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.
Lori and I are in Puerto Rico on a fast and furious birding trip before I have to go to a conference in San Jan. We are down in the south west corner of the island looking for endemic species and having pretty good luck. I'll tell you about that later. For now, I thought you might be interested to see this Pin-tailed Whydah's courtship woes. Male Pin-tailed Whydah are really cool looking birds. They are only sparrow sized bird but they have incredibly long tail that cannot be overlooked. The birds never let us get close but I did manage to capture this series of photos that show how hard this dude works to impress his gal. She's sitting on the bare branch and he's working his ass off in flight literally shaking his tail feathers.
Todd and I definitely made the most of our trip to California. On our quest to find a few lifers for me, we also came across other birds and sea life. Here are a few follow up photos including these California Sealions on the Monterey Jetty.
California Sealion
And plenty of Humpback Whales. Here is a photo of Pink-footed Shearwater and a whale together.
Pink-footed Shearwater and Humpback Whale
I've seen plenty of Humpback whales but this is the best "fluke" photo that I've ever had. This photo is not cropped. That is how close the whale was to the boat!
Humpback Whale Fluke
Remember, the boat is not allowed to chase the whale. We need to stop at some distance away. This one came really close. Very exciting. We also saw Risso's Dolphins on the trip. You can identify them at a distance because their heads look white. These guys came right at the boat and I was able to snap this shot. He looks like he's smiling for the camera!
Risso's Dolphin
Back on land, we spent time just driving the roads along the coast, cattle fields and canyons looking for birds. Todd spotted a MacGillivray's warbler but I missed it. They are skulkers and hard to see. Todd is really good at understanding suitable habitat for birds and calling them out by "pishing". I used that information on another day and got to see this MacGillivray's warbler along another road. Ta-da!
MacGillivray's Warbler
Another sweet warbler that we found along the canyon roads was Wilson's warbler. You can easily identify these warblers by the black "yamaka" that they wear on their head.
WIlson's Warbler
Anna's hummingbirds are common in California. We rarely stopped along the road and didn't see one. Here is a young male perched. You can see his throat patch coming in like a teenaged boy trying to grow a goatee.
Anna's Hummingbird
Back along the coast, we stopped at a beach for a walk. We were treated to this harbor seal basking on the rocks. Look at the waves splashing behind her.
Harbor Seal
We were also able to photograph some beach birds. Black Oystercatchers are the common species on the Pacific coast. Like our Oystercatcher, they have that bright orange bill and flesh toned legs.
Black Oystercatcher
Heerman'g gulls are some of my favorite. I love their muted gray tones. This one is ready to take flight.
Heerman's Gull
This crab was almost lunch for a Western Gull but the bird dropped the crab when he saw us walking up the beach. We snapped a photo before returning the crab to the water.
Purple Shore Crab
All-in-all, a great trip to northern California coast.
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:
Tri-colored Blackbird
Lawrence's Goldfinch
Cassin's Auklet
Fork-tailed Storm-petrel
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.
So, last month I went out on the Atlantic ocean for the day. This month, Todd and I went out on the Pacific ocean for more birding at sea. We booked 2 trips with Alvaro's Adventures. The first trip was out of Monterey Bay which was pretty good and I'll post about it later. The second trip was out of Half Moon Bay and unfortunately was cancelled due to rough seas. Alvaro and the boat captain felt bad for us and agreed to take us around the bay for an hour so that we could witness the spectacle of a huge Sooty Shearwater flock that had taken up residence in the bay feeding on a school of anchovies. This phenomenon does not occur often so it was worth the boat ride. You can see the black dots surrounding this fishing boat.
Our Captain drove the boat right into the flock slowly so that we could get a closer look. As the boat approached, the birds would run across the water.
You can see all of the splashing water behind the birds as they tried to take flight.
I took several videos so that you could see the birds but also hear the pitter-patter of their feet as they ran across the water to lift off.
It was tough to get a photo of a single bird. They are powerful flyers. In fact, Sooty Shearwaters complete the second longest migration of any bird traveling from their breeding grounds in New Zealand across the Pacific ocean to California and back each year. A total trip of 40,000 miles!
Unfortunately, with so many birds, there are bound to be casualties. We found this dead bird floating face down in the water with a big gash in its side. They are pretty hefty birds. I took this selfie with the bird and Alvaro. I guess its kind of morbid but at least the bird's death will have some positive effects. Alvaro will take it to the natural history museum for study.
OK, so now comes the interesting part. You need to listen to the video for the story that Alvaro told us. As you read earlier, the Sooty Shearwater phenomenon doesn't happen often. It happened in 1961 and due to weather and other circumstances, the birds lost their bearings and flew onto land. I'll let you listen to the rest of the story.
I really love that movie and now I love it even more.
If you follow this blog, you have probably read about my "pelagic" birding expeditions. Pelagic birding means that we are out on a boat in the ocean looking for birds that live way out there. Our friends Paul and Anita Guris run the trips through their side-hustle company called SeeLife Paulagics ( a nice play on words). They run about a dozen trips every year in winter and summer. I didn't think I could make the summer trip this year due to work schedule but at the last minute, my calendar opened up.
