Birdernaturalist

Winter Butterflies in Arizona

2012-02-04T10:59:00.000-08:00

It might surprise a lot of people that we have butterflies in the winter here in Southeastern Arizona. If it's sunny and warm enough there are several species that will come out of "hibernation" almost any month. But I was still surprised week before last to see this Pipevine Swallowtail at Peña Blanca Lake, the first one I've ever seen in the month of January. Early March is more typical for the first sighting of the year for me.

This West Coast Lady has a territory it defends on exactly the same clump of dirt in my north-central Tucson driveway every day, and it's been there since at least mid-January, 3 weeks now.

It was actually on January 24, 1997 in Sycamore Canyon near the Mexican border when I started looking at butterflies. I was about 4 miles north of the Mexican border when I spotted this gorgeous blue butterfly with white spots near the tips. I thought that such a thing would be really easy to look up. Little did I know that it was one of few records of Blackened Bluewing for the United States at the time! No wonder I had a hard time finding it in the books. Here's a link to a nice photo at Flickr:
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3436/3391566758_5c28dc14f7.jpg

A Twelve-minute Africa Slideshow

2012-02-03T10:22:00.000-08:00

In case you missed last night's slide show from our Africa trip, here is my contribution, an extended version posted to Youtube.

http://youtu.be/5zOrqXTPViA

Gray Crowned-Crane – World's Most Ridiculous Bird

2012-02-02T11:24:00.000-08:00

This evening a bunch of us are getting together at Sky Bar on Tucson's 4th Ave to share photos from our big trip to Africa together. So I'm finally being forced to go over my thousands of photos and delete most of them. (You're welcome to stop by – I think we'll start the show sometime after 6:00.)

I find it hard to believe I actually saw this bird, the Gray Crowned-Crane. I remember at the time finding it hard to believe such a bird even exists. But it does. And we saw them. Personally, I'd find it hard to walk around looking like that with any measure of dignity, but they apparently have no shame.

This was one of a pair along the road between the Mara Serena Lodge and the Oloololo Gate of the Mara Triangle Conservancy. They were very close, so the first photo above is actually a photo merge from 4 photos.

A Little Hooter in SE Arizona

2012-02-01T07:12:00.000-08:00

While trying to stir up a mobbing response from songbirds with my imitation of screech-owls at Florida Canyon this past Wednesday, I heard one give its bouncing ball song back at me. It's not rare that a screech-owl will sing back in the daytime, but they usually do so from within a cavity, and you can hear it at some distance. Once you finally get close enough to get a good fix on the direction of the hooting, they spot you, slink back into the hole, and stop responding. You might find a likely looking hole in the tree, but you won't see the bird now. But then once in a great while one is bold enough to keep tooting after they see you and while they're sitting on an open perch. This one gave both song types of Western Screech-Owl – the bouncing ball song and the double-trill song – making the ID a cinch. I wanted to be certain, as this one area where this and Whiskered Screech-Owl coexist, where both of their habitats interdigitate along Florida Canyon. The black bill, big feet, and more prominent central shaft streak on each breast feather are field marks that are a little trickier to judge, but all are visible in this photo. Whiskered has a greenish bill, little feet, and thicker side squiggles on each breast feather, giving it a more mottled look below.

Field guides have long misled birders into thinking these species segregate by elevation, but I have yet to see any evidence that birds decide on their distributions by referring to an altimeter. It's all habitat, habitat, habitat. Western needs trees with cavities next to open areas for hunting, with mice being an important food item. Whiskered forages in the understory of oak and pine-oak woodlands, mostly feeding on insects. So there are areas where Western Screech-Owl occurs over 8000 feet on south-facing slopes, while in some of the more protected canyons Whiskered Screech-Owls can find appropriate habitat down to about 3600 feet.

Tayra the Predator

2012-01-28T14:17:00.000-08:00

Doing a little (ok, very LONG) slide show on Cristalino Jungle Lodge last night for a group of bug-interested friends was a great way to relive some of the exciting moments during my 10 weeks as a local guide there last year.

One of the more thrilling events came as a blur of commotion in the rainforest understory near the Saleiro. Normally the forest is a very quiet place, with the occasional bird song overhead and the often a drone of cicadas. This commotion involved squealing, something running in the leaf littler, and branches moving, and my heart was pounding. I looked up to see a Tayra running towards me then run up a tree, and something behind it on the ground. I focused the camera through the branches and snapped this shot. (Don't forget you can click on the photo for a larger image.) Tayras are large weasels, widespread in the American tropics.

Then I saw what was on the ground – this adult Red-rumped Agouti, very agitated, stomping, darting around, but not in any hurry to get out of there.

Then I saw some movement in the background, and a second Tayra hopped onto a low log and began pacing back and forth.

Only after I saw that the first Tayra had a baby agouti in its grip did I realize that the adult agouti was trying to chase them away from its nest. I wondered if it had any more to defend but never found out. Once the Tayras realized I was there, they quickly melted into the jungle. I saw Tayras only two other times during my 10 weeks at Cristalino, making it perhaps the commonest forest predator in the region, though they frequently dine on fruit. I've seen them eat Cecropia fruits up high in trees as well as nab bananas from bird feeders.

St. David Rufous-backed Robin

2012-01-26T17:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the day to look for Rufous-backed Robin with my visiting friend Alan Contreras. We first went to the closer spot where one had been seen – Florida Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains. We waited and walked around, as did about 15 other birders, and by 10:20 still no sign of the bird. So we drove 1 hour and 20 minutes east to the town of St. David where two had been seen in recent days. We scored after about 20 minutes of searching. Here are two shots of one of the birds.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

2012-01-17T15:17:00.000-08:00

...make limoncello. I'm joining this fad a little late, as I first had homemade limoncello over two years ago, made by my friend Maribeth Morehart. Since then I've had limoncello made by three other friends, including a heavenly example just a couple nights ago (which friend, incidentally, made his own bitters with some 40 ingredients).

So when I came across a pile of pruned branches in an alley near our house ready for the brush-and-bulky trash pickup, I was amazed to see them loaded with about 50 Meyer lemons, a sweet, thin-skinned lemon hybrid originally from China. I promptly returned with a bag and picked them all, giving a few to a couple neighbors.

There are plenty of recipes online. But here's what I'm using:
1 750 ml bottle of vodka
1 750 ml bottle of Everclear
20 Meyer lemons

I've washed and peeled the lemons, then carefully scraped off all the white pith to avoid any bitterness. All goes into the large glass crock I bought at Cost Plus ($14).

I'll let it steep out of sight in a cupboard for about 3 months, then strain off the peel and add about 4 cups of simple syrup. Done. Best served ice cold or splashed into sparkling wine or drizzled over ice cream.

A Fine African Memory

2012-01-12T20:30:00.000-08:00

I just came across this photo today, not having had the chance during my last month in Africa to go over each day's hundreds of shots. I just had to share. This was in Volcanes National Park in northwestern Rwanda on the day after Christmas. Mostly the gorillas ignored us, clearly bored of humans by now. But this mother with her two-month-old kept an eye on us. Click on the photo to see the full size.

The Three Corners of Rwanda

2011-12-30T12:56:00.001-08:00

There are but three major protected areas in the little, densely populated country of Rwanda, and with several of my friends I managed to visit all of them this past week. It's been a blast.

This morning featured a short visit to Akagera National Park, an area of foothill scrubby forest and large lakes, marshes, and full of wildlife. Here are just three photos from the morning.

Levaillant's Cuckoo, a new bird for both Gavin and me.

A Sulphur-breasted Bush-Shrike, one of the more colorful members of the family.

Klipspringer, an adorable antelope of rocky slopes. Notice how they stand on the very tips of their hooves, a unique characteristic of this species.

Purple Iridescence Rocks!

2011-12-24T13:58:00.000-08:00

Maybe my favorite bird after 12 days in Kenya was the Violet-backed Starling. They were common at the camp a bunch of us stayed at near the Ololaimutiek Gate of the eastern Masai Mara reserve.

The real highlight so far was the most amazing wedding ceremony imaginable as 40 friends and family gathered to witness Mich Coker and Kate Galloway make their vows as Hippopotamuses belched in the river right next to us, a Green-backed Cameroptera loudly stuttered its song overhead, and a pair of hugemongous Southern Ground-Hornbills walked across a big savannah across the Mara River. (Yes, we were attending a wedding on the bank of the very river famous for the huge herds of migrating Wildebeest.) Cocktails at sunset from a hilltop perch in the middle of the wild savannah followed by a grilled dinner in a woodlot where Leopards neary could probably smell our meal topped it off. We were all blown away.

The big group has dispersed, but 19 of us have just arrived in Rwanda and are excited about the birding and tracking of Gorillas in the next couple of days.

Birding Square Pegs Into Round Holes

2011-12-17T11:25:00.000-08:00

It's a strange feeling not knowing the bird voices around you when your usual mental map uses sounds to figure out where you fit in this world.

My instinct appears to be to sift through all the chaos to find the familiar. Since nothing is familiar, here on the lodge grounds outside of Nairobi in south-central Kenya, I'm force-hearing House Wren, Warbling Vireo, and Pinyon Jay. And I'm certain I heard the distant "pi-peer!" of a Red-billed Pied-Tanager, as well as the distinctive rollicking duet of Plain Softtail and the sad whistle of a Cinereous Mourner. All first records for the entire continent of Africa. These birds weren't really here of course, but even today I almost managed to convince Mich, Clayton, Taylor, and Jason that we were hearing a White-eyed Vireo in Nairobi National Park while sitting in our Landcruiser watching Yellow-throated Sandgrouse, Kittlitz's Plover and a muster of Marabou Storks.

Marabou Storks – standing around and mustering nothing

But then some bird song that is completely, utterly unlike anything I've ever heard before knocks me over the head and reminds me I'm on the other side of the planet, and almost EVERYTHING is different here.

For starters, there's the incessant, knocking "giddyup giddyup giddyup giddyup giddyup giddyup" from a little bird in the trees (Yellow-breasted Apalis); a deep, pure, marimba-like "doo doo doo" coming from the dense growth on the other side of the rocky gorge below my room (Slate-colored Boubou); and the bubbly, happy "lit..lit..lit..LITERATURE!" from almost everywhere (Common Bulbul). Then somewhat recognizable is the cheerful, yodeled phrases of what surely must be a thrush that sings, typically, well before it's light – but it's not any thrush I've heard before (Abyssinian Thrush).

Still a complete mystery is the pure whistle, pitched right on G5 (thanks, Virtuoso iPhone app), and repeated about 15 times, exactly once per second. (This might be a Tropical Boubou.)

Yellow-breasted Apalis

Slate-colored Boubou

Common Bulbul

Abyssinian Thrush

First Africa Post – Masai Lodge in Nairobi

2011-12-15T10:26:00.000-08:00

I've been in Africa for 3 days now, and this morning my luggage finally caught up with me so I could upload some photos from the past couple of days. I'm at Masai Lodge on the outskirts of the city, right up against Nairobi National Park, and even this close to the city, it's almost an overwhelming introduction to the continent's bird and mammal life.

