Do you ever have the feeling that conservation is a practice and an ethos “imposed” from above? Ever worry that ecotourism doesn’t really change the lives of the locals who are supposed to be benefiting from it?

The new Rio Bravo Wildlife Institute, based in the birding mecca of the lower Rio Grande Valley, is a conservation program that starts from the bottom up, involving local communities every step of the way. And protecting the habitats and birds and other animals that make south Texas so attractive a destination.

Paul Lehman, in residence again this autumn at Gambell, reports from the weekend:

Yes, the Gambell wind is still from the north. At least we had about 24 hours or so with lighter north wind a few days ago, and a couple of mainland wanderers arrived. A Swainson’s Thrush, only casual in the Bering Sea region, was here September 10. The other mainland bird was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet the following day; we get 1-2/season on average of this rare migrant.

Larger and “cooler” are the two Gyrfalcons now frequenting the village area, one of which is a nifty WHITE Gyr (the other bird is pale gray).
We average 2-3 Gyrs each September, and a white bird about every other year.

There are now also up to 4 Snowy Owls locally, putting on a nice show, plus 1-2 Short-eareds.

Spectacled Eiders are in residence on a local pond and along the beach, and some 9 Steller’s Eiders are south of town. Other miscellanea include 2-5 Slaty-backed Gulls daily, 3 more japonicus American Pipits, 6 White Wagtails, and a couple more Sharp-tailed Sandpipers.

A great murrelet show was had September 13 at the seawatch, with an all-time record one-day count of 144 Ancient Murrelets. Seems as though this “rare” post-breeding disperser from the south is becoming more and more numerous in the northern Bering Sea at this time of year.

Also in the murrelet department, we’ve had 5 Kittlitz’s in the past two days, with three birds a one-day record, and the season’s total of 7 birds so far also a record.

–Paul

What common US bird has a taste for monarch butterflies?

We all learned in school that birds would avoid the foul-tasting monarch.

But not all birds are put off by the butterflies’ toxins, which the caterpillars concentrate while growing fat on milkweed.

Black-billed Cuckoos, Scott’s Orioles, and Purple Martins have been seen to capture and eat adult monarchs; Loggerhead Shrikes are said to hang the butterflies in the sun to let the poison break down.

But the uncontested champions among monarch eaters are Mexico’s Black-backed Oriole–and the familiar Black-headed Grosbeak.   Birds of these two species consume several hundred thousand monarchs on the wintering grounds in central Mexico.

Looks innocent enough....

One important introduced species is also apparently immune to the monarchs’ poison: the domestic chicken.

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The letter contains information about new and upcoming tours, leader news, and a popular monthly trivia question.

La Mancha in October. Photo: Rick Wright

Our friend Robert Straub, author of the Site Guide to the Birds of Veracruz and indispensable man-on-the-ground for the upcoming ABA Conference, paid a visit to the Veracruz coast this weekend:

We arrived just before sunrise Saturday and were greeted by flocks of Dickcissels and Eastern Kingbirds. We estimate about 20,000 Dickcissels over the 2 days and maybe 5,000 Eastern Kingbirds (which will turn into Scissor-tailed Flycatchers in October). The trees were full of Yellow Warblers, with sometimes 50 per tree–a flock would cross the lagoon, and then the trees would fill again.

I identified a few Hooded Warbers, a few Empidonax flycatchers, and a few hundred thousand swallows! The mouth of the lagoon had many shorebirds, including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpipers, Willet, and Black-bellied Plover. An Aplomado Falcon flew by both mornings; on Sunday it tracked a flock of Dickcissles at full speed, and entering a steep vertical dive  into the hill across the way: I think the Dickcissel got away.

We had 7 heron species, including a Reddish Egret on both mornings, and 3 kingfisher species. We had some migrating Mississippi Kites flying through, and a few other raptors: the resident Common Black Hawk pair crossed the lagoon each morning, an immature Great Black Hawk flew by later, and Roadside Hawks were seen and heard. A Collared Forest-Falcon was calling on the hillside.

Brown Pelicans flew back and forth all day, Laughing Gulls were common (the only gull), and terns were Royal, Sandwich, and one Gull-billed.

The dragonfly migration was absolutely incredible. I did a small count and by extrapolating I estimated about 10 million per day–give or take a few million!

Drive time: about 1 hour 15 minutes from Xalapa to the mouth of the lagoon.
La Mancha to Cardel about 30-40 minutes.
Site conditions: perfect, no changes.

Robert

If you haven’t already seen Rich Hoyer’s video on our Facebook page, you’ve got to watch this recording of a chance encounter last week on the Villamontes-Tarija road in Tarija Department, Bolivia.

Scouting for his 2010 Peak of Diversity tour, Rich took the video of mating condors by holding his Sony Cybershot point-and-shoot up to a Zeiss 65 t* FL Diascope.

Wow. Wow.

Bryan Bland is planning a new mini-tour to England, combining a day at the amazing British Bird Fair with a short week on the bird-rich coast of Norfolk.

Birders at the Bird Fair.

Plans are still being firmed up, but right now we anticipate starting at one of the large British airports August 21, then visiting the Bird Fair August 22. At the end of the day, we’ll move on to some of Europe’s most exciting autumn birding, with several days on the English east coast.

Bryan at the 2009 Bird Fair.