Tropical travels: a new twist to birding

I found myself seated across the aisle from two girls.  They appeared to be roughly my age.  Casting my eyes further up the aisle, I took in the rest of the occupants of the Boeing 767-400. The average age was about 40-50 but with many younger people scattered throughout.  Many were locals, on their way home. The majority were Americans, like the two girls next to me, on spring break and wanting to get away from the icy fingers of winter that had been gripping most of the lower 48 states.  The two girls next to me (I never did get their names) were spending a week going backpacking, zip-lining, camping and just having a totally awesome time during their first trip out of the country.   Looking at myself, I wasn't much different. Sure, my idea of a fun time differed slightly from theirs, but we were still going for very much the same reasons.

As the plane neared our destination,  we puzzled over the customs forms. What was this? and what did they want to know that for?  It took a while, but we managed to figure it out in the end.

The last hour of the flight seemed to drag out forever. At that point, we had been in the air for nearly 6 hours. Even with the layover in Miami, it still wore on us and seemed to tease us in a never ending battle of tensions.

Finally, after what seemed to be much longer than an hour, we landed, without mishap. Arriving at the terminal, I waved goodbye to my two traveling companions, wishing them a good week ahead. Would I ever see them again? probably not.

It was late at night, so passing through Customs and collecting my bags was a breeze.  While collecting my bags, I met two of the 13 other people I would be spending the week with.  They seemed to be a very pleasant pair.  After collecting our bags, we met our ride and hopped it straight to the hotel for some shut-eye.  Our hotel was the Hilton in downtown San Jose, Costa Rica.  Arriving, I dumped my bags, grabbed my laptop and set out to explore the darkened lobby area while trying to find the best internet signal.  I was far too excited to sleep just yet.  It's not every day that one finds oneself in the middle of a capital city in a foreign country with an amazing week of birding ahead!  

I finally dropped off to sleep around 1am. The 5:30 alarm came much too early.  But, excitement and anticipation hauled me out of bed and down to the restaurant for breakfast. There, I met the rest of the group of birders I would be spending the week with and our two intrepid leaders.
Dave and Mimi Wolf have been leading tours for Victor Emmanuel Nature Tours (VENT) since day one.  They had been leading the Short Costa Rica trip for nearly 30 years. It was definitely an amazing intro to birding in the tropics.  

You're probably asking yourself right now "how did he get to go on a VENT tour to Costa Rica??"
All I can say is a lot of patience, careful vigilance, and a LOT of luck.
I was sitting at the kitchen counter one day nearly a month ago when I caught the note, posted to the Iowa bird listserve. Apparently, Linda had booked the trip, already paid for it, and couldn't go. So rather than have the money go to waste, she asked for someone else to go in her place. First come, first served. All expenses paid.

Without further ado, I called Greg at the VENT office and booked the trip.   Less than a week later, I found myself where you found me. Sitting on a plane to Costa Rica, not even fully believing where I was.

Dave and Mimi were awesome trip leaders! Very efficient, highly knowledgeable and very patient with my endless shower of questions.  I could not recommend them more if you ever wanted to take a trip to Costa Rica.

Surprisingly, the trip participants were also all very nice people and for the most part, good birders.  It was a very good group and took the pace of the trip quite well.

Over the course of the week, I learned more about more species than I had ever learned about less than half that number in 10 years time.  If you want an introduction to birding the Tropics, I highly recommend going on the VENT short Costa Rica tour. It is well worth the cost even if it's only a week long.  

Ok, I know, you want me to get to the juicy parts. The actual birds we saw during the trip.
Very well, let me go get my checklist. It's impossible to remember all of the 260 some species we saw during the trip y'know..........

2010 IOS Gull Frolic

Gulls, gulls, gulls and more gulls.  That's what this past Sat (Feb 20th) was about.  It was the Illinois Ornithological Society's (IOS) annual Gull Frolic field trip.  This trip has been going on for quite a number of years and has changed over the years to become almost a one day Gull festival rather than a just field trip.  Complete with food, drinks, tons of people and even a speaker for the day, this is definitely one of the best Gull-watching events in the country. 

