From the Field
October 3: James Lidster from his just completed tour to Portugal
It seems like just 5 days ago that we arrived in Lisbon. In fact it was, and yet within an hour's drive of the city we had amazing encounters with such Iberian specialties as Great (flock, below) and Little Bustards, Spanish Imperial and Bonellis's Eagles, Black Vulture, Black-shouldered Kites (below), Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Blue Rock Thrush, Squacco Heron (below) as well as thousands of Greater Flamingos, hundreds of egrets, ibis, spoonbills and shorebirds - White Stork (below) heading south. We compared Crested and Thekla Larks, were glared at by Little Owls, saw large numbers of Azure-winged Magpies and more Mediterranean species such as Hoopoe, Red-rumped Swallow and Serins. Our local guide advised us - superbly - about local customs and history; and this, mixed with delicious local foods and wines, made for a quite perfect long weekend in Portugal!
September 27: Jon Feenstra on his and Rich Hoyer's scouting trip to southern Ecuador
Rich and I have spent the last five nights on the birding path in southern Ecuador. We began above the treeline near Cuenca, traversed south along the Andean ridges to Loja then dropped down to the east into the foothills where we spent three nights at Copalinga lodge birding the Rio Bombuscaro area of Podocarpus National Park. The elevation is about 1000 meters positioning us in the Amazonian foothills and the birds there are a nice mix of lowland, highland, and foothill species. We saw the local specialties White-breasted Parakeet and Foothill Elaenia plus we found a nest of an Equatorial Graytail - a life bird for both of us!
From Copalinga we continued east to the Cordillera del Condor, an outlying sedimentary ridge near the Peruvian border with a number of birds that are either unique to the area or are at a range limit in Ecuador. It didn't take us long to find Orange-throated Tanagers and though we missed a few specialties we connected with White-bellied Pygmy-Tyrant, a bird recently discovered here several hundred kilometers north of its previously known range. Black-and-white Tody-Flycatchers and Dusky-cheeked Foliage-Gleaners were both surprisingly common. Now we're in Loja and tomorrow we leave for Tapichalaca Reserve in southern Loja province.
I've attached a few cool photos: Red-rumped Bush-Tyrant in the highlands (El Cajas National Park) near Cuenca, Coppery-chested Jacamar in Podocarpus National Park, Spangled Coquette at Copalinga Lodge, and Orange-throated Tanager near Cabanas Yankuam.
September 24: Steve Rooke from his just completed tour to South Africa
We began our Kalahari to the Cape tour in fine form with a superb day in the eponymous desert with Leopard, Cheetah, Cape Fox, African Wild Cat and Meerkats competing with the likes of Kori Bustard, Secretarybird, hordes of Namaqua and Burchell's Sandgrouse, and Crimson-breasted Shrike for our attention. We ended that perfect day with a traditional South African braai prepared by our hosts. From there we wandered through Bushmanland finding the rare Red Lark, then on to Namaqualand where the spring wild flowers were simply amazing. Moving down the west coast we entered the vast Karoo where we sought out Crimson-breasted Warbler and Karoo Eremomela before watching Blue Cranes on our way to Cape Town. Here a fantastic pelagic gave us Northern Royal, Wandering, Black-browed and Shy Albatrosses plus masses of other seabirds. Elsewhere we saw Cape Rockjumpers and watched Cape Sugarbirds and sunbirds feeding amongst the flowers of Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. A series of images from the tour follow: Leopard, Spike-heeled Lark, flowers (3), Orange-breasted Sunbird, Blue Crane and Bonteboks, seabirds off Cape Town and a Wild Cat.
September 21: David Fisher on his just-finished tour to Colombia
Our recent three-week tour went very well indeed; we ended up seeing 601 species, including nearly 50 of Colombia's 70 or so endemics. These endemics included species which have only just been described such as Antioquia Wren (in The Auk three months ago); others that are about to be described, such as Altos Pisonus Tapaculo and Santa Marta Antbird, a described but very distinctive (vocally at least) form of Rufous Antpitta; and the lovely Santa Marta Screech-Owl (below) which has been known about for some time, but hasn't yet been published. When birding in Colombia it often feels as though there are poorly-known birds around almost every corner and that one might just discover something completely new. Exciting stuff!
September 10: Derek Lovitch from his tour to the Maine Coast and Monhegan Island
This tour is designed to experience the wonders of migration, and Day 1 did not dissapoint. We began with over 1,000 passerines engaged in a "Morning Flight" at Cousin's Island near Portland. 500 Blackpoll Warblers and 150 Northern Parulas led the way, along with a single Dickcissel. Next up, shorebirds: hundreds of Semipalmated Sandpipers, a dozen White-rumped Sandpipers, and 2 rare Western Sandpipers - often within arm's reach - plus 5 "Western" Willets and 2 Red Knots. And all of this was before lunch! Now that's the way to start a tour! Images below show radar reflections from migrating birds early Monday morning and one of the Northern Parulas that lingered long enough to be photographed.
Day 6: By Monhegan Island standards, it was actually a slow day of birding. However, regional rarities - that aren't nearly as rare out here - included 2 White-eyed Vireos, 1 Clay-colored Sparrow, 1-2 Lark Sparrows, and 2 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. A "mere" 12 species of warblers included two Cape Mays, but the most abundant migrant was actually Red-breasted Nuthatch, with a conservative estimate of 75 flitting around the island - it sounds like an entire marching band of little tin horns out here! One of the most intriguing sightings were the two (of 6) Red Crossbills at eye level! And, it seems that they were actually eating leaves. "Bird of the Day" honors, however, goes to the 1st Island Record Baird's Sandpiper (see image below by Bob Jeracki) that we discovered feeding in the wrack in the island's minimal shorebird habitat at Lobster Cove. And an afternoon spent watching Northern Gannets gliding by the cliffs on a Chamber-of-Commerce-perfect afternoon wasn't half-bad, either, as we daydreamed about another lobster dinner.
