I and the Bird #114

OK, I'm going to keep this simple. We've had lots of entries for IATB #114 from all over the world, especially from North America, of course! Please click on the links and visit these blogs. There is plenty of fascinating information, excellent photos and amusing anecdotes.

North America

Winter visitors – Part 1

One of the great things about birding in North America is the seasonal changes. Jason of xenogere evocatively depicts the arrival of winter in Dallas.

It Was Worth The Drive to Brampton (Tolls and All)

Bob of Tales of the Nishiki takes on a quick twitch in suburban southern Ontario for a very lost Phainopepla. The neighbourhood must have been quite bemused!

How to Photograph a Tern

Somewhere in NJ, Laura got some super shots of a cooperative tern. She gives us some useful lessons on how to get good shots of critters that could care less about being photographed...

Another visit from a young hawk

Foovay had a visit to her barn from a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Looks like a very obliging fellow! He poses for photographs.

The Birds They Are A' Feedin'

Connie's Birds O' The Morning is all about the outdoors in Colorado, which sounds pretty nice to me! This post is about one of my favourite things - a mixed feeding flock. There are some neat pictures of some neat birds, all doing their thing. In South East Asia squirrels often join mixed feeding flocks. Has anyone ever heard of that in North America?

Lake Oconee: Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis)

Anybody Seen My Focus JSK finds a lovely Western Grebe in Georgia...

A flight of redwings

Looks like Wanderin' Weeta, alias Susannah, is in a reflective mood with reminiscences of a remarkable flock of Redwing Blackbirds on a summery day in Delta in British Columbia.

Bird Photography? Yes, I Can. So Can You.

Laura hones her photography skills with great success at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival.

East Tennessee November Birds

from the Greenbelt. Some very nice birds in East Tennessee...

Battle Creek Wildlife Area

The Birders Report brings us a report of birds and other wildlife from a neighbourhood patch in California.

Northern Mockingbird

Alison at IBIS looks at the vocal gymnastics of the Northern Mockingbird.

X-Treme Wigeon

Aimophila Adventures brings us an interesting discussion of individual variation within species.

Soaring Survivors: Pelican-Watching in San Francisco

Brown Pelicans make a comeback in San Fransisco.

Loons, owls, and hawks in Missouri

Search and Serendipity's David Ringer reports on a trip to Missouri.

A Plethora of Black-Chinned Hummingbirds

Imagine a summer where 40 or more black-chinned hummingbirds occupy 8 high capacity feeders and a winter that supports a resident population of 25.  It's a winter operation that requires at least 20 quarts of nectar per week to keep a steady wing beat and has been growing for 15 years.  Welcome to a California backyard!

Asia

may the Great Bird of the Galaxy bless your planet

travels in Thailand...

Frogmouths, leech socks, rain and puttu

MNS group from Madras in India visit Thattekad and the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary with lots of leeches, spiders, birds, lush green trees, flowing rivers and butterflies.

Europe

"A Year On the Wing" Enthralls

ARJ of Science on Tap reviews a book for us. Apparently it is quite good. But do read the review for yourself. I wasn't quite as enamoured with the sample paragraph as ARJ is!

Central America

Still around... thorntails and others

Jan Axel's Blog's latest post is all about hummingbirds at Cerro Azul, east of Panama City.

The Pacific

March: Shearwaters to Tiritiri Matangi

Andy Gibb (Twitching With Transformation) reports on a trip to an offshore reserve near Aukland, the capital of New Zealand. Three shearwaters on the short boat trip over! 

Australia 

Darter swallows up slippery catch

A fantastic series of photos as a Darter catches dinner! From Tyto Tony in Ingham, Australia.

The Indian Ocean

Recording Mauritius: Birding the Black Gorges

Now Mauritius is a pretty interesting place and the Black River Gorges National Park is a particularly beautiful setting.  Jon Erickson reports on Round Robin - the Cornell Blog of Ornithology on a close encounter with the superb Mauritius Kestrel.

 

The Carribean

Birding Jamaica’s Blue Mountains

Mike of 10,000 Birds take us to Jamaica in search of some neat endemics and wonderful scenery.

Critically Threatened Birds

Extinct Birds Don't Count

 

A very thought-provoking post from Gunnar Engblom's always-excellent blog. Read this!

The next IATB is at xenogere on 17 December 2009...

