Quito Botanical Gardens 3/18/12

Buenos dias!

Greetings from Ecuador! I am here on Spring Break right now with my family, and today was our first day in Quito. We decided to spend our day exploring La Parque de Carolina which is about a three minute walk from our hotel. Here, we visited the Quito Botanical Gardens. The birding was great knowing we are in a huge city. We only saw 9 species on this trip, but some were very interesting.

We arrived at the Gardens around 9:00 AM and I immediately found a very close and well lit Great Thrush, a very common bird in Quito.

Great Thrush

Upon entering the gardens, I was immediately entranced by the life buzzing around me. There were dragonflies everywhere and I was hearing the very loud chip notes of a Sparkling Violetear perched on a tree limb. I took a few minutes to get some pictures of the dragonflies. It turns out that I found myself two lifers. I emailed Dennis Paulson to see if he knew what they were and he was able to identify them for me:

Rhionaeschna marchali

Sympetrum gilvum

Our main bird targets  were Black Flowerpiercer and Black-tailed Trainbearer. We had success with both, although the Flowerpiercers were very flighty and hard to see well. We encountered the Flowerpiercers about five minutes into our walk.

Black Flowerpiercer

Black Flowerpiercer

From here, we continued on and found a Sparkling Violetear feeding on some flowers, glistening in the sunlight. I was unable to get any photos of it, but while watching, I caught a glimpse of a small gray bird flying over me. I followed it into a rose bed, and was able to refind it. I got some pictures of it and when I got back to the hotel in the afternoon, I found out I had seen a Southern-beardless Tyrannulet!

Southern-beardless Tyrannulet

Continuing on, I found one of the coolest birds of the trip: a Swainson's Thrush. This bird will be back in Chicago in about 2 months!

But in Ecuador there is always something else around the corner. After the Thrush, my mom soon found a Passerine in the top of the trees. I got a glimpse of it, and the first thought that popped into my head was that it was a Vireo. I took some photos and sent them to a few people this afternoon. It turns out it was a Yellow-green Vireo, my second lifer of the trip.

We continued on to find the part of the gardens that had the crops the Incan's had planted back in the 13th Century, but along the way we stopped again for a Black-tailed Trainbearer feeding

While watching this magnificent bird, I noticed two Rufous-collared Sparrows begging for me to take their photo:

Adult Rufous-collared Sparrow

Juvenile Rufous-collared Sparrow 

After we found the Incan portion of the Gardens, we were getting hot and decided to call it a day. Tomorrow I will be off to Yanacocha for some Hummingbirds and who knows what else! Hope you enjoyed this taste of Ecuador!

Nathan

Chicago Harlequin Ducks

Hi All,

On Tuesday, March 6th, I went to 31st St. Beach in Chicago to see if I could find an adult male Harlequin Duck that had been frequenting the area over the span of 3 days. I was able to get there in the early afternoon during a free period in school. Free periods are times where I have no scheduled class and can do whatever I choose to with my time. They have been very beneficial to chasing local rarities in Chicago. As soon as we got to 31st Street, we were able to find the adult male Harlequin Duck feeding about 30-40 feet off of the breakwall and it was allowing some amazing photo opps. Below are some pictures of this beautiful bird:

It was very interesting to see this male, since I had seen a juvenile Harlequin Duck over at Jarvis Bird Sanctuary in January, and again at Fullerton St. in mid-February. This individual is overall very drab except for its head patterning. I was fortunate to get some pictures of this bird which are below.

After viewing this bird, I made it my life's goal to see an adult male Harlequin Duck in Illinois before I leave for college, and now I have completed that goal! Perhaps I need a more difficult goal that will take more time to achieve (A Big Year anybody :D).

Thanks for reading, and I hoped you enjoyed the comparison shots of two individual Harlequin Ducks.

Nathan

Illinois Young Birders Trip 3/3/12

On Saturday, March 3rd, the Illinois Young Birders took a trip into DuPage County, Illinois to try and find some owls. We started near Naperville, Illinois, but went all over the county on our quest. There was one special bird that our trip leader, Jeff Smith, was going to share with us. It blew my mind when I found out what it was.

