Travelling birders

June 14 - Back to Boston

2010-11-29T09:05:00.003-05:00

June 14th: Our flight landed in Minneapolis at 7:38 AM. We both got to sleep a little bit on the plane, now we are waiting for our 10:00 AM connection to Boston which is scheduled to arrive at 2:00 PM.

Overall a good trip, 157 total species seen. I had about 19 life birds, Paul had 22. If we were to do it over again, we would go to Nome a little later, spend 1 less day in the Pribiloffs and maybe go there a little earlier. The wildlife viewings in Denali were awesome the first day, but not great the second due to the rain. There is only one road thru the park so taking the shuttle 2 days in a row, is a bit much, even though we didn’t do the same distances. We probably would’ve rather spent a night closer to Paxton to try for the Smith’s Longspur as Birdquest does. After talking to others, we realized that we could have done this trip on our own or with another couple to share the car/gas costs. Anyone can book at the Pribiloffs through the St. Paul Island Tours website, though it may have been a little more expensive. We are not really sure how much of a group discount we got, if any. So if we return to Alaska someday, seems like Gambell and/or Barrow should be on the list in order to get the Loons and Eiders we need and at probably a later date, say mid June at the earliest. We heard that at Gambell, people can rent ATV’s from the owners directly. This is how the High Lonesome tour group got around.

June 13 - Denali (Savage River) to Eagle River NC in Anchorage

2010-11-29T08:38:00.014-05:00

June 13th: Since it was departure day, the group was splitting up. Bill was off to go on the Wilderness Adventures “Gray Capped Chickadee trip”. Joan was off to Fairbanks to continue touring Alaska on her own. Jim, Karyn and Alan apparently were planning to do a bird walk at Denali State Park. Although we didn’t know about this until after they left.

Bob, Paula, Donna, Mary, Pat, Sally, Paul and I departed at 7:00 to try to get the Arctic Warbler at Savage River trail in Denali. We walked to the bridge, about a mile thru pretty scenery and found singing Wilson’s Warblers, Tree Sparrows, White Crowned Sparrow, but no Arctic Warbler. Although there have been reported sightings in Nome, no one has reported it anywhere else, so it appears it is still too early for this bird in this area. Nome is also getting the Yellow Billed Loon, and Eiders we needed, but weren’t there when we were, so it seems we should have gone to Nome last.

As we were driving out of the park, we saw a Gyrfalcon flying over a ridge and a moose on the hillside and the other car was ahead of us so they missed it, but they had a Lynx cross in front of their car.

Our next stop was the Denali Park Highway outside Denali where many Blackpolls were singing. This was our last possible spot for Arctic. Then we continued our 5 hour drive towards Anchorage with a scheduled stop at the Eagle River Nature Center. Being a Sunday, there were lots of families there and lots of dogs, so we tried to take the path less travelled.

Beautiful scenery, snow capped mountains, wetlands with wildflowers and a wooded section. We were hoping for Three Toed Woodpecker or Spruce Grouse, but no luck. We did a 3 mile hike, but did see a Greater Yellowlegs perched on top of a dead spruce calling in the middle of the boggy area. This was the second time on this trip we saw a Yellowlegs perched like this. The first time was at Wonder Lake.

Our last stop prior to heading to the airport was at Westchester Lagoon. Out on this tiny island about 200 feet in front of us, we saw a small flock of Hudsonian Godwits, 2 Short Billed Dowitchers, an Arctic Tern with a Chick, a Mew Gull with a chick, Cackling Geese, nesting Red Necked Grebes, Greater Scaups, American Widgeon, and further out in the lake, a Redhead and a Bald Eagle flew over.

Since Donna and Mary from Somerville, were on a 10:00 PM flight and the rest of us were on an 11:15 flight we decided to head to the airport about 7:30 to grab dinner at Chilis. We said our goodbyes to Sally who was staying in Alaska to tour for another few weeks. Her husband was flying in from Australia to join her. While at Chili’s, Dave appeared. Turns out he was on our flight too. He had split off from the group to go to Barrow, while we went to Denali. He actually did Barrow on his own. He said they were having a very late winter there and the water was still frozen on the ocean. He did get the target birds he wanted: the loons, eiders and Ruff, but said it was very cold.