Since I've been going to the airport every morning to meet the 1:35 or 2:10 a.m. flight arriving from Istanbul, hoping to meet up with my missing luggage, I haven't gotten on a normal sleeping schedule, but the 3-4 hours of birding I've done the past two days have been plenty. Then early this morning my friend Cat Greene arrived on the same flight that my luggage was on, and we birded six hours starting at dawn around the lodge grounds.

Some photo highlights from the 100 or so species I've seen so far (only 4 of which weren't new):

Rock Hyrax are all over the place, waking up late and feeding on leaves in the bushes and trees planted around the reception and dining building. As I write this one is up in a tree, uttering its harsh, dry scream of a call. They are extraordinarily good climbers with special pads on their feet.

This is a Four-toed Hedgehog, a tiny thing that rolls up into a ball to protect itself. The spines really are quite sharp, and I handled it gently, though they don't come out like on a porcupine. It was in one of the planted circles just outside of reception.

On my first morning, I forced myself to get up at 9:00 a.m. after 4 1/2 hours of sleep, went straight to breakfast, sat down, and saw my first sunbird in the tree next to my table. I had to look it up in the book, of course – Variable Sunbird. It's very common here and one of my favorites.

Today we had great views of Bronze Sunbird too. It was fun to see one foraging as a nectar thief in the giant flowers of a columnar cereus-type cactus. Kind of like the way our American orioles feed in blooming aloe.

Cape Robin-Chat is also common on the grounds, foraging on the ground or sitting on a low perch givings sweet, thrush-like phrases.

At breakfast this morning Cat and I had great views of a foraging Red-fronted Tinkerbird, a member of the African barbet family Lybiidae. It's amazingly similar to Picumnus piculets from South America, but the voice gives away a serious difference. This one sounds more like a pygmy-owl than any barbet.

Finally, one last photo of one of my favorite birds here so far – Purple Grenadier. It was one of four species of ornate little waxbills we saw this morning.

Mammals have been ridiculous too. On the way back from the airport night before last (when my bag didn't arrive again), a Cape Buffalo was on the road. Then last night, on the way to Cat's flight there were three Giraffes and a Springhare! Then on the way back from the airport we saw what I think were Kirk's Dik Diks, a small antelope.

Other highlights from this morning were a mixed herd of 55 Baboons and 25 Impalas just on the entrance road to the lodge. We were already pretty overwhelmed with the morning's birding and thought we should head to lunch when we met one of the lodge staff outside the gate who advised us not to walk any farther as two female lions had been seen in the area. O. K. – to lunch it was!

Rufous Flycatcher, at long last

2011-12-12T02:35:00.001-08:00

This past week I was taken on a fam trip of NW Peru courtesy the Peruvian Government, along with 11 other birding guides, travel agents, and travel representatives. We actually got to do some birding along the way, and I finally caught up with the most unceremoniously named Rufous Flycatcher, a scarce endemic to NW Peru. I was in this same area with my friend Alan Grenon last year, but we couldn't find one. This is one of the birds that brought me to 1211 species in Peru, after just 5 trips in the past 2 years. What an amazing country.

Stay tuned for occasional updates from my month-long trip through Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania with friends. I'm on my way there now!

Lapland Longspur at Avra Valley

2011-11-27T12:57:00.001-08:00

This Lapland Longspur was found by Andrew Core at the Avra Valley Waste Water Treatment plant southwest of Tucson Arizona three days ago, and has been seen by several people since then. Mich Coker and I saw it this morning, November 27, along with Bob Beatson, Randy Grohman, and Peggy Wang. Not so visible in these photos (digiscoped with an iPhone through an 85 mm Zeiss Diascope zoomed all the way in to 60X) are the strongly rufous-edged greater wing coverts and tertials. The ear coverts have more of an outline and the bill is smaller than on McCown's Longspur as well. It was hard to pick out of the many Horned Larks it was associating with – look for the smaller, darker appearance with the binoculars, while the streakiness is visible only through a spotting scope at the distance we were at.

2011-11-19T16:52:00.001-08:00

Just finishing up with my fourth trip (and third tour) to the Galapagos. It was fantastic. I really loved seeing everything new again through the eyes of all the participants, all of whom where in a constant state of gobsmack from the experience – the incredible creatures, such as the giant tortoises; the tameness of the birds and animals; the diversity and color of the fish on our snorkeling outings; the beauty of the landscapes and the plant communities; the superb boat and excellent crew. On and on. We saw all but two of the endemic species (all we expected to see; the martin and the Mangrove Finch are usually out of reach anyway), and some fantastic mammals such as Pygmy Killer Whale and Sei Whale.

I was here for the first time with a good camera and a 300 mm lens, and I took a few thousand photos. Here was one of my favorite, a Galapagos Shearwater to the NW of Isabela Island.

Molino Basin Goodies – Poling's Giant-Skipper

2011-11-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a lovely blog post by my friend Margarethe Brummerman – and then fortuitously invited by my friend Mary Klinkel – I went up to Molino Basin for a short morning this past week. I joined Mary, Karen Nickey and Elizabeth Willott primarily for a search of Poling's Giant-Skipper, a very local species that needs large stands of Schott's Agave and exists in the adult phase of its lifecycle only this time of year.

In the end, I finally had success with the skipper, a first for me. It really helped to have Mary lead us to an area where she had seen them before and especially explain to us where they like to perch, how they fly, etc. This one was territorial on exposed granite boulders.

Even with just that one species, it was a spectacularly successful morning, but we saw lots of stuff – most of which I finally have names for:

The buprestid beetle Acmaeodera solitaria

Giant Agave Bugs, Acanthocephala thomasi, feeding on the sap from Agave schottii flower stalks

Gray Bird Grasshopper, Schistocerca nitens

Snakeweed Grasshopper, Hesperotettix viridis

Great Spreadwing, Archilestes grandis

Unknown robberfly, genus Efferia

Mating robberflies, Promachus atrox. Notice that the female is feeding.

caterpillar of the White-lined Sphinx, Hyles lineata, feeding on buckwheat

unknown caterpillar in the genus Cucullia, feeding on either Aster or Erigeron...this is possibly C. postera, since that species is known to feed on Aster.

Western Pygmy-Blue, Brephidium exilis

Mormon Metalmark (or "Sonoran Metalmark"), Apodemia mormo

Morpho Metamorphosis

2011-10-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

While at Cristalino Jungle Lodge these past couple of months one of the things we local naturalist guides made a point of showing the clients were these gorgeous caterpillars.

There was only one group of them right next to a trail, just 100 meters down from the boat dock, but there were others on more distant trails or visible from the river. They roosted near eye-level during the day, and sometime between 11:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. would ascend to feed on leaves in the canopy.

Word had been passed down that these were morpho caterpillars, but there are probably 7 species in this genus at Cristalino, and no one I asked knew which species they were. I suspected that they weren't any of the three common very blue ones we see everywhere in the forest, such as this Morpho helenor.

Or this Morpho menelaus – the most blue of all the common ones.

Here I snapped the shot a fraction of a second too late, but you can see the stunning color.

What I noticed was that all of these caterpillar colonies were located on a trunk of a large vine that seemed to grow only in the seasonally flooded forest close to the river. And there was one species of Morpho I knew that flew only near the river, usually near the tree tops, and only in the late morning – but I hadn't seen any during my weeks at the lodge. It was Morpho telemachus and it's not one of the blue ones.

Then in mid-September, the colonies started shrinking, and we started noticing stray caterpillars walking on the forest floor. While with some clients, we saved one from the river, and I took it in, putting it in a ziploc bag with some vegetation. In three days it had formed this chrysalis.

Then on October 7, I saw my first Morpho telemachus – flying near the river at 9:30 a.m. as expected. They were emerging! The very next morning, I checked my chrysalis and it was empty. And bingo – in the bag was a fully formed Morpho telemachus. I took a few photos and let it go. It took just 18 days from caterpillar to butterfly, an astounding metamorphosis.

My Buddy, the Violet-crowned Hummingbird

2011-10-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

My friend since February 2008 has returned for what will be his fifth winter here in my north-central Tucson backyard.

He seems to show up about 5-6 weeks earlier every year, and stay longer and longer as well. Last year the date was October 16, so this year I though he might show up in September. But I was gone in Brazil until October 15, and I took down all 14 of my feeders (including his favorite against the west fence just south of the big wolfberry bush) last May just before I embarked on a long series of tours, scouting trips, and personal trips that took me to SE Arizona, Oregon, Alaska, Washington, British Columbia, Peru, Costa Rica, then Brazil.

I got home last Sunday, October 16. It took me until mid-day Monday to put up a few feeders – using the last bit of sugar water I had left in the fridge, and hadn't yet gone to the store for more sugar. Then Tuesday morning, there are hummingbirds all over in the yard, including Mr. Handsome. His crown really shows up well in the morning sun.

Also in the yard are several male Broad-billed Hummingbirds, lots of Anna's Hummingbirds, and the presumed female Black-chinned x Costa's Hummingbird hybrid which has returned also for her third winter.

This young male Anna's Hummingbird is molting in his gorget in an interesting way. I assume those grayish feathers below the bill on either side of the throat will be replaced with iridescent red ones soon. What's interesting is that this bird has a band – Larry Norris has come here twice to band hummingbirds, but I don't know is this is one of the birds we banded. The numbers I could see in a couple photos indicate that it might actually be a bird from somewhere else.

I think these show the band number to be L500122. I'll post here when I know more.

Leaving Cristalino

2011-10-14T08:33:00.000-07:00

I'm about to depart for the Alta Floresta airport, followed by five flights back home. I'm sad to leave Cristalino, the birds, the butterflies, and the people who have become my friends. Here are a few photos from this morning – my last outing at 3:00 with Feline Night Monkey, continuing through dawn chorus and an early metalmark at the Saleiro (don't know which species yet, looks like Panara), and the girls back at the lodge – cooks and maids.

Update: This butterfly is the metalmark Chamaelimnas tircis

My Last Week at Cristalino Jungle Lodge

2011-10-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Alta Floresta for just a quick afternoon of internet connectivity – then back to the lodge soon. I've had so many wonderful experiences over the past 9 weeks, met so many great people, and made friends of all the staff at the lodge. I'm really sad to be leaving. I get home October 15. Can I find a Cinnamon Manakin-Tyrant before then?

Just one picture here so it's not a blank post: Greenish Elaenia (a migrant?)

Cristalino Jungle Lodge Highlights from September 20-28, 2011

2011-09-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

I'm in Alta Floresta again for just a day before returning to Cristalino Jungle Lodge for my last two weeks of guiding there. It's been an amazing seven weeks so far. I've seen about 460 species of birds – the latest addition being a pair of Mealy Parrots here on the ground of the Floresta Amazonica Hotel last night. But a majority of those species have been within a 7.5-km radius of the lodge itself. Can there be a more biodiverse spot of that size anywhere else on Earth?

I've been to Cristalino several times before – three times while leading tours to this part of Brazil, each time for only 5-8 days at a time – and once before on a two-month volunteer guiding stint as now. So I'm not seeing many lifers, as you might guess. But I had just two this past week – very exciting! The first was a Crested Eagle, a bird I've been expecting from one of the towers or the river all month long. This one was from the old tower:

The other lifer was a Rufous-tailed Attila, apparently a very rare migrant traveling back to SE Brazil where the species breeds. There is one other photographed record from this region.