He had found a Barn Owl on private property, the first known in DuPage County in over 30 years. This is a remarkable find and perhaps shows that they are expanding their range northwards. For the safety of this bird, I can only say that it was on private property at an undisclosed location. We watched this individual for over 30 minutes and I was able to get a picture of its feet and half of its face. Over half of the bird was concealed, but this was probably because it was 30º outside, and very windy. Below are my two best photos:

At this location, we also had my FOY White-crowned Sparrows:

Jeff then took us out to see a Great-horned Owl sitting on a nest, which according to him, was created by a Red-tailed Hawk.

After this, we went to try and find some Long-eared Owls, but they were at their usual location. From here, the group split up, and the remaining 8 of us traveled to the Morton Arboretum to go look for a Barred Owl, Pileated Woodpecker, and White-winged Crossbills. These birds are known to be in the Arboretum, but did take some time to find.

We arrived at the Barred Owl location in the Arboretum and played a few snippets of tape to see if we could usher a response. After about five minutes, we heard a Pileated Woodpecker respond. We gave up after another five minutes, and walked back to the cars to play a louder tape from Jeff's car. From here, we got a response from the resident Barred Owl. Unfortunately, these birds were heard only, so no pictures were possible.

From this location in the Arboretum, we traveled over to Hemlock Hill to try and find the Crossbills. I had read that they had been feeding on some cones that had fallen to the ground, supposedly offering great looks. We were not disappointed and as soon as we got to the right location, we found 14 feeding on the ground, about 10-15 feet away from us. Standing behind a tree, I was able to get some amazing pictures of them, and some came within 3-5 feet of me. Here are some of the pictures I was able to capture:

How many birds do you count in this photo?

At one point, while observing the crossbills, my mom called to the group that she had found an American Mink. I was unable to hear her and after it dove back into the water, she came and got me. I rushed over to see if I could re-find it. Sure enough, it did resurface and climbed back onto a little island, but as soon as it came out of the water, it ran to the other side, only to dive back in. Here are two shots I got of it running away from us:

Overall, this was a great trip, and I really enjoyed myself. Jeff is an amazing trip leader, and I hope to go birding with him more often. I would like to thank the Illinois Young Birders for setting this trip up, and to Brian Herriott for originally creating the group.

Thanks for reading, and good birding!

Nathan

Frolicing with Prairie Falcons and Hooded Cranes

Hi all,

Well, this blog has been inactive for some time. I have been trying to post, but each time I tried, my photos would never show up, causing me to get fed up and move on. Turns out I was in HTML format and was corrected by my friend Sam Fason in Texas... Oops...

Anyways, here is a little redux of my recent birding adventures:

On February 12th, I traveled about 4 hours round trip with Ethan, Aaron, and Eric Gyllenhaal to see if we could find a Prairie Falcon in the state of Illinois. They have spent over 20 hours of their lives looking for a Prairie Falcon on 5-6 separate occasions.

This year, there had been a bird frequenting some hay bales in Champaign County. We decided to try for it that Sunday (the 12th) as it was seen the day before, and with some frequency during the past week.

The drive was 2 hours from Chicago, and we got there at about 8:00 in the morning. As we pulled up to the hay bales, Aaron immediately called out that he saw a raptor perched on one. We got out and looked at it with our binoculars at it. Even in the horrible lighting, we were able to figure out it was indeed the falcon, but we really wanted to get it in better light and perhaps in the scope. As we pull forward to attempt seeing it in better light, it decided to fly. We stopped the car as fast as possible, and I attempted a few photos. Here was my best:

From here, we moved on, and decided to chase the Hooded Crane near Linton, Indiana. For those of you that do not know, this is the first Hooded crane in the USA that has a very good chance of being accepted by the ABA, and is causing much debate on its origin in the birding community. We arrived at Goose Pond FWA, where the Hooded Crane was being seen, after a two hour drive from the Prairie Falcon. Along the way, we found a few nice birds perched or flying along the roads, for example two Turkey Vultures and a beautiful Red-shouldered Hawk:

When we arrived at Goose Pond FWA, we pulled onto a small country road to get to the viewing area for the Crane and where it was last seen. We knew we were in the right area purely by the amount of people there:

Here there were also a ton of Sandhill Cranes, but this is only a small portion of the birds that were present in the area:

