Birding with Michelle Brodie

Ecuador: October 25-November 19, 2011

2011-11-19T14:58:00.000-08:00

Ken Archambault invited me to join him on a trip to Ecuador he had planned. Given his eccentricities I was hesitant but after giving it some thought I decided to join. Despite his atrocious behavior, I had a wonderful time on my trip and saw 298 new species of birds, lots of wild life, and met amazing people.

We flew to Quito, Ecuador on October 25 and stayed at the Hilton Colon. Ken complained so bitterly about the price of the hotel room that it was easier for me to just pay for his room as a birthday present. It's the last present he will be receiving from me. On October 26 at 4:45 AM Jonas from WildSumaco came to the hotel and picked us up. He drove us to Yanacocha Trail at 11,500 feet in the Andes. My first bird in Ecuador was a Great Thrush as we drove up the mountainside to the trailhead.   It started out sunny but soon the fog and drizzle moved in. It was bone chilling cold but worse than that were biting gnats that tormented us all day long. There were not that many birds on the trail and they were hard to see in the fog but I managed to add 29 birds on that first day. The trail is flat and ends at several hummingbird feeders were I saw Mountain Velvetbreast, Sapphire-vented Puffleg, Golden-breasted Puffleg, Tyrian Metaltail, and numerous Buff-winged Starfronlets as well as the bizzare Sword-billed Hummingbird that has a bill about five inches long.   I briefly saw Blackish Tapaculo and Ocellated Tapaculo. The Rufous Antpitta and Tawny Antipittas called repeatedly but would never reveal themselves. When we could not bear the biting gnats any longer we returned to the trail head where I also saw the beautiful Shining Sunbeam hummingbird. Near dusk Jonas picked us up and took us back to the Hilton. On the way Jonas commented on how mean Ken was to me and also said that because Ken enjoyed McDonalds and Burger King so much and failed to see the hypocracy of his contributation to the destruction of the rain forest, they should name one of the cattle farms at Sumaco after him.

The next day we flew from Quito to the revolting town of Coca, gateway to the Amazon basin on the Napo River. The Napo River flows into the Amazon River where it enters Brazil. Just was we were about to board the plane in Quito, Tame Airlines called Ken back to the checkin counter so they could open his bags. They wanted to look at an aerosole can of insect repellent he had. Actually I think they were getting back at him for having bags weighing 58 pounds when 40 was the limit. He was furious and cussed out a La Selva worker over the phone that his bags probably would not make it onto the plane. I was so embarrassed. We stayed in Coca just long enough to meet a boat from La Selva Lodge. We caught a boat down the Napo River for two and a half hours. It rained the entire time and eventually I was forced to huddle under my rain poncho. Once the boat arrived at the dock we then walked 800 meters on a boardwalk and then were canoed across a lagoon before finally arriving at the jungle lodge, La Selva. It continued to rain so we met our guide for the week, Jose, and just looked at birds from under the roof of the main lodge. There were many Sand-colored Nighthawks perched in a tree right next to the lodge. Yellow-rumped Caciques and Crested Oropendolas nested just above the sidewalk to the cabins. There were some common birds around the main lodge-- the very bland colored Palm Tanager, Blue-gray Tanager, Violaceous Jay, Hoatzin, and Black-capped Donacobius, among others. We put our things into our cozy cabins before heading off to dinner in the eating area. The food at La Selva was fantastic. My only complaint about the lodge was that the coffee was not very good. After dinner I headed off to bed as every morning we got up before dawn to get the maximum bird sightings. By mid-day most birds were hiding from the blazing heat of the jungle. As I dozed off I heard Tawny Screech-Owl and Tropical Screech-Owl calling. They were my constant companions at night.   My gnat bites from Yanacocha trail itched insanely and I was so glad I had prescription strength anti-itch cream.

October 27, 2011, someone came by my cabin and woke me up with a gentle knock and "good morning" at 5:00 AM.   After breakfast, Ken, Jose, and I walked to a rickety tower that wrapped around a tree. The best way to see birds in the jungle canopy is from a tower and we saw plenty. Flocks of multi-colored tanagers, huge beautiful woodpeckers and tree creepers, cotingas and honeycreepers surrounded us. The highlights though were one White-browed Purpletuft and a Purplish Jacamar. We stayed in the tower until noon and then headed back for lunch. We took a break during the hottest part of the day and I took the opportunity to take pictures of the many beautiful butterflies around La Selva. As it was very hot I changed into a white t-shirt. At 4:00 PM we met Jose for an afternoon walk in the jungle. Jose heard a Rusty-belted Tapaculo. He asked Ken if he wanted to film it. Ken said yes so we took off into the jungle hacking our way through.    Tapaculos are one of the bird species that do not want to be seen or filmed. We were very persistent and I eventually saw it. I knew Ken was dying to film it so I moved up the trail while Ken set up his gigantic video camera. The bird was flitting around very elusive and at one point moved up the trail toward me and Jose. We spent an hour tracking the tapaculo but Ken was not able to film it. So he started saying it was my fault because I wore a white t-shirt and to please not wear a white t-shirt.   But he wasn't just asking me; he was yelling at me in a very abusive manner. Then Ken said that he did not want to go to the Clay Lick the next day and that since I had not paid for a guide and only he, Ken, had paid for a guide, that I was not entitled to Jose's services and would have to go by myself the rest of the time. Also he said he was not able to film the tapaculo because of me. I was furious. He yelled at me in front of Jose. Moreover, everything he was saying was a complete lie. While Ken was off traipsing around some other country when our balance was due, I took the trouble to wire transfer our balance to La Selva and Wild Sumaco. I said "Ken we both paid the exact same amount. I have the wire transfer receipts and can show you. Moreover, I am not going to the Clay Lick alone." It was insane. You have to be canoed across the lagoon to go anywhere. How on earth would I even get there without Jose? The price of the La Selva Lodge included a bird guide. I deserved Jose's services as much as Ken. Ken's idea of birding though is that everyone should get out of his way because it is far more important for Ken to film a bird than for anyone else to even see it. At dinner another guest, Dana from Austin, who had flown down with us from Quito and ridden on the boat ride asked me about Ken's strange behavior. I told her how he yelled at me in front of Jose and said that I was not entitled to use his services. Dana said that Ken was beyond eccentric. I was happy because I had seen 44 new birds in one day. Ken was just mad because it was his third trip to Ecuador and he had only seen four new species. He was very rude to the other guests at dinner. However, he did mention that he really wanted to see a Zig Zag Heron, a bird that many people come to La Selva to see.

October 29, 2011 as we were getting into the canoe with Jose to be rowed across the lagoon to go to the Clay Lick in the Yanisani National Park, Ken announced that he would be withdrawing from our planned trip to Mexico in March. I was so relieved. I have no intention of ever going anywhere ever again with that rude, hateful psychotic, selfish miscreant.   Jose pulled the canoe over half way across the lagoon up to a Zig Zag Heron. I felt vindicated. He would not have seen it if we had not gone to the Clay Lick that day. After a short ride up the Napo River we came to a clay bank where three other boats were pulled up looking at parrots. The parrots come to the clay to clean their digestive systems. There were a lot of people so we continued on to a boat ramp and got out. We walked up a paved path to a canopy with chairs in front of a pool of water and a large clay wall. We could hear the parrots but none would come down. So after sitting silently for about 30 minutes we went for a walk and decided to check later. We walked up a steep hill and came across a Short-billed Antwren. While Ken was filming it he failed to hear Jose state that there was a female Wire-tailed Manakin also in the same tree. At the top of the hill was a Screaming Piha, a rather drab bird with a loud scream for a song. We saw some other birds and then walked back to the Clay Lick. Now there were hundreds of birds and about two dozen people under the canopy watching them silently. The canopy had a bare wood floor. Ken was mad that other people were there and stomped across the wood floor shaking it violently so as to disturb the other guests. Everyone turned around and stared at him. I was so embarrassed for him. It was very obnoxious but typical Ken behavior. No one is allowed to have fun and see birds unless he is filming them. After about 45 minutes the parrots and parakeets left and almost all the people except for one couple staying at Sacha Lodge on the opposite side of the Napo River. Jose had arranged to have our lunch delivered to us at the Clay Lick. Ken opened his and started complaining to Jose that it didn't have any meat in it. Then he blamed me claiming that they got confused because I am a vegetarian. The couple from Sacha Lodge offered him their lunch. Later I heard Jose talking in Spanish to some of the other employees at La Selva about Ken's rude behavior. That night we went owling with Jose but the owls ran away. We chased them all the way to the tower which we climbed in the dark but they went farther and farther into the night. A Great Tinnamou began calling as night descended. At dinner Dana asked Ken if he was pleased about seeing the Zig Zag Heron. He said no. She said but you announced that it was one of your targets. He just sulked and stormed away. Later I asked Ken about one of the parrots at the clay wall and he said he refused to look at them because he had seen them before.

October 30 Jose offered to take us to the Sand Island. Ken said his back hurt and he wanted to go to the tower instead. So Jose and I went alone up the Napo River to the Sand Island. On the way we saw Squirrel Monkeys and White-fronted Capuchins. After arriving at the island we walked across some quick sand to a wooded area and saw lots of neat birds such as Orange-headed Tanager, Little Cuckoo, Mottle-backed Elaenia, and Parker's Spinetail. We spent an hour stalking a Black and White Antbird which Jose skillfully drew out so I could see it. After lunch and a break we went for an afternoon walk at 4:30 PM in the woods and saw a Neotropical Otter on a tree. Ken was mad because he didn't see it. After dinner Dana and I went to the bar and had a few drinks. It was her last day. I was sad she was leaving because she had been my ally against the insane and abusive Ken.

October 31 our wake up call was 5:00 AM. After breakfast Jose showed me a Long-billed Woodcreeper in a tree behind the kitchen. Ken refused to look at it. Afterwards Jose took us across the lagoon and up the Napo River to Sendero Cinco- Trail Five. He brought a machete along and we just bushwacked our way through the jungle. At the beginning of the trail I saw a small snake-- a Fur de Lance. Ken asked me to show him where. I said where it was but he couldn't hear me he said because I am soft spoken. The snake slithered away and Ken became furious because he had not been able to film it. He started yelling at me in a very abusive manner. We were all wearing rubber boots in order to tramp through the jungle. I wanted a picture of myself in my jungle outfit but Ken refused to take one. Jose's English was not very good and it seemed too complicated to ask him. I stopped to take a picture and Ken and Jose took off without waiting for me. Ken started yelling at me that if I had been on a birding tour they would have asked me to go back to the dock and leave. This was very interesting coming from Ken, who had been kicked off a birding tour in Madagascar with Rockjumper Tours because he was so abusive to the other birders. His behavior was becoming more and more intolerable and even though I loved the jungle and was enjoying seeing all the new and beautiful birds he was ruining my vacation. I was not enjoying being yelled at every single day and blamed every time Ken was unable to film a bird. It was outrageous.   In the jungle Jose found a Banded Antbird.   Ken jumped in front of me and blocked me from seeing it. It just wasn't worth it to me. In the scheme of things what difference does it make if I don't see one bird? I just could not stand to have Ken yelling at me and trying to humiliate me in front of Jose. So I didn't even try to see it. But Jose noting my frustration, motioned for me to come over to where he was and he showed me the bird. It was beautiful. Later Jose was trying to bring a bird in by playing the bird song on his ipod and Ken started playing a different bird's song on his ipod. Jose looked at him with incredulity. Later Jose found this other bird, some kind of gnat eater.  Jose yelled "stop" but Ken, who is 6'4", jumped in front of me and knealt down with his camera blocking me from seeing the bird at all. I never saw it. I didn't feel well that day anyway. The trail was full of large flocks of birds but I could hardly enjoy it due to not feeling well and having Ken treat me so abusively. When the last of the birds flew from the flock we were admiring, Jose's son, Miguel showed up with our lunch. We were about to start eating it when Miguel said there was a Scarlet Macaw right over our heads. We got up to see it and Ken tried to get his camera on it but it flew away before he could. He said it was Miguel's fault for making too much motion. I said, "but if it hadn't been for Miguel pointing it out, you wouldn't have seen it at all." That night at dinner Ken said that he intentionally tried to prevent me from seeing the Banded Antbird. I was shocked. On the boat ride back from Sendero Cinco Ken said that I should give Jose a $200 tip. I said well that seems like a lot. The book says $10 a day is customary. Ken said that I should leave a tip for both of us. I said why would I do that when you have benefitted from him as much as I have ? He didn't have an answer. He is insane. I'm not leaving a tip for him especially after how abusive he had been. My feet hurt from standing all day. After resting in my cabin I went to the bar to get a drink. Bernardo, the bar tender was there. I mentioned that I was surprised that I had not had chocolate or bananas since arriving in Ecuador. He said that we had had chocolate the night before in the mouse but I didn't have any because it had milk in it.   He said he would tell them in the kitchen to fix me something special. During dinner it came out that Ken had seen an Ash-throated Gnateater. I had no idea because all I saw was Ken's butt. I was shocked. There was a new visitor from Australia, Maryln. Ken didn't like her.  After dinner the servers came out with a big bowl of bananas with chocolate all over it just for me. It was so good and I was so touched that they had made it specially for me. I said thank you and how good it was and Ken got mad and stormed out of the eating area without even telling anybody good night.    The other guests were shocked at his rudeness to them.

On November 1, 2011 Jose, Ken, and I walked behind the tower at La Selva. We saw a Black-faced Antbird and White-chested Buffbird. Ken became outraged that I had been able to videotape the antbird and began yelling at me to stay back. He complained that because I was wearing a white shirt he was not able to film the birds when in reality the birds flew when he moved his lanky arms to change from his long lens to his short lens. He told Jose, "can you believe she cost me two birds already this morning?" Then he turned to me and said out of the blue, "all you care about is getting drunk and picking up women."   Then he said, "all I care about in the world is filming birds and you are ruining my trip by inviting yourself here and preventing me from seeing and filming birds." If I had had a gun I would have just shot him right there. I remembered a story Ken often told me about going on a birding trip when one of the other guests tried to kick Ken's camera over. I could totally understand. I'm surprised that any tour group will allow that mentally ill bothersome twerp to go on any trip with other guests. Ken's idea of birding with a group is for everyone to get out of his way and stand stock still while he films all the birds and you look at his hunchback. We went to the lagoon but Jose's son, Miguel, who was supposed to pick us up on a canoe never showed up. Ken again complained that the lens on my video camera was too big and bright, that my glasses were reflecting sunlight and scaring the birds and recommended that I ditch them for contacts, my watch was too big and scaring birds (even though we were in the jungle and usually never even saw sunlight). Then he called me a "fucking asshole" right in front of Jose and most bizarre of all said that I must have had a miserable childhood and been very unhappy. Actually I had a very good childhood and have many fond memories of spending hours in the woods behind my parent's house with my siblings. The only reason I can think of that he would make such outlandishly false statements is that he was projecting about his own bad childhood when he was abandoned by his father. While waiting for Miguel who never came we saw a White-chinned Jacamar and a Spot-backed Antbird. After lunch and a rest we went back to the tower at 3:00 PM. The activity was not nearly as good as in the morning but I had my best sighting of the trip when Jose pointed out a Lanceolated Monklet to me. It was perched in perfect lighting and I saw it and filmed it well.

November 2, 2011 we took a boat up the Napo River to the banks where Jose's family lives. A mixed flock of Aracari's flew into a tree. Some of them were Chestnut-fronted Aracari's. Later we cut through the jungle with a machete and stalked a White-lored Antipitta. Ken yelled at Jose for not stopping the tape fast enough when the antpitta came out into the open and Ken was not able to film it. We heard a Black-throated Antbird and saw the beautiful Green and Rufuos Kingfisher and a Sunbittern. At 3:00 PM we went to Mandacocha Lake. We spent far too long stalking a Rusty-belted Gnateater that never revealed itself and ended up running in the forest to the lake. I tripped on a root and slammed my other knee right into a protruding root. The pain was intense and I collapsed on the ground screaming in pain. It was not serious though and we continued to the lake where we saw a Common Potoo and a Sun Grebe. That evening at dinner they told us to pack our bags and be at the lagoon dock for a 6:00 AM departure the next day.

November 3, 2011 I packed my bags and went to the lagoon as instructed at 6:00 AM but Ken wasn't there. Some other guests came and said they saw Ken with his tripod and backpack headed for the tower. And there he stayed until 9:00 AM. Everyone else left for their excursion. I asked the workers to get him but he just refused to come down. Finally at 9:00 AM after I had been sitting there at the dock with nothing to do for three hours "His Highness" as one of the other guests took to calling him showed up acting like everyone was sad to see him go. He started saying in Spanish "I'll see you all soon." Then he turned to Marcellino and said pointing to me, "es loca." In reality all the workers and guests commented to me that they felt he was unstable and needed to be institutionalized. When we arrived back at Coca the driver from Wildsumaco asked why we were three hours late and Ken had the nerve to say the boat had mechanical problems.    I had had it with that monster. I refused to get in the van and checked into the La Mision Hotel instead. That evening at the suggestion of Lonely Planet Guide to Ecuador I walked over to the Auca Hotel for dinner. While waiting for the restaurant to open a little punk snatched my iphone out of my hand.   I ran down the street after him and stupidly yelled for the police. They were more than happy to oblige. The thief threw the phone on the ground and the police picked it up and refused to give it back to me. No one spoke a word of English.    The police officer, Oscur Ruedo, assured me that it was the law of Ecuador that they confiscate my phone as evidence and that I must return the following day to testify. The next day I found out it was a five day national holiday. I was a target. The police tried to steal my passport and they already had my phone. I had to get out of there fast before I became a "Disaparaceda." I was fortunate to get my passport back. I had to call him from the front desk since the phone in my room didn't work. When I came back the maid had come to clean up. She came in the room and called me "cabrone." Then she strayed some chemical very near my head. Later I discovered that she has also stolen my sandals.

Friday, November 4, 2011 I called Oscur Rueda three times and each time he fed me some song and dance about the judge having my phone and how the trial would be that afternoon. No one at the front desk of La Mision Hotel would help me arrange a taxi to Wildsumaco. As much as I did not want to be around Ken I had no choice. I had to get out of Coca before I was killed or raped or worse. I hired a nice taxi driver to drive me to Wildsumaco and pick me up on November 10. I could not understand his Spanish very well as he spoke very fast and spoke no English but we got by. He told me he lived in Coca and wanted to pick up his son on the way out of town to join us as it would be his first vacation. As we passed through Loreto he pulled the taxi very close to an outdoor grill where meat was cooking and rolled down the window to smell. The sun went down before we arrived and I was frightened at times that the tiny tires on the taxi would pop as we wound our way up the steep gravel road to Pacta Sumaco. Finally after two and a half hours I arrived and gladly paid the driver-- the only nice person I met in the whole horrible town of Coca. When I walked in the lodge Ken had a look of shock on his face. Did he think I was just going to go home? I had an awkward dinner at the Lodge at Wildsumaco as Ken and I were the only guests.

Saturday, November 5, 2011 it rained off and on all day. Wild Sumaco Lodge sits at about 4000 feet on the eastern slopes of the Andes. The land sits on a reclaimed cattle ranch so part of it is second growth rain forest and part disturbed. Across the street Wild Sumaco leases land to ranchers still raising cows. The road past the lodge goes all the way up Vulcan Sumaco where adventurous hikers can hike the 3732 meter volcano. The lodge maintains several graded trails that have been laid with gravel or boardwalks so that rubber boots were not needed. They also have a large deck that looks out over some cycropia trees and other fruiting trees that attract flocks of tanagers and other birds. On a clear day which is rare there you can see the snowy summit of Antisanna high in the Andes. The highlight of Wildsumaco though are the numerous hummingbird feeders just off the deck that can be viewed even on a rainy day from underneath the extended roof and that draw fourteen species of hummingbirds. There are also ten more feeders hanging one km down the road. After breakfast I was standing on the deck when a bright red Andean Cock of the Rock appeared in the cycropia. Jim, one of the owners and the person who met us at Coca, gave me a trail map and started me off. We heard a Little Tinnamou calling and saw the bee sized Gorgeted Woodstar hummingbird in the flowering bushes. I walked up the road to the F.A.C.E. trail. I saw many birds I couldn't identify. They were much easier to see than in the jungle because the canopy is much thinner here. As I walked down the trail I spotted a large bird standing on the trail with a white back-- the Gray-winged Trumpeter. It started raining so I returned to the deck to film some hummingbirds. A Japanese birding guide showed up with his guest. We saw a gorgeous male Wire-crested Torntail hummer. After a while they left to go to the lower feeders which is the only place you can see the Andean Piedtail hummer. They came back in 30 minutes and said that some weird tall guy was down there who told them they had to leave because they were bothering him. The Japanese guide came back outraged and complained to Bonnie. Later Ken lied and said he told them there was plenty of room and to please join him. I had a great day and added 34 new species to my life list. Unfortunately I developed a bad case of chiggers and was also bitten by another spider on my hip.

Sunday, November 6, 2011 I left the lodge at Wildsumaco after breakfast and walked down to the lower feeders where I saw the Ecuadoran Piedtail and many other beautiful hummingbirds, pigeons, and Seed finches. However, it was painstaking to remember the field marks and look the birds up later in the book. I needed a guide. I only added 18 new species.

Monday, November 7, 2011 it rained all night long and into the morning but I got up for 5:30 AM breakfast anyway and afterwards went for a long walk to the waterfall trail. It was a beautiful trail. After a while a flock came and I saw the White-backed Fire-eye the beautiful Ornate Flycatcher, and the cute Common Tody-flycatcher. In the afternoon Bonnie finally arranged for a guide, Manuel. He spoke no English but was very kind and carried my camera and tripod and knew the bird songs well and the names in English. We went to the F.A.C.E. trail at the suggestion of Bonnie. Ken was there but when he saw us coming he put his camera away and harrumphed off. He went to the lodge and lied and told Bonnie that I walked in front of him while he was filming. She had the nerve to tell me to choose a different trail from him next time! As if I know where he is going. I haven't spoken to him since his assanine antics at La Selva when he refused to come down from the tower. We heard an Ochre-breasted Antpitta and White-tailed Anthrush but couldn't get them to come out despite Miguel's valiant efforts. Mercifully two new guests arrived, Howard and Amy. Their son graduated from Clemson.

Tuesday, November 7, 2011 I again used the guide Miguel. We walked the Lodge Loop and saw a Lined Forest Falcon and then the Benavides Trail where we had jaw dropping looks at the Ochre-breasted Antpitta. Later a White-crowned Tapaculo practically walked over my foot it was so close. We also came across a Band-bellied Owl with an owlet. After lunch we walked the F.A.C.E. trail again where we saw the beautiful Crimson-crested Woodpecker and a Short-tailed Anthrush with three chicks! The Spotted Nightingale Thrush called repeatedly but would not reveal itself. Two new guests arrived Alison and Jonas from Connecticut.

Wednesday, November 8, 2011 I went with Miguel to the Coopman's Trail to stalk the elusive but bizarre White-tipped Sicklebill hummingbird that does not come to feeders because the bill is so severely curved it cannot get into the holes and instead visits flowers. We waited about 30 minutes but finally one came and I saw it very well placing its long bill into the flower. Wow. We also saw a Yellow-throated Bush-tanager and the very elusive Yellow-throated Spadebill and from the deck a Golden-collared Honeycreeper. In the afternoon I walked by myself since it was raining again. I tipped Miguel well for showing me some fantastic things. I walked the entire waterfall trail and Piha trail before returning for dinner. Wildsumaco's manager, Christina, was there. She was going to drive us back to Quito the next day.

Thursday, November 10, 2011 I was getting anxious to get away from Ken. It was becoming tiresome trying to avoid him and having to listen to his crazy talk to Bonnie. I told Bonnie I wanted to leave first thing in the morning but Jim said some guests were coming and since neither one of them spoke Spanish they needed her there to interpret for them and wouldn't be able to leave until 9:30. I said great I would like to leave at 9:30. But when I returned to the lodge to pack Bonnie said she told Ken we could leave at 11:00 AM. I think she actually liked him even though he had caused Jim to wait three hours for us at the dock at Coca and had insulted two of her other guests and run them off of the lower feeders. I was outraged. I couldn't wait to get away from him and them. I will never stay at Wildsumaco again. I didn't like the cows, the noisy trucks going up and down the road from Parque Nacional Sumaco, and how I was being jerked around on our departure time to please Ken! Finally at 11:30 AM Christina, Ken, and I loaded into a truck and drove four hours to Quito. The road is very beautiful and crosses the 13,500 foot Papallacta Pass. Finally we arrived at the Hilton where I said goodbye to Christina and finally the odious Ken. Near midnight my sister, Sharon, finally arrived.

Friday, November 11, 2011, we walked from our hotel all the way to Old Town. I saw an Eared Dove in Alameda Park to add one new bird for the day. I was too afraid to take my binoculars out into town so I couldn't tell what the other birds up in the trees were. After being robbed in Coca I was not about to have my binoculars stolen in Quito a day before Galapagos. We walked the narrow Colonial Streets with their quaint shops. Then we visited Basillica Del Voto a huge church with stained glass and iguanas and turtles for ornaments. Next we walked to Plaza San Francisco Monastery, the oldest building in the city completed in 1534. It housed a collection of ancient religious paintings and statues in Museo San Franciscano and had the most ornate altar I have ever seen.

Saturday, November 12, 2011, we flew from Quito to San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands. From the tiny airport we were met by our guide, Rafael, and driven to a boat dock and then boarded our home for the next week, the 147 foot long M/Y Grace. After a short briefing we were driven in a zodiak to shore and took a walk along Playa de Oro where we saw the first of Darwin's finches, the Small Ground Finch and the Medium Ground Finch, two week old Galapagos Sea Lions, Lava Lizards, and Sally Lightfoot Crabs. There was one Lava Heron but I could not add it as a new species because Rafael said it is actually a subspecies of the Striated Heron I had seen at La Selva. After our walk we headed back to the boat and set sail for Genovesa Island. As we headed away from San Cristobal Sharon and I scanned the water and saw White-vented Storm-Petrels, Great Frigatebirds, Galapagos Brown Pelicans (which DNA testing has confirmed to be a separate species), Galapagos Shearwater, and Galapagos Petrel. That evening we met the whole crew including our wonderful hotel manager, Deborah, and the great bar tender, Glenda. We continued sailing all night in order to be at Genovesa by morning. Unfortunately the engine is very loud and I was not able to sleep well. The rocking of the boat didn't bother me but even a pillow and ear plugs could not keep the engine noise out.

Sunday, November 13, 2011 we visited Darwin Bay after breakfast. We had a dry landing at Phillips Steps and saw Galapagos Mockingbird, Large Ground Finch, Vampire Finch which obtained its name from sucking off of other creatures and out over the water Wedge-rumped Storm Petrels, Red-billed Tropicbirds.
We walked right up to Nazca Boobies and Darwin's favorite food on the island, Galapagos Doves. After enjoying all the birds we went snorkeling. It was incredibly cold even with a wet suit so no one could stay in for longer than 30 minutes even though it was wonderful to swim with all the beautiful bright colored fishes including Mexican humped fish and Parrotfish among many others.

In the afternoon we visited Darwin Beach where we walked right up to Red-footed Boobies and their chicks, Large Ground Finches, Lava Gulls, Swallowtailed Gulls, Genovesa Mockingbird, and Granti Warbler Finch. After our walk Sharon and I kayaked back to the Grace. It was Sharon's birthday and the crew brought out a cake after dinner and sang happy birthday in English and Spanish.

Monday, November 14, 2011 we had sailed all night to land in the morning on Isabella Island, the largest of the chain. We awoke to a pod of Bridys Whales. After breakfast we walked to Tagus Cove to Darwin Lake a curiosity that has no outlet but has a higher salt content than the Pacific Ocean. On our walk we saw Galapagos Flycatcher, Flightless Cormorant, and Galapagos Penguin. Then we took a zodiak ride past a wall with bright yellow corral. Later we again went snorkeling. While snorkeling a Galapagos Penguin flew right under us inches away. The water was 19 degrees celsius. Burr!

After lunch we visited Fernandina Island which is across the bay from Isabella and saw hundreds of Marine Iguanas standing guard of the beach. There was a Galapagos Hawk in a tree. Back at the boat I jumped in the water and went for a swim around the boat before we set sail.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011 we awoke at Urbina Bay where we took a short walk and found a juvenile Giant Tortoise and one Land Iguana. The Land Iguanas are more shy than the marine iguanas we had seen previously. They would let you get close enough to blow salt water out of their nostrils and into your hair but the Land Iguanas were much more wary. As we returned to the beach to board the zodiak we found two juvenile Galapagos Hawks one eating a lobster that let us get very close. We boarded the Grace and sailed to Punta Vicente Roca where we had the most amazing time snorkeling. The water was slightly warmer allowing longer time in the water which was nice because as soon as we got there we found two Sunfishes. We tried for photos but decided it would be more fun to actually swim with the sunfishes. Rafael was very excited and said divers lived to swim with sunfish and that we were very lucky to have found them. There were many Galapagos Sea Turtles as well and some swam right up to my face which was very exciting for me. But the most exciting, one of the most exciting things of the whole trip was when a Pacific Manta-ray came within feet and turned its huge body toward me almost touching me. I was a little bit scared but later Rafael said they only eat plankton. There were also some puffer fish and many White-banded King Angel Fish. Wow what a day!

Wednesday, November 16, we landed at Bartolome Island and hiked to the Bartolome Summit for stunning views of Pinnacle Rock. Afterwards we went snorkeling. As soon as we got in Rafael found a White-tipped Reef Shark down in the rocks. He touched its tail and made it swim toward us. How exciting. It was an incredible experience. When we got out of the water the wind on the boat made it uncomfortable so we jumped in the hot tub on board to warm up. Glenda was always there to greet us on board with some fresh squeezed juice. Then we sailed to the refueling area which took quite a while and allowed me to finish my book while lazing on deck. In the afternoon we sailed to Bachas Beach, a small but pretty beach with two lagoons behind it, to look for Flamingoes. They weren't there. It was the first day of my entire trip to Ecuador that I did not see a new species of bird. I had told Rafael on the first day that I had seen 265 bird species by the time I arrived in Galapagos and that it was a goal of mine to reach 300 before I left. In looking over the potential species there (and there aren't that many birds in Galapagos) we both agreed that it would be extremely difficult and probably impossible but he said he would do his best. He told me that he was an ornithologist and had studied birds on the Faralone Islands off the coast of San Francisco for a month. I looked over my book trying to see what was possible. We both agreed that the crake and the Galapagos Rail would be very difficult if not impossible. He 100% guaranteed a Cactus Finch though.

Thursday, November 17, we landed at Rafael and Glenda's home town, Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island. There is a bustling city there full of tourists, internet cafes, restaurants, and hotels. In the morning we visited Charles Darwin Station to see the captive breeding program for Giant Tortoises. The little tiny ones were so cute. At the station Rafael found a Cactus Finch just as promised. Afterwards we wandered around Puerto Ayora looking for souvenirs and getting some much needed exercise. All that eating, eating, eating was developing into a bulge around my mid section. At 11:45 we caught a bus in town that drove us up to the "highlands" to Primicias a ranch where you can get close and personal with wild Giant Tortoises. First we met Glenda there and they served us a delicious lunch of fresh fish and fresh fruit. Then we walked around looking at these ancient creatures. As I was trying to get a picture Rafael yelled for me to come over and low and behold there was a Paint-billed Crake! Holy Cow. I had written that one off. Then incredibly a Galapagos Rail flew up. Oh my god. What a day. Rafael also showed me a Small Tree Finch there. After enjoying all the tortoises we drove a little bit farther to visit a lava tube and still later two giant sink holes where Rafael found a Woodpecker Finch and a Warbler Finch to bring my daily total to six new species. I was getting very close now at 295.   We returned to the boat and sailed all night.

Friday, November 18 we awoke at the best island of all and Rafael's favorite, Espanola Island. After a delicious breakfast we landed on Punta Suarez and went for a walk where I saw Large Cactus Finch and Hood Mockingbird. Finally I was able to walk right up to the beautiful Blue-footed Booby. But the best sighting of the day and indeed the entire trip was to sit within feet of two Waved Albatrosses performing their bizarre mating dance. What a treat. Joy rapture. It was something I will never forget my whole life. We all walked back to the boat as if stunned. Everyone had been effected. After lunch we went snorkling. The water was nearly tolerable but we didn't see anything exciting like sharks or sunfish, just some colorful fish and one swimming Sea Lion. Then we sailed to Gardner Bay where we walked on a gorgeous white sand (actually ground up coral) before returning to the boat for our sail back to where we began. That night Rafael bought some fresh lobster which the cook prepared for us for dinner which was fabulous. That evening we sat in the lounge drinking with the four British people. Glenda came in and put on a Spanish song that she lip sinked and danced to.    It was hilarious.

Saturday, November 19 we said goodbye to our wonderful staff. I hugged Glenda goodbye and we got in the Zodiak which would take us to San Cristobal. As we loaded up the zodiak Glenda stood on deck waiving goodbye. The zodiak driver said to her in Spanish, " are you going to cry?"   When we landed Rafael called over a taxi for me and we drove up a dirt road a few kilometers until he heard a bird singing. We got out and saw the Chatham Mockingbird which brought me to 298 birds! Wow. Incredible.   So close to 300 which seemed so impossible when I got to San Cristobal a week earlier. After visiting the Galapagos National Park Visitor Center we drove to the airport and then flew back to Quito for our return to the US. It had been an unforgettable trip. I will never forget all the great wildlife sightings, beautiful birds and beautiful scenery of Ecuador but most of all, all the wonderful people I met like Rafael and Glenda, our fantastic guide Jose, kind Miguel, my guide at Wildsumaco, and the sweet bar tender at La Selva, Bernardo and Victor. They all made getting over the shock of the robbery in Coca by the Coca Police easier,getting over the abuse of Ken earlier in the trip, and made the whole experience of Ecuador such a pleasure.

Minnesota: June 2-8, 2011

2011-07-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

I would never live in Minnesota. It has more mosquitoes than Alaska, Texas, Florida, & South Carolina combined. I received so many mosquito bites that my body was nearly one big bite by the time I left. yes, it has many beautiful lakes and warblers galore but man was it hard to tolerate all those biting insects. I spent the first three nights camping at Savannah Portage State Park. It had a lot of birds but there were just too many mosquitoes. On the first night after setting up my campsite I drove back into the town of McGregor to the McGregor Marsh and waited for the sun to set hoping to hear a Yellow Rail. I saw a porcupine as darkness approached. I walked up and town the snowmobile trail but never heard a rail.

In the morning I drove up north to Sax Zim Bog. It was raining all the way but let up after I arrived. I walked all over and saw many great warblers including Golden-winged Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and Morning Warbler. Finally I parked on one of the roads and heard two Connecticut Warblers calling. I listened to them for about an hour but they would never come out. I was not able to go into the bog after them due to high water and I did not want to get any more ticks. I had already pulled several off my legs just from walking around outside of the bog. So I left. I pulled into another road and found a Great Gray Owl, the largest owl in North America, perched right out in the open on a leafless tree. That was pretty amazing. I returned to my camp site for more bites and also to McGregor Marsh to look for the Yellow Rail some more. I recevied more mosquito bites but no rail sightings or audio.

The next day I went back to Sax Zim. I heard about four Connecticut Warblers but again they would not come out and I could not go in. Boo hoo. I returned in the evening to McGregor Marsh but it was more of the same-- more bites and no rails.

Early in the morning I drove like mad all the way across the entire state of Wisconsin, stopping only to get a $200 ticket for "following too closely" all the way into Illinois. I checked into a hotel and checked out Goose Island Prairie State Preserve. There were a lot of Indigo Buntings and Alder Flycatchers but due to the lateness of the hour not much else. So I went to bed and came back early the next morning. Almost immediately I heard some Henslow's Sparrows singing. I walked round and round the prairie patiently waiting for one to reveal itself and finally a bright male with his green head and rusty wing popped up and started singing away from his perch. I was able to easily film him singing away. It was an unusually warm day, about 95 degrees. So by noon the sun was beating down on me. There was once 2 million acres of prairie in Illinois but now due to agreculture and development there are only 2000 acress. Goose Island is the largest natural prairie remaining in Illinois. After enjoying the Henslow's Sparrows and some Field Sparrows too I drove back across the boring state of Wisconsin to the border with Minnesota and checked into the Great Bluffs State Park for the night. I had this on my itenerary because there aare a few remaining Henslow's Sparrows in Minnesota and this is the best place to find them. Since I had that under my belt I just looked around for whatever might pop up. The state park is perched high above the Mississippi River with commanding views. It was incredibly hot nearly 100 degrees and the mosquitoes were horrendous. In the morning I walked one of the trails and got more bites before heading back to Minneapolis for my flight home.

MAINE: Jun 10-18, 2011

2011-07-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

I landed in Bangor, ME but immediately made a detour on the back roads of Maine to New Hampshire where I spent the night. It rained all day. I got up early in the morning and drove to Mt. Washington where I met a group who drove us up Mt .Washington in a van before it officially opened. That way we were able to loiter in the road and draw out the Bicknell's Thrush. It was calling but wouldn't reveal itself at first. So we walked around a bit admiring the view into the valley and the blooming Lady's Slippers and Bunch Flowers. Finally a male Bicknell's Thrush flew out into plain view. Everyone saw it very well. It wasn't raining and it wasn't too cold for Mt. Washington (the worst weather in the US). After the tour was over I drove back into Maine all the way to Baxter State Park which is magnificent. This huge wilderness area had been donated to the state by former governor Baxter who only stipulated that it remain named after him and remain forever a wilderness. No pets are allowed and there are no amenities or development whatsoever and inside the park lies the highest point in Maine and the terminus of the Appalachain Trail, Mt. Katahdin, at over 5000 feet.

I was the only person camping at Albor Campground. The weather was so miserable I didn't even bother to put up my tent and just slept in the car which was fine. It was a Dodge Nitro with flat folding seats in the back and I fit nicely back there. In the morning it continued to rain. Mt. Kathadin was beckoning but there was no time. So instead I hiked to a waterfall on the Appalachain Trail. Along the trail I saw Least Flycatcher, American Redstart, Black-and-white Warbler, and Swainson's Thrush. Later I went to the Sandy Pond which was very crowded even though it continued to rain the entire day. There were a few vireos, Black-throated Green Warblers, Northern Parulas, and Chestnut-sided Warblers but the rain made it difficult to see them. There was a moose in the pond at the beginning of my walk. Baxter State Park is a wild and wonderful place. It was a shame it rained the whole time. I reluctantly left and drove to the coast to Machias where I stayed in a hotel on the Machias River for the night.

In the morning I had some time before I needed to leave to catch the boat at Cutler Harbor so I walked down the snowmobile route along the river. It drizzled the whole time and I never heard a single bird until almost back at the beginning and then I saw two Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows. Unfortunately it was time to go. I drove to Cutler Harbor where I met Captain Patterson and the rest of the bunch of us braving the cold and the rain. We got in the boat and Captain Patterson drove us out to Machias Seal Island. Along the way we saw lots of Black Gulliemots and one Great Cormorant. As we approached the island, we began to see Common Murres and Atlantic Puffins. As bad as the weather was I thought it was impossible we would actually land but somehow Captain Patterson made two trips in the skiff and got everyone safely on the island. We had to be careful to avoid the eggs laid on the ground by the nesting Arctic Terns. We were each escorted to our blinds where we settled in and got amazing up close looks at the Atlantic Puffins and Razorbills. It was also nice to be out of the rain. After about an hour it was time to head back to shore. It was still drizzling and impossible to stay dry but fortunately Captain Patterson had a covered part of the boat that was heated. I was glad to be back to shore though. Next I drove a long drive down the coast to Acadia National Park. By the time I arrived it was raining steadily. I went through Bar Harbor and just drove straight to the Black Rock Campground and found my spot. Again it was too miserable to set up my tent so I elected to sleep in the car again. It was fine.

In the morning I drove along the park loop road. It was very crowded in the park. I saw a large Box Turtle on the side of the road. I pulled over to get a better look. On the way back to the car I noticed a trail head across the street. I decided to hike it. It went up to the top of Champlain Mountain. The rocks were extremely slippery and I fell twice one time slamming my big toe into a tree. I thought it was broken it hurt so much. About half way up a saw a Ruffed Grouse. Too bad I had left my camera in the car. At the top of the trail the views of the little island surrounding Acadia were inspiring. The trail continued down the back side of Champlain but it was closed due to nesting Peregrine Falcons. So I went back the way I came. There were many people plus dogs! I continued on the park road. I never did see the nesting falcons. I stopped at Sand Beach and walked along the sea cliffs to the end of the trail about two miles away. There were many, many people on the trail. So there was no way I was going to find any Crossbills here. However, the scenery along Maine's rocky coast was spectacular. When I got back to the car I decided to try to find somewhere less crowded. I drove all the way around Acadia to Jordan Pond but it was packed so I said forget that. I parked just short of my campground and took the trail across the street. I had no idea about it but thought it might be less crowded. It turned out it was an alternative route to Cadillac Mountain, probably the busiest hike there. It was getting late in the day and there were only about ten to fifteen people and only about fourteen dogs. It thinned out as I approached the summit. There was a Brown Thrasher singing away close to the top. After my hike I returned to my campground.

Finally the sun came out the next day! Wow. I headed down to the quiet side of Acadia and hiked a short trail that my bird book said might have nesting White-winged Crossbills in a good cone year. I had no idea how I was supposed to know if there had been a good cone year. I started my walk and almost immediately I saw two White-winged Crossbills! Damn that never happens to me. I got a bonus bird. I only had Bicknell's Thrush, Atlantic Puffin ,and Razorbill on my target list and White-winged Crossbill was a bonus bird. Horrah. There were many Black-throated Green Warblers and Nashville Warbler also. In the harbor there were more Gulliemots and some Common Eiders.

The next day it was again sunny. I decided to drive around Shoodic Point since I had found all my target birds. I walked around Frasier Point and saw some more warblers, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Palm Warbler, and Northern Parula. Next I hiked up a trail to Shoodic Point overlook. There weren't that many birds there and some people came along so I went back to the car. Next I drove to the coast and took a hike inland. There were hundreds of mosquitoes and biting flies so I returned to the parking lot. I took my lunch to the shore and just sat on the rocks enjoying the great view. Then I drove back to Bangor. I went straight to the Bangor City Boardwalk, a highlight of my trip. This 1400 foot long boardwalk goes over a fantastic bog. Right at the beginning was a singing Canada Warbler. There were magnificent flowers blooming and great exhibits explaining everything about the bog. Toward the end of the boardwalk there was a thrush with a worm in its mouth. It seemed out of place but it sure did look like a Wood Thrush. I walked around the City Forest after the bog and saw some Indigo Buntings and some other great birds. Then it was time to head to my hotel and my long trip home the next day.

Milnesand, NM & Portal, AZ: April 15-23, 2011

2011-04-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

On April 15, 2011, I met my sister, Sharon, at the Albuquerque airport and we drove for about four hours from there to the High Plains of Eastern New Mexico for the Tenth Annual High Plains Prairie Chicken Festival in the tiny town of Milnesand, NM. We had dinner at the community center and then set up our tents across the street. We did not sleep well as there was a constant flow of noisy traffic on the road and the camping area. During the night I heard a Great Horned Owl calling and later a Long-eared Owl. We awoke at 4:00 AM to a 35 degree chill and joined a group in a 15 person van for some lek viewing. We arrived at our lek at 4:45 AM and immediately saw a Lesser Prairie-Chicken jump up in the darkness. Even before dawn the chickens began clucking. By dawn about ten male Lesser Prairie Chickens were strutting their stuff for the ladies. At this particular lek there were more females than males. The females seemed completely unimpressed with the males' shenanigans even though there were pairs facing off and charging each other, stamping the ground, expanding their pinkish-purplish air sacks, and yelling loudly. The lek had a small pond next to a windmill that attracted some Scaled Quails once the sun came up and a small flock of Lark Buntings in various stages of molt. Promptly at 8:00 AM the last chicken flew off into the prairie and we headed back to the community center for breakfast which we had skipped in order to avoid urinary urgency while in the van. After breakfast we had a little break before our next tour so Sharon and I walked up one of the side roads. It was warming up but windy. Everything on the prairie was brown and dry due to lack of rain. We only saw some Vesper Sparrows and two Loggerhead Shrikes.