This year, the festivities had record attendance.  Mostly of people, but thousands of gulls also received the memo about the day and arrived right on schedule.   

There was no way to count the total number of gulls that covered the harbor and left little room for the ice. Estimates ranged anywhere from 6 to 10,000 birds.  

This year, gulls of seven different species were in attendance.  As always, Herring Gull was present in the highest numbers with Ring-billed being a close two.  It was difficult to say who was in third place though. Thayer's Gulls probably took that spot due to the 8-12 individuals that were flying around.  

Third place was Glaucous Gull at at least 5-7 individuals floating around the harbor. Iceland Gull was a close fourth though with at least 4 birds present.  Three Lesser Black-backed Gulls hovered around with at least two giving excellent looks.  Great Black-backed Gulls weren't quite as cooperative. The only individuals present coming only as close as the breakwater. 

Chumming was the order of the day.  Don't know what Chumming is?  That's why I'm here. 

Chumming is essentially baiting the birds to get them to come in closer and create a flock that helps draw in other birds.  The word comes from the Virginia Algonquin Indians from a word that they used for the practice of baiting fish.  It is done most effectively during pelagic trips where Popcorn, fish scraps, fish oil, blood and anything else edible is tossed into the wake of the boat where the ever hungry gulls come to get it. The feeding flock eventually attracts other opportunistic scavengers such as Petrels, Shearwaters and Albatross.  In this case, since we were inland and had no seabirds to attract, the bread we threw out served only to draw the birds closer for better photo ops and ID looks at birds such as this winter adult American Herring Gull: 

Iceland Gull was a favorite of the day, though no L.g. glaucoides subspecies could be identified out of the flock.  All of the individuals seen were the Larus glaucoides kumlien's subspecies like this 1st cycle "Kumlien's" Iceland Gull:

Glaucous Gull was easily one of the larger gulls to attend. This bird is easily distinguished from the Iceland above by it's very pale, bleached, almost white feathers, pinkish bill with a black tip and massive size.  These birds are almost as big as Great Black-backed Gulls, just to give you an idea of how big they are. 

This guy was also a bit of a bully: 

This Lesser Black-backed Gull was highly cooperative and gave me a chance to get some decent shots for once.  Lesser Black-backed is a relatively easy gull to identify. The darker back, streaked head (though lightly on this bird) Herring Gull sized bill and distinctly yellow legs make this gull stand out quite well in a flock: 

Thayer's Gulls are not quite as obvious at first.  The adults of this species look almost exactly like adult Herring Gulls but with a few differences.  The bird below is a classic adult Thayer's Gull.  

Lack of black on the primaries, heavily streaked head, smaller bill and head, almost "daintier" structure, dark eye, etc. 

As I noted above, Thayer's Gulls can be quite tricky to ID.  Here is one such example.  

The bird below is a Thayer's Gull (Larus thayerii).  In naming some of the field marks of the bird above, I named the dark eye as one of the primary ones.  The dark eye can be quite useful in picking out adult Thayer's Gulls out of a flock. However, the bird below is proof that this ID mark is not always reliable. 

This Thayer's Gull has a yellow eye.  Every other ID mark fits, except the eye.  Although, the bill is slightly more yellowish as well. Also note that the inner webs of the primaries are darker black than you'd normally expect and there is little streaking on the head. Sometimes makes me wonder if these birds are actually hybrids with Herring Gull or not.  At any rate, the current accepted ID for these birds is and remains Thayer's. 

Anywho, I will be dealing with more details of Gull identification in a later post.   My next post will be my favorite photos from the day and then my Gull ID post so watch for that soon!

The Gull frolic was an awesome experience and if you haven't been, I would highly recommend attending at least once, if not multiple times.  It's always on the same weekend every year so mark your calendars!!
Many thanks go out to the members of the IOS Gull Frolic committee who went to great lengths to organize this year's festivities and entice Gull expert Alvaro Jaramillo to come all the way from his home in Half Moon Bay, California to the icy Midwest to give his excellent presentation on Slaty-backed Gull ID (which I will partly touch on in my gull ID post and in the next post as well.)

So til next time,
Happy Birding!

Sax-zim Bog Winter Birding Festival

Sax-zim Bog.  