September 8: Rick Wright from his tour to Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada
I've never really believed that getting there is anything like half the fun, but the ferry from Blacks Harbor to Grand Manan may yet wind up convincing me. By the time our group assembled on board, skies were brilliant blue and birds were on the water. A few Great Cormorants started us off right at the ferry slip, and it wasn't long before we were watching Great, Sooty, and Manx Shearwaters shearing the waters of the Bay of Fundy. Atlantic Puffins were nearly constant, flopping into the water as the boat approached, and Red and Red-necked Phalaropes formed big rafts in the seaweed. Best of all so far: four Arctic Terns flying alongside the boat for more than a minute. And it will only get better! Below images from the ferry: a diving Hump-backed Whale, a surfing Great Shearwater and the Swallowtail Light at the approach to Grand Manan.
September 7: David Fisher from his on-going tour to Colombia
The Colombia tour is going very well. At one new reserve we saw five species of antpittas coming to feeding stations including the endemic Brown-banded and the beautiful Chestnut-naped (see below). High in the Andes at almost 12,470’ (3,800 metres), we watched Bearded Helmetcrests displaying - two reasons to be breathless (below). As well as searching for Colombian endemics, the group has also experienced such delights as displaying Andean Cock-of-the-Rocks at point-blank range, one part of a species list that has already topped 450 species. Colombia is a bird-rich place...
August 10: Rich Hoyer on his just-completed Birds & Shakespeare tour
A tour offering only five days in the field, with birding mostly confined to the mornings, may not sound like a lot of opportunity to see much, but the rich, coniferous forests, valleys, and lakes of southwestern Oregon (dipping for part of a day into California) presented us with a fantastic variety and many memorable moments. Combined with the five plays we saw at the superb Oregon Shakespeare Festival, this years "Birds & Bard" tour was a grand success. Each day's picnic breakfast (one pictured below in idyllic Fort Klamath) was coupled with some delightful birds, such as Mountain Chickadees one morning, on others White-headed Woodpecker, Acorn Woodpecker, Black-billed Magpie, and even Northern Pygmy-Owl. Sights such as a Mt. Ashland meadow full of wildflowers and alive with the chipping and chasing of Rufous Hummingbirds (photo below), or the spectacular Crater Lake with a family of Red-tailed Hawks soaring in freedom (photo below), will leave lasting memories. Of the plays, the commissioned All the Way about Lyndon B. Johnson's first months as president received high marks, as did the terrific Romeo and Juliet production, and the surprisingly successful medley combining Medea, Macbeth, and Cinderella.
August 10: Rich Hoyer from his completed Oregon in Summer tour
What a grand tour through the grand state of Oregon we had this past late July. The variety of habitats and landscapes with picture perfect weather throughout made birding and natural history observation a rich experience. Starting with a pelagic trip off of Newport, we saw many Black-footed Albatrosses and a few other wonderful open-ocean species, including the gigantic Ocean Sunfish pictured below. In the moist, towering forests of Mary's Peak we scored with a pair of Sooty Grouse on the road (photo below), while at the end of the tour in the drier, flower-filled mountains of central Oregon (photo of a patch of Fireweed below) we came across two large, multiple-family groups of Dusky Grouse – surely the first tour in the US to net both of these former "Blue Grouse" forms. Red-breasted Sapsucker was another avian highlight (a lifer for almost everyone), as was the unbelievable spectacle of several 10's of thousands of birds on Lake Abert in the stark, wide-open landscapes of the Great Basin (photo below). There were possibly as many as 200,000 or more Wilson's Phalaropes on the lake, in addition to many thousands of Black-necked Stilts, American Avocets, and lots of other species. The other forms of wildlife on the tour were also a treat – with several species of dragonflies (photo of a Band-winged Meadowhawk below), many butterflies, and even a couple very nice snakes (photo of Western Rattlesnake crossing the road at Malheur NWR below).
July 18: Steve Howell on the last days of his Ecuador: A Week in Paradise tour
When the young Dark-backed Wood-Quail pounced on the Giant Antpitta, as the otherworldly squawks of lekking cock-of-the-rocks reverberated through the forest, we knew we weren't in Kansas anymore... As well as Angel Paz's now-famous Giant Antpitta (below), we enjoyed great views of the spectacular Ocellated Tapaculo (below) and a procession of colorful birds at his feeders, from Crimson-mantled Toucanet to Velvet-purple Coronet (both below). After a restful afternoon at the lodge we ended the day with amazing views of spectacular Lyre-tailed Nightjars, their tails flowing like fern fronds in a gentle breeze. Our day trip to the adjacent lowlands showcased a very different avifauna, with birds ranging from Chestnut-mandibled Toucan to the bee-sized Black-capped Pygmy-Tyrant (below), and a host of new antbirds, flycatchers, and tanagers, including Yellow-tufted Dacnis (below). All too soon it was time to leave our home in paradise and head back to Quito, but not before more dazzling tanager flocks and some stunning Plate-billed Mountain-Toucans along the way.
