Dawn Chorus: The Traveling Birder in the Bolivian Andes - Part 2

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Sunday January 19, 2025 · 6:00 AM PST

2025/01/19 · 06:00

When we last saw our hero he had just arrived in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia. It was there that things began to go awry.

Bolivia has never been the most stable of countries. In fact, there have been over 190 coups since independence in 1825. On the other hand the period from 2005 to 2019 was relatively stable under the presidential administrations of Evo Morales, a former coca farmer who championed indigenous rights and socialism. Morales governed via a bit of a personality cult. In fact, we saw a mural in Cochabamba which pictured Morales with Hugo Chavez (of Venezuela) and Che Guevara.

Despite being term-limited Morales ran again in 2019 and was re-elected. However, the Bolivian Supreme Court ruled he couldn’t be sworn in, so Morales reluctantly passed on the presidency to his vice-president Luis Arce. However, Morales was not really happy with the supreme court ruling. While we were in Cochabamba, he was leading a march of his followers on the capital with the intent of getting the Supreme Court ruling overturned. That march was going to block the main road from Cochabamba to La Paz. Additionally, his supporters threated to blockade ALL accesses to La Paz including from the airport.

And that’s where it gets dicey for your intrepid hero and his friends. Here’s a reminder of our tour route:

OperaSnapshot_2024-12-20_191237_ebird.org.png

After three days of birding in Cochabamba, our next stop would be La Paz, the Bolivian capital, and then onward to Lake Titicaca. The plan was that our birding guide, Dan Lane, and the two birders (including me) would fly to La Paz while our driver, Carlos, would drive from Cochabamba to La Paz in the van with all of our luggage and support gear. That would avoid a long dusty van ride for the birders and make sure all of our gear got to La Paz. That plan was at risk thanks to Morales.

So it was uncertain whether any of us would be able to get to La Paz. There was even risk that we’d have to abandon our plans and drive back to Santa Cruz in order to leave Bolivia. So while we enjoyed a few days of birding in the mountains around Cochabamba, we kept an eye on the news and our Bolivian ground agent started investigating options. So stay tuned dear readers.

Now back to the birding…

Our first day around Cochabamba took us to an area in the mountains northeast of the city near Cerro Tunari. It took us on a transect that would take us through multiple habitats including dry mountain scrub, polylepis forest, and eventually reach the high puna habitat over 13,000 feet giving a great selection of Andean species.

We started with some more common species.

Torrent Ducks live in the fast moving mountain streams of the Andes. They’re found the entire length to South America from Venezuela to Tierra del Fuego. In fact, I’ve seen them in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru as well as Bolivia. And in case you’re wondering, that’s the male on the right with the black-and-white head and the female on the left with the orange belly hiding in the shadows.

Another common species is Chiguanco Thrush:

Chiguanco Thrush ranges from Ecuador to northern Argentina. They’re found in city parks as well as open scrubland. This one is a lot browner than usual – they’re usually dark slaty grey or black – but I suspect it’s just the angle and the light.

And here’s a species that has an even larger range:

Band-tailed Pigeons breed from southern British Columbia all the way to Northern Argentina! However, the subspecies in Central and South America is different from the North American subspecies.

Some of the specialties of the dry scrub area are hummingbirds. One of the main targets of the tour was Red-tailed Comet:

This is a female. The male has a tail as long as his body. He’s got a bright green breast and a red back and tail. Here’s a pic from Cornell. We did see a male but he didn’t pose for pictures. Red-tailed Comet is limited to Bolivia and Argentina.

One hummer who did pose was this Wedge-tailed Hillstar:

Wedge-tailed Hillstar is found in a narrow elevational range from 2,600 to 4,000m (8,500 to 13,100 ft). It’s almost a Bolivian Endemic, but its range just barely extends into northern Argentina.

Another hillstar species we saw was this female White-sided Hillstar:

White-sided Hillstar is another hummingbird that’s restricted to high elevation. Its range is kind-of the flip side to that of Wedge-tailed Hillstar. It’s mostly found in Argentina and Chile and just barely extends into southern Bolivia. In fact, our guide Dan Lane had never seen one in Bolivia before.

More expected in the high elevation scrubland are funariids like this Streak-backed Canastero:

Streak-backed Canastero is found in high elevation scrub throughout the Andes. Some authorities (but not Cornell/Clements) split it into two species with the southern subspecies in Bolivia being considered Puna Canastero.

Another furnariid in the scrub was Rock Earthcreeper:

Earthcreepers are large ovenbirds with big downcurved bills for probing in the dry rocky slopes. Rock Earthcreeper is restricted to southern Bolivia and northern Argentina. This trip was the first time I’d seen any earthcreepers, although this wasn’t my first earthcreeper of the trip. We’d seen Bolivian Earthcreeper earlier on the tour.

Yet another furnariid was Brown-capped Tit-spinetail:

This is yet another bird restricted to southern Bolivia and northern Argentina. As one might figure, tit-spinetails seem like a cross between a tit/chickadee and a spinetail. But while spinetails crawl up trees, tit-spinetails are found above the tree line, so while they look like a spinetail, they behave more like a tit.

As we headed up the road, we moved into the Polylepis forest. Polylepis is a high elevation shrub found in the high Andes. It’s actually in the rose family. It has red peeling bark and thick gnarled branches. Here’s an article with some pictures and more info on them.

A key species in the Polylepis is Giant Conebill:

You can see how it gets its name! Giant Conebill is a tanager, but it looks and behaves like a nuthatch. It crawls along the branches of the Polylepis and peels the bark looking for insects.

Some other things you see once you get to high elevations are sights that are typically associated with the Andes, such as llamas:

alpacas:

And indigenous women in hats and poofy skirts:

At least 60% of the Bolivian population have some percentage of indigenous heritage, mostly Quechua and Aymara. And for the record, llamas and alpacas are not wild animals. They’re domesticated versions of the vicuña and guanaco, respectively.

Eventually we got up to the high puna grassland, and yet another avian ecosystem. I don’t know how he saw them, but Carlos the eagle-eyed found a small group of Grey-breasted Seedsnipes:

Seedsnipes are a kind of shorebird, but unlike most shorebirds, they’re not found on the shore. They’re found on high elevation grasslands. They’re like the South American equivalent of ptarmigan. Grey-breasted Seedsnipes are found in the Andes from Peru all the way to Tierra del Fuego.

Way up on the puna, you can still find flycatchers, like this Cinereous Ground-tyrant:

Because there aren’t any trees up at 13,000 ft, the flycatchers mostly are found on the ground. But as you can see they’ll take advantage of any perch, like a fence post.

And at that elevation you do find ponds:

That’s me in the foreground with Dan and Carlos. And with ponds, you’ll find waterbirds, like these Andean Geese:

Andean Geese are found from Peru through central Chile and Argentina. They’re usually found over 10,000 feet.

We spent a few more days in the hills around Cochabamba finding more high altitude specialties. One of the key targets was this Hooded Mountain-toucan:

There are three other species of mountain-toucan. All the mountain toucans are found in Andean cloud forest. Hooded Mountain-toucan is essentially a Bolivian endemic…it just barely creeps into Peru.

On the other end of the size range is Moustached Flowerpiercer:

Flowerpiercers are small birds that have hooked biils that they use to poke holes in the base of flowers to get at the nectar. Moustached Flowerpiercer is found mainly on the east slope of the Andes in Peru, as well as in Bolivia.

Another small Andean bird is the Three-striped Hemispingus:

Hemispinguses are a kind of tanager. The Three-striped is found in Peru and Bolivia, in high-elevation scrub forest above the tree line. For the record spingus is means finch, so hemispingus means “half-finch”.

Another high-elevation species is the Huayco Tinamou:

It’s call sounds like “huayco”, although the indigenous name is “waypu” which is a much better representation of the call. Wikipedia describes them as being found in cereal fields, but this one was actually in a potato field. It was faaaar!

You see those two little red traffic cones at the base of the field? The tinamou was between those two cones!

There were plenty of flycatchers up in the mountain scrub. First up was Brown-backed Chat-tyrant:

Brown-backed Chat-tyrant is found in high altitude grassland from Venezuela to Bolivia. There was also Golden-browed Chat-tyrant:

This species is a little skulker that’s found in the Yungas cloud-forest of Peru and Bolivia. Next up is Rufous-bellied Bush-tyrant:

It’s another endemic to the Yungas of Peru and Bolivia.

There are also some fairly large hummingbirds. One of the prettiest is Great Sapphirewing:

Great Sapphirewing is the second largest hummingbird in the world (the largest is Giant Hummingbird, which we also saw in Bolivia). It’s found from Colombia to Bolivia.

We also saw Violet-throated Starfrontlet:

It’s found in shrubby forests in Peru and Bolivia.

Less ornate is this Line-fronted Canastero:

Canasteros are in the ovenbird family with spinetails. Line-fronted is found in the scrub between the timberline and puna grassland in Peru and Bolivia.

And even at high altitude there are gulls:

This is an Andean Gull. It breeds in the high Andean Altiplano from 3,000m to 5,300m.

Another water-bound bird in the Andes is this Andean Avocet:

It breeds above 3,500m in the Andes of Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. That’s a Greater Yellowlegs – a migrant from North America – in the picture with it.

That wraps up Cochabamba, so now it was time to move on to La Paz. This was going to be tricky.

At this time La Paz Airport was still open, but we’d concluded that the road from Cochabamba to La Paz would not be passable. In fact, there had been confrontations with firecrackers and rubber bullets between the Morales supporters and the police on the road about 10 miles south of La Paz airport the day before we were supposed to fly. So Carlos would not be able to get to La Paz. Fortunately our ground agent was able to arrange another driver, Victor, who was based in La Paz. He met us at the airport, and took the back roads down into the city for an overnight stay.

La Paz is the highest capital city in the world at 11,700 ft (3,560m). The airport is even higher. It’s in the city of El Alto, at 13,600 ft (4,300m). It’s the highest elevation airport in the world – higher even than Lhasa, Tibet. In fact, jet fuel is a vapor at ambient temperature and the low air pressure of El Alto, so planes aren’t able to refuel there. They have to carry enough fuel to get to their next (lower) destination.

