GET YOURSELF TO ECUADOR

PIB has great trips to various habitat zones in Ecuador. And there’s a book you want to take with you. It’s the first-ever, one volume nature guide for anyone headed to Ecuador’s wondrous mountains and rain forest and arid western slopes:
Wildlife of Ecuador:
A Photographic Field Guide to Birds, Mammals, Reptiles, and Amphibians
Andrés Vásquez Noboa. Photography by Pablo Cervantes Daza. Princeton Press. 2017. $29.95.
I wish I’d had a book like this when I was in Ecuador…or even Panama where I got far too close to a pit viper without recognizing it. The bird section is fine but the real value is in all those other critters: face-to-face shots with snakes. It’s the head that matters…look for the heat-sensing pits. You may want to keep your birding guide nearby or back at the ecolodge because only breeding plumage shots are given for most avian species.
Now I know there are two species of agouti in Ecuador and I saw the black in Coca. Not sure even my bird guide knew there were two, certainly didn’t tell us.
Superbly clear range maps. Both English and Latin indices.
My favorite Ecuadoran bird is at the top of page 140…the Collared Inca.
ECUADOR GALLERY FROM MY VISITS:
Yellow-tufted Woodpecker:
Great Ani:Hoatzin at Sani Lodge:Squirrel monkey:
Swallow-tailed Kite over Napo River in Amazon Basin:

WHAT THE FLOCK IS HAPPENING AS WINTER APPROACHES?

ASHLAND, OREGON, US, NORTHERN HEMISPHERE, JUST ABOUT HALF-WAY FROM EQUATOR TO NORTH POLE

For some birds this is the season of togetherness. Parents and juveniles, families and cousins, unrelated birds of same species, even several species ganging together. What the flock?
Here is a small group of female Hooded Mergansers near a pair of sleepy female Bufflehead on Ashland Pond. A common winter sight that is not to be found during breeding season.

Above, Tundra Swans on Emigrant Lake (they are no longer there) showing three adults and four gray-headed juveniles. Parents and offspring? Here are Snow Geese (still at Emigrant Lake today). Two white adults, two grayish juveniles who may be their off-spring. Below, small flock of Green-winged Teal; they even fly in tight formation when they take off. Covey of California Quail. Historically these coveys included numerous family groups and would grow to the hundreds in food-rich habitats before gunners and feral cats came on the scene. Before Europeans arrived Native Americans could hunt quail with nets because the flocks were so dense.

This is a Solitaire in Harney County, OR. At the Sage Hen Rest Stop on US20 where I took this shot there were also Starlings, Cedar Waxwings, Robins, Mountain Bluebird and Varied Thrush all sharing the healthy juniper berry crop. Very mixed flock.

Above, a group of Elegant Terns loafing in Monterey after breeding season is over.
There are many working theories about why birds of a feather flock together. None are more together than some small shorebirds or Cedar Waxwings. The latter often be identified in flight at great distances simply by the cohesion of the flock. Mutual alert system? More eyes to find the food source? Safety in numbers? We should ask the birds…but maybe they have little self-awareness. Among Corvids there is “deliberate” or at least instinctive food-sharing rather than secretiveness. Again this may insure more survival for more individual birds. Fifty Ravens have a better chance of finding a fresh carcass than any single bird, then the croak goes out and the flock gathers to feed.

Certain families of birds in North America are almost always in flocks when not breeding: Acorn Woodpeckers (even putting all their eggs into one basket), Bushtits, most sparrows (except Song), finch family members from siskin to Evening Grosbeak, swallows, Robins, Icterids (blackbirds and meadowlarks), most Corvids (magpies to Crows), chickadees, Golden-crowned Kinglet, pipits, starlings, swifts, Burrowing Owls, nightjars, waterfowl, shorebirds, cormorants, gulls and terns, pelicans, grebes.

Some other families of birds may join mixed species flocks but aren’t highly tolerant of their fellows from the same species: tyrant flycatchers#, nuthatches, most raptors*, hunting herons and egrets (though many nest in colonies), vireo, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, shrikes, cuckoos, many woodpeckers, most owls.

For some interesting musing on mixed-species flocks, check out this piece by Jack Connor in Cornell’s LIVING BIRD magazine.

* There are colonial members of the falcon family that flock together: caracaras, Little Kestrel in Europe, Eleanora’s Falcon. But DNA tells us falcon have more in common with woodpeckers than with a Red-tailed Hawk or Osprey.

# When was the last time you saw ten Black Phoebe sitting on a telephone wire lined up like Tree Swallows or blackbirds?

CAL-GAL #2

More fine work from the lens of Barbara Bens on our PIB trip along the California Coast earlier this month:
Brown Pelicans at ease around the ocean.


Pair of Condors high over the ridge at the top of Pfeiffer-Burns State Park, Big Sur.

