Birds of Panama and Costa Rica

My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Panama and Costa Rica with Lindblad/National Geographic.  We were aboard the National Geographic Sea Lion, a relatively small cruise ship that holds about 62 passengers and crew I would estimate at something over 20.  This is a photo of the ship taken early in the voyage when our weather was overcast with real and threatened rain, even though this is supposed to be the dry season. 

On our forays from the ship we used Zodiacs which would usually be loaded with ten people.  In some cases we did Zodiac tours and in other cases we were landed on the beach for hiking, kayaking, swimming or other activities.  This was on the first full day of our voyage and our first Zodiac tour around Barro Colorado Island... and it rained on us. The weather improved significantly on the Pacific side of our cruise and so did my photographs!  (Trust me on this... I obtained some spectacular photographs!)  On this particular tour we saw a couple of small crocodiles on logs, Howler monkeys, toucans, an Osprey and other birds. 

If I am remembering things correctly, this is a Social flycatcher.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to ever get a photo of the bird in a natural setting.  There were also Great kiskadees in this area.  

This was our introduction to the Magnificent frigatebirds which usually were around on our entire voyage. 

And another photo of a Magnificent frigatebird... 

Birds of March's Point

I took the following photos last month while wistfully waiting for a Snow bunting to appear. 


It was a fairly windy day and for either that reason or the fact that there was some small food source floating on the top of the water, there were a lot of gulls moving along the shoreline.  On November 17, the day that these photos were taken, there were about 20 Bonaparte's gulls sprinkled among Glaucous-winged gulls and Mew gulls.  It was the only day of about 7-8 that I observed them along the Point. 

I at first thought that I was photographing a Brown-headed cowbird when I took this photo but I'm now considering that this might be a female Brewer's blackbird.  I'm making that judgement based on the shape of the bird's bill.   If you have an opinion please let me know. 

This is a male Brewer's blackbird as told by the yellow eye...

Yard Bird and March's Point Birds

I tried for more photos of the Snow Buntings on March's Point this afternoon but was unsuccessful in even seeing them.  There were a lot of cars out and a lot of people outside of the cars and judging by my limited prior experience I think that both were a put-off to the buntings.  However I did have a fairly successful day of photography, thanks to the beautiful weather we had. 

This Fox sparrow was photographed in my yard taking a bath...

 

There were two Bald eagles along the west side of the March's Point Road and this was the more photographable of the two...

 

A Double-crested cormorant making its way back to its roost over on one of the islands...

 A group of male Mallards following behind a female.  I edited the female out of the photo.

Snow Buntings on March's Point

I've spent about ten hours spread over 6+ days attempting to see and then photograph the Snow bunting that was reported on March's Point a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't find the bird myself but was alerted to it's presence by emails from other birders.  By yesterday I had given up but was at March's Point searching for gulls, waterfowl and shorebirds to photograph when I flushed the buntings.  It was a complete surprise.  The original report was for one bunting and I found a flock of five! 

I came tantalizingly close to obtaining a photograph of the birds yesterday but they flushed as I was out of the car mounting my camera on my monopod... and I didn't think the birds could see me!  I did manage a photograph... four of the five buntings, backlit and sitting on the edge of one of the tanks over 150 yards away. 

I returned this morning just after breakfast and waited for over an hour for the birds to show again.  I was frustrated but patient.  I watched a pair of Bald eagles work to successfully capture a waterfowl in the water and was watching the only one of the eagles I could see when I became aware of some movement on top of the berm.  Closer examination with binoculars revealed the flock of Snow buntings.  Over the next hour and a half or so they made about three trips to the side of the road, returning each time to the top of the large tanks or the top of the berm.  On only one of their trips was I successful at photographing them, but I got what I consider really good photographs of the birds.  I have to say that these are beautiful birds, even when not in breeding plumage! 

So I appreciate being notified of this photo opportunity... here are the Snow buntings photographed on our own Fidalgo Island...

Fir Island Birds

On to Fir Island! 

