 25% closer and my best result is definitely identifiable to Greylag (although still not a photo that I’d normally be happy with!). But, this is a perfectly fine “record shot” which substantiates my single-observer report of this species here (normally not as highly credible as reports seen by multiple observers).

Meanwhile, the better percentage of my morning had elapsed while I waited for the geese to approach and I now didn’t have nearly enough time to thoroughly conduct the rest of my count… I made do and tried to cover as much as I could with the time I had. It also was much hotter at each stop than normal due to the sun being quite a bit higher in the sky; this had a negative effect on the amount of birds I saw too. I still ended the survey with 108 species, only slightly below my last 8 visit average of 110 species (my species total has increased as I’ve learned more of the local bird calls that I don’t necessarily see every time). The only other highlight for today was probably a flock of ~80 Black-tailed Godwits that circled the lake several times before heading north.

This morning I had stopped at a small pond on the way and had tried to get some photos of several species of birds that have been eluding me, namely Bay-backed Shrike and Hoopoe. I got an okay photo of a Bay-backed Shrike (left), poor photos of hoopoe (and white-breasted waterhen…finally!), and some nice bonus photos of some extremely cooperative Red-rumped Swallows that let me approach to within 20 feet (below)!

The attendant at the gas station that I’ve been regularly frequenting has begun to ask for a tip from me when he fills the tires of the moped with air. It’s not a big deal at all and I had offered it the first couple times that he filled them but he had emphatically refused saying that it was complementary. I’d even talked with the owner of the station and he had also told me that it is free. Yesterday the youth was quite belligerent with me about demanding a tip. Perhaps that sort of attitude is rewarded in India (I tend to think that it probably isn’t) but it definitely had the counterproductive result with me. I told him that if he wants a tip he shouldn’t ask for one and drove away. We’ll see if he understood what I meant next time…there’s 2 rupees riding on his attitude!

Rufous-tailed Lark and the lark conundrum…

2008-02-16T05:58:00.005-06:00

Today I saw a pair of Rufous-tailed Larks. This marked the first time I’d seen that species since my initial introductory day out at the site with Relton. I was able to park the moped and approach the extremely cooperative “lookout” of the pair and get some really nice photos of this species (a bonus!). After returning to the house and reviewing the photos I began to review some of my photos of the other lark species here. I was able to catch a couple of photos that I’d actually misidentified in the past week as I was looking at the wrong field marks. There are three very similar species, Singing Bushlark, Indian Bushlark, and Rufous-winged Bushlark whose differences boil down to degree of darkness of spotting, how long the hind claw is in relation to the hind toe (I’m not making this stuff up!!). What makes the whole situation more difficult is that many of the birds I’m seeing are in fairly worn plumage. Many of the key plumage marks that I was looking for are now worn and faded into non-distinct reddish browns (that look the same on all three species!!). So this has made me doubt some of my previous identifications and I will definitely be checking all of the bushlarks more closely from now on (on the right is a photo from yesterday of what I’m fairly certain is a worn Rufous-winged Bushlark). The only thing in the larks favor is that many of them allow for fairly close approach and they perch on the open ground making them much easier to photograph and sort out later than some of the other confusing species groups that are present here (leaf warblers and phylloscopus warblers are ridiculous…).

The survey ended up being a bit slow today. Highlights were probably another look at a Yellow Bittern, a brief re-sighting of the Ruddy-breasted Crake, a flyover Ashy Woodswallow (only my second in 13 days of surveying), and I also finally tallied Spotted Owlet for the sanctuary. I only noticed them because an Indian Roller (photo on left) was dive-bombing a hollowed out branch on a large tree and making a big ruckus. I’m not sure why the roller was concerned about a screech owl sized bird (the roller is the size of a crow), but I’m grateful for its watchful eye! If the owlets are present at the same place later this week I may be able to get a photo of them. I did finally get a decent photo of the ubiquitous White-throated Kingfisher (see below). This species is remarkable as it is literally in every sort of semi-open habitat here, from arid scrub to mountain grassland, also of course near various bodies of water. It apparently hasn’t the slightest preference as to what it catches for prey, because it has to be very adaptable to succeed in rather sparse areas far from water like the arid scrub that is present in much of this area.

The petrol prices were raised by the Indian government yesterday (they have national price controls on it here). A whooping 3 rupees per liter increase (now 61 rupees/liter at Reliance, the station I stop at = $1.70). Devadass was telling me that there will be huge protests nationally because this prince increase will ripple through the prices of most goods since the transport costs will now be higher. I told him that I’m intimately familiar with how the price of gasoline has repercussions on an economy and people’s actions. The only truly national protests we see in America are reflected by the manner in which the New York Stock Exchange reacts to the price increase…

Today a man stopped me and asked where my “origin country” was (a quite common question obviously), when I responded with America, he asked north or south! This was the first time I’d received this reaction so it caught me off guard, I said north but when I added U-S-A he understood. I also had a local ask if I was from England today (I didn’t bother attempting to explain the complex fact that I actually was born there and just said “No America”). I also observed another man almost fall off his bicycle as he craned his neck around to stare at me as I passed on my moped along the road today (I watched in the rearview mirror…thereby avoiding duplicating his move!). Tomorrow Relton is planning on coming out and conducting the survey with me and we are then going to some other grasslands in the area in search of thick-knees and sandgrouse. Until then!

A trio of novelties

2008-02-15T07:21:00.006-06:00

Today I got a slightly earlier start and succeeded in being out in the field during the much more productive early morning hours. I was rewarded for my lack of sleep and saw several species of more crepuscular (dawn and dusk) birds that I had not seen thus far during my time here. The first of these species was the Black Bittern, a species that is supposedly more common than both Cinnamon and Yellow Bitterns which, in total, I have seen on five occasions now! The reedbed on the outskirts of one of the villages I drive through had a whole host of terns, egrets, pond herons, cormorants, and jacanas swarming the small pond and among this swarm a pair of Black Bittern circled before dropping into the reeds shortly after I’d spotted them. I did get a couple poor photos of them flying, but they aren’t good enough for me to put on here. Continuing on I reached Karaivetti and flushed a Ruddy-breasted Crake from the shallow area where I’d seen baillon’s crake last week. This is the crake that I’d been expecting, although it is by no means common so I was glad to finally get at least a glimpse of it. The water level seems to have stabilized, thanks in part to the rain we received on three different days last week (very odd for the dry season here), but also due to the fact that one of the outlets of water has been closed since the rice is being harvested and the farmers do not need the water for irrigation any longer. So there is less outflow of the water. That channel is also very productive for waders and kingfishers right now as the receding water in the channel is leaving many fish without anywhere to go! I had parked my moped quietly and was sitting there taking some photos of a Common Kingfisher that was perched nice and close. I saw a White-breasted Waterhen climbing through the Acacia tangles about 10 yards down the dike and readied my camera for a photo of this very common, but extremely uncooperative species of rail that I still don’t have a single image of… As I was waiting with the camera pre-focused on the clearing where I thought the waterhen would appear, what walks out but two rails that are definitely not waterhens! As I saw them I knew what they weren’t (immature waterhen, ruddy-breasted crake, baillon’s crake, immature moorhen) and knew it had to be something good so I was fortunate enough to get two photos of one of the birds before they disappeared into the tangles that I was expecting the waterhen to come out of. They were shortly followed by a Grey Mongoose that didn’t pause long enough for me to take a pic. I was able to review the photos immediately and identify the rails as Slaty-breasted Rail (photo on right), another species that is not shown to regularly occur in Tamil Nadu (3 x’s signify some prior records), but in the text it is listed as a widespread resident. Either way, it was another new species for me as well as a new species for the Karaivetti list (#205 for those who are interested)! During my review of the photo I glanced up just in time to see the ever-elusive waterhen fly across the gap and evade me again… One of these days!

Upon reaching the observation tower where I officially start my counts, I wasn’t overly enamored to see the same local who speaks zero English come up and expect me to let him look through the scope and my binocs (I’ve not been allowing anyone to look through my bins as accident avoidance…I don’t want to have to use my backup bins that I brought!). It is becoming a little bit annoying to have the same people, everyday, come up and emphatically say things in Tamil that I have zero comprehension of, and expect me to make some progress on the language. Call me the stereotypical ugly American if you want, but I really don’t have much use for Tamil and after I leave here in 3.5 weeks I will probably never meet another person who speaks it! Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about cultural expression and I need to work on my foreign languages, but for me that is Spanish, a language that I can use throughout 90% of central and south america not to mention Spain… Anyways, after I attempted the ignore him tact for about 10 minutes as I scanned the duck flocks (composed of species like these Spot-billed Ducks), I decided that I should just let him look through the scope (again) and hopefully he’d move on after that. I also hate to be rude to the local people who I’m seeing regularly who may end up helping me out if something happens… But yeah, I’d love to go one full morning out there without having to lower my scope for someone and wait the ten minutes it takes them to tire of it…

I waited longer than usual at this stop in an attempt to see and photograph the Greylag Goose again. The Bar-headed Goose flock arrived to roost later in the morning today (9:05AM) and they surprised me (again). I was scanning the distant acacias for raptors when I heard a honk and the geese were already half way across my field of view. I scanned the flock and relocated the Greylag and had better looks at it today, but by the time I got on the bird it was too distant for me to photograph.

The rest of the survey went well, and I’m enjoying playing with the zoom lens on this camera. Here’s a Blue-tailed Bee-eater that posed nicely for me this morning (on the left). Oddly enough, today was the first day since the start of the count that I didn’t record any of the migratory wagtails though (the resident White-browed were it).

I was the guest speaker this afternoon for grades 8-10 at the school. I threw together a little powerpoint with some pix of me and my family and gave them my background as they tried to absorb my accent. It went fairly well, many of the questions they had for me were a bit difficult to decipher though (Ex. How do you pick India? Or What Indian cultures you like?). I honestly just took the theme of most of the questions and did my own thing because getting the students to ask questions of the tall scary american man who talks funny was like pulling teeth!

Also, I had the not so fun experience of taking a dime-sized beetle up my left nostril this morning during my drive in to the sanctuary. Yes it barely fit, I’m just glad it wasn’t smaller or it wouldn’t have been stopped by my nose! Also had a near miss with a Blue-faced Malkoha (close relative of the old world cuckoos) this am…most have missed my face by an inch… The endemic bird is freaking awesome looking (best photo I’ve got on right), but I don’t think I would have enjoyed seeing one that close!

The relative nature of rarities…

2008-02-14T10:00:00.007-06:00

Today I almost messed up. No, I didn’t almost fall in the lake again, or drive over more thorns, or…you get the point. I almost missed a pretty rare bird due to me lapsing into the familiar swing of the survey. I had reached the first transect point (a little late due to some gastro-intestinal issues that have arisen…) and I had sat down on the concrete wall by the tower to eat my breakfast of bread, butter, jam, and a banana that Carolyn had kindly packed for me (as she does everyday). I was feeling a little out of it to begin with, and then the local workers (I call them this despite me seeing them do much work ever…) approached me wanting to look through my scope (as usual). I obligingly lowered it for them and they chattered in Tamil about the birds (at least I think that’s what they were talking about…) while I sat there drinking water and waiting for them to move off so I could actually count the birds that were there. As I was sitting there, I heard the distinctive low-pitch, almost nasal honking of approaching Bar-headed Geese. I turned to count the flock and immediately noticed that it was the largest single flock of Bar-headeds that I had seen yet and I got out the new camera that Relton had loaned me (for the remainder of my stay!) to test out the 12x optical zoom and get some nice shots of the geese in flight. After I took a couple of shots the birds were getting too far away and I went back to counting them through my bincos. It was only at this point in time that I realized that there was a different species of goose in the flock! Now, I got excited because I knew that none of the other goose species that occur in India are supposed to be here besides Bar-headeds and I quickly brushed aside the local who was on my scope and got the scope on the bird just long enough to tell that it was a Greylag Goose (the most likely of the brown-backed geese to occur here as it makes it as far south as Mumbai regularly – about 700 miles to the northwest) before the flock disappeared behind the rookery and landed out of sight. At this point I thought I may have inadvertently captured the Greylag in my earlier photos of the whole flock, and I checked on the camera only to find the first shot too blurry and the second shot I wasn’t able to pick it out on the small screen. Upon returning to Pullambadi and uploading the photos onto my laptop I was able to see that I did actually catch the Greylag but the quality is quite low due to the distance and the amount of cropping I had to do… Here is the original photo of the flock and followed by the cropped version (fourth bird from the front, with darker brown back and wings…tough to tell, I know). I got to thinking about how I immediately got excited about the fact that the bird was unusual here despite the fact that I have seen hundreds if not thousands of this very same species in the UK just last March (I actually have two photos of one from London on my blog here - 1, 2). A recent blog post by a birding friend of mine back in Wisconsin talked about this issue and I think he’s right on the money. It’s the unfamiliarity of a species in that area or to a person that makes it all the more noteworthy. Whether it’s someone who visits a new continent and everything that is seen is literally new to them, or someone who birds an area frequently but has never seen a certain species there, that same feeling of excitement occurs during both situations. So yeah, that’s just some of my musings from here in Pullambadi this afternoon…

Other interesting birds seen today included a lonely looking male Tufted Duck (remarkably my first of the survey…thousands were here last January), 12 Black-tailed Godwits, 2 Yellow Bitterns in reedbeds on the outskirts of a nearby village, my first sighting of a Common Woodshrike this year, and a couple of different plumages of Yellow Wagtail (very sharp looking birds…the camera batteries died as I tried to photograph one that was close…I’ll keep trying). And here’s a nice shot of a male Pied Bushchat that wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the 12x optical zoom on Relton’s camera!