After a night in downtown La Paz, we were off towards La Cumbre pass:

This was the highest altitude I’ve ever been at on land – 4,700m or about 15,400 ft. It was cold and there wasn’t much oxygen. But there were birds.

Like our other high-altitude excursion, there were seedsnipes, in this case Rufous-bellied Seedsnipes:

They’re found throughout the Andes. This was a bird I really wanted to see because of a past miss. I was on a trip in Ecuador 15 years ago, and the guide didn’t want to look for the seedsnipes at a known location, because it was “too foggy”.

Another high elevation specialty is the Glacier Finch:

Glacier Finch is found in high altitude bogs, mainly in Bolivia and Peru. It used to be called White-winged Diuca-finch, but since it isn’t in the genus diuca (like the true Diuca Finch), the authorities renamed it. Oh by the way...it’s a tanager.

And if there’s a high altitude pond, there are ducks, like these Crested Ducks:

Look at that hot pink speculum! This is the Andean subspecies. There is a lowland subspecies that’s found in Argentina, Chile, and the Falklands.

There were also Yellow-billed Teal:

I’ve seen both Crested Ducks and Yellow-billed Teal at low altitude in Tierra del Fuego, but clearly they are adaptable.

After crossing the pass, we headed down to about 10,000 ft. (Yes. Down!) to the dry, Pongo Valley:

Our main target there was Scribble-tailed Canastero:

This little spinetail is found in a little tiny strip of elevation between 3,000 and 4,300 m (9,800 and 14,100 ft) with one population in Peru and Bolivia and another separate population in northern Argentina. The “scribble-tail” refers to zig-zag black markings on its tail.

Another goodie in the valley was d’Orbigny’s Chat-tyrant:

Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny was a French naturalist who explored South America and a contemporary (rival?) of Charles Darwin. d’Orbigny’s Chat-tyrant is found in the Andes from Peru to Argentina.

One of the unique mammals we found in the Pongo Valley was this Southern Viscacha:

Viscachas look like rabbits, but they’re actually related to Chinchillas. It’s actually convergent evolution.

Near the Pongo Valley we found this Black-hooded Sunbeam:

It’s a Bolivian endemic hummingbird and is usually very easily found near Cochabamba, although it requires a very specific type of bush for feeding. However, the best location for it near Cochabamba wasn’t accessible due to road construction. So Dan was very relieved that we finally saw this bird, even though we saw an immature not an adult. The adult is black with a turquoise back and a rufous tail. It’s a very beautiful bird. Here’s a pic from Cornell.

It was now time to brave the Road of Death (Camino de la Muerte) - the road shown in the lead picture of the diary. It’s a single lane dirt road that winds down the mountains from the high grasslands at 10,000 ft to the tropical mid-level forest at about 6,000 ft. It used to be the main road from La Paz to the Amazon basin used by all vehicles including heavy trucks. Here’s a clip from the BBC program Top Gear where they drive the road. However, this was in the days before it was replaced by a new paved bypass road which now gets all the traffic. These days the Camino de la Muerte is a tourist attraction only used by crazy mountain bikers looking for an adrenaline rush and the occasional hard-core birders, as shown in this sign:

And while we didn’t see the Cock-of-the-Rock shown in the sign, we saw a lot of goodies.

One of the specialties of the road is Scimitar-winged Piha:

Pihas are a kind of cotinga. Scimitar-winged Piha is almost exclusively found in Bolivia with a small population in Peru. But basically, most of the recent sitings are along the Bolivian Death Road.

Another kind of cotinga is this Barred Fruiteater:

Fruiteaters are mainly green and black, but the breast color/pattern is different from species to species. Some are red, some are yellow...this one is yellow-and-black. Barred Fruiteaters are found throughout the Andes from 2,250 to 3,300 meters (7,400 to 10,800 ft).

On the walk to the Piha site, we found this Masked Trogon:

Masked Trogon is found in humid highland forests in the northern Andes. This one is the submontanus subspecies, which is endemic to Bolivia.

An even more colorful bird is this Crimson-mantled Woodpecker:

It’s found throughout the Andes, from Venezuela to Bolivia.

Another wide-ranging bird is Blue-capped Tanager:

It’s more of a lower-elevation species and is found from Bolivia all the way through Venezuela as far as Trinidad!

A high elevation species is this Maroon-belted Chat-tyrant:

This is another skulky little flycatcher that hides in the brush. The Maroon-belted used to be part of a larger species, Slaty-backed Chat-tyrant, but the species was split into northern and southern species, with Maroon-belted as the southern one.

Another flycatcher we saw was Golden-crowned Flycatcher:

It’s found mainly in Peru and Bolivia with a small population in Northern Argentina. It used to include birds in the northern Andes, but several of the subspecies were moved into Golden-bellied Flycatcher which extends into Central America.

Yet another flycatcher is this Cinnamon Flycatcher:

This little cutie is another widespread Andean species, found in the subtropical zone from Venezuela to Argentina.

Now a brief interlude.

You can’t talk about this part of the Bolivian Andes without talking about coca:

It’s a major cash crop in Bolivia, although much of it is not refined as cocaine. In fact, it’s been used in Bolivia since the time of the Incas. Most people use it as a chewable stimulant or as a remedy for various minor illnesses. And if you want it, it’s easy to find:

We sell Coca and Crushed Coca. Ask for them here!

Interestingly, coca farming led to one of the more stable periods in recent Bolivian history. As I commented above, Morales’ rise to power was supported by the indigenous population. Many of those people were highland coca farmers. With Morales in power, the demonization of coca encouraged by the US was highly reduced and US “aid” to the military was all but eliminated. This increased the income of the ordinary farmers and decreased the influence of the military. That led to stability. I’d call it The Law of Unintended Consequences, but it seems pretty intentional to me.

Now back to the birds.

A bird we didn’t expect to come out in the open was this Andean Solitaire:

Solitaires are thrushes that usually hang out in the tops of trees where they’re not easily seen. However, since the mountainsides are so steep, the tops of the trees below the road are at eye level!

Another eye-level goodie was this Striped Treehunter:

It’s another funariid (ovenbird). As you’d expect from the name, Striped Treehunter spends its time working the trees, especially bamboo, looking for insects. It’s found in the subtropical zone of the Andes from Venezuela to Bolivia.

And you can’t visit the tropics without seeing parakeets:

Green cheeked Parakeets are mainly found in Bolivia, but its range extends slightly into all the neighboring countries.

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At this point, we’d survived two days on the Road of Death – one going down and the other going back up – but we now had to deal with more Bolivian surprises. We’d been tracking some roadblocks between La Paz and Lake Titicaca online. Unfortunately, our hotel on the lake shore got in touch to let us know that they were closing: because of the roadblocks, nobody could get to the hotel. So once again, our ground agent went into action and got us rooms in La Paz.

Now we needed to figure out the birding. With the roadblocks, one of the key species, Berlepsch’s Canastero (a Bolivian endemic) was off the table. However, there was still part of Lake Titicaca at the very southern end that we could get to. So that became the new plan.

On the way to Titicaca, we passed through the Altiplano – the High Plains:

The Altiplano is high-elevation grassland at about 13,000 ft (4,000m). This is the land of pipits.

The first we saw was Puna Pipit:

Puna Pipit is found in the high altitude grasslands (and dirt roads) of Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. It used to be included in Short-billed Pipit but was split out in 2022, in part because of differences in preferred elevation. Short-billed favors lower elevation, and Puna favors high elevation.

Another pipit is Correndera Pipit:

Correndera Pipit is more widespread than Puna Pipit. It’s mostly found throughout Argentina all the way to Tierra del Fuego, but there are smaller populations in Peru and Bolivia.

Eventually we did make it to Lake Titicaca:

Those mountains in the distance are in Peru. The border runs through the middle of the lake. And in the picture, you can see why we came to this location: Flamingos! In fact we had three species of flamingo at this one location.

We saw Chilean Flamingo:

James’ Flamingo:

and Andean Flamingo:

Chilean Flamingo is found through much of southern South America. Andean and James’ Flamingos are only found in the high elevations of the Andes.

So how does one tell the three species apart? It’s actually pretty easy.

Chilean Flamingo has a long pink and black bill. It has yellowish legs with bright red knees and feet.
James’ Flamingo has a short bright yellow bill with a small black tip. Its legs are a uniform pink color.
Andean Flamingo has a long pale yellow and black bill. It’s legs and feet are yellow. Most notable is the large black triangle on its closed wings.

You can clearly see the differences in the three pictures. And an important fact about Andean Flamingo: It was my 6,000th species! Whoo hoo!

As noted earlier, up at these altitudes there are still waterbirds. A common one is Andean Lapwing:

Lapwings are a kind of large plover. Andean Lapwing is found along high elevation lakes and bogs. Its counterpart, the Southern Lapwing is a low elevation bird.

We also saw large flocks of Puna Ibis:

Puna Ibis is found in marshes and lakes in the central Andes. It’s pretty widespread. And Wikipedia notes that it’s actually been domesticated for meat and eggs by the Uru people who live on reed islands in Lake Titicaca. Fascinating!

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So that about wraps up my trip to Bolivia. I had actually planned to spend a couple extra days in La Paz doing some sightseeing, but given the risk that the civil unrest could still close the airport, I decided to get the hell outta Dodge while the airport was still open. So I cut the trip short and came home a couple days early.

And a quick post-trip post script…a week or so after I got home, I decided to check the website of the Bolivian Transportation Authority to see if the roadblocks around Lake Titicaca were still there. They were gone, but a whole new set of roadblocks had been created, effectively blockading the entire city of Cochabamba. If we had been a few weeks later, all of our day-trips from Cochabamba would have been impossible. The trip would have been a total disaster.

Timing is everything!

So what’s happening in your neighborhood these days?

Dawn Chorus - My last Bird Count of 2024

CaptBLI

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Sunday January 12, 2025 · 6:00 AM PST

2025/01/12 · 06:00

no image description available — Our National Bird flying over Sardis Lake, MS. 12-31-2024

I left home at 6 am on the last day of 2024. My goal was to collect data for 6 hours at one of my favorite “birding hotspots”, the lower Sardis Lake (Panola County, Mississippi).

