Mississippi kite in New York

Summer months are generally quiet birding months as mentioned in the previous post. So, when a report of a rare bird surfaces on the web, it draws a lot of attention....especially in July. This bird, the first record of a Mississippi kite in New York State, has been getting more than its fair share. Folks from all over the Northeast have been travelling hours and hundreds of miles to catch a glimpse of this raptor and believe me, it's worth the effort. Sharon and I had been visiting friends in Vermont and doing minimal birding in search for higher elevation warblers. At the end of our stay, we decided that rather than make a bee-line for home in the Hudson Highlands, we would simply go straight across the border into New York and continue west to the town of Root. Root is one of those towns that if you miss the sign (I'm thinking...was there a sign?), you may not even know that you have passed through it. I live in a village of 4000 people, and compared to Root, you'd think you were in NYC. Ames and Root are gorgeous places, however, with rolling agricultural countryside...a perfect place for birds like upland sandpipers, Grasshopper sparrows, and hopefully the Mississippi kite. As we pulled into Ames, we stopped at the local fire house where two of the Lady's auxilliary were present. The two ladies were so helpful and not only directed us to the intersection in Root where the birds had been seen, but even gave me the phone number of a friend who lived nearby to call if we got lost! One thing about birding, you meet a lot of awfully nice people out there. We got to the site and found a lone birder, Ken Harper, who was more than willing to help us find the bird. We sat along the roadside, waiting patiently for some time with little results. Along came two more lovely ladies, two birders, who informed us that the bird(s) had been spotted a quarter of a mile down the road and several hundred yards up Donata Road. Off we went, and after 5 minutes we had another life bird, the Mississippi kite. Our first sighting was brief, but about an hour later, the bird reappeared and gave us a great extended look. So, this is what obsessed birders do, and we do it with relish. Often the hunt is nearly as good as the prize.

Summer warblers

While this time of year rarely brings about the same amount of avian chatter we experience in May, there is still action in certain habitats. One such habitat is the bog along Cooley Road in Parksville, Sullivan County NY. We had ventured out to this beautiful spot in search of a reported Yellow-bellied flycatcher. While the flycatcher eluded us, we did score with some wonderful views of Blackburnian, Black-throated green, and Magnolia warblers. Also in the cast were Yellow-bellied sapsuckers, Ruby-throated hummingbirds, Cedar waxwings, Red-tailed hawks and the usual Blue jays and Red-winged blackbirds. This is leisure birding at its best as one has only to pull out the folding chair and sit along the roadside. These birds generally come to you. And best of all, they are still singing their melodious songs! Pictured above are the Magnolia (left) and Blackburnian warblers.

Nesting

Now that May has passed and we are well into June, the nature of things has changed considerably regarding bird behavior. Singing has subsided, and the birds are not as visible as they were a month ago. In May, the birds were singing for mates, singing for territory, and sometimes singing for the sake of singing. Now, however, many birds have found those mates and established their territory. No longer is there a need to sing. In fact, singing can attract predators and other unwanted intruders. So the birds, now on the nest, remain quiet. Their activity now is focused on tending to their newborn young. Birders now look for signs of nesting, and this seems to have been a fine year for rearing young. We look now for nests and for other signs of nesting. When we see a bird with food in its bill, we know it's heading back to the nest to feed their young, and it is a sign of another successful spring. The little ones now calling to their parents for food will be the ones we see and hear next May calling out for a new mate. Today's shots include the Worm-eating warbler and Eastern phoebe with food for their young and a nest filled with baby Barn swallows. There is always something happening out there.

Birds in flight

One of the greatest challenges in photographing birds is to catch them in mid-flight. Stopping the action is only part of the equation. With birds generally flying against a bright sky, exposure becomes the critical element. If you use an auto setting, the camera is going to base its reading on the bright sky, and 90% of the time, the actual target (the bird) will be underexposed and turn out as a dark silhouette. I've found that if I take a light meter reading of mid-tone vegetation in the same general direction as I hope to shoot the bird in flight and then set my camera manually to those settings, I have a pretty good chance of getting the shot without underexposing the bird. We spent a couple of days in New Jersey this week in hopes of snagging an Upland sandpiper and any other cooperative bird in flight with fairly successful results. The thing about photography of birds is that there is always something new to try and always room for improvement. The images shown are (from left to right) the Upland sandpiper, a Common tern, and a Black skimmer.