A glimpse into the life of a Tamil 3rd year Zoology student…

2008-02-14T06:17:00.006-06:00

Today I woke up at 3:30AM and gathered two days worth of clothes and my equipment and headed out the door of the Relton’s to meet the zoology students and the 25 passenger bus that was going to be taking us all up to the Western Ghats. We had gathered in the bus by 4AM and departed on time and the students were all very excited about going. I could understand this; trips like this aren’t the norm at Indian colleges so this was a treat for all the students involved. After about 15 minutes of unabated excitement and talking, I began to wonder when they would all quiet down and try to get back to sleep, like I had been attempting to do… Luckily, I had thought ahead and had fully recharged my iPod the night before, and I escaped into the familiarity of some of my favorite playlists. I was almost asleep when I was jarred awake by the sudden blaring of the radio. The boys had apparently convinced the driver that this was the ideal time to listen to the latest Tamil pop songs and to even sing along on some of the apparently more popular songs… Now I’m very open-minded about music, and honestly like almost every type of genre to some degree or other with the notable exception of heavy metal (my brother has even gotten me to like a couple of Hindi songs). This music I absolutely have no love for, and my best attempt at a description would have to be a three-way cross between bad rap (ie no skill whatsoever), low-grade pop music, and the third element being what I can only relate to the Islamic call to prayer (that type of wailing sound). It was about as sleep-inducing as…actually I can’t think of a single thing that approaches the antithesis of rest as this was… Anyway, luckily my brother had given me new ear-buds for my iPod for Christmas and they actually fit into the ear better and act almost like earplugs. This, coupled with me turning up the volume on my iPod to the point that it was actually hurting me ears enabled me to tune out some (not all…) of the racket that was the bus for the next 6 hours it took us to reach Topslip.

The birding was decent, but the constraints on birding there are high. You are not allowed to walk any of the trails without a local forest-service guide accompanying you. There actually is a fairly high danger of being mauled by a Gaur (Water Buffalo), a smaller chance of being bitten by a venomous snake, and a miniscule chance that a Tiger may attack you. So yeah, good reasons for having a guide accompany you, but rather annoying when I can’t get into the habitat that is home to so many endemic birds. I did manage to see quite a few birds during the trip, including 11 new species for me (lifers). Not bad, considering I was with a group of very loud Tamil Zoology students who were on (believe it or not) their first ever trip into the jungle to look for wildlife… The best birds of the trip were definitely the nocturnal species that I saw while we were out at night with spotlights driving around looking for mammals. A Spot-bellied Eagle Owl was by far the highlight. This species is rare and not nearly as active at dawn and dusk as many of the other owl species. Relton said that he has seen a grand total of two in his 20+ years of birding, so I definitely feel extremely fortunate to have seen this species. Other nocturnal species I added included the Brown Fish Owl, Jungle Owlet, and Indian Nightjar. The other species I want to mention was the Brown-backed Needletail, an enormous swift that is literally the size of a nighthawk that I saw twice as it swooped in low over the canopy. I’ve seen the White-rumped Needletail before which is about the same size as most of the swallows and swifts, but this species was so huge that I was very impressed by it. I wasn’t able to get many photos of birds up in the Ghats due to the light conditions or the speed in which the birds were gone… Relton had loaned me his brand new Sony Cyber-Shot camera that is quite nice (and has a very respectable 12x optical zoom) for the weekend and I was excited to try it out on some of the birds up in the Ghats. I managed to get photos of a few interesting species as well as a nice shot of a male Indian Peafowl that was perched on a post near the Kerala border (photo above). The only endemic bird I managed a shot of was a Malabar Parakeet that was feeding a young bird in the top of some Bamboo (photo on right). Very striking birds, the black beak on the young birds is diagnostic for separating it from the similar Plum-headed and Rose-ringed Parakeets. We also saw a Grey-headed Fish Eagle at a reservoir up at elevation in Kerala (photo on left). This species is extremely local in the Western Ghats and there are probably just a few pairs that are present in the entire mountain range (they are more common in NE India and they range into SE Asia as well).

I also enjoyed bumping into a few Australians and a group of five Polish birders who had just arrived in the Ghats. It was fun for me to talk birds with some hardcore people and give them a few suggestions for their next few days.

By the way, India beat Australia in Cricket at Canberra for the first time in twenty-some years on Sunday! I was watching the game with Relton, Daisy, and Alan (their son) and their excitement rubbed off on me a little! Australia is the reigning world champion in cricket, so an enormous upset…

All for now, I’ll leave you with a view of the reservoir (that the previously mentioned fish eagle was at) in Kerala at dawn on Tuesday…oh yeah it was nice and cool up in the mountains too!

Two rarities; a weather event and my first crake!

2008-02-09T09:01:00.000-06:00

So this morning started normally but it wasn’t long after I’d arrived out at Karaivetti that I noticed that the clouds in the distance looked rather ominous. Sure enough, about fifteen minutes later the wind picked up and I experience my first rain here in India. I was under the impression that we were entering the dry season here…but rarely a squall will spring up and provide a brief respite from the ever climbing temps here. Luckily I was still by the covered observation tower (where I start my count) when the rain began. I shared the shelter of the observation tower with a couple of local fisherman who were also looking to stay dry. During my slightly longer than normal wait in the tower I was pleased to see a Cinnamon Bittern pop up out of the reeds and fly a short distance to a rice paddy before disappearing from sight again (here is a view of that reedbed from the tower during the rain). There are three species of bittern here; Yellow, Cinnamon, and Black and the view I had is about the only way you ever see them. With enough time spent here I should see Black Bittern eventually (the only one I have yet to see here). After a second rain shower had passed I thought it was safe to continue along the dike to my next stop…wrong! About halfway between the two points another squall sprung up and I got pelted with rain until I reached the relative shelter of a few acacia trees at my next stop. I waited out the rain here and noticed that much of the dry habitat that I had been finding things like Ashy-crowned Sparrow Larks in had transformed into mud. Several of the typical shorebirds were present like Wood Sandpiper and Red-wattled Lapwing. As I was watching a small group of “peeps” (birders nickname for a group of small, similar-looking shorebirds) fly in and briefly land before spooking as a Pallid Harrier flew overhead. I didn’t have a chance to get my scope on them, but they showed all the characteristics of Little Stints and this is by far the most common (and expected) peep found at this inland location. A little further along the dike I saw several species of bushlarks in a loose flock. In this group were many of the ubiquitous Singing Bushlark, 2 Indian Bushlarks, as well as a single Rufous-winged Bushlark! The Rufous-winged Bushlark is a new species for Karaivetti although it is one that Relton told me to keep an eye out for as it should be in the area. Continuing along I paused at my last stop by this lake and noticed that the receding water had left much of the area as very nice looking mudflats. There were already shorebirds utilizing this habitat and among them was a lone Kentish Plover. Just yesterday I was mentioning that both Little Stint and Kentish Plover should be found shortly as the habitat becomes more suitable for them. I didn’t realize how soon I would fulfill that prediction! Several Black-headed Ibis also foraged in the mud and shallows (photo on left). As I was photographing the ibis I heard a White-breasted Waterhen (a type of large rail here) calling from the opposite side of a small channel that enters the lake. This is a fairly common bird here, but it is really shy and I’ve yet to get close enough to one to get a decent photo… I moved myself down the dike and trained my scope on the spot I thought the bird would appear from the vegetation and prefocused my scope and camera on the spot. As I’m looking through the camera I see a small rail land on the bank right where I was expecting the waterhen to appear! This is even better because there is only one small rail that has been recorded here (Ruddy-breasted Crake) and it is rare here! As I’m taking photos of this bird I know that it isn’t a Ruddy-breasted Crake because it is far too light colored. The bird is quite small (Sora sized) and has an all yellow-green beak much like a Sora. I know that my best bet for identifying this bird is going to be through the photos that I’m taking. Sure enough, three photos is all I managed before the White-breasted Waterhen that I knew was close popped out and chased the smaller rail away. The Waterhen of course promptly disappeared before I could get a shot of it, but I was more preoccupied with identifying the small rail now. As soon as I got the guide open I knew it was one of two, either Baillon’s Crake or Little Crake. I initially misidentified it as a Little Crake but once I got the photos up on my laptop and was able to look up how to separate the two species in the reference volume of Birds of India that Relton loaned to me, I was able to see that the all green beak made it a Baillon’s Crake. According to the range maps (which are far from accurate on many species - so to be taken with a grain of salt) there are no records of this species from the province of Tamil Nadu. It is only regularly found in the far northwestern part of India although its distribution across the rest of India isn’t well known. The probable reasons for why its wintering range is not well known are twofold; the lack of coverage by birdwatchers (they are few and far between in this country) and even in areas that receive some coverage, it’s inconspicuous and secretive by nature making detection even by birders low. Here is the range map that I took a digital of…x’s represent rare records.
So, in summary, it is definitely a very noteworthy record, but if indeed it is the first provincial record for Tamil Nadu (which is possible), that doesn’t have quite the same punch that first state record’s have in America where coverage has been extensive for decades… Nonetheless it was my first crake species and definitely made my day more exciting!
The rain today actually cleared up the sky and for the first time since my arrival I was able to see the foothills of the Western Ghats in the distance today (photo). I will be spending this weekend up in the ghats on my days off! This is the other lake I survey on the way back to Pullambadi (where the Glossy Ibis were yesterday).
I’m actually posting this from the Relton’s blazing internet (all things relative of course) in Trichy. I’m using the opportunity of this internet and unimpeded power supply to not only get caught up with my blog (photos from yesterday) but also to search for my airline tickets to Bangkok as I now know I will be flying out of Trichy in early March. As I was leaving the school, the hostel boys (boys that actually live at the school so they are able to focus more on their studies) asked me if I was leaving for America. I laughed and told them that they couldn’t get rid of me that easily and that I’d be back Tuesday night. Alright sorry this post was dominated by birds…I got excited about the crake!

Glossy Ibis…finally!

2008-02-08T05:23:00.000-06:00

Ever since starting this survey I’ve been bothered by the checklist that has abundance designation codes by each species name. There have been several species that are listed as common that I’ve been unable to locate. Specifically, these birds are; Glossy Ibis, Common Pochard, Tufted Duck, Kentish (aka Snowy) Plover, Little Stint, Rock Pigeon, Barn Owl, Spotted Owlet, Indian Nightjar, Rosy Starling, House Sparrow, Red Avadavat, and White-rumped Munia. Now the two diving duck species I saw when I was here last year and I’m of the opinion that they have already migrated north. I may get a tardy individual among a flock of wigeon or something but I haven’t been too concerned about them. The two small shorebirds are due in the coming weeks as more suitable habitat becomes available to them. I’m already seeing small numbers of the larger waders beginning to come through (a flock of 24 Common Greenshank were seen today). The Barn Owl, owlet, and nightjar are all more nocturnal species so I have not expected to locate them as readily. I’ve quite frankly been enjoying the absence of Rock Pigeons and House Sparrows here! Even though House Sparrows are declining here, it is difficult for me to get excited about this species due to the myriad of problems it has caused native cavity nesters in North America. The avadavat and white-rumped munia are both species that are associated with reedbeds and they are easy to miss, so I’m sure I will turn them up sooner or later. This leaves two species of bird, the Rosy Starling and Glossy Ibis that I’m not able to explain away why I’ve not found them yet. Well, today I finally did see a flock of 34 Glossy Ibis at the other lake I survey near Karaivetti (pictured in flight above), so hopefully I will be seeing them regularly now. The Rosy Starlings I’m not sure about. I’ve actually been seeing the (supposedly) rarer Chestnut-tailed Starling at multiple locations four out of the last five days. Rosy Starlings absence is a mystery to me, I’m definitely checking all the Brahminy Starling flocks (photo from last year…really stunning plumage on these guys) but thus far without success.

I managed a few decent photos with Devadass’s camera (Nikon Coolpix 4800) today. One is of a pair of Purple Swamphens that are foraging on recently exposed vegetation. The other is of a Little and Intermediate Egrets lined up along the dam at the east end of the lake. This photo is actually rather deceiving because it makes the Intermediate Egret look much larger than the Little Egret. This is definitely not the case and I would say that the Intermediate is actually only slightly larger, but in the photo the Intermediate is stretched out and the Little is hunched down. The best way to separate Intermediate from Great Egret is by its stockier, black-tipped beak, the gape line doesn’t extend beyond its eye either, and by the shorter neck. From a distance it can be more difficult to separate the two though.