As I drove down Rawlin's Road I saw a single bird on a wire which I presumed at a great distance was a shrike.  It flushed very early into a field and spent a few seconds hovering, but not quite enough time for me to unholster the camera.  When I came back I found the shrike had flown across a field and was now on a side road.  I anticipated having the same problem with flushing again.  The bird did flush, but when it returned to the wire it did so immediately beside my vehicle!  These kinds of things just don't normally happen.  I snapped a lot of photos all of which are probably the best shrike photos I have, but the entire time I was lamenting that there wasn't a natural perch within several hundred yards of us.  I wondered if we couldn't pay some of these farmers to place a snag or two a few feet into their fields.?  

 Later on Fir Island near the Jensen Access I found a pair of Common Ravens.  I was able to park fairly close to them because they were scavenging the remains of a bird that was in a field.  Check out the beak on this bird! 

 

And a little lesson for beginning birders.  Notice the diamond-shaped tail on this raven.  Crows have a fan-shaped tail with a rounded end and this is one of the best ways to tell these two birds apart when they are flying overhead.  

  

On my way home I noticed an interesting sunset so I stopped my car, retrieved it from the back where I had place it for safe-keeping while shopping, and took this photo of the sunset.  

Promises, Promises

We've all heard the common saying that promises are made to be broken.  One of these days I'm going to learn not to make promises about future posts on this blog!  It was my stated intention on my last post to present photos of some of the birds of March's Point.  However, we had a very nice day today and I, being unfettered by family or obligations, went on a photo expedition to Fir Island.  Since I consider the day's photography more interesting than March's Point, I'm going to show you photographs of today's travels instead. 

I had made it less than a half mile from my home when I encountered this Common loon in the Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes.  This is as close as I've been able to get to one in several years.  When I saw the bird I quickly pulled over to the side of the road and equipped my 200-400mm zoom lens with my 1.7X tele-converter which almost doubles the size of the image.  Given the size of the image sensor in my camera I'm told by a friend, who is a professional photographer, that this gives me the 35mm equivalent of over 1000mm.  But so much for the technical information. 

So back to the Common loon... 

This was probably the friendliest loon I've ever encountered.  As I was leaving it waved goodbye to me several times with its foot!   I had to take a photograph since I know there are a lot of Doubting Thomas' out there, especially when it comes to any of my stories! 

Just before crossing to Fir Island I found one of several groups of swans not far from the road.  The lighting was excellent and I took a good many photos of them but I won't bore you with swan photos.  However I did catch this little spat between this adult and juvenile Trumpeter swan.  

Yard Update

I mentioned that those last photos of American robins in the madrone trees were taken on a very cloudy day while it was raining.  Since then I've had a few periods of better weather and the opportunity to again photograph the robins in the madrone trees.  These photos are substantially better as far as quality is concerned so I'm posting them too. 

They robins typically land on a branch and lean to pluck a berry from the cluster.  However as time goes on the easier berries to reach have either fallen off of the tree or have already been eaten. 

This leads to leaning as far as possible, often losing one's balance and having to snatch a berry on the fly.

If you're good at the technique you are rewarded with a berry!

We've had several more influxes of American robins where there are about twenty in the yard feeding and utilizing the bird baths.  And again, that number doesn't include many other robins in the general area.  

As far as yard happenings, our California quail have returned after an absence of several weeks.  Midway through raising this season's brood the adult female disappeared and the male seemed to be rearing the young ones on his own.  Unfortunately we had an imbalance in sexes with this year's hatchlings and we are now left with a covey consisting of four males and one female.  This doesn't bode especially well for the breeding season next year. 

A while back I posted a photo of a Slate-colored junco we had in the yard.  I've been keeping a watchful eye since but haven't spotted the bird again.  I was really lucky to have been sitting in the yard with my camera that day when the bird made its appearance.  

I stepped out the south door today and when I did an accipiter flushed from our yew tree.  I don't think most of the birds realized that it had sneaked into the yard because they were still in the area until it flew.  This is at least the second time we know that the accipiter has been hunting from the yew tree. 

Coming next... birds of March's Point.  

A Yard Tale on an Inclement Weather Day

Sometimes you just get lucky and the subject for a post just falls into your lap!  Today was one of those days...

As those of you know who live on the island, we had a bit of moisture blow in this morning... not long after I correctly decided it might be too risky for my morning walk.  I was sitting at my computer in the late morning when I spied a Varied thrush in the area beyond what we define as 'yard'.  This was our second sighting of the fall. 