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may the Great Bird of the Galaxy bless your planet

a few weeks in Thailand...

I think our planet has been blessed with Thailand! (Amongst many other places, I hasten to add...) I'm just back from leading a tour all over the country, starting with Khok Kam and Pak Thale on the Gulf of Siam in search of Spoonbilled Sandpiper, Nordmann's Greenshank and lots of other great shorebirds and waterbirds.

 

 Asian Openbill en route to Kaeng Krachan

(we were en route, not the openbill...at least I don't think he was...)

Asian Openbills are very common all around the greater Bangkok area. They are plentiful in the rice padi and often have huge roosts in the grounds of the multitudinous temples that dot the countryside.

  

Spoonie was playing hard to get at Khok Kam, despite a very thorough search. After much searching amongst all the little brown stints at Pak Thale, I eventually spotted one with a little spoon-shaped bill though. Just as well because I was starting to go cross-eyed!

 

Spoonbilled Sandpiper

We then moved on to Kaeng Krachan, one of my favourite places in Thailand. It's a large national park located near the border with Burma to the west of Bangkok. It protects a large expanse of evergreen forest with some drier forest in the lower areas. This trip we got lucky with two or three fruiting figs that were attracting a plethora of fabulous birds and primates. We stayed at a new lodge Ban Maka located near(ish) to the park entrance. It is laid back and friendly - I highly recommend it. Beware of the vicious hornbill though!

 

 Dusky Leaf Monkey @ Kaeng Krachan

From Kaeng Krachan to Khao Yai, one of Thailand's most popular national park. Unfortunately it was a weekend and the weather was terrible but there was some good birding nevertheless. Blue Pitta was a highlight!

Abbott's Babbler @ Khao Yai 

 

Sambar Deer @ Khao Yai

The butterflies of Thailand are outstanding and plentiful. This isn't the best time of year for them, I think that's in June or July, but there are still many beautiful ones to be seen.

 

Marbled Mapwing @ Khao Yai

 

White-browed Scimitar-Babbler

There are a number of excellent birding and natural history sites in the north west. Doi Chiang Dao is Thailand's third highest mountain, part of an isolated and spectacular limestone massif surrounding the town of Chiang Dao.  

 

from the top of Doi Chiang Dao 

Two star birds are to be found on Doi Chiang Dao. We found the spectacular Giant Nuthatch without too much difficulty but had less luck with Mrs. Hume's Pheasant...

 

Giant Nuthatch @ Doi Chiang Dao

Doi Ang Kang is a scenically spectacular area on the border with Burma with a mixture of habitats from farmland to gardens to forest patches.

 

Speckled Piculet @ Doi Ang Khang

 

the view to Burma

 

Doi Lang

Doi Lang was a new area for me and I was very impressed. This peak is Thailand's second highest and it is a beautiful, quiet and peaceful place overlooking Burma. The birdlife is very exciting with many large, bewildering mixed feeding flocks. It is chilly in the mornings but that doesn't seem to worry the thronging pestilent biting insects! That's the only drawback...

 

Hemipteran sp.

 

Chestnut-tailed Minla @ Doi Inthanon

 

Doi Inthanon National Park is possibly Thailand's most famous. Thailand's highest peak lies at the centre of the park and as one travels from the lowlands to the peak, the consequent changes in the vegetation and avifauna are fascinating. There is quite a large hilltribes population living within the park with all the attendant problems but, despite this, it is a fabulous natural history experience.

  

 Green-tailed Sunbird @ Doi Inthanon

rural Thailand 

 

Water Buffalo 

 

Dark-sided Thrush @ Mr. Daeng's, Doi Inthanon 

For the last part of the tour, we flew south to the town of Krabi in southern Thailand. Krabi has a large expanse of old-growth mangrove forest on its doorstep and a boat trip through these is a must. Brown-winged Kingfisher is happily common but Mangrove Pitta requires a combination of luck and timing, neither of which we had this time! The nearby Khao Pra Bang Khram Wildlife Sanctuary, otherwise known as Khao Nor Chuchi is famous for its population of Gurney's Pitta. This of course was our main target here and after some initial worries that we were going to miss it, we had absolutely brilliant looks at a stunning male bird that walked obligingly into a beam of sunlight. Just gorgeous!

