From the Field

August 15:
Jon Dunn from his on-going tour of Southeastern Arizona

We are most of the way through our "second spring" tour and have enjoyed the relative coolness and wet conditions of the monsoon in comparison to the earlier hot June weather. We've had a fine variety of montaine warblers, including this Red-faced, on Mt Lemmon (thanks, Dixie Sommers), and thus far we have recorded 11 species of hummingbirds including three Plain-capped Starthroats and two White-eared Hummingbirds, along with a nice adult male Lucifer (post-script: we ended up with 14 species!). The Five-striped Sparrows were singing and active in California Gulch and Black-capped Gnatcatchers were recorded at two different locations. In addition to the birds we had stunning views of a Gila Monster and had two very interesting snakes, a Checkered Garter Snake and a Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake. Now on to the Portal and the Chiricahuas and maybe, with luck, a Montezuma Quail.

Red-faced Warbler

Plain-capped Starthroat

August 5:
Rich Hoyer on his just completed tour of Costa Rica

Rain is good for life – the tropical forests and the residents depend on it, and that’s what we came to Costa Rica for. So when I hadn’t seen a drop in my first three days in the country, I was starting to get a bit worried that things would be too dry. I need not have feared – by the end of the tour the news came that it had been the wettest July on the Caribbean slope in 30 years, thanks to a very persistent El Niño-influenced weather pattern, and we got to enjoy more than our share of it. But there were plenty of breaks and gorgeous spells, and through the showers and occasional downpours we persisted and saw some truly fantastic birds and tropical nature.

Starting with the fabled Respendent Quetzal and several fine Talamanca endemics such as a surprisingly cooperative Wrenthrush and a spectacular view of the Fiery-throated Hummingbird’s gorget in the mountains south of San José, we then visited four lodges in great locations on the Caribbean slope.

Snowcaps bathing at Rancho Naturalista were a treat, and a very special experience with a pair of Sunbitterns on the nearby Platanillo River was memorable. The moth sheet here was also a highlight, not only for the moths but for the birds that came in to snack, such as a a pair of Buff-throated Foliage-gleaners and a White-breasted Wood-Wren.

At Tortuguero we tried for Green Sea Turtles on an off-night (in an off-year) when none were spotted, but that was more than made up by the delightful boat rides among the palm-lined canals and lagoons, where Great Green Macaws were a surprise. A night boat ride began with a Smoky Jungle Frog, then a Central American Woolly Opossum, then a Kinkajou, and ended with two Great Potoos. As we left the national park by boat, our group’s star spotter found some Great Curassows right next to the river.

Maquenque Ecolodge’s highlights were the Scarlet Macaws that flew in and preened each other, a gorgeous Green-and-black Poison-dart Frog, and the feeders by the dining area, which we got to enjoy during the six hours of rain and storms that set in during the middle of one day. Our fabulous driver Ricardo was to thank for the cooperative Black-and-white Owl he found perched over the driveway that evening.

At Celeste Mountain Lodge, the persistent wind, fog, and rain made birding difficult at times, but one afternoon turned out very nice, and bird activity picked up on the very well-maintained forest trail, with Tody Motmot being a highlight, as well as a small antswarm with very lovely Spotted and Bicolored Antbirds and nearby the most amazing song of a Nightingale Wren.

In addition to birds was a very good mammal and critter list, with four small snakes, lots of frogs, and many great mammals such as a Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth that Ricardo spotted next to the road.

Sunbittern

A fabulous Zugana Io moth

Green-and-black Poison-dart Frog

Waiting out the rain

Passerini's Tanager...seen while waiting out the rain

Black-and-white Owl

July 30:
Jon Dunn on his late winter tour to Thailand

This year’s tour, including the extension, recorded 467 species. Highlights on the main tour included three species of pheasants, including a female Hume’s, good views of multiple foraging Rufous-throated and Mountain Bamboo Partridges four broadbills, three hornbills, a Coral-billed Ground-Cuckoo, an adult Besera perched for over an hour, a close standing Eurasian Woodcock, Giant Nuthatch, and three Limestone Wren Babblers. We also had a number of uncommon to rare winter visitants including Ultramarine and Mugimaki Flycatcher (males), an adult male Red-flanked Bluetail side-by-side with an adult male Himalayan Bluetail, Golden Bush Robin, White-throated Rock Thrush (male), Chestnut Thrush, and a Fire-tailed Sunbird. We also had an Asian Elephant.