Now for just a few mish-mash photograph highlights from this past couple of weeks:
Bothrops brazili, Brazil's Lancehead. Yes, this one is venomous!

Broad-eared Free-tailed Bat, Nyctinomops laticaudatus

Common Opossum – with babies in her pouch!

Eurybia halimede on Bromelia balansae. This genus of butterfly has the longest proboscis of all.

The metalmark Mesene phareus. Amazingly, this one landed overhead – most land under leaves ankle high and fly before you can get close enough to photograph.

Dwarf Caiman

Spectacled Caiman

The metalmark Pandemos pasiphae.

A Ctenid (wandering spider) guarding her eggs in Brazil Nut shell.

Red-fan Parrot

South American Tapir

The metalmark Zelotaea phasma. It doesn't look like much, but it was very exciting to find a metalmark not pictured in the book. D'Abrera also says it's rare in collections.

Army Ant Horror Show at Cristalino

2011-09-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

A quick update from Cristalino Jungle Lodge, where I'm a local resident guide for just three more weeks. I have tons of great photos, but I'll just share a few. I've had only about 3 hours of internet access every 7-12 days, so I have to rush this out.

Just yesterday morning, on my next-to-last day off, I found an army ant swarm. This was a small one, and there were no birds in attendance. But it still had some army ant skippers. So I stood my ground and watched the advancing front. Then a horrific drama unfolded as I first heard some scampering in the leaf litter. Here's a series of shots, needing little explanation. (Note: the last photo is about 5 hours later).

To end on a happier note, here are a couple nice leps on the walk. The first is the skipper Heronia labriaris and was attending the army ant swarm. It is a species probably rarely seen away from them.

This second one is a satyr, Splendeuptychia purusana, probably a specialist on bamboo.

Baking and Birding at Cristalino Jungle Lodge

2011-09-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

The last clients I had while guiding here at Cristalino Jungle Lodge were a young German couple who were interested in seeing any kind of wildlife and plants, learning about tropical ecosystems, and enjoying time on the river. So one exceptionally pleasant afternoon was spent drifting down the Cristalino River by kayak. We ended up seeing two Brazilian Tapirs at the end of the day, as well as a complete display flight of a Sunbittern, followed by three having some sort of interaction together on the beach.

Tayler (another volunteer guide here for a few months) and I are still mostly interested in birds, so we were quite pleased to successfully show this couple a gorgeous male Rose-breasted Chat in a small canopy flock on our hike up the Serra (a small granite mountain) a couple days ago. That's not easy even with avid birders. But even though they were clearly impressed by the glowing colors of this difficult-to-see bird, they will surely have better memories of the rich, lemon-ginger perfume of the Cacaui trees (Theobroma speciosum) that permeated the forest understory that day. Here's the cauliflorous tree and the people being intoxicated by the smells.

I've since had a few days off this week and have begun to spend more time in the Cristalino kitchen with the wonderful staff. Arlene is the main cook and seems to always welcome my presence.

I've taken their whole-grain bread recipe and added a twist. Using half the amount of yeast called for, I put the loaves in the refrigerator for the second rise overnight. They all exclaim that the bread is much better – in both taste and texture. Now I'm afraid I'll get called to the kitchen each day to make the bread.

Another thing I got to do while not with clients is hike up a new trail with a few of the other guides. It's one of the longer trails at about 1.6 km each way, but it goes to the top of a different granite dome on the right bank of the Cristalino River (right as you face downstream). I visited here briefly in October 2006 before they had scouted out the best route to the top and had to scramble and bushwhack up a bouldery slope, but now the trail is quite good and not steep at all. And it was on this new route that I finally found my most-wanted plant here – the only cycad known to grow in this region. Listed as Zamia cf. ulei by the team of botanists including specialists from Kew Gardens, it's a very primitive conifer that looks something like an immature palm but has the flowers more like a pine. Furthermore, cycads are the host plant for a very small and aberrant group of hairstreaks called cycadians. I haven't heard of anyone having seen the Amazonian species of Eumaeus here, but if it does occur, this would be the place to look. I think I'll be back soon.

Cristalino Jungle Lodge Highlights from August 24-30, 2011

2011-08-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the non-bird highlights from my own little blog from this past week.

I'm also posting weekly updates (Tuesdays) to http://birdingblogs.com, sending "From the Field" reports for the WINGS front page (http://wingbirds.com), and you can also read occasional updates from Stephen Boddington's blog at http://blog.belgianbirding.com/.

Belus Swallowtail, Battus belus

Brown Capuchin

OK, a bird – can't leave out this amazing Harpy Eagle!

What the heck is this? I'm calling it the Jujube Caterpillar and think it might be once of the fancy hairstreaks.

A puddle party by the beach.

This brilliant yellow Tabebuia sp suddenly came into bloom just yesterday. We were all wondering, "where in the heck did that tree come from?"

Tupinambis paulensis, a huge and rarely-photographed lizard in the whiptail family. Of course, my friend Michael Harvey from Broward College knew what it was the moment I sent him the photo.

A Hetaerina rubyspot

A jumping spider, probably in the genus Phidippus on Tayler Brooks' wrist.

July Herping in Costa Rica

2011-08-14T15:22:00.000-07:00

I recently spent 2 1/2 weeks birding in Costa Rica in the middle of July. Being the mild but very humid wet season, reptiles and amphibians could not be ignored. It's a great time for birding, but if you're looking for herps, this is the perfect time to visit!

While enjoying a sunny morning near out hotel in the San José area, we spotted a Green Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus malachiticus.

I was then joined by by friend Diane for a scouting trip to Bosque del Rio Tigre on the Osa Peninsula. It rained during our entire time here, but we still saw great birds, such as the endemic Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager, as well as Yellow-billed Cotinga and Mangrove Hummingbird on the way out. Herps here were:
Common Tink Frog, Diasporus diastema

unknown tink frog, possibly Pristimantis cruentus?

Masked Treefrog, Smilisca phaeota

Narrow-headed Treefrog, Scinax elaeochrous

Smoky Jungle Frog, Leptodactylus pentadactylus

Then on the birding tour I was leading, I managed to take pictures of a few cool herpes. At Rancho Naturalista was this Pug-nosed Anole, Norops capito.

Tortuguero National Park was very wet, which was good for frogs, such as this Strawberry Poison Frog, Oophaga pumilia.

This Spectacled Caiman was along the flooded forest trail at night.

We heard a lot more frogs, but when the sun shone, lizards came out.
Green Basilisk, Basiliscus plumifrons

Green Iguana, Iguana iguana

Stream Anole, Norops oxylophus

We progressed to Maquenque Ecolodge near Boca Tapada, and there were some great things here.

American Crocodile, Crocodylus acutus on the Rio San Carlos.

Green-and-black Poison Frog, Dendrobates aureus was along the trails.

Our second Pug-nosed Anole, Norops capito of the trip was very different in color.

We had two Rainforest Hognosed Pitvipers, Porthidium nasutum along the trails. The first was very small, and I apparently stepped on it, making it move so it was spotted by the participant in the trail behind me.

I went out on my own late one night and found a few cool things: Red-webbed Treefrog, Hypsiboas rufitelus

Boulenger's Snouted Treefrog, Scinax boulengeri

Rough Coffee Snake, Nothopsis rugosus, a very strange colubrid snake with a boid-like head and a very stiff, non-reactive behavior when I picked it up.

Our final lodging was at Celeste Mountain Lodge on the slopes of Tenorio National Park. They have a tiny pond here which was home to:
Hourglass Treefrog, Dendropsophus ebraccatus

Red-eyed Treefrog, Agalychins callidryas

and Forrer's Leopard Frog, Lithobates forreri.

On a branch above their forest trail was by far the prettiest snake I've seen in Costa Rica: the big-headed Eyelash Pitviper, Bothrops schlegellii.

Wow Spatuletail

2011-07-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

Couldn't wait to share this one photo – a few that I got of one of the world's most incredible hummingbirds, the Marvelous Spatuletail, Loddigesia mirabilis. It's found only on the upper slopes of the east side of the Utcubamba River drainage in the Andes of northern Peru. You have to see it to believe it.

I'm nearing the end of my scouting in Peru before heading to Costa Rica in just a few days. Steve Howell and I have had a good time this past week – we've seen some pretty incredible places and birds, and I'm now looking forward to sharing it with tour participants in the future.

Yay Asteraceae! – Some Composites of Peru

2011-07-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

My favorite family of plants is Asteraceae, formerly known as Compositae – the composites, sunflowers, asters, daisies, or whatever you want to refer to the family as. It's the second largest family of plants in the world (not far behind orchids), and I'm always excited to see such amazing variety of forms, colors, sizes, and arrangement of heads.

I such a book existed, I could curl up with a key to the composites of Peru, samples of the following, a 12X loupe, and key them out to my heart's content. As it is, I have little clue what any of them are, but the first (above) is quite similar to Trixis, a very small genus (only 3 species) of composites with very unusual, two-lipped flowers. I suspect this is one of them.

All of these were in the Santa Eulalia Valley inland from Lima, the capital of Peru.

Another Morning of OFO Field Trips South of Pendleton, Oregon

2011-06-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

We saw the Grasshopper Sparrows again this morning N of Pilot Rock (a little more work than yesterday, given the wind), added a Brewer's Sparrow, and enjoyed this American Kestrel.

OFO Membership Meeting

2011-06-18T21:23:00.001-07:00

After a great day of field trips, Russ Namitz delivers the succinct President's report during the Oregon Field Ornithologists meeting in Pendleton. Best bird reported from the day's field trips: third county record of Harlequin Duck.

Barn Owls on the OFO Field Trip

2011-06-18T16:17:00.000-07:00

The weather deteriorated quickly after this morning's Grasshopper Sparrow, but we toughed it out in the high elevations, seeing Williamson's Sapsucker, "Western" Flycatcher (voice seemed intermediate to us, more later), and hearing singing Ruby-crowned Kinglet. We descended back to near Pilot Rock and made a stop for lunch at a big pullout which was a stakeout for Barn Owls.

Grasshopper Sparrow on the OFO Meeting

2011-06-18T11:58:00.000-07:00

> For my first posting by email using my iPhone, here's a very cooperative Grasshopper Sparrow. I found it on the field trip I'm helping lead with local birders June and Duane Whitten for the Oregon Field Ornithologists meeting in Pendleton, and we were near the town of Pilot Rock south of Pendleton.
>

Anchorage Wildlife

2011-06-09T16:18:00.000-07:00

After cooking in Gambell, Alaska for the WINGS tour, then helping lead the Nome extension, I'm enjoying a couple days off here in Anchorage.

Yesterday afternoon I went on a short hike in Arctic Valley with my friend Dave Sonneborn. We went to the top of one of the knolls where we saw two Townsend's Solitaires and a Say's Phoebe.

The early wildflowers were nice, such as this Mountain Avens, Dryas octopetala, in the rose family.

And how about the wildlife? On the way up a North American Porcupine and on the way down a Moose, the latter taken with my iPhone, both from the car window.

A Hybrid Wood-Warbler

2011-05-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

While leading a tour in southern Grant County, Oregon today I found this bird which appears to be a MacGillivray's Warbler x Common Yellowthroat hybrid. Its call notes were a bit harsher than MacGillivray's Warbler, but its song was typical for that species. Since songs are learned, this isn't surprising.

