Circumnavigating Puerto Rico

I think that most people who visit Puerto Rico do so on a cruise or go to one hotel/resort and stay there. Most of the resorts are near the San Juan in the northeast part of the island. Lori and I were determined to go birding so we rented a car and headed out on Highway 2 eastbound from the airport. About 25 minutes later, we were heading south  and then 30 minutes later we were heading west on the same highway. 3 hours later, we arrived in the southwest corner of the island to start our birding adventure.

Puerto Rico has 15 or so "endemic" species that are only found on this island. We had a target list and hoped to find some of them. During our 2 days in the southwest, we birded 3 areas and did really well despite showing up at some of the parks when they were closed! We started with a quick drive around Bosque Estatal de Guanica (Guanica Dry Forest) where we found 3 life birds including Adelaide's Warbler. I posted this photo to Flickr and ended up with thousands of views and over a hundred people added it to their favorites list.

The following day, we went to Laguna Cartegena and ticked off 8 more lifers including this gaudy Red Bishop. They call it a Bishop because of the red "hood". We saw a few of these guys along the road into the lagoon.

We also found many Smooth-billed Ani along the road. These are pretty large and noisy birds but they fly away if you get too close. This guy apparently didn't get the memo on that and just sat on the fence right next to the car. Look at that giant beak.

Another bird that usually doesn't let you get too close is the Kestral. I noticed this guy had a lizard for lunch and slowly drove the car closer. He let us get a few shots before turning his lunch into take out. The gross part of the photo is that the lizard doesn't have a head. Yuck.

The next day, we finally made it to Cabo Rojo NWR which is supposed to be the best birding in Puerto Rico. We walked 2 miles on the mosquito infested paths and found another 4 life birds including the Troupial which is a type of Oriole native to Puerto Rico. 

One of the nice things about visiting the Caribbean or Central America in October is that you run into some old bird friends who have recently left our area for the winter. We saw over 50 Blackpoll Warblers at the park. 

And also found this Prothonotary Warbler stalking bugs in the low shrubs. 

We detoured off of Highway 2 to get to these birding locations. We also tried to go birding in Maracoa which is up in the mountains and ended up on some pretty rough roads which went straight up the mountain in one lane. I got a work out just turning the steering wheel trying to keep the car on the twisting mountain roads. It was really harrowing and all for nothing since it poured rain when we finally made it to the top of the mountain. We sat there for an hour before giving up and going back to the hotel. We did manage to find 3 life birds on the way including this Antillean Euphonia. What a wild colored bird. He has a sky blue head. 

We continued our Highway 2 journey heading west for a few minutes before turning north and eventually east to head back to San Juan and to the Caribe Hilton hotel where I was scheduled to attend a conference on Tuesday. 

Between working and schmoozing at the conference, I did manage to find time to head out to Puerto Rico's famous El Yunque Rain Forest and found another 4 life birds bringing the total to 24 for the trip. The drive to El Yunque not only provided more birds but also completed the full circuit of Highway 2. 

3 Days in California, 3 Life Birds for Linda

I'm getting to that point in my birding "career" where I've seen a lot of species. My total life list is almost 1300 birds. That's a lot of birds. Of that total, I've seen 669 species in the ABA area. The ABA (American Birding Association) area comprises the US and Canada. Traditionally, Hawaii is excluded but recently, the ABA allowed birders to include Hawaii in their totals but I elected to keep Hawaii separate. I have a goal of seeing 700 species in the ABA by age 60. That goal is not as easy as you would think.

When planning my trip to California, I looked up my "target list" on eBird to review any species that I could see in the San Francisco area and was surprised to find such a short list:

1. Tri-colored Blackbird
2. Lawrence's Goldfinch
3. Cassin's Auklet
4. Fork-tailed Storm-petrel
5. Flesh-footed Shearwater

Other birds were on the list but had probability ratings of less than 1% which means that they are very rare.

We arrived in California around noon but had issues with the rental car and never got down to Monterey area until 4:00 or so. Despite the delay, we found our first target easily - Tri-colored Blackbird. They are easily found at the dairy farm.

