One of our field sites in the suburbs
If you have been following my blog this summer, you may have noticed that in one of my last posts I said I was finishing my field season in July. Well, as it happens I’m still here (job was extended)! And if you haven’t been following, I have been working on a project in Columbus, Ohio, studying nesting birds in urban yards. It has been a really unique experience compared to past field jobs that I have worked. It has also been a really awesome experience and I have learned a lot. Seventeen years ago, I first started watching birds in my own backyard and a spark ignited. And now here I am again, this time fully immersed in backyard biology and studying the complex interactions happening literally right outside of our doors. It definitely is a different experience, going from simply watching birds to following birds, chronicling their breeding lives for an entire summer and of course, witnessing all the drama unfold!
Juvenile robin
It is also an altogether different experience when you go from wandering the great outdoors to stepping within a white picket fence to count cardinals. It hasn’t always been easy (barking dogs, patches of urban poison ivy, trying NOT to lead all the roaming house cats to where nests are, etc) but urban research definitely has its merits too! Here are some of the benefits I experienced while working in the “urban jungle”:
1. Great people. I’ve met a lot of neat folks who have been earnestly interested in the birds in their yards and have wanted to know more about the research being done. One of my favorite moments was when a retired lady offered me iced tea while my water bottle was running low on a sunny 90 degree day — just what I needed. We also had a couple offer me and the other researchers each a pint of blueberries. And they even let me borrow a pencil when I lost mine in the field. It was always nice knowing that even though most days I’d be out collecting data by myself, I would never really be alone. I would always be working in areas surrounded by houses and people, and sure enough there were plenty of nice retired folks who liked to share stories and blueberries.
An alley at our most urban field site
2. City living. In past jobs I have lived in areas I feel comfortable calling “the middle of nowhere.” These were such places where the hotspot of the town was the local Wal-mart, which may have come equipped with a hitching post for your horses. Living in Columbus has been a different story. Of course they have Wal-marts here too, but they also have Whole Foods and Target and all the other modern-day conveniences I could ever ask for. Columbus also happens to have the best selection of ice cream shops I have ever encountered. I highly recommend Jeni’s if you’re ever in town.
3. Internet everywhere. This does not come standard with most field jobs. But here, there have even been a couple of field sites where my iPod picked up a wi-fi signal and I could check the weather. I hear most peope have phones that do this now though… Well, along that line, I never had to worry about reception for my cell phone either. That’s another thing that doesn’t necessarily come standard with field jobs!
4. Quick commute. Since we lived in the city, we never had to drive more than 30 minutes to get to our urban field sites. The down-side to that is, of course, sometimes we’d hit some minor traffic around the giant, crazy freeway loop. But ah well, due to the short commute, at least I can say I never had to get up before 5am this summer. Last year and the year before that, we had some pretty early mornings, maybe even 4am at the earliest.
American Snout Butterfly
Well, all in all, working as a researcher in the urban landscape proved to be a little different, but definitely fun and fascinating. I don’t want to forget to point out that although we have been basically working in yards and gardens (so very far from the scenic wild lands in nature documentaries), that hasn’t stopped me from stumbling upon all kinds of neat natural wonders and interactions. There may be a lot more wildlife happenings right in your own neighborhood than you’ll ever know!
It’s August, but the Cardinals aren’t done nesting yet. Here’s a baby bird who just fledged (left the nest) last week. His or her parents have now had 3 successful nests this year! All nests were built in yards in a residential area near the Ohio State University campus.
Northern Cardinal fledgling
Check out these two innovative ways how urban birds use basketballs hoops!
look closer..
American Robin nest
This pair of Robins shown in the pictures successfully raised their brood by nesting on this basketball hoop. They decided that they liked the nest location so much that they would try the same place for clutch #2 and again they were successful! It seemed so out in the open, you’d think they’d be a prime target for predators like hawks and crows that use visual cues to find food. But maybe “check the basketball hoop” isn’t part of the typical avian predator’s search pattern.