No, the name is not Norwegian for "Frozen toes."  Though, to some it may bring thoughts of icy Minnesota cold and deep snow. To quote long time Minnesotan and humorist Al Batt "The Mercury dropped so fast it bent the nail that held the thermometer."   But even though it can be cold sometimes, the bog is one of the best and most famous birding spots in the country. 

To birders, the name brings thoughts of Owls, Boreal Finches, Chickadees and Woodpeckers, Sharp-tailed, Ruffed and Spruce Grouse and the easternmost place to find breeding Black-billed Magpie.   

Owls, especially Great Gray and this Northern Hawk-Owl, are what draws the most people:

Sax-zim Bog is just that. A bog. More precisely, it's a Black Spruce/Tamarack bog.  

The Bog is located about an hour's drive northwest of Duluth, Minnesota between the two almost non-existent towns of Sax and Zim, just north of the town of Meadowlands.   

It's a vast place. Acres upon acres of endless trees interspersed with open fields and small clearings.  

This year's Sax-zim Bog Birding festival took place on Valentines day weekend.   

If you're a birder without a girlfriend, what better way could you possibly spend a weekend?  

Especially with awesome birds around like this Pine Grosbeak that are already suited up for the occasion:

This year's festival was excellent. Very well run. Everyone seemed to have an awesome time and, for the most part, got to see what they wanted.   Due to the slow year, there was a distinct lack of boreal birds including many finches,  and most notably, Great Gray Owls.   Out of roughly 200 people (both with the festival and separate) not a single person was able to find a Great Gray Owl during the festival. I guess the food must be good up north. 

Many of the favorites still graced our presence though.  Redpolls, though much less common this year from last year were still a conspicuous sight around the bog.  This highly cooperative bird posed quite nicely for the camera: 

While Redpolls and other finches (especially Siskins) were present in fair numbers, other species were either present in small numbers or nonexistent.  Not a single Black-billed Magpie was found and only a few Northern Shrikes.  Gray Jays also seemed to be fewer than last year as well as the Chickadee population. Despite this the old favorites still showed up on time.  This beautiful Boreal Chickadee gave us spectacular looks, posing here and there, just being the star of the show: 

On Valentines Day, I lead a field trip to Minnesota's famous Aitkin County.   The primary goal of the trip was Sharp-tailed Grouse on a Lek. Arriving at the location at sunrise, we spotted roughly a dozen Sharp-tailed Grouse already on site.  Unfortunately, the moment we tried to hop off the bus, they all flushed and refused to return.  Admitting defeat, we headed onwards.  The rest of the day was composed of two Northern Goshawks, a few finches, a couple Gray Jays and lots of clouds and wind.  

Since no Evening Grosbeaks could be found in the bog, we opted to stop by Kim Risen's feeders for a bit to try to find some. We were not disappointed.  In all, 14 birds eventually came down to the feeders including this beautiful adult male: 

The festival ended with the trip returning to the festival headquarters in Meadowlands.  
A fun time was had by all in one of the best winter birding spots in the country. Even though some of the birds appeared to have missed the invitation.  

Many thanks to Mike Hendrickson and the rest of the festival committee for all their hard work and long hours making everything work.
Thanks also to the festival speakers, Kim Risen and Al Batt for their excellent presentations.  
The festival would not have been the same without Al's quick wit and great jokes.

It was another great weekend in Northern Minnesota!
Mark your calendars for Valentines Day weekend 2011!  Hope to see some of you there next year, attending this great festival that is without a doubt, the best winter birding festival for boreal species in the country!  

Til next time,
Happy Birding!

Michael Jackson, Moonwalking and Red-capped Manakins

How many of you have heard of Michael Jackson? I thought so.
How many have seen his "Moonwalk" move? I thought so too.

But, how many of you have heard of the little bird that does it too? Some? not all.
That's ok. I expected that.

Well here you go:

Red-capped Manakin (Pipra mentalis) is a bird of the Central and South American rainforests in the family Pipridae. It is found in Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru. 

There are four species of Manakins that are black with red heads, but none of them have a display like the Red-capped does.  It is the only bird in the world known to do the "Moonwalk" move that Michael Jackson made so famous. 

