Managing Director Rick Wright reports:

It’s got to be seen to be believed, and even then….

The British Bird Fair, held every year for the last 20 years at Rutland Water, draws thousands (many thousands) of birders from across the UK to booth after booth featuring books, art, optics–anything a birder could dream of and then some.

This year there were some 90 ornithotourism companies represented, Sunbird chief among them.

Here we see Senior Leaders Bryan Bland and James Lidster helping clients (with the merest glimpse of Killian Mullarney in the background).

Two of the dozen huge marquees were dedicated to a nearly continuous series of lectures. Sunbird Managing Director Steve Rooke introduced a fascinated audience to birding the Silk Road of Central Asia, while my two lectures focused on the wonders of southeast Arizona in late summer and winter.

And in the midst of it all we still found time to scheme the future of birding!

Paul Lehman, WINGS Leader in Residence, writes with a very good find from Gambell, Alaska:

Tuesday: Woke to surprisingly light, variable winds, and in late morning found and video’d a WILLOW WARBLER in Gambell’s “circular boneyard.” This is the sixth North American record, all from Gambell in autumn: one in 2002, four birds last year. The 2002 bird was seen at several widely separate places over a 5-day period, and it now appears that more than one individual may well have been involved.

Four of the previous six North American records are clustered within a couple days of today’s date. This species is rumored to breed farther east in Russia than previously thought, perhaps almost to the coast at Anadyr, due west of here. The species then heads way, way west-southwest, to winter primarily in sub-Saharan Africa.

Today also brought, finally, my first wanderer of the season from the Alaska mainland:  a “Sooty” Fox Sparrow, a reverse migrant here from the south that occurs annually in very small numbers. There were also four Bluethroats (two of which uncharacteristically spent all morning flycatching in the open from a fence, with Northern Wheatears), a few more Arctic Warblers, and a small push of eiders past the Point: 2 Spectacled, 13 Steller’s, and 30 King Eiders.

Senior Leader Paul Lehman has arrived for another autumn season at Gambell:

Back at Gambell for another fun-filled autumn season, and scheduled to stay this year until October 2. We’ll see how it goes!

It was a cool and overcast summer out here in western Alaska, with Nome having a day or two of snow in July. For the past two weeks, though, it’s been sunny, milder, and with continuous north winds (10-20 mph) here at Gambell, conditions forecast to continue for the foreseeable future. NOT quite what the doctor ordered for rarities, but hopefully things will change soon; otherwise it’s going to be a long fall out here!

As my flight approached the island, I could see over a dozen whales from the plane. My first check of the boneyards has yielded a reasonable number of landbird breeders and migrants, though nothing exceptional. The tally of eight White Wagtails is the highest count I’ve had here since 1998; also notable: six Eastern Yellow Wagtails (a low count), two Bluethroats, six Northern Wheatears, three Red-throated Pipits, and 23 Arctic Warblers (a typical peak one-day count for the season).

There will be a reasonable number of birders coming and going at Gambell during almost the entire period I am here. Coverage elsewhere on the Bering Sea islands and Aleutians this fall will include several folks at St. Paul (Pribilofs) into early October and at least a few people at Adak during mid-September. We’ll have to see what turns up!

Long awaited and happily received, a singing Sinaloa Wren was credibly reported today from Arizona’s Patagonia - Sonoita Creek Preserve. This will be a first for the ABA Area if accepted, following an inadequately documented report from June 1989.

Senior Leader Gavin Bieber’s time in Thailand is drawing to a close–far too soon!

I’m heading home tomorrow, so figured I should get a few more lines in before it all becomes a blur.

Khao Yai National Park is stunning. Connected to two other parks that stretch almost to the Cambodian border, this large park preserves a rare swath of protected old-growth lowland monsoon forest and retains most if not all of its megafauna.

Khao Yai preserves nearly all of its diverse megafauna. Photo: Jon Dunn.

Never before have I had the opportunity to hike isolated trails in areas with the potential for Tigers, and it’s a wonderful feeling. I’ve decided that even if one of us gets eaten, the trip will still be a resounding success!

That thought came back to mind as we hiked several kilometers through thick head-high grass and vine tangles…. A torrential rain squall thoroughly soaked us (about time we had rain in the rainy season), and we had to ford a running stream where a bridge had washed out. The eerie wails and bubbles of family groups of White-handed Gibbons provided a near constant backdrop to our time in the park, and watching these fascinating apes swing through the canopy, play, squabble, and chase a Black Giant Squirrel around was mesmerizing.

The birds didn’t disappoint either. On our first afternoon in the park we stumbled across a slow-moving wave of birds, the best mixed-species flock I’ve ever encountered, anywhere. We managed to stay with the flock for over an hour, finding more than thirty species including 4 gorgeous woodpeckers (Greater Flameback, Greater Yellownape, Black-and-buff, and Laced), more than 40 Long-tailed Broadbills, and Red-headed and Orange-breasted Trogons!

Just before our encounter with the mega-flock, we spent about an hour slowly moving through the forest with a troop of wild Northern Pig-tailed Macaques; they completely ignored our presence as they foraged all around us. At one point a play fight between two youngsters erupted just ten meters in front of me.

The trails were a bit muddy, with lots of fallen trees, leeches, muddy puddles, and mosquitos, but the park was simply magical. We participated in two night drives conducted by the park staff, and were treated to hundreds of Muntjac and Sambar Deer, two Asian Jackals, Small and Large Indian Civets, and Malayan Porcupine–all in just two hours!