June 12 - Denali in the rain

2010-11-29T08:28:00.005-05:00

June 12: Rain, rain, go away! Today our shuttle to Eilson Visitor Center in Denali left at 7:30 AM. Our first sighting was a Moose with a calf near the railroad tracks. Bob, Paula, Paul and I got off the bus at Igloo to look for the Arctic Warbler again with no luck. We walked about a mile in the steady rain for about an hour before Paul and I decided to take the bus up to Eilson to get out of the rain. I discovered my water proof rain coat was no longer rain proof as my arms had gotten wet. We took the “camper” bus and on the way had a small herd of Caribou.

It was hard to see much from the bus since the windows were fogging up and getting covered in mud from the dirt roads. Once we got to Eilson we made a reservation for the next bus back. I slept most of the way back as this vacation’s lack of sleep has finally gotten to me. I was awakened suddenly when everyone was excited to spot 2 wolves with about 7 pups.

Unfortunately I only saw one of the pups with just my eyes, when the driver stood up to get his camera and blocked our views so I never got great looks, but still an exciting sighting. Once back at the Visitor’s Center, we walked a few of the trails and only saw 2 Boreal Chickadees so decided to head back to the Totem Inn at about 5 PM to meet the group for our last dinner at the motel.

June 11th - Denali - Shuttle to Wonder Lake

2010-11-28T15:23:00.013-05:00

June 11th: The 6:45 AM shuttle to Wonder Lake (83 miles)? was a bit late departing. The bus driver was very good at spotting wildlife and she knew her birds which was great, but she certainly didn’t stop talking which was making us sleepy after too little sleep again. Our first important bird sighting was a Gyrfalcon perched on Marmot Rock. Bob, Paula, Mary and Donna were on our bus so we were the lucky ones as the rest of the group was on a later bus which didn’t get to see one. Our luck continued as we had a brief glimpse of a Wolf walking across a ridge before disappearing over the other side, then a distant view of 2 Grizzlys low in the valley. A little further along we were extremely lucky to witness a Grizzly nursing 2cubs. We also had brief glimpses of a moose and lots of distant Dall sheep up on some mountainsides.

When we reached Wonder Lake we only had about 30 minutes to walk around before the return trip back and it was a bit drizzly. I did get great looks at a brilliant red Common Redpoll. Back on the bus Paul spotted a closer Wolf in a lower field. We watched it as it walked closer to us and even pounced on some prey for a few minutes. Our best look at a Wolf!

We got off the bus at mile marker 38 to search for the Arctic Warbler again. We walked for a few hours before 3 of our group got on the next shuttle. Since it was full, Paul, Bob and myself continued our walk for another hour getting some great looks at Boreal Chickadee and Gray Jay as well as White Crowned Sparrow and Yellow Rumped Warbler. We also heard an unidentified bird singing that had a high pitch note, then went into song. We thought it may have been a White Winged Crossbill, but after listening to the song it doesn’t sound familiar.

After an hour the next bus came, with only 1 available seat, so we sent Bob along. As we continued the walk, we were shocked to see one of our target animals for the trip, a Lynx crossed the road in front of the bus as it was departing. Unfortunately I didn’t get a look at the face, just the body, but Bob said the bus driver was the only one to see it. Victorious, we continued our walk for another hour before finally getting seats on a bus. We ended up walking 7 miles, which in reality I loved since we have not gotten hardly any exercise this entire trip. Just prior to this we had great looks at 2 juv Gray Jays with one parent. At first, very hard to ID. The final sighting for the day was when a Porcupine waddled across the road in front of the bus. Then off to dinner at 9 PM – pizza at the hotel and here it is 11:30 PM again.

June 10th - Anchorage to Denali

2010-11-28T15:13:00.006-05:00

June 10th: Breakfast at the hotel at 6:00 AM, then a team meeting at 6:30 while the guys went to pick up the rental cars. We left Anchorage about 7:30 for our drive to Denali. As usual there were lots of pitstops, hardly any exercise, car birding and lots of junk food being purchased. Not my favorite kind of trip. The lack of exercise and the amount of food is killing me. We made a stop on the road that goes to Paxton to look for Arctic Warbler with no luck, but did see a group of Cliff Swallows, Wilson Warbler, Wilson’s Snipe, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, White Crowned Sparrow, Bonapartes Gull, Black Scoter, and Greater Scaup.