Tri-colored Blackbirds

Day 1, Bird 1 - check! We had the whole day on Friday to go birding around the area. We decided to take a drive out to Pinnacles National Park where bird #2 had been reported. Pinnacles is also a known area to see the very endangered California Condor. We arrived at the park around 9 AM and stopped at the Visitor Center to pay the fee. We met another birder who had his scope trained on some roosting Condors. The birds were in a tree at the top of a ridge. We asked if he had seen any Lawrence's Goldfinches. He said, "sure, they're at the pool". Dang if they weren't. We wandered over to the pool in the campground and viola. Day 2, Bird 2!

Lawrence's Goldfinch

We found some other birds in the park but our big find was more California Condors. The park is surrounded by cattle ranches. We saw something in the field under the lone tree.

California Condors

22 Condors roosting the shade. The calf wanted shade too but didn't dare to go too close to the huge birds. This photo shows the size comparison so that you can get a sense of how huge these birds are. Condors are the largest birds in North America. A member of the vulture family, they only eat dead animals. Unfortunately for the farmer, the flock had gathered to make the most of a dead cow in the field. Zooming in to the photo, we could see that the birds are tagged. Each bird was hatched in captivity and released into the wild with the wing band. We saw #97, 92, 58, 59, 31, 16, 40 and 78.

California Condors

On Saturday, we booked a pelagic trip out of Monterey Bay. We boarded the boat at 7:00 and by 9:00, I had bird #3 - Cassin's Auklet! Now, I know it doesn't look like much but it is a really cute alcid. Day 3, Bird 3 - check. My Total Life List is now at 1299 and our ABA list is now 672.

Cassin's Auklet

I have more photos and stories from our boat trip that I'll share in another post.

Utah Wrap-up

I definitely saw a lot of life birds on the trip. A few notable birds that didn't make the other posts include some boring looking birds like this Gray Flycatcher.

Gray Flycatcher

And this Gray Vireo.

Gray Vireo

And this new species of Crossbill that is only found in the Idaho mountains. Cassia's Crossbills are non-migratory and have recently been "upgraded" from a race to a full species. They are specialized to feed on pine cones which they open with their crossed bills. We found these flitting around the trees in a state park after a pretty rough ride in the van.

Cassia's Crossbill

On our way to see the Crossbills, we stopped at a spot that has hummingbird feeders to watch some little gems of the west. We spotted a few of the more common species and then found the one that I was hoping for - Calliope Hummingbird. This is the smallest of our hummers in the US and one that I haven't been able to see until now. Look at the gorget on this guy!

Calliope Hummingbird

Here is a juvenile male that is just getting stubble on his chin like a teenager.

Hummer

On our last day, we found a family of Sage-brush Sparrows.

Sagebrush Sparrow

We also saw some great animals on the trip. One that I was really happy to see and photograph was Long-tailed Weasel. We watched this fast critter dart around the sage brush. I was lucky to snap this shot which shows how long the weasel is.

Long-tailed Weasel on the move

He finally stopped for a few seconds and looked right at me!

Long-tailed Weasel

It wasn't just little critters. On Antelope Island, we found the large mammals. This Mule Deer was the king of his domain. They count the points on the antlers only on one side. Tim said that this was a 6 pointer. Hunting is only allowed by lottery that costs more than $100,000 so this guy might be safe.

Mule Deer

Antelope Island is known more for it's Bison than Antelope. Here are a few roaming the grasslands.

Bison

And here is what we refer to as Antelope but it is actually called a Pronghorn. We spotted a few that didn't run off.

Pronghorn

That's a wrap for this trip. I would do it all again and recommend that you go too.

Seattle Work Trip Nets 1 Life Bird and a Volcano

What a crazy work trip last week. So busy with meetings in Seattle that I didn't think I would have even an hour to be outdoors. Luckily, my boss and I had an hour to kill on Monday afternoon and went out to Marymoor Park in Redmond WA just to get outside. As luck would have it, we met a couple on the trail that told us about a Red-breasted Sapsucker pecking away at a tree further down the path. Check! Life bird!

I've missed this relatively easy bird on many west coast trips in the past, but not this time. The bird was in no hurry to leave. Bad news is that I only brought my binoculars and not my camera. You can see how close we were though since I managed to get this cell phone photo.