We got out of the car and asked around if the Hooded Crane was there. Many people replied that it had been seen about 15 minutes ago but it had walked behind a ridge. It might be viewable from the county road on the other side of the field, although people were not sure. After about 10 minutes, we decided to give it a shot. After about 20-30 minutes of waiting, Michael David of Pennsylvania called out that he had the bird. We all got distant looks through the many scopes present, but it was a really far away look, and the bird was behind trees and bushes. We stayed and watched it for over 30 minutes, when it decided to start walking back up the ridge, and we scooted back around to see it in the open and in better light at the original location. Here was where I attempted to get a photo of this awesome bird:

While at Goose Pond, we heard about the 19-20 Whooping Cranes that had stopped there on their Migration up to Wisconsin. We made an effort after watching the Hooded Crane for a bit to go and find these birds. The first one we found was sitting in a huge group of Sandhill Cranes:

We kept moving to a spot where there were supposedly 16 Whooping Cranes, and we were not disappointed. Here is one picture I took of one Whooping Crane:

We moved on to our last stop of the day and got to see a ton of Greater White-fronted Geese:

There were also a few of Bald Eagles fishing in the area, but not much else of note. Before we left, I felt obligated to take a picture of the entrance sign for Goose Pond FWA, for we had seen some amazing birds there:

I must thank the Gyllenhaal's immensely for the amazing day, and hope that we have more of these great adventures and birding days soon to come.

__________________________________________________________________

On Feb. 18th, I attended the yearly IOS Gull Frolic. Only this year, there were barely any gulls. The day was actually spent lakewatching. Before the Frolic, I went with Josh Engel, Chris and Geoff Williamson, and my mom to an undisclosed location in Cook County to go find a Northern Saw-whet Owl that Josh had found with his friend Jason Weckstein (who will be employing me this summer at the Field Museum). This would be my first wild Saw-whet (my mom and I went to the Indiana Dunes State Park to band them earlier in the year), and Josh was nice enough to share this one with us. We arrived at the spot and found it immediately teed up in a tree. It was sleeping, but I was able to get some nice shots of the face:

From this location, we moved on to Winthrop Harbor, the location of the Frolic and immediately were told there was a Surf Scoter in the harbor and Snowy Owl on the breakwall. I rushed over, and made sure to see them before the 9:30 AM talk on gulls by Amar Ayyash, one of our resident larophiles. Here is a picture of the Scoter:

And here is the Snowy Owl:

Overall, there were not a lot of Gulls to look at at the Frolic, but we had a great lakewatching day. 250 Long-tailed Ducks, 10 White-winged Scoters, an Iceland Gull, and a Lesser Black-backed Gull were a few of the highlights of the day.

From the Frolic, I traveled home with Josh, Chris, and Geoff, and we stopped at Waukegan Harbor. As soon as we stepped out of the car, we set up the scopes and found 4 Red-throated Loons and this Thayer's Gull:

Overall a very enjoyable day, and some great birding. One Lifer (Northern Saw-whet Owl) and a state bird (Red-throated Loon). My goal for the year is to hit 300 birds for the state of Illinois. I'm at 290 as of right now, and am missing a few really easy birds that I hope to get this year. I had a great day at the Frolic, and got to see many great birders from all around Illinois.

Thanks for reading, and hope to get this blog up and running again!

Until next time,

Nathan

IOS Carlyle Lake Pelagic Trip

Well as one can see, it has been a VERY long time since I posted here. My summer was packed with a trip to Northern Michigan, Camp Tejano, and a trip to Paris. But since then, I did a little birding in town and got a lot of uncommon Shorebirds in Chicago at Montrose Point (Red Knots (3!), Short-billed Dowitcher, Whimbrel, and White-rumped Sandpiper). But this on the weekend of Sep. 24-25, I took a trip to Carlyle Lake, IL (4-5 Hours SW from Chicago). It is the biggest inland lake in IL, and a fantastic birding place.

We started the day at the boat docks and looking through a roost of Gulls for anything unusual, but instead found 2 Osprey, which for me, is always a great bird to watch.

And if that wasn't enough, a Peregrine Falcon then flew over, which seems, at least to me, harder to find inland than in Chicago.

The Sunrise was also very beautiful:

We moved onto our inland birding at Eldon Hazlet State Park, trying to find Warblers, Vireos, and any other Passerines possible. We blasted Screech-Owl tape to get the birds active, and it worked. We had tons of birds, including Golden-winged Warblers, Black-throated Green Warblers, Nashville Warblers, and more. We also had a Philadelphia Vireo, which is only my second ever. Here are a few photos:

Philadelphia Vireo

Carolina Chickadee (always a nice bird for us Northerners)

A Great Blue Heron (They were everywhere as were Great Egrets!)