CaptBLI

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Sunday January 05, 2025 · 6:00 AM PST

2025/01/05 · 06:00

The profile of a face only a chick could imprint upon.

I found a most interesting bird when I visited the Phillip’s Catfish Farm in Eden, Mississippi, during December of last year. I knew the warm cloudy morning would keep migrating waterfowl floating on the large ponds. I hoped to observe a lot of species and was not disappointed. But, this article focuses on one individual.

One likely scenario of how this hybrid is possible was constructed and explained through this drawing taken from the Frontiers in Zoology site. This example covers the possibility of wild nesting choices and predicable outcomes in rearing chicks.

One possible answer to the hybrid’s origin

This link to the article offers other reasonable opinions of how hybrids take place. The link to that article is:

Frontiers in Zoology.

I am 20% certain I observed and filmed a Canada / Greylag goose hybrid. Here is a look at the parent species borrowed from Audubon’s photo library.

Hybrids of these species are uncommon but well documented when studied. The markers for either species can easily confirm the sighting. The head structure provides the best comparatives. Here is a clipping from the Nature Conservancy’s files on this specific hybrid.

The connection structure of beak attachment to the head

The photo I took below has four points that indicate a Greylag’s structure. 1) The vertical line of the beak (unlike the curve of the Canada), 2) The defined notch of the beak. 3) The bulbous tip, 4) The curved upper mandible. The points attributed to the Canada goose are dark color of beak and lack of eye ring (prominent in Greylag).

Other markings I observed are seen in the following photos.

The neck does not have an extended color length (or create a hood) like a Canada. The feathers of the neck have the tips that resemble a Greylag (seen in the video). The video also shows that the legs are darker (not yellow) and the wings have a pattern like a Greylag. The main body shape resembles the rotund Canada’s girth.

As I watched the goose exit the pond, I noticed it’s stride and was seeing the gait typical of Canada geese. I have seen domestic geese waddle and the upright posture was not seen in the bird I filmed. Here is the shot video I took of the interesting subject.

46 second video

YouTube Video

It was suggested (through an iNauralist review) that my bird may be an immature Snow Goose “Blue Phase” (going through the changes) molting into adulthood. I looked at other photos of “Blue Geese” and (though similar) didn’t see the same beak-to-head structure as my bird and there is no transition of bill color.

Here is a photo showing the bill structure of an immature Snow Goose.

curves unlike the more straight lines of a Greylag’s bill

Snow geese are still filtering into my area during migration, but the bulk of the large flights have passed through. Still, it is possible my bird is a lone Snow Goose traveling with a Canada flock.

Today’s diary is open to any thing you’d like to add or remark upon. Conversation is what makes the Dawn Chorus so much fun.

Dawn Chorus -- The Detroit River Hawk Watch

Clickadee

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Sunday December 29, 2024 · 6:00 AM PST

2024/12/29 · 06:00

The Detroit River Hawk Watch (DRHW) has been in operation for 41 years. This community science project is a collaborative effort by U.S. Fish & Wildlife, the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge and its friends group, the International Wildlife Refuge Alliance, Huron-Clinton Metroparks and the Detroit River Hawk Watch Advisory Committee. Volunteer observers sit at Lake Erie Metropark (LEMP), on the bank of the Detroit River near where it empties into northwest Lake Erie. I visit the park often throughout the year. For years, I’d been vaguely aware that raptors migrate through the area in the fall. The past three years made sure I took time to sit at the watch on the often chilly riverbank.

laniusX

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Sunday December 22, 2024 · 6:00 AM PST

2024/12/22 · 06:00

Bolivia. Not exactly a tourism hotspot. But having been to Ecuador and Peru three times each for birding, twice each to Brazil and Colombia, and once each to Argentina, Chile, and Guyana, there weren’t many places in South America where I could get a bunch of new birds. So Bolivia it was.

As you’ve come to expect from me, some background on Bolivia. Bolivia is a landlocked country in South America, but interestingly, it wasn’t always landlocked. It lost it coastal access to Chile and a strip on its south to Argentina during the War of the Pacific in the late 1800’s. Additionally, it lost the state of Acre to Brazil in the early 1900’s and a big chunk of territory in its southeast to Paraguay in the Chaco War of the 1930’s. In fact, if it had not lost all that territory, Bolivia would look like this:

However, now it looks like this:

It extends from the Amazon basin on its northeast side to the high Andes on its western side. And that difference defines its birds. Of course, the eastern birds are consistent with the amazonian basin. The eastern edge of the Andes is the Yungas cloud forest (Yungas being the native Quechua / Aymara word for warm Andean slope or cloud forest). Beyond the first ridge of the Andes, is a very dry scrubland, complete with cacti. And further west you reach the Altiplano – the High Plain. In this case, high is very high. The Altiplano averages about 3,750m (12,300 ft), and the La Cumbre pass from the Altiplano to the Yungas is at 4,700m (15,400m).

Our tour took in a transect through the different habitats:

We started in the lowlands of Santa Cruz and climbed through a couple different intermontane valleys up to Cochabamba. We spent a few days around Cochabamba visiting all different altitudes. From there, we flew to La Paz to bird the Altiplano and Lake Titicaca, as well as drive up and down the “Road of Death” northeast of La Paz to the Yungas of La Paz Department.

Because there’s a lot of range (get it?) to cover, I decided to break this diary up into two parts. The first part will cover the lowlands and mid-level Andes from Santa Cruz until our arrival in Cochabamba. The second part will cover the birding around Cochabamba and our time around La Paz and the Altiplano. But if anyone wants a sneak peak at the pictures from Part Two, an eBird trip report for the tour is here.

Our tour started in the grasslands around Santa Cruz. One of the first birds we found was White-bellied Nothura:

White-bellied Nothura — Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Nothuras are a kind of tinamou. They are found in open grasslands, as opposed to true tinamous which are forest birds. Nothuras are all mottled brown and tan like this one so they can hide in the grass. True tinamous are essentially solid colored, either brown, grey, or black.

Elsewhere in the grasslands was this spectacled tyrant:

This is a bird that I saw for the first time a couple years ago in the Argentine Pampas. They’re actually a kind of flycatcher. My guide in Argentina called it a “spectacular tyrant.” I have to agree.

Nearby we had a flock of Toco Toucans:

Toco Toucan was the first toucan I ever saw (at Iguassu Falls), going back to before I was a birder. They are the largest species of toucan. Unlike all the other toucans which are forest birds, Toco Toucans like open savannah.

At a nearby lake we saw a few Plush-crested Jays:

Plush-crested Jays — Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Plush-crested Jays are found all the way from the Amazon basin to northern Argentina, but they’re a lowland species. We saw them on the first few days of the trip, but once we got over about 5,000 ft, we didn’t see them anymore.

The Botanical Gardens of Santa Cruz gave us a few surprises, including this Capybara:

Capybaras are the largest living rodent. They’re about the size of a medium sized dog. I think of them as Amazonian, so it was a surprise to see them in such a dry area like Santa Cruz, but I guess they like the lakes in the area.

We also saw quite a few ibises (ibi?) at the gardens:

This species used to be called Whispering Ibis, but the name was changed a while back. It’s found throughout lowland South America except for the deepest part of the Amazon Basin. Wikipedia says they’re usually found in large flocks. Y’think?

We also went to a reserve outside Santa Cruz called Lomas de Arena, which means sand dunes. It’s aptly named:

One of the specialty birds of the reserve is the Red-legged Seriema:

Red-legged Seriema — Lomas de Arena, Bolivia

There are two species of seriemas – Red-legged and Black-legged. Both are found in dry scrub, although the Red-legged has a large range throughout eastern South America while the Black-legged is limited to Paraguay and northern Argentina. According to our guide (and Wikipedia), they are thought to be the closest living relatives to the giant “terror-birds” from the Pleistocene Era.

Much less terrifying is the Fork-tailed Flycatcher:

Fork-tailed Flycatcher — Lomas de Arena, Bolivia

I was surprised to see this species…I didn’t realize they ranged so far south. But it turns out they range from Mexico all the way to Argentina. They also occasionally show up in the US. I’ve actually seen one in PA.

Also in the dry scrub was White-eared Puffbird:

White-eared Puffbird — Lomas de Arena, Bolivia

This is a bird I’d seen before in Brazil. It’s nickname there is João Bobo, John the Clown. If you remember my Colombia diary from earlier this year, a puffbird species there was also called John the Clown (Juan Bobo).

We also saw this obliging Burrowing Owl:

Burrowing Owls are widespread in the Americas. I’ve seen them in 6 different countries, including the US. This particular subspecies is found from Bolivia all the way to Tierra del Fuego.

From Santa Cruz we headed up in the foothills to a place called Refugio Los Volcanes, a private reserve set in a basin among sandstone monoliths on the edge of Amboró National Park:

You see that tiny little open area way down in the valley? That’s where Los Volcanes is located. It’s a spectacular setting that reminded me of Zion National Park in Utah. But there are no volcanos nearby – it’s all sandstone - so I have no idea why the reserve was named that.

On the way down to the reserve, we saw this Red-necked Woodpecker:

Red-necked Woodpecker — Los Volcanes, Bolivia

The red-necked woodpecker is in the campephilus genus, the genus of large woodpeckers which formerly included the Ivory-billed Woodpecker of North America. Normally, they’re found at fairly low elevation in the Amazon basin, but in Bolivia they’re found up to 2,400m (7,900 ft).

Crested Oropendolas were nesting on the grounds on the lodge:

Crested Oropendola — Los Volcanes, Bolivia

Oropendolas are related to the New World orioles, although they’re generally much larger. They also build hanging nests like orioles, but usually in small colonies. This is a nesting colony in the yard at the reserve:

Oropendola Nests — Los Volcanes, Bolivia

Another more tropical species we saw here is Fork-tailed Woodnymph:

Fork-tailed Woodnymph — Los Volcanes, Bolivia

This is a widespread South American species. They’re found up to 2000m (6,600ft) so Los Volcanes is at about the middle of the species elevation range.

Unfortunately part of our full day was a rain-out, so the pictures of the birds are pretty limited. But I sat out the rain with this little girl:

Chachi is the pet of the owners of the reserve. She was a real sweetheart.