I noticed at the time that there were an unusual number of American robins in the yard... probably 20-30 with at least that many more in the surrounding area.  I also noticed that they were in the madrone tree that I've mentioned previously and that they were eating the berries.  It was raining but I decided I had to try for some photos, so I retrieved my camera, went out on the deck beside my office, and despite the rain and overcast began taking photos. 

I watched as the robins ate the berries and lamented that this might be my last chance for photos of the madrone berries with birds so I had better make of the opportunity what I could.  Since the most common technique was for the robins to fly from a limb, snatch a berry and keep going I was only able to get one photo of a robin with a berry in its mouth, and it wasn't a particularly good one.  So you won't see it here. 

While I was watching and photographing the robins a very bright (considering the lighting conditions) Varied thrush flew to the pond area and I was able to get several photos of it before it disappeared. 

I was taking photos fast and furiously when a good portion of the birds decided to fly out of the yard.  It wasn't exactly an explosion so I thought that it probably wasn't an accipiter... but I was wrong!  As I puzzled over the birds' relatively sudden departure an accipiter landed in the top of our dead pine tree, having flown there (by my wife's account) from the yew tree on the south side of our house. 

There was nothing left in the yard other than the accipiter so I began taking photos of it.  As many of the birds seem to do, it realized that I had a clear path to it for my photo so it moved just a few steps to one side so that a small, otherwise insignificant twig would be between it and the camera lens.  Ah... the trials and tribulations of a nature photographer! 

Unfortunately these photos aren't of very high quality... heavy overcast, rain which you can see n some of the photos and graininess caused by having to push my ISO beyond what I consider tolerable limits.  But I'm not giving up the opportunity to tell this story and provide some kind of photographic documentation! 

Yard Update... But No Photos

 Unfortunately my photographic activity in the yard is going downhill fast.  We have very tall fir trees to the south of us and the winter sun is not clearing the trees, so our yard is almost always in perpetual shade.  I have one small window of 20-30 minutes when my watercourse is illuminated (on rare sunny days) but I find that the intermittent bird activity usually doesn't coincide with that window.

Golden-crowned kinglets continue to visit the berry clusters on the madrona trees, searching for insects in the clusters.  Sometimes it's difficult to separate out the kinglets from all the other bird activity but I saw kinglets last Thursday and again yesterday (Sunday). 

On Friday we had another unusual visitor to the yard... a Townsend's warbler.  We had an influx two to three weeks ago but I figured they had all moved on when this straggler arrived.  It too was searching for insects in the madrona trees. 

Yesterday, just before dark, I saw a relatively large bird land in one of our fir trees in the front yard.  Just as I was acquiring the bird in my binoculars it flew towards me and over the house, presumably flying to the large madrona tree located immediately behind our house.  My initial reaction when the bird landed in the fir tree was that it was probably an American robin, but just as it flew I saw the marking on its breast that would indicate that it was a Varied thrush.  We've had quite a few robins over the last couple of weeks and I've been trying to keep a sharp eye out... this is the first Varied thrush that I've seen this year. 

I continue to see House finches eating berries in the madrona trees.  I'm running out of time for photographs as the berries are gradually fading and and either being eaten or dropping to the ground.  A mystery to me is why the House finches seem to enjoy the berries but the House sparrows, a very similar bird, don't seem to eat them.  In fact I very seldom see a House sparrow in the madrona trees at all. 

And speaking of House sparrows, for several months now I've let my large sunflower feeders stay empty in a fruitless effort to encourage the sparrows to go elsewhere.  Now that cold weather is back I've filled one of the feeders to benefit the Dark-eyed juncos and clinging birds.  In the meantime the juncos have learned how to access my feeders which discriminate against non-clinging birds.  In the case of the juncos I'm sure they learned the trick from the sparrows. 

Over the past two to three weeks most of our woodpeckers (Downys, Hairys and Northern flickers), which in warmer weather visited our feeder many times a day, seem to have moved on.  I think we're having an occasional visit by one of the Downy woodpeckers. 

Ask, and It Shall Be Given to You!

You read about it right here yesterday and today you've got a sighting and photo to go with it! 

Earlier today one of my neighbors wrote me an email and alerted me that they had had a window kill of a White-throated sparrow.  She also had seen a junco with strange white markings and she wanted me to be alert for the sparrow species and this individual junco. 