American Goldfinch female collects nesting material
I’ve been spotting more and more goldfinches acting “nesty” lately! The American Goldfinch’s prime time for breeding is July & August, while many other breeding birds are just wrapping up their season. Goldfinches like the female shown above, just love super soft materials. Many people will put out balls of cotton to lure these lemony yellow birds into their yards. But without cotton balls, these crafty birds will be sure to find their own sources of fiber.
Goldfinches really like soft, cottony textured materials for their nests
Robin nestling
Amazingly, I’ve now made it through three quarters of the field season here in Ohio! Just three weeks to go now, and then I will be making the long, hot (no A/C) drive back to Wisconsin. As my time here winds down, I am seeing that the bird activity has already begun to slow down. The birds seem to be focusing their energy a little more on foraging and a little bit on molting, and a little less on reproduction. Our main focal species, the Northern Cardinal, may continue to nest build and lay up through October, but our secondary species the American Robin starts to call it quits around July.
With the project that I am working on, we are interested in monitoring these nests and paying attention to how many young are produced and whether or not they survive to the point where they’re able to leave the nest behind. It’s not too surprising to learn that most baby birds do not make it. An egg is a nutritious, tasty meal for all kinds of predators, from squirrels to snakes, raccoons, and even other birds. Then once hatched, the nestling has about a week (for a Cardinal) or two weeks (for Robins) to undergo a tremendous growth spurt, going from a tiny pink fleshy blob to being fully-feathered and fit for flight. During that week or two, mom spends less time sitting on them and more time searching for insects to stuff into their gaping mouths. The movements of the parents and the noisy begging calls of the nestlings make them an easy target for observant hawks and cats. When disaster strikes, the nest is left behind, and the parents strike out and start anew. And try, try again, they will. It’s pretty inspirational seeing birds working as hard as they do during the breeding season. I wish I could borrow some of their persistence and motivation and get some more things accomplished myself! But if I borrowed their standards that probably would mean I’d have at least five kids by now. So I guess I’ll leave that part for the birds and sit back and continue enjoying the natural world from an observational perspective.
This summer has been quite interesting since I have spent so much time observing birds during breeding season, which I have never really done before. I feel like I have learned a lot and gained an eye for what we wildlife scientists call “nesty” behaviors (a technical term). Since we must monitor nests, we must first find them, which is not always an easy task. Birds typically try to be sneaky about this kind of thing, but since we are only monitoring birds in yards, there aren’t always a heck of a lot of options. So we search everywhere, but specifically places like shrubs and trees with dense foliage and sometimes the random fencepost, which was the location of the nest in the photo shown above. My favorite way to find birds nests is to watch them build. Usually I key on pairs that are especially active together. With cardinals, the female often chips a lot while she’s building and the male will follow her around, watching closely and guarding his mate. If you get too close, the female might fly away with a twig to lead you astray but then later return to her chosen nest location. The female may take a day or more to finish building, then leave the nest empty for awhile before laying.
Today I watched a female cardinal building her fifth construction of the year. She had two nests that she had never finished building and two other full-term nests that yielded a total three (or possibly four) fledglings. Her older fledgling is fully grown and off on his/her own, her mate is busy feeding the two fledglings just out of the nest and here it goes again! There are at least five outdoor cats that live on this side of the block and there’s a Cooper’s Hawk that makes its home just in the forest bordering their territory. The odds are stacked against them, but we shall see what happens next. Except I might not get to see it myself since I’ll be flying the coop as well in less time than it takes a Cardinal to raise a single brood.