At 9:30 we took a tour with our bird guide Lowery. He suggested we first walk around the camping area which was really just the back yard of the New Mexico Game and Fish residence. We saw Western Kingbird, White-crowned Sparrow, Pine Siskens, Hermit Thrush, and Lark Sparrow. We drove another side road to an abandoned homesite where we saw a Vermillion Flycatcher. In a nearby field we saw a Black Prairie Dog, about ten Burrowing Owls, and a few Swainson's Hawks. On the way back to the Community Center we saw flocks of hundreds of Lark Buntings plus one Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.

During lunch a falconer came with his Harris's Hawk and Golden Eagle. After lunch we went on another tour on Ecology of the Playa. Playas are depressions in the prairie that develop a hard clay bottom that fills with water after a rain. Since they are the lowest point around the water flows into them bringing many seeds. The seeds lie dormant until the rain comes and then they quickly germinate and bloom and that in turn attracts wildlife. The playas play an important roll in the short grass prairie ecosystem. Our guide demonstrated how they work and took us to one that was dry since it had not rained for many weeks. This part of New Mexico only receives about ten inches of rain a year. After walking around the dry playa we drove to a windmill and small pond where some cows were congregating along with a flock of Yellow-headed Blackbirds and a Horned Lark. There was one small batch of daisies with a Duskywing butterfly of some sort and a white butterfly that may have been a Marble. When I got out to take a photo some old bat from Wisconsin decided to get out as well. Just as I was about to take a photo, to my horror she started to reach down and point at it with her finger! Everyone knows that butterflies are very skittish and will fly if approached. So naturally the butterfly flew away before I could get a photo. Back at the camping area waiting for dinner call I found a tailless and lost Wood Thrush. All the meals were home cooked by local people living on the prairie. They were all delicious and hardy meals. During dinner a lady read some of her poems about going to view the Prairie-Chickens and another guy played songs on his guitar.

April 17 was our day to spend the morning in the makeshift trailer blind to film the Prairie-Chickens. We left at 4:45 AM and drove to the blind. We set up our equipment inside the trailer in the dark and waited for lightness to come. It was very cold and I wished that they had thought to leave a couple of blankets. As soon as the moon set the chickens rushed out and started their mating rituals. There were only two females and about two dozen males strutting around. One chicken repeatedly flew to the top of the trailer and pranced up and down it making quite a racket. Many males faced off against each other and charged. One male finally got on top of a female but two others rushed over and knocked him off. Another male repeatedly flew to the top of a pole to make him appear larger. They stamped their feet, charged, blew up their air sacks, and clucked away. But suddenly every one of them froze in place and went silent for about two minutes. Then right on que they went back about their business as usual as if they had needed a moment of silence for a fallen comrade. Then just as suddenly as they had come promptly at 8:00 AM every one flew away and disappeared into the prairie.

We drove back to the Community Center and had breakfast before heading off for another birding tour with Dave. Our driver, Kathleen, was daft and Dave was not much better. We drove back to the abandoned homesite. On the way a Northern Bobwhite flew across the road. I asked if it was OK if I filmed it. So Kathleen slowed down but she would not turn the engine off. I asked her three times to turn the engine off and she wouldn't do it. I got a little bit of shaky video then we drove away. Somebody said there was a hawk perched on a telephone pole about 15 miles away. Incredibly Kathleen stopped the van and Dave got out with his spotting scope to look at it! Are you kidding me? The thing was miles away. I was livid. It was most likely a Swainson's Hawk which are common in that area. No matter what it was, it was too far away to be of any interest to anyone except Dave who was in competition with some other birder named Christopher who had seen a Broad-winged Hawk fly over. Big deal. After Dave was satisfied that it was a Swainson's Hawk, Kathleen re-started the van and drove away. We returned to the abandoned homestead where we found another Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, the Vermillion Flycatcher, a flock of Yellow-headed Blackbirds, and a Scott's Oriole. Just as we got out of the car we saw a Swainson's Hawk attacking a Golden Eagle. In the trees across the street there was a Wilson's Warbler and some Lark Sparrows. A couple of Loggerhead Shrikes were in the field along with Vesper Sparrows and Eastern Meadowlark. After our tour we the moron Kathleen and Dave we gathered our camping gear and left Milnesand. We drove south and west a little bit to Carlsbad Caverns National Park to the Rattlesnake Springs section. Though surrounded by desert scrub the canyon is a riparian corridor with a constant water from a natural spring supporting many cottonwoods and a marsh. There were a dozen Vermillion Flycatchers, a few Say's Phoebes, one Summer Tanager, one Ash-throated Flycatcher, White-winged Dove, Pine Siskins, and a Hooded Warbler. We walked around for a while and then had an outdoor shower before proceeding into West Texas to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We found a nice spot in the campground and set up our tents. During the night gale force winds came that caused the tent fly to whip into the tent all night awaking me every time I dozed off. It was a dreadful night of no sleep.

In the morning we drove to McKittrick Canyon, a riparian corridor in Guadalupe National Park. It was still very windy but warm. Soon after passing through to the trailhead we came upon a Dusky Flycatcher. The beginning of the trial is desert scrub. I nearly stepped on a black-tailed Rattlesnake in this section. Soon we started to follow along the stream where there were mixed woodlands including conifers. In this section there were Plumbeous Vireos, Cordilleran Flycatcher, Spotted Towhees, and many Violet-green Swallows. After four miles the trail began to rise sharply. In those slopes were many Black-chinned Sparrows and Rufous-crowned Sparrows. Many Turkey Vultures soared overhead and a Black-chinned Hummingbird was displaying. The best bird though was a Virginia's Warbler singing as we ascended the steep slope. We hiked almost to McKittrick Camp Site before stopping for lunch and heading back to the visitor center. We hiked almost 14 miles total. With two miles to go Sharon's shoe split in two making hiking very arduous. I got sun poisoning on my shoulders and the back of my legs which would impede carrying my tripod the next day. We returned to the camp site and showered before gathering our gear and leaving. It was a nice campground but it was just too windy for restful sleep. So we left and began a long drive west. We stopped in El Paso to get Sharon some new shoes before proceeding 237 miles west into Portal, AZ. We found a nice camp site in the Cave Creek section of Coronado National Forest at Idlewyld Campground right next to the creek. As we fell asleep I heard a Great Horned Owl calling. This was rather disturbing since the last time I camped here I had heard some of the Southeast Arizona specialty owls such as Elf Owl, Whiskered Screech-owl, and Western Screech-owl. Also in three days of camping there we never heard a single Whip-poor-will which was rather disappointing since it is now a separate species from the Eastern Whip-poor-will.

On April 19, 2011 we got up and drove FR 42 up into the Chiricahuas to the Paradise Cemetery. I was hoping to find a Montezuma Quail but the only things there were one Vermillion Flycatcher and one Hammond's Flycatcher. On the drive back down the mountain we saw a Bobcat, lots of Mexican Jays, Lazuli Bunting, and one Black-throated Gray Warbler. Next we drove back to Cave Creek and took the South Fork Trail to Maple Camp and back. We heard a Tanager near the parking area but never saw it. Along the trail we saw a Painted Redstart, Bridled Titmouse, lots of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Brown-crested Flycatcher, Hutton's Vireo, Plumbeous Vireo, Bushtit, White-breasted Nuthatch, and White-throated Swift. I heard a woodpecker several times and finally tracked down an Arizona Woodpecker near the trail entrance. After lunch at our camp site we drove over to the Southwestern Research Station to watch the hummingbird feeders. There was a Hammond's Flycatcher, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Lesser Goldfinch, and Acorn Woodpeckers in the surrounding trees. At the feeders we saw Magnificent Hummingbird, Blue-throated Hummingbird, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, and Rufous Hummingbird.

After enjoying all the hummingbirds we drove up the dirt road to Barfoot Lookout. Just as we got out to start the trail, Sharon heard a hissing sound. I looked down and within seconds the rear tire was completely flat. Two men were just coming down the trail as I was flipping through the owner's manual trying to figure out how to get the spare down on a Chevy Tahoe. They did not hesitate one second to complete the whole arduous job. I was so grateful because I did not want to get that dirty but also because it was incredibly complicated. I would never own that car. It was 5:00 PM by the time they finished and there was no time to take the trail or do anything else fun except drive out to the Interstate and try to get phone service as there is none in Portal, AZ. I called Avis and was put on hold for an hour. When I finally got through and explained that I did not feel comfortable driving with a flat spare she just told me there was nothing she could do because the nearest Avis in Wilcox, AZ was closed. While on hold again I gave up and just drove the three hours to Tucson to exchange the car. They had the audacity to try to charge me for not filling up the gas tank. I was adamant that they were in the wrong for stranding me in the boondocks and they backed off and didn't charge for that. They gave us this gigantic Ford Expedition as a replacement. It was the size of two hearses but much nicer than that horrible Chevy Tahoe. We did not get back to Idlewyld Campground until midnight.

On April 20, 2011 we got up at 5:30 AM and after breakfast headed back to the Southwestern Research Station where there had been sightings of Montezuma Quails recently. A very large group of old birders were there on a paid birding trip. Their guide had already flushed all the birds up the grassy hillside and there was no chance at a quail with all those people. The only birds were a Western Tanager and Lincoln's Sparrow. I was standing with my video camera not really looking at anything in particular, more disgusted more than anything, when the trip leader raced up to me saying, "what are you looking at?" I was so offended that I just walked away. I know my friend, Ken, would have cussed that rude man out. My sister was more generous and just said, "a Yellow-rumped Warbler" which I found hilarious. We left and went back to the cemetery. This time there was a Dusky Flycatcher but not much else. So we left and went to the George Walker House on FR42 in Paradise. Ken had emailed Jackie the owner to let her know I would be coming. We pulled up and Jackie came out to greet us. She gave us a yard list and sat on the porch with us chatting and pointing out the birds. She had some great birds in her yard including thousands of Pine Siskins, a dozen Lazuli Buntings, one Juniper Titmouse, Scott's Oriole, Bullock's Oriole, Black-headed Grosbeak, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Chipping Sparrow, Black-chinned Hummingbird, and Magnificent Hummingbird. She said that a Montezuma Quail had walked up into her yard the week before but she had not seen it since. He did not come while we were there. After a while we left and drove over the pass to the western side of the Chiricahuas. We stopped at Pinery Campground halfway there and saw a Grace's Warbler way up in the highest conifer. We drove back down the pass to Chiricahua National Monument and went for a nine mile hike into the beautiful spires there. We didn't see too many birds, just a Brown-crested Flycatcher, Hutton's Vireo, Orange-crowned Warbler, and Western Wood Peewee, but the scenery was spectacular.

On April 21 we got up early and returned to Southwestern Research Station. This time the birding group was not there and I got over to the grassy hillside before anybody could flush any would be Montezuma Quails but I had no such luck. So we tried John Hand Campground and found just a Willow Flycatcher. Next we gave the Cemetery one more try but not Montezuma Quail there either, just a Hammond's Flycatcher, Lark Sparrow, and Lazuli Bunting. We drove back down from the mountains to Barfoot Lookout driving very carefully so as not to get another flat. We hiked the 1.5 mile trail and found one Mexican Chickadee, Yellow-eyed Junco, more Hammond's Flycatchers, and some Pygmy Nuthatches. Then we drove down to Rustler Park and the birding group was already there-- two vans full of them. We saw a Cooper's Hawk flying overhead and a bunch of Hammond's Flycatchers and Grace's Warblers plus one Townsend's Warbler and one Hermit Warbler. When the birding group started stalking us we decided to leave and drive into the town of Portal. We bought some ice at the tiny store and then walked from there up the town road. There were many birds along the road including Western Kingbird, Lazuli Bunting, Bewick's Wren, a group of Cedar Waxwings, White-winged Dove. We went into someone's yard that had a cruel replica of a Montezuma Quail. They had a lot of birds in their yard including Bendire's Thrasher, Magnificent Hummingbird, Black-chinned Hummingbird, White-winged Dove, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Black-headed Grosbeak. There was a Northern Cardinal in a bush. We walked South Fork trail again but there was precious little activity-- just a Hermit Thrush, House Wren, and American Robin. The lighting from the fast fading sun was bright orange on the towering cliffs.

April 22, 2011 was our last day in Portal. We made one last stop at the Southwestern Research Station hoping for the quail which we did not find. However, the bird activity in general was good with a whole flock of Cedar Waxwings, another flock of Red Crossbills that came very close to us, Painted Redstart, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Cassin's kingbird, Green-tailed Towhee, Townsend's Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, and Plumbeous Vireo. Sharon refused to try the cemetery again. I bet the quail was there this time. We stopped in the town of Portal before leaving and saw a covery of Gambel's Quail and one Hooded Oriole. One our way out of town we saw a Phainopepla.

We made the mistake of taking a 40 mile detour to Redrock, NM to the Gila River to look for Common Black-hawk. The Redrock WMA does not actually go to the river so we were relegated to looking at it from a small bridge where some Mexicans were swimming. All we saw were some Cliff Swallows and Barn Swallows. We found a small watering hole with Summer Tanager, Cardinal, Vermillion Flycatcher, and Chipping Sparrow. Then we left and drove like mad to get to Bosque del Apache before dark. We arrived at 5:00 PM and first hiked the Canyon Trail which only had one Dusky Flycatcher. We walked the boardwalk and saw some Double-crested Cormorants. Then on the auto tour we saw Cinnamon Teal, Redhead, Snowy Egret, Scaup, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Tree Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Ring-necked Pheasant, Red-winged Blackbird, one Northern Harrier, one Merlin, and about 400 White-faced Ibises. When it became too dark to see any more birds and hungry was nawing at our stomachs we stopped and had dinner before heading back to Albuquerque for our early morning flight home the next day.

I only added one new bird to my life list, the Lesser Prairie-Chicken but we saw 137 species in all and seeing the Chickens alone made it all worth while.
Here is the entire trip list:
Mallard
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Northern Shoveler
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Redhead
Lesser Scaup
Ring-necked Pheasant
Wild Turkey
Lesser Prairie-Chicken
Gambel's Quail
Scaled Quail
Northern Bobwhite
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Snowy Egret
White-faced Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Golden Eagle
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
Merlin
American Coot
Killdeer
Willet
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-dove
White-winged Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Long-eared Owl
Great Horned Owl
Burrowing Owl
White-throated Swift
Blue-throated Hummingbird
Magnificent Hummingbird
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Rufuos Hummingbird
Acorn Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Hairy Woodpecker
Arizona Woodpecker
Western Wood-peewee
Willow Flycatcher
Hammond's Flycatcher
Dusky Flycatcher
Gray Flycatcher
Cordilleran Flycatcher
Black Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Vermillion Flycatcher
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Cassin's Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
Hutton's Vireo
Plumbeous Vireo
Stellar's Jay
Mexican Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Juniper Titmouse
Bridled Titmouse
Mexican Chickadee
Bushtit
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Bewick's Wren
Canyon Wren
Rock Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Wood Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Bendire's Thrasher
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Phainopepla
Orange-crowned Warbler
Virginia's Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
Hermit Warbler
Grace's Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Painted Redstart
Summer Tanager
Western Tanager
Green-tailed Towhee
Canyon Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Rufous-crowned Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Black-chinned Sparrow
Lark Bunting
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Yellow-eyed Junco
Black-headed Grosbeak
Northern Cardinal
Lazuli Bunting
Eastern Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Hooded Oriole
Scott's Oriole
Bullock's Oriole
House Finch
Red Crossbill
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
Lesser Goldfinch

Puerto Rico: December 8-18, 2010

2010-12-22T21:31:00.000-08:00

When my friend, Ken, invited me to join him on a birding trip to Puerto Rico I went out and bought Birds of the West Indies to familiarize myself with the birds there. It seemed like every bird I looked at was on some other island in the Caribbean. Ken said I would be lucky to see 30 new birds and that most people do not see more than 100 total species in a one to two week trip. So my only goal was to see the five hummingbird species found there (and after my arrival I added a goal to see one new species every day of the trip). I asked Ken over and over if we would see all the hummers and he assured me we would. He recommended that I print out and read a trip report by Jennifer Rycenga, a birder we both know from San Mateo County. We both read it and took a copy with us to Puerto Rico. Besides our map of the island, it became our most valuable asset. I would like to thank Jennifer Rycenga for taking the time to create such a thoughtful, well written and thorough report which included a wonderful bird list at the end with locations where each species had been found and its prevalence on the island.

Ken and I met in Atlanta on the morning of December 8 (after I had made a mad scramble to Target to buy a new suitcase after mine split wide open en route from San Francisco) and flew from there to San Juan, the capital. After picking up our tiny rental car we checked into the Villa del Sol on Calle Rosa Carolina and then walked the side streets near the hotel in the hour or so before sunset. I immediately saw four birds that were new to me, the beautiful but ubiquitous Bananaquit, Greater Antillean Grackle, Zenaida Dove, and Red-legged Thrush. It became too dark to film and so we walked over to La Playita for dinner. The meal was marginal so I can't really recommend it but the deck at the hotel is a nice perch for watching birds.

The next morning, December 9, we walked the side streets some more around Villa Del Sol. We saw more Red-legged Thrush in the trees and in the grassy areas two more new species, the pretty but introduced Saffron Finch and the native Black Grassquit. Ken found a female Puerto Rican Stripe-headed Tanager. The male is a gorgeous stripe headed thing but the female is just gray with a prominent sub-mustacial stripe. It was an unsatisfying look at that but nevertheless new bird number seven in less than 24 hours. In the same area we saw White-winged Dove and Common Ground -Dove, the latter very common throughout the island. After breakfast we left San Juan and drove east to Ceiba Country Inn where we would be staying the next three nights. As we pulled into the parking area we saw directly in front of us a Puerto Rican Woodpecker pecking not 10 feet away in a palm tree. We both jumped out and started filming. Michael, the owner came out and asked us if he could help. We said we were staying there but we were early and would just walk around for a while. He told us about the resident screech-owls, the woodpecker, and an oriole on the property. He maintains two short trails on the property which we took advantage of to fantastic results. We walked the short trail directly from the parking lot about 200-300 yards dead ending in a dense forest. Since it was mid-day there was little activity but we did hear a cuckoo cackling. It finally made an appearance but was a Mangrove Cuckoo, a bird I worked hard as hell to find in Florida in 2008, and not the endemic Puerto Rican Lizzard Cuckoo. There were many Zenaida Doves in the trees and a few Scaly-naped Pigeons flew by numerous times but would never land. We waited by some concrete remnants and soon a black and yellow bird flew by-- the Greater Antillean Oriole. Gray Kingbirds were all over the place and indeed were found on every square inch of the island. We studied each one looking for the much more uncommon Loggerhead Kingbird. We found a very accommodating one in the front of the property. After checking in, our walk was cut short by a brief rain but we were able to continue to enjoy the birds from the veranda in front of my room. We watched the Zenaida Doves for a while until the rain stopped and then resumed our walk down the other trail which loops back to the concrete structure. That didn't result in any sightings. However, upon looping back to the back of the property we were shocked to find a Puerto Rican Lizzard-Cuckoo perched in a tree in the wide open for at least ten minutes giving us magnificent views and filming opportunities. When the sun went down we went out on the trail to the concrete remnants and heard four Puerto Rican Screech-owls calling but none would come close so we went back to the side of my room where the Lizzard-cuckoo had been. One of the screech-owls flew from one branch to another and we both got a good look at a stretched wing but that was as much of that species as we could muster. During the night one of the owls came close to my window and I heard it calling most of the night near by.

On the morning of December 10, I could not get Ken to leave Ceiba. He was up bright and early and told me he had found the Oriole nest. On the concrete remnant trail we both got good looks at it. The Scaly-naped Pigeons continued to tantalize but refused to perch. We had a nice breakfast that Michael fixed at Ceiba Country Inn and then I finally tore Ken away and we drove to El Yunque, the Caribbean National Forest. El Yunque is a rain forest in the middle of Puerto Rico and in both of our opinions is the crown jewel of Puerto Rico. Just the drive up Highway 191 to its dead end dazzles the eye with its magnificent ferns, flowers, palms, waterfalls, butterflies, and forested peaks with expansive views of the Caribbean, are worth the visit. Even if I had not seen any birds in El Yunque it would have still been worth the trip to see this fantastic place and no one should visit Puerto Rico without going there. After a few hundred yards up the trail we found our first Puerto Rican Tody, and what a dandy. This gorgeous little emerald green-backed thing with a bright red throat delights the senses. It was not shy at all and we were easily able to film it and enjoyed looking at it. I wanted to proceed up this lovely trail but Ken has trouble lugging his 45 pound camera very far so we turned around after the Tody perched for ten minutes or more on the rear view mirror of somebody's car. We walked around the barrier toward a sign that said, "Tradewinds Trail." I thought it was the way to El Toro Trail but it was not marked as such and was headed downhill. So we turned off instead on an unmarked road. We walked up it and saw many new species of butterflies and beautiful blooming flowers. After no more than 100 yards we came across a perched hummingbird on some yellow flowers. Just as I got my camera on it it flew right toward me flaring its bright green gorget. Later we determined that it was a male Puerto Rican Emerald. Later we learned that this road continues uphill connecting to the Mt. Britton Trail. It was a lovely walk and I would have enjoyed continuing but for the fact that for some reason they decided that trucks needed to use the road that day. Every five minutes a truck came squealing down the hill on this narrow winding road and we were constantly leaping out of the way protecting our tripods, cameras, and bodies. Finally the last straw came when a crazed Puerto Rican truck driver came barrelling down the hill going about 45 MPH. He obviously was not expecting or didn't care that anyone was in the road as he never so much as slowed down as he came around the bend and came within inches of swiping my shoulder. At that point we decided to return to our cars. We stopped in a clearing to have our peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and saw some more Grassquits. On the way back down 191 we heard a bird singing. So we parked and got out to look at a Puerto Rican Bullfinch, which is a black bird with a pretty russet colored throat and undertail coverts. This bird is one of thirteen birds endemic to Puerto Rico. One of Ken's goals was to see all thirteen endemic species and mine was to see all five of Puerto Rico's hummingbirds. It would be nearly impossible to see all of the endemics since of them, the Puerto Rican Parrot, found in El Yunque, is one of the ten most endangered bird species in the world: there are only 44 left in the wild. In fact, E. O. Wilson would say they are de facto extinct. We didn't see one.

We left El Yunque and drove down to the coast hoping to find a Green-throated Carrib, a hummingbird that favors flowers growing on the coast. We searched in vain for Furjado Beach but became lost in a maze of side streets. Ken tried to ask for directions in Spanish, since no one outside of San Juan speaks English. One guy refused to even respond. Ken became more and moer frantic two more people sent us on a wild goose chase. Finally after an hour we found it. There were Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Spotted Sandpiper, Royal Tern, Magnificent Frigatebird, and Brown Pelican. We pulled off an exit of PR 3 looking for a restroom where Ken found a Pearly-eyed Thrasher in some trees lining the street. It was rather marginal habitat, just some trees lining a farmer's field but we also found our first Adelaide's Warbler of the trip. We stopped at the Econo for some food and there was a Common Ground Dove flying around inside.

On December 11, we skipped Michael's breakfast since it started too late for our needs. We got up at 5:30 AM in order to make the gate at El Yunque which was supposed to open at 7:30 AM. We arrived on time but the gate was still locked so we walked around La Coca Falls where we found a number of overwintering Eastern warblers species including Black-and-white Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, and Northern Parula. Finally the gate opened at 7:45 AM and we drove up to one of the pull outs along 191 where we found the beautiful Puerto Rican Stripe-headed Tanager. While admiring it I also found the much duller, Puerto Rican Tanager, just a gray bird with a darker gray head. The striped-headed is exotic by comparison. We also got a fleeting look at the Puerto Rican Emerald, our first confirmed hummingbird sighting of the trip. We drove all the way to the end of 191 and parked and then headed back toward the opening near the Tradewinds sign where we got jaw dropping looks at a perched Green Mango, our second hummer of the trip. It sat perched for about ten minutes while we admired and filmed it. We also some more Todys. We walked down the trailhead for El Toro Trail. A sign said it was closed: it was in bad shape but we continued anyway. After about two miles of hiking Ken found a female Elfin Woods Warbler, another endemic and endangered species. Ken was disappointed we had been unable to film it. The trail was beautiful though tough to negotiate while carrying a camera attached to a tripod particularly given the large washouts, gashes, and fallen trees. After El Toro we left El Yunque and drove southeast to Humacao Reserve. We first started out on a canal on a side street off of PR 3 where we saw numerous Smooth-billed Anis and Yellow-crowned Bishops. There were hundreds of Cattle Egrets and a few Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets. In the canal were Great Blue Heron, Tri-colored Heron, Little Blue Heron, and Ruddy Duck. An Osprey and Merlin flew over. It was pretty hot and so we turned back to check the main portion of the reserve. On the return walk I found a flock of Orange-cheeked Waxbills. We pulled up to the gate just before 4:00 PM. A large sign announced the reserve hours -- 9-5 but the gate was locked and protected by a double barb-wired fence. Our plan to find the two species of hummingbird found only on the eastern side of the island had been foiled. Ken was outraged: I was disappointed. I slipped through the barb-wired fence tearing my leg and hand. I walked up the trail and only saw Pied-billed Grebe, Puerto Rican Woodpecker, and Northern Waterthrush and one iguana. I saw no flowering plants and was skeptical about seeing the hummers. There was no time to do anything else but drive back to Ceiba Country Inn. Along the way we stopped at the marginal habitat off PR 3 and saw Nutmeg Mannikin, another introduced species (Puerto Rico has the most of any Carribean nation). It was new species number 24. We had dinner in Furjado at Todo Coco. The service was excellent and the food was delicious.

On Sunday, December 12 , we checked out of the Ceiba Country Inn and drove the back roads inland to Camerio where we were hoping to find another endangered species, the Plain Pigeon. The roads were narrow, poorly marked, and winding. Most people go in the evening when the birds are about to roost. We went in the morning but miscalculated the time it would take. Ken panicked when we were almost there and stopped to ask a man directions.The man spoke no English. Ken said "hay un parque de basbol aqui?" The man held his hands up as if to say "stop butchering Spanish!" He was clearly outraged because he said, " no lo hay" when actually the field was less than half a mile past his house. Ken frantically turned around and drove up a winding road where I saw a Black-rumped Waxbills. Finally we decided to turn around and pass the man's house anyway even though he said there was no ball park and there it was. We got out and immediately saw a Plain Pigeon in a tree. I found about four more up a hillside and Ken spotted an immature Broad-winged Hawk, rare in Puerto Rico. We walked through town to get a closer look at the hawk. A lady came out of her house and asked what we were doing. Ken explained in Spanish that there was a bird rare to Puerto Rico up in a tree. The woman looked up in the tree and said "Guaraguao" Spanish for hawk. I was amazed. Most people don't even notice birds much less know what they are. After Ken had filmed it for about 20 minutes we walked back to the car where Ken was waylaid by another woman who was chatting Ken up in Spanish. I could make out part of what she was saying but had to sit down in the car because I just can't stand in one spot for hours. Ken came to the car and asked what ruido meant. I was noise and then he admitted he could not understand a word the woman was saying. It was then I decided to take over the Spanish interpreting. We left Camerio and drove back down out of the winding mountain roads all the way to the southwest coastal town of Guanica to Mary Lee's by the Sea where we stayed the next three nights. Guanica is a great town. Our place at Mary Lee's was a huge three bedroom two bath affair right on the Caribbean looking out at Gilligan's Island. It was a bit funky and dirty. We checked in and then drove to Guinica State Forest on PR 334. I asked the ranger what time it closed and he said 4:30. As we were about to head down a trail a lady walked up. She and her husband were birders from Ohio and they explained they had been hiking for two hours and only saw Caribbean Elaenia. Ken got their number in case they found something unusual. The lady, Darlene, told me we should go to Laguna Cartagena and explained how to get there. She said don't take PR 305 because it is impassible to cars. She also said when we passed the first Kiosk to keep driving even though it appears you cannot go any farther because it would take us to a tower overlooking the lake. She also mentioned the ranger told her Guanica State Forest closed at 4:00 PM (probably because she couldn't speak Spanish).
We walked the Dinamite Trail and heard a Caribbean Elaenia, a few Todys and finally for me a Pearly-eyed Thrasher. Near 4:30 we left and drove to the end of PR 333 where there is a small pond with Yellowlegs, Egrets, Black-necked Stilt, and Little Blue Heron.
After dark we returned to Guanica State Forest and parked outside. We walked up the hill and heard Puerto Rican Nightjar. It stopped calling when the Puerto Rican Screech-Owl showed up.

Monday, December 13, we stopped at a large pond on PR 333. There were some White-cheeked Pintails on the water that flushed when I got out of the car. Ken started screaming at me and telling me I couldn't get out of the car until he was ready. He was freaking out and acting like he would never see a White-cheeked Pintail ever again. I walked around to the back side of the pond and of course the Pintails came back. There was also a large flock of Ruddy Turnstones, one Yellow Warbler, lots of Blue-winged Teals, Pearly-eyed Thrasher, Black-necked Stilts, Glossy Ibis, and some Fulvous Whistling-ducks. I heard a Clapper Rail calling. Next we went back to Guanica State Forest. When I got out of the car the ranger yelled out "Buen dia!" He came right over very animated aoubt a bird with a blue head. Just then a gorgeous male Antillean Euphonia flew into a tree right in front of us at eye level. Gorgeous bird. Ken was outraged and walked away to a tree below. The ranger asked me if Ken was my husband. I thought it was odd that he immediately reverted with the familiar. He told me I spoke Spanish well. Ken marched well ahead of me flushing all the birds. It was a miracle that I was able to refind the Puerto Rican Pewee. Other birds on the trail were the Caribbean Elaenia, Tody, Adelaide's Warbler, and my third hummer of the trip, Antillean Mango. We had lunch at the picnic area after our walk and then left Guanica Forest to drive to Parguera where Darlene and Dan said the Yellow-shouldered Blackbirds were a "gimmie." They said to look in the parking lot of the supermarket next door to the Parguera Hotel. There was no supermarket next door. We drove all over town and saw nothing. We stopped at a reserve that went down to the beach and I saw a Mangrove Cuckoo right before a little punk derelict called me a gringo. Ken pulled down a side street and I glimpsed an Indian Silverbell in a tree. We stopped to have a look and found a flock of Nutmeg Mannikins, Adeliade's Warbler, and a male Antillean Mango. Ken filmed the Antillean Mango for about an hour while I baked in the sun. Finally he finished and we drove past a large parking area where finally we found the flock of Yellow-shouldered Blackbirds, a critically endangered species, in someone's back yard. Ken filmed those for about a half hour before we could finally leave the stinky town of Parguera. We bought some sesame treats at the supermarket and then drove to Laguna Cartagena. We passed Dan and Darlene on the dirt entrance road. They were desperate to find a Green Mango so we told them about our secret spot on the Tradewinds Trail. We stopped at the first kiosk and walked past a gate toward a blind. The lake was full of birds, Purple Gallinule, Sora, Blue-winged Teal, Common Moorhen, Caribbean Coot, and Glossy Ibis. Along the trail were Smooth-billed Ani and Black-faced Grassquit. We heard a Yellow-breasted Crake calling incessantly but it would never reveal itself. That made new species 36. We got in the car and kept driving the dirt road just as Darlene had explained but we came to a fork and didn't know which way to go. We went to the left even though it appeared impassible just as Darla had mentioned but it soon was obvious there was no way we could make it. So where was this mysterious tower?

December 14, I got up and was drinking coffee on the veranda at Mary Lee's by the Sea when a Puerto Rican Nightjar flew up twice. When Ken got up we drove to the PR 333 Pond and the White-cheeked Pintails were back long with some Yellowlegs and Turnstones. From there we continued to Playa Jaboncilla but there was nothing there but a few Common Ground-doves, Grackles, and Pearly-eyed Thrasher. So we left and went to Guanica State Forest. There was a lot of noise from construction of the new bathroom, visitor center, and large forest map. In the parking lot Ken said to "get out and do my own thing" while he ate his disgusting noisome Buger King thing that leads to deforestation of the rain forests because he was too lazy to fix something wholesome with the full kitchen we had at Mary Lee's. So I got out and saw the same Antillean Mango from the other day and started filming it. Ken had filmed one for about an hour in Parguera but when he saw me filming this one he went berserk and started yelling at me and telling me I would have to go back to San Juan and get my own rental car. Then he stormed off and said be back at the car at 11:00 AM. So I left and without him flushing all of the birds in front of me I finally found a Puerto Rican Flycatcher and saw a Carribean Elaenia perched in the open. There were a lot of butterflies to enjoy as well. As I headed down the Ganados Trail I saw my first Puerto Rican Vireo. I also heard another Lizzard-cuckoo and Mangrove Cuckoo. There was also another Puerto Rican Tody. I arrived back at the car right at 11:00 but Ken wasn't there so I sat down on a picnic bench. I smelled paint but thought it was coming from the new visitor center. When I put my binoculars down I felt something sticky. Those crazy Puerto Ricans had painted a picnic table at lunch time and failed to put a sign up! There was green paint on my hand, hat, and shorts. When Ken returned we left Guanica and drove to Boqueron Wildlife Refuge, a Puerto Rican treasure. It is a mangrove swamp with a nice boardwalk for walking through it. We had admiring looks at an accommodating Pearly-eyed Thrasher and a few Northern Waterthrushes, Prairie Warbler, Northern Parula, and Yellow Warbler. Then we took the boardwalk and saw very close Least Bittern, Least Grebe, and Puerto Rican Flycatcher. A Tri-colored Heron was perched on the boardwalk. The boardwalk opened to a path. While Ken was looking at a Kestrel I noticed a dove about 200 yards down the trail. We could not see any spots on it but it had a distinctive pot-bellied look and ruddy brown color. We determined that it was a Ruddy Quail-dove. We tried to get closer but the Kestrel flew at it trying to eat it and scared it away. We saw a rat in a tree that the ranger told us was an introduced pest that they had set traps for. Sadly it was our first mammal sighting not counting the thousands and thousands of cats and dogs on the island. Driving back out on PR 305 Ken thought he saw some Stilt Sandpipers in an agricultural field but traffic was bearing down on us and we couldn't verify it. I kept asking Ken to go to Cabo Rojo or Copamarina to look for Troupial but he said he had not interest in filming a Tropial. Finally after Bouqueron we went to Cabo Rojo but it was the middle of the day and there were zero shorebirds on the salt flats. The road was full of pot holes so we turned around and drove to Laguna Cartagena. We still had not found this alleged observation tower Roy and Dale had mentioned. It was also mentioned in Jennifer Rycenga's report. We stopped at the gate for the blind and Ken wanted to just walk down there but I was determined to find the tower so I just walked the road by myself. Something didn't seem right; the road was incredibly bad with five foot deep gashes in it and I just couldn't imagine Jennifer Rycenga walking it. To the right were private property signs. Something was wrong. My phone rang. I was practically running since it was 5:00 PM and darkness would come at 6:15. Who would call me? It was Ken reporting a West Indian Whistling-Ducks at the blind. I felt ill. I was running as I was committed now to this damn road. After two miles I came to a town! There were cars, pigs the size of a house, cows, and people! Oh my god I had just walked two miles to the town of Mayaguabo. I quickly turned around and started to run back before the sun set. I was sweating and my neck hurt from carrying that big ole camera. My phone rang again. Damn. It was Ken again reporting Masked Ducks. I ran as fast as I could with a 10 pound camera in my hand but I had to relieve myself so I stepped behind the second kiosk and was stunned to see a map on the back side showing a short trail to a tower! It had been there all along behind the kiosk that Dale told us to drive past until we could drive no more. Now I had a dilemma. Should I run to the tower and try to see a Whistling Duck or just go to where Ken was at the blind and try for the Masked Duck? There were only 15 minutes of sunlight left. I decided on the tower. I ran the 200 yards to the tower but it was too late to run up it. so I ran out on the short boardwalk but with so little light I couldn't tell what the ducks were. So I ran back to kiosk one and out on the blind trail where Ken should have been but the car was gone and so was Ken. It was by now dark and impossible to pick out a duck of any kind. My phone rang again (why had I given Ken that phone for Christmas?). Ken had driven past me while I was running to the tower. We both turned around and met on the road. My shirt was soaked. Four miles I had run for nothing. If Dale hadn't told us to drive even though it looks like you can't go any farther we probably would have stopped at the kiosk in the first place. I was so disappointed.

December 15, we got up super early and stopped at Playa Jaboncilla while it was still dark. There were several Puerto Rican Nightjars in the trees but unlike the much more accommodating Common Poorwills at home, these nightjars would not go to the ground and instead stayed in the tree tops. We left and drove to Laguna Cartagena. We decided to just stay on the blind trail and walked out on it carefully. We found a whole family of Masked Ducks with adults feeding chicks. Next we walked up the tower and saw a whole flock of whistling ducks but they were curled up and just looked like brown balls. We had cameras not scopes and couldn't tell if they were West Indian or Fulvous Whistling Ducks. We went back to the first kiosk and walked the blind trail. It seemed hopelessly late in the day (West Indian Whistling-Ducks are nocturnal) but as we walked out two flushed and I just got my bins on one and made out the gray upper wing and black underwing of the endangered West Indian Whistling-Duck. On our way out the dirt road we saw Bronze Mannikin, Orange Bishop, and two Blue Grosbeaks.

We left Guanica and headed up the mountains to Maricao. We had reservations there at Hacienda Juanita for three nights. The road was winding and endless. Finally we arrived and pulled into the drive way but there was no office. In fact, there was no one there. We got out and walked around. The garden was overgrown, the shutters were boarded up, the swimming pool was foul, and the water tower was collapsing. I expected to see Mrs. Habersham in the window. We called the lady who took our reservation but it was incessantly busy. I emailed her. Meanwhile a car load of people pulled up and we thought they were the help but no they were just there for a "visit." A whole family, four generations worth, poured out and walked around. Finally they left. We saw a Puerto Rican Bullfinch and Pearly-eyed Thrasher. The agent emailed me back in broken English "They files bankruptcy. You makes claims at www.condelaw.com." And that was it. No apology or explanation. Those criminals had taken our money and worse we had no where to stay for three nights. We left Maricao and drove all the way back to Guanica where we got a room at the Copamarina for two nights. It turned out to be the best accommodation of the whole trip. We were given two free drink tickets after we told them our sad story which we had along with dinner at the Las Palmas Restaurant.

December 16, we got up at 4:30 AM in order to arrive at Cabo Rojo Lighthouse at dawn. We watched the sun come up over Cabo Rojo and it was spectacular. When light came we saw an American Oystercatcher and several Brown Boobies just off shore. Ken found a Red-legged Booby mixed in. After enjoying the sunrise I walked back down toward the parking area and there, just as Jennifer Rycenga had mentioned in her report, was the beautiful Troupial. What a beautiful bird. They are not sure whether it was introduced or blown off course from South America but either way it's a pretty bird with bright orange and black and a blue eye mask. We walked the Candelaria Trail and got more close up looks at four Troupials plus several species of butterfly. When we had had our fill we left and drove to Boqueron. We saw the same species as before and I heard a cuckoo. From there we went back to Laguna Cartagena where we found more Masked Ducks hiding in the lettuce and a Purple Gallinule chick. We continued to Parguera because I was still looking for a Shiny Cowbird. Ken said we could find one there. He really just wanted to buy more sesame snacks. It started raining so we left. We drov to Guanica State Forest. We found a Caribbean Elaenia on the Dinamite Trail as well as another Bullfinch and Adelaide's Warbler. From there we drove back to Laguna Cartagena. It was near dusk. Along the entrance road we found Yellow-faced Grassquits mentioned by Dale and Roy. The male has a stunning yellow and black face. We also saw another Blue Grosbeak. Out on the blind trail we heard the crake calling again. We walked to the end of the trail and incredibly there was a flock of ten West Indian Whistling-Ducks. This time there was no doubt. We watched them swim out of the water and up onto shore. On our way back to the car Ken spotted something running over the lettuce being chased by a Sora. I just got my bins on it to make out the smaller size and lack of white in the tail-- Yellow-breasted Crake.

December 17 we checked out of the Copamarina and drove up PR 121 into the mountains because Ken wanted to film the Elfin Woods Warbler. It was so cold and windy that I was almost glad Hacienda Juanita had stolen our money and closed. We stopped a couple of times along the road and I saw a Stripe-headed Tanager but it was too windy and cold. Ken was about to turn around when I noticed a sign up ahead. We had stumbled upon Maricao Bosque. We drove in and took one of the trails.. I was picking oranges from a tree when four Elfin Woods Warblers flew in foraging in a tree. I stopped at a restroom before we left and in the toilet was a Coki in it. I was happy to get out of the cold and back to the coast. We drove like mad all the way across the island back to the eastern side to Humacao. We arrived at Humacao Reserve and this time it was open. As soon as we walked in we found a Mangrove Cuckoo right out in the open perched up. We were looking at this very large iguana when this woman walked up. She told me her mother had a house for rent on the beach at Punta Santiago. She wanted to show it to me but I said we were looking for two hummingbirds first. She said the house, Villa Jennice, was right on the beach and had flowers in the garden and might have hummers. I said we would come by later. While looking for a bathroom Ken claimed he saw an Antillean Crested Hummingbird, one of the two hummers I still had not seen. We walked up and down but there were no flowers and it seemed improbable we would see the last remaining hummer, the Green-throated Carib. We waited and waited. My feet began to hurt so I sat down on a stump while Ken went to check on the car. While he was gone a female Antillean Crested Hummingbird flew down to within one foot of my face and hovered for several minutes while I sat there quietly unable to move. I studied it with my naked eye. Wow. Ken finally came back and we watched it disappear into some branches above where I was sitting into a nest! While we were watching her on the nest two large busses pulled up and about 50 people poured out headed right for us. There was no way we were ever going to find the last hummer with all those people. I suggested we try Jennice's mother's house. We drove the short distance from Humacao Reserve to Punta Santiago and parked near the beach. Ken joked a Green-throated Carib was probably nesting at their house. We saw Jennice at he house but we didn't want to barge in so we walked up the beach. There were coconuts all over the beach, Magnificent Frigatebirds flying overhead, Brown Boobies, Brown Pelicans, and lots of Sandwich Terns perched on a concrete slab just off shore. We walked up toward some blooming flowers in their neighbor's yard and found two more skipper species of butterfly but it was very windy and doubtful we would find a hummer. Then Jennice walked out on the beach and invited us in to see the house. As soon as we walked into the back yard there it was-- the Green-throated Carib! It was coming to her flowers just as we had guessed. I now had all five species of hummingbirds found on Puerto Rico fulfilling my meager expectations. After looking at the house Jennice said they were going for a late lunch but we could stay as long as we wanted and leave our car safely inside their gate. We set up our tripods and waited for the Carib to come back. After getting some video of it we left for a restaurant Jennice's mother recommended, La Casa del Mofongo. We had chillo (Red Snapper) and plantain buttons. It was delicious. I would recommend anyone wanting to bird around Humacao to rent Villa Jennice (http://www.flipkey.com/properties/view/251383/beachfront+cottage+punta+santiago+humacao+p+r/. It's right on the beach at Humacao and has its own Green-throated Carib. It's also very cheap. After dinner we left Humacao and drove back to Ceiba Country Inn where we stayed for our last night. The owner, Michael, told us that two other birders had come back. I said I bet they were desperately looking for a Green Mango. Michael said that's right; how'd you know?