Oh yeah, best bird of the day was actually a new species for the sanctuary, a Lesser Whitethroat. Not unexpected, this bird is found in scrub habitat and is a Sylvia warbler. It’s one of those species that Relton expected me to turn up with regular coverage as infrequent surveys are much less likely to turn up inconspicuous species such as this.

I’ve enjoyed reading the newspapers here as they have a very different slant on world events than I’m accustomed to hearing in the US. “Super Tuesday’s” results were actually front page news here yesterday. It was very difficult to explain the intricacies of the electoral system that is our political system to my hosts… The newspaper’s coverage and description of events did an excellent job of describing the significance of everything and each candidate’s relative position now. Much of the international news is syndicated from The Guardian though which explains the slightly British twist on some of the stories.

Yesterday evening we discussed “developing” vs. “developed” countries and I was asked how long it would be before India would be considered developed. I laughed and said that as long as open sewers are the norm, rolling brown outs are expected instead of being exceptions, and it takes 8 hours by car or ten hours by train to travel the 330 km between cities like Chennai and Trichy here in Tamil Nadu, they will have a hard sell of billing themselves as developed to the rest of the world. He did state that they are making a large improvement and are in the midst of constructing four lanes between those two cities! They couldn’t believe that ten lanes are not uncommon in some large cities in America. I will admit that it is challenging for me to explain why striving for that kind of infrastructure and affluence isn’t necessarily a good thing. It’s hard to extol the virtues of conserving resources and cleaning up their pollution when America is using more of the world’s resources per capita than anyone else in the world. They are just trying to follow America’s example… Alright, sorry to steer into the realm of the political; it’s tea time.

Premature elation…

2008-02-07T10:41:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately, when I wrote last night that my camera was functional, I was incorrect. Everything appears fine on the lcd screen but when I take photos it records the photo but it appears extremely overexposed and white. I tried changing aperture and shutter speed without any effect. So that’s the bad news… The good news is that the video function of the camera works fine. So I can take videos and upload them onto my computer without issue. The quality of the image is not as good and even if I capture a still from the video it will not appear nearly as good as an image taken as a still… So it looks like I will need to get a new camera if I want anything more than a small video camcorder… Due to my internet connection here I will not be able to upload any of the videos I take even though blogspot does have the capability of hosting videos.
I guess I will continue bringing Mr. Devadass’s digital camera which isn’t nearly as suited for digiscoping, but can at least document things. I played with his camera a little bit the last three days and had some okay results (the Common Kingfisher, Indian Pond Heron, and Black Drongo are with his camera). It is much more difficult to take photos of birds that are more active and that are farther away. I’m restricted from using the optical zoom on the camera because the vignetting (the black circle of the scope – see example) is too prevalent making it impossible to salvage those shots. Oh well, I have to make do with what I have.
The survey was not nearly as exciting bird-wise today. Most of the waders from yesterday weren’t present today. I’m not sure where these birds go, I suspect that there are many areas back behind the rookery trees that contain good shallow water right now and many of the birds are back in those inaccessible spots during my survey. The best birds of today were probably a Greater Painted Snipe that I saw at the same muddy pond that I had many of the snipe at yesterday. Painted Snipe are one of the very few species in which the female has the brighter plumage and the male is dull and broods the nest and raises the young (Phalaropes and Dotterel are two other types of shorebirds that are polyandrous, the term for these characteristics). I have one photo (right) from last year of a male (the dull one…sorry) Greater Painted Snipe. Other than that it was pretty quiet. I observed another subadult Watercock at a different location this time. The overall diversity was a bit lower today but three of my last four visits I’ve seen over 100 species of birds there, so when I say diversity is lower that’s very relative. Especially considering there are only a couple of spots in the US where you could see over 100 species at one location in 4 hours at this time of the year… Two more days of surveys and I will then be accompanying a Bishop Heber College zoology class trip up into the Western Ghats for two days. I’m looking forward to another chance to see many of the birds there. I only had a couple of days up there last year and that is the most endemic-rich (species that have a very restricted geographic range) area in southern India, so I’m looking forward to experiencing it again.
Every night as I spend the hour+ it takes for me to just check my email and post this blog on the dial-up connection my host’s sit in the room next and watch TV. I can’t help but overhear much of what is on the TV. The music that is selected for airplay I find rather humorous. I’ve heard everything from 50 Cent (Window Shopper), to Britney Spears (Toxic), to Shakira (Hips Don’t Lie). I asked them if they understand any of what is being sung about, and they honestly have no clue what is being said! They just like the beat and watching the videos…
Tomorrow morning I’m going to get up earlier as it is taking me a little over an hour to get there since I stop and check several of the ponds (that have been producing good birds). Hopefully this will yield me more time at the sanctuary during the more “birdy” portion of the morning.

Waders galore!

2008-02-06T10:04:00.000-06:00

As the water levels here continue to go down the birding is getting even better. Today saw many more shorebirds and waders arrive. Due to my changed routing (because my shortcut had too much water) I have been driving past a rice paddy that has been harvested and all the rice plants turned over making it into very nice shorebird habitat. This morning there were quite a few snipe present, 4 of which were Pintail Snipe and there was also a single Jack Snipe present (new for Karaivetti and quite a bit smaller than the Pintail Snipe). Little Ringed Plovers, Green, Wood, and Common Sandpipers were also present in the same muddy area. An additional new species showed up in the form of a Laggar Falcon that I saw in the dry scrub habitat that I drive through on the way to Karaivetti (maybe 2 km away from the actual lake). Many more dabbling ducks appeared at the lake today. They are dominated by Eurasian Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Cotton Pygmy-Goose, and Garganey. Small numbers of Pintail, Common Teal, and a new species for me, Comb Duck were also present today. The Comb Duck is pretty distinctive being all white with dark wings. The bird actually looks like a male Cotton Pygmy Goose on ‘roids as it is very large. The wader numbers are increasing as the water levels are going down. Today I saw a White Stork feeding in the shallows with a group of Eurasian Spoonbills and Black-headed Ibis. Small islands are appearing among many of the trees where the rookery is. These muddy islands are beginning to attract Black-winged Stilts (on the left) and Red-wattled Lapwings. Unfortunately, they are so far away that these are the only species I’m really able to identify (both are large and have very distinctive plumages…thus I can identify those two). I have observed other shorebirds moving around out there, but aside from a single Marsh Sandpiper that flew past me on its way over to those islands this morning, I’ve been unable to identify any of the other species present there.
There must have been a very large concentration of fish under an algae mat on the side of the lake because the mixed wader, cormorant, and tern flock it attracted was really pretty impressive. The birds were so fixated upon the fish that they allowed for much closer approach than usual. The waders present included Great, Intermediate, Little Egrets, Indian Pond, Grey, Purple Herons, Indian, Little Cormorants (on right), Whiskered, Common, Black-bellied, and River Terns, as well as a fair number of Pheasant-tailed Jacanas. So yeah, today was a very good day of birding (114 species with many raptors not seen), hence my longer than usual description of birds (sorry to the non-birders who just skipped over all that…).
Over the past week (yes today marks my seventh day of traveling out to Karaivetti) I have learned several things about driving here in India. I’ve had to reprogram many of the things I’m accustomed to doing when I drive in America. Take for instance, the horn. I may use the horn on occasion in the US (usually if someone just endangered either themselves or me by their stupidity), I typically would associate using the horn as only a last-ditch thing that some may consider rude. Here it is not only considered courteous, but also advisable to use your horn to let other drivers and pedestrians now you are passing or that you are coming (like being forced to the far left by oncoming buses and trucks). The proper position for my hands are for my right hand to be on the throttle with two fingers over the brake and for my left hand to have three fingers on the brake, one for steering and the thumb sitting over the button for the horn. I’ve also made it quite the practice to breathe through my nose and squint as I drive. The amount of dust and exhaust that is kicked up by buses and trucks is enough to give anyone with asthma serious problems (luckily I don’t have asthma so it’s just a nuisance).
During my survey this morning I realized that I hadn’t mentioned any of the other wildlife that I’ve seen besides the birds. So far I’ve seen very few snakes, only two water snakes of some sort, and a roadkilled something today. King Cobras are fairly widespread here so I’m a bit surprised I haven’t seen one yet. I also saw a pretty sweet looking reptile that I think is a type of Monitor lizard, fairly large (3+ feet long) and grey, smooth-skinned and it fled into the water after being harassed by two Red-wattled Lapwings. Bonnet Macaques (monkeys) are present along the road and Grey Mongoose I’ve seen every morning either crossing the road or along the dike that surrounds the lake. Here is a photo from last year that I was able to get of a Grey Mongoose eating some sort of snake it had just killed, also at Karaivetti!
AND – after two and a half days of being roasted by the sun, I got up my courage and I’m extremely pleased to say that my camera is somehow working just fine! The cell phone freezes up, but functions to some extent. The camera I was much more concerned about and I honestly cannot believe it is working! I’ll now be able to take some more photos as my stock of decent images was running down after three days without it!

A gratifyingly uneventful day

2008-02-05T09:57:00.000-06:00

Everything went according to plan today, which was refreshing. The birding was a little slow, with the best bird probably being several Streak-throated Swallows among many Barn Swallows and House Swifts. I also saw (and heard) not only one but two different individual Citrine Wagtails today. One I think was the same bird as on Sunday (probably a 2^nd year male). The other bird looked very similar but had a darker auricular patch on the otherwise yellow face with dark edging coming up the nape with a dark back. I think this may be either a female or 1^st year bird. An Alpine Swift was seen again today, possibly the same individual as two days ago. I also had my first good opportunity to compare Baya and Streaked Weavers today. An okay photo of a female Streaked is all I can offer from my “bank” of photos I had stored up prior to my camera getting wet. The female Baya is a much plainer faced and paler color than the more heavily streaked female Streaked Weaver. The males are easier to tell apart as the Baya has extensive yellow both on the crown as well as below the dark mask or bib. The male Streaked Weaver only has yellow above the dark mask and has heavy streaking on the breast. They both occupy reedbeds and tall grasses in wet areas, but the Streaked Weaver is much more common at Karaivetti. The water levels are definitely going down rapidly. Relton tells me that by the beginning of March congregations of the large waders like storks and spoonbills will be extremely high due to the shallow water and trapped fish. Large flocks of northbound shorebirds stop in during that time too.

This afternoon I spoke to the teachers at the K-12 “Standard” (instead of grade) school that I’m staying at. Mr. Devadass had originally asked me to speak briefly to the older students for one day so they could hear how odd my English sounds compared to what they have learned and heard. He later expounded on the expectation by saying that I should have something prepared to talk for 30-45 minutes! Apparently in India the definition of “briefly” differs from the meaning of the word in America! Today as I gathered some dollars, coins, airline boarding passes, and my drivers license to show the students I went down and asked him if it would be acceptable for me to do that. He said, oh well maybe that would be better for next time, and he stated his intention of making this into a sort of series of talks I will give as I’m here for another month! Changing expectations, and I actually find it kind of amusing to see their reactions to my pronunciation of many of the words (for example it took me over a minute to figure out that they were saying Ambassador as in the British type of car that is common on the streets here…). They pronounce Algae the way it looks instead of al-gee. So a long story short, I will be the guest speaker for grades 6-10 for the next month in a series I’m entitling, The Rise and Fall of Imperialism in Western Culture…ok just kidding but I’m not sure what I’m going to talk about for this many sessions… The talk with the teachers went well. I then demonstrated how to use my scope in the yard later and teachers and students alike lined up for looks at Indian Roller and a flock of Barn and Red-rumped Swallows on distant wires. I also got to catch the second half of the Manchester United football match this afternoon. Nice to hear English that I could follow easily! 120 rupees a month ($3.15) for the complete cable package here…wow.