More nests ahead…
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- Cardinal nest
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- Cardinal eggs
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- Cardinal eggs
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- cardinal nest
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- cardinal nest
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- Gray Catbird nestlings
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- Robin nestling
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- Cardinal nest with nestlings and egg
I was pretty satisfied with my May 1st birding expedition but as soon as my next day off rolled around on May 7th, I was back and ready to see more migrants. This time a couple other people from my job and I headed North to Magee Marsh along Lake Erie. It turns out that the marsh is an excellent spot to see migratory birds since it’s their last chance to fuel up before flying non-stop for 50 miles or so across the Great Lake. It also happens to be home to the “Biggest Week in American Birding” bird festival. The “Biggest Week” involves lots of activities, talks, and bird walks for birders of all ages and skill-levels and it actually goes on for 10 days rather than just a week. There are a lot of other similar birding festivals going on in May and these events attract people from all over the country and even some international birders. Of course you do have to pay a registration fee to get in on all the official bird tours and talks, but there are no entrance fees at the parks. I was just there to see the birds anyway so that should always be free! 
So on Sunday we all planned to meet somewhere at the Marsh around 6am. That was a tad early for me, so I got there closer to 6:30am. It was just a little after dawn and there were only a few others in the parking lot setting up their humongous high-powered cameras and spotting scopes. This is what the boardwalk looked like when I got there:
Aaand.. this is what it looked like 6 hours later:
The place was packed! The boardwalk trail through the marsh was maybe a one mile-loop more or less and it was filled to the brim with hundreds of birders. Possibly even more birders than birds? Well, maybe, maybe not. The warbler action was definitely in full effect and there were lots of people shouting out sightings and pointing. I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything quite like it, but I think this might be pretty typical for high-profile birding festivals, especially on the weekends.
Although the crowds of people thing tends to detract from the whole “being one with nature” aspect in my mind, it does make me appreciate the fact that there are so many people who are so enthusiastic about seeing the birds. I think I got the same appreciation in return when the older gray-haired folks looked fondly at me and my similar-aged companions as they tried to figure out what exactly we were doing there. I was asked once if I was there for school and another time asked if my parents were birders, the only logical explanations to why I wasn’t sleeping in or drowning out the outside world with a pair of headphones I suppose. My response, a simple “no,” was apparently dumbfounding to others! I just like birds a lot, and I know I’m not the only young birder out there. So, yeah, best clear the boardwalk for us and make way for the next generation!
Yes, anyway, as I was saying… BIRDS…
Yellow-rumped Warbler
This female Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler above was a common sight at Magee Marsh. The most abundant migrant by far. We also had plenty of Parulas, Tennessees, Magnolias, and Nashvilles. I had my first Orange-crowned Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, and Prothonotary Warbler of the season. I was especially excited about the Prothonotary and I think many would agree that they are especially striking. They breed in Ohio and several will probably stick around at Magee Marsh for the rest of the summer. I’m not sure if that means they have lost some of their luster with Ohioans or not, but I was pretty happy. Prothonotaries barely make it into Southern Wisconsin and this was actually only my second time seeing one so I made sure to snap lots of photos.
Prothonotary Warbler
See what I mean? That’s a good-looking little yellow bird. The other stand-out bird of the day actually was not a migrant, it was a resident although rarely seen, Eastern Screech-Owl.
Eastern Screech-Owl
I feel like I probably never would have seen him if it hadn’t been for a kind stranger who had his scope set on the bird and was pointing it out for all to see. As you can see, Screech-Owls are pretty good at concealing themselves in the daytime. Here’s another picture that I took with my iPod camera focused on the view from the spotting scope:
Eastern Screech-Owl
It was definitely a great day and I’m glad I made it out to Magee Marsh. As for the rest of May, I settled back into my busy work schedule, but made sure to spend a little time with the remaining migrants whenever I found them. For my work, I have been studying breeding birds in urban neighborhoods. The neighborhoods are clearly not the best places to see the greatest diversity of birds, but it doesn’t mean that migrants aren’t there! Here are a few migrants that stopped by while I was working:
Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Well, Isuppose that wraps up May and migration! The warblers have all moved on to their breeding territories now. Some have stuck around though, like the Yellow-throated Warbler, which I have continued to hear singing in and around Columbus since they breed here. I think I’ll stick around here for awhile too, at least until August when it comes time to migrate again.