On the extension we managed to see three Spoon-billed Sandpipers and fifty Nordmann’s Greenshanks along with both Malaysian and the re-discovered White-faced Plovers. In all (including the main tour) we recorded 46 species of shorebirds. A Collared Pratincole (with Oriental Pratincoles) and a Bay-backed Shrike, both stakeouts, were firsts for Thailand and Southeast Asia. Scarce gulls included Black-tailed and Great Black-headed (Pallas’s). At Kaeng Krachan National Park and vicinity we had a fine variety of woodpeckers, including Great Slaty, five species of broadbills, Ratchet-tailed Treepie, and Kalij Pheasant, and Bar-backed and Scaly-breasted Partridges along with a single male Blue Pitta. Mammals were numerous and included Dusky and Banded Langurs, Fea’s Muntjac, Binturong, Masked Palm Civet and a briefly seen Yellow-throated Marten.

Eurasian Woodcock

Himalayan Bluetail

Collared Pratincole

Silver-breasted Broadbill

Black-backed Kingfisher

Gray-rumped Treeswift

Bar-backed Partridge

A field lunch

July 22:
Paul Holt from a portion of his recent tour of Sichuan, China

Sichuan, the heart of China's endemic zone, offers some superb birding, great accommodations, spectacular scenery and world renown cuisine. Our current tour's enjoying all of this...and more. The sacred mountain Emei Shan was our first port of call and it produced more birds than we could ever have dreamt of - Grey-hooded Parrotbill, Emei Liocichla and Red-winged Laughingthrush all fell at our first attempt. Moving on we had spectacular views of Lady Amherst's Pheasant before reaching the world famous Wolong National Park. No wild Giant Pandas I'm afraid - but lots of other goodies including four Temminck's Tragopan in a single day, Chinese Monal on two days, several Grandalas, fine performances from Snow Partridges and much much more...

Grey-hooded-Parrotbill

Temminck's Tragopan

Grandala

Golden Bush-Robin

July 14: Fabrice Schmitt on his just-concluded private tour to the wilds of Peru

I'm just come back from a two week private tour in North and Cenral Peru to look for White-masked Antbird and a few more of Peru's local and rare birds. It was a challenging but a very successful trip with not only good views of the White-masked Antbird, but also Scarlet-banded Barbet, Long-whiskered Owlet, Pale-billed and Bay Antpitta, Buff-fronted Owl, Marvelous Spatuletail, Creamy-bellied Antwren, and Cloud-forest Screech-Owl, among many others.

That trip took us to some very remote parts of the country, and we had to use small planes and 4x4 vehicles to reach some of them. The location for the Scarlet-banded Barbet was definitely the most difficult to reach: six hours on an extremely muddy road to travel only 30 miles! Look at the picture below. Have you ever been on a muddy road like this one?? We wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t for a bird!

White-masked Antbird

Scarlet-banded Barbet

Long-whiskered Owlet

Marvelous Spatulatail

Pale-billed Antpitta

July 9:
Steve Howell reports from his ongoing Ecuador: A Week in Paradise tour

Yesterday’s late afternoon cold beer and chips, along with Sunbitterns singing and flight-displaying (wow!), would normally be a grand finale to any day birding, but as can be the case on Ecuador: A Week in Paradise, there was more to come – superb views of a spectacular male Lyre-tailed Nightjar and a Common Potoo. All this after a morning that featured a fierce little Cloud-forest Pygmy-Owl, a stealthy and huge Wattled Guan, Golden-headed Quetzals, and point-blank views of the poorly known, seldom-seen Blue Seedeater (below, andgenetically now a bunting!). Today’s surprise was a pair of White-faced Nunbirds beside the road, perching on power poles and mossy branches – you decide which photo (below) is the more esthetically pleasing... Oh, and I did I mention the 28 species of hummingbirds? And all those gaudy tanagers, plus amazing orchids (below) and other life..., and still more than half of the trip to go!