Alright, I’m holding off attempting to turn my camera on for another day of roasting in the sun on the roof. The cell phone still has visible condensation inside the screen, and while the camera doesn’t have any condensation visible any longer, if the cell does, I’m thinking that there could be some residual moisture deeper inside the camera. No since rushing it if it has a better chance by waiting an extra day…

Déjà vu and an expensive swim…

2008-02-04T10:57:00.000-06:00

Today was one of those days that you look back at and think to yourself…”What was I thinking!?” It began innocuously enough with the morning coffee and 13k commute in to Karaivetti. As I got half way around the lake I felt the steering start to get mushy, and sure enough, the front tire was losing air this time around (and for those who think I’m just negligent about checking the pressure, both tires were filled yesterday at the gas station). Ah well, I know the drill now, I’ll park the bike in the shade, use the morning hours to bird and then walk it into the nearby town where the two men who helped me last time had taken the tire to. I walked the other half of the lake since covering it on foot yields higher counts of many of the songbirds that I don’t notice as I ride between stops. The walk was going well; my constant checking of every bushlark yielded a new species for the sanctuary, Indian Bushlark (198), among the many Singing Bushlarks (Singing Bushlark on left) that perch along the gravel dike around the lake. Relton also called me and told me that the photo that I had emailed him last night of the wagtail I was unsure of was indeed the Citrine Wagtail I had hoped it was, another new species for both me and the sanctuary (199 - on the right). Today I saw a few noteworthy waders flying around out by the rookery of all the grey herons, storks (mostly Asian Openbill - left), and cormorants; Black-crowned Night-heron, a species that is regular here that I had somehow not seen yet, and a single Wooly-necked Stork, less common but not unexpected considering the congregation of waders here. I crossed the stream on the far side of the observation tower and the tree on the far side of the streambed contained a flock of 12 Chestnut-tailed Starlings, very unusual here – more common in the hills. I continued down the road and saw a Little Heron (aka Striated Heron) along one of the ditches, uncommon at this inland location as it is typically a mangrove-specific species. It was beginning to heat up at this time (10:30AM) so I turned back towards the moped so I could go get the tire fixed and return to Pullambadi. On the way back I saw one of the locks that diverts water from the lake into channels that irrigate the rice paddies in the area. There were a series of concrete steps down to the water and then the cement continue out in the water with maybe 3 inches of water over the cement. I had the great idea that it would feel really nice to cool my feet off by stepping out on the cement ledge. So yeah, tropical lake, probably fairly warm water, a large amount of algae is probably a good bet = highly slippery. I took my sandals off and stepped out with all my gear still around my neck, scope/tripod on my shoulder, backpack on, etc and realized too late that I had no traction and was going down. My damage control kicked in and I had the sense to grab my brand new binoculars from my neck and hold them over my head and tip my tripod so that the scope was above me as well as I entered the five foot deep water next to the cement… Even as I was saving my binoculars and scope I instantly thought of my brand new Nikon Coolpix P5100 that I had in the cargo pocket of my shorts that were now two feet under water. You’ve never seen anyone get out of water faster and I instantly had my camera battery, memory card out and on rocks in the sun and wind drying out. I also realized that my cell phone for here in India was in my other pocket as well as my wallet and passport in my opposite cargo pocket (in case I’m hassled by police as I don’t have the international drivers license that is technically required to be doing what I’m doing…). I had all my gear out and drying and I decided to wait as long as possible before moving on in an attempt to save my camera. After two hours, I decided that they were as dry as they were going to get without a prolonged baking in the sun (which I was maxing out from the amount of sun I was getting…sun screen was applied but I didn’t have the water reserves required to sit out in the sun all afternoon. I packed up everything and kept the cell and camera out so they continued to get sun as I walked back to the moped. My troubles weren’t done of course as the front tire hadn’t fixed itself during the ensuing 3 hours since I had left it. It took me about 30 minutes to walk the bike to the shop which was on the far side of the nearest town (of course). My entry into the town was rather humorous to see I’m sure. The children from the village came out in droves to see the strange tall white man walking his moped through town. I think I know how the pied piper felt… In this rural village, the most English any of the kids knew (none of the adults knew any) was “Come on”, “puncture”, and “How is your name?”. The tire was mended and at this point I tried to see if the cell phone would work even though there was still condensation on the inside of the screen…no dice. I ended up returning to my host’s home at 2:45PM, 2.5 hours past when I’m supposed to be back. They were gratifyingly worried about what had happened and why my cell phone was turned off. Good to know that if, by some, one-uping, sadistic twist of fate, I were to not only have a flat, take an inadvertent swim (rendering my cell useless), and then as I’m drying off be bitten by a King Cobra, that someone would know I was in trouble! Today truly felt like a comedy of errors…I have not attempted to turn my camera on yet, I have it on the roof of the building pointed towards the sun baking. I could really use a miracle as I’ve owned this camera for less than two weeks. Ah, I hope to God that I will not have as an eventful day to write about for the rest of my stay here…

Long-billed Pipit…197

2008-02-03T09:25:00.000-06:00

Today was a very enjoyable day to be out in the field. The morning was nice and cool (~70F) and as the day progressed a large number of clouds rolled in moderating the heat that normally really takes off around 10AM. The presence of these clouds allowed me to spend more time finishing the survey which ended up being the best day of the count thus far (97 species). I saw several species that are rare at the sanctuary including a sharp looking male Pallid Harrier (last record 2000), a lone Alpine Swift high up with a large group of Asian Palm Swifts, Barn and Red-rumped Swallows (also last recorded in 2000), 3 White-browed Bulbuls, and a single flyby Common Redshank (uncommon at this site due to a lack of suitable mudflat habitat). I also recorded a new species for the sanctuary (its 197^th), a Long-billed Pipit. I was unable to get any photos of it, but it really isn’t too dramatic looking compared to many of the birds here… It is quite a bit larger and more heavily streaked than the much more common Paddyfield Pipit that I’ve been seeing regularly (photo from yesterday). I also saw a wagtail that I’m going to withhold identification on as I’m emailing some people in the know as to its identity (I have very little experience with wagtails and I’m fortunate to know people who do have experience with them!).

This morning I took the shortcut again and I don’t really understand where this water is coming from as it is super dry here, but the crossing was even worse today. I stupidly decided I didn’t want to double back and drove through it, but I barely made it (here’s a pic I snapped after crossing…). On the return I went the long way and I don’t plan on taking the shortcut for the rest of the week (I’m hopeful it will dry up during that time). Oh, I also stopped at the Yellow-wattled Lapwing spot on the way back and got an okay photo of one since I promised an attempt in an earlier post. It was 11:30AM when I took that photo which is well past when the light is good. The bird (one of 21) was standing in the shade of an acacia tree…not a bad plan. You can tell that it is a bird of dry grassland and scrub by its coloration, not too much contrast with the dry grasses it’s standing in! Just for comparison’s sake, here is the much more common and extremely widespread Red-wattled Lapwing that is also here (the Indian version of the Killdeer).

The family I’m staying with here has my tastes pegged. The food I’ve been eating I not only can tolerate (pretty much best-case scenario meal for me last year when I was here) but I actually am really enjoying. The names of all the things they serve they tell me repeatedly, but I’ m afraid I just can’t keep them all straight (my mom would take this opportunity to point out to me that I can keep all the bird names straight, so why not food names?)! I guess it’s just not a high priority for me to remember them since I will never be cooking any of these things… We also have tea or coffee every morning at 6:30AM (before I leave) and again at 4:30PM. I don’t think I would have been so long averse to coffee if I had grown up in India, it’s literally maybe 40% coffee and 60% cream and sugar! Today I discovered that a large bag of trail mix that my parents had sent along with me as “survival rations” had been found by a colony of very small ants that are living in the wall by one of my windows. The bag was totally sealed but apparently there is a small hole in the bottom of the bag, because the ants definitely found it are thoroughly enjoying the exported American trail mix! I’m now experimenting with moving the bag to different places in my living quarters to see how long it takes them to re-find it…cheap entertainment and I’m a science major…I can’t help but test things like this! Alright…tea time!

The AAA Indian Experience

2008-02-02T10:04:00.000-06:00

Today marked the first unforeseen event of my stay here. The rear tire on the moped began to lose air at a rapid rate as I was making my way around the edge of Karaivetti Lake on my way to the first stop. I got off the bike to avoid further damage to the tire and rim and walked it up to a shaded area where a small road intersected with the road around the lake. I called my host, Mr. Devadass to see what the best thing for me to do. Since it was totally flat, he decided to send two of the men who work for the school out on a motorcycle with tools so they could detach the wheel and take it to the nearest repair shop and bring it back so it could be ridden back to the school.
I then conducted as much of the count as I could on foot while I waited for help to arrive. I saw many more songbirds today since I was on foot in between the locations where I normally stop on the bike. Probably the best bird of the day though was a subadult Watercock that I flushed out of the edge of some rice paddies. The Watercock is closely related to both rails and gallinules and shares many of the attributes of both. It actually resembles the yellow rail that is in America in its subadult plumage, the adult is all dark with a red beak. Other than that, most of the birds that I saw today were fairly standard, I did see a small flock of Northern Pintail and Spot-billed Ducks, surprisingly this was the first time I’ve seen either of those species here this year (pintail are present in the thousands here earlier in the winter season). I took my opportunity of walking the dike around the lake by taking many more photos of birds here today.

When I am conducting the full count, I don’t really have time to spend taking too many photos, so I will meter my good photos from today out over the next several posts! Here is a quite obviously staged photo of me “on station” this morning.

Once help arrived, it took another 45 minutes for them to take the tire to a nearby village while I waited and did a little more photography of a small flock of the near-endemic Ashy-crowned Sparrow Lark. The intensity of the sunlight here even at a fairly early hour of the morning (8AM) makes it very challenging to get truly good photos of these birds. I may leave a little bit earlier tomorrow to try to counter this and give me a little more chance at the “money” sun-angle the early morning provides.

Ah, dinner time – until tomorrow.

A Day of First’s

2008-02-01T09:49:00.000-06:00

Today was my first day conducting the survey at Karaivetti on my own and it went quite well. In the morning, I drove the moped solo for the first time and I also was initiated to actually driving on the left side of the road! I’ve been a passenger many times in the UK and in India, but being the un-thinking spectator is a far cry from actually remembering that right turns are no longer the safer of the two directions to turn! Another thing that I learned today is that when you wear glasses and drive in the morning when there is light fog, it accumulates on your glasses! No wiper blades to help you out when you’re on a moped! I managed to remember the route to the wildlife sanctuary and didn’t take any wrong turns as I wound my way through four different villages. I took a shortcut that Relton and I had taken on the way back yesterday over a shallow ford of a river. Yesterday there was a very small pool of water (2 inches deep and 2 feet long) that we had to cross and since we are entering the dry season here, it is supposed to do nothing but evaporate here over the next couple of weeks. Imagine my surprise as I drove down the banks of the riverbed and saw at least three pools that were over 6 inches deep! I strategically drove across the shallowest areas and had enough momentum that I managed to not get stuck in any of the water! The photo below is of the far end of the lake where I start the count at, but this is a very similar type of ford as I cross on the way to Karaivetti Lake

The bird survey went well today and I saw 93 species in four hours of surveying just the wetland and its surrounding habitat. I saw two new species of birds that hadn’t been recorded in the sanctuary before. One was an Indian Peafowl (aka Peacock) that I flushed from along the same shortcut that I mentioned earlier. The habitat surrounding the wetland system is primarily an arid scrub and areas that are being cultivated using water pumped from the river. Indian Peafowl are much more common in more heavily wooded areas with less people (the larger you are means you would make a good meal for a family in one of the many villages in the area…). So, this sighting was noteworthy for this location and I doubt that I will see many more Peafowl in this area over the next month. The other new bird for the Karaivetti list was a Paddyfield Warbler, a very drab small songbird that spends most of its time in thick reedbeds and grassland areas. This is a fairly common species in wetlands throughout southern India and I suspect that it has been seen here before but was overlooked when the list was being compiled. Other highlights for the day included several flocks of Bar-headed Geese (that had been absent yesterday), more Spot-billed Pelicans, and Eurasian Spoonbills. Aside from the peafowl the best bird of the day was probably a Brown-headed Gull seen harassing a flock of Whiskered Terns. There is only one prior record of this species at the lake from 1997. I suspect it is more regular than that, but the coverage here just has not been high enough to note them many times. I also was able to relocate the Greater Spotted Eagle that Relton had told me was wintering in the area (an Aquila eagle closely related to the Golden Eagle. This is a species of conservation concern and it is very uncommon this far south in India at any time. This is the fourth or fifth year that it has been seen in the area though. At several of my stops there are Chestnut-shouldered Pretonias nesting in the metal poles. This species, which is closely related to the House Sparrow, is fairly common in arid scrub throughout the subcontinent (see left). During my return trip to Pullambadi, I was able to locate a large flock of Yellow-wattled Lapwings (21 in all), a fairly widespread species that had eluded me despite constant searching last year when I was here… It is a very sharp looking bird with a black Zorro mask and of course its yellow “wattle” that hangs from the base of its beak. I will attempt to get a photo of them when I get a chance as I can’t do the bird justice with a written description. Here's a pic of me at the third stop where I count from. Today I had some enthusiastic locals stop by who were eager to look through my scope (see below).

Since I played cricket yesterday, it is apparently now compulsory for me to play in the schoolyard at 515 every evening. More boys played this time and we actually had two teams of three (the yard isn’t too big, so it works out). I’m learning more of the nuances of the rules and all that practice fielding groundballs and catching fly balls for baseball during high school is actually of some assistance! Ah, the power just went out and along with it the fan that keeps my room tolerable. Rolling brown-outs are the norm here with at least four a day with various durations. Stuff you take for granted in the US…power.

Above is a sketch by Relton of the 13km route I take from Pullambadi to Karaivetti Lake every morning. Here they do not have the luxury of detailed maps of every dirt two-track in the country like we do in the US. Also, funny side-note; my hosts were amazed to find out that Sean Connery’s name is pronounced Sh-awn just like my name, apparently everyone in India calls him “Seen” Connery!

