Banana Train and Boat Ride

This is the nerds first time in a large group like this which had many up sides like not having to worry about details like where to go, what birds would be there, how to get there etc. The group consisted of 16 birders, 1 bird field guide (Alex) and our driver (Gustavo or Gus). Gus took care of logistics and driving. Alex took care of finding the birds, getting everyone to see the birds, coordinating the meals and lodging etc. All we had to do was follow the group. We ate each meal as a group. Alex took time at dinner to review our bird list for the day and tell us where and when to meet for the next day's adventure.

Our first big outing and tour in Honduras was to a place called RVS Cuero y Salado which is a mangrove estuary. Alex told us to be at breakfast by 6:00 and on the bus by 6:30. The bus trip only took 20 minutes where we would board the "Banana Train" at 7:00. Banana Train?

Bird Nerds on Banana Train

Banana - we thought was due to the train being yellow but turns out that the train used to carry banana pickers out to the fields in the old days.
Train - well, it was on tracks. The engine consisted of an engine mounted right next to the driver who had a lever and a brake pedal. That's it. 2 cars were attached to carry all of our group plus the regular passengers such as school children.

The track was one long straight line that took us through really poor rural housing, fields that used to be banana plantations and swamps.

Linda - Banana Train

Military guards ride the train to protect the passengers. Not sure what could happen but we didn't ask.

Connie and friend

Di and Barbara ride the train

The train dropped us at the end of the line where little boats awaited to take us up into the mangrove estuary. We couldn't have asked for better weather.

Mangrove Estuary

Birders in boats

Our guides took us to the places where we could see the specialty birds that make the estuary home. The first bird that we saw was Boat-billed Heron. This is an impressive bird with a wide bill and cool floppy feathers on his head. 3 of them were in the mangroves along the water's edge. Our boat driver pulled right up so that we could get a good look.

Another resident along the banks were Northern Jacana. Here is a baby following the parent through the reeds and lily pads.

Kingfishers are abundant in Central America. Unlike our area where we only have one type (Belted), Honduras has 6 types that can be seen. We found 3 of them along the estuary.  Here is Ringed Kingfisher which looks the most like our Belted except it has a rufous belly.

Ringed Kingfisher

This one is Green Kingfisher. This gal hung around under the mangroves and allowed the boat to get pretty close.

Green Kingfisher

The most uncommon kingfisher is Pygmy. It is also the hardest to see due to it's small size and habit of hiding in the mangrove roots. Can you see it?

Pygmy Kingfisher

We saw lots of other birds plus some other animals like this huge Crocodile lazing in the sun.

Crocodile

And these bats hanging onto the trunk of a tree.

Bats

Here is a close-up of one of them. Furry little fellow huh?

Bat

The crowd pleaser had to be the howler monkeys. We heard them roaring in the distance and also stumbled upon a family right along the bank. Here is Dad keeping a watchful eye.

Male Howler Monkey

Here is Junior figuring things out for himself. He was curious about the boat.

Juvenile Howler Monkey

How cute is this?

Junior

What a great day in Honduras. And this is only the beginning. Way more to come as I process photos.

Trying to Improve

I set a few goals for 2014. The first is to concentrate on improving my photography so I bought the Canon 7D guide to learn about my camera.  So far, so good. Barbara and I sat on the deck yesterday and reset some of the settings on the camera. I think it helped. Here are some photos from today.

The first few are from the yard. The day started out foggy but the beggar birds were happy to pose for me. One of the Great Egrets in in breeding plumage. They get flowy feathers off the back. I crept around to the this angle so that I got a clear black background against the white bird.

Great Egret

This is the same photo cropped so that you can see the other breeding bit which is the green facial patch.  It is really bright.

Great Egret - breeding

Here is another one of the birds that hang around the dock - Little Blue Heron. I cropped this to show the reddish head.

Little Blue Heron

Most of the Nerds went out on the boat again today. Connie and I decided to go birding at Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area and then meet the girls down by Pine Island for a shorter ride. It was a great decision for us. Some photos from Babcock-Webb. The first photo is Common Gallinule which used to be called Common Moorhen. I like Moorhen better.  Check out that big red front on the bill.