On the morning we left, the sky began to clear. It gave us a beautiful view of the area:

We next headed to the dry side of the Andes, although still at middle level elevations. Our first stop was a hummingbird garden called El Refugio de Colibris (The Hummingbird Refuge). It’s a garden that’s planted with various kinds of flowers to attract hummingbirds. As far as I know, it’s the only site of its kind in Bolivia.

One of the specialties of this garden is White-vented Violetear:

White-vented Violetear — Refugio de Colibris, Bolivia

This species is widely found in southern Brazil but extends in a very narrow finger into Bolivia and Argentina. In fact, our guide, Dan, who’d been to Bolivia over ten times had only seen it for the first time in Bolivia on last year’s trip.

Another less ornate hummer species is White-bellied Hummingbird:

White-bellied Hummingbird — Refugio de Colibris, Bolivia

This species is found on the east slope of the Andes from Peru to northern Argentina. I’d seen it before in Peru, also coming to feeders.

In addition to hummingbirds, there were some birds coming to seed feeders. One of the prettiest was Red-crested Finch:

Red-crested Finch — Refugio de Colibris, Bolivia

It’s widespread in the dry habitats of central South America, with a couple isolated pockets in the savannas of northern Peru and Guyana. This is another of the many finches that DNA analysis has determined to actually be a kind of tanager.

Another bird that was found to be a tanager by DNA is Green-winged Saltator:

Green-winged Saltator — Refugio de Colibris, Bolivia

When I first saw this species in Brazil, it was a cardinal. Now it’s a tanager. Ironically, as I explained in a previous diary, the tanagers of North America are now known to be cardinals. Go figure.

And speaking of Brazil, here’s the national bird of Brazil, the Rufous-bellied Thrush:

Rufous-bellied Thrush — Refugio de Colibris, Bolivia

It’s an attractive bird, but not as charismatic as other national birds. For example, the national bird of Bolivia is the Andean Condor. So why is this the national bird of Brazil? Because it’s mentioned in some 19th century nationalist poetry and is very familiar to the ordinary Brazilian like the robin in the USA. To some extent it’s a representation of the common man.

We continued upward through some cloud forest when our driver, Carlos, spotted this bird:

We have no idea how he spotted it while driving, but we were glad he did. Yungas Guan used to be part of Dusky-legged Guan, but was split in 2020. It’s found only in the Yungas of Bolivia and Argentina and this is the only one we saw on the trip.

And while we were stopped there a pair of Cream-backed Woodpeckers flew in:

Cream-backed Woodpecker — Near Comarapa, Bolivia

This is another of the campephilus species of large woodpeckers. It’s usually found in open savannah, so finding it in a patch of cloud forest was a bit of a surprise. But it’s lucky we did – they were the only ones we saw, and they missed this species on last year’s trip.

Once we made it to the middle elevations we were in drier habitat:

so we had a whole new set of species to work with.

One of the coolest was the Giant Antshrike:

Giant Antshrike — Near Comarapa, Bolivia

This is the largest of all the antbirds – up to 14” (35cm) long. They’re found in a large part of southeast Brazil with a separate population in Bolivia and Argentina. The Brazilian birds tend to be in the forest while the Andean birds prefer thorn scrub. Sounds like a possible split, if you ask me. According to our guide, they don’t usually give such clear views. They tend to hide in the brush. But this boy was quite obliging. He was in a scrubby area with several ranches in the mountains above the town of Comarapa.

Nearby was this Great Pampa Finch:

Great Pampa Finch — Near Comarapa, Bolivia

It’s found mostly in the savannas of southeast Brazil into the pampas of Argentina, hence the name, but there’s a small population that extends up the Andean foothills into Bolivia. It’s yet another finch that turned out to be a tanager.

From there it only got drier, but the birds of the scrub didn’t disappoint. We turned up a whole flock of Cliff Parakeets:

Most authorities consider Cliff Parakeet to be a subspecies of Monk Parakeet, but it’s slightly different colored and is only found in the dry valleys of the Bolivian Andes. The rest of the Monk Parakeet subspecies are found in lowland savanna.

Our destination was the Reserva Paraba Frente Roja – The Red-fronted Macaw Reserve.

Red-fronted Macaws — Reserva Paraba Frente Roja, Bolivia

Red-fronted Macaws are only found in Bolivia. They’re critically endangered – the latest population survey estimated only about 1000 individuals. The reserve protects the largest breeding colony of the species. It’s a joint effort between Asociación Armonía, a Bolivian conservation organization, and the local (mainly indigenous) communities.

The key area is this cliff:

Macaw Roost Cliff — Reserva Paraba Frente Roja, Bolivia

The macaws roost on the cliff (and use it as a clay lick). That’s actually a river bed where Dan is standing, but with the ongoing drought in Bolivia, it was completely dry. We figure we saw about 100 macaws at the cliff. They weren’t always perched, either:

The reserve also has a few feeders which attract some of the local specialties. One of the most important (to birders) is Bolivian Blackbird:

Bolivian Blackbird — Reserva Paraba Frente Roja, Bolivia

This is another species that’s endemic to the dry Andean valleys of Bolivia. Interestingly, when I looked at pictures of this species in eBird, several of them were on that same exact cactus!

One of the common birds at the reserve was White-fronted Woodpecker:

White-fronted Woodpecker — Reserva Paraba Frente Roja, Bolivia

They’re found from Bolivia through western Paraguay into northeastern Argentina. We’d typically see 5-10 of these at the feeders at any given time. They loved those feeders.

Also at the feeders was this Golden-billed Saltator:

Golden-billed Saltator — Reserva Paraba Frente Roja, Bolivia

They weren’t as common as the woodpeckers, but there were a few. This was a species I saw for the first time at a reserve in Buenos Aires a couple years ago.

Another bird that I first saw in the Pampas of Argentina is Glittering-bellied Emerald:

Glittering-bellied Emerald — Reserva Paraba Frente Roja, Bolivia

It was actually drinking the sap from the tree. In fact, we saw several species drinking the sap. This species is found from Bolivia to the Atlantic coast of South America. The birds I saw in Argentina are at the southern end of their range.

Another sap-drinker was this Sayaca Tanager:

Sayaca Tanager — Reserva Paraba Frente Roja, Bolivia

This species is found in central-eastern South America. It’s name is derived from the Tupi word saí-acú, which means “very lively”. It looks very much like its relative, the Blue-grey Tanager, which is found from Central America to the Amazon Basin.

In one of the nearby villages we found this Spot-backed Puffbird:

Spot-backed Puffbird — Near Reserva Paraba Frente Roja, Bolivia

The species is split into two species by some authorities. Their taxonomy has the Chaco Puffbird found in Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and southwestern Brazil and the Caatinga Puffbird found in the dry habitats of eastern Brazil. However, Clements considers them as one species.

Our long drive to Cochabamba started with some Southern Martins:

Southern Martins — near Saipina, Bolivia

Southern Martins are the South American equivalent of the Purple Martins of North America. Bolivia is the northern end of their breeding range. They’re mostly found in Argentina, and they migrate to the Amazon Basin for the austral winter. This is a species that I missed on several previous trips because I wasn’t in the right place at the right season, so I was actually pretty happy to connect with this one.

After that we added even more dry country species. These are Streak-fronted Thornbirds:

Streak-fronted Thornbirds — near Saipina, Bolivia

Thornbirds are a furnariid, like woodcreepers, foliage-gleaners, and spinetails. They build large basketball sized nests in scrubby thorn bushes, hence the name. Streak-breasted Thornbird is rather range restricted. It’s found from around Cuzco, Peru, through Bolivia, to far northwestern Argentina, but only from about 5,000 to 10,000 feet.

After a long drive, we made it to our first high Andean pass at about 3,650m (12,000 ft.). It was there we found a field full of Puyu Raimondii:

Puyu Raimondi — Juntu Tuyu Pass, Bolivia

Puyu raimondii are the world’s largest bromeliad. They can grow up to 50 ft (15m) tall. They’re also known as Queen of the Andes.

Up at that altitude we had our first Chilean Flamingos of the trip:

Chilean Flamingos — Juntu Tuyu Pass, Bolivia

They like the high Andean saline lakes. We actually saw three species of flamingos on the tour, but that’s for part two of the Chorus.

Up at that elevation, there are still flycatchers, such as this Rufous-webbed Bush-tyrant:

Rufous-webbed Bush-tyrant — Juntu Tuyu Pass, Bolivia

This species is found in high-elevation scrub in the Andes from Peru to Argentina. Its range is 3,000-4,300 meters (9,800-14,000 ft).

After that first experience with high elevation, we came down into the mighty metropolis of Cochabamba:

Cochabamba is at an elevation of 2,600m (8,600 ft). It’s the fourth-largest city in Bolivia with a population of about 630,000. We’d spend 3½ days there making day-trips into the surrounding mountains.

But that wraps up Part One of the Bolivia tour diary. Stay tuned for a future diary for the rest of the tour, including our visit to the Camino de la Muerte.

Bienvenidos al Camino de la Muerte — Bolivia

So what’s up in your neighborhood this week?

Dawn Chorus: Northwest maritime medley

OceanDiver

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday December 15, 2024 · 6:00 AM PST

2024/12/15 · 06:00

Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest

December 2024

I’m reporting from the center of the Salish Sea

Winter is great for marine birds in the Pacific Northwest. The weather may be dark and wet but birds are more abundant at this season here, in every maritime habitat. There’s no nesting and very little courting; everyone is just here in our relatively calm inland waters to pack on calories in preparation for the busy summer days to come. The Salish Sea isn’t as rich as before Euro-American settlement, development and resource extraction, but there’s still a lot of forage here and the birds know it. Some come from thousands of miles away, others are more local. Today’s Dawn Chorus is a medley of habitats and their birds, from my observations over the past couple of weeks.

Offshore waters

To see birds a mile from shore we go out in our boat (on days not too windy, dark or wet). In summer there are fair numbers of Double-crested and Pelagic cormorants, Pigeon guillemots and Rhinoceros auklets, who all breed within twenty miles of here but those birds actually become less common in winter as they disperse. Gull populations shift (a whole topic on its own).