Karaivetti Wildlife Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu, India

2008-01-31T09:00:00.000-06:00

I just arrived in the thriving town of Pullambadi, about 13 km from the Karaivetti Wildlife Sanctuary where I am going to be conducting a six-week bird survey which will be fulfilling my internship requirement for Cornerstone University’s Environmental Biology undergraduate program. I visited southern India last January as part of an Au Sable class on the Ecology of the Indian Tropics. I had a great time and learned a lot but I was frustrated by the constraints of the class schedule which made it difficult for me to see many of the birds that were residents. At the end of the class last year, Dr. Relton invited me to return and conduct my internship here so I could spend more time really getting to know the local bird community. I would also be assisting them by conducting a survey of this wildlife sanctuary which has never been systematically surveyed for consecutive days (the most intensive survey it received was 5 years ago when it was visited every fifteen days during the winter season). 8,700 miles, 36 hours, and 3 airlines after departing from Chicago on January 27^th, I ended up in Trichy (~35 km from where I’m conducting the survey...and how apt of an airline to be flying on my way to birdwatch in India!). A day and a half of recuperation and adjustment to the time zone difference (11.5 hours ahead of CST) and Relton drove me out to Pullambadi to where I will be staying with Mr. Devadass (the administrator of a primary school) and his family for the next six weeks. The moped that I will be driving ~13 km back and forth every morning to the sanctuary along “metaled” (asphalt) roads was shown to me and Relton and I set out to do a test run and for him to show me the route (comprehensive maps of the road system that we are accustomed to in the States don’t exist here…part of the fun!). The tripod for my scope presented the largest problem and I ended up holding it across my lap as I sat on the back of the moped as he drove. Luckily, only 3 km of the trip is actually on a road that has regular traffic (buses, trucks, and cars). The remaining 10 km or so only have motorcycles, mopeds, and ox-carts and is very quiet.

It took us 40 minutes to reach the far end of the lake, where I will start each morning so the sun is at my back (facilitating much better views and counts of the waterbirds that are present). Relton went over the survey method which consists of splitting the ~285 hectare lake into four sections and spending approximately 30 minutes observing and recording the numbers of each species of bird in each section. There is another smaller lake that is on my way from Pullambadi to Karaivetti Wildlife Sanctuary that I will also be surveying.

After visiting these two lakes, Relton and I were both left asking; Where are all the ducks?

Today when Relton and I went to scout the area we were both surprised by the lack of ducks that were present. When I was here last January the lake was literally covered in ducks with a large number of them being diving ducks like Tufted Duck and Common Pochard. Today not only were there very few birds (~400) but there wasn’t a single diving duck present. Large numbers were present just three weeks ago when Relton was last here, so where all of these birds have disappeared to is a mystery. Perhaps they have already left headed north for their breeding grounds in Siberia and Eurasia. The water levels on the lake will steadily decrease as the river that feeds it dries up for the summer. Karaivetti is one of the deepest lakes in the area, and retains water the longest. As water levels drop many of the large waders (storks, ibis, spoonbills, and herons) as well as shorebirds concentrate here in much higher numbers. We didn’t spend too much time counting at each location as we had gotten a late start and it was heating up rapidly (there is little to no shade around the lake).

I spent the rest of the afternoon revising the old checklist for Karaivetti with new species names and checking for holes in the list (I found three regularly occurring species from the morning that weren’t even on the list for the site yet!). Around 5PM after the mid-afternoon tea, I played some cricket with some of the boys from the school. I must say that the pitch could be in better shape, but some of these kids are really pretty good! At about 6:15PM I decided to check out some local reedbeds and small ponds that Relton told me could harbor rails and bittern. I had quite the entourage by the time I got to the rice paddy bunt. My shoes and feet stayed mud free for a whole four minutes before the inevitable just couldn’t be put off anymore. Due to the size and noise created by my group of enthusiastic young friends, I saw almost nothing during the hour walk, but I know how to get to the ponds on my own now, so it served a good purpose. I also was able to see a few things despite the noise and saw Ashy Prinia, and my first ever Jack Snipe.

Today was the first day I didn't take a nap in the afternoon in an effort to force my body into total adjustment into the time zone here. That fact coupled with the early wake-up and abudance of sun today has me currently exhausted. Tomorrow is my first day of actual surveying and driving out there on my own in the morning. I'll try to get some more action pix too...

Sunset over the rice paddies with a few of my young friends on a bunt nearby.

Banding in the Colonche Hills of Ecuador

2008-01-24T01:19:00.001-06:00

I recently participated as a volunteer on this year's portion of Lifenet's ongoing research that is occurring at the Lloma Alta Community Reserve located in the coastal hills of western Ecuador. I spent a total of sixteen days in Ecuador; ten of those days at a semi-primitive base camp, 4 hours (by mule or foot) from the nearest village with electricity or that was reachable by vehicle. While we were at this camp we spent our time banding understory birds as part of the ongoing research that is being conducted by Dusti Becker through Lifenet. During the afternoons several of us would also go up to "el pasturo" where three hummingbird feeders had been put up and conduct counts of various hummingbird species use of the feeders. We were only at about 600 meters elevation and the temperature while we were up in the hills varied from maybe 60 F (at night) to about 80 F. It rained or misted basically continuously for the first five days we were up there, which made it very difficult conditions to do work in. The trails, already extremely muddy when we got there, became what I would describe as more of a gloppy soup by the end of five days of rain and heavy foot traffic by the volunteers running the mist net lines (see right). The local staff that Dusti had hired to cook our meals and to assist with the banding did an outstanding job and I think it is safe to say that the entire team of volunteers were very impressed at both of the cook's ability to set excellent meals in front of us without exception (vital to morale after five days of straight rain and mud (loudo in Spanish). The two bird guides, Mauricio and Pascual were extremely familiar with all of the local birds and were also extremely skilled at extracting birds from the mistnets.

This was my first true banding experience and was a great way to start, seeing many understory species that can be incredibly difficult to see due to their quiet skulking behavior. It was very interesting how different species of birds reacted to being caught in the extremely fine mistnet and the approach of the volunteers to the nets. Some birds would just lay there in a resigned manner as soon as they hit the net and fell into the pocket under each panel of net. Other birds would struggle and twist themselves into seemingly hopeless messes in the net. I watched and learned from Pascual the first day of banding before I attempted to extract any birds and then began taking out some of the easier birds (Gray-and-gold Warbler and Orange-bellied Euphonia – pictured on the right with Mauricio). By the next day I was trying to extract most everything including hummingbirds (which I found to be much easier than I had imagined). If a bird was really bad, I would ask for Pascual's help, otherwise I would just take my time and methodically work my way through the puzzle of where and how every bit of the net had been looped over the wing, legs, feet, and head. Back at the banding station Dusti was also teaching me how to do the various measurements and observations that are recorded for each bird that is banded. By the second day of banding, she was allowing me to do the measurements of all the recaptures we were getting and even let me band the woodcreepers (some of the more tenacious residents of the forest that we were catching). The Spotted and Plain-brown Woodcreepers are both about Hairy or Red-bellied Woodpecker sized with much sharper beak and extremely strong feet. We banded in light rain for the first two days at banding runs that were at a slightly lower elevation and don't typically get as many birds (our base camp kitchen table doubled as banding station during the morning). This was done on purpose for the very good reason of allowing the volunteers to get used to extracting birds from the nets and the whole banding process. We had our first semi-sunny day when we opened the nets on the ridge. The topography and geography of the landscape makes this ridge a very good site to band birds as many of the birds from the lowlands cross from one valley to the next in the saddle of this ridge (where the nets are set up). We caught a lot of birds at these locations, with the species composition being a little different from the previous banding days. We seemed to catch more of the "ant" birds (Antthrush, Antbird, Antwren, Antvireo) at the other site, while catching things like Silver-throated Tanager and lots of hummingbirds were more common at the ridge. The highlight of the trip was when I was running one of the net lines with Emilie and I had stopped to take a euphonia or something out of a net and Emilie had gone on ahead of me. I was maybe five minutes behind her when I got to net 7 and there was a gorgeous male Collared Trogon caught in the top panel of the net! The trogon was barely caught, and I'm not sure if it would have remained caught if I hadn't stumbled upon it so soon after it had flown into the net. Either way, I was absolutely thrilled to take this bird out of the net and surprise Pascual with a bird that this team catches only once every few years (per Dusti's comments later on). We caught a few other birds like Pale-eyed Thrush, Immaculate Antbird, and Band-tailed Barbthroat (a hummingbird) that I either hadn't seen yet, or that were quite uncommon in the western hills of Ecuador and were to be more expected on the west slope of the Andes. The best information that we gathered that I know of, is a recapture of a male Slaty Antwren that is 12-13 years old! This is a bird the size of a House Wren! It absolutely blows me away how a passerine that small can live to be that old. Also, my Nikon Coolpix 4500, which has served me well for years, gave up the ghost at this point during the trip after taking its 9,599^th picture. Unfortunately for me, I'd been hoarding my batteries like a miser since we had no way of recharging them at the casita, and therefore I only took ¾ worth of one batteries worth of banding pix. Bummer!

The birding was (as I had been warned by Caleb who had been to Ecuador before) difficult in the rain forest due to the extreme height of the trees, the amount of mid-level vegetation that block one's view of the high canopy, and the extremely backlit views you would get if you did manage to see a bird in the high canopy! This didn't stop me from at least attempting to bird every day but one while I was there. It was a real treat for me to observe species like spinetails and foliage-gleaners make up large percentages of mixed flocks (all furnarids, a family of birds that I had never seen prior to this trip!). Two other species that were found in nearly every mixed flock were the southern replacements of two of our summer warblers; Tropical Parulas and Slate-throated Whitestart (Redstart on some lists). Some of my favorite songsters down here were the Spotted Nightingale-thrush (a Catharus thrush like our Swainson's or Hermit with a song to match their vocal talent - left) with an ethereal melody that could be heard from the undergrowth. Another very cool song was had by the Scaly-breasted Wren (aka Southern Nightingale Wren) which actually made its way down a musical scale (call can be heard here). On one of the nicer days, Mauricio and Pascual came along with me in search of elegant crescent chest, a bird that superficially resembles perhaps a warbler but is totally unrelated. After a fair bit of bush-whacking with the machete (that us gringos were absolutely forbidden from using), we reached a location where Pascual pointed out the call of the crescent chest, but try as we might, we were unable to catch a glimpse of this skulking bird. While down there, we did see some other interesting things, like a wintering Olive-sided Flycatcher. This bird is quite familiar to me as it is a regular migrant across the US and breeds in the northern half of both Wisconsin and Michigan. Both Pascual and Mauricio were not as familiar with it, having only seen it a handful of times. It felt good to be able to point out an uncommon bird for them since they were endlessly patient with my questions in broken Spanish (Yo escuchando un diferente aves. Que es? Or Que es cantando aqui? (while pointing in the direction of the mystery song)). During my afternoons of birding I also had some rather good luck at locating nests (or neados en espanol). Over the course of my time there, I saw nests or cavities of the following species of birds; Collared Trogon, Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner, Slate-throated Whitestart, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Flame-rumped Tanager (aka Lemon-rumped below), Buff-throated Saltator, Streaked Flycatcher, Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet, and Plain Antvireo. Another added benefit of spending my afternoons birding was that I usually would manage to bump into some of the more shy residents of the forest that we had been catching in the nets, but that I hadn't actually seen on my own in the field (a point of contention among some "listers" who won't count a bird that is caught in a net or after it's been released). Most days the cloud cover from the pasture was too heavy to see very far, but on a couple of the days it cleared nicely and we were treated to Swallow-tailed and Plumbeous Kites buzzing the canopy in search of prey. King Vultures soared lazily in the distance, and Mauricio and I even observed a large group (18) of White-collared Swifts fly past the ridge (much more common in the Andes). On the final morning we were there, Mauricio, Larry, and I were one of three teams whose goal it was to go out and do a Christmas bird count type survey of the forest. I naturally choose to go the farthest afield to the more birdy areas I had been frequenting during the afternoons. It was fantastic to have Mauricio along who's keen eye spotted a pair of Red-headed Barbets sitting quietly in a tree that contained a small mixed flock (the first one's I'd seen). We pressed on into some of the more lowland secondary forest and got great looks at Crested Guan, Scaled Pigeons, and the ridiculously long-tailed Squirrel Cuckoo! We ended that morning with the not so shabby total of 84 species which had been supplemented by the raptors that had just started to fly at the pasture before we came back down for lunch.