Senior Leader James Lidster writes:

I’ve just finished a busy season, ending up with superb tours to Mongolia and Iceland. Since then I’ve been residing in The Netherlands (more about that later), where I spent the better part of a week labeling every photo I’ve ever taken since buying my DSLR in 2005! Some of the better photos from my latest two trips are shown here, including this one: proof positive that staying in a ger in Mongolia really isn’t that much of a hardship.

It was from comfortable surroundings like this that we experienced such fine birds as Amur Falcon

and Steppe Eagle.

Raptors were a highlight in Iceland, too, including a spectacular adult female Gyrfalcon.

But the real spectacle on this island of fire and ice is the massive number of breeding alcids and shorebirds.

Black Guillemots nest in the crevices of harborside rocks, and Red-necked Phalaropes–rare elsewhere in Europe–spin on freshwater pools.

The British Bird Fair is just concluded, and now I’ll be taking the opportunity to have a look around at the Dutch Bird Fair. Between now and the start of my fall tour to Bulgaria, I’m going to be keeping myself busy (and hopefully healthy!) by learning to surf. Only two lessons so far, but they’ve been enough for me to gain a solid first impression: it’s great fun, but it looks so much easier on television!

Senior Leader Gavin Bieber finds time passing quickly on his first Thailand visit:

Yikes!

The time seems to be slipping away! I signed off on my last missive about 10 days ago, but it feels like much longer. Pai was a wonderful place, a sleepy village surrounded by verdant rice fields and forested mountains that serves as a base to explore the northwest Thailand.  It’s the kind of place where one could easily lose a month or two without really noticing.

The restaurants of Pai are first-rate, with almost every one serving large and cheap fresh fruit smoothies.  Nearby in the hills are woodland trails, meandering creeks, hot springs, and a suprising number of large caves.  We rented scooters again and headed an hour and a half west of town to Tham Lod National Park, an area with nearly intact forest and a tremedous limestone karst topography.  Here we found mixed bird flocks abounding along the roadsides, with highlights including Large Nitalva, Black-hooded Oriole, and our first Bar-winged Flycatcher-Shrikes, Purple-naped Sunbirds, and Large Woodshrikes.  In the park there is a mile-long cave system that can be explored on a lantern-light boat tour. The rest of my time in Pai was spent just relaxing, wandering around nearby fields where Collared Falconet, Pied Bush-Chat, and Wire-tailed Swallow were numerous.

After Pai we headed to the justifiably famous Khao Yai National Park for a quick two-day visit. Stay tuned for details of tropical downpours and amorous Gibbons…

Tayler Brooks is the recipient of a WINGS-sponsored scholarship to attend the Puget Sound Bird Observatory’s 2008 Cascades Banding Camp. Tayler is a recent high school graduate and an alumna of Seattle Audubon’s admirable BirdWatch program for young birders.

Congratulations to Tayler, and who knows, maybe we’ll hear more about her experiences here on The Wingbeat!

Many thanks to Senior Leader Jon Dunn, a member of the AOU’s Committee on Classification and Nomenclature, for the news that the 49th Supplement to the AOU Check-list has appeared, and with it some changes in the names and the status of birds familiar and exotic alike.

The entire text is available on the Committee’s web page, and all the changes have been incorporated into the pdf list e-published by the AOU. Here are a few highlights of interest to North American and world birders:

Spot-billed Duck has been split, with Eastern Spot-billed Duck the species that has occurred casually in Alaska. American Flamingo has been split from the Greater Flamingo of the Old World.

Parkinson’s Petrel and Loggerhead Kingbird join the list of species recorded from the US and Canada. Swallow-tailed Gull, Pallas’s Leaf-Warbler, and Song Thrush have been added to the list from California, Alaska, and Quebec, respectively; a full and illustrated account of the discovery of the leaf-warbler, the most charismatic of all the Phylloscopus, was published in 2007 in North American Birds by Senior Leaders Paul Lehman and Gary Rosenberg.

Mangrove Black-Hawk is once again considered a subspecies, subtilis, of Common Black-Hawk.

A number of gull species have new genus names, while the English names of several Turdus are changed from “robin” to “thrush”–among them the Clay-colored Thrush of south Texas.

As always, there’s a lot more to ponder in the complete text of the Supplement, so find a comfortable chair and enjoy!

Senior Leader Gavin Bieber writes:

Maroon Oriole, Jon Dunn.

Sawadhee Krap!

I’m sitting in a small internet cafe in Chang Mai, in northern Thailand.  After our three days in Bangkok, we ‘ll be spending much of the next week and a half exploring the mountainous regions north and west of town.  I won’t simply be writing a bird log here–but as always for bird tour leaders, rest assured that whenever I’m outside, my binoculars are close at hand!

The stunning colors of many of Thailand’s common open-country birds are amazing.  Elegantly dressed in plum and white, White-throated Kingfishers leap off the wires flashing sky-blue wings and tail, a blue that puts even the Mountain Bluebird to shame.  In the foothills of Doi Suthep just west of Chang Mai, our attention was continually drawn to birds such as the raucous White-crested Laughingthrush or the stunning Blue-eared Barbet.

But perhaps my favorite of the trip so far is the elegant harlequin Silver-breasted Broadill, traveling in small parties thorugh humid broadleaf forest.

A definite rival to the bird diversity is furnished by the myriad wats, or temples, liberally sprinkled through the country.  These bastions of Buddhist philosphy are opulently adorned with high spires, gold-leaf Buddha statues, and brightly robed monks.

The food too has been superlative, with delicately spiced curries, tropical fruits, and a rich selection of vegetarian options.  It’s only been a week, but Thailand is exceeding my lofty expectations in every way.