The location was along Jack Creek Road east of Bear Valley. This road is the continuation of Scotty Creek Road, not long before it joins up with the paved Izee Highway.

A New Mammal for the Yard List – Arizona Cotton Rat

2011-05-09T15:28:00.000-07:00

This cute little rodent was just outside the window I look out from my computer desk the other day. I was home for just 3 days, trying to prepare for the next 6 1/2 weeks of leading tours to Arizona, Oregon, and Alaska, so I certainly didn't expect to get a new mammal for my North-Central Tucson yard list. It's an Arizona Cotton Rat, familiar to many who bird Sweetwater Wetlands. Not very closely related the disdained, mostly nocturnal introduced rats from Eurasia, these natives are mostly diurnal.

Hoyer's Voyeurs Big Day Team: 174 Species

2011-04-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

I had a great day yesterday (Saturday, April 23) with my birdathon team of Moe Bell of Scottsdale and Mark Cassidy of Seattle who very capably got on birds and did a great job of keeping track of the bird list and timing of stops. The final species tally for our was 174 species, one short of the target. Only three of the birds (1.7%) were seen by one person only, well short of the 5% rule for big days. Our team also raised about $1000 for the Tucson Audubon Society.

Our first bird of the day was LESSER NIGHTHAWK at a stoplight just as we were about to ascend the Mount Lemmon Highway. After completely dipping on Northern Saw-whet Owl and Spotted Owl, we decided against spending too much time to see the FLAMMULATED OWL that was calling so persistently at Rose Canyon but got luckier with a WHISKERED SCREECH-OWL that flew between Mark's and my faces in response to my whistles. A WESTERN SCREECH-OWL farther down the road was nearly as cooperative. We heard at least 3 ELF OWLS right at dawn, just in time as the diurnal birds had already begun to sing – BLACK-THROATED SPARROW, CANYON TOWHEE, CASSIN'S KINGBIRD, and the season's first BROWN-CRESTED FLYCATCHER.

The Bickel feeders were a bonanza, with our only BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD and MAGNIFICENT HUMMINGBIRD, WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, and a migrant TOWNSEND'S WARBLER. RED-FACED WARBLER at Bear Wallow was a lifebird for at least one of the guys, so we paused to enjoy them before dashing off. We couldn't buy a Plumbeous Vireo at Bear Canyon, but we did get lucky with ARIZONA WOODPECKER, BRIDLED TITMOUSE, and VIRGINIA'S WARBLER there. If I had known about the Evening Grosbeaks that Scott and Erin found, I would have definitely detoured for such a great county bird.

All of the Tucson-area waterfowl were there there and happily added bonuses – Lakeside Park's GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE (digibinned above, using my iPhone held against my binoculars), Reid Park's SNOW GOOSE and ROSS'S GOOSE, and Kennedy Park's CANADA GOOSE. A NEOTROPIC CORMORANT and a few BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS at Reid Park were also stakeouts.

Benson Sewage Ponds had our only LESSER SCAUP, FRANKLIN'S GULL and a late BELTED KINGFISHER.

Willcox was good, but had apparently been better in the past couple of days – no gulls, Marbled Godwit, Long-billed Curlew, Sanderling, Black-necked Stilt OR yellowlegs of any kind. But we did get a surprise drake NORTHERN PINTAIL here, and the WILLETS, WILSON'S PHALAROPES, AMERICAN AVOCETS, and WESTERN GREBE were good stakeouts.

The wind picked up in the afternoon and destroyed our chances for grassland birds, so Grasshopper Sparrow and Cassin's Sparrow were unfortunate misses.

The VIOLET-CROWNED HUMMINGBIRD and a female RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD were at the Paton's, but we didn't linger to see if the Calliope would show up.

The Rio Rico pond had the increasing flock of BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING-DUCKS, just one WHITE-FACED IBIS, and our only GREEN HERON.

The flooding fields between Palo Parado Road and Tumacacori were extremely birdy, and AMERICAN PIPIT there was a nice surprise.

A brief stop at the Amado Sewage Pond is always worth the detour, and this resulted in a drake GADWALL which had not been there in past days – making for a clean sweep of the dabbling ducks (except the Wood Duck). The two Snowy Egrets I had seen there just two days earlier were gone.

The fruiting mulberry trees at Continental (which had Cedar Waxwing for us two years ago) this time provided our only WESTERN TANAGER and (surprise) CURVE-BILLED THRASHER (we would have spotlighted the nest in my yard if we had missed it during the day).

We ended right on schedule with an hour and a half stroll at Sweetwater Wetlands, which added a whopping 9 birds to our list. The reported Solitary Sandpiper and Black-necked Stilts were nowhere to be seen, but we had good views of a SORA, VAUX'S SWIFTS with the swarms of swallows, GREAT EGRET, two SNOWY EGRETS (maybe the two missing from the Amado sewage pond?), and a NEOTROPIC CORMORANT. While scanning the swallows for the first arriving martin, I spotted two WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS, which we had missed in the Catalinas as well as at the Roadside Rest. Our final species was the WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE, which others had apparently seen, and which we would have missed were it not calling. We gave another shot for the Harris's Hawk before enjoying the LESSER NIGHTHAWK spectacled (400-500 birds) from the Camino del Cerro Bridge.

List of Birds Recorded Sorted by Area

Hoyer's Voyeurs Birdathon Team

Rich Hoyer, Moe Bell, and Mark Cassidy

April 23, 2011

2:30 a.m. - 7:15 p.m.