Elephant seals scuffling at Piedras Blancas.

Not all elephant seals are warlike all the time:

Great Horned Owl in flight at Drake’s Beach, Pt. Reyes

Heermann’s Gull thinking deeply. Could be anywhere in coastal California this time of year.

California Quail at Pt. Reyes National Seashore visitors center.

Rockpipers: Surfbird on left, Black Turnstone on right. Asilomar State Beach.

Red-shouldered Hawk in fog east of Morro Bay.

Western Scrub-Jay:

Warerfall at Pfeiifer-Burns:

White-crowned Sparrow in flight:

Flying Willet

CAL-GAL #1

Here is the first gallery of California photos (hence Cal-Gal) from birder Barbara Bens, one of the folks on my recent California Coastal birding trip for Partnership for Interantional Birding.
Female California Gnatcatcher near Pt. Vicente, LA County:
Ruyfous-crowned Sparrow, also at Pt. Vincente:

Hiding Cal Towhee:

Curlew in the fog, Morro Bay.

Diving Brown Pelican, Morro Bay State Park.

Santa Cruz Island:
Above: the endemic Island Scrub-Jay.

Banded Song Sparrow on Santa Cruz Island off Ventura:

Willet and friend at Moss Landing:


Yeloow-billed Magpie up Pine Canyon near King City in southern Monterey County.

Two of three Great Horned Owls in Monterey cypress trees, Pt. Reyes.
On this trip we got both North American endemics: Island Scrub-Jay and Yellow-billed Magpie, the latter requiring us to drive far from the coast in search of dog in an outdoor location. When we inquired about the species locally one woman told us she can only feed her dog at night because the magpies onto the food instantly in the daytime. These are farm dogs not fed in the house. Neither, presumably are the magpies fed indoors, though if you left the door open…

CALIFORNIA COASTING

Can birding the California Coast be called “coasting?” That’s what I was doing last week with a group of clients from Partnership for International Birding.California Towhee…in California.

Curlew in the fog, Morro Bay.

Diving Elegant Tern, Morro Bay.

Pelicans on rock northof Gorda, where we also saw a passing California Condor pursued by Peregrine.

Thus is what a sleeping sausage would look like…these happen to be only young elephant seals on the beach near Piedras Blancas.

Pfeiffer-Burns waterfall into the sea.

White-crowned Sparrow adult.

The spouting whale off Pfeiffer-Burns State Park in Big Sur. It was a humpback whale surrounded by attending Heermann’s Gulls and Sooty Shearwaters.
Above the park we saw a pair of soaring condors, giving us three on the day.
California zebra, a rare breed…actually exotic livestock on the Hearst Corporation property at San Simeon.

THE CULINARY CONCEPTS OF GULLS

This incident of gull vs. tourists took place at Limantour Beach, Pt. Reyes, a few days ago.

Today I was leading a group of birders and we stopped for dinner at an outdoor seafood cafe in Ventura. Some other diners left their table and a first-year Western Gull quickly swooped down to empty the small container of tartar sauce left on the table. That very same gull also proved adept at catching French fries with his beak.

Why Ventura? Tomorrow we take the Island Packers boat out to Santa Cruz Island for the endemic Island Scrub-Jay, an example of evolutionary giantism, like the Komodo monitor lizards, but not as dangerous.

If you;re interested in seeing some California specialties, PIB will work with you on a custom trip or you can join one of our standard ones. Just on this first day we’ve gotten California Gnatcatcher, Common Murre, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Royal and Elegant Tern, Black Oystercatcher and Turnstone, Marbled Godwit, Red-necked Phalarope, Heermann’s Gull, Black-bellied Plover and California Towhee.

Spring here in northwest Ohio comes in many shades, from gray to grass green to brilliant red. Here are a few:
Tufted Titmouse and Cardinal share feeder.

Groundhog, known also as woodchuck. How much wood wuld a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? We await the answer.

Golden-winged Warbler at Wildwoods Metropark in Toledo area. This disappearing warbler is the central figure in a conservation program headed by American Bird Conservancy.

Red-bellied Woodpecker, which has no red belly.
Solitary Sandpiper, Ottawa NWR.

Baltimore Oriole, Magee Marsh.Indigo Bunting male, Oak Openings Preserve.

All these birds seen in the first two days of the Partnership for International Birding Trip, co-sponsored by Golden Gate Audubon, to northwest Ohio for spring migration. So far we have 109 species for the two days and over 20 species of warblers seen.

OAKS OPENINGS, LAPLAND AND MISSISSIPPI

Oaks openings sounds like a twee name for a 3600-acre open space preserve, but once you start birding there it could be named “Walmart” and you wouldn’t care. Great spring birding. Warblers included Canada, Wilson’s, Chestnut-sided. And these guys, as well:

Black-throated Blue in the air, showing large white wing bars.