Red-breasted Sapsucker

I also had to head down to Portland OR to meet with some clients. The scenery was beautiful. Mountain ranges and big cedar trees all along the route. The weather was clear enough for me to see the major mountains (volcanos) that run along the Cascade mountain range. I saw Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood too. On my way back to Seattle on Thursday, I had a few hours of daylight so I decided to detour off the highway to see Mount St. Helens.

The Visitor Center has a gorgeous, but distant view of the volcano.

Mount St. Helens

Getting a closer look requires an hour drive. I made it pretty far up but the park road is closed in winter.

Imagine back to 1979 before the volcano erupted. This mountain had a pointed top. But then unexpectedly, BOOM! A cataclysmic eruption blew the entire top of the mountain right off leaving it looking like this. 

Mount St. Helens

A closer look at the back side of the volcano shows how the mountain top blew off and destroyed the side of the mountain. Pretty impressive to see first hand.

Mount St. Helens - eruption zone

If you have the opportunity to see it, you should make the trip.

600!

Birders have lists. You know that already. What you might not know is that there are MANY different kinds of lists. There is the life list which is the total number of birds seen anywhere. My life list is currently at 1175 which means that I've seen about 10% of all bird species on the planet. 

Then for American birders, there is the American Birding Association or ABA list. This is the total number of birds seen in North America. Obviously, there are fewer than 10,000 bird species in America. Only 900 or so have been seen here and of that, only 750ish have been seen more than once or twice. Many birders try to see 750. I've been trying to get to 600 for a while now and finally did it on this trip to Arizona. And, the bird that broke the mark was pretty cool too - Mexican Spotted Owl. Here he is congratulating me (not).

Mexican Spotted Owl

Number 600 could have been this Red-faced Warbler which I saw on the same hike up Miller Canyon but it was number 601 just because of the order of the list in eBird. 

Red-faced Warbler

But the Spotted Owl hit the mark and I'm glad. My 300th bird was also an owl - Snowy Owl at Stone Harbor Point many years ago. 

The owl took some effort to see. We had to go to Beatty's Guest Ranch in Miller Canyon and hike up, up, up to the spot. The friend that we made in Madera Canyon - Edna from New Jersey gave us great directions. She told us to look for the split rock the size of two vans and then go down the little path, put our butts up against another giant rock and look up. Damn if they weren't right where she told us.

Spotted Owls

A pair of Spotted Owls just sitting there like nobody was around. Meanwhile, they are probably the most popular Spotted Owls in the country. They must be visited over a dozen time each day by crazy birders like me. Good thing they don't seem to mind. 

Only about 150 more to go . . . looking forward to the adventure. 

Boys Weekend in Texas

Calling this weekend "Boys Weekend" was not my idea. Lori came up with that term because 3 of us decided to go power birding in Rio Grande Valley which meant that the other 3 of us stayed home. Which 3 are in Texas? Me, Lori and Barbara. We wanted to go on a trip to find birds and not worry about eating or sleeping or any other comforts. The goal is to see birds!

So far, success. One day around Brownsville and Barbara has 5 life birds, Lori has 4, and I have 3. I also picked up a bunch of ABA birds too. We started the day at Sabal Palm Sanctuary which is right on the Mexican border.  The property was once a large plantation and now is a wildlife refuge.

Rabb Plantation House - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Driving in south Texas is like being in a third world country sometimes. Little dirt roads, horses tied up in front yards, goats roaming around. We drove down the road to the park and found a Harris' Hawk sitting on a telephone pole.

Harris' Hawk

Of course, we pulled off the dirt road to take this photo. A few minutes later, a Texas State Trooper pulled up along side of our rental Jeep. "Um, are you ladies bird watching?" asked the 12 year old Trooper (OK, he wasn't really 12 years old but he was really young). We told him that we were looking at a hawk and making our way to the park to which he replied "If you see anyone running, call us" while making the phone call motion with his hands. This is border country for sure.

Don's Fence

Donald Trump sure works fast :-) Kidding. This is the border fence that already exists in this area. The guy at the park office told us that the fence runs along the Rio Grande river levee. The park actually sits between the fence and the Rio Grande river. Here I am pointing to Mexico.