411.5 miles driven

Catalina Highway and Houghton Road

1 Lesser Nighthawk

Rose Canyon

2 Flammulated Owl

General Hitchcock

3 Common Poorwill

4 Whiskered Screech-Owl

Gordon Hirabayashi

5 Western Screech-Owl

6 Cassin's Kingbird

7 Great Horned Owl

8 White-winged Dove

9 Canyon Towhee

Soldier Canyon

10 Elf Owl

11 Abert's Towhee

12 Brown-crested Flycatcher

13 Mourning Dove

14 Black-throated Sparrow

15 Gila Woodpecker

Mount Lemmon Short Road

16 Bell's Vireo

17 Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

18 Cactus Wren

19 Rufous-winged Sparrow

20 Pyrrhuloxia

21 House Finch

22 Green-tailed Towhee

23 Lazuli Bunting

24 Gambel's Quail

Babad Do'ag

25 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Molino Overlook

26 Lesser Goldfinch

27 Rock Wren

28 Costa's Hummingbird

Molino Basin

29 Cooper's Hawk

30 Black-headed Grosbeak

31 Ruby-crowned Kinglet

32 Spotted Towhee

33 Broad-billed Hummingbird

34 Violet-green Swallow

35 Hooded Oriole

36 Rufous-crowned Sparrow

37 Ash-throated Flycatcher

38 Bewick's Wren

39 Hermit Thrush

40 Black-throated Gray Warbler

41 Wilson's Warbler

42 Gray Flycatcher

43 Scott's Oriole

44 Bushtit

Seven Cataracts Area

45 Canyon Wren

Willow Canyon

46 Band-tailed Pigeon

47 Acorn Woodpecker

48 Mexican Jay

49 Pygmy Nuthatch

50 Townsend's Warbler

51 Grace's Warbler

52 Painted Redstart

53 Pine Siskin

54 House Wren

55 Broad-tailed Hummingbird

56 White-breasted Nuthatch

57 Olive Warbler

58 Yellow-rumped Warbler

59 Yellow-eyed Junco

60 Magnificent Hummingbird

61 Hairy Woodpecker

62 Northern Flicker

63 Hutton's Vireo

64 Hammond's Flycatcher

Bear Wallow

65 Steller's Jay

66 Mountain Chickadee

67 Red-faced Warbler

68 Red-breasted Nuthatch

69 Brown Creeper

70 American Robin

Windy Ridge

71 Turkey Vulture

72 Red-tailed Hawk

Bear Canyon

73 Arizona Woodpecker

74 Bridled Titmouse

75 Hepatic Tanager

76 Virginia's Warbler

77 Common Raven

Below Babad Do'ag

78 Gilded Flicker

Tucson Driving

79 Verdin

80 House Sparrow

81 Rock Pigeon

82 Great-tailed Grackle

Reid Park

83 American Wigeon

84 Mallard

85 Ring-necked Duck

86 Lesser Scaup

87 Pied-billed Grebe

88 Neotropic Cormorant

89 Black-crowned Night-Heron

90 American Coot

91 Snow Goose

92 Ross's Goose

93 Ruddy Duck

Hardesty Pond

94 Black Phoebe

95 Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Lakeside Park

96 Greater White-fronted Goose

97 Killdeer

98 Northern Mockingbird

99 European Starling

100 Yellow Warbler

101 Black-chinned Hummingbird

102 Lark Sparrow

103 Vermilion Flycatcher

104 Brewer's Blackbird

105 Brewer's Sparrow

S Kolb Road

106 American Kestrel

I-10 Eastbound

107 Swainson's Hawk

Benson Sewage Ponds

108 Western Kingbird

109 Eared Grebe

110 Tree Swallow

111 Bank Swallow

112 Barn Swallow

113 Eurasian Collared-Dove

114 Cinnamon Teal

115 Green-winged Teal

116 Orange-crowned Warbler

117 Common Yellowthroat

118 Northern Shoveler

119 Least Sandpiper

120 Franklin's Gull

121 Vesper Sparrow

122 White-crowned Sparrow

123 Spotted Sandpiper

124 Belted Kingfisher

125 Say's Phoebe

I-10 Eastbound/Willcox

126 Chihuahuan Raven

127 Loggerhead Shrike

128 Lark Bunting

Lake Cochise

129 Savannah Sparrow

130 Blue-winged Teal

131 Wilson's Phalarope

132 Willet

133 Western Sandpiper

134 Long-billed Dowitcher

135 Western Grebe

136 American Avocet

137 Horned Lark

138 Northern Pintail

139 Great Blue Heron

Sonoita Grasslands

140 Cliff Swallow

141 Eastern Meadowlark

Patagonia/Patons

142 Northern Cardinal

143 Gray Hawk

144 Brown-headed Cowbird

145 Anna's Hummingbird

146 Rufous Hummingbird

147 Violet-crowned Hummingbird

148 Chipping Sparrow

149 Lincoln's Sparrow

Blue Haven Road

150 Summer Tanager

151 Lucy's Warbler

152 Black Vulture

153 Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Roadside Rest

154 Phainopepla

Rio Rico Pond

155 Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

156 White-faced Ibis

157 Green Heron

158 Red-winged Blackbird

Palo Parado Fields

159 American Pipit

Santa Gertrudis Lane

160 Song Sparrow

161 Pacific-slope Flycatcher

Amado Sewage Ponds

162 Gadwall

Continental Mulberry Trees

163 Curve-billed Thrasher

164 Western Tanager

Kennedy Park

165 Canada Goose

Sweetwater Wetlands

166 Warbling Vireo

167 Bronzed Cowbird

168 Sora

169 Common Moorhen

170 Vaux's Swift

171 White-throated Swift

172 Great Egret

173 Snowy Egret

174 Western Wood-Pewee

Species Missed

1. Wood Duck

2. Scaled Quail

3. Wild Turkey

4. Least Grebe

5. Double-crested Cormorant

6. American White Pelican

7. Northern Harrier

8. Northern Goshawk

9. Harris's Hawk

10. Short-tailed Hawk

11. Zone-tailed Hawk

12. Golden Eagle

13. Peregrine Falcon

14. Black-necked Stilt

15. Solitary Sandpiper

16. Greater Yellowlegs

17. Lesser Yellowlegs

18. Long-billed Curlew

19. Marbled Godwit

20. Sanderling

21. Ring-billed Gull

22. California Gull

23. Inca Dove

24. Common Ground-Dove

25. Greater Roadrunner

26. Barn Owl

27. Northern Pygmy-Owl

28. Burrowing Owl

29. Spotted Owl

30. Northern Saw-whet Owl

31. Mexican Whip-poor-will

32. Blue-throated Hummingbird

33. Calliope Hummingbird

34. Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

35. Greater Pewee

36. Dusky Flycatcher

37. Cordilleran Flycatcher

38. Dusky-capped Flycatcher

39. Thick-billed Kingbird

40. Plumbeous Vireo

41. Cassin's Vireo

42. Western Scrub-Jay

43. Purple Martin

44. Marsh Wren

45. Black-capped Gnatcatcher

46. Golden-crowned Kinglet

47. Western Bluebird

48. Crissal Thrasher

49. Cedar Waxwing

50. Nashville Warbler

51. Hermit Warbler

52. MacGillivray's Warbler

53. Yellow-breasted Chat

54. Botteri's Sparrow

55. Cassin's Sparrow

56. Grasshopper Sparrow

57. Yellow-headed Blackbird

58. Bullock's Oriole

59. Red Crossbill

60. Evening Grosbeak

Second-Year Harris's Hawk

2011-04-15T16:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's bird is a second-year Harris's Hawk.

We don't often see them in my neighborhood in Tucson, but this bird has been hanging around alone for the past week or so. This morning it was soaring high overhead, and that's when it especially looked like a Crested Caracara – from the paddle shaped wings to the striking white window at the bases of the primaries. I wonder if there is some mimicry going on here, á la Zone-tailed Hawk?

Mystery Photo from Tucson

2011-04-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

This was digiscoped from my urban Tucson yard yesterday morning.

A Mystery to Everyone

2011-04-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

Officially speaking, this hummer will likely be a mystery forever unless we collect some DNA or get some exhaustive in-the-hand measurements.

Comments suggesting Anna's and Black-chinned Hummingbird were spot-on. But it's not quite right for either. In fact, it appears to be an Anna's x Black-chinned Hummingbird hybrid, the first reported such combination since a bird was collected in Santa Barbara, California in 1883.

The bird looks mostly like Anna's – rather chunky, thick-necked, shortish billed, and very dingy below. But the gorget is squared off lacking the flanges, and it lacks iridescence on the crown and behind the eye. I think the tail is too pointy for Anna's as well, and the bill may be a bit too long. The shapes of the primaries are more like Black-chinned – pointier and narrow inner primaries, and with larger, more bowed out primaries (better visible in the photo from my previous post).

Most striking however, visible only in this one photo below, is the color of the throat – a deep rose-purple, rather intermediate between the two. (And with a flash, it's not quite a perfect reproduction.)

I also got some recordings, which I uploaded to Xeno-canto.org. They don't have categories for hybrids, so I uploaded each cut that I isolated twice – once for Black-chinned and once for Anna's, and made a note in the comments. Here's the best one below, starting with a scold and ending with some of the call notes, which sound like a dull, heavy Black-chinned – again, essentially intermediate.

&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Tha

Mystery Photo – Extremely Advanced

2011-04-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

If you read the AZ-NM birding e-mail list, you might know what this is. It was in my yard this afternoon in north-central Tucson. Hint: there may be a tiny handful of people alive who might get the right answer based on this one photo. (I wouldn't have been one.)

A Visitor in My Living Room

2011-04-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

I found this young Desert Spiny Lizard on my living room carpet this afternoon.

It Was a Buff-breasted Flycatcher

2011-04-06T18:41:00.000-07:00

The last photo showed the all yellow-orange lower mandible – with no contrasting tip – as well as the relative lack of contrast in the face, throat, and head. True, this bird isn't very buffy, nor is the eye-ring very pronounced. These features are more obvious in the early fall after they've freshly molted.

One guess was Hammond's Flycatcher, and I just happen to have a photo of one of those taken on the same walk in Sawmill Canyon, below. Notice the contrast and the color of the lower mandible.

Mystery Photo – Most Revealing

2011-04-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

One last photo before I reveal the answer later today – this bird just won't turn around for us, but now some features are visible that should clinch it. Plus – the bird is sitting in a Alligator Juniper, there are some pines overhead, and we're in Sawmill Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains.

Mystery Photo – Still Rather Advanced

2011-04-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

This shot does reveal a lot more. If you got as far as genus on the last one, you did quite well.

Mystery Photo – Very Advanced

2011-04-04T18:09:00.000-07:00

Warning: This is a difficult photo quiz. If you've been following my latest ramblings, you might be predisposed to a lucky guess. Otherwise, you might wait the next couple of days for further photos and clues.

An Emerald on the Riverbank

2011-04-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

While birding along the San Pedro River by the Casa de San Pedro B&B yesterday morning, a sparkling green gem caught my eye. It was this beetle in the family Carabidae. Further research on Bugguide.net revealed it to be the Fiery Searcher, Calosoma scrutator. The genus seems to mean "the body that calls," probably referring to the squeaky noise that the beetle can make when molested. The specific epithet means "searcher."

Gilded in the Flats

2011-03-31T21:43:00.000-07:00

I birded the Santa Cruz Flats NW of Tucson this past Sunday. A nice surprise was this Gilded Flicker, far from any stands of Saguaro, its primary breeding habitat.

Similar to the red-shafted subspecies of Northern Flicker, the male Gilded sports a red moustach. But notice the golden color of the tail shafts (richer than the bright yellow of the yellow-shafted Northern Flicker). And also notice the bright cinnamon crown that contrasts along its entire length with the gray face.

Overall the bird is paler and smaller than Northern Flicker and, perhaps predictibly, has a slightly higher pitched voice.

Homemade Pizza and Wine Tasting Party

2011-03-30T22:45:00.000-07:00

Too much, fun!

People making pizzas, guessing wines, making new friends.

Here were the winning wines:

In 3rd place:

In 2nd Place:

And in 1st Place:

That's Rootstock Syrah, $6.99 at Trader Joe's.

Here's a list of all the wines and how they ranked (1=best, 9=worst):

The first number is the label, the number after the wine name is the rank

#4: Sryah/Rootstock, 2007 (California)    2.63
#3: Malbec/Redwood Creek Mendoza, 2009 (Argentina)    3.06
#6: Cabernet Sauvignon/Redwood Creek, 2009 (California)    3.64
#9: Rhone varietal blend/Michael and David Phillips Incognito, 2005 (California)    4.25
#2: Tempranillo/La Granja, 2009 (Spain)    5.00
#7: Merlot/Bogle, 2009 (California)    5.17
#8: Zinfandel/Ravenswood, 2008 (California)    5.50
#5: Pinot Noir/Rex Goliath, no date (Italy)    6.13
#1: Chianti/Marchese De Petri Il Valore, 2006 (Italy)    6.21

Arizona's #1 Lucifer Hummingbird Spot Closing Because of Bad Neighbor?

2011-03-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Please read this open letter from my friend Mary Jo. Her feeders have had the most reliable Lucifer Hummingbirds in the history of Arizona birding. She also hosed the first ever Plain-capped Starthroat to return two years in a row, probably the most-seen individual of that species in the history of birding. She's done a lot to put the Hereford area on the birding map.

Following Mary Jo's plea is the letter I wrote in support when she was first having to apply for the special use permit that she was required to get as a result of the first complaint by the neighbor.

Rich
=========
From: Mary Jo Ballator
Potential Closure of Ash Canyon B&B Feeding Station

Dear Birders,

Due to a neighborhood dispute regarding public access over a private road easement, there is a very real possibility that I may have to close my property to birders after nine years of continuous operation with no complaints or opposition.

I have already asked for support from a few of you, and I am very grateful for having received that support.

The opposition has continued to escalate, however, and I am now asking for help from the extended birding community, both with e-mailing letters of support and attendance at the upcoming hearing on April 12 at 10:00 a.m. in Bisbee. I have been advised to get as many people as possible to show up at the hearing and to speak on behalf of keeping this bird feeding station open. If you wish to see this place continue, *now* is the critical time to act.

I am hopeful that an overwhelming show of support from the birding community will go a long way toward convincing the Board of Supervisors that my feeding station is a community resource that serves many people even beyond the birding community and helps to generate a sustainable economic base for Cochise County, as well as serving the birds of these Sky Islands and beyond.

Please email 2mjb@mindspring.com if you require additional information, or if you can help.

Letters (via e-mail) should contain a reference to Ash Canyon B&B and my parcel number 104-21-022, and should be written by Friday April 1, as they need time to be compiled and submitted to the decision makers well in advance of the meeting. Please send me a copy, because some previous letters of support evidently got lost in the ether. Send e-mail to Mr. Keith Dennis, kdennis@cochise.az.gov with a CC to me, 2mjb@mindspring.com.

Attend the Board of Supervisors meeting and sign up to speak at the meeting. Get there a few minutes early so you can fill out a form to speak, briefly, at the meeting.

Board of Supervisors Meeting time/location:

Tuesday, April 12, 10:00 a.m.
1415 Melody Lane
Board of Supervisor Room, Building G
Bisbee, AZ 85603

Thank you for your continued support and consideration.

Sincerely,

Mary Jo

Mary Jo Ballator, Host
Ash Canyon Bed & Breakfast
5255 E. Spring Road
Hereford, AZ 85615
520-378-0773
http://AshCanyonBandB.com/
============

Here's a copy of the letter I wrote when this issue first came up 3 months ago.

            January 4, 2010

Mr. Keith Dennis
Cochise County Planning & Zoning Commission
1415 Melody Lane
Bisbee, AZ 85603

Dear Mr. Dennis,

I am writing in support of Mary Jo Ballator's application for a special use permit for the Ash Canyon B&B on parcel 104-21-022. I have been there many times as a private individual as well as a tour leader guiding birders visiting Arizona. The very presence of feeding stations that host range-restricted bird species, such as that at Ash Canyon B&B, are a major draw for birders and ecotourists to Southeast Arizona. The Ash Canyon B&B is a requisite stop on any birding route in SE Arizona, and is presence is certainly a consideration when I make decisions on whether to visit the Hereford area or other parts of southern Arizona or give recommendations to birders who ask for my advice.

            Sincerely,

           Richard C. Hoyer

The Wine Contenders Are....

2011-03-26T08:12:00.000-07:00

Results coming later today!

Exotics in Hawaii

2011-03-12T15:54:00.000-08:00

This White-rumped Shama, a tropical thrush from Asia, is one of many species established in Hawaii. All of the native songbirds seem to need native forest, while established exotics such as this seem to do fine in the "phony" tropical thickets found at lower elevations, where all of the native forest is gone.