Bay-breasted Wasrbler along creek in Oaks Openings.

Baltimore Oriole male.

garter snakeRed-headed Woodpecker,

Gray-cheeked Thrush at Oaks Openings.

Lapland Longspur along Krause road where there was small flock of six, three of each gender.
In this picture note the male to the far left, with pale yellow beak.

American Golden Plovers, part of flock of thirteen, seen along Krause Road west of Ottawa NWR.

Rarest bird we saw all day was Mississippi Kite flying over Ottawa NWR late in the day. There are only two previous confirmed sightings in this part of Ohio for that species.

BIGGEST WEEK, DAY #1

Today was the opening of the Biggest Week in American Birding festival here inn northwest IowaOhio. The four of us from Partnership for International Birding and Neblina Tours of Ecuador have already seen 110 species. Some samples:Evenb here the increasingly scarce Upland Sandpiper is considered a good fine. These two were walking in the grass along the road margin today. Winter here has lingered and the birds could find grass tall enough to hide in.

Blue-headed Vireo, the eastern counterpart of our western Cassin’s Vireo.

Chestnut-sided Warbler gives me the eye.

Eastern Kingbird

You know how much I love owls if you read my blogs. Eastern version of Screech-Owl.

Ovenbird feeding on the forest floor.

Purple Martin atop martin housing development at Ottawa NWR. They are big and aggressive e enough to drive off the real estate greedy House Sparrows.

Swainson’s Thrush along the Magee Marsh boardwalk. All these birds are within a mile of the south shore of Lake Erie where the winds comes whipping off the waves.

TIS THE SEASON

It’s not just about the nest box, but where that nest box is placed. This one happens to be in a patch of oak savannah at about 3000 in the western foothills of the Oregon Cascades. It’s surrounded by open meadow and rolling hills that drop sharply down to a year-round stream. No humans live within a mile of the place and it’s back from the highway. No pesticides, no toxics. Just the sort of neighborhood where you’d raise your family if you were a bluebird.

This nest box is on the fence of a tiny garden behind a row of town houses. It faces a busy sidewalk next to a busier parking lot adjacent to a dog park full of noise-making carnivores. Just the sort of avian slum where you’d expect the hardscrabble House Sparrow to eke out a living on bread crumbs and seeds.

This drumming Red-breasted Sapsucker is still advertising for a mate. House-hunting will come later.

This pair of Flickers seem well-matched. She sits up and listens to his drumming. What more could a male Flicker ask for? And later in the day I saw them checking out nest holes in Lithia Park, Ashland, Oregon. Location, location…

Look carefully to the left of the female Great Horned Owl. You’ll see the round, white head of an owlet and its dark eye-rings. This is at least the fourth straight year a pair of GHOs have used this nest near Ashland. Whoever first built that nest did a great job; owls don’t build their own nests but “borrow” or squat in what they can find.
MAGEE MARSH
PIB will be present at the Magee Marsh bird festival again in early May. Here are some nest pictures fro last year. This female Woodcock nested in a weedy strip along one side of the very busy parking lot.
Shortly after they hatched before a group of wondering birders, mother Woodcock led her quartet of newly dried fuzz-balls into the nearby Magee Marsh woods where they quickly vanished from view.

Finding a place to raise your children is always emotional. This pair of Ohio Tree Swallows is a case in point.

And, finally, this location seems perfect for Great Blue Herons. It’s at least the third straight year the nest has been used. It sits high in a cottonwood above Neil Creek, facing Oak Knoll Golf Course southeast of Ashland.

HERE IN ASHLAND, OREGON, THE KLAMATH BIRD OBSERVATORY IS SPONSORING OUR FIRST-EVER MOUNTAIN BIRD FESTIVAL. IT IS MAY 30-JUNE 1. WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER, CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD, WESTERN SCREECH-OWL, SANDHILL CRANES ON NESTING GROUNDS, BOTH EAGLES, NESTING OSPREY, ACORN & LEWIS’S WOODPECKERS, MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD AND CHICKADEE, HERMIT AND MACGILLIVRAY’S WARBLER, CASSIN’S FINCH AND VIREO, BAND-TAILED PIGEON, BLACK TERN, RED-BREASTED AND WILLIAMSON’S SAPSUCKERS, GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE, LAZULI BUNTING, AMERICAN DIPPER, WRENTIT, TOWNSEND’S SOLITAIRE–SOME OF THE BIRDS WE EXPECT TO SEE. WITH A LITTLE BIRDING MOJO WE CAN ADD GREAT GRAY OWL, SOOTY GROUSE, MOUNTAIN QUAIL, NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL, SWAINSON’S HAWK, EVENING GROSBEAKAND NORTHERN GOSHAWK.