 

Javan Frogmouth @ Khao Nor Chuchi

The nightbirding was also very good and while Javan Frogmouth was very welcome, a superb Oriental Bay Owl was the undoubted star of the evening and an excellent way to finish off a very good trip.

If you'd like to read more about Thailand and its birds, take a look at Nick Upton's excellent website Thaibirding.

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is this the best place in Australia?

Lamington National Park in Queensland

OK, so that's a contentious issue, I know but it is one of my favourite places in Australia. The forest is just beautiful, the wildlife is approachable and exciting, and best of all it is almost tropical! The general area is a World Heritage Site - the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves. It's very close to Brisbane so readily accessible. The plateau is a huge one of upland subtropical rainforest and remnants of stunning Nothophagus or Antarctic Beech, some of which are said to be over 5000 years old.

King Parrot

On my recent Australia tour, co-leading with Jeri Langham, we spent a few days at Lamington in search of the New England Tablelands endemics and other regional goodies, as well as any other mammals, reptiles or other critters that deigned to grace us with their presence. Lamington never disappoints and we found most of the specialities plus many others.

 

Regent Bowerbird

Regent Bowerbird comes into the feeders at O'Reilly's Guesthouse but I personally like to see them in the forest just doing their own thing. The female is a dullish, scalloped green but she chooses to mate with the most colourful male with the most stylish bower (not to be confused with the much more cryptic nest). This is classic sexual selection where the female drives the evolution of the species to more and more outlandish extremes. This is taken to the extreme in birds of paradise, of course. Maybe I'll do a post on that particular fascinating topic some time...

 

White-browed Scrubwren

These scrubwrens are very common and confiding at Lamington. So much so that my photos should really be a lot better than this!

Yellow-throated Scrubwren

 

Eastern Yellow Robin

 

male Southern Logrunner

Logrunners are very approachable around O'Reilly's. They are nearly always seen on the ground where they scrape through the leaf litter in search of edible invertebrates. They're usually seen in male female pairs and belong in the Orthonychidae family with Chowchilla. The family is characterised by the big feet and spines at the end of the tail, amongst other features.

 

female Southern Logrunner (note the reddish bib)

Eastern Yellow Robin

OK, so the robin is very common in eastern Australia but they are particularly photogenic at Lamington. They will pose for you any chance they get.

So is this the best place in Australia? Hard to say but it's sure up there in my opinion....

Linked to Bird Photography Weekly #65 at Birdfreak.com

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Bornean Pygmy Elephants

Well, these are some old photos but being in Thailand, particularly in Khao Yao National Park where there is so much evidence of elephants around (namely huge piles of dung!), has led me to think a bit about these fabulous beasties.  These are pictures I've taken of elephants in Sabah over the last few years. Until fairly recently, it was thought that elephants were introduced into Borneo a couple of hundred years ago and that they are feral.

Some molecular studies in 2003 showed that the Bornean elephant was genetically distinct from all the mainland forms and that they have probably been in Borneo for at least 300, 000 years. The Bornean subspecies Elephas maximus borneensis is smaller, has a very much longer tail and relatively straight tusks.

 

There is still a quite large population of Bornean Pygmy Elephants on the Kinabatangan River in East Sabah and they are seen quite regularly by visitors to this excellent reserve. That said, the pressure from encroachment by the ever-spreading palm oil plantations must be affecting this keystone species, not to mention all the other remarkable creatures in the area.

 

Personally, I think that when you see groups of over sixty elephants on the banks of the river, it's indicative of something being slightly awry. Even so, they are truly remarkable animals and it's a special privilege to be able to spend some time with them... Hope that they can live long and prosper!

 

 

 

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a photo essay: some Asian frogmouths & nightjars

 Palawan Frogmouth @ St. Paul's National Park

 

Pale-headed Frogmouth @ Kerinci-Seblat National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia

Sri Lankan Frogmouth @ Thatekkad Nature Reserve, Kerala, India

 Sri Lanka Frogmouth @ Kitulgala, Sri Lanka

Heinrich's Nightjar (otherwise known as Satanic or Diabolical Nightjar) @ Lore Linda, Sulawesi, Indonesia

 

Jungle Nightjar @ Mudumalai National Park, South India

Papuan Frogmouth @ Daintree River
(yes, I know it's not Asia but I like the photo!)

Savanna Nightjar @ Baluran National Park, East Java, Indonesia

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