I posted a video at YouTube. At first you hear the rushing of Manoa Falls and the whining of my first cousin-once-removed AJ Smith. Then at the end, you hear his sister TJ saying,"Let's go now!"

Palila – One of the Rarest Birds in the World

2011-03-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the most finch-like survivor of the holocaust that has wiped out most of Hawaii's native avifauna (which began around 800 A.D. when the first Polynesians arrived) is the Palila. It's frustrating to many that we don't have real English names for most of the native Hawaiian birds, but at least this one is easily pronounceable. (We're not forced to call endemic Japanese birds by their Japanese names after all, so....)

In any event, we were fantastically lucky to spot one within 10 minutes of arriving at the preserve in the distinctive, semi-dry Mamane-Naio woodland this bird needs. As we were leaving, a visiting birder from Portland arrived for his fourth attempt to find the bird on his own. Rob Pacheco spotted one within the minute and we got one in the scope for him. Sometimes it does pay to hire a professional. I managed just a couple poor digiscoped images.

In the past 20 years the population of this bird has gone from about 4000 to 1000, despite protection. But it seems that a lot more could be done, with this little preserve surrounded by cattle country. Has any pointed out that there is simply no compelling need to raise even a single cow in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Yet there are hundreds and thousands of them – and probably even more feral goats, sheep, etc. The annual resources needed to give all these birds a huge help would be a drop in the bucket compared to what we spend on our military each day. Think about it.

The 'Io – Hawaiian Hawk

2011-03-08T19:38:00.000-08:00

We spotted this bird along the Keanakolu Road on the west slope of Mauna Kea, Hawaii yesterday. It was eating some small bird, possibly a chick of a Ring-necked Pheasant or a Erckel's Francolin. We watched from the bus window as it finished its meal then repositioned itself to digest while perched on this rock.

The most recent DNA evidence shows that the Hawaiian Hawk's closest relative is the Short-tailed Hawk. You can read more about it and all other Hawaiian birds in the online monograph,

The Birds of the Hawaiian Islands:
Occurrence, History, Distribution, and Status
Robert L. Pyle and Peter Pyle

The Apapane on Kauai

2011-03-08T00:21:00.000-08:00

Here's a the only decent shot I managed of an Apapane in Kauai's Koke'e State Park this week. They are a super hyper member of the endemic drepanidinae subfamily of finches, flitting from one flower to the next, eating the nectar. Their primary food source is the Ohi'a Lehua, an endemic tree in the myrtle family found in the highlands.

In this area we also saw Anianiau (tiny and bright yellow) and Kauai Amakihi (a bit larger, a bit more olive, and with a stronger bill), both members of the same subfamily. The other endemic passerine seen here was the Kauai Elepaio, a member of the monarch-flycatcher family.

Four-and-a-half Digiscoped Hummingbirds

2011-02-27T10:31:00.000-08:00

I've been home in Tucson for just this past week between two tours – just back from the Maya Lacandon region of Mexico and now on my way to Hawaii.

As soon as I got home, the new Zeiss 85mm Diascope arrived (actually UPS tried delivering it three times while I was gone, and I was thrilled they came by a fourth time). Despite tons of post-tour stuff to do and the need to prepare for this next tour, I couldn't resist spending time in the back yard trying out the new scope and digiscoping adapter that Zeiss sent me.

I'll be posting more to BirdingBlogs.com in my usual Tuesday installments – both on my recent Chiapas tour as well as a review of this spotting scope and the digiscoping setup. In the meantime, here are some results of the digiscoping experiments in my back yard this week. Click on any photo for a larger image.

Female Anna's Hummingbird

Probable female Black-chinned X Costa's Hummingbird (back for her second winter, DNA analysis still pending)

Male Broad-billed Hummingbird

Female Costa's Hummingbird

Male Violet-crowned Hummingbird (back for his fourth winter, and still here as of February 27, though he was missing from Feb 14-22)

My Birding Adventures Rerun is Airing Tues Feb 22 and Sat Feb 26

2011-02-18T12:07:00.000-08:00

A repeat of last year's show in which I helped out is showing again this coming Tuesday:

Tues 22nd Feb 12.30 pm EST; Sat 26th Feb 7.00 am EST
Red-crowned Parrots of the Rio Grande

To find out which channel to tune to:

http://www.birdingadventures.com/batv_schedule.php

http://www.facebook.com/BirdingAdventures#!/BirdingAdventures?sk=info

Freeze Burned Natives and a couple rare birds in Tucson

2011-02-12T18:09:00.000-08:00

As I'm about to head into the mostly Internet-free zone of eastern Chiapas, Mexico, here's just a quick hodgepodge of photos from this past week around Tucson – a couple rare birds and evidence of the damage to plants from last week's hard freeze.

Just two days after the coldest day in over 100 years, I went on a short hike up The Phone Line Trail in Sabino Canyon with my friends Andrew and DuWane.

The vistas are wonderful.

Here's a close-up of the freeze damage to the otherwise very hardy Spiny Hackberry, which is evergreen. You can see how the leaves in the interior of the bush survived with no damage, protected from wind. I suspect most of the outermost branchlets are still alive and will leaf out with the next good rain (whenever that might be, maybe not until July).

Even the outer half of each leaf of the Hopbush was freeze burned.

This is Arizona Spikemoss, Selaginella arizonica, known to a lot as "resurrection plant." It almost always looks like this unless wet from recent rains, so I suspect there is no freeze damage to it.

One of my favorite small native trees is Arizona Rosewood, Vaquelinia californica. Evergreen and apparently hardy to very low temperatures, it's found only in a few scattered localities, probably a relic of a widespread broadleaf forest that covered this area before 10,000 years ago.

Amazingly, there were invertebrates present – lots of these Southwestern (or Echo) Azures (this one was actually in Pima Canyon a few days later), and a few Sara Orangetips.

This is a darkling beetle, family Tenebrionidae.

Finally, just a few more shots from the week. The giant (non-native) Indian fig or beavertail cactus in our yard was damaged severely by our 16°F morning on Friday, February 4 – at about 10:00 am there were loud crashing sounds all over the yard as the ice thawed in the joints and larger, heavier branches came falling down. I had brought the hummingbird feeders in overnight and put them out before dawn for the two cold mornings we had. Even then, they would start to freeze before the sun was high enough to warm them up.

I spent a long morning at Sweetwater Wetlands just 4.5 miles west of me on Monday the 7th, making a thorough count of the water birds. (3380 Northern Shovelers!) I also enjoyed spotting some of the continuing rarities, such as this Black-and-white Warbler, amazed that it, along with the Yellow Warbler and the Summer Tanager that have been seen by many all winter survived the freeze.

I was surprised to flush this female Indigo Bunting off the stream – a winter rarity that hadn't been reported here this winter. When it flew, it went far off to the east, so I suspect it is wintering nearby and comes infrequently just to drink and bathe. It's a bad photo, but you can see the warmer rusty tones of the back (not as grayish or buffy as Lazuli), and the distinct blue tinge to the tail. Breast center and sides were also brown with faint streaking.

New Violet-crowned Hummingbird Vocalization

2011-02-07T08:19:00.000-08:00

This morning the Violet-crowned Hummingbird wintering in my yard in North-Central Tucson began singing a new song. I presume this is the advertising song – meant to attract a mate. I had just stepped outside about 15 minutes before sunrise to see if he was at the feeders already and heard this vaguely familiar repeated "squee" sound. I've heard it in Mexico or in Patagonia (Arizona), but it's been a long time. I ran inside to get my Olympus LS-11 and got this recording.

The much quieter "gurgle" song can be heard in this recording from last winter, and he's been giving it all the time.

Freezing Hummingbirds

2011-02-03T12:22:00.000-08:00

With the low forecast for 20°F in Tucson, I brought the hummingbird feeders in last night and then set my alarm for 6:45 a.m. (sunrise at 7:17) to set them out again. With very flat topography and virtually no gradient towards the Rillito River, this part of north-central Tucson is a cold sink, almost always about 5-7 degrees colder than the official low each day, and my 3-parts-water-to-one-part-sugar concentration starts to freeze somewhere between 26 and 28°F.

The official low temperature this morning was in fact 18°F, and with the gusty winds we had stirring things up all night and into the morning hours, we had exactly the same temperature at 3919 N Vine Ave.

Some Anna's Hummingbirds were already starting to chip and hover over the feeder sites when I began hanging the feeders, and the Violet-crowned Hummingbird appeared right at 7:00 a.m. Within an hour, the sugar water began to freeze, so I had to go out and add a little bit of hot water and shake them up until the sun got on them.

This Anna's Hummingbird has an unusual pattern of iridescence on the throat. I'm not certain if it's a male still molting in its helmet or if it's an older female. Most young males that have this much red in the gorget won't have it so symmetrical and will also have patches of elsewhere in the face and on top of the head, and most of them have virtually all of their adult plumage, so I suspect it's a female.

These are male Anna's Hummingbirds. I'm guessing around 20-40 different individuals utilize the yard's feeders, but that may be an underestimation.

The Broad-billed Hummingbirds were the last to wake up and begin defending their feeders. There are at least two territorial males and 4-6 additional floaters (or more). This guy was still trying to get warm in the sun and let me approach within a few inches while keeping his eye on the feeder.

Finally, here's a series of digiscoped shots of the Violet-crowned Hummingbird from this morning. He first showed up October 16 this year, has occasionally left the yard from two days to three weeks at a time but has been back now for two weeks and defends two feeders full time. He allowed much closer approach this morning, choosing a new perch in the open that allowed him to view both feeders at once. I think he know how important the food supply was in weather like this.

The forecast low for Tucson is 18°F tomorrow morning...and no wind. So we could very well get down to the low teens. The coldest temperature we've had here in the nearly 13 years I've lived here was 17°F on January 15, 2007.

Dirt Fields, Mountain Plovers, and a Rufous-backed Robin

2011-01-26T21:16:00.000-08:00

On Friday, January 21, John Yerger and I volunteered our time to survey the southern Santa Cruz Flats of Pinal County for wintering Mountain Plovers. We made countless stops along remote county roads such as this, overlooking off-season cotton fields. This is looking NE toward Picacho Peak, familiar to commuters along I-10 between Tucson and Phoenix.

In our search for Mountain Plovers, we were getting warmer when we looked over the sod farms near Tweedy and Pretzer roads.

We finally located a group of 15 Mountain Plovers in a relatively flat dirt field (few dirt clods or plants) to the southwest of the intersection of Hotts and Tweedy Roads.

I also noticed this minute velvet ant – actually a wingless female wasp. This species is Dasymutilla foxi.

Since it was in our area, we also stopped at this row of fruiting privet where Richard Fray and Laura Steward found a Rufous-backed Robin just five days earlier.

It was not there for the first several minutes, but while we were chatting with Laurens Halsey and Andrew Core, it flew in and began feeding out in the open. I managed this "digibinned" shot with my Canon PowerShot S90 held up to my Zeiss binoculars.