The extraction – During the course of the time up at the casita, I had managed to keep my tent somewhat dry, relatively bug-free, and my feet had not blistered (a miracle considering all of this hiking and climbing was being done in "Wellies" as the brits call them). The trip into the casita had been interesting (to say the least), with added adventure being added by the fact that I stood taller than the horse I had been allotted for the ride in. Other bonuses included the fact that I had one of the most eager/restless horses of the entire group, and the stirrups weren't designed for this westerners size 15 shoe. (Pictured is Emilie with "my" horse being on the right)After riding the horse for about a half hour with only my toes in the stirrups, I ditched the stirrups entirely and it only took another 20 minutes before I decided to hike the rest of the way in to the casita. With all of this knowledge to benefit by, I forwent the opportunity for a repeat performance and decided to hike all the way out in my willies and attempt to bird as well. I'm definitely glad I did this, as there were numerous species of birds that I only saw during this portion of the trip (Guira Tanager, White-necked Jacobin, Blue-black Grosbeak, and Laughing Falcon to name a few). It was also frustrating birding as there was the constant approaching horse behind you that limited any new bird sighting to less than 20 seconds! We finally did reach El Suspiro and the Italian Hacienda that we were to spend the night at and I was very pleased to see an actual bed and mosquito net in my room! The grounds of the hacienda were very birdy with Blue-crowned Motmots being highly visible and other species like Ecuadorian Trogon, Plumbeous-backed Thrush, and Baird's Flycatcher being extremely nice treats. The biggest highlight for me was a return to the warm dry weather of the lowlands and the ability to wear t-shirts, shorts, and sandals again! The Long-tailed Mockingbird (below) is an extremely common resident of the dry thorn forest that dominates the western lowlands.

The Coast –

Several of us elected to extend our trip and hire Pascual to guide us along the coast for two extra days following our return from Lloma Alta. We headed up to Puerto Lopez where we stayed at a very nice lodge that was owned by a Swiss gentleman and his wife which catered to westerners (but still wasn't very expensive…especially when compared to the $140 it had cost me to stay in Miami one night on my way down). From here we went up to Agua Blanca that evening to a Sulfur bath which was supposed to help with itching the numerous chigger and mosquito bites that everyone had. We managed to see a few new things during the short hike to the Sulfur bath (including a Choco Screech-Owl and my first ever becard, a pair of One-colored Becards). The rest of that evening was primarily a bust bird-wise but we enjoyed a leisurely supper and arranged for our van driver to meet us at 6AM the next morning so we could get an early start for more birding. Mary, Pascual, and I were the only ones who elected to do the early birding, and we were a bit peeved to find out that our van driver had decided that his sleep was more important than our agreed upon rendezvous. Luckily, he showed up at 6:40AM and we were able to get out before it got too late. We headed down to Ayampe and birded along a small trail that had an amazing amount of bird activity. Gray-capped, Little, and Striped Cuckoo were all seen or heard. An austral migrant was seen in the form of several Small-billed Elaenias, while species like Pale-mandibled Aracari's and Linneated Woodpeckers amazed me with their enormous size and beauty (a very colorful toucan and an ivory-billed woodpecker look-alike). I was able to point out a female-type American Redstart to Pascual, a species that he had never seen before! One of my favorite birds of the entire trip ended up being the Black-throated Mangos that were aggressively chasing each other all over the woodland edges.

We wrapped up around 10:30 and headed down the coast towards Salinas and the famed Ecuasal lagoons where the main attraction is the Chilean Flamingos that are present there. Upon our arrival, Pascual worked his magic on the guard at the gate who let us in without any charge and we began our drive around the dikes that separate the various lagoons that are used for salt extraction. Not only were the promised Chilean Flamingos present, but novel new birds like the Cocoi Heron (a seemingly more formal version of a great blue heron with a spiffy white neck with sharply contrasting dark neck and head), brightly colored red beak's look vivid against the white cheeks of the numerous White-cheeked Pintail that dabbled the lagoons, while the gigantic Peruvian Pelicans sat out among Brown Pelicans that now appeared to be dwarfed. Most of the shorebirds were our North American species that were spending the winter in coastal Ecuador, not a bad idea. Wilson's Phalarope were present in large flocks, Black Tern was seen over the lagoon, and a grand total of three Tricolored Herons (the perennial favorite of coastal habitats) were seen as well. A Peregrine Falcon also noticed how many shorebirds were concentrated in this vicinity and we watched it flush across the lagoons sending shorebirds every which way as they attempted to avoid becoming supper. Can you find the Franklin's Gull? This is a fairly typical flock of gulls that would be found concentrated around fishing villages along the coast. Laughing Gull makes up the bulk of these flocks, followed in abundance by the smashing Gray-hooded Gull (not pictured), rounded out by a smattering of Franklin's Gulls (top center among Laughing Gulls). Another ubiquitous coastal bird was the Magnificent Frigatebird (below), which is a fairly accomplished fisherman in its own right, but who prefers to steal his fish from anything and everything. We witnessed a large congregation of frigatebirds harassing fisherman as they ran from their boats to the cover of sheds where they would sort the fish and send it away. The birds were actually flying down and snatching fish right out of the open boxes as the fisherman ran the gauntlet of frigatebirds to get to the covered protection of their sheds.

I ended the trip with around 270 species seen in Ecuador, of which about 190 were life birds for me. More importantly, I got to experience a truly special place with an adventorous lot of people and lived to tell the tale! I can't wait to return and see the many other facets of Ecuador. Hopefully my Spanish skills will have progressed a little more by then!

Pale-legged Hornero (aka Pacific Hornero)

I found out that many Black Vultures will eat anything (incl old discarded fish parts)!

I hope you enjoyed this account and I'll leave you with this sunset off the coast at Valdivia.

Burlington CBC - Dec. 19, 2007

2007-12-20T22:16:00.000-06:00

I participated in the Burlington Christmas Bird Count for my at least seventh year. This CBC is one of my favorites not because it really possesses any "dynamite" areas like the Lake Geneva or Lk Michigan counts have with waterfowl, but because this count area encompasses all the areas in very close proximity to my parents house and I know them very well. This year I started out at the feeders in the backyard and I was very pleasantly surprised to see a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker come in to the well-stocked peanut feeders that were also attracting a Northern Flicker, two birds I had never personally had come to our feeders here, so very good timing!
I spent the rest of the day driving various back roads in the area looking for sparrow flocks and open country birds. I had a hard time finding the true open country birds (horned lark, lapland longspur, and snow bunting) for most of the day and I'd only managed two small flocks of Horned Larks totaling 17 birds. Late in the day I did manage to find three Snow Buntings in a recently developed farm field that was fallow in preparation for a housing development... Later on I also saw a distant flock of 15 Snow Buntings where I normally find lapland longspur (whiffed on them this year).

The other major highlight of the day was a flock of 24 Eastern Bluebirds that I stumbled across...quite a large number for winter here.

SE AZ-southern CA with Tom Prestby - August 2007

2007-12-18T21:34:00.001-06:00

Below is the trip report that Tom Prestby prepared and emailed out to the Wisconsin Birding listserv. I didn't bother changing the references to myself out of third person, so apologies if it is distracting... I've included my photos into his account.

From: "Tom PRESTBY"
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:09:33 -0500

Sean Fitzgerald and I went on a birding trip to southern Arizona and Southern California for the past week. We flew into Tuscon on Saturday the 18th and rented a car and in the next week we worked our way through Arizona and California to the San Diego/ Orange County, CA area. It was a great trip in which we each saw dozens of life birds and many amazing places. The following are the day by day highlights.

Saturday, August 18
After getting the car in Tuscon we stopped at Sweetwater Wetlands/ Rogers Rd Pond but since it was the heat of the day things were slow. We went to Madera Canyon and birded there until dark. The feeders at the Santa Rita lodge had a lot of Broad-billled & Black-chinned Hummingbirds with a few female Magnificents. Other normal feeder birds such as Lesser Goldfinch, Bridled Titmouse, and White-winged Dove were abundant. A walk up the vault mine trail was pretty quiet but produced our first mixed warbler flock of the trip including over 15 Black-throated Grays and several Grace's Warblers and Painted Redstarts. As the temp dropped a little we headed down towards Proctor road where we found Sean's lifer Varied Buntings, Black-throated Sparrows, and a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher. Just down the road Cassin's and Botteri's Sparrows were singing and putting on a great show very close to the road.

Sunday, August 19
We started at dawn in Ft. Huachuca and were thrilled to find a pair of Montezuma Quail on our way up the canyon-- a lifer for both of us (male pictured on right). After the long ride up the terribly conditioned road to Sawmill Canyon we found our target birds for the area- a Greater Pewee (the only one of the trip!), Yellow-eyed Juncos (pictured below the MOQU), and a small family group of Buff-breasted Flycatchers. We ran into another mixed flock of warblers here-- mainly consisting of Black-throated Gray and Graces but also my lifer Hermit Warbler. We searched Scheelite Canyon for the roosting spotted owls but could not turn them up. However, the walk still payed off by producing a family group of
Dusky-capped Flycatchers (the only ones of the trip). Next stop was at the Ash Canyon B&B where we leisurely watched tons of feeding humingbirds including our lifer Lucifer and a Violet-crowned which was a lifer for Sean. Just up the road at Beattys feeders we had an astounding look at a male White-eared Hummingbird and many nice looks at Magnificent, female Blue-throated, and several others. The Patagonia roadside rest was rather quiet-- just a few YB Chats and Bell's Vireos calling, a Western Tanager in the trees and a Peregrine Falcon on the rock face. Kino Springs was much more productive-- we immediately found the family of Gray Hawks and had a great close look at one of the young birds (pictured on the left). The area across the road had more Varied Buntings and some Lucy's Warblers and in the trees on the edge of the main pond we studied a Tropical Kingbird. It was fun to compare the plumage and call of this bird with the many Cassins and Westerns that were also around. Black & Say's Phoebes were common in the area. The last stop of the day was a frantic attempt for Thick-billed Kingbird near the Patton's residence in Patagonia. Unfortunately the birds have left the area where they nested so were very difficult to find. We drove the Sonoita Creek Preserve for several miles before giving up and just when we turned around we spotted a bird at the top of a dead tree near the road-- a Thick-billed Kingbird!! It gave us excellent looks as the sun went down to close out a great second day of the trip.

Monday, August 20
We camped sunday night at Stewart Campground in the Chiricahua Mtns so we could check the Berryline Hummingbird nest at dawn (quite a view to wake up to!). Unfortunately, the nest was no longer active- most likely because the female Berryline mated with a male Blue-throated or Magnificent, causing the eggs to be non-fertile. We continued on to the south fork of Cave Creek and enjoyed a leisurely 3+ hour hike. Things started slow but picked up when we ran into a large warbler flock that contained tons more Black-throated Grays and Painted Redstarts, our only Red-faced and Virginia's Warblers warblers of the trip, and a smattering of other western passerines including Huttons & Plumbeous Vireo and Grace's Warbler. Most surprising in this flock was 2 Mexican Chickadees, a bird that is common in the Chiricahuas but normally at a much higher elevation. On the way back to the car we found the highlight of the walk- an Elegant Trogon. We had excellent looks at a female for at least 5 minutes only to have the male fly in as well and join the female in feeding and resting in the open extremely close to us. We made our way up the mountains to Barfoot Park (pic on right) and walked the trail to the lookout. While enjoying the gorgeous view we watched a calling Zone-tailed Hawk and a Short-tailed hawk fly in the distance with a Red-tailed. The Short-tailed disappeared, but reappeared directly over our heads no more than 50 yards away--an amazing look at the very rare but regular species for AZ. At Rustler Park we found a very large group of Pygmy Nuthatches and Mountain Chickadees with a few Hermit Warblers and our only Olive Warbler of the trip. The last stop was Dave Jaspers feeders near Portal where after about 20 minutes a Crissal Thrasher joined the 100+ Gambel's Quail and other desert feeder birds. We spent the rest of the evening making the long drive to the Salton Sea area in SE California.

Tuesday, August 21
We spent the whole day at the Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley of SE California. On the way to the sea we stopped on a small town and we found a few Inca Doves accompanied by Sean's life Common Ground-Dove...about time! The Salton Sea is a very unique place and definitely one of the most interesting places I have ever birded. While we were driving there at dawn, thousands of Cattle Egrets were flying over leaving their overnight roost,
burrowing owls lined the roadside ditches, and thousands of White-faced Ibis filled the wet fields for their morning feeding. The sheer volume of shorebirds was absolutely amazing, definitely a shock to the system of anybody used to shorebirding in Wisconsin. There were at least 6000 American Avocets, 4000 BN Stilts, 7000 Western Sandpipers, 800 Long-billed Curlews,
500 Marbled Godwits, 75 Willets, and large numbers of many more species. The shorebirds were not the only group that impressed, the waders put in a great showing as well with at least 1000 Snowy Egrets, 4000 White-faced Ibis, and 1500 Cattle Egrets. Yellow-footed Gulls were present at almost every stop (about 100 total) and 2 Gull-billed Terns and 1 Heermanns Gull were also seen. The sea was not as smelly as some birders may remember it although there was definitely a slight to moderate stench in the air. The temperature was extremely unforgiving as the 121 degree high made us sweat as soon as we stepped out of the car. I can definitely say I have never drank as much water and gatorade in my life as I did that day...