Rio Grande River - Mexico

We saw some great birds at this park including Green Jays. There were many of them but only photographable at the bird feeder.

Green Jay

Here is a close up.

Green Jay

We also saw Buff-bellied Hummingbirds. This is the only one that sat long enough for a photo.

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

We also saw butterflies and a rare snake - the Speckled Racer. Barbara saw a little one slither under some palm fronds and then Lori found a 3 foot one slinking through the butterfly garden. We spent almost 4 hours at this park and then headed north to Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge. Everyone warned us about the pothole riddled road and the hunters but we went anyway. We stopped at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant for lunch. YUM.

Lunch

This is where it all went downhill. The lady at the Laguna Atascosa visitor center was really nice but most of the refuge was off limits due to hunting season and road repairs. We wandered around the trails near the main office when all of a sudden, the skies opened up and it poured rain for 45 minutes trapping us under a pavilion.


We drove out of the rain and headed to Port Isabel Road to find very rare Aplomado Falcons. These falcons were virtually extinct from the US until recent efforts by the US wildlife department re-introduced the birds to south Texas. They are slowly making a come back. The nice lady at the Visitor Center showed us where to look for them. We struck out at first, but finally found one bird sitting on the cell phone tower at about 4:15 PM - just as a rainbow appeared. Coincidence? I don't think so . . .

Rainbow Falcon

The falcon is the little dot on the left side of the tower next to the rainbow. Here is a zoomed in shot. Keep in mind that the tower was pretty far away and pretty tall.

Aplomado Falcon

Great way to end Day 1 of Boys Weekend. #boysweekend

More Desert Birding Equals 4 Life Birds

I scheduled my trip so that I had free time on Friday and Saturday to go birding. The reason was to explore Nevada's birding locations but also to see if I could score a few life birds. I was going to rent a car and head out to explore but my boss actually gave me his rental which saved me a bunch of time (and money). I started out super early on Friday and headed northwest to the mountains in search of Townsend's Solitaire. I didn't really pay attention to the map and didn't realize how high up I was going until the sign said "Elevation 8452 ft". Suffice it to say that I didn't realize how cold it would be either - um 35 degrees and me with no jacket. Despite freezing and not being able to catch my breath in the high altitude, I managed to find not one, but 6 Townsend's Solitaires. Life Bird! Again, heard them before I saw them. This is the typical pose - right on top of the tree.

Townsend's Solitaire

One of the birds did come down a little bit. Notice the big white eye ring which is the best field mark.

Townsend's Solitaire

I only saw a few other birds at the top of the mountains including this Mountain Chickadee.

Mountain Chickadee

And of course, this Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warbler. Boy, you can find these birds literally anywhere.

Audubon's Warbler

After heading down the mountain, I still has some time before my first meeting of the day so I headed over to another city park - Floyd Lamb - which was on the way back to the city. I'm glad I did. I met alot of birders there. They were all looking for a Canada Warbler which showed up a few days before. Canadas are eastern warblers. We have them here in PA and NJ in spring and they even nest in our area. When they show up out west, its big news. We didn't find the Canada warbler but I got 2 more life birds. The first was Gray Flycatcher. This bird is not much to look at which is probably why I don't have it on my list yet. This trip, I really studied and was able to find the bird.

Gray Flycatcher

The other lifer was Costa's Hummingbird. Once again, the voice gave it away. This photo is a female. Wait til you see the male (next post)

Costa's Hummingbird - female

And once again, an unexpected sighting - a Brown Pelican in the middle of the desert.

Brown Pelican

I met a woman from Texas named Missy who was birding there too. We ended up birding together for most of the day which was really great. After a few hours of working, I met up with Missy again at Desert Park where we found a few birds but really not much to write about other than this interesting Leopard Lizard. Check out those spots.

From there, we made our way to another mountain park in search of Crissal Thrasher. We busted there too but got these views. We saw a Coyote and an Osprey. This Jackrabbit was HUGE.

Jackrabbit

And so was this view of Red Rocks.

Red Rocks

Thus ended Friday with 3 Life Birds in the bag. With that, I headed back to the Vegas Strip and literally collapsed in the bed.