Notable on our recent boat trip were the 400+ Common murres and 300+ Brandt’s cormorants. Murres come and go, mostly as a cohort, but the Brandt’s are reliable winter residents around Whale Rocks.

The murres were shifting around over a several mile stretch

So were the Brandt’s. 150+ occupied the Rocks while others flew back and forth, a couple of times over baitballs.

Brandt’s breed on the open coast. They’ll depart in another month or two.

They fly right above the water’s surface, like most aquatic birds — saves energy

Also numerous on baitballs were the gulls. One photo showed pink prey, meaning shrimp.

Some other birds out there were Red-necked grebes, Pigeon guillemots, a few Marbled murrelets, one Rhinoceros auklet, loons, some shorebirds, and ducks (including Surf scoters, Harlequins, Buffleheads, Common goldeneyes). I did not see any Ancient murrelets this time.

Pigeon guillemot takes off, passing by a Red-necked grebe

I saw one Common loon and half a dozen Pacific loons. Very different profiles and social mode.

A small island a mile from shore provides protection and forage along its steep rocky shoreline, both above and below the tide line.

Incoming Turnstones and Surfbirds. Note the peekaboo white Harbor Seal lounging on these rocks

Surfbirds are lighter in color, as well as not so contrasty in markings as seen on the wing

Eagles regularly perch on that island. Fish, ducks and gulls are a nearby buffet.

Distant eagle, who a few minutes later swooped down on the flock of gulls below, scattering them. Didn’t catch any, this time.

Most of these are Glaucous-winged/Olympic hybrids, the most common gull around here

But I’m unsure about the lower gull. Pink legs yes but a thin bill more like a Mew/Short-billed…. but those have yellow legs. Wingtips are very dark grey, another ambiguous feature. Really hard to ID some birds while on a moving boat, at distance.

Below is a fantastic graphic showing abundance of our major gulls by month. As you can see, by December the vast majority are Olympics and Mew/Short-billed. The graphic is from a comprehensive article, Gull Identification in Puget Sound, which details species and ages by plumage/bare parts. The author makes a good case that there are very few pure GWGUs; most are GWGUxWEGU hybrids in this area.

From The Cottonwood Post, a blog of Stephen Carr Hampton, PhD Natural Resource Economics, avid birder, enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, and resident of Port Townsend Washington

Plenty of driftwood and torn up bull kelp at this time of year, which make nice perches for birds.

Direct comparison between a Pelagic (left) and a Brandt’s cormorant (right) on driftwood

A big thrill for me as we returned to the dock was my first sighting of Long-tailed ducks since 2021. They are well offshore around here so I only see them from the boat, and that’s hit or miss.

Protected bay

Birds in the local bays are within a quarter mile of shore and forage in water no more than 20 feet deep. That means lots of diving ducks and Horned grebes, with some shorebirds on the beach or rocks. Buffleheads, Hooded and Red-breasted mergansers are by far the most common ducks in the bays. Less often I’ll see Common goldeneyes, Harlequins, scaups, Surf scoters, Common mergansers, and even dabbling ducks sometimes right by the shore. It’s rare to see an alcid — they don’t generally come in this close.

Diving ducks of different species mix readily when foraging. Note how small they are compared to the gull, who lurks nearby.

I thought this was a hen Common goldeneye in front but the shape didn’t look right, plus there’s a tiny white patch on its cheek. A juve male, I think. That’s a RB merganser wing flapping.

Compare the juve male goldeneye with the hen, facing him. Male goldeneyes are also a bit larger than females, according to Birds of the World.

This pair of Black oystercatchers is actually an adult and a juvenile. The current year bird still has not taken on its fully orange bill and eye ring.

About 25 killdeer on one of our few sandy beaches. In winter they sometimes form big flocks.

Brackish pond

All the brackish sites where I live are at the other end of the island, so I don’t spend much time visiting them. However a month ago a couple of people reported a very rare bird up at the north end, so I made a point of going up there. It gave me an opportunity to view aquatic birds in shallow waters even more protected than the bays.

A channel connects the pond to the bay on the other side of those houses. A seasonal freshwater runoff stream flows in on the left in winter.

This bay gets saltwater through a tide gate that allows seawater to flow in freely at most tides. Until 15 years ago the original tide gate (installed in the 1960s) had so restricted flow that the pond was essentially a dead stagnant puddle. Since the installation of the new tide gate, the pond/lagoon is now 5 acres of highly productive habitat with fish, invertebrates and plankton year round. Not surprisingly, a lot of birds are attracted to it.

The rare vagrant bird is an American avocet. By rare I mean this is only the third avocet ever seen in San Juan county, and the first on the island where I live. Avocets sometimes summer in eastern Washington but generally they are more southern. This individual has been there every time I’ve gone up that way for the past couple of weeks (so far). It seems very happy and healthy. It variously grooms, forages and snoozes at the shallowest end.

Teal and avocet forage in their own ways

I’ve also been seeing Green-winged teal, American wigeons, Pintails, Mallards, Northern Shovelers, Gadwall, Canada geese, Hoodies, and once one Buffie in the pond/lagoon. Killdeer, crows and vultures are on the marshland edge.

YouTube Video

There’s some but not a lot of overlap in species in these different habitats. Overall it adds up to an abundance and diversity of birds, and shows us how valuable marine habitats are to them. We have shallow and deep waters, rough and calm. Salinity, circulation, topography, substrate, light also vary. When the wind changes direction, birds can shift location while still finding the food they prefer. Not a surprise so many birds choose to spend their winters in the Salish Sea. In spite of the cold and dark, winter is a wonderful season for some of us!

The Dawn Chorus is now open for your birdy reports of the week.

Dawn Chorus: Shorebirds and seabirds flock to Oregon's stormy coast in non-breeding season

WordsandBirds

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday December 08, 2024 · 6:00 AM PST

2024/12/08 · 06:00

Plants on rocks — Sea Palms — actually brown alga — cling to rocks along the shore at Yachats. Weird and fascinating, they extract nutrients from saltwater and provide food for sea urchins and a variety of snails. Info, here:
oregonconservationstrategy.org/…

https://oregontidepools.org/index.php/species-guide/communities/sea-palm

Storm-watching is a popular pastime in the Northwest, and the central Oregon Coast is a prime place for it. The thunderous roaring and crashing of waves is visceral and exhilarating. The ocean’s sheer power fills me with awe.

In early November, Mr. WordsandBirds and I visited Yachats and Newport, our favorite destinations on the central coast. We last stayed in both places in May of 2023. At that time, we drove south of town for another look at a wonder of the coast, Cape Perpetua.

On this trip, we stuck to the north, where storms, sunshine and bountiful birdlife greeted us. Watching seabirds and shorebirds manage the force of the ocean inspired renewed respect for their strength and agility. Gulls are more complex than they might appear to be.

We left Seattle on a Sunday and made the 6½-hour drive to Yachats. Standard time had just returned, so daylight at Yachats was brief. Still, that left three full days, plus part of Thursday morning, for birding. Midway through our stay, we moved up to Newport to explore places new to us — Yaquina Head and Yaquina Bay Estuary — thanks to recommendations from Jeff Graham and Ms. JG, friends and birding pals.

Yachats and Newport are gems of the central Oregon Coast, and only half an hour apart.

Our lodging near Yachats fronted the ocean and the 804 Trail, which follows the rocky shoreline, winds through a tree canopy and leads to a sandy beach. The 804 is prized by locals because it was returned to public use after long community effort (www.yachats.org/...).

The sea was calm on Sunday and Monday, skies were mostly cloudy, and temps were in the low 50s. Shortly after breakfast on Tuesday, a powerful rainstorm with high winds came in. Storms aren’t just fun to watch. They stir up food for birds, who flock to the sea to find it. This storm’s main push lasted only a couple of hours, which left us ample time for hiking and birding. Negative ions from the water bombarded us, as always near the sea. But after a storm, you can really feel the energy boost. (cellhealthnews.com/...)

Sometimes the sun peeked through clouds, and color appeared:

The Pacific Ocean late on Monday afternoon, as seen from the 804 Trail near Yachats.

Sea and rocky shoreline — Early afternoon on Tuesday, after the storm. Geology at the coast is complicated, but its roots are volcanic, followed by centuries of upheaval. Basalt is everywhere. BrownsBay probably could explain it.

Right away on Monday morning, we saw Black Oystercatchers (Haematopus bachmani). They’re one of my favorite shorebirds for their big presence: They’re colorful, they’re goony-looking, they’re noisy, and they’re full of life. They’re also long-lived. One banded bird seen in British Columbia was 16 years old. And those wacky-looking, pale-orange feet are great for gripping tenuous surfaces — and for swimming. (We hadn’t known that Black Oystercatchers were swimmers.) Although they’re uncommon across most of their range, I was happy to learn that their populations are considered relatively stable. However, “large colonies of Glaucous-winged Gulls can preclude, or displace, breeding Black Oystercatchers and eat eggs and young.” (Birds of the World)

After the Black Oystercatcher at left flew in to meet the one at right (who’d been with a small group), the two spent considerable time nodding, bowing and calling. This behavior strengthens their pair bond. Black Oystercatchers are monogamous. *(Birds of the World)* Look at those expressive faces.

Black oystercatchers eat intertidal marine invertebrates, particularly bivalves and other mollusks (limpets and mussels, whelks, and chitons). Most of their foraging and eating is done at low tide, and about half of that is in the mid-intertidal zone, where mussels are dense. They rarely eat oysters, which are unimportant in their diet. (Birds of the World) So why are they named oystercatchers?

Black Oystercatcher with mussel — A Black Oystercatcher lifts a mussel to its bill. The mussel has protection — its powerful adductor muscle clamps its shell closed — but the oystercatcher will use its long bill to jab and sever it. That’s slicing a muscle to extract a mussel🤭. See that orange screwdriver up close.

Sunlight broke out Monday morning, just in time for the sky march of the Brown Pelicans:

We love pelicans, whom we used to see often back when we lived in San Diego. We look for them whenever we visit. And I’ve written before about how my grandmother and I used to swim with them in the canal behind their retirement home in the Florida Keys, and how, near the outdoor table where my grandfather filleted his catch, a few would quietly appear and wait demurely for him to offer them a few scraps.