Common Gallinule

We went in searching for Bachman's Sparrow which I have been trying to see for a long time. I thought we had it but after reviewing the photos, the sparrow turned out to be a Grasshopper Sparrow. The photo is not very good, but I learned how to switch between Manual and Autofocus which allowed me to get this shot.

Grasshopper Sparrow

We left Babcock-Webb and headed south to Pine Island to meet the girls. They picked us up in the boat and we rode over to Cayo Costa for a picnic lunch and hike out to the beach.  We were pleasantly surprised to find this Bald Eagle sitting on a piling in the harbor. What a beauty!

Bald Eagle

Here is the same photo cropped to just show the Eagle's head. I can't believe that the photo above was so clear that I could crop it and still get the photo below which is pretty sharp.

Bald Eagle - head shot

It allowed us to get pretty close before getting spooked. Here it is just after take off. I call this one "Peek-a-Boo" because you can see the Eagle's head through the wing feathers.

Bald Eagle - Peek-a-Boo

Not to be outdone, this Osprey posed pretty well on another channel marker while eating a fish. He posed for us as we floated by on our way back to the dock. You can see the half-eaten fish under his feet. Eeewww, gross. 

Osprey eating fish

I think these shots are much better than I would have had last week due to the changed settings. First, I set the focus point to be more precise. I also set the focus to follow the object (in this case, the bird) if it moves. We shall see if this success continues. . .

Loony

March is an interesting time for watching birds molt their feathers from winter to "breeding" plumage.  The best example that I can show you today is with Common Loons.  Here are photos of a few different Loons taken on our trip this week. It is like one of them just doesn't want to go north while another is trying hard and yet another is almost ready. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

 Still dressed in winter feathers. Dull as dull can be.

 This bird is really in the middle between winter and summer.  He is getting that "checkerboard" back but still doesn't have the black head or "necklace".

 Almost ready to head north for summer with the necklace and checkerboard.  He is just waiting for a few more feathers to turn black on his head.

The famous "snorkeling" posture where the loon looks underwater before diving. 

It was really amazing how tame this last loon was.  He just floated around while Di positioned the boat between him and sun so that I could get decent photos.  This bird was truly content even though we were only 20 - 30 yards away from him.  It makes me wonder if he summers on a pond that has lots of people and boats like his winter home in Charlotte Harbor FL.

I wonder where these birds go for the summer home.  Maine? Canada? Minnesota? Upstate NY?  Where ever they go, they will be a real treat for anyone who is lucky enough to see them in their summer finest.

First Pelagic

Barbara and I went on our first official pelagic birding trip on Sunday.  We sailed out of Belmar NJ on the 80 foot fishing boat "Susie Girl".  It was 18 degrees with 15 mph winds and 3 foot swells when we left the dock.  18 degrees.  There were about 30 people on board with binoculars, cameras and lots of hats and gloves.  The entire front of the boat was covered in ice with every wave that we hit.

The trip was run by a really good birder named Paul Guris.  His team wins the World Series of Birding almost every year.  His website See Life Paulagics (get it, Paul-agic).  He runs these trips in winter because it is the best time to see Alcids - birds that live on the water such as Dovekie, Murre, Razorbill and Puffin.  There birds are waaaay up north for the rest of the year, so the only way to see them in our area is to get on a boat in the middle of January and freeze your ass off!

Check out my stance.  I am trying to stand upright in the rough seas!

We didn't get great views of the Alcids on our trip due to the wind, waves and water temperature, but we did manage to see the little football-shaped birds flying around out there.  The highlights of the trip had to be the Fin-back Whale that made an appearance about 200 yards away from the boat.  The Fin-back is the second largest whale and it looked like it.  The part that showed above the water was as big as the Suzie Girl! 

The other highlights included the Gannets that followed the boat along with all of the gulls waiting for chum.  Yes, we chummed with beef suet the entire trip so that the gulls and Gannets would follow us.

It paid off with a few rarer species that we got to see and photograph up close.  Including this Northern Gannet which has to be one of my favorite birds.