Spring in New York 2

We're heading towards the end of the migration period in the SE part of New York and soon the songs will cease and the forest will be much quieter. But for now, we still have enough birdsong to keep up our interest and to let us know where to look for our warblers and others. While the symphony of song is the highlight of May, June brings in the reason for all this singing. Territories have been staked out and mates have been found. The nesting season is upon us and we can delight in watching the whole process.....if we are lucky enough to find the birds. They are quiet now, not wanting to draw attention to their whereabouts to would be predators. The nests are rarely out in the open for the same reason. And so, when we are lucky enough to see any signs of the process, we seize the moment. These moments usually manifest themselves in the forms of birds with either food or nesting material in their bills. So it was this past Friday....a chilly and rainy day. The rain worked in my favor today, however, as the puddles forming supplies the local Cliff swallows with the mud they need for their nests on the side of Stillwell Dam. I was able to watch and photograph from my truck as a number of swallows visited the mud source and flew away with dollops of mud in their bills. Spring has sprung.

Listers

There are many sub-groups in the general category of birders. There are "bird-watchers", "Backyard birders", Twitchers (who chase birds all over the world), non-listers and "Listers". Listers are somewhat obsessed with counting each and every species that they have ever seen and are driven to add to the mounting LIST of their sightings. Among listers are those who will only count County, State, National, Continental, or World birds or have separate lists for each category. And then are those like me who not only count species we've seen, but also count the birds that we have photographed. To be counted, the photo must be of a suitable quality so as to leave no doubt as to the identification of the bird. The rules are self-imposed and the judgment as to what constitutes a "qualifying" photo is strictly up to me, the photographer. To date, I have photographed over 500 species world-wide. But the list that really counts in my own mind is the ABA, or North American list. I am gradually closing in on 400 North American species and each new species captured by the camera brings a certain sense of accomplishment or even elation. The most recent was a bird I have been trying to photograph for several years. We've seen the bird, but either it was too distant, or the bird was heard and not seen, or the quality of the image was not acceptable. And so, when I got the images I was looking for at a local county airport, I was more than satisfied. The quarry was the elusive Upland sandpiper. For whatever reason, I finally found the birds at close range, in low grass, and with nice light. You can't find the right conditions all coming together like this all that often, and that is one of the things that makes "photo-birding" such a challenge and at the same time so rewarding. Well, we've successfully captured this species, and so now it's on to the next.

Spring in New York

I had just a short time to take a quick look down Ironwood Road in Sterling Forest yesterday afternoon and found what I was looking for. Perched high in a dogwood tree along with a beautiful Indigo bunting was my FOY Golden-winged warbler. In the brief period I had to scan the vegetation along the powerline cut, I had nice looks at towhees, Prairie warbler, and several Yellow warblers. On the way out, I stopped by the paper company pond and had a Spotted sandpiper working the shoreline along with a Great blue heron. The shot I took of the Indigo bunting seated among the blooms of the dogwood simply states what this season is all about.

Costa Rica - Tortuguero National Park

Depart Tilajari for the Tortuguero National Park. En route, we stop to visit the EARTH Institute, a college where stuudents from throughout Central and South America learn husbandry, agriculture, and environmental sciences.The university is dedicated to developing sustainable development in the humid tropics. We pass through some of the more isolated communities of Costa Rica before boarding our launch for the 45 minutre ride up the Rio Tortuguero to the National Park. Our bus ride begins to reveal some of the new avifauna we will encounter during this leg of the trip, namely the Crested Caracara, the Tiger Heron and more and more monkeys and slothes.
Tortuguero National Park - We spend most of the day on the waters of Tortuguero National Park. The early morning is spent exploring the canals of Tortuguero and its wonderful wildlife. Although technically not a birding trip, the guides here are all very knowledgable and when they find that several of us including Sharon and myself are avid birders, they are more than willing and excited to share their obvious extensive familiarity with the birds of the Park. Even the water-taxi driver displays a depth of identification skills we are indeed impressed with. He explains through our guide Stuart that most Costa Ricans grow up with the birds and therefore have a natural afinity and understanding the avifauna of the land. We add a number of lifers on the trip today and it is by far the best day of the already wonderful trip.