I took a vacation day and boarded the boat on Sunday night at 10 PM. The trip started out great. The weather was delightful, the stars were bright, the Perseid Meteor shower was in full swing. I slept a little bit but mostly watched the shooting stars and the Milky Way until about 4 AM when the boat came to a stop 85 miles off of the NJ coast. In the dark waters, we could see squid and flying fish under the spot lights and then a few birds flew past the boat in the pre-dawn light. Leach's Storm Petrels are most active at night. Our best chance to see them is at first light. We were not disappointed.
Leach's Storm Petrel at first light
Although we were out past the continental shelf, we were not alone. This ship was the backdrop for our first whale species of the day - Cuvier's Beaked Whale.
Cuvier's Beaked Whale
The birding and whale watching heated up quickly with many Band-rumped and Wilson's Storm Petrels following our boat.
Wilson's Storm Petrel
You can see the Pilot Whales heading toward the boat. The storm petrels are not afraid of the whales and stay on the surface of the water looking for food.
Pilot Whales
The whales came close to the boat. They didn't seem to mind us.
Me and the whales
Many of the whales were resting on the surface. They call this "logging" because they whales look like logs floating on the surface. If you listen closely, you can hear them breathing in this video.
We saw over 200 Pilot Whales by the end of the day. The ocean currents often carry seaweed from far away lands like Africa and South America. We often find Bridled Terns sitting on the floating debirs. Here is an adult that found a tree at sea.
Bridled Tern
The tern allowed the 100 foot boat to approach but then took off.
Bridled Tern
This "weed line" is a favorite for fisherman since it attracts fish that feed on the critters that live in the sea weed. We took the opportunity to investigate the hidden life by scooping up the Sargassum seaweed. We found a bunch of crazy life forms.
Sargassum Weed
This is the Sargassum crab which is completely camouflaged. We put the creatures into a little aquarium so that we could all get good looks and photos before returning them to the sea.
Sargassum Crab
Can you see the File Fish in this photo? Another camouflage specialist.
File Fish
This Jack fish is the opposite of camouflaged.
Young Jack
This is a jellyfish called By-the-Wind Sailor. It floats on the open ocean.
By-the-Wind Sailor
The best find in the net was this weird looking creature. It is a Sea Swallow. It is in the same family as a clam but doesn't have a shell. This mollusk is one of the only creatures that can eat a Man-of-War jellyfish. Man-of-Wars have a potent sting that can kill a person. The Sea Swallow becomes just as deadly when it has eaten the jellyfish. I was careful not to touch the creature as I moved it into position for the photograph. I swear it's looking at me. Creepy.
Sea Swallow
As I said, the weed line attracts fish like Mahi-Mahi that feed on the smaller fish that are feeding on the jellyfish, shrimp and crabs in the weed. As luck would have it, a few of the guys brought fishing rods along. We landed 4 Mahi-Mahi. Here is one jumping as it was reeled in.
I helped reel one in and was rewarded with a filet to take home. Yum.
I've been on many pelagic trips off of New Jersey and seen some amazing birds, whales, dolphins and other sea creatures. There is one bird that I haven't seen - the White-faced Storm Petrel. This bird has eluded me for years. The bird is very uncommon but is seen almost every year - just not on the day that I'm out there. My luck changed on this trip. Someone shouted - "this might be a white faced" and sure enough, we all saw the diagnostic Kangaroo hopping bird. It was indeed the White-faced Storm Petrel! I tried to get a few photographs.
White-faced Storm Petrel
You can see the white face on the bird. You can probably also imagine that the bird just hopped off of the water where the splash is but photos do not do this bird justice so I tried to take a few videos. Taking videos with my big camera is challenging. You'll have to endure the shake but I think you can see the Kangaroo hop.
At last, my curse was broken. Little did we know that this would not be the only sighting of the day. We found 2 more in the same area as the first bird. Most trips find 1 at most. We already had 3 and then we found 10 more for a total of 13 White-faced Storm Petrels. I think that might be a record for New Jersey. Crazy.
Most of the time on these trips, we get a burst of excitement and then hours of nothing. Not on this trip. Between storm petrel sightings, we saw a pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins who played with the boat.
No rest for the weary. With many eyes on board staring out at the ocean, we find a lot of creatures that break the water's surface with fins. We found 2 shark species. One was a Great Hammerhead which is easy to identify as it swam past the boat. The other had a large dorsal fin but never came close to the boat for identification. Another fin popped up. This time it wasn't a shark fin but a Mola Mola. These freaky creatures look like giant man-hole covers with long fins on top and bottom.
Mola Mola
They often float at the surface on their sides to absorb the warmth of the sun - hence the common name of Ocean Sunfish.
The most common fish of the day was Flying Fish. We saw hundreds or thousands of these as they flew away from the boat. It is amazing to watch them fly for hundreds of feet before crashing back into the water. I managed to capture this photo.
Flying Fish
Our last creature of the day was a lifer for our host Anita - Humpback Whale. We spotted a mother and calf about 30 miles from shore. As we approached, the whales were under the water but we could clearly see the mother's white flippers.
Humpback Whale underwater
Mom and calf were quite comfortable near the boat. You can see junior in the center. Mom is so big that only her blow hole is visible in the photo.
Humpback Whales
What a great day! I'm afraid to go out again and be disappointed. LOL.