December 18 was our last day. We got up before dawn and headed back to El Yunque. Instead of heading right back to the end of 191 I suggested we pull into Rio Grande at the base to look for parrots. After all we were on a tropical island and hadn't seen a single one. We didn't find any but we saw Red-legged Thrush, Scaly-naped Pigeons parked in a tree, Pearly-eyed Thrasher, and Loggerhead Kingbird. Next we headed into the park stopping at Yokihui Tower where we saw a Broad-winged Hawk soaring. We stopped at Las Palmas and walked around but it was so windy and overcast that birds were scarce. There was nothing at our secret spot either so we headed up the Mt. Brittan Trail and after a while a Puerto Rican Emerald came and perched near the flowers where we saw it on the first day. I continued up the trail which had expansive views of the Caribbean and El Yunque. Time was running out so we made a dash for the coast at Fajardo Beach. We only had time to pull in and see a single Indigo Bunting on a fence-- rare for Puerto Rico. It was not a new bird for me but was new for our trip list. Technically it was a travel day and I had added a new bird on every other day of the trip fulfilling my other expectation to see a new bird every day. Although the bird guides say you will be lucky to see 100 birds in a week or even two week trip, we had broken all records and seen an incredible 118 species and I had seen 47 new species (in bold on the list) well past the 30 Ken said I could expect. It had been a grand trip. I was a pirate of the Caribbean.

Least Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
Brown Booby
Red-legged Booby
Brown Pelican
Magnificent Frigatebird
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Little Blue Heron
Cattle Egret
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Black-crowned Night-heron
Yellow-crowned Night-heron
Least Bittern
Glossy Ibis
Fulvous Whistling-duck
West Indian Whistling-Duck
Northern Pintail
White-cheeked Pintail
Blue-winged Teal
American Wigeon
Northern Shoveler
Ruddy Duck
Masked Duck
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Osprey
Merlin
American Kestrel
Clapper Rail
Sora
Yellow-breasted Crake
Purple Gallinule
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Caribbean Coot
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Killdeer
Black-bellied Plover
American Oystercatcher
Black-necked Stilt
Ruddy Turnstone
Wilson's Snipe
Spotted Sandpiper
Lesser Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Least Sandpiper
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Scaly-naped Pigeon
Plain Pigeon
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Zenaida Dove
White-winged Dove
Eurasian Collared-dove
Common Ground-Dove
Ruddy Quail-Dove
Parrot sp.
Mangrove Cuckoo
Puerto Rican Lizzard-Cuckoo
Smooth-billed Ani
Puerto Rican Screech-owl
Puerto Rican Nightjar
Puerto Rican Emerald
Antillean Mango
Green Mango
Green-throated Carib
Antillean Crested Hummingbird
Puerto Rican Tody
Belted Kingfisher
Puerto Rican Woodpecker
Gray Kingbird
Loggerhead Kingbird
Puerto Rican Flycatcher
Puerto Rican Pewee
Caribbean Elaenia
Cave Swallow
Red-legged Thrush
Northern Mockingbird
Pearly-eyed Thrasher
Puerto Rican Vireo
Black-and-white Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Adelaide's Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Elfin Woods Warbler
Northern Waterthrush
Louisiana Waterthrush
American Redstart
Bananaquit
Antillean Euphonia
Puerto Rican Stripe-headed Tanager
Puerto Rican Tanager
Blue Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Puerto Rican Bullfinch
Yellow-faced Grassquit
Black-faced Grassquit
Saffron Finch
Greater Antillean Grackle
Troupial
Yellow-shouldered Blackbird
House Sparrow
Yellow-crowned Bishop
Red Bishop
Orange-cheeked Waxbill
Black-rumped Waxbill
Indian Silverbell
Bronze Mannikin
Nutmeg Mannikin

Arizona: August 18-22, 2010

2010-08-24T21:21:00.000-07:00

August 18, 2010, I took a 6:00 AM flight to Tucson. After arriving I drove around lost for an hour in 102 heat looking for the grocery store. In Target getting some propane I ran into a lawyer I know whose office is one floor below mine. Finally with everything I needed I headed south on I-19 to Madera Canyon. It was hot and muggy and a few drops fell but there were few birds, just a few Cassin's Kingbirds and Lesser Goldfinches. I hiked a couple of miles up the Old Baldy Trail but didn't feel that great after getting up at 3:45 AM. I set up a camp site in the canyon at Bog Springs Campground and then walked around Proctor Road for a bit until the sun got too low. Saw Blue Grosbeak with a worm in its mouth. The sunset was spectacular. Back at my campsite a racoon came and wouldn't leave but as night fell the Mexican Whip-poor-wills began to sing along with an Elf Owl, Whiskered Screech-Owl, Northern Pygmy Owl, and Common Poorwill.

August 19, I woke up late and only left the canyon at 6:00 AM. It took me one hour to drive south to Ruby Road to Pena Blanca Lake. There was not a single person in any of the campgrounds. I saw a Thick-billed Kingbird at the lake. There were a lot of birds on the road including White-winged Dove, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Varied Bunting, more Cassin's Kingbirds but not the bird I was looking for, a Montezuma Quail. I drove to Sycamore Canyon and parked. The place was overrun with mosquitoes and I had no repellent. There were three guys taking down their tent. They looked like very inexperienced hikers. I hiked the canyon for about a mile or so before turning around. The water was very high and there were few birds. However, there was many butterflies including many Pipevine Swallowtails, Orange Sulphur, Southern Dogface, Sleepy Orange, Dainty Sulphur, Painted Crescent, Gulf Fritillaries, and Two-tailed Swallowtail. While driving back on Ruby Road I saw a Zone-tailed Hawk circling overhead plus Hooded Oriole and Bronzed Cowbird. I drove around in a big circle because Highway 89 to Patagonia was closed. So I had to drive back north on I-19 to Madera Canyon and then across on the dirt road, Greaterville Road. I stopped along the way and saw dozens of American Snouts on an acacia tree. While looking at them many insects bit the back of my knees. There were Cassin's and Botteri's Sparrows singing in the field. I drove past the tiny town of Sonoita south on Highway 82 to Roadside Rest, a famous birding spot. There was a Thick-billed Kingbird, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Gila Woodpecker. From there I drove back north to Las Cienegas Conservation Area where there were lots of Cassin's and Botteri's Sparrows, Eastern Meadowlark, and Lucy's Warbler. There were rolling hills of grasslands to explore but I didn't like that it was a working ranch full of cows, which I dislike intensely. So I decided to drive to the Chiracahuas. It was a long drive with too much time to think. I saw some Red-tailed Hawks and Turkey Vultures along the way. My intent was to camp at Pinery Campground. But as I crested the canyon at 7000 feet and arrived there a man was already set up with his chair and such so I continued up the canyon. I stopped long enough to bathe and then continued all the way to Rustler Park. I set up the tent, put my food in the bear box, and was very content with my book until I read in Birding Southeast Arizona that marauding bears were a serious problem at Rustler Park. I was the only person there ! Forget that. I took down my tent, threw it in the car, and continued to Cave Creek where I found a lovely site at Sunnyside Flat CG where only one other person was camping. I could hear a faint Whiskered Screech-Owl calling during the night . It was hard to hear because the creek was so full of rushing water.

August 20, I woke up early; it was a cool 62 degrees. A Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher was in the campground. The sun was just coming up and illuminating the red canyon walls; it was very beautiful. I drove to the Cave Creek trailhead intending to take this famous Arizona hike but the creek was so high I had a hard time finding a safe place to cross. I finally found a somewhat low point and almost made it across when my right foot went in. I made it across and tried to re-find the trail. While crossing over a log my foot went through some rotten areas and it tore the flesh away from my left leg. It bled and was painful. There were zero birds. So I gave up and went back to the car. I next went to the Southwest Research Station. There were a couple of Say's Phoebes and one lone Blue-throated Hummingbird and that was about it so I left there. Next I went into the tiny town of Portal. Some man was mowing his lawn on Main Street and there were no birds there either. I intended to get gas and head back over Pinery Canyon to Chiracahua National Monument to hike around but there is no gas station in Portal. I had only half a tank so I proceeded slowly up Pinery Pass conserving as much as possible. I drove right past George Walker House and the Paradise Cemetery where Ken later told me Montezuma Quails can be found. Urgh. Melody Kehl, bird guide, who was too busy to help me find a Montezuma Quail, drove right past me when I was down to 1/4 tank and not even to Pinery Summit. I could have gone up to Barfoot Park for the Short-tailed Hawk but couldn't chance wasting precious gas so I drove slowly to the summit and then coasted all the way to the National Monument. Near the entrance I found a Common Poorwill in the road. Someone had run over the poor thing's head and crushed it. I couldn't even drive to the rock formations for which the park is famous for fear of running out of gas so I pulled into the picnic area instead, had lunch, and took a short walk to an old homestead called Faraway Cabin. It was very hot. I drove slowly to the tiny town of Sunizona where I finally found a gas station and filled up. Then I drove the back roads to Tombstone, Arizona where I stopped briefly to film downtown and the courthouse. I was too embarrassed to be filming such a hokey thing and soon left. I found Charleston Road with my iphone's help and drove a dirt road all the way from Tombstone to the Charleston Bridge. I got out and walked along the San Pedro River. There were many birds, Blue Grosbeaks, Summer Tanagers, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Northern Beardless Tyranulet. I couldn't walk very far because the river was so high so I left and drove from there to Ramsey Canyon, one of the most famous birding locations in the US. On the road to the canyon a Roadrunner ran across the road. You can sometimes find up to 14 species of hummingbirds in Ramsey Canyon during migration. On the day of my visit I saw just two or three Black-chinned Hummingbirds, one brief look at a Violet-crowned Hummingbird, and one brief look at a Magnificent Hummingbird. I drove to the next canyon over, Miller Canyon and pulled up to Beatty's Guest Ranch. I was looking around for the upper hummingbird watching station and Tom, Jr. came out. He was so hostile. He said I had to pass through the gate but that I had to pay $5. He stood over me making sure I put the $5 in the basket before entering through the gate. Then the obnoxious guy followed me up to the viewing station with his obnoxious dogs and breathed down my neck for 20 minutes. I had to stay despite the harrassment though because he had hundreds of hummers. Within five minutes a Berryline Hummingbird, a rare vagrant from Central America flew within five feet of me. I got my camera on it but when I got home found the footage blurry. I was so disappointned. There was also one White-eared Hummingbird, many Anna's Hummingbirds, Black-chinned, Rufous, Broad-billed, and Broad-tailed. At 6:00 PM I had to go. I drove all the way around to Sonoita and then from there to Parker Canyon Lake to the Lakeview Campground. During the drive a Common Nighthawk nearly flew into the car. There was only one space left at the CG right across from some man who was pouring lighter fluid on his fire to make it bigger. Someone was playing very loud music. I was concerned but it was too late to drive anywhere else. Also according to my bird finding guide Montezuma Quails can be found here around the lake. I stayed at campsite #2. There were tall weeds growing right next to the picnic table. Around midnight some rednecks arrived in a truck. Actually everyone there was in a truck. They rolled down their windows and began to blare music at about 25 decibels for nearly an hour while they put up their tents. I thought it would never end. I am a very light sleeper but there is no way anybody could sleep through that. Finally they finished and turned off the music when the people in campsite 3 let their stupid ass dog scamper over to my campsite and begin to sniff around my tent. I had just fallen back asleep but had to keep yelling at the dog to get away. What assholes would let their dog loose in a campground late at night? I really don't like Arizona. Why do all the most wretched states have all the good birds? I was furious. The only redeeming thing about that noisy campground was it only cost me $5.00 and during the night I heard a Great horned Owl and Common Poorwill.

August 21 at 5:30 AM the people who poured lighter fluid on their fire got up to go fishing in the lake; they turned on their truck and left it idling loudly for about 30 minutes. I got up dejected. I just wasn't up to walking the five mile trail around the lake with all those rednecks there so I left. On the way out of Parker Canyon I saw a Band-tailed Pigeon and a Cooper's Hawk. I drove the back roads all the way from Canelo Hills to Patagonia but saw zero Montezuma Quails. This was prime quail habitat too. I stopped at Canelo Hills pass at 4500 feet before dropping down into the grasslands and past Vaca Ranch. I stopped again in San Rafael Valley where I heard Grasshopper Sparrows and Eastern Meadowlarks. I went through Hershaw Canyon one of the top quail habitats but no quails. So I returned to Patagonia and went to Patagonia Sonoita Creek Preserve. There was a sign at the sign-in kiosk announcing, "we have chiggers." The guided walk at 9:00 AM was about to start. Two guys were there and one leader. The leader took my $3.00 and asked me if I wanted to join the walk. I said no. So he said "we have chiggers; do you know what those are?" I said yes I already had a couple I must have gotten at Sycamore Canyon. He gave me some insect repellent which I sprayed on my bare legs and headed out. There were more birds than I had seen the whole trip and dozens of species of butterflies I had never seen before. But I could see that the chiggers were going to be a problem as the grass was very high in places. Yellow-breasted Chats were singing all over and Phainopeplas were in droves. I also saw Summer Tanager, Gila Woodpecker, Yellow Warbler, MacGillivray's Warbler, Western Wood peewee, Lazuli Bunting, Black-headed Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak and heard a couple of Yellow-billed Cuckoos. The butterflies I was able to identify were Arizona Skipper, Golden-headed Scallopwing, and Tiny Checkerspot. I left around 11:00 AM and went back to Roadside Rest to put away my tent and pack some of my stuff. The Thick-billed Kingbird was acting like it was tired of being looked at but I got some nice video of the Gila Woodpecker. I looked at my iphone and saw an email from the listserv for Arizona. There was a report of two Black-capped Gnatcatchers at Montosa Canyon. Where in the hell was Montosa Canyon? It was not in my bird finding book or anywhere else. I drove to the tiny town of Patagonia where internet service is pretty good and downloaded the Tucson Audubon Society's web page and found directions to it there. I could either drive south to Nogales on 82 or take Greaterville Road across Madera Canyon to I-19. I decided on Greaterville Road. While driving a little bit too fast on that dirt road I crossed a streambed and bottomed out. I heard a loud clank and hoped I had not punctured the oil pan but continued to drive on to I-19 and then south to Elephant Head Road and then toward the National Geographic Observatory to a concrete lined wash that marked the spot. I walked up and down the canyon. I saw dozens of Phainopeplas, Summer Tanager, Varied Bunting, Canyon Wrens calling, one large brown bird with white spots on its tail that I flushed, and one lone Painted Redstart but no gnatcatchers at all. I was willing to spend the rest of the afternoon if necessary but dark clouds were moving closer and closer and it was incredibly muggy. Soon drops began to fall and worse lightning began to pop too close for comfort. I got in my car and watched it cover up the observatory high on a hill of the Santa Rita Mountains. I was willing to sit it out but realized I was in a flood area so I drove to higher ground. I saw a picnic area and pulled in to wait out the storm. I had the door open waiting and watching the ligthning and the clouds moving toward Madera Canyon. The border patrol drove past on the dirt road that leads up to the observatory and then made a u-turn and pulled up beside me. The passenger took one look at me and realized it was a waste of time. They both looked like teenagers. The driver said "how's it going?" I said, "great. how are you?" But he wouldn't answer like it was his first day on the job and he didn't know what to say or do. He finally said, "what are you doing? Waiting to pick somebody up?" I said I'm waiting for the storm to pass, what are you doing?" He said, "I'm patrolling!" I said well good luck! What a dumb job. Finally the storm passed and I drove back to Montosa Canyon. I walked up and down some more and finally after 30 more minutes two Black-capped Gnatcatchers flew into an acacia tree very nearby. I got a very good look which is good because they were both females or immature-- hard to differentiate from Black-tailed Gnatcatcher. They called which was helpful. I got zero video because it was still raining and I had no cover for my camera! Shoot. Best bird of the trip and no video. All in all it took two hours to get that bird but it was worth it because my trip was essentially over. It was dark quickly due to the rain and clouds. I stopped briefly in Madera just to have a picnic dinner before heading back to Tucson to my hotel. I checked in, took off my socks, and examined my feet. They were covered in chigger bites, hundreds of them. I also had them all over my waist line, buttocks, arm pits, abductors, ankles, and behind my knees. I showered but it was too late. I drank a lot and went to bed. I am still itching as I write this.

Anchorage, Barrow, & Kenai Fjords, AK: June 12-20, 2010

2010-08-10T20:28:00.000-07:00

On June 12, 2010, I flew into Anchorage and spent the day looking around there first visiting Kincaid Park. It was windy with more people than birds. I saw only Savannah Sparrow, Common Redpoll, Orange-crowned Warbler, and American Robin. Next I went to Hillside Park but it was devoid of birds entirely. Then I tried Potter Marsh where I saw a Tundra Swan very close to the road, a Muskrat in the marsh and a Moose near the parking lot. There were also Lesser Yellowlegs, Lincoln's Sparro, Green-winged Teal, Mallard, American Wigeon, Arctic Tern, Mew Gull, and Glaucous-winged Gull. My last stop was West Chester Lagoon where there were nesting Red-necked Grebes, Alder Flycatcher, and Hudsonian Godwit.

June 13 my sister and I hiked up Wolverine Peak in Chugach State Park. It was a glorious day for Anchorage reaching 70 degrees and hordes of people were out on the trail with their dogs. It was awful and I will never go back. We didn't see very many species of birds though there were many of each species including Alder Flycatcher, Lincoln's Sparrow, Wilson's Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Hermit Thrush, and Bald Eagle. We also saw two Moose.

After our hike we went back to Hillside Park as I was very interested in finding a White-winged Crossbill but we only saw Golden-crowned Kinglet and Gray Jay. We then returned to West Chester Lagoon and there were several Hudsonian Godwits, American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser yellowlegs, Bonaparte's Gull, and Long-billed Dowitcher. There was plenty of light left but we returned to our hotel since we had an early flight the next day.

June 14 we met our group from Wilderness Birding Adventures at the Anchorage Airport and flew from there to the northernmost city in North America, Barrow, AK at 71 degrees lattitude. After landing we checked into the King Eider Inn and then put on all the clothes we owned and headed out in a van to look for birds. The wind was blowing viciously and keeping the temperatures in the low 30s the entire visit. The town itself was hideous, depressing and trash filled and filthy. Barrow is owned by the Inupiat Indians and every visitor must pay the tribe $50 just to land there. The Eskimoes own the gas wells there which supply the entire town with gas heat. Despite the ramshakle surroundings the town has excellent internet service. Other than that I can't recommend it unless you enjoy visiting a trash dump because that's what it is. Once we got out of town things improved when we got out on the open tundra which despite its barrenness in mid-June when the rest of North America was bursting with spring blooms, was full of the many birds that nest in the tundra. There were many sightings of Northern Pintail, Snow Bunting, and Lapland Longspurs. Long-tailed Ducks were everywhere along with numerous Semi-palmated Sandpipers and a few Baird's Sandpipers. We saw a lot of Red Phalaropes and Red-necked Phalaropes and several Snowy Owls. We also came across a few American Golden Plovers looking very dapper in their breeding plumage. Every day we saw dozens of Pectoral Sandpipers many of them males in display flight with their chests bursting forward. Toward dinner time we finally saw what I made such a long trek to see, the endangered and rare, Steller's Eider. I was so excited to see it I nearly cried either from the incessant wind or from the knowledge that this bird may go extinct in my life time. The owner of WBA, Bob, had joined us and asked our driver and bird guide, Dave to pull over and there in a melt pond about as far away from the van as possible was my other target bird, the Spectacled Eider. Dave's scope, a 62 mm Swarovski was small and inferior to Bob's 77 mm Leica. Bob showed me the Spectacled Eider through his scope and I was very happy to see it. I remember the first time years ago I was thumbing through National Geographic's Field Guide to North American Birds and saw a picture of the Spectacled Eider. Oh I wanted to see one but in reviewing the range map determined it would be impossible and I would never see one. Their range is confined to the tundra of far northern Alaska which seemed remote and out of the question at the time. In my mind's eye though as my trip to Barrow approached and the dream became more of a possibility I imagined seeing it as I had seen it in NGFG-- up close and detailed, not this little spec in the spotting scope. On the other hand at least I was able to see it. The most exciting bird for Dave and Bob was an extremely lost Yellow-rumped Warlber of the subspecies, Audubon, a first for Barrow. After a while we stopped and drove into town for dinner which was bizzare. All food in Barrow besides the whales the Inupiat's slaughter is shipped in. We ate at a "Mexican" Restaurant where one guest, John from Florida, ordered a milkshake. I ordered something that was merely a tortilla with a can of refried beans dumped into it and some iceberg lettuce.
After dinner we went back out for a while looking for more birds and I spotted another Steller's Eider, this one much closer and I was even more content.
June 15 we had breakfast in Dave and Bob's room and then met Nathaniel a local Inupiat who for $85 a person drove us out to the northernmost point in North American, Point Barrow to look for polar bears. As we drove out along the beach Nathaniel explained that the Inupiats still enjoyed hunting and shot eiders. He claimed they shot all three species found there but I hope he is wrong and they are not shooting the endangered Steller's Eider which would be a sin in my opinion. The Inupiat are allowed to legally kill whales for subsistence. Nathaniel said that this spring they had killed 14 whales. He drove us to the place on the point where the Indians dump the whale carcasses to look for the bears. We saw fresh polar bear tracks near the carcasses but no bears. The carcasses were only partially decomposed but you couldn't smell anything due to the intense wind. Nathaniel was nice enough but I found the whole concept of living in Barrow off of slaughtered whales insane and offensive. It seemed to me the Indians were clinging to a past way of life that can no longer be sustained. They all had snow mobiles and cars (where were they driving to?) and piped in gas heat from their gas wells and a pricey fully stocked grocery store. (Peaches were $5.49 a pound!) And the way they discarded their broken down cars and snow mobiles and other trash in heaps in their "yards" was grotesque and appalling. At the point we stopped to take photos, touch the Arctic Ocean which was still very frozen, and while there a Sabine's Gull flew by. We had a lengthy discussion about how to pronounce this bird named after Irish Scientist, Sir Edward Sabine. After our trip to Point Barrow we had lunch at the grocery store and then headed back out in our own van to look some more. We found more Snowy Owls and a Long-tailed Jaeger and a King Eider that was preening just feet from the van in a large melt pond. King Eider's have gorgeous powder blue heads and orange bills and it was fantastic to get so close and see all the beautiful colors. After a while it finally swam away and we continued on. We came upon a thrush beside the road that turned out to be a female Varied Thrush, another bird far off course. We had dinner at a nasty restaurant that allegedly was serving Japanese food. I ordered the bento box and it was terrible.
On the last day we drove around until lunch time when we had to catch our flight back to Anchorage. We saw more Snowy Owls, one lonely Brandt, and two out of place Rock Ptarmigans, a male and female. We drove toward the dump and found a Ruff in breeding plumage and we spent a long time at a melt pond that held a nesting Spectacled Eider that let me get very close video, a beautiful breeding American Golden Plover, and a Parasitic Jaeger, all tundra nesters. We didn't get back to Anchorage until very late and even though it was as bright as midday we went to bed.
June 17 we drove first to Connor's Lake in Anchorage where we walked around the lake. We came across a moose with a calf and then an Arctic Tern attacked me because I guess I was too close to her nest. She dive bombed my head and in raising my tripod to protect my head my already fragile viewfinder on my camera became even looser. Toward the back of the lake we got as close as possible to a nesting Pacific Loon. Then we drove the scenic and beautiful Seward highway all the way from Anchorage to Seward 126 miles south. First we drove down Crow Pass Road just outside of Anchorage to the end and hiked the incredibly beautiful Crow Pass Trail. I did not have enough clothes on and nearly died of hypothermia at the pass so I could not thoroughly look for the White-tailed Ptarmigan. But the scenery along the way was outstanding and we were able to walk right up to Raven Glacier at the pass. The pass was so windy we didn't tarry long and returned back the way we came back to the car. Next we stopped at beautiful Tern Lake along the Seward Highway where there was a nesting Common Loon and many terns. Upon arrival at the fishing town of Seward we checked into the very overpriced Marina Hotel and went to bed.
June 18, it was raining and continued to rain all day putting a damper on our planned boat ride to Kenai Fjords National Park. During the trip my viewfinder fell completely off and I was reduced to filming solely through the LCD which was very challenging with so many tourists and with the rain and mist. We travelled on a large boat with two decks both covered with a full restaurant and bar. The boat left from the harbor where a Bald Eagle was perched on a pole nearby and into Resurrection Bay bounded on both sides by gorgeous sitka spruce forested mountains and into the Harding Gateway. There were lots of birds in the water, mostly Common Murres and Thick-billed Murres but an occasional Rhinoceros Auklet and a very accommodating Sea Otter. Not long into our trip we came across a large pod of Orcas which excited our fellow travellers greatly. The boat spent a long time with the Orcas one of which breached in a dramatic fashion. But we had lots more things to see so we eventually moved on. As we sped along we passed one Red-faced Cormorant, one Parakeet Auklet and one Leach's Storm-Petrel. We also found one Humpback Whale. We stopped at the Chiswell Islands to see nesting Stellers Sea Lions many of which are larger than a black bear, a moose, and a carribou combined. There were hordes of Tufted and Horned Puffins nesting on the rocks and in the water near the boat. Next we left the island and approached the Holgate Glacier. The boat turned sideways to give everyone a good view and soon sure enough the glacier calved (part of it broke off and slid into the sea) before our very eyes. Afterwards we were treated to a delicious all you can eat buffet of wild Alaska King Salmon. I went back for seconds, yum. And all you can eat dessert too. After admiring the glacier the boat turned around and headed back but I still had not seen what I came to see. I stood under the eaves of the upper deck scanning and scanning and wiping my binoculars from rain and spray until finally I saw two tiny Kittzlitz's Murrelets one on the water and one flying past the boat. The ranger had no clue; she was too busy reading her script and of course nobody on the boat cared enough for the boat to stop but I had seen my third life bird of the trip. It never stopped raining but after our boat trip we drove out to Exit Glacier and despite the lateness of the hour there were many people hiking with us on the short trail to the glacier. Markers along the road and the trail mark the glaciers incredible retreat from when it was first discovered in 1900. The only birds were a few Hermit Thrushes, Varied thrush, and Orange-crowned Warbler.
June 19 was our last day. We left Seward and started our drive back to Anchorage. We stopped at Tern Lake and took a short walk. A Bald Eagle was very close on a tree vocalizing. There was also a Northern Waterthrush, Townsend's Warbler, Black-billed Magpie, Adler flycatcher, and some Tree Swallows. On the way to Anchorage we stopped at Chugach National Forest and drove the road to Palmer Creek. It was very snowy and eventually we had to stop. We got out and just started hiking up a very steep slope looking for White-tailed Ptarmigans. It took two hours of struggling up the steep hillside past thick willows and snow patches and finally up moss covered strands til we finally got above tree line. The wind was howling and the summit was wind swept and barren but beautiful. However, it was devoid of birds except a lonely Spotted Sandpiper that flew over. It took only 30 minutes to get down as we slid most of the way over a snow field on our butts. We stopped at Crow Pass Road one last time looking for that doggone White-winged Crossbill with no luck then returned to Anchorage. My flight stopped in Minneapolis where I had a three hour layover. So I rented a car and drove to a nearby park. It was 80 degrees and the sun was out--a great respite from the foul weather of Alaska.
The weather is atrocious in Alaska but if you can tolerate it the rewards are great.

Southeast Arizona: May 28-31, 2010

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I would have preferred to camp but was too afraid to do so by myself that close to the border. So I stayed at a hotel in Green Valley, AZ. I drove first to Florida Canyon but as it was midday I only saw Hooded Oriole and Bell's Vireo. I next went to Madera Canyon and hiked up the trail quite a ways where I found Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher and Plumbeous Vireo. Around Madera Kubo there was a Hepatic Tanager, Berryline Hummingbird, Magnificent Hummingbird, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Cassins's Kingbird. I parked at the picnic area and saw a Painted Redstart in the trees, Acorn Woodpecker, Black-throated Gray Warbler, and Black-headed Grosbeak. White-throated Swifts flew overhead. That night at Santa Rita Lodge the Elf Owl came just after dark and at the upper parking area I heard Whip-poor-wills and Whiskered Screech-Owl.
The next day I got up extra early and drove to Ruby Road. I stopped at Pena Blanca Lake and saw Vermillion Flycatcher, Brown-crested Flycatcher, Northern Cardinal, Summer Tanager, Phainopepla, Blue Grosbeak, and one Thick-billed Kingbird. Along the road there was a Cooper's Hawk, White-winged Dove, and Rufous-crowned Sparrow.
I pulled off to go to California Gulch and not long after heading down the trail found a Five-striped Sparrow. A Varied Bunting came very close. It was an excellent day for a hike very pleasant, no people, lots of butterflies and a life bird. What more can you ask for? I hiked along the stream for quite a ways and saw hundreds of Marine Blue Butterflies as well as Emperor Snouts. There was a Bell's Vireo with chicks, Canyon Wren, and Canyon Towhee. My friend, Ken, told me to get out before noon so that's what I did although I could have easily stayed longer. Next I stopped at Patagonia Lake State Park but as it was a holiday they had jacked up the price to $10 and it was packed with picnickers and boaters. I only saw Bell's Vireo, Broad-billed Hummingbird, Bewick's Wren, and Great-tailed Grackle. Then I headed back to Madera Canyon. It was getting late but I found a singing Northern Beardless Tyranulet, Painted Redstart, Hepatic Tanager, Whip-poor-will, and Whiskered Screech-owl. There were too many people at the Elf Owl home.
The next day, May 30, I returned to Florida Canyon but saw only White-winged Dove, Varied Bunting, Blue Grosbeak, and Cooper's Hawk. Then I went back to Madera Canyon. At the first parking lot there were perched Rufous-winged Sparrows singing. I found an Elegant Trogon behind Santa Rita Lodge along with more Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers. There was a Bronzed Cowbird at Madera Kubo and a nesting Plumbeous Vireo. After some redneck Mexicans in a white truck tried to run over me as I was filming the vireo nest I decided to leave and drove all the way to Ramsey Canyon. The Blue-throated Hummingbird nest I was hoping to film was empty. I saw only black-chinned Hummers, more Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers and one hepatic Tanager. I stopped at Roadside Rest and found the nesting Thick-billed kingbird and a Gila Woodpecker nest. A Gray Hawk flew by and there were also some Bridled Titmouses and one singing Yellow-breasted Chat.
On the last day I hiked a long way into Florida Canyon and saw an Arizona Woodpecker and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. There was some kind of immature flycatcher with a band. At Proctor Road I found Brown-crested Flycatcher nesting in a telephone pole. There was a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher and a Cooper's Hawk along the trail and a Buff-breasted Flycatcher. Before heading back to the hotel for the night I drove all the way up Mt. Lemmon outside of Tucson. I saw Grace's Warbler, Olive Warbler, Pygmy Nuthatch, Yellow-eyed Junco, Hairy Woodpecker, and Broad-billed Hummer. After sunset I tried for another Flammulated Owl but only heard Northern Saw-whet Owl calling.

New Mexico: May 19-21, 2010

2010-07-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

Albuquerque is a city with no soul-- a slightly dangerous and depressing place. Even the Whole Foods was small and inadequate, though it appeared to be the hang out for the local alternative people. I only went there to drive up to Sandia Crest to look for Flammulated Owls but was so tired by the time the sun set that I left before hearing one. Before the sun went down I drove to the summit and saw many Broad-billed Hummingbirds at the feeders. I lost the muff to my camera's microphone which was annoying because it was extremely windy the entire trip. Around the trees there were lots of Plumbeous Vireos, Warbling Vireos, Black-headed Grosbeaks, and some Western Tanagers. I camped at a noisy campground where there was only a White-winged Dove to look at and left early in the morning driving four and a half hours to the Gila National Forest. I found a nice camping place at Cherry Creek Campground and looked around there the rest of the day. There were plenty of birds to look at--Cordilleran Flycatchers, Plumbeous Vireo, Greater Pewee, Red-faced Warbler, Swainson's Thrush, Acorn Woodpecker, Pine Siskin, Grace's Warbler, White-throated Swift. Two weird people in a white van pulled up and ruined my solitude so I left and drove to the Mangas Creek area on Highway 180. There I found a Summer Tanager, Yellow Warbler, Red-winged Blackbird, Bullock's Oriole, and Western Wood Pewee. Next I drove to Bill Evans Road that goes along the Gila River looking for a Common Black-hawk but decided it needed to come back early in the morning. However, I decided to park for a while under a large sycamore tree where a lot of bird activity was going on. Cassin's Kingbirds were going back and forth and there was a Willow Flycatcher on a nest, a Broad-tailed Hummingbird stopped by and a Bridled Titmouse. There was another Summer Tanager, Vermillion Flycatcher, Tree Swallows and a Spotted Sandpiper. Before I left I made one more stop and found a family of Scaled Quails. I had given up on the hawk but as I was about to turn off Bill Evans back onto Highway 180 there perched up in a tree was a Common Black-hawk! I tried to call in an owl before falling asleep but was unsuccessful. However, as I dozed off I heard many Whip-poor-wills calling all around the CG. I awoke at 2:00 AM to the mournful call of the Flammulated Owl!
In the morning I drove the short distance to McMillen CG and found another Red-faced Warbler and Grace's Warbler. Back at Cherry Creek there was a Painted Redstart. It was hot and windy. I left Gila NF and drove to New Mexico's most famous birding spot, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. I took a walk on a desert trail and saw only one Black-throated Sparrow. On the refuge I saw American White Pelican, Ladder-backed Woodpecker feeding chicks in a nest hole, Green Heron, Summer Tanager, Vermillion Flycatcher, Neotropic Cormorant, and Gambel's Quail. From the refuge I drove west to Water Canyon. I passed a herd of antelopes on my way up to the campground. As I set up my tent a Gray Flycatcher came and perched in a tree above the picnic table. During the night I heard another Flammulated Owl way off in the distance.
I looked in Box Canyon the next day but it was way too windy and before heading back to Albuquerque I stopped again at Bosque del Apache but due to high winds saw only some Black-chinned Hummingbirds at the visitor center. Then I went home.

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DENALI, ALASKA: June 20-28, 2009

2009-06-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

After arriving in Anchorage on June 20, 2009, Sharon, Susan, and I first drove up to the Arctic Valley where a wedding was taking place. It was windy and cold but we trudged up a very steep trail to some rocky ledges where I was hoping to find a White-tailed Ptarmigan. There were no Ptarmigans at all just some Orange-crowned Warblers, Alder Flycatchers, Fox Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows, and Wilson's Warblers and lots and lots of wildflowers mostly Wild Geraniums. It took a long time to carefully descend from the steep gravel hillside without tumbling all the way down on our backsides. Back at the base we found a picnic area across from the ski area. It was so windy we had to boil the water in the bathroom. We ate quickly to escape the awful wind and drove down the mountain to Potter Marsh. We looked in the marsh from some of the pullouts but only saw one Beaver and many Arctic Terns and Mew Gulls. Then we continued south on the Seward Highway past Cook Inlet and all the way around Turnagain Arm. We considered camping at Bird Campground in Chugach State Park but after parking at an open spot, getting out and hearing all the noise-- live music, loud highway noises, and noisy campers-- we decided to continue to our reserved spot in Chugach National Forest on the back side of Turnagain Arm on the Kenai Peninsula. On the way we pulled into the turn off for the Portage Glacier to see if any sites were open there but they were all full. I wanted to stop at Portage Glacier but it was nearly 11:00 PM and Susan said we should continue to Porcupine Campground where we had a reservation. It was the summer solstice and still very light out but Sharon and Susan were sleeping and too tired. It's too bad because it was the one day of the whole trip it did not rain at Portage Valley. We drove the long but beautiful drive around Turnagain Arm to the very end of the road at the old gold mining town of Hope, AK to our camp site at Porcupine Campground. It was a very private campsite with ample room but ours was occupied by squatters whom we quickly threw out and made camp. It was still light out after we erected our tents but it was so late that we were soon off to bed. It was hard to sleep with it so light out.

June 21, 2009, the first day of summer, I got up and started boiling water for coffee. As soon as it began to boil the whole stove and pot fell over spilling boiling water onto my right hand causing a severe burn. Despite the mishap we had our breakfast and after admiring all the beautiful dwarf dogwoods that surrounded our campsite left for Chugach State Park. First we stopped at Potter Marsh to walk around the boardwalk. An Alder Flycatcher was singing away right at the entrance and a Lesser Yellowlegs flew repeatedly up onto the railing singing loudly. The boardwalk took us right over the marsh and would have been quite enjoyable except it was too close to the highway noise. Still we enjoyed seeing a singing Lincoln's Sparrow and hearing a singing Northern Waterthrush. There was a Bald Eagle roosting near the marsh and a requisite Black-billed Magpie. I saw a Yellow-shafted Flicker (in California they are red-shafted) fly over and we heard some Black-capped Chickadees in the alders.

We left Potter Marsh and drove up to the Glen Alps section of Chugach State Park. A steady rain was coming down as we parked at the trail head for Williwaw Lakes. The trail descended to a drainage where many wildflowers were growing including the beautiful Chocolate Lily. Soon the trail split and we went right and began an arduous climb up a steep hillside. I was too worn out from our Arctic Valley scramble and insisted that we go back down. We returned to the split and began walking the left branch which was much more manageable though muddy, and Susan spotted our first moose of the trip munching on the wildflowers. We got within one mile of Williwaw Lakes but everyone was just too tired to continue so we returned to the car intending to make a last stop at Portage Glacier. We drove back through Anchorage and down Turnagain Arm again but as soon as we hit the Kenai Peninsula it again began to rain. We tried to stop at Beluga Point to look for whales but the wind was blowing so hard that I could barely open the door and so we continued. By the time we reached Portage Valley it was pouring. We pulled over at the Begich Visitor Center and could only take photos of the iceberg remnants of Portage Glacier from the car. The rain was so intense that we never even got out of the car but continued on down Turnagain Arm back to our cute little campsite at Porcupine CG where we had a wine and cheese social before turning in to bed with it still completely light out.

June 22, 2009, we decided to try Portage Glacier one more time before heading up to Denali. As we approached Portage Valley the rain came harder and harder. We pulled into the fish viewing area but it was too early for spawning salmon. Next we put on all our best rain gear and hiked the 1.6 mile trail to Byron Glacier. It was raining so hard but it was stunning to walk right up to the glacier and see it melting into a cold stream. We went to the Begich-Boggs Visitor Center where you can look at the icebergs from a tunnel but learned that the Portage Glacier has receded so much in the last 100 years that you now must take a cruise ship to walk on it. Where the icebergs are today is where the glacier used to be in 1860. The rain wouldn't let up so we continued back to Beluga Point where we had lunch. Shortly thereafter we had our first bear sighting as two bears walked near the edge of Cook Inlet. Next we left Anchorage and drove to Denali State Park. We pulled into the Mt. McKinley View pullouts along the Glen Highway but Denali was obliterated by clouds as usual. I told Susan and Sharon not to expect to see North America's highest peak while there because it is so high and so massive that it creates its own weather patterns and is frequently shrouded in clouds. At Denali State Park a ranger suggested we walk around Byers Lake which we did. Devil's Club and Nagoonberry were growing near the trailhead. There were a lot of mosquitoes but we had our head nets on. We saw two Tundra Swans on a nest and a beaver in the lake. While stopped for a break I heard the unmistakeable high weeze and looked up in a Spruce to see my first ever Bohemian Waxwing! After circling the lake we had dinner at the Denali SP picnic area before proceeding to the entrance to Denali National Park some 80 miles further along the Glen Highway. We set up camp at the Riley Creek Campground at the park entrance while serenaded by several Varied Thrushes.

June 23, we drove as far on the park road as they allow to the Savage River Bridge which we crossed on foot and then humped it up 3000 feet to the top of Primrose Ridge. From the bottom it seemed like nothing but dwarf birch grew there but as we ascended we were regaled with a host of various wildflowers blooming including the gorgeous Brook Saxifrage, the ubiquitous Bluebell, Wooly Lousewort, Moss Campion, Eskimo Potato, Pink Plumes, Arctic Milkvetch, Bog Rosemary, Cinquefoil, and many, many more. The hike required numerous stops not just to admire the many wildflowers but to catch our breath. While breaking at one point a Golden Eagle flew over and put on a spectacular aerial display I'd never witnessed before. The eagle would fly up and up and then dive straight down with its wings folded into its body before swooping up again at the last minute and soaring up and up into the clouds only to swoop down again wings in like an arrow shot down to earth by god. Close to the summit Susan and Sharon petered out and I was left to myself to scramble to the peak looking all the while for a White-tailed Ptarmigan. I didn't see any Ptarmigans but there was a Northern Wheatear, American Pipit, and a Merlin. All three species of Ptarmigans occur in Denali but the White-tailed can only be found above 4000 feet on rocky ledges. After enjoying the birds, flowers, and views down to the Savage River and across to the Alaska Range, I rejoined my compatriots and we had lunch before descending the steep slope. Back at park headquarters we picked up our park bus passes and then drove past the Savage River Bridge to mile post 29, the Teklanika Campground, our home for the next three nights.

June 24, I was awake in the tent listening to the rain bouncing off the tent fly and waiting, waiting for it to stop. When at 7:30 it still was raining I gave up and got up, made breakfast and lunch and prepared for a full day out in the last frontier. We stood at the bus stop and three buses wouldn't let us get on until finally a bus driven by Monty picked us up. In Denali you may only drive your car as far as the Savage River unless you are camping at Teklanika CG and then you may only drive to the campground and back. No one may drive any further along the park road except a very few winners of an annual lottery. Everyone else must take a park bus driven by Aramark, the official park consessionaire. Denali National Park is six million acres of pristine wilderness crossed only by one road, the park road which goes from Riley Creek to Kantishna some 80 miles away. Just one mile after Monty picked us up the bus stopped again at Teklanika River rest stop. It continued to rain steadily and it was hard to see out of the park (Aramark) bus windows. So some Germans in the seat ahead of us got out and wiped the windows off for us and them. As we continued into the park the rain turned to a heavy snow and it became increasingly difficult to see through the muddy windows. However, the snow had driven the park mammals down the mountains and much closer to the park road than they would normally be. Soon we were stopping for a mother grizzly nursing her cub close by. We saw a Carribou near the road with her calf close behind. It was the first time I'd ever seen a caribou calf and it was Sharon and Susan's first look at any carribou. Monty explained that the Eielson Visitor Center at mile marker 66 was named after a bush pilot whose plane went down in Russia. We were all left scratching our heads at the connection with Denali National Park. There was little to see out of the window other than the snow storm so Monty told the story of Adolph Murie. In the 1930s the Park Service thought that wolves were the cause of a decline in the park's Dall Sheep population so they were shooting the wolves. The Park hired Murie to conduct a study of them. He was the first person to conduct a scientific study of wolves in their natural habitat in Denali. He gathered enough data to prove that the Park's policy of shooting wolves was actually imbalancing the fragile tundra ecosystem. Murie's ensuing book, The Wolves of Mt. McKinley, remains a classic to this day among biologists. I had first read about Adolph Murie and his wife, Louise, in a book about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge which they both tirelessly fought to protect throughout their lives.