It is now the end of May and the thrill of peak “Warbler season” has passed. The lovely buzzes, trills & flute-like songs of migrants from high aloft in the canopy have gradually faded and we are now simply left with the old familiar sounds of our loyal breeding birds. But let’s go back to May 1 for a moment!
May 1st was an amazing day for migration here at my temporary home in Columbus, Ohio. It also happened to be a Sunday and I had the day off from my also-bird-related job. I didn’t know quite what to expect, but migration had been quietly picking up speed during the past week. I made the short trip to Blendon Woods Metro Park and was amazed to find 20 species of Warblers along with the colorful splashes of male Baltimore Oriole, Indigo Bunting, Rose-breasted Grosbeak & Scarlet Tanager. It was 11am, possibly getting in the range of “late” to be out birding, but the migrants didn’t care. They had been flying throughout the night and needed to replenish their energy stores. Warblers during migration will continue to feast all day long once they have found a spot to land that has plentiful enough resources. Birders, as well, will continue to bird all day long as long as the warblers are there to amuse them. And birders I did find. Along the path, everyone was on a mission to see their first-of-the-year birds.
To explain further for non-birders, birders like to write lists and many are not content with just one list of “birds I have seen.” And so it becomes “birds I have seen in 2011″ and “birds I have seen in Franklin County” and “birds I have seen in North America in January” etc. For me, I do like having a list of birds that I have seen but it can sometimes be a stretch for me to take that a step further. Still, it is something quite special to see the birds that are only here for just a tiny portion of the year, and if you don’t look now you might miss them. And even better, in spring migration you get to see them in all their glory when they have their brightest plumage and are full of song. And so it becomes a joy for birders to discuss how many “first-of-the-year” birds they got in one day! I had several on May 1, 2011 though I didn’t keep quite a perfect tally.
American Redstart, Blendon Woods Metro Park
Birders also of course flock to the specialness of seeing a “life-bird,” the first ever sighting of a bird species. And what makes it all the more fantastic if the “lifer” is also a rare species. My current life list stands at 452 species, though I only started a comprehensive list since taking Ornithology class my junior year of college. Anyway, the most recent addition to my list took place right here in Columbus during spring migration. Typically, I’m not one to make specific trips to see specific birds or receive rare bird alerts directly to my cell phone, but this was maybe a little different since I love warblers. And so on May 4th, a rare Kirtland’s Warbler was spotted a mere 2 and a half miles from where I live. For some back story, numbers for this bird are around 5,000, and its conservation status is currently listed as “near threatened,” as the bird has made some recovery since its “endangered” listing in the 1970s. No matter the amount of recovery though, this bird will always be relatively rare since its breeding habitat in the USA is so small and specific (for more info: check out All About Birds).
Life Bird: Kirtland's Warbler
And that’s how I saw my first Kirtland’s Warbler, at 7pm, nowhere else but foraging in a lawn with 3 trees, next to busy Columbus traffic. Strange place to see a rare bird, but not entirely out of place for Kirtland’s to be in the Columbus-area during migration since they typically breed in Michigan.
So, that was my first week of May in Ohio! Not too bad. But not done with migration yet, so I’ll have to make this a two-parted entry. So, I’ll leave you this Migration blog entry with the mnemonic for the song of a common migrant, the Blue-headed Vireo: See you, be seeing you, so long!
Spring is now in full bloom here in the Midwest, and with the advent of spring 2011 comes a new field season for wandering biologists like myself. This year, I have temporarily relocated to Columbus, Ohio to work on an urban bird study with the Ohio State University. I have been meaning to post about it for awhile, but have been pretty busy with work plus the excitement of spring migration.