I had just read her email and was responding when I looked out my office window (so glad that it's a home/retired office window instead of a working office window!) and I saw Golden-crowned kinglets in the yard.  I quickly closed my communication and went for my camera.  By the time I got to the yard the kinglets were gone and there was a surprising lack of bird population.  However, since I had written about juncos only the previous day but hadn't furnished any photos I decided I would sit awhile and see if something might show up. 

I spread a little 'habitat enhancer' on the ground and a few Oregon juncos showed up and I managed just three photos.  While I was concentrating on getting a photo of one of the juncos on the ground there was a little activity and I suddenly realized that we had a new arrival on the scene... my friend the Slate-colored junco that has been here the last four (now five) winters!  In reality you realize that I have no idea whether or not this is the same bird, but I've never seen more than one of the Slate-colored juncos at one time.  And in line with my previous observations, these two cousins weren't happy to see each other. 

So without further words I give you two Oregon juncos and one Slate-colored junco!  Welcome, friend! 

More from the Yard

Two, three, five… twenty-five.  Beginning several weeks ago the Oregon juncos began returning to our yard after their spring/summer breeding absence.  We’re now overrun with juncos.  This year, for the first time, we had a pair that stayed quite late in the spring and I thought they might breed in the area, but eventually they too left. 

While normally ground feeders, several of the juncos have learned and are quite willing to access my hanging feeders which discriminate against non-clinging birds, so I see occasional trips to the suet, peanut and sunflower feeders.  I enjoy having the juncos but because of their numbers they often interfere with me being able to spot other species in the yard. 

For the past four winters I’ve had a single Slate-colored junco as an occasional visitor to the yard.  What seems strange to me is even though this bird is closely related to the Oregon junco, I am always able to distinguish it in a crowd by its behavior.  It doesn’t mingle with the other juncos but flies in, quickly eats a few seeds and then makes a quick exit.  I have yet to see a Slate-colored junco in the yard this winter and if I haven’t seen and photographed it soon I’ll try to retrieve an old photograph and post it on this blog. 

We have several madrone trees in the yard but only one provides good photographic opportunities.  This year the north half of the tree has an abundant crop of berries and several of the birds are benefiting, including some birds that don’t eat berries.  I’ve seen Townsend warblers, chickadees and Golden-crowned kinglets searching the berry clusters for insects.  The tree also attracts berry-eaters, but instead of the robins and Varied thrushes I’ve observed in the past the House finches seem to be fixated on the berries this year.  I have an excellent observation/photographic location on the deck outside my office, but going out on the deck has thus far alarmed the House finches and they fly over the house to a tree in the back which doesn’t offer me good photographic opportunities.  I’m now getting worried that the berries will be degraded or eaten before I get the chance to obtain photographs.  If I manage any good photos you’ll see at least one of them in this blog.

I’ve also been examining our robins closely.  At some point this winter we’ll start having occasional visits from Varied thrushes and I want to be sure and know when they return.  And a thought until my next post… there’s no bird that enjoys a bath quite as much as an American robin!  

Out of Yard Excursion

I've been somewhat remiss about posting to the blog for the past couple of weeks or so, mainly due to the lack of interesting yard birds and the weather that hasn't exactly encouraged photography. 

On Monday I made a little excursion to Washington Park to try to photograph some birds in a bush displaying beautiful fall colors.  When I arrived I found the birds in the bush, but it was a traveling band of Golden-crowned kinglets and they were on the move out of the area.  I thought about trying to follow them but I the reason I had come was for the backdrop (which they had left) and the weather was deteriorating and making photography much less appealing due to the lack of light.  I stayed around for awhile photographing instead a chipmunk, single female Harlequin duck and Marbled murrelets off of Green Point.  It was somewhat disappointing. 

On the way home I decided to swing by the Skyline Marina area and discovered at least two Killdeer in one of the parking lots.  I took a good many photos, two of which I've included here. 