Costa Rica - Tilajari

We travelled to the Arenal volcano/hotsprings area and on to the Tilajari Resort. We enjoyed the hot springs of the Ecotermales Fortuna Hidalgo and birded along the San Carlos River where the resort is located. The dining area turned out to be a real hot spot for birds visiting the feeders and consumed a fair amount of our time as we photographed and tried to id the many species which appeared. Also had some great views of the howler monkeys in route to the resort. We raft our way down the enas Blancas River in search of iguanas, monkeys, birds and whatever other wildlife comes our way. Between the sightings along the river and the sightings at the Tilajari Resort, we amass a nice day list of about 25 species many of which are new life birds.

Costa Rica - Monteverde

Day 3 - A long drive along rutted dirt roads brings us up to Monteverde Lodge in the Cloud forest. After a homestyle lunch, we drive over to the Selvatura suspended bridges for a hike through the canopy. Our guides are Carlos and Andreas and although the birds are hard to find in the thick foliage, they make their presence known through their calls and songs.
Day 4-Our second day at the Monteverde Resort gives us great sightings of the Emerald toucanet, the Yellow-throated euphonia, and the mammal of the day, a white-nosed-coati all on the grounds of the hotel. We travel to the butterfly garden and meet Zack, an American who is pursuing his doctorate in entomology. After lunch at Sofia Nuevo Latino restaurant, we move onto the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and visit a hummingbird site for some great photo ops of specialities like the Violet sabrewing. Tomorrw morning, its off to Lake Arenal.

Costa Rica - Part I

We had the good fortune to be able to spend a week in Costa Rica with good friends from CT. Our tour included travelling the rough dirt roads through the Cloud Forest of Monteverde and finally down into the jungles of Tortuguero National Park.
Day 1 Arrive at San Jose and get used to our new surroundings at Hotel Real-Intercontinental. Nice to see our new avian friends including Inca dove, Rufous-collared sparrow, and Great kiskadee. The rest of the tour group will arrive tomorrow, but in the meantime, we will take advantage of our extra day to get accustomed to our new surroundings. Day 2 - Continues at San Jose as we await the arrival of our fellow travellers. Take a stroll through part of San Jose and visit the local Supermarket for supplies before we head out for the Cloud forest. New birds include the Melodious blackbird.

Having read Scott's report on birding the Sunshine State, we figured we'd add our account of yesterday's birding adventure down here. Friends from upstate New York joined us for a tour of the Viera Wetlands south of Titusville. In spite of a late arrival at the site due to construction on I-95, we managed to record 57 species. We had set our goat at a modest 45 which we easily surpassed and had aimed at two specific target species. The first was the Crested Caracara and the second the secretive Least bittern. The first was a piece of cake as the bird flew right into the drainage ditch adjacent to our parked car for a meal of mudpuppy. A most cooperative bird, the usually elusive caracara paid us little heed and went about his dining while we were afforded a number of quite nice shooting opportunities. The bittern was not quite so cooperative. After almost 4 hours on the reserve, we finally got a quick glimpse of the Least and finally patience paid off. Sitting quietly in wait, we were rewarded for our efforts by several brief but clear views of this fine specimen. As we watched and photographed the bittern, an unexpected gem, a Marsh wren, flew right into view for us to study at close range. Just another day in paradise.

Owlets

This has been a great year for owling here in Florida and we decided to simply post a couple of shots of the newest arrivals. In the past week, we had the opportunity to check out a couple of nests with chicks on board...on the left is a barred owl chick awaiting its mother for its next meal and on the right a nest found at Sylvan Lake Park which was home to this pair of Great horned owl chicks. Check out the images and enjoy these little bundles of joy.