From the Field
February 13:
Fabrice Schmitt on his recently concluded tour to Guyana
The 2015 WINGS tour to Guyana was a great success! Even though this year was drier than average with extremely low water levels on the Rupununi savanna, we managed to see a stunning number of our “Guianan targets”, including excellent views of Guianan Cock-of-the-rock (below), Capuchinbird, Blood-colored Woodpecker (below), Rufous Crab-Hawk, Spotted Antpita, White-winged Potoo, White-bellied Piculet, Black Curassow, several groups of Grey-winged Trumpeter, Red-fan Parrot, and Todd’s Antwren (just to name a few).
Of course, our trip wasn’t solely focused on the regional specialties. We won’t soon forget our fantastic encounters with more widespread species, such as the Black Hawk-eagle perched on the roadside, two Pinnated Bittern in the reeds at Karanambu, the Great Jacamar at Surama, a Long-tailed Potoo on its day roost (below), several splendid Swallow-tailed Kites hunting insects in the canopy at Atta Lodge, an Ornate Hawk-eagle soaring just above the Essequibo River, and a stunning Agami Heron near Iwokrama River Lodge (below).
We also had fantastic sightings of other wildlife including repeated views of Giant River Otters, a Brazilian Tapir swimming in the Essequibo River (below), four species of Monkeys, and several species of amphibians and reptiles including a beautiful Yellow-bellied Rat Snake capturing a frog (also below).
Though Guyana is still far down the list of frequently-visited countries by tourists, more and more birders are coming here to experience the incredible wildlife and extensive untouched forests. The fact that we saw up to 12 different curassows in a single morning shows how wild and protected the forests of Guyana are.
A beautiful male Guianan Cock-of-the-rock seen on his lek. photo: Karen Clarke
A striking male Blood-colored Woodpecker at the Georgetown Botanical Garden.
photo: Fabrice Schmitt
Long-tailed Potoo on a day roost. photo: Fabrice Schmitt
Agami Heron is arguably the most beautiful Heron in South America.
photo: Richard Greenhalgh
A Brazilian Tapir crossed the Essequibo river in front of our boats. photo: Fabrice Schmitt
An attractive Yellow-bellied Rat Snake or Chironius multiventris. photo: Fabrice Schmitt
A happy group pleased by a wonderful trip!
February 12:
Jake Mohlmann on his just concluded tour, Arizona: A Winter Week in the Southeast
It was another wonderful week in the desert southwest as our Winter Week tour came to a close. Many highlight were had, including a meowing Black-capped Gnatcatcher in the foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains, the first of 3 gnatcatcher species seen during the week. We encountered 4 owl species, all during the day, including a placid Western Screech-owl (below), catching the first rays of light to warm its face from a nest hole. Several warbler species were seen, and the highlight was a Yellow-throated Warbler that decided to spend the winter in Patagonia … who wouldn’t!?
A fond memory for most birders who encounter a Canyon Wren (below), is always having the cascading song to remind them of the wonderful places they’ve been. We lucked out and had an emphatic male sing to us from 10 feet away!
The Sandhill Crane show in the Sulphur Springs Valley continued the tradition that this tour is known for: thousands of birds floating by in waves (below); but perhaps the highlight of the trip was a showy male Elegant Trogon (below), that sat for 20 minutes allowing everyone to get their souvenir shot of this southeast Arizona specialty.
Western Screech-owl
Canyon Wren
Sandhill Cranes
Elegant Trogon
February 8:
Jon Feenstra on his just concluded tour, Ecuador: A Week in Paradise
I just finished an always-exciting exploration of the best birding locations of northwest Ecuador, ranging from elfin woodland near treeline to hot lowland rainforest, with various degrees of cloud forest in between. All were easily reached in day trips from our base near Mindo. Highlights included nearly 40 species of hummingbirds including such luminaries as Giant and Sword-billed Hummingbirds, Velvet-purple Coronet, and the tiny Green Thorntail (which at some point on the trip landed on everyone). Tanagers were equally represented, some in exciting (and occasionally frustrating) mixed-species canopy flocks and other nonchalantly chowing on bananas at feeding stations. Some of our favorites were Bay-headed Tanager, Flame-faced Tanager, the local specialty Moss-backed Tanager, and the rare Blue-whiskered Tanager. There's more, of course: antpittas, flycatchers, toucans and parrots...so many birds.
The tiny Green Thorntail
Flame-faced Tanager
February 6:
James Lidster on his recently completed tour of Gambia
I recently completed my 12th tour to the Gambia and was once again blown away by the amazing birds and friendly people (now keener than ever to attract tourism). We use just two bases during our eight-day tour, with six nights at a comfortable hotel on the coast and a couple of nights upriver, where we take a relaxed boat trip through the mangroves.
Boating through the mangroves
The birds never disappoint with the expected rollers, bee-eaters, kingfishers, including African Pygmy, and sunbirds being complemented by scores of herons and egrets, owls including Verreaux's Eagle and African Wood, both Long-tailed and Standard-winged Nightjars and of course the star of the trip, Egyptian Plover.