In 1906, naturalist and hunter, Charles Sheldon, spent 45 days on the Toklat River studying wildlife. He returned back east and spent the rest of his life urging his influential friends and members of congress to protect the area. Finally in 1917 Mt. McKinley National Park was set aside as a wild life refuge with two million acres. Sheldon personally delivered the bill to President Wilson to sign into law. In 1980, the park boundary was expanded with an additional four million acres. Later the park name was changed to Denali the Athabascan name for North America's highest peak. Close to lunchtime we arrived at the Eielson Visitor Center, the first certified green building in the US. There we learned that Eielson had flown a plane delivering goods and people to the area before it was a park and that he became famous for flying the first plane across the Arctic Ocean. Still I thought the visitor center should have more aptly been named the Murie Visitor Center or better the Charles Sheldon Visitor Center. We got off Monty's bus at Eielson and hiked from there down a trail to the Thoroughfare River. The snow turned to rain as we descended. Somehow we got off the trail and ended up bushwacking through thick willows the last quarter mile, but finally made it down to the river and found a moose there. We walked up the river toward the Muldrow Glacier and the clouds partially cleared exposing Mt. Eielson. We walked back up to the visitor center and Susan rested there because her shoes and socks were wet, while Sharon and I attempted to take the Alpine trail which was unfortunately closed due to bear activity. We walked the road instead. Snow covered everything and we saw little but some Arctic Ground Squirrels. We gathered Susan and boarded another bus headed back to the entrance with driver, John. On the way back we saw an additional nine grizzly bears very close to the park road, including one mother with three cubs. As we approached Polychrome Pass a broken down bus was blocking a hair pin turn. John adeptly manuevered the bus through the turn and got us safely back to Teklanika. Despite the foul weather it was an exciting wildlife day.

June 25, 2009, the sun was out but it was 29 degrees! Holy Toledo. I got up and was excitedly making coffee when I heard a high pitched wheeze-- two Bohemian Waxwings were right there in the campground-- an auspicious beginning to our day. I roused Susan and Sharon out of bed and we caught a bus headed for Wonderlake driven by Cindy. Cindy found some Dall Sheep high up on a ridge, the first ones of the trip. We also saw some carribou, more grizzlies, and moose, and one Red Fox. As we rounded Sable Pass at 3900 feet, Mt. McKinley, some 55 miles away, came into view. Cindy announced it so non-chalantly that I almost thought I misunderstood her. After spending an entire week in Denali in 1996 and never seeing it not once, I didn't think we would see it this trip either. I wasn't going to chance the famed Denali clouds covering it before we got to the viewing area at Eielson, so I took some pictures of it before Polychrome. By the time we reached Eielson sure enough Denali was partially obstructed by clouds. The family sitting behind us on the bus was from Ibiza and they were speaking Portugese. The parents spoke enough English to ask me to put the window up every ten minutes but the kids spoke no English and couldn't understand the interpretive dialogue provided by the bus driver. They talked incessantly even while Cindy was explaining the park flora and fauna. At Eielson we took a 20 minute break so I walked as far as I could up the Alpine trail. It was sunny and full of wildflowers and surprisingly following yesterday's heavy snows, three species of butterflies-- Common Ringlet, Common Alpine, and Arctic Fritillary. It's a long drive just to get to Eielson and the Portugese chatter was mildly irritating but turning to extreme by the time we got to the kettle ponds after leaving Eielson and headed toward Wonderlake. There were nesting Tundra Swans in one of the ponds and Cindy stopped so we could look at them. There were also Green-winged Teal, Barrows Goldeneye, and Greater White-fronted Geese with goslings. Opposite the kettle ponds we passed along Muldrow Glacier, one of the many glaciers at the base of Mt. McKinley, and all along the back side of the Alaska Range and Mt. McKinley which remained shrouded in clouds the duration of the day but was spectacular nonetheless. Almost to Wonderlake a Chinese boy pulled out his gameboy and started playing it with the sound on. I felt like I was on the number 14 Muni Bus! I had had it. So I told the boy it was inappropriate to play a video game with the sound on while in a wilderness area. Meanwhile the Portugese morons' son behind me started singing Star Wars. When he began to sing the Flintstones, instead of asking him to be quiet, the father started humming along with him. Even while stopped to admire wildlife with Cindy imploring everyone to be quiet the little stentorian family continued their Portugese palaver. I was outraged. Just before reaching Wonderlake Cindy told us that those beautiful photos you see of McKinley with Wonderlake in the foreground are taken from Kantishna further down the park road! We should have gotten out at the kettle ponds and Swan nest. We got out at the lake but it was full of mosquitoes and so we only used the bathroom before departing again. Almost ready to pull away, Mr. Ibiza said in broken English to Cindy, "my wife, she not on bus." I thought to myself too bad we couldn't have left both of you there. As the bus headed back toward the entrance the Ibeza brats continued to hum and even that deteriorated into a tuneless monotone drone. I couldn't take it and so we jumped out when the bus stopped for a lady to take a photo of Mt. McKinley. I prefered to walk back than spend my afternoon with those horrible people. As we walked along I was shocked to find two more species of butterflies-- Theano Alpine and White-veined Arctic. As we walked along admiring the Alaska Range it began to hail: it was only a matter of time since we had seen all other forms of precipitation. After a while a bus came and we got on. This bus was driven by this character named, Dick. Some weird lady who was camping at Teklanika was on the bus telling Dick about this evil bus driver who would not stop for wildlife. I almost thought she was joking it was so outrageous. Dick said there was one Nazi bus driver who was behind us. We asked Dick to let us off at Highway Pass, a pass Cindy had pointed out earlier in the day as a nice place to take a walk on account of all the wildflowers. As we approached Highway Pass Dick pointed out a Golden Eagle. Just as we all turned to look at it, a Ptarmigan bolted out and started chasing the eagle. Dick then let us off and our walk did not disappoint. First of all there were four bears across the drainage. Secondly there was a field of an endemic flower, the Arctic Poppy, growing there. And thirdly there were hundreds of species of flowers clinging to the tundra, that you could admire if you were willing to get on your hands and knees to examine them. I could have spent hours there in that one spot. We walked along across the tundra enjoying the solitude and scenery. But it was getting late so we crossed a willow patch to get back to the road and flushed a Willow Ptarmigan family. There were more butterflies in the tundra and some Arctic Warblers in the willow patch. It was a delightful walk marred by our unfortunate luck to reach the park road just as the Nazi bus driver pulled up. We got on and the harridan demanded to see our bus passes even though it was nearly 7:30 PM and we were miles from the entrance with no other way to get there than by our bus pass. I pulled them out of my pocket and we sat down. Oh how I wish we had not gotten on with that officious, punctilious, harpy. As the bus approached the Toklat River someone spotted two Gray Wolves and yelled stop. Ms. Punctilious said, "I can't stop." I yelled "Stop!" She said I cannot stop the bus. I said only 15% of park visitors get to see a gray wolf. She said I won't stop. I said well then let me off and she said "no, no walking is allowed here." I said this is false imprisonment. This officious intermedler on the bus jumped up and jabbed her finger in my face and yelled, "you need to get control of yourself missy." I wanted to punch the virago but instead I sat down because it was obvious I was on a bus full of abused sheep. I looked at the front of the bus for the driver's name which was posted above the rear view mirror, Chandra Willig. Chandra the chanticleer pointed the bus toward the left and said, "here on the left we have..." I thought she was going to point out a Snowshoe Hare, the most common mammal in the park. Instead she said, "a park sign that says no stopping." I wanted to point out that the park service spent years shooting wolves and I found it ironic they didn't want a park bus to stop to look at one. Also extremely ironic was the man walking near the sign Chandra just took pains to point out to me. We pulled into Toklat and I used the toilet and again began walking the park road. I would rather walk the 20 miles from Toklat to Teklanika than ride with that punctilious harridan and her bus full of Dall sheep. We stopped at the Toklat River Bridge for some final pictures. As we walked along I scanned the spruce trees for a Northern Hawk-Owl. Pretty soon another bus came along and we got on. I never learned our new driver's name but the bus was full of some folks from Tennessee with thick accents talking about grizzlies over yonder and curiously the driver had one too. She was very sweet though. At Polychrome she asked if anyone wanted her to stop for a Gyrfalcon. She said incredulous, "no one wants to see the largest falcon in the world?" Someone yelled "get your hands back on the wheel!" I said I would like to see one! This idiot from Germany who spoke no English would not even bother to put her window down and I was stuck in an isle seat so all I got was a shakey video shot. When she dropped us off at Teklanika I thanked her for stopping at the Gyrfalcons and she seemed very pleased. Back at camp Varied Thrushes were singing but the temperature was dropping fast to 42 degrees by 10:10 PM.

June 26, was our last day in Denali. We packed up our tents and left Teklanika. We stopped at the Savage River Bridge and walked the lovely Savage River Loop Trail. On the trail we saw a whole family of Willow Ptarmigans and a female Northern Pintail in the Savage River. As we were driving from the Savage River to the entrance Susan yelled for me to stop. She spotted a Northern Hawk-Owl in a spruce tree. I got out and it let me get pretty close to it. A Mew Gull tried to swoop down over it and caused it to squawk. After admiring the Hawk-owl, we took a much deserved shower at the Riley Mercantile and then left Denali and drove the Denali Highway, a 135 mile mostly unpaved road from Cantwell to Paxton with incredible views of the Alaska Range and the Wrangell mountains. We spotted two Bohemian Waxwings doing a mating dance. Then we stopped just past the Brushkana CG and got out to look for Smith's Longspurs. We heard one singing but could never find it. There was a Wilson's Snipe winnowing. We drove further stopping at some ponds but it began to rain and by the time we reached the Tangle River CG no one had the heart to take the tents out in the rain. We cooked dinner under the hatch of the car and then left to find a lodge. We stayed at the Tangle River Lodge and in the morning drove further to Milepost 13 to look for Smith's Longspurs. It was so windy that Sharon returned to the car. Susan and I doggedly continued. We met a carribou that looked at me as if it were about to be shot. We found a female Lapland Longspur but finally the wind drove us hurrying back to the car. There were magnificent views of the Wrangell mountains from the hill top.
A Whimbrel flew over and there were some Arctic Warblers in the willows. A Bald Eagle was perched on a cabin top. As we returned down the Denali Highway we saw three Common Loons in breeding plummage in one of the many ponds. We stopped at McLaren Summit and took the trail there with commanding views of the Alaska Range and the McLaren Valley. On they way back to the trailhead I spotted a Long-tailed Jaeger. Gray-cheeked Thrushes were singing from the trees. We found a breeding Least Sandpiper at MP 104 and then we left the Denali Highway. We stopped at Denali State Park for dinner and then drove from there back to Anchorage for the night before our flight home. Despite the foul weather, the stentorian Portugese family, the crazed punctilious bus driver, and the mosquitoes, it was hard to leave the astonishing last wild place in North America.
New birds:
Northern Hawk-owl
Bohemian Waxwing
Smith's Longspur
By: Michelle Brodie July 7, 2009

St. Paul Island, Alaska May 22-26, 2009

2009-05-28T07:42:00.001-07:00

On May 21, 2009 I left work in the afternoon and took a long miserable flight with a three hour layover in Salt Lake City, to Anchorage, AK. My plane didn't arrive until 1:00AM. I had no time for anything but to find my hotel in Anchorage. May 22, 2009, I got up as early as I could and drove to the Westchester Lagoon in Anchorage where I was hoping to see a Hudsonian Godwit. It was low tide and there were only Arctic Terns and Mew Gulls on the islands and Red-necked Grebes in the lagoon. I walked the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail to the railroad depot but there were nothing but Orange-crowned Warblers and no shorebirds on the mudflats. I had no spotting scope to scan and anything out there would have been too far. So I left and headed to the airport where I was to meet my Wilderness Birding Adventures group for a trip to the Pribilof Islands, 750 miles off the coast of Anchorage in the Bearing Sea.

I met my group, our leader, Aaron Laing, and four other guys at the Anchorage Airport which is still named after that convicted criminal, Ted Stevens, and we caught a small twin engine plane to St. Paul Island, one of four islands that make up the Pribilof Islands, some three hours west. St. Paul is home to 200 permanent residents, mostly native Inupiat Eskimos and the largest breeding colony of Northern Fur Seals in the world.

Upon landing we checked into the tiny King Eider Hotel and then immediately headed to a pond where we quickly found a Common Greenshank, a Eurasian species rarely found on St. Paul and certainly nowhere else in North America at all. Everyone was very excited especially Aaron. I couldn't remember if I had seen one in South Africa when I was there in December 2007 or not. I told Susan before I left for the Pribilofs that if we saw some common Asian species that she and I had already seen I would have to fake enthusiasm. After some nice looks at the Greenshank we began a thorough scouring of town looking for another rarity. The other van, a group with High Lonesome Birding, found it first and radioed us. We raced over and I got a brief look at a Dusky Thrush, a species I had never even heard of before that day. We got out and I briefly filmed it before it flew away. It was overcast and windy. After loosing the Dusky Thrush we headed over to the Trident Fish Factory for dinner. We would have all our meals there for the next four days. The fish they served at dinner was very good but the vegetables were canned, the salads featured iceberg lettuce, and everything was cooked in massive quantities of butter. After dinner we drove to Polvina Pond and found a Wood Sandpiper (uncommon breeder on St. Paul) a Common Sandpiper, a Eurasian species, and miraculously a Common Snipe, a Eurasian Species that closely resembles our Wilson's Snipe. After enjoying the sandpipers and tramping through the marsh for as long as we could we then headed back to the King Eider Hotel which is really a bunkhouse, to settle in for the night. It was nearly 10:00 PM and still like midday out, when Aaron said we would meet in the lounge area to go over our bird list for the day. It became apparent right away that I could never add anything to the conversation. Aaron could talk about nothing but birds. We went over the list and Aaron announced the bird of the day. Everyone agreed that the Dusky Thrush was the winner. It was still light out when I went to bed after 11:00 PM but breakfast was not until 8:00 AM so that was OK.

May 23, I got up and made myself some Peets coffee I had brought because there was no way I was going to drink Vulgar's (Folgers). A lady was in the coffee pot already. She was with the High Lonesome group. She was excited about a Pintail out the window which she tried to point out to me but I either couldn't get excited enough or couldn't see it. She was a retired neurologist from Cleveland. We had nothing in common so after my coffee I went and had a shower. Scott, the TDX (the Eskimo tribe that owns St. Paul) tour guide, was late picking us up so I took a picture of one of the few breeding birds on the island, a Rosy-crowned Finch which is a subspecies found only on the Pribilofs. You have to hike above 10,000 feet to see one in California. Scott drove us to Trident and we had breakfast. The men were gorging themselves on pancakes, stuffed crepes, eggs, and sausages. I filled my plate with fruit. At $9.00 it was a very expensive plate of fruit. Aaron and Scott discussed birds. Back outside after breakfast some arctic foxes were lounging on the rocks. It was sunny and not very cold for St. Paul. Scott divided the groups up and he drove our group to a fur seal rookery with some steep cliffs. We climbed up the cliffs (except for Alex who couldn't make it) and got very close to breeding Horned Puffins, Tufted Puffins, Least Auklets, Parakeet Auklets, Crested Auklets, and lots and lots of Common Murres and Thick-billed Murres and Black-legged Kittiwakes. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were having a great time looking at all the sea birds and taking lots of photos but Aaron felt bad for Alex and went to the base of the cliff to join him. Scott became restless after a couple of hours and pressured us to leave. We reluctantly left the cliff and rejoined Alex and Aaron who had found another Common Greenshank and Wood Sandpiper in the pond below the cliffs. There were two ladies from Anchorage who had joined us who were not really birders, Marsha and Leslie. They were having a great time on the cliffs too and asking lots of questions. Soon it was time for lunch so we headed over to the Trident Fish Plant. During lunch Scott and Aaron disccussed birds. I never got to add anything. After lunch I walked outside while the men had seconds and saw an Arctic Fox still in its winter coat (all the rest I saw had already obtained their summer coats). Soon Aaron came outside and addressed the group. He told us we had three choices-- relax until 3:30, go find some Emperor Geese, or tramp through the marshes around Polvina Pond to see what we could scare up. It was quite obvious what Aaron wanted to do but since the four of us had paid $2800 to come to St. Paul with Wilderness Birding Adventures he had to at least pretend we had a choice. The four of us looked at him incredulously about the first choice. Why would we pay thousands of dollars to "relax?" We all said we did not want to "relax" and had no preference between 2 and 3. So Aaron made an executive decision we would walk all the way around Polvina Marsh looking for something new. Marsha and Leslie asked to be dropped off at the fur seal rookery. We dropped them off and then Scott dropped us of at Polvina Marsh and left to take a nap. As an employee of TDX, he would be living on the island for the next four months. After Scott dropped us Aaron told us that last year the bird guides had instituted a rule of taking a break after lunch during which time no birding was done. It sounded insane to me. Why would you pay that much money to go lounge at the hotel? The hotel was bare bones and there was not much to do there. The leader of the High Lonesome tour apparently was abiding by the lunch break rule though and taking his group back to the hotel after lunch until 3:30. It seemed way too tame for me and I was glad I was not on the High Lonesome tour. The leader, Phil, was much older than Aaron. And even though Aaron was self centered, selfish, bookish, and obsessive, at least he was energetic. And Aaron was a fantastic bird spotter and had a great ear for bird songs even low pitched shorebird songs and was incredibly knowledgeable about birds in general. I was hesitant to lug my Canon and my Sony professional video camera into the marsh and so I opted for the Sony only since that is my preference. Aaron gathered us in a circle before starting out and made us think about what we wanted to see. He had us focus on Black-tailed Godwit and asked us to conjure one by positive thoughts. We started out into the marsh knee deep in our Neos (waterproof overboots). I heard a bird and put my binoculars on it. I was not yet decided on what it was before Aaron yelled out, "Black-tailed Godwit!" Black-tailed Godwit is a Eurasian species that is casual on St. Paul Island. The bird flew high and away but after a few minutes it flew back and landed approximately where we first found it. I took a picture of it with my video camera. Aaron would not let me get closer. I should have ignored the little bastard and walked toward it. He was so busy taking pictures with his stupid point and shoot lined up with his spotting scope (commonly known as digiscoping) that he couldn't be bothered with the fact that my video camera takes inferior pictures at that distance and we were on the trip for the benefit of the paid customers. I was lamenting that I had not lugged my Canon out there when I began to have the urge to urinate. There was nowhere in sight to hide and I was with four guys! Aaron took picture after picture and blabbed on and on about birds. Finally he decided we had to head back to the road and give up on continuing around Polvina I guess because he didn't want to flush the bird before the others got to see it. We went across the road and I went into a sand dune to relieve myself. We walked into the marsh we had checked the first day and refound the Common Snipe. After a while Scott arrived to pick us up. Aaron and Scott discussed birds in the van. We returned to the hotel and met Stefan who had arranged to use a four wheel drive truck. Although the truck held six, only someone of my short stature could have fit in the middle back seat so I volunteered . Aaron who is about six foot four sat in the front middle and crushed my legs. He discussed birds with Stefan on the way out to the northeast corner of the island which was partially blocked by a sand pile in the road. The goal was an Eye-browed Thrush that had been spotted two days earlier. Stefan made it through the sand in four wheel drive and we swept the barren plane leading to the coast where the fur seals roosted but found nothing but some resident Rock Sandpipers (a subspecies endemic to the Pribilof Islands) and Snow Buntings. Stefan took us to a secluded beach where some gulls were combing the beach. Aaron announced that the one closest to us was a Vega Herring Gull. I looked at it and it was screaming SLATY-BACKED GULL! I said wow that's a very dark Herring Gull and it's bigger than the nearby Glaucous Gull. Hmm. After going on and on about the eye color and ignoring the dark mantle and screaming pink legs, diagnostic features of a Slaty-backed Gull, Aaron finally conceded that it was indeed one. We scanned the ocean afterwards but there was little besides some very distant Red-faced Cormorants (a Pribilofs specialty bird that breeds there) and some even more distant King Eiders. Soon we left for dinner. During dinner we rejoined Scott and Scott and Aaron discussed birds. After dinner Aaron asked me if I had seen an Emperor Goose before. I started to tell him the story about going to Bodega Bay when he abruptly cut me off . Alex had never seen one before and was anxious to do so. Another TDX employee, Sean, took us to look for the Emperor Geese. It was clear that Sean was not nearly the same caliber birder as Aaron the Great and Scott. But he was nice enough and he soon walked us out to a point where we found them on a sand bar. There was a beautiful male King Eider that Aaron showed me in his scope and some Harlequin Ducks and Long-tailed Ducks. I took a very distant photo of a female King Eider.

After birding until 10:00 PM, Aaron insisted that we meet to go over the bird list and choose the bird of the day. They had all seen a Bar-tailed Godwit at the seal rookery that I had missed but Keith and I had seen a Lesser Scaup that they had missed. So our numbers were off and Aaron was visibly upset. Then it was time to choose the bird of the day. Aaron said he knew there would be dissension. I said the male King Eider, a fairly common bird of the Pribilofs. Aaron looked shocked and gave me a very disapproving look. Alex announced his choice, Emperor Goose because he had never seen one before whereas he and Aaron had found a Black-tailed Godwit a few days earlier on Adak Island in the Aluetian chain on an earlier trip. Then I said while the King Eider was very beautiful in actuality my choice was by far and away the Black-tailed Godwit, a much rarer bird that I in all probability will never see again. Ted, a very uptight effete from Portland, Oregon, sheepishly announced that at the risk of incurring the castigation of the group for choosing such a common bird, his bird of the day was a Lapland Longspur that he spent a long time with. The island was nearly covered from shore to shore this time of year with Lapland Longspurs to the point that no one ever even stopped to give them a second look. So I would say his comment more likely than not did cause an internal snicker with Aaron the Almighty Birder. Both of them were shameless listers and chasers and everyone already had Lapland Longspur on every conceivable list they might keep so there was no need to even consider the lowly Lapland Longspur. Aaron, as gentle and kind hearted as he was, feigned approval of Ted's choice. Ted was an ostentatious chaser who related numerous stories while we were there of chasing after this bird or the other in Oregon. I don't care for chasers or listers and he was the worst sort of lister, with a list for nearly everything. He kept copious notes on every single nook and cranny we visited on that tiny island asking Aaron repeatedly where are we now, where were we five minutes ago. It was all getting so tedious between the lister/chaser Ted and the incredibly self-centered and rabid single topic talker Aaron in the confined space of a tiny island in the middle of the Bearing Sea. Everyone went off to bed leaving just Aaron and me. I told him that I had been to South Africa and that's why I wasn't sure if I had seen the Common Greenshank or Common Sandpiper. I told him I had seen 241 birds there. He did not ask me one single question about it, only said he had never been there and then turned the subject back to himself. So I begged off to bed and had a couple of shots of whiskey before falling asleep.

May 24, Aaron and Scott had gone to sitting across from each other during all meals and talking incessantly about birds from the moment they encountered each other in the morning and continuing all through the day. One of them mentioned Paul Lehman, a famous birder who spent some time on the Pribilofs, and Aaron said, "I can't talk to him because all he ever talks about is birds." I said, "I don't know how to tell you two this but that's all y'all talk about." They both said it wasn't true. (In their defense someone did mention once what an idiot Sarah Palin was and how even in the Pribilofs we could not see Russia). After breakfast we drove to some point and did a sweep of a rocky shoreline. Aaron spotted a Hermit Thrush that somehow eluded all six of us and got away. Hermit Thrushes are very common across North America. But Aaron was keeping a trip list and was excited to add a new bird to our cumulative total. I was wondering how to get excited about paying $2800 to see a bird I could see at home. By the time we finished sweeping the shoreline it was time for lunch. When we got to Trident I purposely moved way to the end of the table away from Aaron and Scott because I simply could not listen to them talk about birds non-stop for one more minute. It was so tedious; what bores! So Aaron said to me, "oh that's a good idea; let's mix it up." Then he moved closer to me and Scott promptly sat across from Aaron so I couldn't get away from them. I went to the bathroom and a lady from the High Lonesome group came in. She confided to me that our group was much better than hers. Despite Aaron's boorishness and mind numbing obsessive chatter about birds he was a very good bird guide within an incredible ear for obscure bird songs and excellent bird identifying skills. But it wasn't hard to beat a group that "relaxed" from after lunch until 3:30 PM! I could barely tolerate my lunch while Scott and Aaron continued their loud bird palaver which I was not allowed to add to or participate in in any way. So when I finished I went back outside into the wind to watch the foxes and auklets on the cliffs. When the others came back out Scott dropped us off at the town marsh which we tramped through and found another two Wood Sandpipers. Later we went to a slough where we found yet another Wood Sandpiper, some Eurasian Wigeons, and a Semi-palmated Plover. It was gray, wind swept, and overcast but not stormy like it usually is on St. Paul. We were planning a sea watch for that evening after dinner and it was shaping up to be a cold one. For our last stop before dinner we went to a ridge top with a lake in it. They were all praying for a Smew but I was praying for a Mongolian Plover. We saw neither. So after hiking to the empty lake we all sat beside it and rested a while. For the first and only time of the whole trip I got to tell a story. I told them about my friend, Ken, who was abandoned by the bird guiding company, Rockjumper, when they had a secret meeting and kicked him off the group because his camera was too big deserting him in Madagascar. They were all incredulous and it became the group joke later when they found I did not scrupulously keep a life list as they did. When I said that I had a California Condor on my life list (not permissible by ABA Rules) Aaron said they were going to have a meeting and kick me off of the group and leave me on St. Paul Island.
Dinner was more tedious bird talk from Aaron and Scott and then after dinner we went to a point and had our sea watch. It was very windy and cold and I was dressed like an Eskimo. There were many Northern Fulmars flying about but my target bird was a Short-tailed Shearwater. Ted got his scope on a shearwater far out in the ocean. I got my binoculars on it and it did indeed resemble a shearwater in its shape and behavior. Aaron said it was a Short-tailed Shearwater and I said, "That's my lifer Short-tailed Shearwater? It could be any shearwater. How could I tell from that distance?" He said that Short-tailed Shearwater was the only one that occurred on St. Paul. So I added a very disappointing look at a life bird. Aaron let me use his scope after a while so he could sit down next to Scott and discuss birds. I scoped and scoped the ocean and finally Keith (the nicest and most normal guy on the trip) found a much closer Short-tailed Shearwater that he got me on as well. Still it was much too far away. No one was really interested in the sea watch but me. So after a while we had to leave and go back to the King Eider Hotel. On the way back Scott yelled out Curlew and slammed on the brakes and everyone jumped out. I put my bins to my eyes but they were completely fogged over and I didn't see it. Fortunately it was only a Whimbrel (very common year round resident in San Francisco). It was 10:30 PM but Aaron insisted we have our nightly meeting to go over the bird list. This was the night it finally came out that Keith and I had seen the Lesser Scaup and no one else had seen it. Ted saw it but refused to add it to his list because he could not independently identify it at that time (what a punctilious pain in the rear). Then it was time to decide on bird of the day. We hadn't really seen anything too terribly exciting and I was hoping Aaron would skip over me and ignore me like he usually did. He piped in that the Hermit Thrush was going to be his highlight (I repressed an eye roll) because his heart raced when he saw it but then decided it had to be the Whimbrel (I may have yawned at that point). By that time I think he was so immersed in himself that he forgot to ask me my bird of the day and so I escaped to my whiskey and bed.

May 25, 2009, was Memorial Day and our last day on St. Paul Island. It was overcast after two fine days of sunshine but no storms to blow in any rarities. I trudged to bird palaver breakfast with Scott and Aaron. I ate my $9.00 plate of fruit and then escaped the incessant bird chatter to the cliffs outside. There were the same auklets and puffins flying back and cross from the cliffs to the ocean. As I was admiring them in their beautiful breeding plummage Aaron walked up and asked if I was saying goodbye. Actually I was because although Tufted Puffins occur in California waters the only ones I've ever seen there were from a rocking boat and were in their not so exciting winter plummage. Scott assigned himself to Aaron and Stefan to High Lonesome. We drove to another sea cliff to see a nesting Red-legged Kittiwake. We walked to the top and had excellent views of nesting Fulmars in various plummages including this dark morph. I was led to believe there would also be a nesting Red-faced Cormorant but incredibly even though Scott lives on the island he did not know where to find one! I was disappointed because although we had seen quite a few they had all been in flight and I had been unable to either film or photograph one. I found it odd that someone could live there full time as the birding guide and not know where one nested. Oh well what could I do about it. Aaron sat by Scott while we took photos and they discussed birds. After a while we left to have lunch at Trident for the last time. Scott and Aaron discussed birds while I tried in vain to ignore them. After lunch we went back to the King Eider, packed, checked out, and checked our bags with PenAir. The plane was late by about three hours so after Scott returned from a nap I finally convinced him to take us out for one last time to look for birds. I had read so much about the Pribilof Islands in bird books and all the rare birds that have occurred there over the years, many of which were discovered hiding from the fierce winds in the crab pots that are stacked up in long huge rows during the off season, but curiously we had not checked them not once during our trip. Since we had an extra three hours Aaron suggested that Scott take us to check them. Aaron and Scott walked between the rows while the rest of us stood slightly ahead and on both sides looking for flushed birds. Near the end I put my bins on some motion and found a Hoary Redpoll-- a new bird for the trip! I yelled out Redpoll and everyone got a good look at it. Yeah, I found one bird and it became the bird of the day. We walked around town and I found one lonely blooming flower-- some type of buttercup hunkering down low to the ground. Aaron found an escaped Cockateil on somebody's roof. We also walked around a pond with some just emerging willows that were only as high as my boot top. Aaron spotted a Bald Eagle. Then it was time to catch our flight to Anchorage. The plane only held 12 people and had no toilet! Good thing I am short. Near Anchorage we passed an erupting volcano-- the Redoubt Volcano. Since our plane was three hours late I barely had any time at all to make one last desperate attempt for the Hudsonian Godwit. Now that Aaron had found the Black-tailed Godwit the second day, I had seen all the Godwits that occur in North America except Hudsonian which everyone assured me was "easy" in Anchorage. As soon as the plane landed I quickly said good bye to everyone (they were all continuing on to St. Lawrence Island for 10 days! Lucky bastards) and then rushed down to get a rental car and headed back to Westchester Lagoon. I could not find the directions and ended up tearing all my clothes out of my suitcase before fishing it out of the very bottom. Finally around 10:00 PM I arrived at the Lagoon. I walked from the car to the closest island with only my binoculars. There were the usual Mew Gulls and Arctic Terns. Then I heard a bird calling and looked over to see one lonely Godwit flying into the island-- one Hudsonian Godwit. I studied it with my bins to make a positive id and then flew over to my car to get my video camera for one brief shot of it before it flew back to Cook Inlet to roost for the night. It wasn't nearly as pretty as the Black-tailed Godwit I had seen on St. Paul Island. Where were the hundreds of them everyone claimed you could see in Anchorage? No matter, I only needed one. It was nearly midnight when the sun set in Anchorage and people were still picnicking at the park. I headed off to bed at the Holiday Inn.

May 26, 2009, I got up as soon as I was able and after packing and drove to Hillside Park for some last minute birding. I couldn't find any crossbills- just lots of mosquitoes so I left and headed back to Convicted Felon Airport. As the plane took off the pilot said he would bank so that those on the right side of the plane could see some glacier but after a few minutes he came on and said he lied but if you were sitting on the left side, where I was seated, you could see a rare sight--Mt. McKinley or Denali completely unobstructed by clouds! The guy in the window seat said to crawl over him he didn't mind, so I could see this spectacular sight. I had been to Denali in 1995 and we never saw Mt. McKinley the whole time (my brother reminds me of this every time I see him) even after taking a 72 mile bus trip to Wonder Lake, which is fairly typical. I looked out the window and sure enough there it was all 20,320 feet of it. What a way to end my trip!
Life Birds:
Common Snipe
Black-tailed Godwit
Red-faced Cormorant
Red-legged Kittiwake
Dusky Thrush
Short-tailed Shearwater
Hudsonian Godwit
Michelle Brodie
June 2, 2009

North Dakota: June 21-29, 2008

2008-07-13T20:51:00.001-07:00

North Dakota
June 21-29, 2008

I flew into the Bismarck Municipal Airport on the first day of summer. It was a beautiful day in North Dakota. At the suggestion of my friend, Ken, I went straight to the tiny town of Tuttle to a side road off of Highway 3. There were some Grasshopper Sparrows, Vesper Sparrow, Bobolink, and some other things but it was the complete opposite direction of my campground so I soon left and headed back west to Cross Ranch State Park. On my way back west on I-94 I nearly ran over a Sharp-tailed Grouse, one of my target birds, crossing the interstate. A few minutes later I was pulled by a North Dakota Highway Patrol for going 82 MPH in a 75 MPH zone. I handed him my driver’s license and he said “Ma’am are you OK?” I said I am depressed; I’m going through a divorce. He wrote me a warning ticket and followed me for 20 miles, I guess to make sure I was OK.
I arrived at Cross Ranch State Park and set up my tent in a fantastic camp site well away from anyone else and right on the Missouri River. Each site was surrounded by cottonwood trees and mine was very private.

Sunday, June 22, 2008, I awoke to the roar of bird song all around my tent. There was no way to sleep; they implored me out of bed. So I got up and took a walk alongside the river. There was a mixture of birds from east and west-- Black-headed Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole, House Wren, American Robin, Red-eyed Vireo, and Warbling Vireo singing all around. In the river I saw a female Hooded Merganser and Bank Swallows were flying up and down. After checking in the with the ranger I walked across the street and went to the Cross Ranch Nature Preserve, The Nature Conservancy’s first project in North Dakota. Unfortunately the day I was there someone had let the cows out and they were all over the trail with their stupid calves threatening me. I tried to shoo them away but they held steadfast in the trail. The trail goes through some short grass prairie and has some impressive views of the Missouri River flood plain. I couldn’t get past the cows though so finally I just started walking out into the prairie. I came across some small trees and there was a mish-mash of eastern bird species mixed in with western species. North Dakota is the exact geographical center of North America and is at a cross road between eastern and western bird species (probably other species as well). So I would see an Eastern Kingbird on a fence right next to a Western Kingbird. There were many Grasshopper Sparrows and Field Sparrows at Cross Ranch. A Yellow-breasted Chat popped right out in front of me and began to sing and in the same tree was a singing Willow Flycatcher. There was only one bison and it was well away from me which was fine with me after my close encounters with the stupid cows blocking the trail.

I left Cross Ranch and drove east about 30 miles to McKenzie Slough in the tiny town of McKenzie (all towns are tiny in North Dakota). I walked along the marsh and could hear some Sedge Wrens singing but not one would show its pretty little head so I could get a look at this new species. How unsatisfying. I drove along the slough and saw four Wilson’s Phalaropes in breeding plumage as well as a Black Tern hawking over the marsh. After driving along the slough for a while I decided to head back to my camp site at Cross Ranch. Everybody had left and I was the only camper—a camper’s dream! It was so peaceful in the cottonwoods along the Missouri River, I could have stayed there all week long. I took an evening walk along the river and listened to all the birds singing, Blue Jays, Field Sparrows, Baltimore Orioles, Eastern Bluebird, and Common Yellowthroat. Cross Ranch is on the Lewis and Clark Trail. When Lewis and Clark came through there were still Grizzly Bears and Swift Foxes but all I saw were some White-tailed Deer and squirrels.

Monday, June 23, 2008, I reluctantly left Cross Ranch and drove west about 120 miles to Theodore Roosevelt National Park near the border with Montana. I stopped at the Painted Canyon section and low and behold the ranger I met in Dry Tortugas was behind the desk. She told me about a Golden Eagle nest on the scenic loop and gave me a bird check list. I took the Painted Canyon loop trail while there and was devoured by biting gnats. I was the only person on the trail and I can see why. Those things left welts on my neck that lasted a week. On the trail I saw a Lazuli Bunting that practically bumped into me it was so close. This trail is part of a trail used by Colonel Custer when he traveled back and forth between the Fort in Bismarck and another one in Montana while battling the Sioux Indians to steal their land. I drove from Painted Canyon into the main section of the South Unit and set up my tent at a nice site on the Little Missouri River at the Cottonwood Campground. Then I went for a walk on the Lower Paddock Creek Trail. It was full of Prairie Dogs and Bison and I also saw a Wild Horse wallowing in the dust probably trying to get the gnats off of it. There were more Field Sparrows, one Lark Sparrow, Rock Wren, Baltimore Oriole, Common Grackle, and Common Nighthawk. I only went a couple of miles and then took the entire scenic loop, stopping at all the pullouts. I stopped where Sarah, the ranger, told me the Golden Eagle nest was and sure enough there it was and nearby on a ledge was an immature Golden Eagle. As evening approached I returned to the Scenic Loop Drive and pulled into the entrance to the Coal Vein Trail. I stopped when I saw something crossing the road and got out with my camera—a Sharp-tailed Grouse. I was just able to film it as it scooted up a hillside and away. Night was approaching so I returned to Cottonwood Campground. I walked around the campground listening for a Screech-owl Sarah had mentioned but only heard a Great Horned Owl. That night in my tent I woke up to the sound of a Bison stomping and snorting right next to my tent! I was so scared I was going to be trampled. My little flimsy tent was no protection from a 2 ton animal! I waited thinking I was going to die until it finally stomped away.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008, I drove outside of the park at the suggestion of another ranger through some of North Dakota’s oil wells to the trail head for the Petrified Forest Trail. I hiked 10 miles with my big professional camera on that trail. It was so hard carrying that camera that far. All the petrified wood was in the first two miles and then the trail dipped down into a riparian zone where I saw more Yellow-breasted Chat, Red-eyed Vireo, Spotted Towhee, dozens of Clay-colored Sparrows, and out of the woods a Sharp-shinned Hawk. As I rose over a ridge to the grasslands I came across a beautiful male Mountain Bluebird. The rest of the trail went through grasslands and I didn’t see many birds but the views of the Little Missouri River far below were outstanding.

After my hike I decided to try something else so I drove east to Schnell Recreation Area hoping to find a Gray Partridge around the agricultural fields there. I walked a nature trail and was enveloped with dozens of ticks. Some ferocious looking clouds were on the horizon so I went to the campground there and had a shower and then left. There was no time to check the agricultural fields because that storm was descending on me fast. Soon hail the size of pennies was plinking onto the car and I could not see a thing. Fortunately as a drove back west toward Teddy Roosevelt NP I drove out of the storm and into sunny weather. I decided to try the Little Missouri National Grasslands. You can follow Custer’s Trail through this grassland and also supposedly see some of North Dakota specialty birds. All I saw were some more Grasshopper Sparrows, Swainson’s Hawk, Mountain Bluebird, Eastern Bluebird, Northern Harrier, Lazuli Bunting, and one Say’s Phoebe. Way off of the trail were a few Antelopes. That night I was too scared to sleep in my tent with those roaming bison around so I slept in the car.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008, I got up before dawn and started driving like mad for miles through endless prairie toward the tiny town of Stanley where I was again pulled by the ND State Patrol. This guy was in a pooh brown uniform with one yellow light flashing, the other one out. I thought the guy was delivering mail for god’s sake. He said I was going 76 in a 65. He asked me millions of questions and I burst into tears and said, “look I know you must be lonely out here on the sparsely populated prairie and need to meet your quota but why are you harassing me?” He said, “OK, get in the car with me.” I said no way you pervert. So he wrote me the ticket and then had the nerve to say, “have a safe trip.” I became very depressed after that. I arrived at my destination, Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge, not too late. In 1964 Congress passed the Wilderness Act to protect tracts of ecosystems across the US. Lostwood Wilderness Area was created in 1975 as part of that act to protect an area best representing the mixed grass prairie; it has a rich diversity with over 700 species of plants and 100 species of grasses. It is also home to the Baird’s Sparrow, a much sought after bird species as well as Sprague’s Pipit and Upland Sandpiper. I drove the auto tour route listening for the elusive Baird’s Sparrow which is said to have a song sounding like the opening of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. I pulled over and heard the unmistakeable, “dit, dit, dit, deeeee.” I rushed to pull out my camera, got my binoculars on a sparrow out in the prairie and there it was. But I only glimpsed it for a minute before it dove back into the grass never to be seen again. I tried to cajole it back out with a tape recording of its song on my ipod but it was having none of that. I was still feeling rather depressed about my personal problems and the speeding ticket and couldn’t even get very excited about adding the Baird’s Sparrow to my life list. I drove the auto tour some more and heard about half a dozen or maybe the same one moving around, Baird’s Sparrow but no luck seeing it. So I left Lostwood and drove 11 miles south to the tiny town of Powers Lake to see about getting a camp site. The “campground” was nothing more than a grassy field with some electrical outlets in it next to Powers Lake and across from two steel grain towers. I had lunch at a picnic table next to Powers Lake where a lone American White Pelican was swimming along with a Western Grebe.

After lunch I drove north to Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge and then on to Upper Soris National Wildlife Refuge, which was absolutely gorgeous. I was going to walk the Cottonwood trail but it was full of ticks and I wasn’t going to do that again. So I drove slowly past a grassy marshy area listening for the elusive Le Conte’s Sparrow. There was a Sedge Wren way out in the grass singing away but no Le Conte’s. I also saw some Yellow-headed Blackbirds and Bobolinks and a Willow Flycatcher. I decided to stop again in the evening on the way back to Powers Lake at Lostwood. I came across an Upland Sandpiper right in the auto tour road. In a wooded area I saw an owl that I think was a Long-eared Owl but it was too far away and just as I was about to leave the refuge a Sharp-tailed Grouse crossed in front of the car. I slept well that evening all by myself at the Powers Lake CG. They asked for a $3 donation to use the electrical outlet which I did to recharge my camera battery. The CG also had a hot shower and flushing toilet so I added a dollar for that too.

June 26, 2008, I left Powers Lake and drove north nearly to the border with Canada to the best birding spot in all of North Dakota, J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge. It was raining as I arrived and so I put on a poncho and went for a walk. Then when it started to let up I started the auto tour. There were many Black Terns hawking over the marsh and lots of Franklin’s Gulls. In addition to the extensive marshes at J. Clark Salyer there is also riparian habitat offering a completely different set of birds. I got out at the riparian area and took a walk. I saw a Baltimore Oriole feeding its chick which was in the grass. I pulled over at a weedy marshy area and finally heard a Le Conte’s Sparrow singing but again it just would not respond to a taped call or my pishing or any of my cajoling or begging. So I never did see it either. However, it is now on my list because I am not too persnickety about having to see it if you are sure you heard it and I am sure. I probably should have checked into a hotel in Minot and gone back to J. Clark Salyer the next day too but instead I made a daring move to try to see the incredibly elusive Yellow Rail. I drove for about two hours stopping at beautiful Turtle River State Park to find a camp site before proceeding after dark to Kelly’s Slough where Yellow Rails allegedly breed. Yellow Rails only call at night. So I drove over to the slough and rolled the window down to listen. It began to rain and the mosquitoes were house sized. I tried to play a tape but to no avail and in that rain it would have been a miracle frankly to hear one.

June 27, 2008, I left Turtle River State Park and stopped by Kelly’s Slough again but didn’t see too much. Then I drove south through the not so tiny town of Fargo and through the medium sized town of Jamestown to Alkali Lake Audubon Refuge. It was about to rain so I left my camera behind. Too bad to because a Swainson’s Hawk was just a few feet away perched in a tree. A bird was hawking in a field that looked much like a Black-billed Cuckoo but I don’t know if they hawk. Next I drove to Arrowwood NWR. The rain stopped but it was nearly mid day and I didn’t see much there besides more Bobolinks and a Red-tailed Hawk. Next I drove to Chase Lake NWR. It was very windy making it hard to hold my binoculars still or see or hear anything. I camped that night in the nearby tiny town of Medina at a little camp ground that also had a hot shower, water, flushing toilet and was only $10 a night. I got up at dawn and drove back to Chase Lake but it was incredibly windy all day long with sustained winds of 25-30 MPH. It is very difficult to bird in that kind of wind. I did see a Short-eared Owl early in the morning and got out at one point to film a Swainson’s Hawk when a farmer pulled up. He asked me if I was a birder (I was surprised he was familiar with that word) and when I said yes he said Oh let me give you this brochure for a tour route to follow to see some good birds around here and her are some more to give your friends. I said, thanks and then I asked him, “do you like living here?” To which he replied, “I love it!” I decided to try his suggestion. I drove around the area and never saw another human soul or building or anything the entire day. However, it was extremely windy making it nearly impossible to see or hear any birds either. I finally saw a Chestnut-collared Longspur but it was too far out in a field. I stopped at Lake Louise and saw four Upland Sandpipers. At Chicago Lake where you can supposedly hear Yellow Rails I heard a Sora and a Virginia Rail and saw a Wilson’s Snipe. At some of the other stops I saw Greater Yellowlegs, Orchard Oriole, Willow Flycatcher, Black Tern, Bobolink, and a nesting colony of Bank Swallows. After completing the tour I tried Ken’s suggested spot in Tuttle but there was little happening there besides a Ferruginous Hawk on a telephone pole. I drove back to Cross Ranch State Park to camp. On the drive there I finally saw a Gray Partridge crossing the road and as I entered the park I saw a Badger scuttling into a the prairie.