Now that I have finally sat down to type a bit about my work here, it is a little overwhelming since so much has happened! Let me just explain a little bit about what I’m doing here. We are monitoring birds (specifically American Robins, Northern Cardinals & Gray Catbirds) that are nesting in urban neighborhoods, with the permission of the kind homeowners who are allowing us to use their yards. The hardest part of nest monitoring can be finding the nests to begin with. Once in awhile though, we get lucky and it’s pretty easy. Either a robin is building a nest above someone’s porchlight, or a participating homeowner steps outside and lets us know that they have found the nest themselves. In one case, a robin had been building right inside of a child’s playhouse.
Robin nest
It is definitely a different kind of field job than ones that I have had in the past. It is a lot less dangerous in some regards (no ticks or poison ivy or military practices to avoid, no venomous snakes or wolves to be wary of) but it’s not without its own risks, like… rusty nails lurking in old wooden gates! Slippery steps! Traffic! And uh… sometimes Robins dive-bomb at my face when I interrupt them on the nest. OK, so I’m not in that great of danger really. The urban habitat may actually pose a much greater risk for the birds than for me. First off, and another thing I haven’t dealt with in field jobs before, there are house cats and strays absolutely everywhere. I like cats and when I’m working on my own, sure, they provide nice company. But, I don’t exactly want a furry little predator following me around when we’re either trying to band birds or searching for nests and fledglings. Of course, the cats will be gobbling up baby birds all summer long without us even being there, we just don’t want to be the ones influencing that predation in any way, so we have to be pretty careful. I’ll stand around for awhile and the cats will usually get bored and wander off to stalk something.
At one of our study sites, an outdoor house cat watches potential prey in a yard with a dozen or more birdfeeders
Other predators that we have to be watchful of are hawks, crows, Blue Jays, and raccoons, which are all over urban areas just waiting to chomp on eggs and baby birds. It’s not easy to raise a clutch in the bird world, but it never has been no matter where you go. The mortality rate for birds in their first year of life is incredibly high and it’s highest at the very earliest stages of life. Nest building songbirds, such as our focal species, make up for this by being incredibly persistent. If one nest fails, they will immediately start rebuilding a new nest in a different location. And once their young take flight and leave the nest, it may not take very long for the adult pair to start up with their next nest, especially if one parent takes on all the feeding duties.
So far in our season, we’ve seen lots of nest failures, but a few have birds have already squeaked out some fledglings! The cats might snag some of the fledges, but I’m sure a few will make it!
Here’s a little peek at the life cycle of a Cardinal nest:
Cardinal nest with two eggs, seems to be a fairly typical clutch size for this species.
Cardinal nestlings getting big! Just a few days away from fledging (leaving the nest)
Cardinal Fledgling! Free from the nest and can make short flights, but a little clumsy still. He or she will still depend on mom and dad for food for some time.
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
Being jobless and out of school at the moment, the whole month of March has actually been somewhat of a spring break for me. But the weather here in Wisconsin is still hovering around freezing, so I think all of us get a little anxious for spring. Luckily, I was able to escape the wind and snow for a warmer climate in Fort Myers, Florida. Famous for its spring break beach parties, Fort Myers also happens to be nearby some very well-known wildlife preserves! Those who know me well wouldn’t be surprised that I wasn’t there for the beach parties.
I was visiting my parents who were renting out a condo at a golf course. They informed me that there weren’t very many birds there, but I knew there would be many more in Florida than there were in Wisconsin. Turned out I was right, I cranked out about 74 species for the week-long hiatus including 2 new additions for my life list. Many migratory bird species are only in Florida for the winter, so March is an excellent time to see them before they head north to their breeding territories.
