You are currently browsing the Wingbeat: The WINGS Birding Blog archives for January, 2009.
Rich MacIntosh discovered and photographed a White-tailed Eagle on Alaska’s Kodiak Island a few hours ago.
White-tailed Eagle, Kodiak Is., AK. Photo: Rich MacIntosh.
There are very few North American records of this magnificent Old World raptor, though it has bred on Attu and occurs casually elsewhere in the Aleutians.
Senior Leader James Lidster has revised the itinerary for his October-November 2009 tour to Ghana. Yes, this is the picathartes tour–and last year’s tour saw up to a dozen individuals of Africa’s most enigmatic bird! The major addition to the 15-day itinerary is three nights in the pristine tropical rainforests of Ankasa, a still little-known site whose many specialties make it “the next big thing” in birding Ghana.
Fischer's Lovebirds. Photo: Stanley Doctor.
Thanks to our hard-working ground agents, WINGS has been able to add to our list of international price reductions Brian Finch’s wonderful Tanzania tour. The new price for 2009 is about $6,990.
Derek Lovitch’s regular “Field Notes” in the Maine Outdoor Journal is always a delight, and this latest entry is particularly exciting. Ivory Gull has staged a nice invasion this winter into the Northeast, and Derek and Jeanette relate the thrill of seeing an adult in Massachusetts on their way back home from a greatly deserved mini-vacation in Rhode Island.
Bookmark Derek’s blog and check back often. You’ll enjoy it–and occasionally envy it, too!
On our 2007 Newfoundland tour. Photo: Bruce Mactavish
Our Question: As a general rule, the farther north a migrant landbird travels, the less time it has for breeding. Which North American landbird spends the least amount of time on its breeding ground before heading south again?
Our Answer: The long yearly commute of many Arctic-breeding shorebirds leaves some individuals just weeks to complete breeding before returning to their southern wintering grounds.
What’s less well known is that a number of passerine species lead a similarly harried summertime lifestyle. Alder Flycatchers in Alaska are known to spend as little as 48 days on the nesting ground–in comparison, Harris’s Sparrows linger in their Canadian breeding range about twice that long.
Some Lark Buntings depart their summer range on the prairies as early as July, after arriving in mid- to late May.
There is a sense of urgency to the lives of birds!
Another fine “blog” for your enjoyment, this time by Senior Leader Rich Hoyer. No one who has birded with Rich will be surprised to find the focus broad, the interests varied, and the learning surprising in the prose and pictures that make the aptly named Birdernaturalist another of our favorite e-journals.
Tour Manager Kathi McIvor writes:
I call him my boidfriend in jest, but there certainly is a bond between us, and it’s a mystery to me why he chose me.
Photo by Kathi McIvor
Sometime in October a Greater Roadrunner started following me around our acreage as I went about pruning or pulling weeds. I was surprised at how close he would come; though he always kept a discreet distance, it was obvious he was following me. Over the next few weeks whenever I went outside he would come running, clacking his beak, and almost coming within reach. One afternoon as I was pulling grass out of the garden, he came to me and dropped a feather at my feet. Over the next few weeks he brought me four more feathers, most of them from doves. Occasionally he’d come to our door and clack his beak until Mac or I opened the door. We hadn’t encouraged this attention or fed him: it was the roadrunner that initiated the contact.
Around the first week of December the advances stopped. Early on a weekend morning I saw a smaller roadrunner in the yard with the bird that had befriended us. It was obvious: they were a couple, and I’d been dumped! I was a little miffed; I’d so enjoyed his quiet company as I puttered around the yard, but now nature was at work.
This past weekend I noticed a pile of feathers in the laneway. I assumed that one of the local bobcats had nailed a quail, but on closer inspection I saw that the feathers had come from a roadrunner–my heart was heavy to think that it might have been the bird that had charmed us. A moment later I heard an odd cross between a coo and a mew from a nearby brushpile. As I looked around the male roadrunner rushed up and stood at my feet cooing. I suspect that a hawk or a bobcat got his lady friend, and the survivor now sleeps under the motorhome.
I’ve tried not to add more to our relationship than what is fact, but I swear this roadrunner has feelings and enjoys our company. As I was getting in the car this morning, he made eye contact and greeted me with his old clacking, staying tucked in where he was, dry and safe. I hope he finds a new mate to start the New Year with.
Senior WINGS Leader James Lidster has a new blog, featuring richly illustrated accounts of life and birding in the Netherlands and around the world, including lots of splendid photos from his tours. Take a look–you’ll want to bookmark it and return regularly!
We’re very happy to be able to announce some dramatic price reductions for our 2009 international tours. We’ve waited until now in order to be reasonably certain that this past autumn’s sharp increase in the value of the US dollar was not a fleeting phenomenon, and at this point we feel comfortable offering these reduced prices on our website.
The following international tours have seen particularly significant price reductions, in some cases approaching 25%:
If you have any questions about our pricing, our policies, or our plans, please make contact with the WINGS office.
When Senior Leader Rich Hoyer leads tours to Jamaica, Mexico, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Brazil, and the Galapagos, he and the participants find it impossible to ignore the amazing natural history of these fantastic places. The post-tour lists always include all the reptiles, mammals, and butterflies, and Rich has become known for the breadth of his knowledge of all things living.
Rich will be delivering a public lecture to Tucson Audubon on Monday evening, January 12, illustrated with pictorial highlights showing the mix of interests he brings to all his WINGS tours.
The Economist recently published a fascinating article about birds and birders in China, complete with an account of the first Chinese Crested Terns ever to be banded.
This handsome tern is probably the rarest of its tribe, with a population currently numbering about three dozen individuals. Very little is known about this vanishing species, but one of the best chances to see it is in Taiwan, where some at least of the remaining terns winter alongside another global rarity, Black-faced Spoonbill.