Sunday, June 29, was my last day. I left Cross Ranch SP and drove to Audubon NWR. I took the Prairie Trail and saw about five Great Horned Owls. I also saw several Ring-necked Pheasants, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Bobolinks, Northern Harrier, Marsh Wren, and one very cooperative Sedge Wren that let me get pretty close to it. There were also more Bank Swallows, Upland Sandpiper, Black-billed Magpie, Common Tern, Marbled Godwit, Black-crowned Night-heron, and a pair of Redheads. I also saw a Silvery Blue butterfly. There was not much time left and it was a gorgeous day so I went for a walk at the Cross Ranch Nature Preserve. A Least Flycatcher was persistently singing at the parking area. There were more Field Sparrows, American Kestrel, Northern Harrier, Turkey Vulture, Yellow-breasted Chat but nothing new. I took a different trail than the first day and was sauntering along when I came across an enormous Western Hognose Snake. It scared the hell out of me because I nearly stepped on it. I didn’t know this until later but one of their defense mechanisms is to inflate their entire bodies to enormous proportions. I mean this snake had about a six inch diameter! I got out of there after that. After all those near death experiences it was time for me to leave North Dakota. Despite all my scary encounters with highway patrolmen, stampeding cows, snorting bison, and inflating snakes, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the incredible solitude of North Dakota, the stark beauty of Teddy Roosevelt Park, and all the beauty and charm of the wilderness there.
New Species: 5
Michelle Brodie
July 13, 2008

NOME, ALASKA

2008-06-16T08:20:00.000-07:00

Nome, Alaska
June 7-14, 2008

There are no roads to Nome, Alaska; you can only get there by plane or boat. I took a plane from San Francisco to Seattle, Seattle to Anchorage, Anchorage to Kotzebue, and Kotzebue to Nome. I had a four hour lay over in Anchorage and so I walked out of the airport and went for a walk. My friend, Ken, had told me about a trail nearby but I had left the house that morning without time to download the directions and so I just walked toward Cook Inlet. It took me a long time to get to Cook Inlet but across the inlet I could see the top of 20,320 foot Mt. McKinley, the highest point in North America. I could also see downtown Anchorage in the opposite direction. But then it was time to turn around and walk back. I saw a Black-billed Magpie, Orange-crowned Warbler, and Savannah Sparrow on the walk back. It took all day long to get to Nome and I didn’t arrive until 11:30 PM. It was still light out but raining and dismal so after picking up my rental car at the Aurora Inn I just found a safe place to park on the beach in Nome where you are allowed to camp for free and slept in the car. I just didn’t have the energy to put up a tent in the rain.

I didn’t sleep well with it light out all night long but I got up Sunday, June 8, 2008, and decided to just try a loop around town. I stopped at some ponds on the road to the airport and saw some Long-tailed Ducks, Greater Scaup, and Northern Pintails. It was raining and I had to film through the window. I saw a very large bull Moose in the just barely budding red willows. I drove from there up to Anvil Mountain. I walked the road a bit and saw a Lapland Longspur walking in the snow. This bird is abundant in Nome. Next I saw a Northern Wheatear a new bird for me and then a Common Redpoll, another new bird. There were some Yellow Warblers and Northern Waterthrushes in the willows near the Anvil Mountain Correctional Center. After thoroughly checking Anvil Mountain I turned back to Nome Bypass where I saw my first ever American Tree Sparrow. A Common Snipe was perched in a telephone wire. I stopped at some ponds where Nome Bypass ends at Front Street and there were more ducks, Red-necked Phalaropes, and two Red-throated Loons in breeding plumage. Then I headed over to the grocery store to pick up some food. I bought 8 bananas (not sure where those came from), 8 apples from Washington State, a loaf of bread, box of crackers, two propane canisters, and a small pack of napkins and it cost me $45. However, gas was only $4.29 a gallon, far less than in San Francisco.

It was still early and so I decided to try some more birding. Though there are no roads into Nome, there are three roads out of town, Council, Teller, and Kougarok, all ending in tiny Native Camps about 70 or more miles out. I decided to try Council Road and took it as far as the Solomon Bridge. Council Road follows along the Bering Sea for the first 30 miles or so until it reaches the Solomon River mouth and then turns inland until it reaches the edge of the boreal forest. After leaving town I drove over the Nome River Bridge where I stopped to check some shorebirds on the river banks. They were all Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers. So I continued. Just past the bridge I pulled over at Fort Davis, a fort built during the gold rush to restore law and order. Some Aleutian Terns were flying over the field. Across the street a Long-tailed Jaeger was sitting in the tundra; they nest in Nome along with Parasitic Jaegers. At the brushy creek mouths I stopped to look for passerines and saw singing Gray-cheeked Thrushes, Yellow Warblers, and Common Redpolls. Next I came to a rock quarry where the rocks are being used to make a short jetty into the Bering Sea. I walked out onto it and it began to rain. There were several Glaucous Gulls on the shore along with a few Mew Gulls and a female Eider I was not able to identify. After the jetty the habitat opens up into grasslands. All along the Bering Sea people have built summer homes. There are no services past the Nome River Bridge, no sewage, no electricity, no water services. So most of these are little shacks, some more elaborate with decks and two stories but mostly little lean tos with outhouses. All along this stretch there were many Lapland Longspurs which nest in western Alaska in large numbers. Tundra Swans were in the river which paralleled the sea at this stretch. Finally I came to Safety Sound, a well known rare bird migrant area. I pulled over at the bridge and saw two Pacific Loons in breeding plumage. I drove across the bridge and pulled over to check the sound more closely. In the sound was a much rarer Arctic Loon. They look very similar to a Pacific Loon except for a white patch going up their rumps. I saw this clearly as it sat perched in the water. I walked along the sound and found an injured Murre pulling up to the shore. I looked at it closely and saw that it was a Thick-billed Murre, a bird I have never seen before. In the grassland I saw my first ever Yellow Wagtail circling and circling while singing before finally landing in the grass briefly. At the Solomon River Bridge I stopped to look at the remains of a train the miners had tried to build there to connect a gold mine claim at the Solomon River Mouth to another mine 50 miles away in the tiny mining town of Council at the end of the Council Road. The train was never completed most likely due to the harsh conditions in that part of the world. It started to rain again and was getting late so I decided to turn around there. I drove all the way back into Nome and then pulled into the Kougarok Road and drove another 38 miles to the Salmon Lake “campground.” The lake was still mostly frozen and the campground was nothing more than a road that went to the lake edge. However, it had an outhouse with toilet paper so I decided to camp there. The sun finally emerged and even though it was midnight was shining brightly when I got into my sleeping bag and tried to go to sleep.

June 9, 2008, I got up as early as possible and drove straight from Salmon Lake to milepost 72 at Coffee Dome on Kougarok Road. I pulled over and began to walk up a tussocky hill to a ridge where the rare and elusive Bristle-thighed Curlew nests. I had gone no further than a quarter of a mile when one flew over my head singing. It landed not far away and another one flew in as well. I was able to film it showing the pumpkin colored rump that differentiates it from the very similar looking Whimbrel which also nests on the tundra. There was also a Long-tailed Jaeger sitting on a tussock that let me get very close to it. The closest I had ever previously been was when seeing them far out at sea from a boat on a pelagic trip or through a spotting scope from the Cliff House at home in San Francisco. It began to snow so I had to return to the car and put the camera away. I drove almost to the end of Kougarok Road and then parked and decided to go for a walk to the end. I left my camera in the car as it was raining steadily by then. I had only walked about 20 feet from the car when a Bluethroat flew up right in front of my face singing away circling and then landing not twenty feet from me perched in a willow. It would have made a brilliant shot if it hadn’t been raining and my camera hadn’t been stowed safely in the car. I continued down the road. On one side it dropped off steeply down an embankment to a broad river. Far below I saw a female Moose eating beside the river. She kept looking back and looking back at me and I couldn’t figure out why when I was so far away and so harmless. Just about then I saw an enormous rack of a huge bull moose sitting in a willow patch just twenty yards or so from me. It looked at me and I got a little bit scared and turned back for the car. As I drove back toward Nome I came across a Short-eared Owl perched in a tree. There was another large whitish bird on the other side but I never could tell if it was a Snowy Owl or a light morph Gyrfalcon before it flew over the ridge and away. On the way back after Salmon Lake I stopped at the Grand Central Bridge and there were many warblers singing away in the trees, mostly Blackpoll Warblers, Wilson’s Warblers, Yellow Warblers, and Northern Waterthrushes but also Arctic Warblers and some Tiaga subspecies of the Fox Sparrow. There were some Harlequin Ducks in the river.

June 10, 2008 I decided to drive the Council Road all the way to the tiny mining town of Council. I stopped at the Nome River Bridge and there was a male and female Bar-tailed Godwit on the river bank. I stopped at Safety Sound and walked along the Bering Sea Beach where I found an injured Thick-billed Murre coming to shore to die. On the other side of the sound a Yellow Wagtail was singing and circling above but only landing ever so briefly. A Short-eared Owl was hunting for food at the mouth of the Solomon River. That night I camped on the beach in Nome.

June 11, 2008 I decided to take the Teller Road. It was overcast and as I began my trip down to Teller, a native camp 70 miles away, it began to snow hard. I came across a large herd of reindeer in the tundra and finally a Rock Ptarmigan, another first. It was snowing so hard but I made out an American Golden Plover in breeding plumage in the snowy tundra. At the Bluestone Bridge the snow turned to rain. Cliff Swallows were nesting under the bridge and there was a Northern Shrike in the willows on the river bank. As I approached the tiny village of Teller the sun finally emerged. I parked at the end of the road just before the spit that goes out into Grantley Harbor and walked out toward the end of it. The sea was still full of ice chunks. Far out on another little spit were some Jaegers chasing Arctic Terns. Some Pigeon Guillemots flew by as well as Pelagic Cormorant and Common Eider. White Wagtails which are much rarer than Yellow Wagtails, nest in Teller but despite my best efforts I was unable to locate one. So I turned around and headed back to Nome.

June 12, 2008, I decided to take a day trip to St. Lawrence Island on Bering Air. The plane didn’t leave Nome until 9:00 AM so I went first to the Nome River mouth. There were some Glaucous Gulls on a sand bar and one Slaty-backed Gull. The gulls were very skittish and flew if I even got anywhere near them. Up on the Nome River Bridge I was a Bar-tailed Godwit, Western Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, and Dunlin. Next I checked out the Ponds at Front Street and there were the usual Long-tailed Ducks, Red-throated Loons, and one Hoary Redpoll.

I was nervous about going to St. Lawrence Island. The plane is a twin prop that lands on the tiny island unassisted. So whether you make it or not on any given day is very much weather dependent and the weather so far in Nome had been rather miserable. But I made a reservation to leave at 9:00 AM and return the same day with a pick up at 5:00 PM. I don’t know what I would have done if the plane hadn’t been able to pick me up because I had nowhere to stay on that god forsaken island. But the weather was outstanding that day. We took off right on schedule and landed in Gambel, St. Lawrence Island around 10:00 PM. As I deplaned the plane was surrounded by native Suvuks on ATVs picking up their relatives as I wandered around looking for the bathroom. There was no bathroom—nothing there but an airstrip. A man on an ATV said something in some strange language and I finally figured he wanted to drive me around for a fee so I pulled out my wallet but he said no I don’t want your money what are you looking for and I said I wanted to look around so he said hop on I’ll take you to a bathroom. We pulled up to some building and the lady at the door said I could use the toilet. I didn’t know if it was her house or what. After coming out of the bathroom she said now you need to pay a fee to walk around the island. She handed me a form to fill out and extracted $50 from me just for the privilege of walking around that horrible trash filled island full of crazy people riding around in circles on noisy awful ATVs. St. Lawrence Island is 190 southwest of Nome, AK and just 40 miles from Siberia right out in the Bering Sea and a perfect platform to watch millions of seabirds flying by on their way to the tundra where they nest. This in turn attracts hundreds of birders each year to this tiny island to watch the spectacle and hope to catch an Asian stray bird or two that either lands on the island or flies past the point. I walked away from the pay house but it was foggy and I wasn’t exactly sure where the point was so I just started walking. Soon the fog lifted and I could see a giant sea cliff that came down to the sea. This is where three species of auklets and several other birds nest. It was extremely hard to walk there as the entire island is gravel. I was so tired by the time I made it to the cliff that the sweat was coming straight through my down jacket. As I walked along the coast I noticed a seabird very close to shore and stopped to film it not even sure what it was. At the cliff there were thousands of Least Auklets, Parakeet Auklets, and Crested Auklets as well as a few Pigeon Guillemots, at least one Black Guillemot, Horned Puffins, and two Snow Buntings. It was a truly amazing sight to see all those sea birds right there in front of me on the sea cliff. After enjoying that thoroughly I decided to walk to some “boneyards” near the town. St. Lawrence Island has been inhabited by humans since at least 1500 BC. These boneyards are middens left by these ancestors throwing the marine mammal bones they had used. The nutrients from these boneyards have seeped into the soil making an ideal place for plants to grow in this otherwise barren island. The natives living on Gambel live by subsistence activities of fishing, whaling, and harpooning walruses and seals. Every house had sticks strung with drying seal meat for the coming winter. Migration was actually over as it ends on June 10 generally so nothing much was happening at the boneyard other than a Lapland Longspur and a Semipalmated Plover so I kept going all the way to the point. I parked there and watched the show as hundreds of Horned Puffins, Tufted Puffins, Auklets, Harlequin Ducks, and other sea birds flew by in a steady stream. It was very exciting but as the sweat dried and I stood without moving I began to get cold so I moved around the island and found a gigantic whale bone in someone’s yard and some natives digging up a boneyard looking for some hidden ivory tusk on a walrus buried by their ancestors maybe. Then it was time to catch the plane home. Fortunately it was still clear and the plane landed right on time to take me back to Nome. It was still light out when I got back so after checking some bird sighting records at the Visitor Center I decided to try for a sighting of a Bluethroat on Kougarok Road seen by someone at milepost 38. I drove out there but only saw a Say’s Phoebe, Willow Ptarmigan, and Arctic Warbler. So I turned back and drove back to my campsite on the beach in Nome.

June 13, 2008 was my last day in Nome so I decided to try Council Road one last time all the way to Council. I had seen at least one new bird each day but I figured the only chances I had left at that point were the ever elusive Red-necked Stint possible at Safety Sound or a Boreal Chickadee in the Spruce Forest at the end of Council Road. At Nome River Bridge there were some Tundra Swans and Bar-tailed Godwits. At Safety Sound there was a huge flock of Semiplamated Sandpipers and Western Sandpipers but I could not find any Red-necked Stint. So I pressed on. At the tiny native village of Solomon there were a couple of Yellow Wagtails. I stopped at Lee’s abandoned mining camp not long after Solomon and found the only two butterflies of the trip—an Arctic Blue and an Anna’s White but no White Wagtail which allegedly nests there. I pressed on to the Boreal Forest. It was so muddy in some parts of that road as it climbed up to the forest that I thought the car might bottom out but it did just fine. It was a Ford Escape with good mud tires on it. Near the crest of the road I stopped where I saw a Northern Wheatear perched. Then I pressed on to the forest edge where I heard a Varied Thrush and several Snowshoe Hares were crossing the road. Near the town of Council I got out and saw a Whimbrel near the road. Then I stopped at the Bear Creek Rest Stop and walked around. Incredibly a Boreal Chickadee came out of the forest out into plain view! I walked around a pond lined with willows and saw several Yellow Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Blackpoll Warblers, and Northern Waterthrushes but got scared when I came across some enormous paw tracks in the mud. I returned to my car and started my drive back. When safely away from the bear tracks I got out and took a two mile walk but didn’t see anything except some Tree Swallows at the Fox River Bridge. So I headed back to Nome.

June 14, 2008 was my last day. Before walking to the airport I checked the Front Street Ponds and saw American Tree Sparrow, Common Redpoll, and Yellow Wagtail and then I briefly saw a bird pop up that looked like it might have been the White Wagtail reported there earlier in the week. But it was time to walk to the airport so I had to turn back and leave Nome.
95 species
19 new
Michelle Brodie
June 19, 2008

BIRDING FLORIDA: April 19, 2008-May 3, 2008

2008-05-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

Michell Brodie, Bird Buccaneer, Goes to Florida
April 19 – May 3, 2008

On April 19, 2008, I caught a plane that left San Francisco at 6:00 AM and yet the man across the aisle from me still managed to drink four beers before landing in Atlanta! Both that flight and my connecting flight to Tampa, Florida were early so it was an auspicious beginning to an amazing trip to Florida. Tampa is very convenient; there is a Target (for propane and bug spray), a Whole Foods Market (for good food), and an excellent beer shop (for obvious reasons) all in the same shopping area just minutes from the airport. After finishing all my preparations there was no time left for anything but to drive to my camp for the night at Little Manatee River State Park in Wimauma, FL. Just driving in I saw a Roseate Spoonbill fly over the highway and a Little Blue Heron in a ditch on the side of the road. The entrance is lined with saw palmettos and moss draped oak trees and my little camp site was very private and cozy. As I fell asleep under a full moon a Chuck-will’s-Widow came and began to sing along with some Common Nighthawks. During the night a Barred Owl began to hoot.

April 20, 2008, I got up at 5:00 AM and drove to Ft. DeSoto Park on Tampa Bay near St. Petersburg. There were dozens of Ospreys nesting in the park. I stopped first at the East Beach and there were some White Ibises walking at my feet. They were very common it turned out. I then drove west to Bay Pier Parking Area to the famous mulberry trees. There were dozens of birders surrounding these trees but there were very few birds. Almost all of the birders were photographers. I was the only one videotaping. Finally after waiting and walking around for about 30 minutes a few things flew in—a Summer Tanager, Scarlet Tanager, Orchard Oriole, Indigo Bunting, and a Prothonotary Warbler. The birders surrounded the poor things. So I took a walk around and found a Pileated Woodpecker right out in the open in the parking lot and some Common Ground-Doves in the dunes. There were also some Black-hooded Parakeets in the palmetto trees. I took a little nature trail across the street and saw a Magnificent Frigate Bird circling high overhead. Next I took the nature walk in an oak hammock and mangrove forest at the Arrowhead Picnic Area where I saw a Louisiana Waterthrush, Hooded Warbler, and Black-throated Blue Warbler. Next I drove to the North Beach (allegedly the number one beach in the US) and walked around the hammock at the end of the island where I saw my first ever Gulf Fritillary and Mangrove Skipper. Ft. DeSoto wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it was going to be so I drove from there to St. Petersburg to the Boyd Hill Nature Park. Over 50 species of butterflies have been recorded in this neat little park. It has extensive trails through various habitats, oak hammock, pine woodlands, and wetlands. In the oak hammock I saw another Pileated Woodpecker, Great-crested Flycatcher, Kentucky Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, an Ovenbird, and a Red-shouldered Hawk devouring a rat. There were some gopher tortoises in the open areas and alligators near the water. I saw several different butterflies—the beautiful Zebra Longwing, Gulf Fritillary, Monarch, White Peacock, Cassius Blue, Horace’s Duskywing, Sleepy Orange, and Tropical Checkered Skipper. It was getting late so I headed back to my campsite at Little Manatee River State Park. I took a walk along the river but dark was approaching and I didn’t see much. As it darkened I heard Common Nighthawks, Barred Owl, Northern Bobwhite, and Chuck-will’s-Widow.

April 21, 2008, I got up at 5:00 AM as usual and drove north of Tampa to the Dunedin Causeway where I stopped and looked at some shorebirds including Ruddy Turnstone, Piping Plover, and a pack of Black Skimmers among other things, before heading onward to Honeymoon Island State Park. As I was entering the park I saw my first ever Gray Kingbird. It was perched on a phone wire and was singing away. I drove to the end of the park and took the Osprey Trail. As the name indicates there were many, many Ospreys. I saw several species of warblers on the trail including Palm Warbler, very common resident, Prairie Warbler, another common resident, Cape May Warbler (to think how hard I worked for one in Pt. Pelee last year), Hooded Warbler, and Indigo Buntings at my feet. A Tricolored Heron was near the end of the trail and a Blue Grosbeak was in the picnic area. After walking the trail I drove over to the beach area which was loaded with vacationers loafing about. I walked down the narrow beach and saw a Northern Gannet right off shore diving for food. Just inland from the beach was a small pond where I saw a Wilson’s Plover. It was starting to get crowded so I decided to leave and return to Ft. DeSoto where I would be camping for the night. It was extremely windy. I returned to the famous mulberry trees where there were still some birders lingering about. The Orchard Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, and Summer Tanager from yesterday were still there but there was a photographer with the biggest lens I have ever seen photographing near the fountain so that I could not get close enough for good video. His lens must have been 1000mm. I watched for a while but decided to try the end of the island. There was nothing but a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in the non-native Australian Pines at East Beach. At the end of the island I saw a small flock of shorebirds that let me get very close and included Marbled Godwit, Wilson’s Plover, Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover, and some Dowitchers. That night the extreme wind kept me awake most of the night with the tent fly flapping furiously in the wind.

April 22, 2008, I got up early and checked the mulberry trees at sun up. The only additions were I finally saw the Prothonotary Warbler eating some berries, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which I saw very few of in Florida. Red-eyed Vireo, and an Overnbird which is very common. I left the park and drove to Osprey, Florida to the Oscar Scherer State Park, best place in the state to find the Florida Scrub-Jay which looks just like our Western Scrub-Jay but is a separate species. I carried that doggone 11 pound camera on a three mile hike through pine lands but was rewarded with ultra close ups of my first ever Florida Scrub-Jay. There were very few people at the park and I enjoyed hiking in the pine woodlands but after having my lunch I decided to drive to J.N. “Ding: Darling National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most famous birding sites in all of North America (I’m not sure why). It took a very long time to get there because you must cross a causeway from Ft. Meyers Beach to Sanibel Island to get there. Sanibel Island is a tourist destination entirely apart from the excellent birding allegedly there, and thus extremely crowded. The wildlife refuge, when I finally did make it there, was packed with people and not one of them a birder. Packs of people were all around me at all times. I saw more butterflies than birds including Giant Swallowtail, Mangrove Buckeye, Cloudless Sulphur, Zebra Swallowtail, Great Southern White, and Little Yellow. After walking the nature trail I left Sanibel Island and took the long drive to my campground for the night, Ortona Lock, which is about half way across the state. I was supposed to meet my friend, Ken, the following morning on the Atlantic side; Fort Myers is on the Gulf side. As I approached the turn off for Ortona Lock, I saw a Crested Caracara right on the side of the road and a White-winged Dove and Loggerhead Shrike. I arrived at the Ortona Lock campground right at sunset. It was a very strange campground; right across the road was a herd of cattle! It was very clean and had a nice bathroom with a clean hot shower but it was a little strange for me. I received a message from Ken that he would be unable to meet me the next day.

April 23, 2008, I got up as early as humanly possible and made the grueling drive across the state to Delray Beach to the Wakodahatchee Wetlands. I arrived later than I intended and there were already numerous people there, mostly joggers and photographers. I was the only birder there. One guy was taking photos but he didn’t know what anything was. The area is a managed wetland watered with reclaimed water from the waste water treatment plant. Before the state obliterated the real wetlands to build hundreds of golf courses, the water was naturally filtered through these wetlands leaving plenty of fresh drinking water but with the demands on land in Florida for development, the wetlands were soon vastly diminished leaving no source to filter all the waste water being created. So places like Wakodahatchee were created to fill the void. In the meantime the place had become a major attractant for wildlife that had become habituated to humans to the point that normally extremely shy species such as Least Bitterns and Purple Gallinules walked right out into the open, thus all the photographers. The joggers just enjoyed a nice walk on the boardwalks there through a lush beautiful wetland. I walked around the boardwalk twice and had extremely close views of Purple Gallinule, my first ever Limpkin, Least Tern feeding a chick, Anhingas everywhere, Common Moorhens with little chicks, Mottled Duck, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Wood Storks, and every heron species in the state. While looking at the whistling ducks several species of warblers flew into a tree by my head. While out on the boardwalk I realized that for some undetermined amount of time the microphone on my video camera had been in the off position. I was crushed to the core. I had been making running commentaries for three days and had taped nearly an hour of footage. I was just crestfallen. After lunch I drove from Wakodohatchee to Green Cay Wetlands. It was an erstwhile bell pepper farm that had been donated by the farmers to the state at a fraction of the market value with the understanding that it would be managed as a wetland in perpetuity. It too had a nice boardwalk with plenty of wildlife but being only four years old the birds were not nearly as close as at Wakodahatchee. I saw pretty much all the same species I had seen earlier in the morning. So I left Delray Beach and drove south on I-75 to Miami over the Rickenbacker Causeway to Key Biscayne to the end of the island to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. I needed a restroom desperately. I got out of the car with my video camera and walked over to some trees. They were dripping with warblers. I started to video tape some but there were mobs of Jews on their Passover vacation being wheeled up and down the trail on bicycle carts. Each one stopping to inquire what I was doing or looking at etc. I decided I better find a restroom. I saw a man with binoculars and I told him the trees were dripping with warblers but I was being harassed. I asked him where the restroom was. He introduced himself to me which I thought was strange but then later after taking care of some rather urgent matters realized he was the guy who had written the Florida bird finding guide in my car, Brian Rapoza! Fortunately I saw him later and told him I was sorry his name didn’t click earlier and thanked him for his helpful book. He pointed out a more peaceful trail I could take which was a dirt path with no bicycle carts or people for that matter save me and Brian Rapoza. This trail also had many birds and butterflies on it including Painted Bunting, Indigo Bunting, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, American Redstart, Black-throated Green Warbler, and the ever present Palm Warbler. Among the butterflies I saw were the gorgeous Zebra Longwing and a Queen. I stayed for a very long time but then decided I better go as it was getting late. I drove back over the causeway and through Miami in hellish traffic south on the Dixie Highway (Highway 1) to the Everglades where I would be camping for the next three nights. The campground had only two other people so I had my choice of the best spot which I took and fell fast asleep. A Chuck-will’s-widow sang me to sleep.

April 24, 2008, I woke up early to an Antillean Nighthawk singing high overhead somewhere. I could not see it because my camp site was nestled in some very tall Long Pines. While brushing my teeth in the campground bathroom I noticed a Green Tree Frog in one of the overflow holes. I drove from Everglades to one of Miami’s hottest birding spots, A.D Doug Barnes Park. There were a few warblers but nothing like the numbers I had seen at Bill Baggs. The only new bird was a Rose-breasted Grosbeak and some Muscovy Ducks which I don’t think are “countable.” Countable is a fanatical birder term. Most birders keep lists of all the birds they see and count how many species they have seen in their lives. But serious birders also divide the list into areas where the bird was seen. Depending on how fanatical they are their lists might be as minute as which county the bird was seen in. So for example, my friend Jennifer Rycenga, who is very fanatical, keeps a list of how many species she has seen in San Mateo County, how many she has seen in California, how many she has seen in North America, and in the world. The North American list is further delineated by the American Birding Association (ABA) to include only the US including Alaska and Canada. You may not include birds you saw in Hawaii on your North American ABA list. The ABA has other bizarre rules about what may be counted on your list. For example escaped birds are not countable nor are released birds even if they are nesting and breeding in the wild until their population reaches what the ABA considers a viable population. I think the Black-hooded Parakeets are not “countable.” I’m not sure why because I don’t really keep up with such nonsense but there sure were a lot of them at Fort DeSoto. Yes, they did originate in the suitcase of some stowaway from South America but they most certainly are living on their own in the wild at this point. Other birds that were introduced and quickly spread to make viable populations there is no question you may count such as European Starlings and House Sparrows. California Condors may only be counted if you saw one before 1979 or something because that’s when the last one was captured for captive breeding because they are basically extinct. According to EO Wilson once a species’s population falls below 50 it is considered extinct and beyond recovery. So the Muscovy Duck was most likely an escapee and not countable on my ABA approved North American list or life list as most birders call them (although I read somewhere that Floridians consider them "countable.") In fact, when I arrived in Florida I had a wish list of birds I had never seen before that I wanted to see. However, I was not exactly sure how many “countable” birds were on my North American Life List. My goal was to reach 600 in 2008. I didn’t count the Muscovy Duck. I was about ready to leave AD Barnes due to lack of bird activity when I noticed a very large swallowtail flutter by; this Giant Swallowtail, my first, was the best sighting at AD Barnes.

I left AD Barnes and drove to Matheson Hammock County Park. This is Miami Dade County’s oldest park and it was a dandy. It had trails through some incredible tropical hardwood hammock of which there is very little left in the extremely developed South part of Florida. I took one of the trails and soon came to a Royal Palm with a Chestnut-fronted Macaw poking his head out of one of the many holes in the trunk. (I’m pretty sure this is not countable). I also saw a Hill Myna. I had never heard of it before and wasn’t sure whether it was countable. I was looking intently at a Spicebush Swallowtail I wanted desperately to photograph when another birder said, “Ma’am, there’s a Short-tailed Hawk overhead.” Sure enough there was my first ever Short-tailed Hawk, a dark morph, circling right above us. I walked into a very wild tangled trail-- what all of Miami looked like before all the development. In there I found a Great Southern White and a Florida White Butterfly. I heard a Bobwhite calling. I had lunch in the picnic area and then left. I drove back across the Rickenbacker Causeway to Key Biscayne to Crandon Beach. I went to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center and took the Osprey Trail through maritime forest. It was near midday and I didn’t see much besides the resident Prairie Warblers and Palm Warblers but it was a nice walk out to a boardwalk through a mangrove forest. It was nearing rush hour and I couldn’t bear the thought of being caught in Miami rush hour traffic again trying to get back to my campsite in the Everglades so I decided to head directly east toward the Shark Valley entrance thinking there would be less traffic. The roads in Miami are ridiculous. They are numbered but not in order! How absurd. I ended up in some run down neighborhood full of Cuban refugees. I finally managed to get out of there in some convoluted way and make it to Shark Valley in time to have my dinner beside the canal. This was an alleged spot to see Snail Kites coursing over the marsh. I watched while eating but saw nothing but herons and Vultures. I heard a King Rail somewhere in the bank but never saw it. The Shark Valley visitor center was closed with a gate pulled across it. So after dinner I left and returned to my camp site at Long Pine Key Campground. Some more people had arrived including some completely self absorbed foreigner in a rented RV who parked his RV right next to my tent even though there were hundreds of open camp sites. At 10:30 PM when his obnoxious noisy generator was still running I went over to his door and pounded on it until he answered. I said “quiet hours are 10:00 PM. Your generator is bothering me. Will you turn it off please?” He couldn’t speak English but mumbled something and a few minutes later it was off. I didn’t put the fly on my tent because it was a nice evening but I had no sooner fallen asleep than it began to rain and I had to get up and put the fly on. It was a rocky night and I didn’t feel well the next day.

April 25, 2008, I had intended to get up early as usual but I was feeling under the weather so to speak. The rain was very short lived and the sun was up by the time I arrived at Royal Palm in the Everglades, an alleged spot to see White-crowned Pigeons. I couldn’t find any but I took the Gumbo-Limbo trail which was a quite nice self-guided nature trail through tropical hammock. There was a Great Crested Flycatcher, Ovenbird, and American Redstart but not much else. I took the Anhinga trail and there were some alligators and Anhingas but not much else there either. So I drove some more down the park road to Mahogany Hammock. It held more tropical hammock including some very large mahogany trees, a tree that has mostly been logged out of Florida due to its high value as a hard wood for furniture and building. In most of the trees air plants were growing. There were two Gray Kingbirds at the entrance and one Eastern Kingbird, and a Barred Owl that was perched at eye level near the boardwalk. Next I drove further to the Snake Bight Trail, an alleged place to see the ever elusive Mangrove Cuckoo. According to Rapoza’s book the mosquitoes on this trail are particularly vicious. He was not kidding about that. I sprayed 100% poison on myself, 100% deet, and had long pants and a long-sleeved shirt and they still bit me hundreds of times right through my clothes. It was unbelievable. It was 1.6 miles of pure hell to the boardwalk at the end of the trail. I couldn’t keep the mosquitoes off my hands because I was carrying my video camera on a tripod in one hand and binoculars in the other. I saw a few warblers but not too much else. I ran part of the time and was relieved at a little breeze on the boardwalk to keep the mosquitoes away. Just as I arrived a Swallow-tailed Kite flew right over my head followed by an immature Bald Eagle. I couldn’t see any Flamingoes allegedly visible from the boardwalk way out in Florida Bay, only a few shorebirds eating in the mudflats. I ran back down the trail to the car and proceeded to the end of the park at Flamingo. I saw the endangered American Crocodile on the banks of the canal behind the camp store. There are only 500 left and all of them in South Florida. Next I walked the Bear Lake Trail. At first I wasn’t seeing anything and I was just about to turn around and give up because I just could not take the constant whine of mosquitoes in my ears for one more minute when I heard a Black-whiskered Vireo singing, another new bird for me. I returned to the car and then headed back up the road to the Pa-hay-okee (native word for grassy waters) Observation Tower. Supposedly an occasional Snail Kite is seen here but I had no such luck. It was neat to see endless saw grass prairie from the top of the tower. It made me a little sad though to think in what peril the Everglades were to the depredations of humans. Lake Okeechobee is the largest lake in Florida and is a source of fresh drinking water for 99% of Florida’s water is not fresh. Due to rapid population increases, human demands, and overdevelopment the people nearly drained the Everglades dry by diverting the water from Lake Okeechobee. Man made canals had to be built to prevent the Everglades from disappearing forever and with them several species dependent on them including the Florida Panther.

April 26, 2008, I woke up not feeling my usual perky self. I went over to the Snake Bight Trail again to look for Mangrove Cuckoo but there was very little action so I gave up after about 50 mosquito bites and tried Royal Palm again. Not too much was happening there except for dozens of Black Vultures and I tried one last time at Mahogany Hammock but only saw three Barred Owls. So I left the Everglades and drove south on Highway 1, the Overseas Highway, to Key Largo. I stopped at the Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical Site, the largest protected mangrove forest in the world. There were a few Cape May Warblers, Black-throated Blue Warblers, and a few other things like White-eyed Vireo but not too much else. So I decided to go on down to Key West. I had my lunch in the parking lot and while I was eating I heard some more Black-whiskered Vireos in the trees.

It is a long miserable drive down the Florida Keys on the Overseas Highway. You cannot go more than 45 MPH most of the time on a two lane road. So after driving for quite a long time I decided to stop in a Bahia Honda State Park. I drove to a parking area for a beach which was packed with tourists, and the Silver Palm Nature Trail. There were so many people I figured it was senseless to carry my camera and wouldn’t you know it I came within two feet of a gorgeous Reddish Egret in breeding plumage! Gorgeous. But I have no pictures and no video of it. Shame. I continued down the Overseas Highway to Key West and drove to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, supposedly a good place to find White-crowned Pigeons. I was having no luck at all. However, the warblers were right at eye level and very easy to see there. The poor birds are so tired and hungry by the time they see land in Key West that they just don’t care about human presence. All they can think about is eating. So I got some nice close up looks at some but it was getting late and I needed to pack for my big trip the next day so I left Ft. Zachary Taylor and checked into my hotel in Key West, the El Rancho. It took me a long time to prepare for my trip because I was headed to Dry Tortugas the next day and needed to have my cooler full of ice and all the food and water I would need for the next three days as Dry Tortugas has no water and no facilities whatsoever. I wanted block ice that would last longer but was having trouble finding any. The town was full of drunk revelers on spring break riding around recklessly on scooters and I was starting to feel poorly so I gave up and bought regular chipped ice. That night I slept very poorly.

April 27, 2008, the day I had been looking forward to for so long arrived. I woke up so terribly sick. I got over to the Land’s End Marina and checked in with the Yankee Freedom Ferry that would take my camping gear and me to Dry Tortugas, 70 miles off shore from Key West. After all my things were safely aboard and I was waiting for the ferry departure a deluge came and dumped the only significant rain of the entire two week trip. It passed after about 20 minutes and we were soon boarded and on our way. My nose began to run relentlessly. I had an inadequate amount of tissue, well none really and was constantly running down to the bathroom to get some. My nose would not stop running. I was so sick that I was unable to look for birds and anyway I couldn’t really see any. It certainly wasn’t like the Pacific Ocean which is full of pelagic bird life even close to shore. The ferry ride is 2.5 hours and I was sick for every minute of it. But I refused to let it get my spirits down. I had so looked forward to this part of the trip. I still think of it now with tears in my eyes, it was so special. The ferry landed at 10:30 AM and I went directly over to the campground to secure a good spot. I found a nice spot and put up my tent and then headed for a look around. Dry Tortugas is a very small island that you can walk around easily in 30 minutes but there is much to see there. The first thing I noticed was dozens of Ruddy Turnstones practically at my feet and half a dozen Magnificent Frigatebirds soaring overhead. I also noticed two hand made boats littered with refuse on the shore. It turned out that 10 Cuban Refugees had landed that day at 10:00 AM and were being escorted by the Park Service to Key West. I did not know this but unlike the Mexicans and Central Americans who are taken promptly back to Tijuana when caught illegally crossing the border, Cubans are welcomed by our country with open arms and given magnanimous greetings and help to establish themselves here. If they make it to land they are allowed to apply for citizenship and start a life here unencumbered by mere laws. I found this hard to accept given the discriminatory treatment given to Central American refugees and illegal entrants.

Just past the abandoned home made boats I came to the coaling docks (I never did find out what that term meant). Brown Noddies were roosting all over them at very close range. I think this is the only species that nests on Dry Tortugas. This was a new species for me but what would be really special would be to pick out a Black Noddy which is a very rare visitor, amongst the many Brown Noddies. Just off shore from Dry Tortugas are a number of other smaller islands including the closest one, Bush Key, home to the largest nesting colony of Sooty Terns in North America. There are estimated to be approximately 100,000 Sooty Terns on Bush Key. Sooty Terns are a pelagic species spending their entire lives at sea except when they come to shore to nest. As soon as the chicks hatch in late May and learn to fly they leave Bush Key and fly to the coast of Africa where they remain at sea for 3-5 years before returning to land to nest themselves. These were the first Sooty Terns I had ever seen. There used to be a colony of Roseate Terns on Bush Key but the last hurricane wiped out all the trees and they no longer nest there, though there are efforts to bring them back by using speakers installed on the island making Roseate Tern sounds.

In the middle of Dry Tortugas is Fort Jefferson, a fort that was built in 1846 to protect our coast from assault. Later the fort was used as a prison for deserters from the Union Army during the civil war. I was so sick all day but I tried to make the most of it. The ranger told us that this big shot birder named Larry Manfreddi had located a very rare Red-footed Booby on whatever key is next to Bush Key and had found two Black Noddies on the coaling docks. So I went to the top of the Fort to see if I could look down on the coaling docks from there. A woman was there with a spotting scope and we looked through it but couldn’t find the Black Noddy or the Red-footed Booby. Her scope was not very good and the tripod was even worse. It was quite windy on top of the Fort and it was difficult to make much out up there. I felt very bad so I returned to my camp site. I walked along the moat to get back and an injured Northern Gannet was in the moat within feet of me. I’ve never seen one so close before. I tried to lie on the picnic table but just felt miserable. I had my little dinner and my two little beers and just went to sleep after the sun went down. My neighbors were very nice and very respectful. Nobody made loud noises or acted obnoxious.

April 28, 2008, I was still sick but I still got up as soon as possible to be awake for sunrise when the birds would be arriving. One of the things that makes Dry Tortugas so special is that it sits out in the Gulf of Mexico 70 miles off shore from Key West and is often the first land a migrating bird returning from South America will see after flying all night long. Song birds migrate at night to avoid birds of prey it is believed and so as the sun comes up they are so tired and so hungry after crossing the Gulf of Mexico that they will stop at the first land they see. Due to their extreme fatigue and hunger they are hell bent on eating and become oblivious to humans. I got out of my tent and a Prairie Warbler was so close that I leaned down with my naked eye and could see individual feathers. I went and stood by the north coaling docks and saw a fantastic sunrise. The sun came up over Bush Key as swarms of Sooty Terns were silhouetted by the great giant orange ball. On the beach behind the campground my new friends, Mark and Mike and I spotted a Brown Booby. I had seen this bird before on the Monterey Coast Guard Pier. Later up on top of the Fort Mike had his scope out scanning the noddy flock. He told me that you could see the Masked Boobies from where we stood. I asked him to show me and indeed there was a nice sized flock of nesting Masked Boobies on Hospital Key visible through his scope, another life bird! There were only the same birds from yesterday around the island. I walked around the Fort with a roll of toilet paper in my backpack for my relentlessly running nose and tried again to look for the Black Noddy. A woman was there with binoculars. She told me her name was Vicki Rothman from Miami, and she was just there on a day trip with her husband. She told me that she heard you could see the Black Noddy from the moat. So we walked down to the edge (the Park Service had roped off this area as it was under construction) as close as allowed and sure enough there was a Black Noddy right next to a few Brown Noddies. You could clearly make out its much smaller size, darker color, and sharply demarked white cap. I had Vicki keep an eye out while I crossed into the roped off area for some video and a picture. Vicki wanted a picture for her records so I promised to email it to her (which I did but she never responded). It was a life bird for both of us. Inside the Fort were the same Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Broad-winged Hawk, Merlin, and Cattle Egrets from yesterday. I walked around the island with Vicki enjoying all the birds until she had to leave on the departing ferry at 3:00 PM. Around 5:00 PM I ran into Mike sitting with his spotting scope pointed toward the island right next to Bush Key. He called me over and let me look through his scope and I saw way in the distance my first ever Red-footed Booby. It was very far away but the reddish feet were clearly visible. I took some brief video even though it was too far away. It was my third life bird in one day. I thanked Mike and then went back to my campsite for dinner. As I sat eating I went through my journal checking how many new birds I had seen in Florida. I didn’t count the Black-hooded Parakeet(although to this day I’m not sure if it’s countable) but with the birds that were certainly countable, the Gray Kingbird, Florida Scrub-Jay, Limpkin, Antillean Nighthawk, Short-tailed Hawk, Black-whiskered Vireo, Brown Noddy, Masked Booby, Black Noddy, Sooty Tern, and Red-footed Booby, I had at least 11 new birds. I couldn’t remember if I had removed California Condor from my list and I wasn’t exactly sure but thought my count before I left was 588 so that would put me at 599, just one shy of 600. I wasn’t sure about the Hill Myna so I went over to ask Mike if it was countable. He was sitting next to bird trip leader, Larry Manfreddi. The question was directed at Mike but Larry chirped in immediately and barked to me “you can’t count Hill Myna and you didn’t even see one, you saw a Common Myna.” I went back to my picnic table and wrote in my journal, “Larry Manfreddi is an asshole.”