Dr. Kim Bostwick explains more about these tiny, tropical dancers: 

If you haven't been down to Central or South America to see these little guys, I would highly recommend it. They are definitely one of the top 1000 birds to see before you die.

What are the other 999 species you ask? Gunnar Engblom of Kolibri Expeditions is compiling a list of just that. 1000 birds to see before you die.

Another species of Manakin you may have heard about is Club-winged Manakin.

This species has a slightly different display. They use their modified secondary feathers to produce a violin-like "chup-tseeeeep" sound to attract mates. Studies of this species by Cornell's Dr Kim Bostwickhave shown that they vibrate their wings at 1500hz which is exactly the same frequency as the sound

More on these Manakins from Cornell, via Nat Geo:

In all, Manakins are amazing little birds and some of the flashiest in the rainforest.
They're practically "jumping to be noticed."

On my upcoming trip to Peru this fall, I will hopefully see a few species of Manakins. Red-capped being high on the list of Manakins to see. Till next time, Happy Birding!

Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Is the latest report true? or a poorly fabricated hoax?

Ivory-billed Woodpecker by J.J. Audubon.

If you haven't seen it yet, the latest sighting report of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker has come in a most interesting form.  The following post, on an obscure website, came just a couple days ago:
http://www.free-press-release.com/news-daniel-rainsong-finds-living-ivory-billed-woodpecker-1263914173.html

The hopeful people tried to give it some leeway at first. Even a secondary post on the author's website tried to validate the sighting:  http://www.joehepperle.com/Joe/Opinion/Ibw.htm
However, a simple google search will reveal all.
So who are some of these people?  The answers are below:

First, who is Joe Hepprle?  He's some guy from Iowa who posts totally random, unrelated stuff on his website: http://www.joehepperle.com/Index.html  A Google search will tell you more about him.

Who is Daniel Rainsong?   A google search reveals that too. He's a gambler. Known as "The Wizard of Odds."   Does he have any reputation in the birding world? Absolutely not.  Does anyone know him outside the gambling world? nope.  Can anyone other than Joe vouch for his skill in differentiating between an Ivory-bill and a Pileated? NO!   He has no known record in the birding community. No blog posts, no photographs,  he doesn't post on any listserve anywhere in the country, he's not known in outdoorsman/hunting circles, NADA!

Another person mentioned is Rita Goldstein.  The only Rita Goldstein who comes up on google is a neuro-imaging scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

What is Project Indigo?  Who knows whether they have named their own (probably faked) search Project Indigo or not, but, the real Project Indigo is a program to provide a home for homeless children.

So what does Daniel Rainsong know about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker? Apparently just enough to know that it's an ecological mystery as to whether they exist or not.
The Twin Cities Naturalist came up with some interesting info here: http://www.twincitiesnaturalist.com/2010/01/daniel-rainsongs-craiglist-ad-about.html 

Radd Icenoggle's blog post is hopeful, but full of skepticism:
http://www.radleyice.com/2010/01/ivory-billed-woodpecker-or-bust/
You can read my comment on his post.

Here's another question? Does Daniel Rainsong actually exist? Apparently so.  The following excellent compilation was posted to Facebook by Matt Medenhall of Birder's World Magazine. Apparently, Dr. Remsen said that Mr Rainsong had talked to him but did not have the photos ready to show him:

At the risk of giving credibility to a possible hoax, here's what we know about the latest report of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker sighting. 

If Daniel Rainsong has photos of a living Ivory-billed Woodpecker, as this press release claims, he has not yet shown them to two leading Ivory-bill experts.

Van Remsen, curator of birds at Louisiana State University's Museum of Natural Science and an adjunct professor of biological sciences at LSU, told me today that Rainsong visited him in Baton Rouge, "but he would not show me his photographic evidence. He said he had to develop them."

The comment suggested that Rainsong used a film camera. "I'll believe it when I see it," Remsen added. "I won't comment until I see the evidence."

Jerry Jackson, a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University and a co-author of the 2007 Draft Recovery Plan for the Ivory-bill, told me yesterday that he hadn't heard of Rainsong or seen his photos.