On my first bird walk I already noticed little flocks of warblers in the trees. The most common species were Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers. These are also the first warbler species that you will see in Wisconsin during spring migration since they don’t migrate as far south as other species. I was pretty excited to see a Palm Warbler in a habitat with actual Palm trees. However, I didn’t actually see the Palm Warbler in a Palm, so I guess I’m not really positive where the name came from. All the warblers were flocking to Live Oak, which were blooming at the time. The caterpillars were busy eating the flowers and the warblers were busy eating the caterpillars. The more birding I do, the more I realize I can be kind of a warbler fiend. You see, there are many types of birders, some love shorebirds and others are crazy about pelagic seabirds that you can only see if you’re in the middle of the ocean. I definitely like to see a variety of different birds, but since I was 8 years old I have loved to go after the tiny colorful birds at the top of trees that you have to break your neck to see. I guess it all comes down to the fact that I’m a sucker for “ooh pretty colors” and the cuteness factor, and that’s how I got hooked on warblers.
Little did I know that I was able to walk into a warbler-birder’s paradise at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. My main goal in going to Corkscrew Swamp was that I knew that there Painted Buntings there and my mom had never seen one. My mom isn’t necessarily a birder, but she is when she’s with me. (She is also the main audience for my blog so it seems kind of silly to be referring to her in the third person. Hi mom!) Anyway, if anything, a Painted Bunting can be a fabulous goal for any non-birder. So, we had barely walked onto the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp and I got my mom her first view of a Painted Bunting (actually 3, two males and a female) and her first Pileated Woodpecker. Not too shabby!
Pileated Woodpecker
But of course my favorite part of Corkscrew swamp was the warblers. Near the end of our little 2 mile walk, I stumbled upon a flock of maybe 2 dozen birds or more, Northern Parula, Palm, Black-and-white, Pine and Yellow-throated Warbler. Mixed in with that were Blue-headed Vireos and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. Fabulous! We also got to see a Red-shouldered hawk nest and baby alligators at Corkscrew swamp. An excellent mix of Florida’s breeding wildlife and migratory species. It is a pretty nice place to visit, with lots of helpful guides, ready and willing to help visitors get a closer look at the surrounding wildlife.
Male Anhinga at Corkscrew Swamp
I didn’t get any pictures of the warblers at Corkscrew, but I wanted to share a few pictures I got where the warblers were a little closer to the ground. These were taken at the Manatee Park in Ft Myers:
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler (western subspecies)
It’s funny, the Manatee Park isn’t any wildlife-enthusiast’s idea of a real well-preserved oasis for animals, it’s more of a coincidence that species tend to flock there. The adjacent power plant pushes warm waste water into the waterway that goes through the park. During the colder months of the year, manatees are attracted to the warmer water. And the sprawling live oak trees attract flocks of warblers, as seen above. It may not be ideal habitat, but it makes for an interesting case to see how animals are adapting to our ever-urbanizing world.
Anyway, my trip to Southwestern Florida also necessitated a trip to the infamous “Ding” Darling Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island. The Refuge is very well known to birders as a great place to get close-up views of a variety of shorebirds. You actually are meant to drive the 5 miles through the park and stop along the way to catch glimpses of Herons, Egrets, Anhingas, Sandpipers and Ospreys. It is definitely a beautiful park, but personally I think that the crowds of people and all the vehicles tend to detract from the birding experience. I’ll repeat that, that is definitely my own view, though! I did enjoy my visit there and I did get a few nice pictures of birds and a lovely 6 or 7 foot gator.
Green Heron at Ding Darling
Alligator
Shorebirds, cormorants, pelicans, and gulls! oh my!
Great Blue Heron
Common Buckeye
White Ibis
Gray-hooded Gull
My final day in Ecuador I headed back to the coastal town of Valdivia to participate in the Christmas Bird Count. The Christmas Count is a very organized ordeal, with groups all across the USA getting together and counting as many birds they can find during a 24-hour period the week before Christmas. The groups all have designated “circles” to bird in so that they don’t overlap with other groups. All the data is collected in one database and goes toward conservation research. To find out more, you can check out the Audubon Website.