April 29, 2008, I woke up early and finally felt better. The West Nile Virus was nearly gone. As I stepped out of my tent it was still dark with dawn approaching; a Short-eared Owl flew right over my head. On the beach behind my tent I found the Northern Gannet dead on the shore. One leg was broken leaving it unable to paddle out of the water to get into the air and it had died of starvation. There was a beautiful sunrise over Bush Key. I walked behind the campground to the north coaling docks and I could see the birds flying in and literally crashing into the shore with exhaustion. It turned out to be an amazing day with hundreds of birds flying in all day long and eating at my feet. I got so close to a Veery that it was walking between my feet. There were Gray-cheeked Thrushes, Wood Thrushes, and Swainson’s Thrushes. At the famed fountain were Tennessee Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Palm Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Northern Parula, Black-throated Green Warbler, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat, and Hooded Warbler. A Scarlet Tanager set up house keeping right behind my tent giving me eye popping close up views of this gorgeous scarlet and black bird. I also saw Indigo Bunting, Painted Bunting, Summer Tanager, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Larry Manfreddi arrived with a group of about 20 birders who had paid him $1600 a piece to be lead by him to these birds that were so easy to see and find. At the end of the day they went back to his 64 foot boat to sleep at night and some evenings he took them to some of the other keys to look for birds not visible from Garden Key where my campsite and Fort Jefferson were. Manfreddi waltzed right into the campground oblivious to the campers, most of whom were not birders at all but there for relaxation or snorkeling, and put out a pan of water for the birds under some trees. Since the only other fresh water for the birds is from the fountain, the birds were very attracted to this make shift bird bath. And if you sat quietly nearby you could see just about all the birds on the island at ultra close distance. After a few minutes a Dickcissel in breeding plumage flew into the pan for a drink. After the daily ferry arrived at 10:30 a new group came and set up two tents in the site right in front of mine. It was two ladies from Orlando, Marcia and Cynthia, and a fellow named Steve who told me that he was a professional videographer for a TV station. At first when I asked why he wasn't videotaping he said he was on vacation but later he confided that he wished he did have his video camera but that the station wouldn't let it leave Wisconsin. Marcia told me that she was very impressed that I was brave enough to come out there and camp all alone.

At lunch a camper next to me, Kelly from Key Largo, offered to let me use her kayak to kayak out to Bush Key. I took her up on her offer but was too scared to take my camera along. I paddled out as close as possible to get a better look at the Sooty Terns. While paddling out I saw a huge Loggerhead Turtle in the water. Another kayaker paddled up and showed me how a Brown Noddy was perched on the end of his kayak and had been there for 15 minutes.

That evening as I sat at my picnic table for dinner Steve pointed out a male Bobolink in breeding plumage in a tree just above my campsite. Some nice people were leaving the next day and gave me their extra water which I gladly accepted. I didn’t need it to drink as I had plenty for that. I got into the Ocean to wash away the sweat and then used the fresh water to bathe in and rinse off the salt water afterwards. I love bathing outside! My ice had all melted but my daily allotment of two beers was still plenty cool. Since I now had extra water I used some to wet a towel I placed on top of my cooler and this functioned to keep the cooler extra cool. I used a rain poncho as a tarp during the day to keep the sun off of it. During the night I could hear the rats the park service had mentioned but they never bothered me or my stuff at all.

On the ferry ride out the Yankee Freedom had offered everyone snorkeling gear but I was so sick I couldn't even think of doing such a thing. Most people come to Dry Tortugas for a day trip and spend the day snorkeling the coral reef that surrounds Garden Key. I never did any snorkeling on account of my West Nile Virus but I did get to see some outlandishly colored fish from the moat including the brightly colored Parrot Fish and the little yellow and black Sargent Major fish. I also saw a Portuguese Man-0f-War in the water.

April 30, 2008, was my last day on Dry Tortugas. The ferry would take me back to Key West at 2:45 PM. There was another beautiful sunrise to admire but there weren’t nearly as many birds the last day. Inside the Fort were the usual Broad-winged Hawk, Merlin, and a Sharp-shinned Hawk waiting to pounce on the tired hungry arriving song birds. Manfreddi and his paid customers came in later in the day. Manfreddi had another birder helping him lead his birding trip whose name I think was Nigel. Nigel found a Chuck-will’s-widow on a low branch behind the fountain. He pointed it out to the paying birders and of course I wanted it for my video I had been working so hard on but I didn’t want to scare it so I stayed back. Well, Nigel walked up to me and said you should get closer to get a better shot. I thought that was so uncharacteristic of most birders and I was so grateful at his kindness. I took him up on his offer and got as close as I dared. There were also two Nighthawks sleeping up in a Gumbo Limbo tree. You cannot tell a Common Nighthawk from an Antillean Nighthawk unless they sing. But these two wouldn’t make a peep for us. After the paying birders left I was able to stand quietly at the fountain and get some fantastic shots of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo coming in for a bath plus two male Magnolia Warblers, a Tennessee Warbler, and some other neat things too. I also got some nice shots of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird eating at a Sea Grape. Before the paying birders left Nigel gave me some tips on where to find Snail Kite and White-crowned Pigeon. I really did not want to leave Dry Tortugas but departure was quickly approaching. I saw Mike and Mark and I told Mike that I didn’t think there were any other birds possible to see on Dry Tortugas that I had not already seen except for White-tailed Tropicbird. He said “oh Mark and I saw about five of those on the way out here.” I was crushed. I had been so sick I guess I didn’t notice them. I demanded that Mike produce one on the ferry ride back to Key West as I thought it would take me up to 600 birds on my ABA approved North American Life List (although I actually wasn’t really sure but it made for a fantastic plot line). I reluctantly boarded the boat and Mike, Mark, and I stood out on the upper deck the entire 2.5 hours back to Key West looking for a tropic bird. Nearly back to shore, Mike yelled out “large white bird.” We all stared at it intently with our binoculars but it was just a Royal Tern. Back on shore in Key West Mike said he was sorry he couldn’t conjure up a White-tailed Tropicbird. I told him I remained sanguine and would probably hit 600 with a White-crowned Pigeon and then we departed. My number one priority back on Key West was to replenish my depleted ice, so I did that. And then I was starving and so I went back to Ft. Zachary Taylor to eat and try for White-crowned Pigeon. I ran into a nice birder who said the best place was Indigenous Park but it was now closed or the cemetery but dark was approaching and there was no time for that either. He asked if I was staying the night in Key West and I said I had a reservation at John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo and he said “oh that’s close to Dagny; two Mangrove Cuckoos were seen there today.” The ranger let me into Ft. Zachary Taylor for half price after I told him about my bad luck in not being able to find the White-crowned Pigeon. He said the best place was in the middle of town. Nobody thought Ft. Zachary Taylor was a good place for them, although the Birding Florida book by Brian Rapoza said it was. The sun was about to set so I went to Sunset Beach and watched it and then left Key West on the boring horrible Overseas Highway all the way up to Key Largo where I camped for the night. The campground was atrocious. My site was probably 10 feet wide with a trailer on both sides of me. The only good thing about it was that I was able to recharge my batteries in the electrical outlet. I set up my tent and went straight to bed.

May 1, 2008, I got up at 5:00 AM. It’s just a short drive from John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park to Dagny Key Largo State Botanical Site but I wanted to arrive at dawn to look for the ever elusive Mangrove Cuckoo. Two birders from Pennsylvania arrived just as I did so we walked in together. We walked up and down the trails and I was about to give up as we headed back toward the middle where the kiosk is. One of the fellows, Kevin said he thought he heard one. Just about then a Mangrove Cuckoo flew into a tree right in front of us! I got my video camera on it very briefly and then jumped up and down for joy. I could not believe that a Mangrove Cuckoo was bird number 600! We admired it for a while and then I told the other guy, Dave, that I had been unable to find a White-crowned Pigeon and just about then he yelled out “White-crowned Pigeon!” I looked at it but it just looked like a Rock Pigeon to me so I couldn’t “count” that one. A few minutes later though a flock flew right over us and I clearly saw the white heads on them but got no video as they merely flew by and away. Oh well, it was still 601 I thought. Dave asked me if I had seen the Smooth-billed Ani. Vicki had mentioned something about it but I had failed to write down the directions as it seemed out of the way and unlikely but since it was only 9:30 AM and I had already seen two new species I decided to give it a shot. Dave walked back to my car with me and wrote out very detailed instructions to the spot and also a place to see Spot-breasted Oriole and Red-whiskered Bulbul. I thanked him profusely and then headed north to the Fort Lauderdale Airport. The Ani spot is just south of the airport in a run down section of town with large electrical towers and over grown abandoned lots. I pulled the car up very leery about having my camera stolen. I had just gotten out of my car when I saw an all black bird with an unmistakeably long tail on the ground just feet away with a bug dangling from its mouth! My god a Smooth-billed Ani just like that. I went back to the car and got the camera out but it had flown away somewhere. I waited and waited but it would not come back. All other black birds there were Grackles. I decided to have my lunch out of the back of my car while waiting. I drove around the block and still nothing. I was about to give up when I pulled over and saw it again perched on a telephone wire. I yanked out my camera and got an awful hand held shot just in case it flew away again. I parked the car and got out my tripod and was able to video tape it and get a photo. There were two of them actively feeding for their nest somewhere nearby. After satisfying myself I decided I better get out of there and left driving south to this residential area Dave had recommended for Spot-breasted Oriole. I felt weird walking around the neighborhood even with just my binoculars. I was not about to carry around that huge camera with neighbors staring at me like I was insane. Also I felt a little odd looking for another introduced species. Spot-breasted Oriole. Though much more colorful it is no different from the European Starling introduced in New York about a 100 years ago and long ago established all across North America. This oriole had been introduced from Central America and was now a year round resident around Miami and apparently according to Dave this neighborhood I was walking around in Hollywood, FL. After walking around it three times I gave up. I drove to a Miami neighborhood called Kendall across from the Baptist Hospital looking for a Red-whiskered Bulbul on the recommendation of Dave. I only saw Loggerhead Shrike, Monk Parakeet (countable but I already saw one in Dallas a year ago) and White-winged Dove. I was a long way away but I figured the only realistic chance I had left of yet another new bird was to drive half way back down the Keys to the Marathon government buildings where Roseate Terns are known to nest. Roseate Terns are a pelagic species and spend their entire lives at sea, only coming to shore to nest. On my way from Hollywood to Marathon, I made a detour to Everglades National Park to recycle my beer bottles. I knew the national park would recycle whereas the state of Florida does not. Shame on Florida! Anyway, I lifted the green recycle bin at Royal Palm and put in my bottles and some empty water jugs I had been saving up and then lifted the trash can to put in some little bit of trash I had accumulated and was shocked to see about 10 plastic water bottles. INEXCUSABLE! What is wrong with people? It was getting late but there was enough sun light left for me to clearly make out several Least Terns flying over the Marathon State of Florida Regional Service Center Building. I saw one that was larger and got my binoculars on it. It had a black cap, an all black bill, and an incredibly long all white deeply forked tail, definitely a Roseate Tern! The only other tern it could have been was a Sandwich but I’ve never seen one with such a deeply forked tail. It was nearly dark by the time I left the government buildings but unbelievably I had added four new species in one day. Since I was so close I stopped at the Marathon Airport, a known spot to hear and see Antillean Nighthawk. The only nighthawk I saw or heard was a Common Nighthawk but fortunately I had already added this species at my campground at Long Pine in the Everglades. I drove the long boring drive back to Key Largo to sleep at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Most people go there to snorkel; I only chose it because it was close to Dagny and it’s a good thing I did.

May 2, 2008 was my last day in Florida. I got up as early as humanly possible, took down my tent, ate breakfast, and left Key Largo on a grueling four hour drive north past Miami, past Fort Lauderdale, past West Palm Beach and then inland on the toll road, the Florida Turnpike (oh how I wish I had done that miles ago and missed all that miserable rush hour traffic in all the aforementioned beaches!) to Lake Kissimmee State Park. I chose this spot on the recommendation of Nigel as the best place to see a Snail Kite. It took me so long to get there after that hideous drive that I had blown the best part of the morning by the time I arrived. I walked up to the observation tower to have a look. It had breathtaking views of Lake Kissimmee but I could see right away that any Snail Kite I spotted from up there would be incredibly far away necessitating a spotting scope. So I took one of the trails to the lake’s edge which recedes greatly after the rainy season ends. There were thousands of mosquitoes but they didn’t touch me because this time instead of using poison I smeared myself with Skin So Soft. It really does work! I saw an Eastern Meadowlark and a Common Ground-Dove on the walk out to the lake and an immature Bald Eagle but the only other soaring birds were vultures. So I returned to the picnic area to look around. There was a Summer Tanager, Carolina Wren, Blue Jay, and Great-crested Flycatcher in the pine/oak woodlands along with several Wild Turkeys. In the Kissimmee River I found another Limpkin, a Tricolored Heron, and an Anhinga along with a few large alligators. I had my lunch at the picnic area and continued to scan the skies. During lunch I found an Oak Hairstreak in the Oak woodlands that make up the habitat there along with a gorgeous Zebra Swallowtail. I love that butterfly but they never land and I have never been able to get a doggone photo of one. They are not in California so I have to wait until my next visit south to look for another one.

I finished lunch and it was obvious I was not going to find a Snail Kite there so I drove for miles around the lake to the other side to the Joe Overstreet Boat Ramp where the Snail Kites allegedly perch on the posts. It was mid-afternoon and rednecks were arriving to set up their tents for the weekend. I looked around but found nothing and it seemed improbable with all that noise and redneck activity. So I left. On the drive back down the Joe Overstreet dirt road, I stopped and heard two Bobwhites which brought childhood memories racing back into my brain. I heard some Sandhill Cranes in the sky and one was on the side of the road nearby feeding. Also on that side of the lake is the Three Lakes Wildlife Management where endangered Whooping Cranes are raised in captivity. I didn’t see any but since I was over there I tried near the other lakes that make it “Three Lakes,” Lake Jackson and Lake Marion to look for kites. I drove down to a parking area for the Lake Jackson Observation Tower. It was a .4 mile walk and time was running out so I ran without my camera. When I arrived a Pileated Woodpecker was pecking on the tower legs. I climbed up and had outstanding views of the lake but saw no kites. I raced back to the car and drove back to Lake Kissimmee State Park for one last parting glance from the observation tower. It was nearly dusk and there were several raptors coursing over the lake. I’m sure one of them was a kite because they were much smaller than the eagles out there but all of them were much too far away to count for anything except a nice parting look at Florida as it should look. The park closed at 8:00 PM so I had to get out and begin my long drive back to Tampa for my flight home the next day. It had been an incredible trip for me, reminding me that there still are wild places out there if you look hard enough and have the resources to find them. They won't be here indefinitely though because man is hell bent on being the only species left on this planet. Going to Florida was a reminder of how lucky I am to have my health, the time and those resources available to experience nature in all its glory, while it's still here to enjoy.

SOUTH AFRICA: PART I: DURBAN & KRUGER

2008-01-13T16:59:00.000-08:00

Durban & Kruger National Park
December 13, 2007 – December 21, 2007

We left London on the evening of the 12th and arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa the morning of December 13, 2007, where we met Susan’s brother, Martyn. The airport was utter chaos. The conveyor belt wasn’t working on the luggage carrousel and throngs of people were climbing onto it trying to get their luggage. We finally collected our things and then met Martyn and his two kids and flew from Johannesburg to Durban, a coastal town on the Indian Ocean. We drove from Durban Airport to Umhlanga Rocks, to a large flat owned by Martyn’s in-laws, overlooking the Indian Ocean. I looked out the cab window on the drive from the airport with extreme sadness as we passed large tracts of shanty towns. Once in Umhlanga everything changed as we entered white South Africa, a swanky resort town for rich white folks with their high end cars, gated housing with security guards, electrically wired fences, and fancy accommodations. Our room opened onto a large deck with expansive views down the beach and across the ocean. Each morning I was able to use my photography and video equipment on the deck on the third floor without fear of being mugged, a high possibility in crime-ridden South Africa. After settling into our room we went for a walk down the board walk along the ocean. Police were stationed up and down the beach; it was the holidays, summer in South Africa, and the beaches were full of tourists. Helicopters patrolled the beaches incessantly as well. As we walked down the beach I noticed right away how little wildlife there was to see in the ocean itself. In fact, the only ocean birds we saw that day were a couple of Cape Gulls and one Lesser Crested Tern. Common Mynas, an introduced bird that has thrived there, were everywhere as were the symbol of South African birding, the Hadeda Ibis and Cape Turtle Dove which makes a sound embedded in my brain permanently. Despite the presence of many tourists, in the shrubs along the boardwalk there were quite a few birds including Dark-capped Bulbul, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Drakensburg Prinia, Lemon Dove, and Red-winged Starling. After walking down the boardwalk a ways we came to the entrance to the Umhlanga Lagoon Nature Reserve. It looked very inviting but a sign warned of the dangers of muggings and recommended entering only on Thursdays between 11:00 and 2:00 PM when a guard was there. Overcoming my extreme fear of being mugged and having my camera stolen we entered the reserve. It was the best part about Durban. My heart pounded as we entered a thick jungle with overhanging limbs and then came to a rickety boardwalk over the lagoon. In the jungle area we saw a Green-backed Camaroptera, African White-throated Robin-Chat, and Red-capped Robin-chat. Our fears overcame us and it was getting late so we turned back before exploring the boardwalk.

December 14, 2007, I got up and checked out the lawn below the balcony. I found more Mynas, Laughing Dove, European Barn Swallow, Dark-capped Bulbul, Cape White-eye, Bronze Mannikin, Gray-headed Gull, and Cape Sparrow. Out on the ocean was a pod of Common Dolphins. After breakfast we decided to walk back down to the Nature Reserve. Martyn’s brother-in-law, Allistair, warned us that it wasn’t safe but we went anyway. In the jungle we found a Cardinal Woodpecker, Brown Scrub Robin, and a Green-backed Camaroptera. An alternative trail to the one to the boardwalk went toward the Beachcomer Hotel and we took it as it seemed safer so close to the hotel. One tree there was full of butterflies and also had a Speckled Mousebird, Black-collared Barbet and a family of Vervet Monkeys. We stood in this one spot along time as it felt the safest. Then we decided to chance the rickety boardwalk and came across dozens of nesting weaver birds, Speckled Weaver and Cape Weaver. There was one Southern Red Bishop in the reeds. As we stood on the boardwalk right in the middle we had a good vantage point for both shorebirds in the river mouth and passerines in the woods. Along the canal there was a White-breasted Cormorant, Goliath Heron, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Wood Sandpiper, and Common Sandpiper. A Giant Kingfisher flew out of the woods and landed on a post in the canal. Then a Pied Kingfisher flew out of the same area and landed on a reed. In the woods on the far side that went toward the ocean I spotted a Black Flycatcher perched in a tree. We looked in the mud flats closely and saw a Three-banded Plover briefly come from behind some reeds. A Common Ringed Plover made an even briefer appearance before disappearing behind the reed bed. We decided to brave crossing the boardwalk to the other side. The jungle only continued briefly after that before descending to the beach. Out on the beach an African Fish Eagle flew overhead. Back at the flat we put on our swimming suits (called swimming costumes in South Africa) and went down to the beach to swim in the Indian Ocean. I had never even seen the Indian Ocean before much less swum in it. You could only swim in about a 50 yard section of the beach. So about 500 people were all crammed in this one section of the beach all trying to boogie board and ride waves and swim all the while bumping into each other while trying to avoid contact. If you went outside the 50 yard markers a life guard blew a whistle and asked you to get back in the swimming area. Another guard sat on a surf board right at the breakers to make sure no one went beyond the breakers. White Sharks are a huge threat in South Africa but as all the announcement were in Zulu I’m not sure if that was the reason or something else. Crime was always a threat even with the presence of guards, helicopters and police. So Susan watched our towel while I got in the ocean. It was chilly but not nearly as cold as the Pacific Ocean. Everyone said the Indian Ocean was much warmer than the Atlantic Ocean. I would find out later in the trip when we got to Cape Town.

December 15, 2007, I got up and scanned the ocean from the balcony. It was overcast. A stream of Palm Swifts flew past the balcony. A Cape Wagtail walked across the lawn below me. After breakfast we returned to the Nature Reserve. We first took the trail toward the busy tree next to the Beachcomber Hotel. A suspicious looking man was walking the other way. I was very frightened but felt somewhat safe by the hotel. Two men walked toward us and I hurriedly put my Canon Rebel into my backpack. If we had been robbed he would have hit the jackpot getting both my Canon Rebel and my Sony Video camera. The two men turned out to be police officers who had just returned from checking the nature reserve trails. One of the officers asked if we planned to go into the reserve when we said yes he said that there had been two muggings the day before. We were so frightened and jittery that I could barely even look at the birds much less film them. We walked toward the boardwalk slowly looking ahead and back constantly. We stood out in the middle of the boardwalk checking both sides and that felt safer as we had a chance to run either way if a criminal came. An African Darter was in the channel as well as a Ruff and another Common Sandpiper. I didn’t want to go either way as I felt entering the woods was very dangerous but we had to either return the way we came through the jungle or up the hillside to the beach. We finally decided that the shorter route to the beach was safest since once we reached the beach we were much less likely to be mugged with other people there, constant helicopters flying over and many people on holiday at the beach. In the woods that went up the hillside we found a Fork-tailed Drongo, a female Eastern Olive Sunbird, my first sunbird of the trip, Dark-backed Weaver, and Common Fiscal. We decided it would be safer to walk back along the beach where there was more security. While walking down the beach, a Rock Kestrel zoomed past us. Later in the day we went out to the pool area which was enclosed by the electrical fence so filming was easier and safer there. While looking around a Black Kite flew overhead and a Black-collared Barbet went repeatedly to this same tree overlooking the pool area.

December 16, 2007, was our last day in Durban. In the morning before our flight we walked down the boardwalk to the reserve one last time. While standing on the boardwalk a Black Crake popped out of the reeds. I could have stood on the boardwalk all day just to see what else popped out but we had to go. We crossed the boardwalk and walked through the jungle to the beach where we found a Wahlberg’s Eagle perched in a tree. We walked up to the river mouth and found a Brown-headed Shrike perched in a tree. The only additional birds we found in the jungle were Common Fiscal and a Collared Sunbird. A man and his son were just about to head back into the reserve and so we felt safe enough to continue back that way as well instead of back along the beach where there were less birds to see. When we were nearly back to the flat we passed the police officer who warned us earlier about the mugging and he said, “you made it!” Back at the flat we packed our bags and then headed back to Durban Airport. We flew from Durban on a tiny twin prop to Nelspruit Airport where we were greeted by our guide from Bushwise Safaris, Ludaweick. The drive from Nelspruit Airport to Marloth Park is about an hour and passes some dramatic mountain scenery before following along the Crocodile River and into the park. Marloth Park is a nature reserve that borders Kruger National Park. On the drive I saw my first Pied Crow, a Black-shouldered Kite, Little Swifts, and Cattle Egrets. Soon after passing through the security gate we came across a Black Mamba snake in the road. Then we passed some Impalas along the road. Ludaweick said they were too common to stop for even though I had never seen one. We also saw a Diuker in the woods but Ludawieck wouldn’t stop for that either. We settled into our room which had a balcony with eye level views into a tree hosting a number of birds including a very vocal Gray Go-Away Bird and a Blue Waxbill amoung others. The lodge is just feet from the fence that runs for miles along Kruger National Park. Although you are not permitted to get out of your car in Kruger, at Marloth you may walk all along the fence line. So after settling into our room we went for a walk about one kilometer to a shelter and back. Immediately we came across a Natal Francolin and just minutes into our walk we came upon an elephant right next to the fence! It was the first elephant I had ever seen in the wild. The fence runs parallel to the Crocodile River where many animals and birds congregate. In the low shrubs along the fence line were hundreds and hundreds of Red-billed Queleas. White-browed Scrub-Robins hopped along the ground. We found a Bearded Woodpecker in a tree. There was a drab looking bird skulking in the reeds that I believe was a Willow Warbler. Along the banks of the river were many Blacksmith Lapwings, Egyptian Geese (abundant in SA), Yellow-billed Egret, and White-faced Ducks. A Burchell’s Couchal was perched in the low shrubs. We also found a Fork-tailed Drongo and Cape Glossy Starling in the trees. Just feet from us we found a Goliath Heron and a Diderick Cuckoo. On the ground on the way back we got a brief glimpse of a pretty Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove. We had dinner with Ludaweick and another guide named Heinrich. Luaweick and Heinrich frequently lapsed into speaking Africaans even though Susan told them that she grew up in Cape Town and spoke Africaans. Ludaweick said we would be the only ones on the safari the next day which would only last a half day since we would be taking a night drive that night with a park guide. He also said that he would be our guide for our stay. We asked him if he knew about birds because we had a particular interest in them. Ludaweick assured us that he was required to know about all aspects of nature in the park in order to be a guide and that he knew about birds but that his special interest was elephants.

December 17, 2007, we got up at 4:00 AM for an early start in Kruger. It was a thirty minute drive from our lodge to the Crocodile Bridge Gate at Kruger and all the safari companies line up before the gate opens at 5:30 AM to try to find the “Big Five” which is what everybody is most interested in. It was raining lightly but Ludawieck was wearing shorts. While waiting for the gate to open I spotted a Yellow-fronted Canary. Finally the gate opened and we crossed the Crocodile Bridge which is a low concrete platform that barely clears the river. Despite the rain, we saw many spectacular birds from the jeep all of which we of course new to me. Many vultures were perched in the trees, mostly White-backed Vulture but also one Lappet-faced Vulture. We also saw three different kinds of eagle, Steppe Eagle, Martial Eagle, and Brown Snake-eagle. We had no trouble finding Giraffe, Zebra, and Buffalo but Ludaweick didn’t think they were worthy of a stop. Not too long into our drive Ludaweick slammed on the brakes (probably because he saw an elephant) sending my Canon Rebel camera to the floor of the jeep shattering the LCD readout and making it impossible to see the settings or the picture preview. Every time we wanted him to stop for a bird he became extremely resentful. We came across some Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills and Red-billed Hornbills which I thought were fantastic looking but Ludaweick was uninterested and wouldn’t stop long enough for me to get a picture. (I later got a picture of a Yellow-billed Hornbill while walking in Marloth but it wasn't very good because I had to use my video camera). After a couple of hours we stopped at a rest area with a restaurant and gift shop. We tried to order something vegan but they had none of the items we wanted so Ludaweick yelled at the black workers there. We finally just had coffee and some toast. Ludaweick said he could not buy us water even though the water is not potable and we had pre-paid all inclusive! So Susan bought us some from the shop. It wasn’t that cold but since the jeeps are completely open the rain comes in and gets everything wet and eventually we began to feel cold. The rest area looked out over the Crocodile River where you usually can see lots of birds but with the rain visibility was limited. I only saw one Diderick Cuckoo, one Woodland Shrike, and some very tame Village Weaver and Masked Weaver birds that came right up to the table. Back out on the road we passed numerous gorgeous looking Lilac-breasted Rollers and European Rollers. Magpie Shrikes, a black bird with a very long tail, were everywhere. We stopped at a blind where a Hamerkop was busy building a nest next to the blind. Hippopotamuses were in the water and there was a Long-tailed Widowbird. It cleared up after lunch and we continued down some other roads that Ludaweick chose and found an accommodating Black-bellied Bustard. Every elephant we came across Ludaweick stopped the jeep and turned off the engine so he could study them in detail. We crossed some other bridge and saw a beautiful Saddle-billed Stork, Marabou Stork, and a Wooly-necked Stork. At one point Ludaweick turned into a dirt road and we saw a group of White Rhinoceros. I wanted to get a photo but no L:udaweick decided to drive the jeep right toward them scaring them away into the bush. On the way back out of the park we came across some Wildebeast, another animal I have never seen but Ludaweick didn’t deem it important enough to stop. Near the end of the tour he did slow down as a family of warthogs crossed the road. We left the park and returned to Bushwise Lodge. Susan and I spent the rest of the day walking along Marloth Park where we were treated to numerous butterflies including African Monarch, Fig Tree Blue, Common Diadem, Natal Acraea, Orange Tip, Scarlet Tip, White-cloaked Skipper, and Blue Pansy. There were water buffalo and hippos in the river and I came across a Speck’s Hingeback (tortoise). I saw the same Bearded Woodpecker from yesterday and Brown-backed Honeybird, Red-breasted Swallow, the beautiful Violet-backed Starling, and Red-billed Oxpeckers on the buffaloes. Way on the other side of the river was a lone Kudu. We had no hot water in our room and had to take a cold shower.

At 5:30 PM we went back to Kruger where a park guide took us on our night drive. Our park guide was named Kisani and she was excellent. She pointed out a Magpie Shrike and Woodland Kingfisher that were near the jeep. At dusk we came upon a lioness lying in the road. The male was sitting in the bush nearby. Kisani parked the jeep and within a few minutes an entire family with three tiny cubs trotted across the road. After the sun set Kisani got out some spotlights for the customers to hold and point into the bush looking for eyeballs. In this way we found a Pearl-spotted Owlet, Barn Owl, Spotted Hyenea, Springhare, and Porcupine. We went back to Bushwise for a very late dinner with Luda. We never got to say anything and ate silently while he pontificated about elephants.

December 18, 2007 was the day for our all day tour. It was raining when we woke up so I put on long pants and wore my rain jacket. Unforunately even this was not enough clothes as it rained all day long and was quite cold. It was still just Susan and me in the jeep with Ludaweick but we were to meet up with the other guests who were riding with Heinrich in another jeep, for breakfast at a picnic area on a mountain inside the park. Not long into our drive I spotted a Yellow-billed Hornbill perched right next to the road. It would have made an excellent photo. Unfortunately Ludaweick deemed it unimportant and zoomed right past it. Susan asked him to stop but he was already a kilometer past it and it was unlikely to still be perched in a perfect photo style so I just said forget about it. Ludaweick became very mad and moped the rest of the day. We made an unscheduled stop at the rest area where we met up with Heinrich and his group. Luda and Heinrich sat down and started having coffee. Luda started telling Heinrich in Africaans the story about the blow up with me around the hornbill. Susan was in the shop and he assumed I couldn’t understand-- I could not understand that dreadful language but it was clear from body language that they were talking about me as I stood there. I was furious. Later I told Susan about it and we were outraged at our ill treatment. We continued to the mountain where Susan and I were fed a bowl of cereal while the guides and the rest of the group had a gourmet meal of sausage, grilled beef, potatoes, sautéed onions, and I don’t know what else. After my cereal and some nasty instant coffee I wandered over to another picnic area to look for birds. I found my one and only Jameson’s Firefinch of the trip, a beautiful Cinnamon-breasted Bunting, Red-backed Mannikin, Collared Sunbird, and Groundscraper Thrush, all birds I would have never seen if I had relied solely on Luda. He was so concerned with finding the “big five” and particularly elephants that he frequently drove right past many fascinating birds I would have loved to have seen better or even studied. I looked down the mountain into the river banks and saw Spotted Thick-knee, White-faced Duck, and Marabou Stork. As I was filming some birds Luda stormed over and demanded that I get into the jeep. He told Susan that I was not supposed to walk around but he never mentioned anything about that to me. We drove further north into the park where the bush gives way to open savannah. We saw many eagles and vultures along the way including Lessser-spotted Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Martial Eagle, African Fish Eagle, and many Bateluers. In the savannah we found Black-bellied Bustard, African Green Pigeon, a rare Namaqua Dove, and a Red-collared Widowbird. We came to an opening and Luda said there were some Southern Ground Hornbills. I said can we stop and Luda barked “of course.” We passed some rocky outcroppings and I spotted a little buck that Luda said was a Steenbok. He was very upset that I spotted it before he did. We saw several different kinds of bucks including Waterbuck, Kudu, Bushbuck, and of course Impalas. We continued north into an area that followed along a riverway that looked very promising. We heard a distinctive call from the forest that Luda said was a Red-breasted Cuckoo. I said I wanted to see some bee-eaters but Luda was wet and cold and wanted to turn back and go home. He had promised us we would go all the way to the visitor center where Susan and I were to have lunch and do some shopping. Luda was stuffed from his humongous breakfast but we were hungry as we had only had cereal so even though we were cold and wet we insisted that he press on. He showed his displeasure but crimping his shoulders up to his ears and not saying another word to us. He was driving along way too fast for me to see anything when I saw something red and tan out of my eye and I knew it was something good so I yelled “stop.” Luda was well past it but he reluctantly backed up and there were several beautiful Carmine Bee-eaters and one European Bee-eater perched out in the open. It was raining steadily and so my picture was inferior but I was thrilled to see these gorgeous birds nevertheless. As I snapped off some hurried photos Luda propped his hand on his hand and sighed audibly. As we raced toward the visitor center and our much awaited lunch, Susan saw a chamelian on the road; Luda ran over it. He said he didn’t see it and hunched up his shoulders above his ear line. We finally made it to the visitor center and Susan and I went in and ordered some vegetarian burgers and beers. Luda went off as far away as possible from us and we were relieved to be away from him. While waiting for our food I checked the river banks and found a Collared Sunbird in the trees and a Red-collared Widowbird. Luda told us we did not have time to go into the shop even though before the trip he said we would have time to have lunch and visit the shop. We sat under a canopy and ate our lunch while Luda moped. I looked up into the rafters and saw hundreds of Egyptian Fruit Bats roosting. While Luda wasn’t looking we went into the shop and bought some rain ponchos to at least cover our legs from the rain that pushed into the jeep. On the way back we saw a crocodile completely out of the water lying on a sand bar. Luda said there was no time to stop at all! We continued driving toward the Crocodile Bridge Gate in a very rushed manner because Luda said there would be a big fine if we didn’t get back before closing time (we were late because he insisted on making the unscheduled stop at the rest area to have coffee with Heinrich and tell him his little story in Africaans). With 30 kilometers to go Luda saw an elephant on the side of the road and slammed on the brakes and stopped the engine. He wanted to see if it would pull down a branch from a Marula tree. I looked out the other side of the jeep hoping some great bird would fly by but nothing did. A few minutes later Luda slowed down the jeep but didn’t stop. Susan and I couldn’t see what he was looking at but instead of stopping and giving us a chance to see he just kept pushing toward it until he finally flushed a Wood Hoopoe out of the road and over the top of the jeep. I just barely made out a blur of tan, black, and white as it flew over. That is one bird I would have really enjoyed seeing better than just a colorful blur of wings but Luda didn’t deem it sufficiently important for us to see it I guess. We made it to the gate with time to spare so Luda consented to pull over briefly while a family of warthogs ran across the road.

December 19, 2007, we got up at 3:45 AM in order to arrive at Kruger in time for a morning walk with two Kruger Guides, Kisani, our night guide from the day before, and Duncan. On the drive out of Marloth it was still dark and so we were lucky to spot a night bird, a European Nightjar, in the road and a small cat, a Long-tailed Genet. Luda was anxious to get rid of us so he wouldn’t really stop for either one except to avoid running over the Nightjar. I had just about had it with that Africaaner bastard. Africaaners are the people who brought us apartheid and the shame of South Africa. You can draw your own conclusions.

Duncan and Kisani both carried loaded rifles in order to protect us as we walked about the park. During the walk Kisani pointed out a Burchal’s Couchal, a Red-backed Shrike, and a Bateleur high in the sky spotted with her naked eye. During our walk in the bush we came across many large mammal tracks but the only ones we saw were elephant, giraffe, and zebra. We stopped for a rest and snacks provided by Duncan and Kisani and I asked about a bird perched nearby that Kisani said was a Purple Indigobird. Duncan told me that of the 800 birds found in Kruger he had seen 500 which is pretty amazing. At the end of our morning walk Luda came to pick us up. I would have loved to have spent another day in Kruger but Luda just took us straight back to the lodge without asking us what we wanted to do and we never saw him again. So Susan and I took a long walk along the path in Marloth. We saw many amazing birds during our walk which were mostly very close to the path. It was warm compared to the day before and not precipitating at all. In the river were African Jacana, African Black Duck, Comb Duck, and Great Egret. As we walked along we came across more Bee-eaters including a White-fronted Bee-eater, Marico Sunbird, Greater Double-collared Sunbird, Black-headed Oriole, Lesser Striped Swallow, Green Wood-Hoopoe, Jacobin Cuckoo, and White-bellied Sunbird. There were several Blue Waxbills, White-winged Widowbirds, a few Black-backed Puffback, and more Violet-backed Starlings. Two Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills flew into a tree finally giving me the opportunity to get a photo. We also came across a very accommodating Golden-breasted Bunting and a gorgeous Yellow-breasted Apalis. On the river banks were many hippos and a crocodile basking on the sandbar. We also saw a waterbuck and a giraffe and more impalas. As we headed back to the lodge we just made out a jackal in the bush. More guests arrived for dinner that evening and as it was not raining we had a dinner with all the guests at a long table outside. Just before dinner began Luda came over and said goodbye before we could even give him his completely undeserved tip. Before we went to sleep we heard Heinrich return with the two guests he had picked up from their night drive in Kruger. I went outside and told Heinrich that we had been unable to say goodbye properly to Luda and would he please give this money to Luda. I handed Heinrich 500 Rands.

December 20, 2007 was our last day with Bushwise Safaris (I hope it is patently obvious by now that under no circumstances would I recommend anyone pay to go on a safari with Bushwise Safaris). After breakfast Susan and I took a last long walk along the path in Marloth Park. On our walk we saw more exciting butterflies, a Giant Kingfisher, Southern Grey-headed Sparrow, Brown-backed Honeybird, Olive Tree Warbler, Rattling Cisticola, African Pied Wagtail, and a Klaas’s Cuckoo. We reluctantly concluded our hike and returned to the Bushwise Lodge. We packed our bags and Heinrich took us to the Nelspruit Airport. On the way he spotted a Long-crested Eagle in the sky. Heinrich stopped to pick up his girlfriend on the way to the airport; he said it was her birthday and he was taking her to lunch after dropping us off at the airport. On the drive to the airport Heinrich gave his girlfriend a birthday card and inside were 400 Rands. Hmmm.

LONDON: December 8-12, 2007 & January 4, 2008

2008-01-08T22:31:00.000-08:00

On the evening of December 8, 2007 Susan and I boarded a Virgin Atlantic flight from San Francisco to London arriving 11:00 AM the next day, December 9, 2007. It was my first flight overseas in 25 years. In order to get on our new time schedule, after checking into the hotel, we immediately began walking to keep us awake as long as possible. Our hotel, the tiny but very accommodating, Hotel 20 in Earl’s Court, was just two blocks from Kensington-Knightsbridge Road, a pleasant if noisy walk that takes one past Holland Park and Hyde Park before arriving at Buckingham Palace and the lovely St. James Park, all on my list of potential birding sites. By the time we arrived at Holland Park on the first day it was nearly dark; it becomes dark that time of year in London at 4:00 PM! Though we could scarcely see anything we entered the gate at Holland Park anyway and were surprised to hear a lot of bird song, the only thing recognizable though was something I took to be an Eurasian Robin. We were very tired but persisted in our walk down Knightsbridge past Hyde Park, the Royal Albert Hall, through the Marble Arch, and finally to Buckingham Palace. It was raining lightly and dinner time was approaching so we turned back toward Earl’s Court where we decided upon a Thai Restaurant called Britannia Thai. Our first clue that this would be a very bad meal was that the sign outside said, “Thia Food.” The food was indeed very bad and the beer was tepid. After dinner we returned to the Hotel 20 and tried to read in bed but after dropping off to sleep and dropping our books to the floor repeatedly we gave up and fell soundly asleep at 9:00 PM.

December 10, 2007, the first thing after breakfast at the Hotel 20, we headed back to Holland Park. In the day light we could see where all the bird song was coming from as the trees were full of Blue Tits. A Song Thrush hopped along the ground and there were many Black-headed Gulls on the soccer field. As we walked along I spotted a group of Chaffinches pecking along the fence but a lady’s dog chased them away. There were a number of beautiful bright green colored Rose-nosed Parakeets in the trees adding color to the overcast day. There were quite a few Eurasian Robins singing out in plain view. We heard some drumming and found the culprit to be a Great-spotted Woodpecker high up in the trees. At the Holland Park pond were a few Common Moorhens and a Great Cormorant. Wood Pigeons walked about nearby and Magpies were abundant. We continued along the nicely manicured path until we came to a sign for a Kyoto Garden. We were just about to go up to it when I stopped to film a stupid introduced Peacock. A cart pulled up with two police from the Royal Burrough of Kensington and Chelsea in it. One of them asked me what I was doing with a tripod. I said I was filming birds and he told me that was not allowed without a permit and I would have to go get one from Funkie. I put my tripod away and we went off to find Funkie. Funkie told us that we would have to pay 275 pounds in order to videotape in Holland Park. At the exchange rate of .4 pounds to the dollar that amounted to $675! I do love my home movies but not to the tune of $675 so we left or I suppose you could say thrown out of, Holland Park vowing to return the next day to secretly videotape with my small video camera and no tripod.

We continued down Kensington Road until we came to Hyde Park. Immediately upon entering Hyde Park we found a Eurasian Jay in a tree. We walked across the lawn to a pond which was full of Tufted Duck, Mute Swan, Greylag Geese (made famous by the movie Wings of Migration), and Eurasian Coot. A Rook was calling noisily from a tree and a Pied Wagtail scurried along the path. Most of the gulls were Black-headed Gulls but there was also one Common Gull, one Herring Gull, and one Lesser Black-backed Gull. We walked from the pond down to the Serpentine which is a water way lined with thickets in places and a nice paved path. There we saw more Tufted Ducks which are very common in London, two Egyptian Geese, a Grey Heron, and a Great-crested Grebe. In the shrubs we found Blackbirds, more Wood Pigeons, and one Mistle Thrush. We stopped in a café to warm up and have lunch and then conintued down the path along the serpentine when two bobbies approached us enquiring again about our tripod. I thought we were going to be arrested but one of them said, “oh are you just looking at seagulls?” and left us alone. I was very anxious after that. I didn’t know it was a crime to use a tripod in England.

After Hyde Park we went again to Buckingham Palace to see it in the day time and the front gates were jammed with tourists. I believe they were changing the guard but I was more interested in nearby St. James Park. So we crossed the bridge and walked along the pond there. It was full of ducks and geese including Red-breasted Goose, Bar-headed Goose, Barnacle Goose, Red-crested Pochard, Common Pochard, Ross’s Goose, Great White Pelican, more Tufted Ducks, and Canada Goose. After enjoying our stroll along St. James Park we went to Westminster Abbey. I was looking forward to seeing Dickens’s grave but was disappointed to learn upon arriving there that no filming is allowed. We toured the abbey and I was annoyed that people were walking on top of Dickens with utter disrespect. I knew that Thomas Hardy was buried next to Dickens but I never knew that above Dickens Friedrich Handel is buried and beside him is Rudyard Kipling. Westminster Abbey is very beautiful but it was really a thrill to see my hero’s final resting place. Back outside we passed Big Ben which happened to be chiming and then crossed the River Thames on Westminster Bridge. As darkness fell we watched the Houses of Parliament light up across the river. We walked from there to Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square but fatique was setting in and it was very crowded in Piccadilly Circus so we walked back to Knightsbridge where we had a less than memorable meal at Bunch of Grapes. At least our pints were cold. Then we returned back to Hotel 20.

December 11, 2007, we headed out first thing in the morning back to Holland Park with my little Sony Handycam. We furtively videotaped Great Tit, Blue Tit, and Long-tailed Tit on the entrance road. We returned to the little pond which was thriving with birds including my first look at a Fieldfare and a Redwing. Then we went up to the Kyoto Garden which only had a Grey Heron and a Winter Wren but was quite nice nevertheless.

We took the Tube to Regent’s Park where we saw the one and only House Sparrow (this is a bird that was introduced to the US in the 1800s and has spread like a disease across North America) of the whole trip. We walked along the well manicured path to a hedgerow where we found a Dunnock and more Chaffinches and another Eurasian Jay. We visited London Zoo and by the time we finished there was little light left to visit the waterway. In the failing light we saw Smew, Eurasian Wigeon, Common Teal, Mandarin Duck, Red-crested Pochard, Tufted Duck, and curiously a Common Eider. Other birds there were Goosander, Common Goldeneye, Hooded Merganser, Ruddy Shelduck, and in the trees European Goldfinch and another Winter Wren. We had dinner in Piccadilly Square at the Blue Lagoon which was a much nicer Thai restaurant with decent food and then attended a performance of Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre. We returned to Bunch of Grapes in Knightsbridge for a couple of ales before turning in for the night at the Hotel 20.