Several species of gulls flew by as well.

Short-billed Gulls flying south. Join the flock.

But the predominant birds at Yachats were on the rocks — Surfbirds (Calidris virgata) and Black Turnstones (Arenaria melanocephala). Both are considered common migrants along the West Coast in fall and spring, and many stay the winter along the central coast.

Surfbirds and Black Turnstones wait out waves so they can forage safely. Don't get wet!

Surfbirds are larger and stockier than Black Turnstones, but in non-breeding plumage, in poor light and at a distance, distinguishing them on the spot isn’t so easy. Surfbirds have short, yellowish legs and gray upperparts (which to my eye appear cocoa-colored). They have white eye rings, and their sides can be spotted. Their bills, which help them pluck young barnacles, mussels, and snails, are brown with an orange base.

For small birds, they’re admirable for the courage they display during breeding season. I wrote a Bucket about Surfbirds when we saw them at Edmonds, where they’re unusual. It includes good background, and the photos are closer, making identifying features easier to see: www.dailykos.com/...

Black Turnstones in non-breeding season (the only time we see them) are black and white with white edges on their coverts and scapulars. They’re also doing well; their conservation status is of Least Concern.

Black Turnstones on moon rock — Black Turnstones walk on the (moon) rocks, late Monday afternoon. Take the lunar lander here.

Black Turnstones (I think, but I’m open to correction) drop down onto rocks. Check out those gorgeous feather patterns.

🐦‍⬛

Tuesday dawned stormy, but Surf Scoters were out despite high waves. “Surf” in their name isn’t for nothing. They nonchalantly float and surf, diving when waves are too high. There’s a lot of math going on in those brains as they calculate water height and force.

Ocean waves — Surf Scoters are under there somewhere.

🐦‍⬛

Cormorants — Seal Rock. Overnight rain and high winds were over, replaced by occasional mizzle, and walking was easy.

On Tuesday afternoon, we shifted lodgings to Newport. The storm had passed, so on the way, we stopped at Seal Rock State Park (also confusingly called Seal Rock Wayside, Seal Rock Recreation Area and Seal Rock Recreation Site). It’s by the town of . . . wanna guess? Seal Rock. We took the regular trail (another is ADA-accessible) to the viewpoint, where we saw the cormorants in the title photo. All was darkness and foreboding. The power of the sea and rocks was palpable, and the scene mesmerizing. Wanna feel small?

But one of the many things I love about the Oregon Coast is that when storms clear, sunshine dominates sky and land, making it hard to remember all that bombast. We used to spend a lot of time on the southern Oregon Coast, where heavy rain and high winds would scour the sky clean. Afterward, air would be fresh, and visibility stunningly clear.

And so it was on Wednesday. Day dawned bright, and we woke to a different world:

Gulls work the calm tideline in peace at Newport on Wednesday morning.

Newport map — Map of Newport, Yaquina Head and Yaquina Bay. Bigger.

It was our last day. So, tempting as the beach was, right after breakfast we drove a couple of miles up the coast highway to Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area. (Yes, that’s its real and true name. “Outstanding” because it stands out in the ocean? Or because it’s tops? I dunno, but it’s both.)

Closeup map and descriptions in this park brochure: www.blm.gov/...

Yaquina Head Llighthouse is a famous tourist attraction, but we’ve been to the oldest lighthouse on the coast, at Cape Blanco. On this day, time was short, we were after birds, and there were many places to look for them. We also skipped the visitors’ center and parked near the Lighthouse Trail. Once we were on foot, our greeter had a familiar face and voice:

A Song Sparrow sings of seeds and sunshine along the Lighthouse Trail. You can almost hear him.

First we walked down to Cobble Beach, where Harbor Seals and cormorants abounded. Even though we wore hiking boots to protect our ankles, the cobbles are difficult to navigate, so we didn’t go far. If you ever visit, you’ll likely want to have protective footwear.

Next we walked to Quarry Cove, where Harlequin Ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus — really) were a lovely surprise. Mr. WordsandBirds and I saw them swimming in the Quinault River on our honeymoon hike many years ago, so they’re a favorite.

Birds of the World lists the Harlequin Duck’s conservation status as of Least Concern. However, it also says, “There are various serious threats to Harlequin Duck populations. Overhunting, disturbance, and habitat loss have likely played roles in declines in numbers.” All About Birds adds, “Much of the species’ range lies in remote northern North America, beyond the reach of the North American Breeding Bird Survey, so there is little information on Harlequin Duck population trends.” So I’m not persuaded that they’re okay, and I’m extra happy to have seen the six we did, all of them at ease and at home on a calm, sunny day after storms.

More abundant were gulls, and they were busy.

Gull with starfish — A gull positions a purple sea star for swallowing. (Yes, it went down.) I think this is a Glaucous-winged Gull (dark iris, pink legs). Last chance to see the sea star.

Another view, which shows the red dot on the gull’s lower mandible. Closer.

Watching the gull eliminate a sea star was worrisome. In 2014, a mysterious sea-star wasting disease hit Oregon sea stars hard. Fortunately, however, by 2016, juvenile purple sea stars were again abundant on the central Oregon Coast. The disease had first appeared in Washington and British Columbia in 2013, and ultimately caused the largest die-off of sea stars in history. It continues to this day at low levels. This article explains theories behind what may be causing sea-star wasting disease. It’s not straightforward: marine.ucsc.edu/…

Quarry Cove also hosts Harbor Seals. Many were hauled out, enjoying a respite from the previous days’ storms.

Harbor Seals laze in sunshine. Artificial tidepools were constructed on the former quarry in 1996. By 2000, changes in ocean currents had deposited sand there, and soon a colony of Harbor Seals moved in. Nature never lets a new opportunity go to waste!

🐦‍⬛

Our final stop was Yaquina Bay Estuary Trail. Access is between the Oregon Coast Aquarium and the Hatfield Marine Science Center of Oregon (see Newport map, above). The flat, mostly paved trail follows along the estuary, where the fresh water of the Yaquina River mixes with salt water of the Pacific Ocean. Estuaries are important habitat, and this one is considered somewhat rare along the Pacific Coast for not being filled in or otherwise degraded: yachatsnews.com/...

Northern Pintails in flight — Northern Pintails fly over the Yaquina Bay Estuary at sunset on Wednesday. There were at least 100 in the estuary, far more than I’d ever seen at one site. High in the sky.

The Yaquina Bay Estuary is classified as a Drowned River Mouth Estuary. According to the Oregon Coastal Atlas (which describes all the estuaries on the Oregon Coast), such estuaries are formed by a rising sea. This one has an area of 4,329 acres and 253 square miles of watershed. Seems big, but that’s what the atlas says. www.coastalatlas.net/...

We went there on the hunt for a King Eider hen that Jeff and Ms. JG had seen the week before. The rafts of ducks we saw were distant, and daylight was running short, so we didn’t see the eider. However, we did see some good birds.

A Whimbrel struts its stuff. It soon had company (below). Whimbrel up close.

In addition to Northern Pintail Ducks and Whimbrels, we saw Black Brant Geese. Unfortunately the light was too poor for a photograph beyond ID. We returned briefly Thursday midmorning for a quick walk before the drive home, and one more try at seeing the King Eider hen. Almost immediately, two men with a scope aimed at a raft of ducks hailed me to ask if I’d seen it. They said someone had reported a sighting earlier that morning, but so far they’d had no luck. These were motivated souls; they’d driven from Burns that morning to see her. (Burns is in eastern Oregon, 258 miles away. I can’t imagine when they’d gotten up, or how fast they’d driven.) As they described it, the eider — a brown duck with a big bill in a sea of distant ducks — was reported several times that week. This was a time when a scope might have been useful.

Gull with dinner — A gull grabs dinner. With its pale iris, pink legs, white body and light-gray wings, I think this probably is an American Herring Gull. Or possibly, Iceland. The Oregon Coast Birding Trail Checklist classifies Herring and Iceland Gulls as “occasionally present,” and both were reported in Lincoln County in November on eBird. Photos I’ve seen of both gulls in non-breeding plumage show extensive streaking on the head, but this bird’s head is pure white. And if there’s a dot on its bill, it’s obscured. This photo also doesn’t show wing tips, which would have been helpful. Gull experts, please weigh in. Closer look.

I was happy to see the Black Brant Geese again. In sunlight, I got a recognizable snap:

Black Brants, Gulls — Black Brants are tucked between gulls. We were surprised to see them so far south this early in the season. The Oregon Coast Birding Trail Checklist classifies them as “rarely detected” in fall. This was another piece of good luck — and a good finish to our trip.

🐦‍⬛

Our visit to the stormy, sunny and very birdy central Oregon Coast refreshed our spirits. I hope this Dawn Chorus tour does that for you as well.

Btw, I’ll be out late the night before this runs, so I won’t be an early bird at hosting, but I’ll be here. Meanwhile, please carry on. What birds have you seen lately?

Dawn Chorus - Saturday before Turkey Day.

CaptBLI

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday December 01, 2024 · 6:00 AM PST

2024/12/01 · 06:00

I began last Saturday waiting for the Sun to rise over the lower Sardis Lake (Panola County, Mississippi). I had three layers of winter clothes to deter the 39 degree mist. Thank goodness there was no breeze piercing my skin. The camera held up just like a pro.

I will get to the wide variety of birds I saw that chilly morning, but first I’ll show you the last photo of my morning trek. A half mile from my house is a former cattle pasture turned into a sod farm. This was the scene as I passed the pasture. It seems everything was looking for a big meal this time of year.

funningforrest

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday November 24, 2024 · 6:00 AM PST

2024/11/24 · 06:00

Link to Colugo, or flying lemur, family Cynocephalidae.

Link to Petauridae; family of gliding possums (Sugar Glider).

[There are other links to these flying mammals besides Wikipedia of course, but the first one I tried INSISTED on giving me cookies, and I don’t like cookies in my computer so I seldom accept them.]

* * * * *

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Beluga whales are known for their white color and range of vocal sounds, earning them the title of "canary of the sea." They are very social animals, forming groups to hunt, migrate, and interact with each other.