Broad-billed Roller
African Pygmy Kingfisher
Long-tailed Nightjar
Egyptian Plover
Raptors are everywhere in the Gambia and it remains one of the easiest places in the world to see Beaudouin's Snake-eagle.
Beaudouin's Snake-eagle
With temperatures over 85 degrees on most days it is an ideal location to escape the cold winter weather, and sit by a water hole waiting for Orange-cheeked Waxbill, Red-cheeked Cordonbleu and Red-billed Firefinches to come and drink.
Orange-cheeked Waxbill and Red-billed Firefinch
Red-cheeked Cordonbleu
James will be returning to the Gambia in December 2015
February 5:
Chris Wood on his just completed Minnesota in Winter tour.
There is no tour that has a better ratio of "high quality" to total number of species than Minnesota in Winter, and our recent trip was among the best ever with Spruce, Ruffed and lekking Sharp-tailed Grouse; Black-backed Woodpecker; all the winter finches (including Pine Grosbeak, White-winged and Red Crossbills, and Evening Grosbeaks) and splendid ducks including 2 male Harlequins and a Pacific Common Eider. But owls stole the show, from a wonderful evening Great Gray to 11 Snowies in less than an hour including an adult male that we watched catch and quickly eat a vole). But this Northern Hawk Owl had the most votes for "Bird of the Trip”. It’s easy to see why.
A male Spruce Grouse picks up grit along a northern Minnesota roadside
A dusk Great Gray Owl
An adult male Snowy Owl
Voted bird of the trip, a brilliant Northern Hawk Owl.
February 3:
Steve Howell on his just completed tour to San Blas, Mexico
San Blas was ‘wonderful as usual.’ The great range of habitats, from mangrove boat rides and cool pine-oak forest to deserted beaches and shade-coffee plantations, produced over 250 fabulous bird species, and a very comfortable accommodation with great food and hospitality made for a most delightful week.
The many avian highlights included this confiding Colima Pygmy-Owl
A beautifully sunlit Mangrove Cuckoo,
Stunning Citreoline Trogons feeding in a fig tree right beside the highway,
And the very local Mexican Woodnymph.
As well as birds and other wildlife we enjoyed some stunning sunsets, this one on our last evening.
January 20:
Steve Howell on his just-completed private tour to San Blas and Colima
I just completed the first part of a private tour (the second part is ongoing with Rich Hoyer in Baja California). Great birding, warm weather, stunning scenery, good food, and, of course, friendly people everywhere, made this a wonderful trip with a great group of people.
We traveled from idyllic sandy beaches (where a Black-vented Shearwater fed among pelicans in the surf!
To the spectacular Volcanes de Colima, which offered countless photo ops…
As well as many great birds, including the stunning Red Warbler.
One highlight was a procession of mesmerizing murmurations of male Yellow-headed Blackbirds (estimated in total at over a million birds!), which held us spellbound for half an hour!
Among the many Mexican endemics, this Blue Mockingbird showed well.
And rarity of the trip went to this wintering Purple Sandpiper at San Blas (a long way from the cold North Atlantic!), here alongside a Surfbird.
January 7:
Rich Hoyer on his just-completed tour, Oaxaca at Christmastime
After not leading this tour for several years, it was great to be back in Oaxaca during this festive time. In many ways, it was like I never left. The delightful cultural goings-on, such as the Noche de Rábanos, the final night of the posadas, several ruins and markets, and the fabulous food in some of the city’s finest restaurants were memorable as always.
We had very full mornings and even some afternoons in the field where the birding was great fun. In the pine-oak forests we came across a very large and cooperative group of Dwarf Jays with a flock of Steller’s Jays and Gray-barred Wrens, but only after having frustratingly brief views of two shy pairs, but the ultra-cooperative Northern Pygmy-Owl was for some the day’s highlight. We returned to this forest habitat three other times, getting great views of Red Warblers, finding a fruiting tree full of six species of thrushes (including the elusive Aztec), and enjoying a picnic dinner that was followed by an attempt to see and hear owls. It didn’t seem too promising at first but ended with a fabulous finale of a handsome Fulvous Owl perched for a couple of minutes right over the road. Oaxaca Valley and foothill gems were Slaty Vireo, Oaxaca Sparrow, and Bridled Sparrow.
Our time on the moist northern slope and lowlands in the Valle Nacional and Tuxtepec region doubled our bird list. A cooperative Pale-billed Woodpecker, Yellow-tailed Oriole, and multiple kingfisher species were notable, but a true joy was watching a White-bellied Emerald bathing in the dew atop some giant elephant ear taro leaves in a swale below the road. We also saw quite a few lovely butterflies in this area, thanks to the tropical climate.
We ended the tour with a bunch of new species in the more desert-like habitats of the Oaxaca Valley, including three new and fabulous wrens – Rufous-naped, Boucard’s, and Happy, and finished our final day with a stop at the awesome hugeness of the ancient baldcypress of El Tule.