December 12, 2007 was our last day in London. We toured the Tower of London which I very much enjoyed and where I saw the only Raven of the trip. I thought there would be bloody walls and instruments of death but there was only one axe and chopping block and mostly cells. I did not know that the Tower of London was originally built by William the Conqueror as a fortress against invasion. We went to the cell where Lady Jane Grey was imprisoned before being shamefully and wrongfully beheaded and saw her name carved in the wall. After the Tower of London we walked across Tower Bridge and London Bridge, and again visited St. James Park before heading off to London’s Heathrow Airport for our long flight to Johanesburg. We spent the next three weeks in South Africa, which will be discussed at length in the next section, before spending one final day in London before returning to the States.

January 4, 2008, we arrived in London’s Heathrow from Cape Town at 9:00 AM and then checked into a nearby hotel, the Park Inn. We took a bus from there to the Tube and then the Tube back to Regent’s Park. We went straight to the Inner Circle and found the waterway where we learned that it was actually a Waterfowl Reserve hosting waterfowl from around the world. It was comforting to see most of the birds from earlier in the trip—the Wood Pigeon, Black-headed Gull, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Magpie, Eurasian Coot, Mute Swan, Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Eurasian Jay, Blackbird, Great-crested Grebe, Greylag Goose, and Egyptian Goose. We also saw many exotics in the waterfowl reserve—Common Shelduck, Ruddy Shelduck, Wood Duck, Mandarin Duck, Gadwall, Pintail, Baikal Teal, Ferruginous Duck, Common Eider, and Goosander. After getting very close looks at these ducks we will probably never see again and certainly never so close, we walked to the British Museum. We toured parts of the museum including the section on ancient Egpyt where we enjoyed looking at the mummies and ancient tablets. The museum was very crowded so we left and walked to the Museum of Natural History in Knightsbridge. We stayed until it closed. It was dark out and raining lightly. We had the best dinner of the trip at the Masala Zone, an Indian Restaurant in Earl's Court, and then took the long Tube ride back to the Park Inn where we literally passed out from exhaustion. Then next day we flew back to the US and that concluded our trip, a magnificent trip full of wonders that I will never forget for the rest of my life.
39 new species
Common Blackbird
Common Chaffinch
Eurasian Coot
Great Cormorant
Carrion Crow
Ferruginous Duck
Mandarin Duck
Fieldfare
European Goldfinch
Goosander
Bar-headed Goose
Barnacle Goose
Egyptian Goose
Greylag
Red-breasted Goose
Great Crested Grebe
Black-headed Gull
Common Gull
Grey Heron
Eurasian Jay
Common Magpie
Rose-nosed Parakeet
White Pelican
Common Pochard
Red-crested Pochard
Redwing
European Robin
Rook
Common Shelduck
Smew
Black Swan
Mistle Thrush
Song Thrush
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Pied Wagtail
Woodpigeon
Great Spotted Woodpecker

California's Central Valley: December 1-2, 2007

2007-12-02T20:34:00.001-08:00

Every fall thousands of ducks and geese either come to California's Central Valley to winter or pass through on the Pacific Flyway, the major west coast migratory route. Early December is time for my annual pilgrimage to see this amazing spectacle.

I got a late start on Saturday which was fine because by the time I arrived at the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge in Colusa, CA the sun had warmed things up a bit. It can get very chilly in the Central Valley in winter. I stopped in Dunigan to get some gas and while pumping spotted a Ferruginous Hawk circling overhead. That was a good find as they are only seen a few times per season. Indeed it was the only one I saw the entire weekend. Normally I would have driven all the way to the much more well known and well regarded Sacramento NWR but due to the late start (it was 11:00 AM by the time I got to Colusa) I pulled into the closer Colusa NWR instead. I first walked the Wetlands Nature Trail where I accidentally flushed a Barn Owl that nearly flew into my head. It scared the crap out of me. A Nuttall's Woodpecker was working the trees and there were tons of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Bushtits, Northern Flickers, and Western Scrub-Jays. Raptors were everywhere. On the drive in from Highway 20 there were American Kestrels and Red-tailed Hawks. On the entrance road there was a Northern Harrier and a White-tailed Kite and there were many Turkey Vultures just about everywhere. A Great Horned Owl was perched in a tree near the nature trail. Back at the car I had my lunch before taking the auto tour. While I ate I noticed that while there were hundreds if not thousands of Greater White-fronted Geese flying over in enormous flocks, I had not seen any of the usually prolific Snow Geese. In the marsh were Marsh Wren, Bewick's Wren, two Greater Yellowlegs, a couple of Black-necked Stilts, and many Killdeer. A couple of Black-tailed Deer were at the margins of the marsh. I started on the tour where I saw hundreds of Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Cinnamon Teal, Mallard, American Wigeon, and American Coot. I noticed a fast flying falcon and got out to get some video when I accidentally flushed an American Bittern. The falcon turned out to be the only Merlin of the weekend. When I came to the bridge I saw dozens of Black-crowned Night-Herons in the canal and one Common Moorhen quickly ducking out of sight. Huge flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds swirled around and I picked out at least one Tricolored Blackbird in the flock. About that time a flock of Cackling Geese flew over. As I proceeded on the auto tour I came into huge flocks of Snow Geese. While picking through them looking for Ross's Geese I found a few White-faced Ibis's. There were also some Herring Gulls in with all the ducks and geese. I found quite a few Ross's Geese and while searching the flocks came across one Eurasian Wigeon. Back on the entrance drive I came across a Loggerhead Shrike before turning back onto Hwy 20.

Next I headed east on 20 to Highway 99 north up to Gray Lodge Wildlife Area. It was getting late and I only had about two hours of sunlight so I walked the Wetlands Trail and then the hiking trail that leaves from the south end of the parking area and had no time for the auto tour. I figured with all the great birds I had seen at Colusa I probably wasn't going to add anything to my list for the weekend anyway. There were dozens of Common Moorhens on the nature trail and I found one Fox Sparrow, one Nuttall's Woodpecker and then many of the same birds as I had seen at Colusa. On the hiking trail I found a Cooper's Hawk hiding in a tree and there were a few Ring-necked Ducks in the water. Hundreds and hundreds of White-faced Ibises continuously flew overhead. As the sun began to sink in the west I heard a Great Horned Owl hooting. As I walked along somethign spooked the geese and a flock of perhaps thousands of Snow Geese took off into the airways in en masse. To see his gaggling, cackling mass of our feathered friends frenetically flying up into the skies is one of the greatest sights of nature to behold. When it was too dark to bird I left and drove to Sacramento for the evening.

Sunday morning I drove from Sacramento to the Vic Fazio Yolo Wildlife Area, an Important Bird Area. It was windy and cold and there were lots of people, birders and hunters. I got out at the first parking lot and studied the ducks. In with the Cinnamon Teals were three Blue-winged Teals, an uncommon sight for California. Hundreds of Tundra Swans were flying in huge v's overhead but I saw no Snow Geese at all. I walked the hiking trail where I saw lots of Savannah Sparrows and American Pipits and one Wilson's Snipe. A flock of dark geese flew over and I got them in my scope. They were "Aleutian" Cackling Geese, a sub species of Cackling Geese that winter in the Central Valley. One lone Long-billed Curlew flew past. On the auto tour the only shorebirds I saw were two Dunlins, a couple of Least Sandpipers, two Greater Yellowlegs, and another Curlew. There were more Harriers, Red-tailed Hawks, and one White-tailed Kite and just before I left one Red-shouldered Hawk perched on some tall reeds.

I drove up I-80 to where it splits into Highway 50 and took that to Watts Avenue where I had hoped to check some spots on the American River. Watts Avenue was closed due to the marathon and I was stuck in some bad traffic so I just turned right at the first intersection, American River Parkway until it ended at Arden Way where I was so lucky to find the William Pond Recreation Area, formerly Arden Bar. This is a very scenic park. I parked at the end and started walking. The trail followed along the American River for a mile or so. As I walked along it finally began to warm up. I looked into the river and was surprised to see six Wood Ducks. There were at least a half dozen Great Blue Herons, some Canada Geese, and one Mute Swan (most likely an escapee). As I walked along I noticed a huge flock of gulls on the river. It was mostly California Gulls but there were also a couple of Herring Gulls and I could have sworn I saw a Glaucous-winged Gull too. I also spotted a few Common Goldeneyes and one lone Common Merganser. An Osprey was patrolling the river for fish and a Downy Woodpecker was pecking the sycamores that lined the river. As I walked back toward the parking area I flushed a Green Heron. Then it was time to return to the Bay Area.

Thanksgiving in Utah: November 22-25, 2007

2007-11-26T21:37:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Day we drove straight from Salt Lake City Airport north 50 miles to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. I was disappointed in the low numbers of waterfowl there. However, straight away we saw a Rough-legged Hawk flying and then perched in a dry field. I could hear Sandhill Cranes creaking and then saw a flock of about 40 or so circling overhead. In the areas with water there were many American Coots, a few American Wigeons, Gadwalls, Northern Shovelers, Pied-billed Grebes, Eared Grebes, and many Ring-billed Gulls. A few Bonaparte's Gulls were also fishing in the river. Toward the end of the auto tour we came across a few Tundra Swans and some Canada Geese. A Ring-necked Pheasant shot across the road no doubt avoiding all the hunters. Just before leaving the refuge we spotted a Northern Shrike on a post. Back out on I-15 we saw a Ferruginous Hawk flying over a vacant field.

Next we stopped in at Farmington Bay WMA. What we really wanted to do was to visit Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake but it is closed on Thanksgiving. There were a lot more birds at Farmington Bay including three more Rough-legged Hawks including one locked in a battle with a Northern Harrier, We also saw more Sandhill Cranes, another Belted Kingfisher, Mallard, and one Common Merganser. We were getting hungry so we abandoned plans to find some Bohemian Waxwings which have been having an irruption in Utah lately, and headed over to Fred Meyer to get groceries. Then it was time for the grueling drive down to Calf Creek Falls in Escalante. We did not arrive until 8:30 PM but were surprised to be the only campers there. We had a nice bottle of cabernet we had brought from California to go with our makeshift Thanksgiving Day feast next to a cozy fire before falling fast asleep.

I awoke to a muffled sound outside the tent and thought a deer was browsing. I unzipped the tent and pulled it back to find snow covering the ground. It was still snowing lightly when we got up and had breakfast.
We drove from our campsite, where three Wild Turkeys were foraging, to the Burr Trail and then cut over onto Moody Canyon Road both of which were snow covered. At the cattle gate we came across a flock of 35 Black Rosy-finches, a bird I have never seen before. I got out to get some video but they flew away just as I turned on my camera and we were unable to relocate them so we continued on. Where the road entered the creek bed we parked and began walking into Moody Canyon. There were hundreds of Dark-eyed Juncos in the canyon but little else other than a Red-naped Sapsucker. The canyon began to narrow as it neared the Escalante River but we were running out of time and had to return to the car. Back out on the Burr Trail we watched the sun cast a red glow on the hills as the moon rose.

Saturday we drove from camp 16 miles down the Hole-in-the-Rock Road to Harris Wash. We parked and started down the wash. There were hundreds of Dark-eyed Juncos but also a few Spotted Towhees, Northern Flicker, Downy Woodpecker, Common Raven, American Goldfinches, Song Sparrow, and a few White-crowned Sparrows. A flock of Cedar Waxwings flew over and away. Near the gateway we came across two Great Horned Owls. We passed through the gateway and entered an enchanting canyon with 3000 foot high red walls lined with desert varnish. In the canyon wall I found a Northern Goshawk nest but it was vacant and we did not see it on this trip. We had to turn around just where the canyon was becoming most interesting. We left Hole-in-the-Rock Road and pulled into a scenic pull out on Highway 12 to watch the full moon rise over the Henry Mountains. That night I heard another Great Horned Owl hooting.

Sunday we packed up our things and drove Highway 12 to Capital Reef National Park. On the way we saw a Red-tailed Hawk and a Black-billed Magpie. We hiked up to Hickman Bridge and then to the Rim Overlook. The only birds here were some Mountain Chickadees and a few Juniper Titmouses. We did not have time to make it to Navajo Knobs as we had originally planned. Maybe next year. On the way back to Salt Lake City we saw two adult Bald Eagles in a tree in Fremont, UT. We didn't see any rare birds like we did last year but I added a life bird, Black Rosy-finch, and the scenery and solitude were sublime.

San Mateo County Big Day: 10/7/07

2007-10-08T08:11:00.001-07:00

San Mateo County, CA: 10/7/07
Every year the Point Reyes Bid Observatory holds a bird-a-thon to raise money for its important work on bird research and conservation. Teams of people try to see as many species of birds as possible in a 24 hour period soliciting donors for each species seen. Our group, Jennifer Rycenga, Garth Harwood, and I, would attempt to see as many species as possible in San Mateo County on October 7, 2007. We met at Jennifer’s house in Half Moon Bay at 3:30 AM. It was extremely cold just 36 degrees as we headed out into the cold dark night looking for owls. We were very successful with the owls immediately finding a Barn Owl near Jennifer’s house. We pulled off of Highway 1 onto Verde Road and pulled up to an invisible pond where a Virginia Rail responded immediately to my Sora imitation. It never fails! That set off a Coot and Mallard as well. We drove down Higgins-Purissima Road but couldn’t coax out a Great Horned Owl. So we went over to Butano State Park to try for Western Screech-owl. Someone was again camping in the no camping area so I didn’t feel bad about making noise at that ungodly hour until Garth pointed out that the ranger probably told them to camp there as overflow since the campground was full. If I had been that camper I would have been furious. Even though we tried to be quiet I’m sure it was distressing the poor camper who had to hear us play screech owl tapes and chat in low tones about mysterious noises in the night. Finally the screech owl answered our tapes; just as we were departing the camper was unzipping his tent to see what all the commotion was about. Outside of the park we pulled off and listened to more strange noises. I pointed out the spectacular formation in the sky of the beautiful crescent moon with Venus and Regulus above and Saturn below. Jennifer got her spotting scope on it and we all checked out the rings on Saturn.

Next we drove Gazos Creek Road where we shivered terribly in the cold night air. Our sacrifices paid off though for not only did we hear a Northern Saw-whet Owl but amazingly Garth detected the faint hoots of a Long-eared Owl and then a Northern Pygmy Owl. We congratulated ourselves on our owl success and talked about how great it would be if we could also get the Short-eared Owl for a clean sweep of San Mateo County owls but it wasn’t to be. It was so cold we were all relieved to get back in the heated car for the drive over to Pigeon Point. Our timing was flawless as we got out to the viewing deck just as the sun was coming up in the east. The sea was calm but we had no luck with alcids at all. However, we were so lucky to get on a Parasitic Jaeger and then a Pomarine Jaeger. We were upset at having missed the alcids but decided to go directly to Pescadero for land birds. Garth showed us a field good for sparrows. Some dead beats in an AT&T truck watched us warily. An interesting sparrow popped up briefly that I am convinced was a Brewer’s Sparrow but it would not turn adequately to confirm the facial pattern and we never could see it again. Pine Siskins were in a willow tree nearby and Lincoln’s Sparrows were plentiful. Back on Pescadero Road we stopped at the intersection with Highway 1 as Jennifer believed we could get a gnatcatcher there. No gnatcatcher graced us with its presence but Garth honed in on the biggest surprise of the day, a Grasshopper Sparrow. I didn’t get the greatest look but it was the closest match. We scoped the beach and marsh at Pescadero State Beach but came up empty. So we parked illegally on Highway 1 scanning the marsh next to the makeshift gravemarker while Jennifer avoided a collision. I spotted a Blue-winged Teal in between two Green-winged Teals. Next we debated whether we should make another try for alcids at Bean Hollow State Beach where I had seen them regularly in September or continue on for land birds. We decided to continue on and went next to Memorial Park on Pescadero Road. We couldn’t find the target bird from the bridge but after a short walk in we found two resident American Dippers. I brought a big bag of snacks for everyone in order to discourage Jennifer from her nasty habit of stopping at MacDonalds on Big Days. It worked! She stopped and bought some tasty smelling artichoke bread from the Pescadero Market instead and snacked on my healthy snacks in between.
It was time to get over to the bay side of the county for land birds and shore birds. Unfortunately this is not so easy from Half Moon Bay because October is pumpkin picking time in HMB and hordes of people clog the only thorough fare from Highway 1 which skirts the ocean to the Bayside, Highway 92. There was a tense moment in the car as Garth became impatient with a hideous traffic snag and insisted we turn around and try Sharp Park in Pacifica. Jennifer held her ground and was insistent; we waited for the pumpkin pickers to clear out and eventually made it half way up Highway 92 to our destination, the cemetary, where we saw lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers and another big surprise, a Chipping Sparrow, a tough bird in San Mateo County. The traffic wasn't so bad on the other side of the hill as we headed down to Highway 101 for our next stop at Coyote Point on the San Francisco Bay. Few passerines were in the trees but we picked up lots of shorebirds and added an early Lesser Scaup to our list. From Coyote Point we drove to Redwood City for the famous Radio Road extravaganza. There were hundreds of ducks on the pond at the end of the road and our only rarity of the day, a Pectoral Sandpiper. On the way back out of Redwood City we stopped at another strange pond behind the Nob Hill Supermarket where Garth found a Green Heron. We could not locate the Redhead that had been seen earlier in the week and time was running out so we left. Jennifer promised that our next stop would yield four species. We went to the richest area in the county, swanky Atherton, where I joked we were not dressed well enough, to some local park that was full of landscaped areas of non-native plants with intermittent oaks and the curious planted redwood. I was dubious but Jennifer delivered pulling out a flock of promised Cedar Waxwings, two California Thrashers, and two Oak Titmouses. Best of all the bathroom was extremely clean. We left wealthy Atherton for my least favorite place, the impoverished and dangerous, East Palo Alto, where I was once nearly run over by a deranged idiot on a go-cart in the middle of a national wildlife refuge, to the Ravenswood section of the San Francisco Bay NWR. I hate that place. No sooner were we out of the car than I was standing in a pile of trash looking at a torn out fence around the Bay and watching yet another moron on a motorcycle riding back from the refuge. Not only was it dangerous and horrible but we weren't seeing much either. Garth spotted a Sora and next a Barn Swallow. We were recluctant to leave nevertheless because we had not scored on our only chance in the county for a Ring-necked Pheasant. I stopped to point out to Jennifer the no motorized vehicles or bicycles sign when boom two Pheasants shot out of the canal and flew right in front of all of us. Then it was over to my rail haunt the Ravenswood Open Space Preserve. Jennifer and Garth thought it was more dangerous than Ravenswood NWR because there were no residences around and thus less witnesses. The wind had picked up considerably and it was once again cold. Not only that but it was low tide and not a rail in sight. We tried mightily but could not get a Clapper Rail to make so much as a peep. Every other time I have been there four, five, six Clapper Rails are not uncommon but no cigar this time. No rails at all revealed themselves. Garth thought that we should await sundown there because he felt sure a Short-eared Owl would show up. As the temperature dropped, the sun sank, and no owls appeared we threw in the towel and ended the day with a disappointing 136 species.
By: Michelle Brodie
10/8/07

California Sky to Sea: September 22-29, 2007

2007-10-08T08:10:00.001-07:00

September 22, 2007: Before picking my family up from the airport I stopped by Fort Funston, an old WWII bunker that is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This area is a bluff high above the ocean. Bank Swallows use the cliffs facing the ocean to nest in. The trees topping the bluffs used to provide a safe haven for migrating birds in the fall and rarities showed up there every fall until about five years ago when the National Park Service decided to allow off-leash dogs to roam the area at will. Ever since then the understory has been demolished, the place is overrun with dogs, and few rarities are encountered there these days. But for anyone brave enough to fend off maurading dogs and their crazed owners some surprises await. This particular morning a light rain was falling so I thought maybe some migrants would be resting there looking for a meal before continuing their long migrations further south to Mexico and South America. I immediately came across a medium sized mixed warbler flock that included Townsend’s Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, one juvenile MacGillivray’s Warbler, and one vagrant, my first of the fall, a Tennessee Warbler. It was at eye level just feet away but my camera was snuggled safely in the car. After a while an off-leash dog came and began barking and charging me scaring both me and the birds away. I left there and stopped at the old abandoned boat house at Lake Merced to use the facilities. It continued to rain so I parked at the entrance to Harding Park Golf Course and walked the entrance road all the way to the wooden bridge over North Lake Merced through to Lake Merced Boulevard and back to the Harding Park Road not seeing much in the increasing rain. Then I went to the Sam Trans Station next to the airport to look at shorebirds while waiting for their plane to arrive. There were two Blue-winged Teals, which are uncommon in the Bay Area. Then it was time to pick them up.

After picking up Daddy, my sister, Ree, and my niece, Rachel we headed over to the Conservatory of Flowers where they had a display of carnivorous plants. Then we walked around the San Francisco Botanical Garden where we saw Western Tanagers and numerous Anna’s Hummingbirds.

September 23, 2007: We got up early and drove to Yosemite National Park. It was pretty chilly when we stopped in the valley to have a picnic lunch but we warmed up quickly as we walked up the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls. Even my 78 year old father made it to the bridge at the base of the falls. Many White-throated Swifts were circling overhead. The only other birds though were Steller’s Jays, Dark-eyed Juncos, Northern Flickers, and Common Ravens. Ree, Rachel, and I continued to the top of Vernal Falls where we saw a Canyon Wren. Then it was time to head back to the Sunset Cabins at the entrance for dinner.

September 24, 2007:
We got up early and drove Tioga Road. It was very cold, about 28 degrees when we got out at Olmstead Point to see the view into the Valley. Ree, Rachel, and I walked out to the point for a better look. Not much was stirring in that chill. It warmed up as we dropped down into Mono Basin and was actually pleasant when we got out at South Tufa Reserve. We walked down to the water’s edge where I saw a Sage Sparrow, one Vesper Sparrow, many Brewer’s Sparrows, and Sage Thrashers. There were the usual assortment of Red-winged Blackbirds, Brewer’s Blackbirds, and California Gulls, and Eared Grebes. Next we drove to Bodie State Historic Park in Bridgeport, CA. It was still chilly but much warmer than Tioga Road. Nevertheless, there were a lot less birds than last year. I only saw Mountain Bluebird, Say’s Phoebe, Brewer’s Sparrow, and Savannah Sparrow. After enjoying this restored ghost town from the gold rush days we had lunch at the picnic area and then headed over to Mono County Park. There were still some lingering warblers, Townsend’s, Yellow, and Wilson’s. Many Eared Grebes and American Avocets were in the lake in addition to two Blue-winged Teals along with a few Green-winged Teals. Back in the park Rachel had tracked down a Red-breasted Sapsucker in the cottonwoods and I also saw a Western Wood Pewee. Then it was time for the long drive back. We stopped about half way at Yosemite Creek picnic area and had a bar-b-que which resulted in us all smelling like a fire the rest of the trip.

September 25, 2007: We checked out of our lovely accommodations at Sunset Cabins and drove a short distance to Hetch Hetchy. Hetch Hetchy used to be a gorgeous valley that rivaled that of Yosemite Valley until the City of San Francisco convinced Congress to allow it to flood the valley, build a hideous dam, and create an ugly reservoir inside the national park on the Tuolumne River. This reservoir provides drinking water for the City of San Francisco and parts of some adjoining counties. The dam and reservoir are ugly eye sores that must be removed. We must return this national treasure to its natural state. Hetch Hetchy is a much lower elevation than the rest of the park and was quite warm during our short visit. We all walked across the ugly dam reading the City’s lies and propaganda that they have written on exhibits along the dam. Then Ree, Rachel, and I continued on the trail to the completely dry Wampama Falls. There were many Western Scrub-Jays, Spotted Towhees, California Towhees, and Yellow-rumped Warblers. At the falls we saw a Peregrine Falcon. After our walk we stopped at Diamond-O Campground and had a picnic lunch before driving back to San Francisco. When we stopped for gas at the Mobil Station at Highway 395 and Tioga Road, Ree spotted a Least Chipmunk foraging in the grass.

September 27, 2007: We got up super early and drove like mad down Highway 101. We stopped in Soledad at the rest area and while there we saw several Yellow-billed Magpies, a California endemic. We stopped at Moonstone Beach and had lunch. After lunch I scoped the beach and saw a few Parasitic Jaegers and Elegant Terns. Then it was time to drop everyone off for a tour of Hearst Castle while I walked San Simeon State Beach. At the beach there were more Parasitic Jaegers and some Common Murres and along the rocks were Surfbirds, Whimbrel, Black-bellied Plover, Long-billed Curlew, and Black Turnstones. I picked everyone up after the tour and we proceeded north on Highway 1. We stopped not far from San Simeon to admire a pack of Tule Elk. Then we pulled over to look at a big pile of Elephant Seals right on the beach. Proceeding north we next stopped in Big Sur at Pfieffer Big Sur State Park. We walked the nature trail where we saw Acorn Woodpecker, Band-tailed Pigeon, Steller’s Jay, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Turkey Vulture, and Red-shouldered Hawk. The fog started to roll in ruining the fantastic views we were hoping for in Big Sur but we did stop at Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park to see the waterfall before driving to Monterey where we stayed for the night.

September 28, 2007: We checked out of the Holiday Inn Cannery Row and drove to the Monterey Pier. We had up close looks at a Sea Otter and many California Sea Lions resting at the end of the pier. There were lots of Brandt’s Cormorants and Surf Scoters in the water. As we stood looking into the ocean a Debbie Shearwater Pelagic trip was departing from the harbor. I could hear Debbie on the loud speaker and I watched wistfully as they headed out to sea. Daddy, Ree, and Rachel all suffer from motion sickness so a boat trip was out of the question.

Next we pulled into what I think is one of the prettiest places in California, Pt. Lobos State Reserve. We walked down the water’s edge where we saw some Black Oystercatchers and more Sea otters but not much else. It was overcast and windy, very cold at the water’s edge. We left there and drove to Pacific Grove to look for the Monarch Butterfly tree where thousand congregate in the fall. We found the park but the butterflies had not yet arrived. We also checked a local park, Washington Park where we saw lots of Townsend’s Warblers, Hutton’s Vireo, Pygmy Nuthatch, and Bushtit.

We continued north on Highway 1 stopping at Pigeon Point Lighthouse. Not much was happening there just some Red-throated Loons and one Rhinoceros Auklet. We also stopped at Bean Hollow to look at the Harbor Seals and there were more Black Oystercatchers. Our last stop of the day was the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach. Luckily it was low tide and so Ree and I were able to see some interesting things in the tide pool like Green Anemone, clams, mussels, nudibranches, dogwinkle, and pink and black limpets. Then it was time to return to San Francisco for my birthday dinner.

September 29, 2007: Before taking everyone back to the airport for their flights back home we went to the downtown farmer’s market. I looked around Ferry Park and saw only a few Yellow Warblers and Western Tanagers. Then we walked to the top of Bernal Hill for the view on this clear sunny day and saw American Kestrel and Turkey Vulture. I dropped everyone off and then Susan and I headed back to Tioga Road for a meeting the next day in Mono County.

Epilogue: September 30, 2007: Heard a Great Horned Owl when we got up. We walked up the Virginia Lakes Trail before our meeting and were pleased to find an accommodating bright male Pine Grosbeak and later a female as well. There were several Clark’s Nutcrackers and the ubiquitous Mountain Chickadees.
By: Michelle Brodie
10/8/07

California's Central Coast: August 31-September 3, 2007

2007-09-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

CENTRAL COAST of CALIFORNIA: August 31-September 3, 2007

Early Friday morning, August 31 I drove down to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach, CA for a sea watch. It was pretty foggy all morning but I could still see a lot. There were a few people tidepooling below me but no one else paying the least bit of attention to the sea birds flying past. A few Harbor Seals rested on the rocks off shore. The only gulls I saw were Western Gull, Heerman’s Gull, and California Gull. A steady parade of Elegant Terns flew past heading south with a few fishing just to the north of the preserve where I saw several Parasitic Jaegers harassing them trying to get a free meal by stealing the fish they caught. A couple of Pigeon Guillemots flew south in front of me and from time to time I could just make out a Sooty Shearwater or two flying north low over the water. On the rocks I saw some Black Turnstones, Black Bellied Plover, and Black Oystercatcher. There were quite a few Red-necked Phalaropes flying and sitting on the water and the usual Common Murres and Brandt’s Cormorants. Pelagic Cormorants, and a few Double-crested Cormorants. Around 9:00 AM things started to slow down so I moved on down the coast and inland where the sun had poked through the fog. I took Higgins-Purissima Road in Half Moon Bay to Burleigh-Murray Regional Park where I took a short walk. A Red-shouldered Hawk called loudly from a tree and a Turkey Vulture and Red-tailed Hawk soared overhead. As I arrived at the riparian section I saw Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, and Nuttall’s Woodpecker in the trees. Wrentits sang from the hillsides and one Band-tailed Pigeon flew up the trail ahead of me. The only other birds here were Steller’s Jay, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, White-crowned Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and Hutton’s Vireo. There were several species of butterfly including Anise Swallowtail, Margined White, Cabbage White, Field Crescent, Woodland Skipper, and a Satyr Comma. After my little walk I drove further south to Pescadero Marsh where the tide was coming in fast so that there were few shorebirds to look at. I only saw Surf Scoter, Willet, Marbled Godwit, Red-necked Phalarope in abundance, and Red-breasted Merganser. On the dunes I was surprised to see one Acmon Blue butterfly. I left there and returned home to pick up Susan for our Labor Day camping trip. We drove down to Big Sur and then inland to the Los Padres National Forest where we camped for three nights at Bottchers Gap. Susan spotted a White-tailed Kite along the way. The last time we camped there we heard a Spotted Owl at night; we did not hear a Spotted Owl but the first night as we lay in the tent we heard Northern Saw-whet Owl, Western Screech-owl, and Great Horned Owl. The sky was clear and lots of stars twinkled in the sky along with bright Jupiter.

Saturday morning we got up early and after breakfast headed over to Andrew Molera State Park. We walked all over the park to the Big Sur Ornithology Lab, the Big Sur River, the trail to the campground, and all the way to Molera Point but we saw very few birds. On the trail were a few Wilson’s Warblers and Yellow Warblers and one Hutton’s Vireo. Violet-green Swallows flitted overhead along with a couple of Barn Swallows. There was nothing at all in the campground except a Monarch butterfly and more Woodland Skippers. Past the campground we found a Pacific-slope Flycatcher in the willows, one Spotted Towhee, and a California Towhee. A Northern Harrier was scanning the meadow. Out at the point we saw a Peregrine Falcon perched on a rock at the water’s edge where it stayed for the entire time we were there. California Quail were in the trees but there was practically nothing to look at in the ocean except Brandt’s Cormorant and Surf Scoter. There was one Fiery Skipper at the point. Around the campground Susan found a Common Buckeye and there were a few Common Ringlets and Mylitta and Field Crescents. Back at the parking area we had our lunch at the picnic area where we saw a Lorquin’s Admiral going repeatedly to a willow tree by the river and a few California Sisters and some Whites chasing both of them. After lunch we returned to Bottchers Gap where we took a trail leaving from the campground to Mt. Carmel. It was very hot and dry and many gnats formed a cloud around us as we headed up the trail. I was also bitten repeatedly by a horse fly. The only birds were at the trailhead, Townsend’s Warbler, Hutton’s Vireo, Chickadees, and Brown Creeper. Nothing was blooming; even the Pearly Everlasting was practically dead and the only birds we saw after the first quarter mile were Steller’s Jays and Dark-eyed Juncos. There were many more Woodland Skippers and from time to time we would flush up big clusters of Golden Hairstreaks. I’m not sure if we made it to Mt. Carmel or not but wherever we were we had a good view of the surrounding mountains and the Pacific Ocean far below and we had some shade to rest under and so we turned back there. That night after dinner we went looking for owls but couldn’t find any.

Sunday morning we got up at 5:00 AM and a Great Horned Owl was calling. Just as we were about to get into the car a Northern Saw-whet Owl started making strange vocalizations at the edge of the woods but we never saw it. We drove down to Andrew Molera and had breakfast since it was too early to do so at our campground (quiet hours are from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM). After breakfast we again scoured Andrew Molera but found very little except a flock of about eight Vaux’s Swifts, and one Warbling Vireo on the trail and one Western Bluebird at the campground. So we left there and drove to Pfieffer Big Sur State Park. We parked at the Big Sur Station and took the Pine Ridge Trail which soon leaves the state park and enters the Ventana Wilderness in Los Padres National Forest. Not long into the hike we saw a Western Gray Squirrel licking a fungus on a fallen redwood. The trail was well trod with other people and it too was very dry with little blooming but was very beautiful nevertheless. At the first stream crossing we saw a gorgeous Pacific Spiketail dragonfly patrolling the stream and an American Lady butterfly. Further up the trail we saw False Solomon seal with bright red berries and a few blooming California Fuchsia. As we proceeded we came to a big gulch with redwoods in it and a dry waterfall. We were too hungry to make it to our destination and had to stop for lunch. It was unusually hot that day. The trail is very narrow the whole way with few places to step aside for a break. So we scrambled up the dry waterfall and had our lunch. No sooner had we pulled our sandwiches out than these knuckleheads walked right up to where we were perched with their off-leash dog which they pulled up ther for a drink from a barely trickling seep. The dog lapped and lapped (they obviously had not bothered to bring it any water despite the extreme heat and commented “oh look how much water he’s drinking). They showed no regard for our privacy or for the dog for that matter. They were typical inconsiderate dog owners (redundant). We heard Acorn Woodpeckers in the woods though I never saw an oak tree on the trail. It was mostly California Bay Laurel, Pacific Madrone, Douglas Fir, Coast Redwood, and Red Alder. About half way to our destination I found a Mormon Metalmark getting nectar from one of the few blooming plants on the trail, a Nude Buckwheat. I also saw one fritillary very briefly before it flew off; I believe it was a Coronis Fritillary. At four miles we came to a turn off for the wilderness camp at Ventana Creek. The trail down to the creek was about a mile long and very steep. We went down it and it got hotter as we descended. At the creek we cooled our heads and feet before hiking back up the steep climb out. Back on the main trail we saw more Golden Hairstreaks. With about a mile left to go Susan ran out of water so we had to ration until we made it back to the stream crossing where the Pacific Spiketail was still patrolling. We had a break and our snack and the last of my water. The rest of the trail was in the shade so we didn’t have too hard a time getting back to the car. We filled our water bottles at the water fountain and then drove south to Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park. It was overrun with people so we didn’t even get out but drove back up the coast to a pull out where we looked out at the mighty Pacific Ocean while eating our dinner. Then it was back to Bottchers Gap.

Monday morning we got up, packed our things, and left Bottchers Gap. We headed north back toward home stopping at Garrapatta State Park along the way. The sun was out so we got out and walked to the coast. Sticky Monkeyflower, Pacific cinquefoil, and lots of Coast Buckwheat was blooming. At the edge we saw a female Sea Otter with a star fish on her belly. Her nose was bright red from the biting they receive from males during mating season. I bet they can’t wait until mating season is over or better yet menopause sets in. I ran back to the car to get my telephoto lens but she had hidden behind a rock to avoid marauding Western Gulls trying to steal her meal so I was not able to photograph her but we did see two males also a bit further out. As we were looking out into the kelp bed a Peregrine Falcon zoomed past and flew to the rocks on the far shore. We left there and drove all the way to Moss Landing where we turned off at Dolan Road planning to visit Elkhorn Slough. Unfortunately we did not realize it was closed on Mondays so we turned around and stopped in at Moon Glow Dairy which is an active dairy that allows birders to visit the ponds bordering the slough. There were hundreds of Red-necked Phalaropes in the first pond. On the other side were Willets, Lesser Yellowlegs, Marbled Godwits, Western Sandpipers, and Least Sandpipers, Semi-palmated Plovers, and two Baird’s Sandpipers which we got a good look at before they flew away. There were several Long-billed Curlews in the mud flats. Out in the slough were Clark’s Grebe, Western Grebe, and Pied-billed Grebe.

Next we drove to Salinas River NWR where it was incredibly foggy. There were six well marked signs in the parking lot “NO DOGS.” Out at the beach guess what we saw—yes, a dog. Dog owners have a universal vigilantism it seems that makes them think they are above the law. It didn’t matter because there were very few birds, just a few Killdeer, Sanderlings, and Heerman’s Gulls. On the way back to the car we saw another Anise Swallowtail. We left there and drove to Moss Landing where we saw an incredible fourteen Sea Otters floating in the channel. The only birds were more Godwits, Willets, and a Great Blue Heron. A few Black-necked Stilts flew past and we saw another Peregrine Falcon and that was about it. So we left there and drove all the way to Waddell Beach in San Mateo County. We crossed the highway and took the Skyline to the Sea Trail in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. We only had time to hike a mile or two before it was time to turn around and head home. There were not many birds around, just a few chickadees, Steller’s Jay, Downy Woodpecker, and Dark-eyed Juncos. We saw one Western Tiger Swallowtail, many Woodland Skippers, California Sister, and another Satyr Comma. Almost back to the trailhead we came across a beautiful Twelve-spotted Skimmer. As we left San Mateo County and headed home we entered the fog belt of San Francisco and watched the thermometer plummet. The birding had been abysmal but it had sure been nice to spend a hot weekend in Big Sur and on California's spectacular Central Coast.
Michelle Brodie
September 5, 2007

Eastern Sierra: August 18,19, 2007

2007-08-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

I just had to get out of the city and so I took a little mini-vacation to Mono Lake, Inyo National Forest, and Yosemite National Park over the weekend. I got off work early but still got caught in some pretty nasty traffic on I-580. I stopped in Groveland, CA and had dinner. Then it was so late by the time I got to the turn off for Tioga Road that I decided to stop and take a walk in Crane Flat Meadow to look for Great Gray Owl. I couldn't find one or hear one so I continued on to Mono Craters where I camped for the night.
I got up so early Saturday morning that not even the Pinyon Jays were calling yet. I drove up Highway 395 to Lundy Canyon. On the drive into the canyon I stopped at the first pond and saw a beaver. Lundy Canyon was reflected in the pond. I didn't see anyone on the trail at all until my return trip. Most of the wildflowers that were blooming in July had already died but there were still a few lingering things blooming including lots of Yampah, Yarrow, a few Monkshood and Tall Larkspur, and a little bit of paintbrush and Broad-leaved lupine. Grass of Parnassus was blooming all along Lundy Creek. A Baneberry had dropped its flowers and developed bright red berries. There weren't nearly as many birds as I was hoping. though I did get a very good look at a female MacGillivray's Warbler and an Orange-crowned Warbler. A Pine Siskin perched in a tree near me as I headed past the first waterfall. A Belted Kingfisher was working the pond. The only other interesting bird was a Dusky Flycatcher that wouldn't wait for a photo. The sole butterfly was a Mourning Cloak. I went as far as the waterfall at the scree and then turned back. I next drove to Mono County Park and walked out onto the boardwalk. There were many Red-necked Phalaropes and Wilson's Phalaropes, a few Eared Grebes, and three Yellow-headed Blackbirds (for some reason all the ones at Mono Lake have orange heads) in the lake. In the willows were some Yellow Warblers and one Lazuli Bunting. A flock of Pinyon Jays flew past. There were a couple of fritillary butterflies and one white but they never landed so I'm not sure what kind. I wanted to check a pond Dave Shuford showed us one time on a Pt. Reyes Field Seminar but I could not find it. So I ended up driving to Black Point, the remnants of an underwater volcano on Mono Lake. I walked out to the edge of the lake. There were several Blazing Stars blooming but the blooms were all closed. I accidentally flushed a Wilson's Snipe near the water's edge. There was a flock of American Avocets, a couple of Willets, and a few other things. As I drove back toward the park about fourteen Common Nighthawks flew overhead. I got out of the car to get a better look and spotted a Sage Sparrow perched on a sage brush. Back at the County Park a giant outdoor party was about to commence and there were hundreds of cars parked all along the entrance road so I had to get out of there. Some blackguard, baseborn, miscreant was taking his dog into the park right past the "no dogs" sign. My experience has been that the majority of people who own dogs are completely selfish people with a complete disregard for the rules and for nature.
Next I drove south on Highway 395 to Crowley Lake, a very popular fishing lake but also a magnet for birds during migration. I parked near the water's edge and there was a White-faced Ibis there along the shore. As I walked toward a flock of birds further along the shore I noticed about 10 more plus a flock of American Avocets and several Eared Grebes. Mono Basin hosts the largest gathering of Eared Grebes in the fall anywhere in the US. A few Eared Grebes had chicks trying to ride on their backs which is so cute to watch. A small flock of American White Pelicans were on the lake and a group of shorebirds huddled on the shoreline trying to avoid the speed boats. I saw a dead White Pelican on the shore I'm sure a victim of villianous boaters who share with dog owners a disregard for rules and nature. In the shorebird flock were Long-billed Dowitchers, Willets, Least Sandpipers, Marbled Godwits, Wilson's Phalaropes, and Red-necked Phalaropes. There were two Western Grebes bravely swimming further out. Some Caspian Terns and Forster's Terns were working the lake for fish. While studying a flock of ducks which turned out to be Cinnamon Teals I turned around and noticed a Bullock's Oriole in a willow. There were also a couple of Horned Larks on the ground. After assuring myself I was not overlooking any rarities which turn up regularly at Crowley Lake in late August, I left for Glass Creek Meadow. The wind was becoming pretty stiff and I saw no butterflies at all. There were a few Red Crossbills in the conifers; they enjoy this area it seems as I saw them there last time as well. I heard a strange bird calling and looked and looked up thinking maybe it was one of the many Clark's Nutcrackers around or a Steller's Jay. I only looked down at the ground at the last moment, just in time to see the last of a Mountain Quail before it ducked into some thick brush. Damn, I wanted a picture: I have seen so many but never gotten a picture. There was the usual assortment of mountain birds, White-breased Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee, Chipping Sparrow, and Cassin's Finch. However, the meadow was practically devoid of the outstanding wildflower display it held in July. The only things left blooming were a few Brewer's Lupines, one Meadow Penstemon, and a lone Lewis's Monkeyflower. At the end of my hike I found a private place for a solar shower, had my dinner at a picnic area near Obsidian Dome, and then headed back to my campsite. The stars were magnificent. The crescent moon soon set leaving the sky ultra-dark for star gazing. As I stared up at the starry sky it was as though it were a cloudy night but actually it was just the thick band of the milky way strewn across the sky. Our English word galaxy comes from the Greek word for milk. I turned into bed and fell asleep. During the night the wind picked up considerably even rocking the car at times.
Sunday morning I again got up before the first bird sang and after breakfast headed over to South Tufa Reserve. I was the first person there. Yeah, solitude! I walked down to the Mono Lake shore and there were several Sage Thrashers and Brewer's Sparrows there eating the brine flies. I watched an awesome sight as the sun came up and put the tufas in an orange glow. After walking the loop trail I drove back over to Mono County Park where mercifully the party was over. A crew had arrived to remove the trash from the party the day before. They had put a cardboard box over the "no dogs" sign and had an off-leash dog roaming around while they cleaned up their mess while a worthless reprobate state park employee stood on doing nothing. I was the first person out on the boardwalk and that turned out to be very lucky for me. As I stood at the end of the boardwalk looking at the phalaropes something ran across the boardwalk catching my eye. It popped up again between the slats pretty close to me and I could see that it was a Long-tailed Weasel! I have never seen one before. It ran fast between the slats like Pop goes the weasel. I barely got this blurry photo before it ran off. What a special treat that was. After the boardwalk I was heading back toward the car when I came upon a group of birders. Some lady told me they were looking at an American Redstart in the willow tree. I got my binoculars on it and it was a first year male or female. I left them and walked across the road to the trees there hoping for Lewis's Woodpecker. I had no luck with that species but found a Red-breasted Sapsucker, Hairy Woodpecker, and Downy Woodpecker. Two Calliope Hummingbirds nearly flew into me. There was also a Spotted Towhee, House Wren, Black-billed Magpie, and Western Wood Pewee. Three Black-crowned Night-herons flew over. Then I decided I better start my planned hike. So I drove from Mono Lake into Yosemite National Park and parked at the Mono Pass Trailhead. I only saw about five peole the entire 12 mile hike. There were many fritillary butterflies and a few sulphurs. The trail starts out at 9000 feet and goes as high as 11,100 feet at Parker Pass which I took after Mono Pass. On the trail up to Mono Pass a White-headed Woodpecker flew into a tree right in front of me. I was surprised to see a Savannah Sparrow on the trail. There were the usual Chipping Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos but I don't know what a Savannah Sparrow was doing there. There were some more Clark's Nutcrackers, nuthatches, one Hammond's Flycatcher, and one Brown Creeper. At Mono Pass, 10,599 feet, I spotted a Sandhill Skipper. It was extremely windy at the pass so I dropped down to Sardine Lake and had my lunch there. Nearly all the great wildflowers from 4th of July were gone. Near Sardine Lake an odd flycatcher flew into a tree. I didn't get a great look but I am pretty sure it was a Gray Flycatcher. After lunch I also took the trail to Parker Pass where I was surprised to see a Northern Harrier scanning the ridge. I also saw a few sulphur butterflies. Not much flies at that elevation which is timberline but the butterflies would never land so I was unable to get a picture or identify them to species. The view from Parker Pass was not nearly as inspiring as I thought it would be so I dropped down a bit futher into the Ansel Adams Wilderness which is in Inyo National Forest and not Yosemite but it was getting late and I still had to drive back to the city so I turned back there. A flock of American Pipits flew across the barren pass. On the way back down I passed more fritillaries and another sulphur. This one I was able to photograph but it turned out to be an ordinary Orange Sulphur. Most likely the fritillaries at timberline were Mormon Fritillaries but the ones lower down I think were Great Basin Fritillaries. Who knows; those darn things are so hard to tell apart. As I dropped back down in elevation I came across some blooming groundsel, American Bistort, and Nude buckwheat but not much else but a few lupines. I got back to the car around 4:00 PM and then it was time to head back home. Heavy sigh.
Michelle Brodie
August 22, 2007

