Banding in the Colonche Hills of Ecuador

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

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

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

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

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...

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...