The always photogenic Bridled Sparrow never fails to elicit surprise from those who expect sparrows to be dull
Our picnic dinner in the forest ended with Mexican Whip-poor-wills, followed by a fabulous Fulvous Owl
A Northern Pygmy-Owl tooted above us and ignored the Olive Warblers and Hermit Warblers that came to mob it
The carved radish displays around the town square for the Noche de Rábanos occurs every December 23, and it was a highlight for many on the tour
This Glorious Blue-Skipper was the most colorful and most cooperative of the butterflies we saw near Tuxtepec
December 10:
Jon Feenstra on the conclusion of his tour to Southern Ecuador
At the end of the trip watching the Pacific Ocean rage and Peruvian Boobies flying by it’s hard to imagine how far we’d come and how much we had seen in the past fifteen days. It all began at treeline in the Andes, progressed through high passes and Amazonian foothills, dry interior valleys and west slope cloud forests and finally to finish on the coast. Though highland scenery,
Just one of many marvelously wild Southern Ecuador scenes
cozy eco-lodges,
Copalinga Lodge, a nice place to come back to after a day in the field
top-notch food, and good company all contributed to a memorable trip, it was really the birds that made this trip. The last count was 499 species that included endemics like Violet-throated Metaltail and Pale-headed Brush-Finch, birds with minute populations like Jocotoco Antpitta
An image of our interregator, a Jocotoco Antpitta
and Orange-throated Tanager, just plain scarce ones like Blackish Pewee and Gray Tinamou, and the outrageous and showy like Comb Duck and Long-wattled Umbrellabird.
It was a little bit of everything in a little bit of everywhere.
December 4:
Susan Myers on the conclusion of her recent tour to Borneo
The 2014 Borneo trip was without doubt the best I’ve done out of many, many tours to this remarkable island. It seemed like almost every day brought one amazing bird or another! They included the "Hat Trick" (all three Whitehead’s), Giant Pitta, Blue-banded Pitta (a first), Oriental Bay Owl (another first), Fruit Hunter, all possible hornbills, Bornean Ground-Cuckoo, Bornean Ground-Babbler, both endemic partridges, and a whole bunch more.
We started in the mountains and soon located our first Bornean endemics in the form of feisty groups of Chestnut-crested Yuhinas and garrulous Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrushes. The hoped-for endemic barbets, Mountain and Bornean obligingly showed up, too. One of our most fervent wishes was to see the three Whitehead’s – the spiderhunter, trogon and broadbill. Pretty soon we happened upon a remarkable group of four Whitehead’s Trogons, two males and two females, which we watched to our hearts’ content,
The first of our "Whitehead's Trio," the trogon - Photo: David Fisher
and the spiderhinter followed shortly therefter. Two down and one to go! On our final morning we at last had an outstanding triumph in the form of a Whitehead’s Broadbill! I should also make mention of a personal favorite in the form of a fourth Whitehead’s, the Tufted Squirrel.
Across the island at Sepilok we arrived in time for a night walk and almost immediately found a stunning Oriental Bay Owl sitting low on the trunk of a nearby tree fixating on a tasty looking cricket or some such. Wow!
This handsome Oriental Bay Owl was a complete surprise - Photo: David Fisher
At the Gomantong Caves along the boardwalk in the forest a Black-and-crimson Pitta popped right up on the handrail and posed. Yet another breathtaking encounter. Later we found a young female Orang Utan with a baby and more Borneo wishes were fulfilled.
Exploring the Kinabatangan River and its tributaries by boat our incredible good luck continued as a Giant Pitta flew across the river and then posed up on a log to sing for us at length.
Going against form, this Giant Pitta sang and sang in full view - Image: David Fisher
A pair of Bornean Ground-Cuckoos showed so well we eventually decided to move off. Endangered Storm’s Storks were seen well on a few occasions and as always hornbills were a highlight of our stay here with all possible species seen – Bushy-crested, Oriental Pied, and Black were common and we had great sightings of Wrinkled, Wreathed and the remarkable Rhinoceros. Best of all were three outlandish White-crowned Hornbills that required a little more effort.
Danum Valley and Borneo Rainforest Lodge, in the heart of some of the world’s oldest and most impressive rainforest, never disappoints.
Borneo Rainforest Lodge, considered by some the best forest lodge in the world
We spent our time birding and naturalizing along the entrance road and the adjacent canopy walkway,
Borneo Rainforest Lodge's amazing canopy walkway
where we met with many very special birds and other animals including close looks at the secretive Bornean Ground Babbler. Five species of primate were seen – vocal Bornean Gibbons, beautiful Red Leaf-Monkeys and a boggle-eyed Bornean Tarsier being particular standouts.
The sublime Red Leaf-Monkey
One of the most exciting moments on a very exciting tour was our sighting of Blue-banded Pitta, which we were all able to enjoy in all its glory as it hopped around us and sat up to call in between bouts of feeding. Just a superb creature... And what better way to finish off a remarkably successful tour than with the enigmatic Bornean Bristlehead, the most mysterious member of an amazing cohort of very special Bornean avian delights!