California’s second, believe it or not, Ivory Gull is an adult hanging out on Pismo Beach near San Luis Obispo. Gonna be a few birders there in the morning!

We’re birders all, of course, but wouldn’t you look away from the feathered folk for just a moment if you saw that face looking up at you?

Looking “up” because you’d be elephant-back, close enough for the thrill, far enough for safety.

Paul Holt writes about the excitement of our latest tour to Ranthambhore, Nainital, Bharatpur, and Corbett:

We knew instantly what it meant when we heard one of the park guides whistle: people in another vehicle were watching a Tiger! And there, walking right up the middle of the jeep track, was our first Tiger. It was a fantastic encounter, with the animal in view for almost 15 minutes, walking right up the center of the forest road as if she owned it—which we knew she did.

Someone was heard to mutter that any birds we saw after our Tiger would simply be a bonus.

This was our third game drive inside Ranthambhore Tiger Sanctuary, and we’d go on to see two more fine beasts on our fifth and last drive, plus a solitary male at Corbett. That makes seven years in a row that we’ve seen Tigers on this tour….

See out the Year of the Tiger with Paul February 7-24, 2011! Just call us if you have any questions about this fantastic tour, full of birds–and some pretty exciting mammals, too.

Paul Lehman looks back on a spectacular fall at Gambell:

I am now back home in San Diego, but Luke DeCicco et al. continue to soldier on at Gambell for another two weeks. After counting 4,375 Spectacled Eiders on 27 Sep, we added another 3,520 birds (again, almost all adult males) on 28 Sep, which included my largest SINGLE flock of the two days of 550 birds. (There are many flocks in the 25-200 range, with a few around 300 or so.) Also on the 28th we had TWO juvenile CHIPPING SPARROWS together (along with a Savannah)–my first-ever “flock” of Chippies at Gambell! Also another Greater Scaup (again, surprisingly casual in fall), and a new late-date for Rough-legged Hawk. Then, late in the afternoon–unlike the Rough-leg–I WAS able to fly off the island!

On 29 Sep, Luke obtained a local guide and visited the major lagoon complex about 10 or so miles ESE of Gambell along the north shore. There, they had an adult ROSS’S GULL feeding in the surf with Red Phalaropes. This is a very early arrival date south of the Bering Strait, the only other such early record for the area being the 4 adults I had at Gambell following the passage of an arctic front beginning on 28+ Sep in 2001. (Ross’s are said to be regular in small numbers at Gambell in Nov/Dec.) Luke also reported an exceptionally late Long-tailed Jaeger (adult), a late Parasitic Jaeger (record late for an adult), and new late dates for Dunlin (a bunch) and Peregrine Falcon.  And last but not least, Luke estimated another 5,000+ Spectacled Eiders on the 29th. So the three-day, 27-29 Sep, grand total of Spectacled Eiders there was 13,000+!

Paul Lehman writes:

The news out of Gambell the past 5 days includes the following:

Spectacled Eiders continue to pass by in reduced numbers, with the recent high being 715 birds on 4 Oct. The ratio of females to males in slowly increasing.

Some impressive late dates being set (despite the cold and strong northerly winds the past week) were topped by a NORTHERN WHEATEAR photo’d on the extraordinary date of 4 October. My late date had been 17 Sep (2002)! Also record late were a Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel on 1 Oct, Parasitic Jaeger on 3 Oct, American Pipit on 3 Oct, and Ancient Murrelet and Red-necked Grebe on 4 Oct.

New one-day high counts set include 157 Yellow-billed Loons (all alternate adults) on 4 Oct, 1080 Pigeon Guillemots on 2 Oct, and 207 Common Eiders on 4 Oct.

Other miscellanea include 2 Black Guillemots (first of the season this year), a couple more whitish Gyrfalcons, another Ruby-crowned Kinglet through 3 Oct, Slaty-backed Gull, and 7200 Crested Auklets on 4 Oct being a large number for this late in the season.

How many familiar WINGS faces can you find? Have a look especially at the roundup video from Day Two!

http://www.birdfair.tv/

A Plain-capped Starthroat appeared Sunday at the Casa de San Pedro B&B in Hereford, AZ. Jon Dunn’s tour Arizona: Second Spring spends three nights here next month.

Will the starthroat still be there? No way to say, but historically, individuals of this species have lingered long and shown considerable “feeder fidelity” in southeast Arizona.

A Solitary Snipe, North America’s second, was collected on Attu May 24. The continent’s first was found by Gavin Bieber on a WINGS tour in September 2008–who knows what this year’s trip will turn up?

Rick Wright e-mails from Rome:

It’s always tantalizing for a leader to show up the day before a tour begins. It’s essential, of course: there are always last-minute arrangements to attend to, always last-minute emergencies to fix. But once all that’s out of the way (and thanks to the yeoman work done by the Tour Managers back in Tucson, it never takes all that much time), then it’s time to go birding. A few hours to re-familiarize yourself with routes and sites, to gauge the progress of the season, or even, as I’ve done today, just to get your ear back in.

I’m staying at a very pleasant Holiday Inn between Rome and Fiumicino Airport, where Marco and I will meet up with the group tomorrow for the drive north into Tuscany. It was raining when I arrived, but it let up soon enough that I threw on my jacket and took a stroll around the neighborhood. It’s not exactly wilderness here in the middle of our industrial park, but I was amazed by what I saw. Among the thirty species I tallied in a two-hour stroll, never getting more than a quarter mile from the hotel’s parking lot, were Hobby, European Turtle-Dove, European Bee-eater, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Sardinian Warbler, Zitting Cisticola, Cetti’s Warbler, Firecrest, and (naturally) Italian Sparrow.

A good start, and all I could do to keep from asking the front desk to get all the other early arrivals downstairs so we could start birding!

The NYT has a good-looking and very timely slide show from “The Valley” on line. If you’ve never been, this should whet your appetite–along with the most recent reports from Gavin Bieber‘s spring and winter tours to one of the great meccas of American birding.

Among the brilliant beauties lurking in the Rio Grande’s narrow band of thornscrub are Altamira Orioles. And who knows, perhaps your visit will be graced by something as surprising as the Black-vented Oriole photographed on South Padre Island two days ago.

PHoto: New York Times.

The rediscovery of the Santa Marta Sabrewing holds out hope for the many other “Santa Marta endemics” of Colombia.

You can read all about it in today’s NYT.