I kept track of our sightings for entering into eBird. We came up with a total of 55 species:

Mallard	5
Great Blue Heron	1
White-tailed Kite	2
Northern Harrier	6
Cooper's Hawk	1
Red-tailed Hawk	22
Ferruginous Hawk	3
Crested Caracara	11
American Kestrel	9
Prairie Falcon	1
Killdeer	3
Mountain Plover	15
Least Sandpiper	16
Eurasian Collared-Dove	158
Mourning Dove	576
Greater Roadrunner	1
Gila Woodpecker	25
Ladder-backed Woodpecker	1
Black Phoebe	2
Say's Phoebe	18
Loggerhead Shrike	6
Chihuahuan Raven	18
Common Raven	41
Horned Lark	176
Verdin	2
Rock Wren	1
House Wren	2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	2
Rufous-backed Robin	1
Bendire's Thrasher	1
Curve-billed Thrasher	2
European Starling	19
American Pipit	212
Orange-crowned Warbler	2
Yellow-rumped Warbler	18
Common Yellowthroat	1
Green-tailed Towhee	1
Abert's Towhee	6
Brewer's Sparrow	12
Vesper Sparrow	43
Lark Sparrow	10
Lark Bunting	161
Savannah Sparrow	68
Song Sparrow	6
White-crowned Sparrow	39
Northern Cardinal	1
Pyrrhuloxia	6
Red-winged Blackbird	550
Western Meadowlark	222
Yellow-headed Blackbird	50
Brewer's Blackbird	475
Great-tailed Grackle	12
Brown-headed Cowbird	350
House Finch	5
House Sparrow	19

Rock Corral Canyon – A Subtropical Surprise in SE Arizona

2011-01-23T12:29:00.000-08:00

Rock Corral Canyon in the Tumacacori Mountains is better known to some as Arizona's Wild Chile Botanical Area, but few have been there. It's reached via a short, but rough dirt road that leads west from the Tumacaori/Carmen Exit #29 on I-19 between Tucson and Nogales. (Click on any photo for a larger image.)

My reason for going in here with Jake Mohlmann and Corey Mitchell earlier this week to was to get to know it for the Atascosa Highlands Christmas Bird Count. Chris McCreedy had several good birds here, such as Elegant Trogon, Western Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, and Hepatic Tanager on this year's CBC. As you can see from the shaded pink area on this map, the upper parts of the canyon are just within the NE part of the CBC circle.

The 2.5-mile entrance road is rough in places, requiring high clearance (and 4wd would be good to have), but it goes through lots of Rufous-winged Sparrow habitat.

The rock corral itself, the Wild Chile Botanical Area (the northernmost natural occurrence of Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum, Cayenne Pepper in Arizona), and the location of the Black-capped Gnatcatchers that Keith Graves found in January 2004 are all actually just outside the circle, but there is plenty of habitat inside the circle. There's a fun NPR Weekend Edition Saturday show with Scott Simon being led by Kevin Dahl too look for chiles. They went up there after a near-record late start to the monsoon (remember the fire in the Santa Ritas in 2005?), and the area was still parched and plant-free. Poor Kevin! You can listen to it here.

Once inside the CBC area, the canyon is rocky and steep-sided, but with very interesting thorn-scrubby vegetation on the more protected canyon walls.

The very range-limited Goodding's Ash, Fraxinus gooddingii, occurs here in good numbers. It has small leaves and is evergreen.

Another thorn-scrub-indicating plant is Hopbush, Dodonaea viscosa, one of few plants found native on every vegetated continent in the world – even on Hawaii. In SE Arizona, wherever Five-striped Sparrows have been found breeding, these two shrubs are common, also occurring with Kidneywood and several other species of shrubs on steep slopes to create a distinctive habitat found nowhere else in this country. One should look for Five-striped Sparrow here after mid-April when they are singing.

The main road going higher into the canyon.

Looking NNE down the canyon. The blue line is my GPS track, showing that we hiked quite a ways up the NW fork side canyon (towards the upper left), but didn't get far up the main draw (towards the lower left).

In some areas, the bottom of the main canyon opens up into mesquite grasslands with scattered oaks, and this is where we relocated the pair of Hepatic Tanagers and the Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet.

The south-facing slopes are more like typical Sonoran desert scrub, and Rock and Canyon Wrens are common here. We also found several Black-chinned Sparrows in this part of the canyon (apparently a recent influx, as they've never been in this area on the CBC).

Another satellite view looking WNW up the middle draw. The CBC area goes all the way up to the watershed divide, and in this shot you can see the green area of the Bear Grass Tank, Murphy Canyon, and Lobo Canyon area and the the turquoise Peck Canyon Complex area.

The middle side canyon to the NW actually has an old mining track one can hike up, in some places very steep and in one stretch annoyingly choked with Catclaw Mimosa, Mimosa aculeaticarpa.

This side canyon is very well vegetated, and the Evergreen Sumac, Rhus virens, was full of berries, loved by Hermit Thrushes.

The denser oak woodlands had Bridled Titmouse, Hutton's Vireo, at least two Black-throated Gray Warblers, two Dusky Flycatchers, one Hammond's Flycatcher, and two Red-naped Sapsuckers.

This is near the end of the track.

Looking downcanyon to the SE.

This lush oak grove is at the very head of the canyon, though the intrepid birder could scramble up higher into some steep, oak-lined draws just below the cliffs.

Spiny Hackberry, Celtis ehrenbergiana, also a good wildlife plant.

Another indicator of good thorn-scrubby vegetation is Kidneywood, Eysenhardtia orthocarpa.

The upper cliffs had a nook with a roosting Great Horned Owl, and later we saw a Peregrine Falcon flying and calling.

One of the exciting finds was this evergreen vine in the pea family. It was growing up this rather large Texas Mulberry, Morus micryphylla, right at the end of the track, in a very protected spot. The tree is leafless, and all the leaves belong to the vine.

The big attraction were these gorgeous seeds hanging on to the opened and twisted seed pods. Thanks to my friend Greg Corman and his contacts, I was able to give it a name – Rosary Snoutvine, Rhynchosia precatoria. And it turns out this is the only place it is know in the entire U.S., first collected in 1977. Check out the specimen maps at the SEINet Collections website. (Note that their coordinates are a bit off, but the locality description is the same.)

Here's one last satellite view looking down towards the SSW. Chris had found an Elegant Trogon in the side canyon in the lower right, and we hiked up here as well.

The habitat is much more open, so I suspect that the trogon wintering here (one of eight on the Atascosa Highlands CBC!) roves about the entire canyon complex.

It was surprising to see water still in some of the tinajas.

It's still winter, but in these cold-drained canyons, and especially on warmer sunnier days, there are insects to be found. We saw at least five species of butterflies, and I'm still trying to ID this spur-throated grasshopper. [Update: Thanks to Bob Behrstock for the ID as Gray Bird Grasshopper, Schistocerca nitens.]

Sedge Wren at Pena Blanca Lake

2011-01-14T15:19:00.000-08:00

Yay! After four tries I finally saw and heard the Sedge Wren at Peña Blanca Lake, first found by Alan Schmierer on November 27, 2010. This bird is the first record for the entire state of Arizona, and my 456th species for the state

Here are Jerry Bock, Brian Gibbons, Morgan Jackson, and John Yerger at the spot where we saw it this morning.

Here's the recording I made with my brand new Olympus LS-11 and uploaded to xeno-canto.org.

Photos by Alan Schmierer can be found on his Flickr site here.

Day 3 On The WINGS Galapagos Cruise

2011-01-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

"Galapagos" Magnificent Frigatebird - a potential split in the works

My last post here was a while ago. I've been concentrating my blogging energies on both my weekly BirdingBlogs posts (even skipping a week) and the Atascosa Highlands Christmas Bird Count blog.

Since I last posted photos only from the first two days of my Galapagos Tour and just a couple days ago learned that WINGS will be offering the same tour this coming November, it's about time to post the rest of my photo highlights.

One reason for our offering this same itinerary in a somewhat "last minute" fashion (still 11 months away, actually) is that the Galapagos National Park will be instituting their new rules in January 2012 – limiting boats one visit every 2 weeks on each island. This means that a itinerary suited to birders wanting to see most of the endemics would require a boat to offer a comprehensive, attractive itinerary one week, and an itinerary of dregs in the second week. As far as we can tell, most boats, including the fabulous Integrity, are choosing to offer instead alternating weeks of attractive itineraries that each visit half of the most bird-rich islands.

So unless things change, 2011 may be your last chance to see the bulk of the Galapagos Island endemics and specialties in a single week's cruise. After that you'll have to choose between a week offering Waved Albatrosses and boobies or another week to see Penguins, Medium Tree-Finch and Cormorants. (Though a Galapagos Penguin or two might be possible on the first week as well.)

This was our day on the island of Floreana and nearby islets (such as Champion, where we saw the Floreana Mockingbird and did some fabulous snorkeling). Birds weren't as diverse or easy to photograph today, but it was an interesting day botanically.

We began the morning at Punta Cormorant, surveying the beach which hosted a Whimbrel, a Black-bellied Plover, a Wandering Tattler, and Least Sandpipers.

At Punta Comorant (named after a boat, it seems, not the bird) we admired this lone (and fragrant) Black Mangrove, Avicennia germinans. There are several species of trees called mangroves, but they are not even closely related to each other – they only share the general ecological niche of shallow saltwater. Black Mangrove is the only one in the verbena family, and this flower certainly looks the part.

This is Galapagos Bitterbush, Castela galapageia, in the tropical Quassia family Simaroubaceae.

Members of the family Asteraceae, known as composites, must have been among the first plants to colonize the Galapagos, as they have diversified tremendously here, many having no close mainland relatives. There are entire genera endemic to the archipelago including this Lecocarpus pinnatifidus.

This looks something like pickleweed and does indeed grow right next to the salty ocean, but is the completely unrelated Turtleweed, Batis maritima, Batidaceae

This is an unusual beach. Some people are rather unsettled by the thought, but it's really not so scary to actually slowly wade into the lapping waves and wait until the water clears...

....to see Diamond Stingrays reveal themselves right at your feet. Sometimes they touch your feet, but they won't sting unless you actually walk on them, which isn't easy to do if you wade slowly and then just stand there.

If this isn't your cup of tea, you could stay higher on the beach and watch this Semipalmated Plover and Sanderling fight over feeding territories.

Richard Polatty, the best officially licensed naturalist guide in the Galapagos, takes the post out of the box at Post Office Bay. Most all postcards are deposited by other tourists without postage. If you find one for someone near where you live, you take it home and deliver it by hand. Some people address one to themselves to see how long it takes (and meet fellow travelers). I saw one card that had been written just a week earlier by two clients who were with me in Costa Rica many years ago – Hi Mark and Libby!

Spotless Ladybug, Cyloneda sanguinea, exactly where I had seen them on previous trips here.

We then took an inland excursion to the highland interior area called Asilo de la Paz. Here were learned about the interesting history of colonization and saw the single-island endemic Medium Tree-Finch.

Another endemic genus of asteraceae Scalesia. Most members of this huge family are small plants to large shrubs; only on the Galapagos do some become as tall as trees, such as this Scalesia pedunculata.