Wednesday, August 22
We started the day at the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve near Palm Springs. There were many feeders set up which attracted several new birds for us including Costa's Hummingbird, California Towhees and Nuttal's Woodpeckers. A walk around the preserve yielded many more new birds including California Thrasher and a family of Western Bluebirds. In the early afternoon we took the tram up to the top of the San Jacinto mtns. Unfortunately, a lot of the
area was closed because of a fire but we were still able to find a White-headed Woodpecker and a couple migrant Pacific-slope Flycatchers among other more common high elevation birds. Towards dusk we drove up the San Bernardino Mtns and stopped at a few pullouts along the way. At one stop a covey of quail which were almost certianly Mountain Quail managed to escape into dense brush without a good look but we did have a nice look at an Oak Titmouse. As we set up camp we were serenaded by a Common Poorwill and 2 Great-horned Owls.

Thursday, August 23
Another day spent in the San Bernardinos after a crisp low of 47 degrees. Highlights in our morning of birding in these mountains included excellent looks at 2 different coveys of Mountain Quail, a flock of at least 70 Pinyon Jays, great looks at White-headed Woodpecker & Williamson's Sapsucker, and a migrant Gray Flycatcher near Big Bear Lake. On our way back down the mountains we stopped at the Bearpaw Ranch Sanctuary which is dominated by
scrubby oak/chapparal habitat. The feeders were active with Oak Titmice, Spotted & California Towhees, and Dark-eyed (Oregon) Juncos. We walked the extensive trail system and had a great look at a pair of Wrentits, another covey of Mountain Quail, a California Thrasher, and many more common chapparal species. The last stop of the day was at San Jacinto Wildlife
area. We searched the many Red-winged and Brewers Blackbirds but could not find any Tricoloreds except for 2 birds that Sean saw flying in a flock of Red-wingeds while I was scoping something else. On the small auto tour we ran into a covey of 8 California Quail- a lifer for me and our only CA Quail of the whole trip!

Friday, August 24
We spent the day birding with David Vander Pluym and Leigh Johnson (see her blog post on our visit here) who live in the LA area. We started at Point La Jolla in San Diego where we conducted a 2 hour seawatch. We didnt see as many seabirds as we were hoping to but we had fairly nice looks at several Black-vented Shearwaters and Elegant Terns. Western & Heermanns Gulls were common along the shoreline. The San Diego River mouth held tons of shorebirds on the sandbars including good numbers of Red Knots, LB Curlew, Marbled Godwit, and Willet. After birding a few
more places in the San Diego area and picking up targets such as Allen's Hummingbird, Reddish Egret, LB Heron, and California Gnatcatcher we headed to the rocky shoreline just north of Laguna Beach. Out over the water we watched at least a dozen Black Storm Petrels flying around and on the rocky shoreline we saw many of our sought-after pacific coast shorebirds including Black Turnstone, Black Oystercatcher [aka "oyc" as Torcuil got me saying], Surfbirds, and Wandering Tattlers.
We both had a great time enjoying these awesome areas and the great birds that call them home. We tallied 256 total species for the trip and we each had more than 25 life birds.

Tawas Point State Park - 5/23-24/07

2007-12-18T21:34:00.000-06:00

Here is my summary that I posted on MI-listers of a weekend I spent at Tawas back in May:
Yesterday afternoon and this morning were excellent at Tawas Point State Park (Iosco County).
Highlights of 5/23:
Whimbrel - 300+ located at tip of the point and only present until about 3:30PM when a young couple walked all the way out to the end of the point. The Whimbrel all took off and headed west over the bay. Jim Stevens reported seeing the birds from the McDonald's parking lot as the flew past at the same time.
Northern Mockingbird - seen briefly on my way out to the point and observed again out at the tip flying out to the islands and back to the lighthouse. "Record shot" on right...
Yellow-breasted Chat - Heard about 200 yards in from the actual point and briefly observed near the stand of Jack Pine on the bay side of the point.

Highlights of 5/24:
Summer Tanager - a first year male was seen and heard all along the point during the am
Northern Mockingbird - continued and was very noticeable as it called and flew up and down the point
Red Knot - 2 birds out at the tip of the point
Piping Plover - a single adult out at the tip of the point as well
Connecticut Warbler - a male was heard singing near the tip at about 10AM and then briefly seen
Dickcissel - 2 birds feeding in the "Horseshoe" Jack Pine stand about half way out

Other highlights:
21 warbler species for the two days (including 5 Mourning - 5/24 and Prothonotary on the morning of the 23rd that I didn't see), Yellow-bellied Flycatchers, Red-headed Woodpeckers, White-rumped Sandpiper, Black-bellied Plover (~50), American Wigeon, Merlin, and Philadelphia Vireos. I haven't totaled the species list for the two days, but it was my best two days ever at a migrant trap.

Two days later, a "Tropical Kingbird" was reported from Tawas in the afternoon and I dashed down there for what would have been a life bird. It turned out to be a much more regionally unexpected and rare Couch's Kingbird which I was able to enjoy with numerous other birders that evening. I also spotted an Eastern Screech-Owl roosting in the midst of one of the Jack Pines out towards the end of the point, apparently a very rare bird out on the point... This was also the first red morph ESOW I've personally observed.

Norfolk and Scotland - March 2007

2007-12-18T20:40:00.000-06:00

A Taste of Norfolk – Spring Break 2007 – March 5-8, 2007

Gervase and Ann Orton had met me on one of my Kirtland’s Warbler tours this past summer in Grayling, MI. We had hit it off nicely and they were privileged enough to hear the first Black-billed Cuckoo of the year at the site that morning in early June. They had generously extended an invitation to put me up and show me around in Norfolk if I ever came to the UK. Well, I had several options for where I was going to go this spring break (including visiting my friend Luke DeCicco in Nova Scotia, Andy Bankert near Orlando, Florida, or Alan Contreras in Eugene, Oregon. Any of these spots would have been a welcome change of pace from birding in SE Michigan in the dead of winter (where Caleb Putnam and I birded our tails off on the Lake Michigan coast for a respectable but still rather meager 55 species a week prior)! But I also sent off an email to the Orton’s to see if a trip to the UK may work this break. Well, I hadn’t heard back from them for a little over a week so I figured it wouldn’t work out when I did get a reply they welcomed me to come for half a week and they would show me the works out in coastal Norfolk (one of the best birding areas in England) based out of their “Bungalow” (left) out by a small village called Little Snoring (I’m not making this up - Great Snoring was the neighboring village!). Well this was fantastic and I began to make flight and train arrangements to get out to Peterborough from Heathrow so they could pick me up on Monday morning. At about this same time I saw an email to the “Youngbirder” listserv from Torcuil Grant, a young birder from Scotland who I had communicated with a few times via email but didn’t know that well just seeing if he might be interested in hosting a “Yank” for a few days for the second half of my week in the UK. A couple days later I heard back from him saying that would work out well to do an extended weekend with me coming up via train to Dundee on Thursday and he would skip university on Friday so we would have two full days of birding before I had to fly back to London out of Edinburgh early on Sunday to connect to my flight back to Chicago and back to school in Grand Rapids. Had a few killer weeks of school when I really couldn’t think about the trip too much without seeing an associated drop in test grades so tried to stay focused for the next few weeks and then before I knew it I was through and managed to get back home in Wisconsin on Friday night in the midst of some nasty sleet and snow all the way around the bottom of Lake Michigan and through Chicago. I enjoyed a day with my family before heading out on the early flight to Heathrow on Sunday morning. A rather uneventful flight and I was thankful that the agent had put me on the bulkhead with both my neighboring seats being empty which gave me a lot more space for the 8 hour flight. After having flown to Delhi, India nonstop from Chicago this flight really seemed like a short hop over the pond and before I knew it we were turning off our electric equipment and putting the seatbacks up for arrival in London. We landed in quite the crosswind and it was the most I’ve ever felt a 777 being pushed around and made our way to Terminal 3. A long walk from the extended piers they have at Heathrow got us to customs and I had to explain to the immigration official that I didn’t have the address of the Orton’s who I was staying with first and would the address of Torcuil in Scotland do? No that wouldn’t but the phone number of the Orton’s would do this time but he gave me a stern warning about having the address of the person I would be meeting in the future before he allowed me through... A short wait at baggage claim revealed my checked luggage had made it safely and I went out towards the bus station that I was to wait at for about 4 hours before I caught the bus to King’s Cross where I was to catch my 521AM train to Peterborough. I watched a movie and guarded my things in the bus terminal basically staying up all night as I didn’t feel safe leaving all my optics and such in my bags laying next to me. I was only heckled by one homeless type who was actually caught by bus terminal staff for attempting to steal a small metal sign (idiotic I know!). After refusing to give back the sign, 12 Metro Police came with flak jackets on and searched him finding something of note before carting him off in the Paddywagon. The buses over to Kings Cross were fairly uneventful, but I did have the pleasure of traveling on Doubledeckers which provide quite a view as we made our way through quiet London at 4AM. The train (left) wasn’t bad and I arrived to meet the Orton’s at the station at about 7AM. From then on it was all birds!

I don’t know the names of most of the places we went so my account will be rather limited by that. Suffice it to say that we birded some outstanding areas in the course of the next three days. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to keep my eyes open as we got into the afternoon of the Monday as I’d been up for close to 48 hours with only about 4 hours worth of naps. So we weren’t able to bird as many areas as we could have conceivably been able to if I had been able to keep my eyes open a few more hours!

One of the highlights of Monday’s birding was an area on the coast where we were looking over these cliffs and had Northern Fulmars less than 30 feet away as they glided on the updrafts over the cliff where they were nesting. Looking down on the beach and the tidal flats held foraging parties of Bar-tailed Godwits, Eurasian Oystercatchers, Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, Grey Plover, and Common Redshank. The stiff winds (30mph plus) prevented us from locating very much on the sea but the great looks at fulmar were really quite a treat. A stop by some sugar beet fields on our way to the bungalow yielded a resting flock of Pink-footed Geese (~1000+) along with 6 Whooper Swans. Some open country roads also yielded a good sized flock of Yellowhammers (a bright yellow bunting) with a few Corn Buntings also tagging along with the flock. My first European Golden Plovers flew over while we were here too. We lucked out with a nice Red Kite that flew over town not a mile from the Bungalow in Little Snoring – one of the rarer birds we saw during my three days in the area and probably our best self-found bird. A female Stonechat was seen near a flock of Fieldfare, both of these species are winterers and it was problematic whether we would be able to find these species or whether they would have already headed north. We saw a lot of other common species (like the Dunnock pictured to the left) before heading to the bungalow so I could take a short nap and we could head back out. That turned into an all afternoon nap and I was woken by Gervase at 6PM for supper as they said I was dead asleep at 3 when they tried to awake me. We had a great supper which included parsnip which is sort of a sweet legume. Unlike anything I’d tasted before and quite good. Turns out Ann is quite the cook and she either packed us nice sandwiches and pack lunches for our days out so we were never wanting for food or treats. Some sort of pudding with nutmeg and raisons was our desert and the next morning I had Crumpets – a sort of English muffin meets pancake – very difficult to describe but quite delicious. I also had the beloved Scone with clotted cream and jam – something that I can’t begin to describe to someone from the States who has never tasted it – tastes simply divine though. It was nice having hot tea wherever and whenever we went as it seemed that Ann was always making some up or packing it for us in thermoses.

Tuesday we hit up several woodlands trying to target some of the songbirds that are found in SE England. A nice variety of tits (Parus old world chickadee/titmouse types to the recipients of this email who aren’t up on their birding vernacular and think that I’m being crude) were seen including Coal and Marsh Tit which I hadn’t seen in Kensington Gardens last March when I was in London for a day with my dad (also the Great Tit pictured right). Things like European Goldfinch and Chaffinch were abundant and Great Spotted Woodpecker, Treecreeper and Wren (Winter Wren) were also well seen. A nearby stop at a ford gave us very nice looks at the moth-like pale Barn Owl as it hunted over the edge of a marsh (the fact that it was out hunting at 11AM means that it is stressed and having trouble finding food according to Gervase). A Little Egret stalked the marsh and a nice flock of Redwings (30+) were also seen in the field before flying off. A different wood which was actually owned by the Earl of Leceister was well birded for the elusive lesser spotted woodpecker (downy woodpecker sized). We whiffed on the Lesser Spot but did manage a very nice calling Green Woodpecker (a real treat!), several Nuthatches (literally look like Red-breasted meets White-breasted with a very different call), a flyover Common Buzzard, and a few distant Egyptian Geese. We then headed for the coast to chase a reported dartford warbler – a rather good bird this far north in England at a spot we were going to be going anyway. We got there and found quite a few birders there and after a few minutes we had nice looks at the Dartford Warbler that was frequenting a small patch of Gorse (small yellow flowers on a shrub of heathland) on a hill right by the sea. Skylark, Meadow Pipit, and a couple more Stonechats were present at this nice site right along the shingle bank (basically a sea barrier of built up pebbles that keeps the tide and large breakers from washing into surrounding villages/lowlands. A quick scan out to sea yielded only a few Red-throated Divers (Loons). The adjacent tidal flats held my long-awaited Pied Avocets – definitely one of the most elegant and beautiful looking birds I’ve ever seen. Northern Shelducks, Eurasian Wigeon, Common Teal, and hundreds of Dark-bellied Brent (or Brant) grazed the grasses in the area as well. Continuing on to look for bearded tit and cettis’s warbler a little ways up the coast. The wind was rather high for the bearded tit which we whiffed on but we did manage 4 Marsh Harriers which was nice. On our first try for Cettis’s Warbler we missed it but when we came back and were just leaving we heard one call down the same path so we hurried back over and we were able to get a brief glimpse of this skulking species in the fading light.