Ft. Bragg, CA Pelagic: August 12, 2007

2007-08-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, August 12, 2007, I took my first pelagic out of Ft. Bragg, CA. This is billed as a "mega-raritiy" trip and there is a hefty charge to take it on Shearwater Journeys. We departed from Noyo Harbor on the Trek II boat. As we passed under the bridge out of the harbor we saw Black Turnstones, Wandering Tattler, Pigeon Guillemot, Pelagic Cormorant on the rocks. As we headed off shore mostly we saw lots of California Gulls and a few Western Gulls. Finally after about two hours we came across a Cassin's Auklet and a couple of Rhinoceros Auklets. Then we found a Pink-footed Shearwater sitting on the water. There were not many Sooty Shearwaters like I expected. We drove on for a long time without seeing anything else but a few more Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters. Eventually we came into a pod of Humpback whales playing. Then a Black-footed Albatross flew in close to the boat. The birds were few and far in between after that excitement. We passed a frolicking Northern Fur Seal and then we came into a large pod of Risso's Dolphins that were showing off their high fins and sometimes leaping up in the air. They can be identified by the unique scars on their fins. One of the ones we saw had a collapsed dorsal fin. Right after that exciting encounter a Northern Fulmar landed right next to the boat.
Then the sea went calm, the sun came out, and lighting and conditions were quite nice. However, there were no birds for an extended period of time. Of course as soon as I pulled my sandwich out a Pomarine Jaeger flew by that I completely missed out on. After lunch we went way out to sea to Cordell Bank but still no rarities came by. There were many, many Red-necked Phalaropes around the boat all day long and Common Murres flew by all day as well. Finally we were running out of gas and had to head back. Not too far off shore a Sabine's Gull landed in the water nearby in perfect lighting and that was it before heading back to shore. As we proceeded back under the bridge at Noyo Harbor we saw a Clark's Grebe and some Common Loons but no rarities. Oh well, I'll just have to go back out there again soon.
Michelle Brodie
August 14, 2007

Cherry Grove, SC: July 28-August 4, 2007

2007-08-13T22:13:00.000-07:00

On July 28, 2007 I went to North Myrtle Beach, SC for my annual family reunion. I arrived too late on Saturday to do much of anything but settle into my little beach front bungalow. On Sunday morning I got up early and drove to Calabash, NC and visited Vereen Gardens. There were many Green Herons and Snowy and Great Egrets but not too much else. I drove from there to Sunset Beach, NC and walked out to the north end of the beach where the shorebirds roost. There were a few Wilson's Plovers, American Oystercatchers, Black Skimmers, Sandwich Terns, Common Terns, and one Least Tern. After examining all the shorebirds I left stopping at Sunset Lake before heading back to Cherry Grove for a day at the beach. There were many Wood Storks in the trees.
On Monday, July 30, 2007, I drove into North Carolina again to Green Swamp Preserve where I heard there are Henslow's Sparrows. I didn't see or hear any but there were a few Bachman's Sparrows. I also saw a few juvenile Redheaded Woodpeckers. There were lots of pitcher plants growing and many Common Wood Nymphs and Palamedes butterflies. The only warblers were Pine Warbler and Common Yellowthroat. I saw one Blue Grosbeak.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007, I went to Cherry Grove Park with John. We found some Painted Buntings in the trees there and then John told me about a new park down the road from the boat launch, Heritage Shores Nature Preserve. This park just opened in January 2007, an oasis in a sea of development that is North Myrtle Beach. It had great boardwalks over the marsh, many exhibits and picnic tables, and showed great potential as a fall migrant trap. We heard Clapper Rails calling from the marsh and saw Little Blue Heron, lots of Mockingbirds and Cardinals and Egrets. A Gull-billed Tern flew by and we saw one Seaside Sparrow in the marsh. An Osprey patrolled the canal.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007, I again checked the Heritage Shores Nature Preserve in Cherry Grove. There was a Tri-colored Heron right at the entrance. Many birds were flying up the channel headed toward Waites Island including Wood Stork and Glossy Ibis. I found a Great-crested Flycatcher in the trees and a Boat-tailed Grackle was perched across the canal. I decided to ride my boogie board across Hog Inlet at high tide when nobody esle would venture over to deserted Waites Island (you can walk across Hog Inlet at low tide). There was a large flock of Brown Pelicans, Laughing Gulls, and many tern species, Royal, Least, Common, Forster's, Caspian, and Sandwich. There were also Willet, Sanderling, Black-bellied Plover, Semi-palmated Plover, Western Sandpiper, American Oystercatcher, Great Egret, Black Skimmer. one Herring Gull, and one Great Black-backed Gull. It was tough boogie boarding across the channel at high tide but worth it for the solitude and flocks of birds.
Thursday, August 2, 2007, John and I drove all the way down to Brookgreen Gardens in Murell's Inlet, SC, only to find it closed until 9:30 AM. So we entered Huntington Beach and walked the causeway and the boardwalk. We saw Wood Stork, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tri-colored Heron, Osprey, White Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Least Tern, Forster's Tern, Royal Tern, Caspian Tern, Great Blue Heron, Lesser Yellowlegs, and one unidentified sparrow and many alligators. At the Education Center we saw two Painted Buntings and one Orchard Oriole. Then we headed over to Brookgreen. On the way out John spotted this Golden Silk Orbweaver in an oak tree. There were many Black Swallowtail butterflies. We saw one Eastern Kingbird, Brown Thrasher, Red-bellied Woodpecker, and Eastern Bluebird. There were some Blue Jays in the oak trees and we heard an Indigo Bunting singing. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird zipped by and one Black-crowned Night-heron. We went to the bird rehab center where we saw some Fulvous-whistling Ducks. We only saw one Zebra Swallowtail but it wouldn't land for a picture. There were many Eastern Lubber grasshoppers on the lawn.

On August 3, 2007 I again visited Heritage Shores Nature Preserve. The Clapper Rails were calling from the marsh but I never saw them. The Tri-colored Heron was still lurking about but there was not much else.
On the last day, August 4, 2007, I said goodbye to everyone and then drove back down to Huntington Beach State Park. I walked from the boardwalk out onto the beach. A roped off area contained the federally endangered species, Seabeach Amaranth. I walked all the way out to the jetty where I was shocked to see a family swimming in the marsh. Fortunately I found a flock of shorebirds just off the beach at the edge of the marsh prior to reaching the jetty, containing Wilson's Plover, Semi-palmated Plover, Western Sandpiper, Semi-palmated Sandpiper, and some other things. Obviously there were no birds where the idiots were swimming in the marsh. I went to the area behind the jetty which is roped off for nesting Least Terns. A large sign indicated no dogs allowed. Nevertheless, a man and his two kids walked up with an off-leash dog and proceeded to the "no dogs allowed" area and began swimming in the marsh with the dog. I was furious. Are people in SC completely retarded? I found a large flock of Black Skimmers and American Oystercatchers in the fenced off area. They are right to put an electric fence there. Too bad it didn't electrocute the family with the dog. When I got back to the entrance to the beach I found the sign for the endangered Seabeach Amaranth knocked over and one of the endangered plants trampled. A woman walked by and stomped a cigarette butt into the sand. It made me sad that people are so uncaring and so unaware about the world they live in. After resting at the picnic area I walked out to Sandpiper pond where I saw a Common Moorhen. I walked the Sandpiper trail and found flock of American Avocets on the furthest edge of the pond (this is most likely also where I contracted chiggers!!@) There was also a shorebird crouched on the far shore that I think was a Stilt Sandpiper but I could not see it very well without a scope. I saw a scruffy looking Carolina Satyr on the trail on my way back to the car. Then it was time to go back to civilization --California.
Michelle Brodie, August 13, 2007
Complete list of birds seen:
Brown Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Anhinga, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Green Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, White Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Wood Stork, Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Wood Duck, Mallard, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Red-tailed Hawk, Clapper Rail, Common Moorhen, Black-bellied Plover, Wilson’s Plover, Semi-palmated Plover, Piping Plover, Killdeer, American Oystercatcher, American Avocet, Lesser Yellowlegs, Willet, Spotted Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Semi-palmated Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Laughing Gull, Ring-billed Gull, California Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Caspian Tern, Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern, Common Tern, Forster’s Tern, Least Tern, Black Skimmer, Mourning Dove, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Red-headed Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Eastern Kingbird, Purple Martin, Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Carolina Wren, Eastern Bluebird, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, Pine Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Cardinal, Blue Grosbeak, Painted Bunting, Eastern Towhee, Bachman’s Sparrow, Seaside Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Orchard Oriole, House Finch, House Sparrow

Glacier National Park, MT: July 14-22, 2007

2007-07-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

Glacier National Park: July 14-22, 2007

Our plane arrived in Kalispell, now renamed Glacier Park International Airport, on time but they lost two of our suitcases. It was 93 degrees! We had to return to the airport five times before we finally got all our bags and picked up my brother, John, and my sister, Sharon, and were ready to head to Glacier National Park. We set up our tents at Fish Creek Campground and after finishing dinner barely had time to head over to Avalanche Lake trailhead for the four mile round trip hike. In fact, we had to hike the last mile in the dark, even though it didn’t get dark until 10:00 PM. I saw a black bear run across the trail not long after commencing. There were many Swainson’s Thrushes and Varied Thrushes singing all along the trail. The hike follows Avalanche Creek terminating at the lake where it is fed by numerous waterfalls. It’s a dramatic hike but hard to appreciate in the failing light. It was still warm enough to wear shorts when we returned back to camp.

Sunday, July 15, 2007
After breakfast at our very private campsite at Fish Creek we drove to the Sperry Chalet trailhead. The first three miles of the trail passes exclusively through forest. There were few flowers blooming; the trail was dusty and full of horse piss and droppings which none of us liked at all. We could hear Snyder Creek nearby but the trail afforded no views of it. We almost turned back we were so disappointed. In one clearing I saw a Vaux’s Swift fly by and there were more Swainson’s Thrushes and Varied Thrushes singing. After the trail crossed over the creek, it began to climb steeply up switchbacks past the Medicine Falls and then through expansive views of the high country. As the trail opened up we began to pass extensive wildflowers and butterflies including Glacier's signature plant, Bear Grass, California False-hellebore, Claytonia, Twin Flower, and lots of Birch-leaf Spiraea. While stopping for a break several people on horses passed us, one of them letting the horse stop to piss elaborately in front of us. It was disgusting and stinky. Finally into the high country we were treated to mountain vistas, multiple blooming wildflowers, Subalpine Spiraea, sulphur flower, lots of singing MacGillivray’s Warblers, Pine Siskins, Black-capped Chickadess, and many butterflies, including Mariposa Copper, Purplish Copper, Purplish Fritillary, and Acmon Blue. We arrived at the Chalet too late to make the trek up to Sperry Glacier and so after enjoying the fantastic views we turned around and headed back down the smelly horse trail. We heard an Olive-sided Flycatcher singing. Dozens of people were hiking down the trail as it was Sunday and they were concluding their stay at Sperry Chalet; this must have accounted for the abundance of horse droppings. On the way back we stopped at the bridge over Snyder Creek and cooled our throbbing feet from our 13.6 round trip hike before descending back to the car. Next we drove to Inner North Fork Road and had a shower by placing the solar shower on top of the car. As luck would have it no sooner was it my turn and I was completely naked than some idiot pulled up and started sawing down trees in the forest and putting them in his truck. Some Cedar Waxwings came and landed in a tree by the car and we found a bush full of ripe huckleberries which we ate. After the thief left everyone else had their turn and then we returned to our cute little camp at Fish Creek and fell fast asleep.

Monday, July 16, 2007
We packed up our camp gear, loaded up everything in the van and headed up Going-to-the-Sun Road. This road is one of the park highlights as it ascends dramatically up to Logan Pass at 6680 feet with dramatic views of the many waterfalls including 682 foot Bird Woman Falls. Alpine daisies, Brown-eyed Susans, and Bergamot were blooming all along the road. We drove all the way past Logan Pass to Rising Sun Campground and set up camp for the remainder of the trip. The campsite was nestled in huckleberry patches that were dripping with ripe huckleberries that John enjoyed picking and putting in his cereal in the mornings. After our camp was set up we drove to Many Glacier Road where we saw a black bear up a hillside. We parked at Swiftcurrent picnic area and headed for the Grinnell Glacier trailhead which we were extremely disappointed to find closed three miles ahead. When Sharon and I went to Glacier Park in 1999 we were unable to make it to Grinnell Glacier on account of a tremendous amount of snow on the trail with a treacherous angled snowbank making passage impossible. So it was particularly disappointing to find the trail to the glacier again closed. We decided to go ahead as far as we could. It was hot again and very hazy so that the normally incredible view back down to emerald green Grinnell Lake and the surrounding mountains was dulled. There were dozens of people on the trail making picture taking of the many butterflies challenging. We finally made it to the three mile marker where the trail was closed due to bear activity which we later learned was a carcass across the trail, and were not even able to see Grinnell Glacier just a big snow bank and a hazy view of a waterfall of melting glacier. We took our time moseying back down the trail to the car. On the way back John spotted a Dusky Grouse along the trail. Near the end of the hike we stopped by the lake and dipped our feet in the water. While resting, an Arctic Blue butterfly perched on my foot and then a Pearl Crescent butterfly landed on my shoulder and stayed there part of the way back down the trail. At the pond we saw a Rubber Boa swimming across. After our hike we decided to drive back to Logan Pass and take the Hidden Lake trail. It was late in the day but there were still people on this very popular trail. This trail is so popular in fact, that the park had to build a boardwalk all the way to the pond with the famous view back across to Reynolds Mountain reflected in the pool. American Pipits were standing in the meadow with some singing White-crowned Sparrows. Our view was dampened by the haze which still lingered in the air. But we still enjoyed the flower filled meadow. Glacier lilies were still blooming there in huge swaths along with heather, paintbrush, and many others. We saw some Big Horn Sheep browsing in the meadow. At the Hidden Lake Overlook we turned around and returned the way we came.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007
A Warbling Vireo was the first thing up and his sweet song woke us up. A Western Tanager perched in a tree during breakfast and serenaded us. We again drove to Many Glacier Road where we had planned to hike to beautiful Iceberg Lake. When we got to the entrance station we were so disappointed to learn that it too was closed due to bear activity. The ranger suggested that we try Swiftcurrent Pass so we followed her advice and were greatly rewarded by doing so. We parked at the end of Many Glacier Road and started up the Swiftcurrent Pass trail. This spectacular trail starts off flat as it passes through flower filled meadows with singing MacGillivray’s Warblers, three waterfalls, and two large lakes, Red Rock Lake and Bullhead Lake, before ascending steeply up challenging switchbacks up 2700 feet to the pass. It was still hot and hazy but we were unaware as we were dazzled by the magnificent scenery. In the meadow a MacGillivray’s Warbler popped up in a tree finally giving us a look at this elusive bird. At Bullhead Lake we saw a Moose with a calf far across the lake. We had lunch on the switchbacks near one of four streaming waterfalls. Near the pass American Pipits were singing in the meadow. When we got to Swifcurrent Pass we were very tired but John insisted that we also make the 1600 foot climb up to the lookout. I didn’t want to because it was so hazy but we trrudged up the trail anyway. While taking a break Susan spotted a raptor. As soon as I got it in my binoculars it flew off and I could make out the dark axillaries of a Prairie Falcon. We huffed and gasped for air before finally summiting for a 360 degree view of the park. What a shame it was so hazy; you could see that on a clear day it would have been an incredible view something to draw you back again and again if you ever were so lucky to have that chance. After munching on some huckleberries and snacks we started back down the steep switchbacks. Half way down the steep switchbacks I was surprised to see a White-tailed Deer with a huge rack resting under a rock. Susan got mad because she was relieving herself in the woods and I didn’t yell that Sharon was coming quickly enough. She stormed down the trail not stopping at all until back at the creek. I have never seen her hike so fast. Nearly back to the car Sharon and Susan stopped at Fisher Cap Lake, a small lake before the two main lakes, and saw a very close male moose. Just as we finished our hike a light rain began to fall. As we headed back down Many Glacier Road we came upon a traffic jam. We looked up the hillside and saw a grizzly bear with two cubs. We tried to take pictures but the ranger asked us to move on. We drove back to Rising Sun picnic area across the street from our campground and had our dinner. The picnic area was empty but it stopped raining long enough for us to have dinner. After dinner John hung his solar shower up in the men’s room and showered and then I hung it up in the women’s room and showered while Susan and Sharon waited in a long line at Rising Sun for the pay showers. We slept well after our grueling 17 mile hike with a 3500 foot elevation gain, even though it rained all night.

July 18, 2007
I wanted to hike the Belly River trail but after reading the summary John refused because horses are allowed on the trail; he didn’t want to take anymore trails with horse piss and pooh. We stopped at the brand new St. Mary Visitor Center and John asked the backcountry ranger to make a suggestion. Out in the parking lot an Osprey was on her nest with her chicks. The ranger suggested Siyeh Pass so we took her advice and drove to Siyeh Bend and parked the car. Most people walk the 11 mile hike one way ending at Sunrift Gorge and taking the shuttle back to Siyeh Bend. We intended to make it a long loop by continuing along St. Mary Lake back to the bend. We started up the trail and soon came to two large gray birds in the forest which I believe were Northern Goshawks. We were greeted with many meadows of wildflowers before starting a steep ascent up a rocky talus slope to 7750 foot Siyeh Pass with commanding alpine views. Despite the harsh conditions wildflowers were blooming along the talus slope, lousewort, St. John’s Wort, and many others. The views were amazing at the pass but it was too windy so we dropped down a bit before enjoying lunch in front of Sexton Glacier. A Gray-crowned Rosy-finch flew onto a rock nearby. After lunch we descended the pass through incredible wildflower filled fields with many butterflies, Queen Alexandria’s Sulphur, Rocky Mountain Parnassian, Milbert’s Tortoiseshell, and several species of fritillary. The views on the other side of the pass were breathtaking. As we descended three glacier fed waterfalls far below came into view. It was the kind of scene that is hard to take your eyes away from. There were many people on the trail riding our rears; I don’t know why they were in such a hurry. They didn’t stop for a butterfly, a flower, a waterfall; I don’t know why they didn’t just stay at home and ride a treadmill for pete’s sake. The end of the trail came to a redrock lined waterfall before ending at sunrift gorge where we saw a Lorquin’s Admiral right next to a White Admiral. Sharon and Susan took the shuttle back to Siyeh Bend and John and I took the St. Mary Lake Trail. John forgot his binoculars on a rock and had to run about a mile back up the trail to get them. Back on the trail first we passed uninspiring Baring Falls and then walked along St. Mary Lake with outstanding views of towering mountains in the background. We passed on St. Mary falls and continued to Deadman Falls before making the steep ascent out of Gunsight Pass trail back to Going-to-the-Sun Road where we were too exhausted to make the last 2.5 miles back to Siyeh Bend. Fortunately Sharon and Susan drove by on their way back from the store and picked us up. Sharon and Susan again stood in a long line at Rising Sun pay shower while John and I went to Sun Point picnic area and hung up the solar shower on the car. While John was completely nude a guy in a truck made two slow passes making sure to look down between the car where John was bathing. As we left we saw a man preparing to camp illegally at Sun Point. I wonder if bears were attracted by the smell of our soap and attacked the illegal camper after we left.

Thursday, July 19, 2007
I woke everybody up at 5:00 AM to give us plenty of time to drive into Canada to Waterton Lakes National Park. Shortly after going through customs I saw a Ruffed Grouse in the road so I pulled over to get some pictures. Later we stopped and saw Red-naped Sapsucker, Rufous Hummingbird, Hairy Woodpecker, Townsend’s Solitaire, Northern Flicker, and Fox Sparrow. There were many other birds but we had to go in order to catch the 9:00 AM boat across Waterton Lake to Crypt Landing where we planned to hike to Crypt Lake. Across the lake from the boat launch sits the historic Prince of Wales Hotel. The hike was horrible and I will never take it again. Because you must take a boat to get to the trailhead it basically funnels 50 people shotgun style up the trail in a long line. There is no chance to get pictures of butterflies or look at birds because if you stop to do anything 45 people will pass you and you will be stuck marching with a bunch of obnoxious people all day long which is exactly what happened. The boat company claims it is rated the number one hike in Canada but if that’s all Canada has to offer then I would prefer to continue hiking in the US. The hike made a steep ascent up past a waterfall and then through a 2.5 foot wide tunnel before ending at an uninspiring subalpine lake where we were forced to eat lunch with 40 noisy people. The only interesting thing at the lake were three species of trout, Brown, Rainbow, and Cutthroat. At the end of the hike we took a side trip to Hellroaring Canyon Falls where we again were stuck in a line of hikers on a single track trail. It was awful. Back at the boat dock we were trapped with the same 50 people waiting for the boat to pick us up. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. After the boat dropped us off we drove past the famous Prince of Wales Hotel. Susan wanted to stop inside to have high tea but then changed her mind. So we drove to the end of Redrock Canyon Road and walked out on a bridge over lovely Bauerman Creek. I had to pry everyone off of the bridge to get them to take the Blakeston Falls trail where we saw more wildflowers. We had our dinner at the picnic area there and then it was a long drive back to Rising Sun campground.

Friday, July 20, 2007
It was Susan and my fifth anniversary. I had planned a hike to Cobalt Lake in the Two Medicine Area. John was skeptical of my choice but it turned out to be the best hike of the trip in my opinion. Sharon and I had taken the hike in July 1999 but a snow storm came the night before blanketing the area and we couldn’t see much, only enough to tell that we should come back again one day. The trail started out on the south shore of Medicine Lake through wildflower-filled meadows before coming to a pond where we saw several Common Yellow-throats. Sharon and Susan stopped to look at some flowers and John was about five feet behind me when I saw a grizzly bear about 30 feet away. I had my video camera out and started filming it. It was eating something in the meadow and didn’t notice me at first. Then it looked up and looked me right in the eye. John started backing away leaving me standing there all by myself. I kept telling Sharon and Susan to come up to me because I didn’t think the bear would mess with four people. But no they just left me standing there alone right in front of the bear. Fortunately the bear decided to cross the trail instead of eating me and hopped into a pond and swam away. That is the first grizzly bear I have ever encountered on a trail; I think I would have fainted if I had been alone. There were more alpine birds along the trail, Winter Wren, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, and MacGillivray’s Warbler. We took a side trail to Aster waterfall before crossing Paradise creek on a suspension bridge and then beginning a relatively gentle climb up past red and black towering Mount Rockwell. We came to another waterfall, Rockwell falls, where we stopped to have lunch. While eating, John spotted an American Dipper in the falls. After lunch we continued our climb a little more steeply. We found some ripe blueberries along the trail which we stopped to pick and eat. They were delicious. Next we passed through an ineffable wildflower display along the creek. There was one enormous patch of Lewis’s Monkeyflower and endless patches of other flowers all along the creek. The scene was indescribably beautiful. Finally we came to Cobalt Lake nestled in Paradise Peak. While cooling our feet in the clear blue lake John detected an animal he thought was a badger on the hillside on the far shore. Later we determined it was a Long-tailed Weasel. A Spotted Sandpiper was on the shore of the lake and two Hoary Marmots were running up the hillside being chased by a bird and pecked on the back. After resting a bit we turned back the way we came. I heard a warbler giving a chip note in some willows so I pished and a MacGillivray’s Warbler shot out and nearly flew into us. That night at camp I heard a Great Horned Owl hooting.

Saturday, July 21, 2007
We got up, packed up all our things, and left Rising Sun Campground. We drove back to Logan Pass and parked. It was extremely windy and cold in the parking area. We crossed the road and started the Highline Trail along the Garden Wall, a very famous section of Glacier Park with commanding views of the glacier filled alpine country with its many waterfalls, wildflowers, and butterflies. There were a few people on the trail but they were spread out and it wasn’t too bad. We soon came to some Big Horn Sheep right off the trail. Mountain Goats walked right past us. Not far down the trail I found a Pine Grosbeak perched right out in the open on a Subalpine Fir. Two more flew in and a Calliope Hummingbird also flew in while I was admiring the Grosbeak. The trail is carved out of the side of the mountain and passes through intermittent forests and then meadows. In the forested area I found two Townsend’s Warblers. At 6.8 miles we came to a spur trail that climbs 1000 feet in just 1 km. We stopped and had lunch before making this arduous climb. It was well worth the effort as it ended at a tremendous view down to Grinnell Glacier. Finally after eight years I saw Grinnell Glacier. It was extremely windy at the overlook but Susan and I found a crevice in the rocks where we were protected from the wind and could enjoy the view. While sitting admiring this ancient glacier that will one day be no more, two Calliope Hummingbirds buzzed right past our heads and over the pass. After everyone had his or her fill of this spectacular overlook we walked back down to the trail junction and on to Granite Park Chalet where people make reservations a year in advance to stay and enjoy the amazing views of Mount Gould and the Haystack. We were so tired hiking back to the car. Most people continue past Granite Park Chalet on the shorter, 4.4 mile Loop trail and take the shuttle back to their car, so we saw few people as we re-traced our steps. We stopped and soaked our tired feet in one of the many dripping pools along the way. After our hike we stopped at Avalanche Creek picnic area and had our last picnic before heading out of the park to Kalispell to the Outlaw Hotel where things went terribly wrong. We were so tired after hiking nearly 100 miles all week. But the hotel sent us from room to room every time only to find it already occupied. Finally after four tries Sharon and John got situated and everybody went to sleep. I was awoken at the ungodly hour of 5:00 AM by John telling me the shuttle did not come to pick him up. So I had to get up and drop him off at the airport. Then no sooner was I back in bed than Sharon came to have breakfast. After breakfast we went back into the park for a last leisurely walk to Rocky Point along Lake MacDonald where we saw a Red Squirrel. After taking Sharon to the airport Susan and I went back to the park again and hiked the Johns Lake Trail to Sacred Dancing Cascade where we saw some Gray Jays and some more Winter Wrens. We had intended to hike the entire loop but the bridge over McDonald Creek had been slammed into by trees during a violet flood. A Compton's Tortoiseshell was perched right on the demolished bridge: we ended our travels there and headed back to Glacier Park Airport where it was still a balmy 93 degrees. Our flight was delayed two hours due to an air traffic hold at San Francisco Airport on account of fog. As the plane passed over the glacier filled peaks of the Rocky Mountains I looked down at them in awe. These ancient remnants of the last ice age will one day be gone and with it too probably all the precious sacred places I treasure so much, destroyed by endless development and demands for housing for our burgeoning population. As the plane moved on and the mountains moved out of view, I looked down ruefully, sad to leave it behind but happy and satisfied that I'd had the wonderful opportunity to see this majestic place again.

Eastern Sierra: June 29-July 4, 2007

2007-07-07T22:07:00.000-07:00

Susan had food poisoning on Thursday and still felt ill Friday, so I had to drive all the way from her office to our little primitive campsite at Mono Craters myself, June 29. We arrived around 10:30 PM and after admiring the planets Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter, that were regaling the sky all weekend, and setting up the tent, fell fast asleep. I woke in the night and heard a Great Horned Owl hooting.

Saturday, June 30, 2007, Susan felt weak from the food poisoning so I planned an easy hike to Glass Creek Meadow in the Inyo National Forest. It is only a 4 mile round trip hike with little elevation gain. After breakfast we drove to the trailhead which is off of Highway 395 south of Mono Lake at the turn off for Obsidian Dome, a giant remnant of an ancient volcano with a large lava flow. Pumice and obsidian were everywhere. We only saw a couple of people during our hike but lots of birds, butterflies, and wildflowers. The hike has one hill to make it up right after the trailhead as it passes a small waterfall on Glass Creek. Then the trail flattens out as it follows along the creek to the meadow. As soon as we started we heard Warbling Vireo, Western Wood Pewee, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Cassin’s Finch. There were Sulphur flowers and Brewer’s Lupine all along the first part of the hike. At the first forested area we came across a flock of Red Crossbills giving their kip kip call and eating pine cone seeds which they live off of in their nomadic lives. There were many Clark’s Nutcrackers giving their noisy vocalizations. After the forested area the trail opened up to a field of pumice sand before finally arriving at the flower filled meadow. The creek runs through the meadow making it lush with wildflowers and butterflies which were everywhere. A whole section of the meadow was a field of Meadow Penstemon. In the wet mud were many Blue butterflies, Melissa Blue, Western Tailed-blue, Anna's Blue, and other blues we could not identify as well as a Sulphur butterfly, Lustrous Copper, and many Western Tiger Swallowtail butterflies. We sat on a log enjoying the meadow for a while with its ring of trees and backdrop of the 10,000 foot high San Joaquin Mountain but there were too many biting flies so we decided to head back. On the way out of the meadow we heard Mountain Quail and Sooty Grouse calling from the forest. As I was admiring a Pine Siskin through my binoculars somehow an insect got between my left pinkie finger and my binoculars and stung me. It must have left a stinger in my finger because it swelled to the size of a sausage and caused unbelievable pain in my hand. Near the creek we saw a Gray Flycatcher, Mountain Chickadee, Townsend’s Solitaire, and White-breasted and Red-breasted Nuthatch. We only saw two people on the trail. Before leaving we had lunch at a picnic area near Obsidian Dome then we drove the long drive to the Ancient Bristlecone Forest near the tiny town of Big Pine, CA. After winding up the White Mountains where we saw a Rufous Hummingbird, we pulled into the Shulman Grove and walked the Discovery Trail which tells all about how Professor Shulman discovered the oldest tree in the world in this grove of gorgeous twisted old Bristlecones in 1952. The tree is over 4000 years old but the Forest Service won’t tell you which one it is for fear that some lunatic will cut it down. No matter—they are all gorgeous old trees fantastic to look at. There were the tiniest most minute little blue butterflies on the Discovery Trail and dozens of Mountain Bluebirds. After hiking the one mile loop we decided to drive to the Patriarch Grove further up the White Mountains. This grove is 12 miles further up and at 11,000 feet instead of the 10,000 feet we were at in Shulman Grove. The road turns into dirt almost immediately and is very bad and full of large rocks. I was amazed that people were driving their passenger cars on it and wondering why they were not concerned about flat tires. We finally got to the Patriarch Grove and walked the two short nature trails admiring the largest Bristlecone in the world and some other beauties before driving back down the awful road. As we proceeded down this horrible dirt road I heard an upsetting sound of air escaping. I pulled into the nearest pull off and was horrified to see my rear left tire completely flat. Worse than that the hatch wouldn’t open so I had to remove our cooler and all our camp gear and crawl into the back of the car to get the jack out. As we were contemplating where to put the jack two ladies in a US Forest Service truck stopped and asked if we needed help. Susan told them that she had never changed a tire before and yes could they help. I most certainly have changed many tires in my day but was not looking forward to kneeling in the sage to change one. After a couple of failed attempts at placing the jack we finally got the tire changed and the nice ladies left but not before several cars passed us, I am sure joking the whole way back about how many ladies it took to change a tire. We didn’t get back to our little campsite at Mono Craters until 10:30 PM leaving no time to do anything but crawl into the tent.

Sunday, July 1, before I even arose I could hear the Pinyon Jays on the move through our camp site. My pinkie was hurting a lot each time I used my hand the pain darting through my hand. We drove north of Lee Vining to the turn off for Green Creek which is also a dirt road. I was worried because we had a flat for a spare so I drove as carefully as possible and with the window down also listened for birds. The road passes through sage flats before arriving at the Green Creek Campground in the Toyaibe National Forest. In the sage flats we saw lots of desert birds such as Sage Thrasher, Brewer’s Sparrow, and Green-tailed Towhee and prickly poppy with its beautiful white flowers lined the road. This trail is 11.6 miles round trip to the Hoover Lakes in the Hoover Wilderness. We took our time on this beautiful trail as there is much to look at. First of all, wildflowers line the trail from the first step to the last. At first we passed through a field of Richardson’s Geranium and a lot of Swamp Onion along the creek. In addition to all the great flowers the whole trail was full of birds and bird song. We saw all the Sierra Mountain specialty birds, Pine Siskin, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Hermit Thrush, Western Tanager, Clark’s Nutcracker, Violet-green Swallow, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Brown Creeper, Raven, and the ever present Yellow-rumped Warbler. We stopped many times to admire the many butterflies as well-- Clodious Parnassian, Pine White, Western Tiger Swallowtail, Bosduval’s Blue, some type of Fritillary (possibly Nokomis), and many others. The first lake the trail comes to is East Lake which is stocked with trout and consequently attracts a lot of anglers. We had lunch beside the lake and Susan spotted a Golden Trout near the water’s edge. We continued up the trail and I noted that the only mountain bird we had not found was a Williamson’s Sapsucker and how I wish Susan would conjure one for me. Next we came to lovely Green Lake which is actually bright blue and surrounded by gorgeous red and black mountains. After leaving this little gem we ran into a US Forest Service worker, Scott, who talked our heads off. Poor guy must not have anyone to talk to. He was hiking with a six foot saw to cut trees that were blocking the trail. I was amazed that they cut those huge trees with a saw. He had just finished cutting a huge White bark pine and was on his way to the next blockage. He told us his life story about how he backpacked for three days when he was just fourteen on the Pacific Crest Trail and just fell in love with it and has been outdoors ever since apparently not running into many people along the way with whom to converse. After Green Lake we passed Gilman Lake and little Nutter Lake before the trail opened up and we could see Burro Pass high above us before finally crossing a hairy passage over Green Creek to Hoover Lakes. At Hoover Lake we found a few Gray-crowned Rosy Finches and White-crowned Sparrows, a subspecies of which lives high in the mountains, and an Edith’s Checkerspot butterfly. We barely had time to enjoy the fantastic view before we had to turn back. As we again approached Blue Lake I saw a Williamson’s Sapsucker flying away. I thought that another one was behind a pine tree so I told Susan to wait while I walked around it. As I got to the back of the tree which was very near the trail I heard babies crying inside a tiny woodpecker hole. Susan and I sat on a rock nearby and waited for the mother to come back to feed them. Soon she came and I was able to watch her feeding her little Williamson's Sapsucker chicks which would protrude slightly from the hole. It was very thrilling for me. Scott was just a few feet away completely oblivious sawing away at a gigantic fallen pine tree. When we had our fill we waved goodbye to Scott and headed back down the trailhead. We were exhausted at times feeling like we couldn’t make it. We had taken so long standing taking pictures of the numerous flowers, birds, and butterflies that our little 11.6 mile hike was taking us a total of over eight hours. I stopped to dip my throbbing pinkie in a creek and when I bent down saw a Yosemite Toad in the water. When we finally made it back to the car my body ached from head to toe. We drove south on Highway 395 to Mono County Park where we planned to have dinner. It was very windy and unpleasant at the picnic area. We walked out on the boardwalk and saw hundreds of Wilson’s Phalaropes on Mono Lake where they congregate and breed this time of year. After dinner we drove back to our campsite and had a much needed shower with my solar shower. The owl came again during the night.

Monday, July 2, 2007, the Pinyon Jays woke me as usual with their noisy chatter. They are very gregarious. When I got out of the tent a Common Nighthawk was circling overhead. After breakfast we drove just north of Lee Vining on Highway 395 to the famous and wonderful Lundy Canyon, one of the best hikes in all of the Sierra. This amazing hike follows Lundy Creek as it meanders over three waterfalls, passes numerous wildflowers, and many birds and butterflies. I wanted to get a picture of a Calliope Hummingbird which is fairly common in the Sierra but of the six or seven we saw none would stay put long enough for me to photograph, so no pictures of this darling little hummer. After the first waterfall we walked through a field of Monk’s Hood mixed in with yarrow, stickseed, Pride of the Mountain, Swamp Onion, Monument Plant, and Scarlet Gilia. We took the trail to the last waterfall at the scree which goes up to Helen Lake in 20 Lakes Basin but we decided not to climb it this year and turned back instead. The scree was full of Colville’s Columbine, Western Rose root, White heather, Red Heather, Rock Fringe, Indian Paintbrush, Meadow Paintbrush, and Applegate Paintbrush. At the second waterfall we stopped to have lunch. As we were eating a MacGillivray’s Warbler started singing. I was thinking to myself, “hmm that MacGillivray’s is very close” when suddenly it perched on top of a pine tree right in front of us. This was pretty unusual for this elusive bird. A Calliope also zipped by. After lunch we headed back down the mountain and at the beaver pond we found a Red-breasted Sapsucker and an American Dipper. We stopped at the Mono Lake Visitor Center on the way back and saw Cliff Swallows feeding their chicks right on the side of the center. One poor baby had fallen out and was just sitting on the ground I’m sure to be eaten by a hawk or other predator later. We had dinner at the June Lake picnic area and then retired to our cute little private campsite. I was sound asleep when a pack of coyotes began to howl. I was terrified because the alpha sounded just like a crazed person. Here we were two ladies camping alone in the wilderness with a crazy person on the loose. Weird how your mind conjures the craziest thoughts sometimes—it was just coyotes.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007 we drove a short way to the June Lake Loop off of Highway 395 to the Walker Lake turnoff which we took up and up 10 miles to the Walker Lake Trailhead in the Inyo National Forest. I drove slowly on the dirt road on account of the flat spare and in doing so saw a sapsucker flying. We stopped and were treated to a Red-breasted Sapsucker feeding her chicks. On this incredibly beautiful trail which is seven miles roundtrip to lower Sardine Lake we only saw two people all day. The trail first drops down several hundred feet to Walker Lake another stocked lake which attracts hordes of anglers before flattening out through a meadow. There were very few wildflowers at this low elevation. However, the trail is gruesome in its intense elevation gain thereafter gaining 2700 feet in just three miles. We were gasping for breath as we ascended but were rewarded with awesome views back down to Walker Lake and Mono Lake in the distance. As we gained elevation we started to pass through more and more wildflowers and encountered many birds. After ascending about half way we came to an aspen grove that was full of birds one of which had us stumped. It sounded like a Cordilleran flycatcher but that would be rare. I never could locate it and just held my camera up to record its strange song instead. Upon further review I can only surmise that it is some strange song of a Gray Flycatcher and not the much rarer (for this area) Cordilleran. Also in the aspen grove we saw Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, and many other birds. We were running out of gas when we finally came to a waterfall at the top of which was pretty Lower Sardine Lake. We had lunch beside the lake and then continued around the lake where a creek flowed into it. The creek was lined with willows and fields of wildflowers, Davidson's Penstemon, columbine, yarrow, paintbrush, larkspur, monkeyflower, cinquefoil, St. John’s Wort, Swamp Onion, and many others. We were tired but decided to continue up to Upper Sardine Lake. As we continued to gain elevation we saw more wildflowers shieldleaf, Labrador tea, Elephant’s Head, one lone Timberline Phacelia, Western Roseroot, Wooly Sunflower, Oval-leaved Eriogonum, Meadow Penstemon, Davidson’s Penstemon, Bridge’s Penstemon, Rydberg's Penstemon, and on and on. The flowers were attracting many butterflies as well and we saw Mourning Cloak, Northern Cloudywing, Milbert’s Tortoiseshell, Sara’s Orangetip, Western Tailed-blue, Melissa Blue, Lupine Blue, Blue Copper, Sierra Sulphur, Field Crescent, some type of Fritillary, Clodious Parnassian, and a checkerspot. After wetting our heads in the lake we headed back down the trail. We stopped at a waterfall and found an American Dipper in the water. At the end of this wonderful hike we decided to just go back to our campsite for the rest of the evening. It was very hot that day and the solar shower scalded us as we showered. We then enjoyed a relaxing evening with the Pinyon Jays, Common Nighthawks, and Violet-green Swallows, and as evening fell bats and stars and planets. During the night the coyote pack returned and howled but this time exhaustion took over and I slept through it.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007, we got up early and broke camp. We stopped at the South Tufa Reserve at Mono Lake and walked down to the water. A California Ground Squirrel sunned on a rock. There were Sage Thrasher, Vesper Sparrow, Brewer’s Sparrow, California Gull, Common Nighthawk, and Violet-green Swallows to enjoy on the boardwalk plus the outstanding views of tufa in the morning sun. Next we drove up Tioga Pass into Yosemite National Park to the Porcupine Creek trailhead on Tioga Road. We were planning to take it 14 miles round trip to the top of Upper Yosemite Falls before driving back to San Francisco. In order to expedite the hike I left my binoculars behind and only carried my video camera, water, and lunch. The trail was harder than I remembered it going down quite a bit to the falls. Along the way I saw the back side of a Black-backed Woodpecker flying away and Susan spotted a Black-tailed Deer. There were numerous fritillary butterflies wichh I merely admired in my haste but did stop long enough to get a photo of this Pine Drop plant. At about the half way mark the trail crossed over a creek which was full of flowers and many different fritillary butterflies. I was surprised to see Western Azalea still blooming and found one beautiful Alpine Lily. Near the falls we also saw another Williamson’s Sapsucker and a Red-breasted Sapsucker right on the trail. As we approached the waterfall we were treated to magnificent views of the valley and Half Dome. The granite was dotted with Stone Crop. We descended down to the falls, over the creek, and up to the viewpoint. There was still a little bit of water flowing in the upper falls but it was hard to see from the fence. It was time to hussle back anyway. It was tough hiking uphill most of the way at that clip. I stopped only to film two White-headed Woodpeckers and take a photo of a Police Car Moth at the creek. It was very hot and dusty but we made it back to the car in just 5 hours 50 minutes—not bad for an old lady. It was the hottest day of the year it turned out, topping 105 degrees in Oakdale but we soon left that behind as we returned to my home in the foggy city. I hate the fog and I can't wait to get back to the mountains which will be very soon but not soon enough.