Beluga whales are found globally throughout the Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. In the United States, they are found in the state of Alaska. They are at home along coastal bays and inlets and can move between salt and freshwater. A thick layer of fat, called blubber, and thick skin helps them live in the freezing waters of the arctic and subarctic environment. Belugas also lack a dorsal fin so that they can swim with ice.

But of course I’m not talking about a real whale; why would I do that in a science-type diary? And a diary, at that, that’s supposed to be about birds. Heh heh, stick around, I’ll make the connection.

See, I’m talking about the Herman Melville-Captain Ahab type of whale; the notorious and victorious-over-man whale, you know this whale, you love this whale, give it up for Moby Dick.

Like Ahab, I’ve got this hunting ~~and revenge obsession~~ bee-in-my-bonnet BURNING DESIRE for a photograph of not a whale, but a particular bird. [Connection made].

The Golden Eagle.

And I should be able to find it. I’m ~~right in the middle of~~ definitely within its year-round range. The junior college here in town even has this bird as its team name: the Golden Eagles.

From which college I have earned two Associate in Arts and one Associate in Science degrees. Those degrees, and five bucks or so these days, will almost pay for a cup of coffee.

Photo taken at the college Nov. 16, 2024

See the purple on the map below? Notice how it covers the “elbow” on the California-Nevada border? I live just slightly west of the elbow, very much in the purple. The purple is “year-round” range for the Golden Eagle.

There have been sightings. Just not by me. Yet.

From eBird; Golden Eagle sightings recorded in and nearby Quincy.

Lots and lots of blue pointers for the Golden Eagle right here around town and American Valley. Most recent one I noted was for March of this year, out by the wastewater treatment plant where I often go, and where I have seen and photographed numerous times the Bald Eagle.

I emphasize yet. Especially now that I have wheels that can get me farther afield than I’ve been previously able to since I moved into my current housing six years ago here in Quincy. So, like Ahab (but without all the religious connotations etc. etc. etc.) I believe I’m going to catch my Great White Whale, on camera, one of these days and I do hope also that unlike Ahab I don’t perish in the process, and furthermore than unlike Ishmael I don’t come floating home on a coffin-cum-life raft.

And there it is. What is your “white whale”, in other words which one particular bird is it that you have been looking for but just have never yet sighted and would leave you happy if you never sighted another new species beyond that as long as you could sight/photograph just that one? And be realistic; if the species that comes to your mind is one that would be in a location you’ll almost certainly never get to, don’t include that one. I’m talking about that one species you’ve been hunting and in the right places but just haven’t got lucky yet.

In the meantime, have some ducks, and if you’ve got your own photos of the Golden Eagle then do please share in the comments. Of course, share anything bird-wise or even nature-wise in the comments that you wish to.

Mallard, Ring-necked, Bufflehead, American Wigeon, Ruddy Duck, American Coot.

YouTube Video

A couple of less-than-great photos:

Western Meadowlark being camera-shy.

Snow Goose on the wastewater pond; couldn’t get it in the video.

I’ve got to toss in this photo of a Red-tailed Hawk I took a few days ago just because the bird was so close to the edge of the road and not bothered by me that I was able to get superb resolution. This photo is just barely cropped.

This is the first photo of the hawk; the tree is no more than ten yards away from the edge of the road where I’m straddling my bicycle to snap the shot. High school tennis courts in background. This is about one-tenth mile from my house.

*****

Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024

Looks like I’m not going to get any opportunities between now and when this publishes for any more bird photos. Weather forecast today is for rain/snow for the next seven days without break.

Yeah. Sigh. Thursday, Nov. 21 6:45 a.m.

White spots are reflections on rain from camera flash, not snow. No snow yet in Quincy.

Over in Chester, CA, about thirty miles from Quincy and a thousand feet up.

And rain, rain, rain it did.

YouTube Video

Saturday, Nov. 23.

YouTube Video

I made it out with a short weather window on Saturday afternoon. Cold, rain bursts, and very blustery. Nevertheless, it was good to get outside and go for a ride. Found some birds in the break.

You can just see the snow level at the line of the clouds.

Earlier that morning

Flooding across the bike path on the way out to Spanish Creek

Back to the afternoon.

Black-billed Magpie

Snow Goose

Red-tailed Hawk

One other little thing happened yesterday.

So for now, that’s it. What’s been up in your birding world?

Dawn Chorus: Windy nearshore seas in Pacific NW

OceanDiver

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday November 17, 2024 · 6:00 AM PST

2024/11/17 · 06:00

Winter is wind season in the Pacific Northwest. Many days are windy, which I consider anything over 15 knots. Sometimes we get big blows like yesterday when it was 30-40 knots, gusting higher. Birds are scarce in such conditions (though I did see a flock of Hooded mergansers and mallards in a sheltered pond). And sometimes it’s rainy as well as windy, at which times I’m scarce outside. But there are some days when it’s dry and not too windy, and those are fun times to watch what the birds are doing out in our nearshore waters. I’m including quite a few videos since they show the dynamic nature of the stormy seas best.

Nearest site with data showing speed/direction of wind throughout the year

All these photos and videos are from my walks over the past couple of weeks. I live in the San Juan Islands, in northwest Washington state, where the prevailing wind is from the ocean but our windstorms don’t necessarily blow from the west. In fact the majority of our strong wind blows from the southeast, diverted around the Olympic mountains and up Puget Sound. Any SE facing shoreline gets hit hard, as do west facing bays when it’s blowing directly down the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As it happens, I live on a peninsula with easy walking to bays facing various directions so I can choose where to go, whether into the teeth of the wind or in its lee. The birds are very savvy about the local geography and they make those choices too.

Above, red arrow shows why we get SE wind. Circled area is expanded in lower view. Below: three local bays where pics and video were taken . GoogleEarth

Birds tend to hang out in particular habitats as we know. So this diary won’t have any terrestrial birds (like kinglets) nor any open water birds (like alcids). However there are some kinds of birds who prefer shallow nearshore waters with lots of circulation, and they’re the ones we’ll see below.

October 31

Bay A

Moderate SE wind, overcast.

It was very strange seeing geese with waves crashing on them. But at least they were all facing into the wind.

YouTube Video

Buffleheads don’t flock as numerously in this bay as Bay B but there are always some there throughout winter

A small flock of Bonaparte’s gulls were fishing in the bay too. It’s rare to see Bonaparte’s so close to shore around here.

💨

November 1

Bay A

Moderate SE wind, lighter skies

The Bonaparte’s gulls were still around. They’d work their way across the bay and then back, swooping and snatching small fish and amphipods tossed up by the chop. This day there was a flock of a dozen or so Red breasted mergansers, as well as a few Glaucous-winged gulls, who are not so maneuverable as the Bonaparte’s in flight, but who lurk around in case a duck or gull drops something.

Bonaparte’s above, mergansers below — both fishing

Lone GW gull perches on rock, watching the action

YouTube Video

💨

November 4

This was a day of a very strong westerly blow, but sunny. Bay C was receiving big swells and waves straight on, given how long the fetch from the ocean down the Strait. Meanwhile Bay A was mostly in the lee of that blow, much quieter water.

Bay C:

In a bay where the sea is usually flat, waves were breaking on shore, spray was flying, and driftwood was getting tossed around. A few Mew gulls were foraging from the surface, facing into the wind so they could soar. Even so, often they were getting blown backward. I didn’t see it at the time but in the video there’s a bufflehead flapping hard to make any headway against the wind. Buffies are tough little ducks! A small flock was bobbing around in the surf.

Mew gull (Short-billed) over storm-muddied water

YouTube Video

Bay A:

The peninsula provides some barrier to the wind but in a really strong blow like this day’s, it can get choppy even in the lee, and wind waves kick up. Some buffies and a good size flock of RB mergansers were foraging. Surprisingly, there were also five American Wigeons amongst them! They were just riding out the storm. It was too deep for dabblers to feed there.

YouTube Video

💨

November 10

The SE wind was back, and Bay A was much rougher while Bay B was in the lee.

Bay A:

Rough water makes no difference to buffies, who were fishing and posturing. I noticed a Hoodie in the mix too. As usual, Mews and GW gulls loitered around them.

YouTube Video

Bay B:

It’s only a quarter mile across the neck of land between Bays A and B but the sea conditions are dramatically different when the wind blows. Fifteen minutes after watching those buffies bouncing around I was sitting comfortably by the beach watching a pair of Trumpeter swans grooming. The breeze ruffled their feathers but that was about it. Swans stay out of the wind.

This pair has been hanging around for the past week.

YouTube Video

💨

November 11

This day the wind was more southerly, which meant it wasn’t blowing directly into Bay A, making it a pretty nice refuge for a big flock of Red breasted mergansers. I counted about 80 (with 25 Buffies with them intermittently). They were all very actively fishing, mostly as a group. They’d dive almost simultaneously and then pop back up a minute or so later. This bay is shallow, maybe 10 feet where they are. I know they hunt in a coordinated way when I see them right by the shore, scaring up bottom fish, and they might be doing that in deeper water too. Even so, individual ducks were scuffling.

YouTube Video

These are all hens and juves from what I can tell. At least I’m not seeing any adult drake colors.

💨

November 16

Yesterday, as I mentioned earlier, we had a really big SE blow. I went out for my walk as usual but there were zero ducks in Bay A (and I didn’t venture any farther since branches were falling). For some comparison, this is the overlook where I took the earlier photos and videos of that bay. Too rough for us all! The birdies have found somewhere protected for now but they’ll be back.

Bay A overlook, waves crashing and spray flying.

The Dawn Chorus is now open for your birdy reports of the week.

Dawn Chorus: Lucking Into Rare, Uncommon and Just Plain Wonderful Birds in San Diego County

WordsandBirds

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday November 10, 2024 · 6:00 AM PST

2024/11/10 · 06:00

Tropical Kingbird — Who do you think you're lookin' at, huh?

Birding involves planning, but we all know it’s highly dependent on luck. In mid-October, Mr. WordsandBirds and I flew to San Diego for six days packed with visits and, wherever we went, birding hikes. I’d check eBird for the most promising hotspots and we’d set out with open eyes and ears. The best of luck greeted us, and surprise followed surprise.