Northern Gannet

This is an Iceland Gull which is pretty rare in our area.  One of the other passengers, Adrianne (guy, not gal) was trying to help me find this bird in the mass of gulls by telling me that it was "coffee colored".  I was looking for a dark brown/black bird but he meant - with cream. The gull followed the boat for a long time, so I really got to get a few good photos. I like this one because it shows his pink feet.

Iceland Gull

Here is a Black-legged Kittiwake.  These birds are smaller than other gulls and very agile in the air.  This guy (or gal) was out maneuvering all of the other gulls to get to the beef bits that were being throw overboard.

Black-legged Kittiwake

This bird must have done this follow-the-boat-for-food thing before because it knew just where to be which was directly over the back of the boat to watch the guy (Tom Reed) who was chumming.  This next shot is more typical of the what I saw for about an hour with the bird directly overhead.

Black-legged Kittiwake

You should ask Barbara about the little "gift" that she got on the front of her jacket from our little airborn friend . . .  

The Kittiwake was getting so much food, that the gulls started harassing it rather than trying to get the beef out of the water for themselves.  Here are a few shots.  I like the second shot because all of the Herring gulls are in mid squawk!

Barbara got 6 life birds including Dovekie, Razorbill, Common Murre, the Iceland Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, and the Lesser Black-backed Gull.  Only the Iceland Gull was a lifer for me.  We will definitely go again and I would highly recommend this trip for anyone interested in seeing seabirds.  I would also highly recommend that you go with Paul and his crew.  He did a great job and had really good crew of trip leaders along.  Here is a link to his site:  www.paulagics.com/site/

Biggest Nerd Alive!

Follow up to my previous post.  I was really exhausted last night while typing that last post.  Exhausted from being out on the new boat all day and throwing a few rounds of darts at the pub.  I can barely lift my arm today which is a good indication of being a nerd or being really out of shape (or both).

Another indication of being a big nerd is the fact that I yelled "TUBENOSE!  I think that bird is a Tubenose." when I first spotted the Greater Shearwater in the harbor yesterday.  Even the nerds turned around and went "What?  Did you just say Tubenose?" and then laughed at me.  My own people laughed at me so you know that's nerdy.  I knew that the bird wasn't a gull or tern.  I knew it was something like a petrel or shearwater or something.  Those birds are grouped together in the Sibley Guide as "Tubenoses" starting on page 32.  Their nostrils are bumped up above the bill unlike other birds. This feature is visible in the photograph below.  Look at the top of the bill just where it meets the head.  The tube reminds me of a scoop on the hood of a hot rod car.

If you need photographic proof that I am the biggest nerd that you know - here it is.  This is me excitedly snapping away with my new camera.

I've also included this video for your entertainment.  CAUTION:  It might make you seasick!



Click here if you can't see the video above.  Also, post a comment and let me know if you can view it or not.  This is the first time I have used Windows Movie Maker.

So, let's recap: 

1. Darts exhausted me.
2. I yelled "Tubenose!"
3. I was as giggly as a schoolgirl when the bird was that close to the boat.

You decide.  Biggest nerd you ever knew?  Probably. 

Maiden Voyage

Ahoy Mate!  The Nerds are cruising in style this week in Florida in the new boat.  We took it out on it's very first voyage today into Charlotte Harbor and had a great time.  Oh, and we all got a life bird too.  Greater Shearwater!


Here is the boat.  A gorgeous 23' Sea Fox:

Here is me driving the boat for about 1 second in the Gulf of Mexico.  You can see the Charlotte Harbor Inlet channel marker and Cayo Costa in the background:

Here is the Greater Shearwater which we photographed in the same location as the photo above.  Speaking of maiden voyages - these photos of the bird are taken with my brand new Canon 7D camera.  This trip is the camera's maiden voyage too.

Notice Barbara's Corona bottle?  That is how close this bird was to our boat. This photo is not cropped at all.  The bird didn't mind having it's photo taken or our talking or anything. 

Here it is flying.  The photo isn't in the sharpest focus due to me being on a moving boat trying to photograph a moving bird with a new camera but it shows the underside of the wings which is a good field mark for Greater Shearwater. 

I'm exhausted so this is a quick post.  More details about how big of a nerd I am later.