So, I had known that the Christmas count took place in the USA and participated in a few counts before, but I had never known that they also did a few counts in the tropics as well. I wish I could do the count in South America every year! A typical count in Wisconsin involves warm winter boots, struggling to adjust binoculars while wearing mittens, and hoping against hope that you might just see a Bald Eagle or a White-winged Crossbill to break up the monotony of chickadees and House Finches. Typically, there aren’t a whole lot of species to be seen. Things are a little different though when you’re in a tropical paradise, a wondrous hotspot for bird diversity. For my count in Ecuador, I jotted down about 47 species for the group, which included several new “life birds” for me. 174 total species were seen between all our groups in the Loma Alta area.
My bird counting group consisted of about a dozen Ecuadorian college students led by their teaching assistant, Evelyng. I was the only non-native there, but at least most of the students spoke English and communication wasn’t a problem. Pointing at a bird and pointing at a picture in a field guide is one thing that can be universally understood, but it’s another thing when you’re trying to pick out a specific bird that’s hard to see (look just left of the riverbed, about one meter up in the brush, behind that heron that’s just on the bank). I was impressed how fluent the students were in English and it definitely made me want to improve my Spanish skills!
Pictures from the count:
Checking out the dry scrub forest during the Christmas Count with college students from Guayaquil
Scarlet-backed Woodpecker
Magnificent Frigatebirds looking for handouts from fishermen
Gray-headed Gull, Common Terns and Elegant Tern
Semipalmated Plovers and Sanderling
So that wrapped up my trip to the Loma Alta region of Ecuador! It was a fantastic time and I hope some day I will be able to go back. Thank yous go to Dusti Becker, Mauricio Torres, Pascual Torres, Jessica Medina, Alicia Torres and Eve Astudillo, and thanks to the other volunteers: Larry, Matt & Will. Thanks for making this such a unique and memorable experience.
If you’re ever interested in a future trip with the fabulous Life Net crew or if you just want to see more bird photos, you can now follow them on facebook!
Day 10. December 13, 2010. Although I would later sorely miss the peace and quiet at La Casita, we were ready to move on and bird the lowlands surrounding the village of El Suspiro. We packed up our belongings and the local helpers strapped everything back on the mules. For only my third time riding horseback, it was a little nerve-wracking going down the steep parts of the mountain, but I just held on tight and put my faith in the mules who had been trekking up and down these hills all their lives. The skies were clear for our trek down, so we all were smiling, thinking that we were leaving the heavy rains of the high altitudes behind.
Once we made it back to the village of El Suspiro, we settled in at the village shop and had a few cervezas. A boy that lived there came by and showed off his pet, which happened to be a Rufous-headed Chachalaca that he raised from an egg. These chicken-like native birds are relatively common in the area, but are decreasing in number and are officially listed as having a “vulnerable” status, meaning one step below being endangered. We felt pretty lucky to be in such close presence to this noisy, but otherwise elusive species. And, as Dusti pointed out, if this boy could raise Chachalacas from eggs by himself then the birds have a good chance of recovering their numbers if people ever had to turn to captive-rearing and releasing them.
Village boy with his pet Chachalaca
Our house in El Suspiro
Our back porch in El Suspiro
Making our home in El Suspiro was much more comfortable than at La Casita. We had beds! Indoor plumbing! A lovely back porch with a beautiful view of the green valley below. It did come at a cost though, which we didn’t find out until we were all tucked in under our mosquito nets. The village dogs, which mostly were found lying around sleeping all day, liked to congregate at night and bark right outside our house. The barking woke up the incredibly loud peacocks that were sleeping on the roof (what? why did there have to be peacocks??) And then when you thought it was all about to be over the roosters would sound their alarms as well. After the worst night of sleep of the trip, we all dragged our feet out of bed around dawn for breakfast. We had a long day ahead. We completed a survey of the area’s birds and then set up 20 more mist nets in the dense scrubby dry forest. After tramping up and down the big hill to our study site, the local children welcomed us back and pleaded for us to come play with them. I could hardly keep up with their endless amounts of energy and the difficulties of the language barrier, but we learned some of the local games, the boys played soccer together, and we also set up a few educational activities. My favorite activity was when we all went birding together and tried to teach the kids some of the names of the birds. I was impressed with their enthusiasm, their ability to find and point out birds, and that they already knew the general names of different groups of birds (Gallinazo for Vulture, Garceta for Egret, and Paloma for Dove).