San Diego County is a mecca for birds, with 527 species recorded across only 4,526 square miles. By comparison, the entire state of Washington, where we live, has fewer species, at 522, but has nearly 16 times as much space (71,362 square miles). Add San Diego County’s 70 miles of coastline and typically benign weather, and a birder enjoys good odds.

And good odds we found, both with rarities and regulars. For instance, on our way to a lunch meetup in San Diego, we had half an hour free. The slough I birded regularly when we lived there was closed, so we stopped at Mission Bay Park. On a Saturday, it was alive with music, barbecues and sports — but not birds. Nevertheless, we walked to the water and back. On our return, near the parking lot, a medium-sized bird perched atop a tall tree caught our eye.

Robins had appeared in large flocks in San Diego last year for the first time in about 50 years, but this bird looked pale. Binoculars weren’t helpful at this distance, so I took a photo and magnified it on the camera’s LCD screen. The image reminded me of BrownsBay’s shot earlier this year of a Tropical Kingbird he’d chased in Snohomish County. Later, I checked a few apps, and thought this was the large tyrant flycatcher who breeds in southern Arizona and the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, through Central America and as far south as Argentina. A Tropical Kingbird was first seen in San Diego County in 1962 and is classified on the county’s Bird Species Checklist as “D = Averages up to about ten records annually.” I’d thought we were that lucky, especially because an eBirder reported one in a mixed flock of Cassin’s and Western Kingbirds — at the golf course just to the north of where we’d seen it. However, as 2n10 and oldokie note, it’s actually a Say’s Phoebe. My photo was so distant that it was a bit blurry, and I hadn’t noticed that the bill wasn’t right. It made for an exciting few weeks, though!

🐦‍⬛

We stayed in Carlsbad. It’s equidistant from the people we were visiting and has the added advantage of being near three lagoons. On a free day, we took a tip from a couple on one trail and drove down the coast to San Elijo Lagoon, a 979-acre ecological reserve in Cardiff-by-the-Sea. (More info and map of San Diego’s lagoons can be found here: milesofcoast.com/...)

As we hit the main trail, a volunteer told us he’d seen a Tricolored Heron and a Ridgway’s Rail, and described where we might look for each. I’d seen Tricolored Herons decades before in Florida, so the prospect of one in California was exhilarating. The volunteer said he’d seen both an hour before, though, so we didn’t get our hopes up too high. However, we crossed the bridge and walked about 100 yards, and there was the Tricolored Heron. It was foraging near several Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets, who were scrappy with the outlier. The San Diego Birds Checklist classifies the Tricolored as “B = Averages up to about one record annually.” Yet on our way out, we saw a second one.

Ridgway’s Rail with silver leg band — Ridgway’s Rail (formerly known as Light-footed Clapper Rail) is about 14 inches long and has a slightly down-curved beak and short, upturned tail. This bird foraged below us, just under the high bridge.

On our way out, as we crossed the bridge, we looked down, and lo, there was the Ridgway’s Rail. The bird, which lives in saltwater marshes dominated by cordgrass and pickleweed, is protected as endangered by both California and the federal government due to habitat loss, pollutants, urbanization and exotic predators (All About Birds). It’s been recognized as endangered since formal listing began in 1969. As well, the IUCN Red List classifies it as Near-Threatened. It was “decimated as marshes were filled and degraded” (San Diego Bird Atlas). Ongoing threats are habitat degradation associated with hydrology modifications, pollution, sea-level rise and non-native invasive species. This rail can fly and swim but prefers to walk or run. It eats tadpoles, California killifish, California voles, beetles, snails, fiddler and hermit crabs, crayfish, isopods, other decapods, and some plants. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).

As we watched the second Tricolored Heron from the bridge, we met two friendly couples. One offered us free tickets to an annual San Diego Bird Alliance tour which, alas, was after our visit. We talked with the other couple for quite a while and exchanged email addresses.

Yet another local specialty came our way thanks to a list of 100 bird species that had been counted five weeks before our visit. I’d skimmed the names as we entered, and something about a sparrow I’d never heard of registered. Later, when a seemingly unremarkable sparrow perched near us, I photographed it, just in case. That evening, I posted my photos of it in Backyard Bird Racers, asking for confirmation or correction. 2n10 and laniusX thought it might be a Belding’s, and nookular posted a link to a David Sibley blog post showing how to distinguish a Belding’s from a regular Savannah Sparrow. Those details clinched it; Belding’s Savannah Sparrow. (I’m so grateful to the experts among us in the Dawn Chorus, The Daily Bucket and Backyard Birdracers!)

Here’s a brochure about the amazing San Elijo Lagoon. Those folks who’d recommended it to us sure were right.

https://www.sdparks.org/content/dam/sdparks/en/pdf/BrochuresMiscellaneous/2024_San Elijo_Brochure_Web.pdf

Belding’s Savannah Sparrow. Streaks on its breast are bolder, and its bill is thicker than a Savannah Sparrow’s.

🐦‍⬛

A fine as San Elijo was, my favorite lagoon was the first we visited, Carlsbad’s Batiquitos Lagoon, where 200 species of birds have been seen. The lagoon encompasses 561 acres of tidal wetlands, 80 percent of which is open water. What I especially liked is how the 1.6-mile trail (3.2 miles round-trip) winds along the shore and then through chaparral habitat, and the mix of shorebirds and passerines who make good use of it. A Red-shouldered Hawk cried out, and landed in a nearby tree. A California Scrub-jay flew by quickly, and Black Phoebes and Song Sparrows made themselves known. The lagoon is owned by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and is the beneficiary of the Batiquitos Lagoon Foundation’s volunteers. On our first visit, we struck up a conversation with one of them, who walked the rest of the trail with us as she checked work that had been done to remove invasive plants. Yay, volunteers!

This trail is near a train track and I-5, and the first part is quite noisy. Two weeks after we left, it grew far noisier, as construction began to replace an 80-year-old, single-track rail trestle with a mile-long, concrete double track that will enable trains to travel in both directions at once. Officials say the project also is designed to improve tidal flow for local wildlife. Construction is projected to last until 2028, pausing each year from April 15 to July 31 — the peak of nesting season for the endangered California Least Tern.

I liked this trail so much that we walked it twice on separate days. Endangered birds such as the Snowy Plover, California Least Tern and Ridgway’s (Clapper) Rail have been spotted there. For a full list of birds seen at the lagoon, click this link: irp.cdn-website.com/...

Here are just some of the birds we saw along the Batiquitos Lagoon Trail, which begins along the sandy shore:

A Long-billed Curlew forages next to a Black-bellied Plover.

After announcing its presence with an attention-getting scream while in flight, a Red-shouldered Hawk lands and poses nicely.

Red-tailed Hawk juvenile — A juvenile Red-tailed Hawk hunts on the ground in chaparral.

Snakeskin — The volunteer at Batiquitos noticed something oddly white near a hole in a stump near the ground, and was concerned it might be a piece of plastic. Mr. WordsandBirds dug into the dirt and brought the white thing out — and showed us that a snake had shed its skin.

🐦‍⬛

The next day, we drove east, up into the Cuyamaca Mountains, to visit old friends. Their son, who’s a fine birder, was there, and he pointed out the local birds (and adorable goats) as the five of us enjoyed a long walk. We saw some great birds.

Black Phoebe on log — Black Phoebe My business is none of your business!

Wild Turkeys say goodbye, and so did we.

🐦‍⬛

Late one afternoon, while returning from a visit in the city, we stopped at La Jolla Shores near sunset to see Brown Pelicans, as we had last year. We were disappointed to see they were very few. A lucky break came on our last afternoon, though. At Carlsbad’s Agua Hedionda Lagoon, we found hundreds of pelicans massing before sunset to roost. The 400-acre area actually is three interconnected lagoons, divided by the I-5 freeway and a railroad bridge. Info here: www.aguahedionda.org/...

This photo is the farthest to the left of the nine I shot. See the pelicans

We wondered what the pelicans were perched on. A little research revealed that there’s a lot going on at this lagoon. First, the birds were perched on equipment from an aquafarm that grew oysters and mussels. I found an explanation for the pelicans’ numbers in an article from CBS8 in 2021: “Pelicans are natural watchdogs here; they keep an eye out, and as the fish go to eat oysters, they swoop down” and eat the fish, thus protecting the oysters, said Matthew Steinke, the operations manager at the Carlsbad Aquafarm.The pelicans’ resulting waste is part of the fertilizer for the oysters. Oysters count on eating algae and plankton to grow.

More of the crew fly in to roost after sunset.

Agua Hedionda was the third lagoon we visited on our trip. These three are among the few remaining coastal wetlands on the southern portion of the West Coast. Regional studies have estimated that as much as 90 percent of the state’s wetlands have been lost; in Southern California, it’s as much as 85 percent.

Those are sobering statistics, so you deserve a humor break:

Western Gull about to steal goldfish crackers) — This Western Gull may appear to be looking down the beach, but it was surreptitiously checking out an item of interest on the unoccupied beach towel. The gull suddenly hopped over, snapped up the orange package and loped away. Profanity erupted from the distant owner of said package, and two young men in wet suits raced like track stars in pursuit. The gull lifted off, but one man leapt after it, his dive so strong that he rolled over from the momentum. Still, he was able to grab the package. Humans, 1; Gull, 0 (but unharmed); Goldfish Crackers, safe.

Brown Pelicans in flight at sunset — Pelicans fly off into the sunset, and so will this Dawn Chorus.

I hope you all can go birding in San Diego County. This is just a small portion of its avian riches. The area is heavily built up and crowded compared with when we lived there, but the many people we met were really nice and helpful. The urban pressures on birds, however, can seem overwhelming. So go when you can. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to try to answer them.

Thanks for reading! Now it’s time for your comments.

Dawn Chorus - A question about Sparrows

CaptBLI

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday November 03, 2024 · 6:00 AM PST

2024/11/03 · 06:00

LBBs (Little Brown Birds) trouble me. I had a case where I observed a species and was sure I’d made the correct identification. When I posted my results on line, a different conclusion was given by other birders. A synopsis of the exchange after the page break.

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