Presumably Darwin was the first to collect species from this genus, as it was named by his good friend Joseph Dalton Hooker. And presumably Hooker named it after a Mr. Scales, as that -ia ending is added to a proper name in order to coin plant genera. (Fuchsia was named after Leonhart Fuchs, Poinsettia was named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, etc. I just haven't been able to find out who Scales was, as internet searches always turn up other uses of that common English word.) Keep this in mind when pronouncing "Scalesia," so as to keep the one-syllabled name Scales intact – please, not sca-LEE-sia, which sounds more like a disease or an obscure country north of the Caucasus.

On a totally different scale (ahem), here's the endemic Galapagos Peperomia, Peperomia galapagensis, growing as an epiphyte on a rock.

After our barbecue dinner by the beach, I noticed this moth on the walls of the building, thinking I must have yet another cool endemic. I actually recognized the genus Melipotis, but I was quite surprised to find that this is the same species that I photographed just year before last in Sycamore Canyon and at my friend Mich's house in Tucson – the Indomitable Melipotis Moth, Melipotis indomita.

The First Two Days of the WINGS Galapagos Tour

2010-11-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

I just finished my third trip to the Galapagos Islands for WINGS. It was a fantastic tour, missing only one endemic, predictably the Mangrove Finch (which may be conspecific with the Woodpecker Finch anyway). We even saw the Galapagos Martin, a lifer for me.

The following photo hightlights were just from our first two days.

We first spend a half day in the interior of Santa Cruz Island. Here we nailed our targets of Large Tree-Finch, Woodpecker Finch, and Vegetarian Finch. We also went to a ranch where there were several Santa Cruz Giant Tortoises, this one eating impatiens.

The endemic subspecies of Barn Owl, Tyto alba punctatissima was in a building there as well.

We made a half-mile hike towards Media Luna in the highlands to see Galapagos Rail, which we saw briefly, but well.

The next day was spent on Espanola Island to the south.

Espanola Marine Iguana, Amblyrhynchus cristatus venutissimus

Blue-footed Booby and chick

Espanola Lava Lizard female

Espanola Lava Lizard male

Espanola Mockingbird and Marine Iguana

Espanola Mockingbird clan fight

Galapagos Flycatcher

Nestling Waved Albatross

Group walking past Marine Iguanas

Group in Panga – this is how we got from the yacht to the various islands. Our yacht – the wonderfully spacious and comfortable Integrity is in the distant upper right of the photo.

Large Cactus-Finch taking advantage of the moisture and protein in a Galapagos Sea Lion placenta

Nazca Booby

Red-billed Tropicbird right over head

Suckling and mother Galapagos Sea Lion

Swallow-tailed Gull

Off to the Galapagos

2010-11-12T14:37:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning my group of 13 and I fly from Quito to the Galapagos for a week-long birding and natural history cruise through the islands on the Integrity. This is my third trip to the Galapagos, but my first time in November. We'll be stopping at a couple spots new for me too, so maybe I'll see something new. A migrant from the north, or perhaps Galapagos Martin.

I'll be coming home with a lot of photos, believe me. Here's a very brief sampler from my first trip there in late June, 2007. Enjoy.

Medium Ground-Finch

Vermilion Flycatcher

Galapagos Rail habitat

Galapagos Flycatcher

Woodpecker Finch

Galapagos Mockingbird

Exploring Lobo Canyon

2010-11-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went with Brian McKnight, Jim Hays and Sally Johnsen to explore a rarely visited series of drainages southwest of Amado and on the west slope of the Tumacacori Mountains. (Click on any of the images for a larger version.)

The upper reaches of Sardina and Lobo canyons are in the Atascosa Highlands Christmas Bird Count Circle (a 15-mile-diameter circle centered at N31.47006°, W111.17278°), and that was the main reason for our visit. Brian, Jim, and Sally cover the area just east of here (Murphy Canyon and Bear Grass Tank), but, as they say in a lot of remote places, "you can't get there from here."

We drove down Sardina Canyon from Arivaca Road, crossed over to Moyza Canyon, then back over to Sardina Canyon until, 10 miles later, we entered the CBC circle (recognized when my GPS said we were 7.5 miles from the circle center). This is a typical view of the habitat towards the west – open, rolling desert grasslands.

To the east are the Tumacacori Mountains. The accent is on the middle syllable, and no, it isn't Spanish.

We arrived at Sardina Well, where a pair of Rufous-winged Sparrows and some Chipping Sparrows and Northern Cardinals were.

From here we continued south and over a ridge into Lobo Canyon (also draining off the Tumacacoris), and the road here passes by a nice thicket of oaks and then to the end of the road near Lobo Tank. The only water-associated birds we saw here were two Killdeer and a Black Phoebe.

Farther up the canyon is some nice oak-juniper woodland, but really good, dense woodland (visible on Google Earth) is yet another 1 1/4-mile hike beyond here.

This yucca seems too narrow-leaved for Yucca baccata, and may be a hybrid between it and Y. elata or Y. madrensis.

There were several stands of this prickly-pear which looks like a green version of the normally purple Santa Rita Prickly-Pear.

I spotted this Black-necked Garter Snake just as it disappeared into a bush and then holed up between some boulders.

Grasshoppers were everywhere, at least 10 species that I could recognize offhand. This is an Arid Lands Grasshopper, Melanoplus aridus.

We left the area via a different route, crossing over the northern Tumacacoris and following the Puerto Canyon drainage. It had some very nice thornscrubby hillsides (characterized by high plant diversity including Hopbush and Kidneywood) as well as some riparian thickets that were full of birds and butterflies. This ungainly tangle is the pea vine Schott's Yellowhood, Nissolia schottii, one of the largest I've seen.

In the only lush grove of willow and sycamores were a Black-throated Gray Warbler and a Cassin's Vireo, and Sally spotted this huge Black Witch, Ascalapha odorata, a vagrant moth from Mexico. Its wingspan is about 8 inches.

Back into the Bread-making Groove

2010-10-31T14:02:00.000-07:00

I've joined a new blogging community of some amazing writers and photographers at http://birdingblogs.com. I post on Tuesdays, and our focus is birding, whether it be identification, travel, pleasure, or conservation related issues. But it has to be about birds.

Here at Birdernaturalist, this is my blog, and when I'm home between tours, it's not all birding and natural history. And since this is my very own blog, meant to keep all my friends informed as well as serve as something of a diary for myself, I get to post whatever I want.

Since coming home from Peru I've baked five loaves of bread. I'm trying to not eat all of myself, so some went to a friend's house, some is in the freezer. And I don't see a slowdown in my baking until I head to the Galapagos next month. I'm trying out recipes and some new techniques in Peter Reinhart's Whole Grand Breads (I haven't cracked open Artisan Breads Everyday yet...) But I just can't seem to stop.

The primary technique he introduces in this book is what he calls the "epoxy method." It's very simple – make a soaker and a and starter separately, then after a certain amount of time for enzymes and yeast to do their magic, mix them together the next day (along with the rest of the ingredients). The overnight processes supposedly contribute to a better flavor and texture.

These photos mostly feature a Rye Meteil (which is mostly whole wheat, less than 50% rye). By making my own rye bread, I can eliminate caraway, which I don't like.

The soaker is merely water, flour and salt (proportions being all important in every step).

The starter is more like the final dough in that it also has yeast – but very little so that it rises very slowly.

The other ingredients include some sweetener (honey and molasses here), some fat (butter here), more salt and yeast, and perhaps other added things – here an onion. One can also add other grains and seeds as well.

All mixed into a dough which rises once in a bowl.

Then rises a second time after formed into the loaf. The end results are worth the effort, and it's actually very easy.

Photo Highlights from Bolivia and Peru

2010-10-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

Willcox, AZ – Tree Swallows, Gopher Snake, Grasshoppers, and a Gray Hawk

2010-10-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty much bound to the computer these days between tours, but I couldn't resist the invitation to join my friends Keith, John, and Jerry for a quick run over to Willcox to check the lake at the golf course, known as Lake Cochise. We had planned this trip a couple days earlier and were pleased that a Mew Gull (very rare in AZ) was reported from the day before we were to head out there.

Lost water birds are notoriously ephemeral at Willcox, so it was little surprise that there were no gulls at all this morning. But the birding was still good. While the numbers of shorebirds (such as American Avocets, Long-billed Dowitchers and others) and waterfowl were enough to keep us occupied, we were most impressed by an estimated 7000 Tree Swallows roosting on the mud and flying around the area. It was a spectacle to behold.

We checked a grove of trees as a possible vagrant trap a few miles east of there, finding an immature Gray Hawk – notably late and at an odd location. I managed to get this digibinned shot as it took off.

The grasshoppers here were abundant. Just a quick glance revealed four species, and there may have been as many as 10 if one looked carefully. The lovely pink one above is a color form of the Lakin Grasshopper, Melanoplus lakinus. This one below is the Two-striped Mermiria, Mermiria bivittata.

A couple other species we saw were Red-winged Grasshoppers, Arphia pseudonietana, and Plains Lubber Grasshopper, Brachystola magna.

We also stopped to rescue this young Gopher Snake, Pituophis catenifer, as it was surely going to be smashed by the traffic.

The Nose of Brazil

2010-10-19T11:48:00.000-07:00

My thoughts have been turning lately to my upcoming January tour to northeastern Brazil. I suppose the mental images most people have of this area – the "nose" of South America that reaches out into the Atlantic Ocean toward Africa – are as naive as mine were before I went to Maceió to learn Portuguese and scout the region for developing my first tour there.

It seems so far removed from the rest of the American continents that just getting there must take weeks. Once there, you must be really out in the middle of nowhere, in remote wilds with no services. Actually...no. There are big cities here. Paved highways. Nice hotels. And some amazing birds. Maceió, with about a million inhabitants in the city proper is bigger than Tucson where I live.

Inland from the coast, cities are smaller and farther apart, and the habitat drier, but there are still lots of people here. It's somewhat reminiscent of the SW United States, only with greater population density. Here are some Brazilian cowboys somewhere in the interior part of the state of Pernambuco.

This Pygmy Nightjar was at a stakeout roost in central Ceará, a place I hope to be able to visit again this coming January.

Laguna Volcan, Bolivia – Best Masked Ducks...and what is that on your plate?

2010-10-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

Despite the ongoing vegetation control, Laguna Volcan near Bermejo, Bolivia – just a couple hours west of Santa Cruz – continues to be one of the most reliable places for Masked Duck in Bolivia, and perhaps all of South America. And not a bad place to have lunch.

Once an untamed, lovely, overgrown lake, Laguna Volcan attracted only a few birders. I camped there with my friends Dave Lauten and Cathy Castelein in Feburary 2001. By August 2002, efforts were underway to build an "ecolodge," the first steps being to clear the area of "unsightly" marsh vegetation. In my private tour in August 2002, no Masked Ducks were to be seen.

Now there is a fancy hotel and cabins on site, even some golf holes. The Santa Cruz ultra-wealthy now come here for brunch and weddings. And it seems that the ducks have gotten somewhat used to the disturbance, though the continuation of vegetation control has eliminated the Black-capped Donacobius breeding habitat.

We ended up having lunch here on my recent Peak of Diversity tour, after having seen several Masked Ducks and amazing views of Rufous-sided Crake on the far side of the lake. I had lunch here just last year, but I had forgotten that the chef had attended some "food presentation" school. On the right are medallions of fish, in some dark sauce. The rest – well, you can use your imagination.