Leading my group of young birders
I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to grow up in a place with such rich species diversity. Especially since the first field guide only came out in the last decade, and on top of that, hauling it around was like carrying a brick! It was a little intimidating learning the birds there, but I think I did a pretty good job in the short time that I was there.
Since coming down to the lowlands, we got to meet a lot of fun and new birds, like Mot-mots and Scythebills, along with some old favorites, the Gray-and-gold Warblers and Plain Antvireos. The first day of banding in the lowlands we yielded a successful total of 73 captures and 19 species. The most exciting bird of the day being the Pacific Pygmy-owl. These owls are absolutely tiny and are the smallest owls in the world if not for the somehow tinier Elf Owls. I could hardly contain myself when I saw one caught in the net just after dawn. Then I remembered that owls come complete with some dangerous weaponry and we didn’t even have the proper tools for preventing ourselves from being bitten — oops. Oh well. There was a little bit of damage to my fingers, but I couldn’t be happier to band my first owl. I also got to band my first endangered species, the Blackish-headed Spinetail along with a vulnerable species, the Henna-hooded Foliage-gleaner. By the way, in the USA you need a special permit to band endangered species, but south of the border there aren’t any such restrictions that I know of.
Day 2 of banding in the lowlands, we were reminded that the rain was not finished with us yet. It poured all night, which silenced the dogs and allowed us to sleep in until 6:30! We got a late start but ended up with an impressive 79 birds and 22 species. We also caught several new species such as seven Variable Seedeaters (we had zero the day before), a Necklaced Spinetail, Tawny-crowned Pygmy-tyrants, and two Red-eyed Vireos. The interesting thing about the vireos is that I had banded them before in both Wisconsin and Texas, so they were familiar friends. Although Red-eyed Vireos migrate to the tropics, the ones we captured appeared to be breeding and were supposedly part of a non-migratory subspecies. Dusti said that the subspecies in this area though had brown eyes instead of red. Oddly enough, our birds had red eyes! We also caught a subspecies of Streaked Saltator that was not supposed to be there. Even stranger, it had blue eyes, a trait that is not even mentioned in the book! Another interesting fact that was not in the book, I learned from experience that Spinetails have a strong musky odor! Why is that? I have no idea. It all goes to show that we still have a long ways to go and a lot to learn about the birds of South America.
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- Leading my group of young birders
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- Our group at the entrance to the dry forest banding site (Matt, Will, Larry, Mauricio and I)
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- Brown-billed Scythebill
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- Henna-hooded Foliage-gleaner
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- Henna-hooded Foliage-gleaner
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- Pacific Pygmy-owl
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- me with the Pacific-pygmy Owl
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- Black-capped Sparrow
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- all the birds waiting to be banded
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- Black-lored or Masked Yellowthroat male
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- Black-lored or Masked Yellowthroat female
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- Pacific Elaenia
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- Blackish-headed Spinetail
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- Streaked Saltator
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- Rufous-browed Peppershrike
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- Collared Antshrike female
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- Bran-colored Flycatcher
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- Tawny-crowned Pygmy-tyrant
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- Speckle-breasted Wren
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- Variable Seedeater male
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- my bedroom I shared with Dusti in El Suspiro
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- Our back porch in El Suspiro
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- Our house in El Suspiro
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- Streaked Saltator with blue eyes
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- Red-eyed Vireo