"I look forward to seeing them, but his approach already has me wondering," he said. "This seems to be the standard 'IB obsession' approach, similar to the last report we got with photos, which were of a Photoshopped Pileated."

Remsen and Jackson are among the handful of ornithologists who are regularly called upon to evaluate possible Ivory-bill sightings.

Remsen is a member of the American Ornithologists' Union's Committees on Classification and Nomenclature for North America and South America. Jackson wrote the account on the Ivory-bill (No. 711) in the Birds of North America reference series, and he is the author of In Search of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker (Smithsonian Books, 2004). Following a search for Ivory-bills in 2002, Jackson wrote "The Truth Is Out There" for the June 2002 issue of Birder's World.

Bloggers in the birding community have been skeptical of Rainsong's claims.

Cyberthrush, the author of Ivory-bills Live, says he places "NO conceivable credibility whatsoever in this story/report. NADA... ZIPPO... ZILCH!!!!!! (hope I'm making myself clear)."

Radd Icenoggle, author of Birds in Place: A Habitat-based Field Guide to Birds of the Northern Rockies (Far Country Press, 2003), notes that Rainsong "has, rather strangely, not released the images citing some obscure 'right of discovery.' Does he intend to patent the damn bird?"

Icenoggle and others have noted that Rainsong's name appears on a lot of gambling websites. Googling his name also turned up bits of an ad that has since been deleted from Craigslist having to do with a "wildlife research expedition." Kudos to Kirk Mona at Twin Cities Naturalist for piecing together most of the ad.

The ad refers to a $10,000 reward, supposedly for finding Ivory-bills. I'm not aware of a $10,000 reward, but the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has posted a reward that would pay $50,000 to anyone who could provide "video, photographic, or other compelling information and lead a project scientist to a living wild Ivory-billed Woodpecker." (Thanks Mike Duchek for the tip!)

"Obviously he's a long way from that," Remsen said. --Matt Mendenhall, Associate Editor

(if you're on Facebook, the link is here )

So here's the deal:

• Two people whom nobody has ever heard of.
  
• A press release on an obscure website claiming that someone got identifiable photos of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in an area that was surely searched during Cornell's study a couple years back.
  
• No photos have been posted as of yet. IF they even exist.
  
• Google searches of names of the people involved links them to everything BUT birding.
  
• Both Jerry Jackson and Dr. Remsen have said that they have not at this time seen ANY photos at all.
  
• Dr. Jackson said that he had never heard of Daniel Rainsong.
  
• We have an ad, supposedly written by Mr Rainsong, indicates something about a $10,000 reward for leading an Ornithologist to a live IBWO.  Apparently Dr. Remsen said he had heard something about a reward like that but didn't know the details.
  
• Cornell has, and is offering a $50,000 reward to any person who can provide conclusive and undeniable proof (video or photographic) that at least one Ivory-bill still exists, and/or lead a project scientist to a living Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
  

So what are we left with??  This whole thing smells fishier than a barrel of Sardines.

If this is a hoax, why would someone go through all this trouble to make sure all his facts were straight (and they are, I checked.) to post this obviously poorly fabricated story?   It's a story that any birder who knows anything about the search for the Ivory-bill could see through without even looking!

But, if this really is true and not a hoax, then why all the secrecy??
Where are the photos?  Why have the leading experts mentioned in the press release denied any knowledge of photos?  Why has nobody ever heard of either person before?

Why haven't Sibley, Kaufman, Ted Floyd, Jon Dunn and other prominent birders been notified, and/or why were they not mentioned in the list of people that they were supposedly going to show the photos to??


If this story really is true, there are a few things that would have to happen before I would even think about trusting either of these people:

#1. I want to see the photos.  They should be crystal clear, incontestable, undeniable and conclusive.
They also better be of a bird in flight! A bird sitting on a tree is far too simple to easily fake.

#2. I want the backing of Dr. Remsen, Dr. Jackson, Kenn Kaufman, David Sibley AND Cornell on this.

#3. I want to know all the details on this supposed search and discovery and why all the secrecy. It's not like anyone is going to claim they found it when it's obvious who did?  right?  Geez.

Maybe all that gambling has made him paranoid. lol