Wednesday was a rather gloomy looking day when we first got up (remarkably the first day I wasn’t seeing the sun – quite the feat in March in England!). We headed over to Titchwell which Gervase had been talking about constantly and I can see why! The place had easily 40 birders about when we were there and we took a back path so that I could see Eurasian Bullfinch (right) which were cooperative with two pair showing very nicely in the Hornbeam that they favor. Continuing out we observed Tufted Duck and Common Pochard in the freshwater portion of the pools. The next pool was 50/50 brackish water and had our first Common Goldeneye of the trip along with a nice flock of European Golden Plover. My long sought after Ruff was well seen here with at least 6 foraging along an island not far from the dike we were standing on. I spotted one of the three 1^st winter Little Gulls that we had seen reported in the Nature Center sitting out among the golden plover. A few Linnets flushed from the path as we continued out and made our way to the sea watch where we saw a few Common Scoter (Black Scoter) along with some Red-breasted Mergansers, Red-throated Divers, and several more Great Crested Grebes. The beach yielded a few Common Ringed Plover among the hundreds of Black-tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher, Grey Plover, and Sanderling. The walk back yielded mostly the same birds on the way in and we continued up the coast to look for Twite at a place that had hosted a Lesser Yellowlegs not a week before. I got some nice photos of a Common Redshank (left) at the same pool but the Twite were nowhere to be found. A female Merlin zipped past us while we were sitting there though and a couple of Marsh Harriers were seen as well. A massive flock of at least 700 Golden Plover were also seen in the air over the tidal area – unusual to see them in such a large number in a coastal area.

We then went to Abbey Farm to look for a little owl that is supposed to be very reliable – haha. We spent over 2 hours waiting for the bird to stick its head out of a root bundle with no luck. We did finally catch up with Stock Dove here – the wild version of a Rock Pigeon basically – only rather tough to find when you actually go looking for them it seemed. Many Gadwall were present in this pond and we had nice looks at a lot of other species like Red-legged Partridge, Egyptian Goose, Redwing, Fieldfare, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Eurasian Jay, and Northern Lapwing (pictured right), Eurasian Curlew that we had seen along the way but this gave us more opportunities to enjoy them. We finally left with about 45 minutes of light left to try for golden pheasant – a species we had tried for on Monday at midday with no luck. We arrived at the golden pheasant spot with about 35 minutes of daylight left and waited for most of it without seeing more than a couple of Goldcrests (the old-world equivalent of Golden-crowned Kinglet – which sound almost identical) when Gervase spotted a pheasant walk across the road behind us – a quick look in the fading light revealed that it was indeed a male Golden Pheasant – what a magnificent bird. About a 10 second look and it and disappeared into the brush on the other side of the road.

Thursday morning Ann took me to the Peterborough train station where she helped me negotiate the delays that were associated with the Scottish Signal Workers strike which nicely coincided with the one day in the year that I would be traveling via rail in Scotland… Due to the disruptions I was able to catch an earlier train that had been delayed over an hour and basically left when I was scheduled to out of Peterborough. The train trip was really rather nice as I had basically four seats to myself and they have a plug for the laptop and I’ve typed up my whole report thus far on the trip. We are about 30 minutes out from Edinburgh right now. Only noteworthy birds of the trip up so far have been a few Mistle Thrush, Kestrels, Stock Dove, and Redwing. The countryside has changed from the rather boring agricultural land of Lincolnshire and is nice and hilly now with heather on the edges, more Scotch Pine stands and smaller, older houses and cottages. Since the Scottish signal workers are on strike I will have to take a bus from Edinburgh up to Dundee so we’ll see how that goes. Spoke with Torcuil on the phone this morning and told him I’d call him and update him on my ETA when I sort things out here in Edinburgh. Ann sent along a lovely packed lunch including some delicious carrot cake that have kept me from going hungry or shelling out £7-8 for a rather pitiful lunch onboard the train here. BTW – Salt and Vinegar Crisps (chips) are fast becoming my favorite chip. They have a strong enough kick that I can’t just pound them down like I can most potato chips in the States. All for now – next update will probably be from somewhere over the Atlantic on my way back to Chicago. Cheers!

A brief account of Scotland

Friday we headed for the Scottish highlands in search of some of the specialties like the highly sought after capercaille, the endemic Scottish crossbill, and crested tit. We started the day out quite well finding a distant Black Grouse out along the grassy edge of distant heather. A couple of Eurasian Siskins also flew over at this point, unfortunately they were the only one’s of the trip. Pheasant were abundant and we even saw a couple of Green Pheasant – a very striking looking subspecies of the more common Ring-necked Pheasant. Continuing on we moved up into higher elevation where there was more bare rock visible along with some snow cover. We began scanning for Ptarmigan (Rock Ptarmigan to those of us in the US) and saw a few Red Grouse (unique all dark subspecies of the Willow Ptarmigan we have in the US...pictured above right) flying around in the heather and giving their unique rattling call. It was snowing at this point and our scanning for Ptarmigan up along the bare rocks was being hampered as a result. The snow began to let up maybe five minutes after we got there and we saw a few Ptarmigan feeding on the edge of one of the larger patches of snow. I was amazed that we had gone 3 for 3 on our first three target species of the day – grouse are by no means a predictable or easy bird to find so I was quite pleased. As we continued on towards the Scotch Pine strongholds that held the remainder of the real goodies we stopped for my first White-throated Dipper – a sharp looking relative to the rather drab dark grey American version of the same species. The brown head, dark back, and white breast all sharply contrasted to give the bird quite the smart appearance. Common Buzzards were all over the place and there were also a fair number of Eurasian Kestrels. We were unable to find any golden eagles which are also found in the area. The coniferous stands that we were targeting actually were rather birdless. The high wind hurt our detection rate and we ended up with a good number of Great, Coal, and Blue Tits but none of the sough after and specialty crested tit that apparently is quite common in the right habitat up there (according to Torcuil). A few roving bands of Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Winter Wrens, and Chaffinch rounded out literally almost all the birds we saw during our four hours in the habitat. Not even a single flyover crossbill…remarkable. The scenery was breathtaking though and was still a very pleasant afternoon in the highlands of Scotland. Some backroads near Dundee yielded a Tawny Owl that was seen briefly in the headlights of the car as it was perched on a fence post right by the road and flew ahead of the headlights for a couple of seconds before peeling off. We had an enjoyable dinner and evening at Torcuil’s father, David Grant’s, house.

Saturday was my last day of birding in the UK and was basically just a mop up of species that I hadn’t seen yet but that were still fairly getable in Scotland. We started out the day at a nearby Loch though and were able to refind a reported female Smew – a very nice looking bird that I hadn’t been expecting on this trip (pictured on the left). Good looks at Whooper Swans along with a couple of Pink-footed Geese (or “Pinks” as Torcuil called them). [At this point I ceased typing as I was arriving at ORD, I apparently forgot to finish the report and did the rest by memory…9 months later when I was reading through this again] Some random Chaffinch flocks that we stumbled upon had a decent amount of Linnet mixed in as well as at least one Brambling, a bird I have wanted to see for a long time! A couple of houses with hedges surrounding the premises also yielded a good-sized flock of Eurasian Tree-Sparrows, a bird I hadn’t seen prior to that on this trip. The rest of the day we birded coastal regions and I enjoyed my life looks at Razorbill, as well as my first ever looks at adult Northern Gannet, European Shag, and gorgeous views of Common Eiders (right) all along the coast. A Rock Pipit was a nice evening bird in another coastal village where we also waited among a large number of locals for some smashing fish and chips. A reservoir nearby had large numbers of gulls and waterbirds and also had my first Slavonian Grebe of the trip (Horned Grebe in the States).

The following morning Torcuil drove me down to Edinburgh airport and I caught a British Airways 757 down to Heathrow where I was able to connect to O’hare without issue. All in all an excellent trip and one where 123 different species bumped into me, 53 of which were lifers!

A photo of me scanning the North Sea for seabirds in coastal Scotland (taken by Torcuil).

A busy year...

2007-12-18T19:28:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been a heck of a long time since I posted on this, but needless to say I've been extremely busy. Back in March during my spring break I was fortunate enough to be able to visit England and Scotland. Thanks to the expert advice and amazing hospitality of Gervase and Ann Orton as well as Torcuil Grant and his mother, I was able to see an amazing diversity of species over a short week that involved me flying into London Heathrow, taking a train out toward Norfolk, spending three days with the Orton's before taking a train up to Scotland to meet up with Torcuil.

The first three days we birded some of the best regions in England for waterbirds and we saw a good number of birders while we were out. I was fortunate to experience atypical March weather my entire time in the UK and it only rained once during my week there! The Norfolk area produced plenty of the typical birds as well as a few "rares" as the Brits like to call them (aka rarities for the US birders). Things like Dartford Warbler, Little Gull, and Red Kite were all seen.
Scotland was incredible and some of my highlights from there were Smew, Brambling, and Black Grouse (whiffed on all the Scottish specialty birds though...a definite reason to come back!).
A summary that I typed up is posted above...

The summer was spent in Grayling, MI leading the Kirtland's Warbler tours again for the USFWS/Michigan Audubon Society. I was able to make it over to Tawas Point State Park on Lake Huron for a few days and saw some good birds at that phenomenal site during my trips over there (summary above).

I led some private "specialty" tours up into the Upper Peninsula during the first three weekends in June. Connecticut Warbler, Black-backed Woodpecker, Spruce Grouse, Le Conte's Sparrow, Grey Jay, and other boreal targets were all targeted.
I also found a Western Meadowlark at one of the Le Conte's Sparrow locations which is not nearly as common in MI as it is in WI.
Following summer classes through the Au Sable Institute near Mancelona, Tom Prestby and I flew down to Tuscon and birded SE Arizona, the Salton Sea, and the southern CA coast during our week prior to classes starting up again. (summary below)

Once classes resumed I wasn't able to bird much. I literally was able to get out only a few times although I was fortunate enough to make a trip back to WI when the Green-breasted Mango showed up. Thanksgiving break I was able to bird a portion of a day and picked up the returning Mew Gull at South Metro piers in Oak Creek for the fifth consecutive year.

In the week preceding finals I was sitting in a Panera Bread shop studying and I looked out the window to see a large (~200) flock of Common Redpolls landing in the weedy field next to the parking lot. I hurried out to my car and pulled up right next to them. Among them was a very frosty male Hoary Redpoll - a long overdue life bird for me.

Last week I spent two days doing a winter trip to Niagara Falls, Ontario in search of gulls. Caleb Putnam typed up a very good summary so I will refer you to his blog for details on that trip. The King Eider that we refound was a long-time nemesis bird for me and was my only lifer of the trip. It was a subadult male, the only thing that could have been better would have been a full blown adult male...someday!

Above the falls, the sheer number of gulls can be partially seen in this photo as the seven species of gulls present at this particular location react to a subadult Bald Eagle flying over...

San Diego, Salton Sea, and Southeast Arizona for Sean!

2007-02-24T22:49:00.000-06:00

<-- Harbor Seals - Point La Jolla, San Diego

<-- Heerman's Gull Western Gull (above)

Dad and I made a quick weekend trip out to southern California a couple of weeks ago to pick up a car that my dad bought in San Diego. We were able to get an afternoon's worth of birding in on the southern CA coastline (mainly Point La Jolla in San Diego), major birding at the Salton Sea the next day, and then Tucson area including Madera Canyon the next. Saw many neat birds including 20-some life birds. A few of my favs were Yellow-footed Gull, Mountain Plover, Rufous-winged Sparrow (thanks to a tip from my friend Tom Prestby on the Broadway Ave "Desert"), Arizona Woodpecker, Painted Redstart, and Bridled Titmouse. I wasn't able to get too many photos as we were trying to cover as much ground as possible with our limited time. I've included some of my better ones, but they leave much to be desired. The frigid reality of life back in Grand Rapids, MI was none too pleasant upon my return when temps reached below zero for nearly an entire week...ridiculous!

Ecology of the Indian Tropics

2007-02-24T22:38:00.000-06:00

I has the unbelievable opportunity to take a class in southern India this past January term and spent almost three weeks traveling all over the southern province of Tamil Nadu with 7 other students learning all about the ecology of south India. I was able to see a decent representation of many of the more common species there and ended up seeing close to 260 species during my stay (all but 15 of which were new for me). To view some photos I was able to take check out:

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/556865958TmnAFT