Sunbitterns

Blue Seedeater

White-faced Nunbird

June 25: Gavin Bieber and Steve Howell: A second report from their ongoing tour Alaska: The Majesty of the North

There's more to life than birds - the mammals here are truly amazing. Yesterday in warm sunny conditions we watched a pair of Bristle-thighed Curlews foraging on the tundra against a world-class backdrop of snow-cloaked peaks. After having started the day with a roadside Gray Wolf (!) we ended the solstice under midnight on the sun-drenched rocky tundra by watching Red Knots in song flights with newly hatched chicks! What a day! It's also the breeding season for mammals, including a baby Alaskan Hare that could have fit in the palm of our hand, an innocent baby Spotted Seal sunning itself, and this morning a baby Beluga (dark, unlike the milky white adult). Plus delightful Aleutian Terns, Arctic Warblers singing everywhere, Bluethroat, Red-necked Stint, Arctic Loon, and the other usual suspects. Now on to Seward and finishing up in Barrow...

Bristle-thighed Curlew with a view

Roadside Gray Wolf (Editor comment: Not fair gentlemen, not fair....)

Baby Alaska Hare

Baby Spotted Seal

Mothern and calf Beluga

Aleutian Tern

June 24: James Lidster on his just concluded tour of Mongolia

I have just returned from my 8th tour to Mongolia, and yet again the country never fails to amaze me! There seem to be so few places to visit nowadays where I feel the wilderness and isolation that I do in Mongolia.
We saw some great birds including Oriental Plovers, Pallas's Sandgrouse, Demoiselle and White-naped Cranes, Pallas's Fish Eagles, Amur and Saker Falcons, Swan and Bar-headed geese, Mongolian Ground Jays, Kozlow's Accentors, Wallcreepers, Lammergeier, singing Siberian Rubythroats, Black Woodpecker, Mongolian Lark, White's, Dusky and Red-throated Thrushes, Azure and White-crowned Penduline Tits, Godlewski's and Yellow-breasted Buntings, Long-tailed and Beautiful Rosefinches, we even found the 2nd Rosy Pipit for Mongolia among a whole suite of shorebirds and passerines that would have you running all over Gambell or Attu!
The scenery changes daily and blows me away every year, the ground crew we work with make camping a pleasure (we have now cut the total number of nights camping to just 4) and we even experimented with larger tents, beds and bedding. The latter saved us the need to carry sleeping bags, the beds were an absolute luxury and the tents were set up each time for us and were large enough to stand up in....sadly the Mongolian weather being what it is, meant they didn't stand up to the strong winds we had one day. And if there is one thing the ground crew are prepared for, it is the unexpected, so out came the reserve tents!
The food prepared by our chef from her tent is better than I could make in a kitchen, and can there be anything more delightful ending the day with a glass of red wine or a Golden Gobi beer reflecting on another great day's birding while looking over a vast Mongolian plain?

Oriental Plover

Demoiselle Crane

Bar-headed Geese

Mongolian Lark

Home away from home 1

Home away from home 2

Daurian Shrike

June 19: Gavin Bieber and Steve Howell from their ongoing Alaska Majesty tour

In Anchorage we spent a productive morning along the Cook Inlet, where a flock of Hudsonian Godwits stole the show. As usual on the Majesty of the North tour, mammals prevailed in the Denali National Park itself, with a Lynx being the crowning sighting, but we also enjoyed 5 Grizzly Bears, Moose, Ground Squirrels, Caribou, Dall Sheep and a Collared Pika. The forests near the park revealed many White-winged Crossbills foraging on the abundant cone crop, as well as a true prize in the form of an inquisitive and cooperative Northern Hawk Owl. It's off to Nome next for a four day visit.

Hudsonian Godwits

Arctic Ground Squirrel

White-winged Crossbill

Northern Hawk Owl

June 15: Jon Dunn from his recently completed Migration in the Midwest tour

Day after day at both MaGee Marsh in Ohio and at Tawas Point in Michigan, there was an abundance of birds. Our Migration in the Midwest tour tallied some 37 wood warbler species, missing only Connecticut (of the eastern warblers) and saw most in abundance. Of particular note were excellent eye level views of Golden-winged, Swainson’s, Kirtland’s and Mourning. Other species of note included two groups of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks in northern Ohio, Eared Grebe, both Glossy and White-faced Ibis, territorial Piping Plovers at Tawas Point, three breeding plumaged adult Little Gulls, five Henslow’s Sparrows and several Evening Grosbeaks. Non avian highlights included a Broadhead Skink, two Kirtland’s Snake and a threatened Eastern Massasauga, a little known rattlesnake.