One of the Killdeer decided to take a bath in one of the pools of water in the parking lot.  I realized that I had seen and photographed a lot of Killdeer around puddles but I had never seen one taking a bath.  Unfortunately this one decided to take a bath immediately adjacent to a discarded plastic bottle which I didn't want in the photo.  It eventually moved over a little and I was able to get some photos, but I think the best were to be had in its original position and posture.  As I watched the Killdeer bathe I was struck by how active the back part of the bird could be while keeping the head and neck area almost perfectly still.  I took these photos at about 1/200th of a second and the back and wings of the Killdeer are blurred but the head is in focus. 

Overwhelmed with Yard Birds!

I had a rather stellar hour and a half in the yard yesterday.  It began when I was sitting at my computer in my office and glanced out the window just in time to see what appeared to be a yellow bird going down through the canopy of our Golden Chain tree towards our watercourse.  (Unfortunately, through either age or false hopes many of the birds I see moving these days appear yellow.)  I decided to take a chance and rushed for my camera downstairs, then crept outside until I had a good view of the watercourse and other bird baths in the yard.  I had to wait a few minutes, but eventually a warbler emerged from the tree.  My guess is that it is a female Yellow warbler, but I can't rule out a Wilson's warbler.  I obtained photos of it not only in the tree but also along the watercourse.  It was a great start to a very productive photographic period. 

During the period I sat in the yard I had 5-6 appearances by Orange-crowned warblers, including two in the watercourse at the same time.  It's the first time I can ever remember having two warblers in the yard at the same time, but that's probably because once I see one I become so focused (pun intended) on it that I ignore just about all other bird activity!  One of the warblers brought some sort of colorful insect to the ground and spent about five minutes attempting to eat all of it.  I think I took 39 photos of it and retained 24 of them!  (You can't believe how difficult it is to discard good warbler photos, so I'll be having a sale on them later in the week!) 

 

Here's a more serene pose by an Orange-crowned warbler perched over the watercourse. 

 I've included this photo I took of House sparrows for a special reason.  I've found it difficult to obtain photos of a male and female House sparrow together.  In my yard the sexes are almost always separated, even though there may be well over a dozen waiting to access the same feeder.  While I can use photo-processing software to display a male and female side-by-side, it's nice to have a real photo of the two of them together. 

 Finally, for this posting, I had a cooperative Anna's hummingbird that seemed very interested in the water as long as other birds were enjoying themselves in it.  It hovered just over the water on several occasions, letting me obtain in-flight photos at a relatively slow shutter speed of 1/200th of a second.  It's not a very good photo, but click on it to enlarge it and examine the details of the bird's feathers. 

 And finally, here's a photo of a Song sparrow enjoying the watercourse...

The following birds made appearances during the time I was in the yard:

(presumably) Yellow warbler 

Orange-crowned warbler 

Golden-crowned kinglets

Ruby-crowned kinglets

Golden-crowned sparrows (at least two)

Song sparrow

House sparrows

House finches

Northern flicker

Hairy woodpecker

Downy woodpecker

California quail (five males and one female)

American robins

Dark-eyed juncos, Oregon race

Chestnut-backed chickadees

Black-capped chickadees

Red-breasted nuthatches

Brown creeper

Spotted towhees

Anna’s hummingbird (which hovered above the watercourse and allowed me to take photos) 

European starlings

I've been on a lot of outings where I didn't see as much, and this was all in the yard and I managed to photograph most of these species!  

The tally for 1.5 hours of bird observation/photography:  178 photos of which I retained exactly half!   Add about three hours for processing/cataloging images and at least another hour for writing/composition and you can see what this hobby does to a retired person's discretionary time! 

Continuing My Spring Birding Trip to the Southwest

Continuing with my spring birding trip across the Southwest...

I encountered this male Western bluebird in Bryce Canyon (Utah) National Park. 

Immediately after the Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico, the Bear River NWR (Utah) is probably my favorite refuge for photography.  The following photos are from the Bear River NWR which, by the way, has a beautiful new visitors' center.

Shorebirds are one of my weaknesses as far as bird identification is concerned, and I don't know whether this is a Whimbrel or a Long-billed curlew.  I'm guessing a curlew.  If any of you viewers have a definitive opinion please let me know! 

After having just stated my weakness for shorebirds, I'm going out on a (short) limb and identifying this as a Spotted sandpiper.   I'm very happy with this image and I have several others that are almost as good. 

Leaving (thankfully) the shorebirds, I am proud to make a Lark sparrow identification on this next bird.