We also got to see a lot of Bald Cypress which are just awesome and their trunks remind me of the Amazon.

At one stop, someone found a Eastern-tailed Blue (A type of butterfly) roosting with it's wings open. That never seems to happen, and what a beautiful sight to see.

About 5 feet away was a Common Buckeye, another awesome butterfly

Once 10:00 AM came around, we had to get to the boats for the famous "pelagic" trip out onto the lake. This is what the whole trip was about because it allows views of brids that are usually dots in a scope. We got on the boats, and about 15 minutes into the trip, we were notified of a Franklin's Gull. It then flew right past our boat and offered stellar views

Then, about five minutes later, we found a Lesser Black-Backed Gull. Another great bird! Here it is with a Herring Gull and a Ring-billed Gull. 3 Gull species in one picture ands it's only September!

We start to move away, but Dan Kassebaum tells us to turn around, and that he might have a possible California Gull. We take lots of photos, and in the end it turns out to be just an odd Ring-billed Gull. I posted on the Illinois Birders' Forum, which generated some discussion to sort out the ID.

While watching this bird, we get a call that the other two boats were watching a Juv. Sabine's Gull. Bingo! We got very nice looks, but the bird was skiddish, so photo opportunities were hard. Here is what I managed.

This bird was by far the highlight of the trip, but we still had some more birds coming. Moving on to try to find another Sabine's that had been seen the night before, we stumble upon a Common Tern

Then a Bonaparte's Gull,

 And the Lesser Black-Backed Gull again

Travis Mahan, on our boat, spotted later a Gull that seemed smaller. We went to investigate, but while moving towards it, Doug Robinson from the back called out, "Phalaropes!" These were the only Phalaropes seen on the whole trip, so we turned around to see them. They turned out to be Red-necked Phalaropes, which were a lifer for me. Here are some photos of the pair:

After viewing the Phalaropes, we made our way into the harbor, only to be greeted by a Sharp-shinned Hawk, a year bird for me!

The weather for being out on the water was spectacular and we had no rain, making the day spectacular. We went to the town of Carlyle to get lunch, and then ate next to the docks under a pavilion. I made us take a group photo and was horrified to hear this never had been done! Well, now onto starting a tradition.

We moved on to a place on Carlyle Lake known as Whitetail Access, which has had some mega rarities in the past. It is also a great place to look for Shorebirds. Exiting the cars, I was immersed in Poison Ivy, but luckily had on long pants, and didn't even notice.

At Whitetail Access, there were a lot of Gulls and Pelicans, which got "buzzed" by a Peregrine Falcon. What a sight!

We also found some nice Shorebirds including these Sanderlings (Rare away from the lakefront)

 Also there were some Pectoral Sandpipers, which were surprisingly, a lifer about 3 weeks ago.

At one point, someone spotted a Buff-breasted Sandpiper fly into some Smartweed, and lost the bird. Since the whole group wanted to see it, Amar Ayyash and I went in, to try and flush it out. We succeeded, and I got some very bad shots:

Buff-breasted Sandpiper on the Left

Lastly, while there, there were two Black-bellied Plovers, a year bird for me, posing nicely on the mudflats.

Walking back to the cars, we found a Caterpillar feasting on some Smartweed, which turned out to be a Smeared Dagger Moth (I was told there are at least 4 variants of color in this species Caterpillar)

The next day, we started in Hazlet State Park looking at another Gull Roost. There, we found a Laughing Gull, which is a very good bird for Illinois, and was # 237 for the year in IL.

  

After that location, we journeyed to Peppenhorst Branch, in Hazlet State Park. Looking our over the scrub, we saw tons of American White Pelicans flying around. It is so cool to see these HUGE birds flying in their "V" formations.

From there, we had to leave, for we had a long 4-5 hour drive ahead of us. After goodbyes, we went to lock up the cabin, but found this Woodchuck (Groundhog) on the front lawn. I'd never seen one, so this was especially cool!

Overall, this was an amazing trip that I would do again in a heartbeat. I had so much fun, and I must thank Keith McMullen and Dan Williams for organizing this trip and driving the boat for us maniac birders on the a truly unique area of Illinois. Thank you for so many good birds, and taking us to some of the best birding spots Carlyle has to offer. I had a great time.

Thanks for reading,

Nathan