Then we proceeded to Denali National Park to pick up our shuttle bus tickets for the next 2 days. We drove Savage Road to the point where no cars can proceed and got distant somewhat clouded views of Mt. McKinley.

On the way back I spotted a Gray Jay. We made our way to Healy for our 3 night stay at the Totem Inn and had a relatively decent quick burger at the Inn’s restaurant. We have a 6:45 AM Shuttle tomorrow so need to get some sleep.

June 9th - Pribiloffs to Anchorage

2010-11-28T14:53:00.007-05:00

June 9th: The day started off slightly warmer but with heavier fog. Bill was stressed out that our plane may not be able to arrive at 3:30 due to the fog. But as the day progressed the fog lifted and it is a beautiful day. We went to Tolstoi Cliffs this morning to view the best area for Red faced Cormorants.

We had good looks despite the fog and also a couple of Horned Puffins were perched relatively close. We decided to save our sandwiches for dinner and eat lunch at Trident Seafood since they had Mexican food today. The island was still quiet, no new vagrants.

Our flight left St. Paul at 4:00 ish and took almost 3 hours due to the winds to arrive in Anchorage. This time the Quality Inn shuttle arrived quickly as opposed to the 45 min waits that happened twice before. We went for a short walk at Hood Lake and saw a Junco, Bonapartes Gull, Red Necked Grebes and lots of Tree Swallows. I downloaded a lot of photos to Facebook last night so didn’t get much sleep again – probably 5 hrs max.

June 8th

2010-11-28T14:36:00.006-05:00

June 8th: Well so far the Pribiloffs have not produced any vagrant birds, which has been disappointing. This morning after breakfast we had our taste of what typical Pribiloff weather is like, drizzly foggy and a strong cold breeze as we started our hike up Zapadni. I left my good camera in the car because of this weather, but of course it cleared when we were at the top and had amazing close views of all 3 auklets: Least, Crested and Parakeet as well as both Puffins, both Kittiwakes and both Murres. I did some digiscoping so those photos will have to suffice, but I’d say this was my favorite spot thus far on St. Paul. Luckily our next stop was also great views of these same birds and we did bring the camera. They were not as numerous here, but at least I didn’t feel so bad now about not having the camera for the last stop.

Lunch was the usual time 12-1 and then we did a short tour of St Peter and St. Paul Russian Orthodox Church and Museum before heading back to the lodge for an hour break. BTW, the lodge is called the King Eider and is really like a dorm at the dirt runway airport… The old King Eider hotel closed. The rest of the birding both before and after dinner was basically dead with the exception of walking out on the mudflats to photograph the Bar Tailed Godwits we have been seeing here the last few days.

The High Lonesome Tour group flew out this afternoon and I’m thinking in reality we don’t need the extra day here, especially given the non-typical quiet birding for this time of year when they generally expect vagrants if the winds are right.

June 7th Pribiloff Puffins & Auklets

2010-11-28T13:51:00.014-05:00

June 7th: A 7:15 departure for breakfast at Trident turned into 7:40. Paul and I skipped eating at the restaurant since we had brought enough food with us. We stopped to view the female Stellars Eiders which were life birds for us, but a dull brown in color.

Then we went to some cliffs to view the Least and Parakeet Auklets amongst both species of Murres. There was a small raft of Crested Auklets in the water and then we spotted a pair in the cliffs for better scope views.

Northern Fulmars were also nesting in the cliffs, while Horned and Tufted Puffins were not as numerous.

Paul saw a Short Tailed Shearwater which I hope to see later and we got a good look at one Red-legged Kittiwake.

Then a lunch stop was made back at Trident, which I skipped for a chance to eat my pear. After lunch we had a 2 hour break which is when I tried to use the one computer here to get on the internet, but after almost an hour of fighting with it, I gave up. The weather is bright and sunny again today, but the wind is very cold. I’m guessing the temp is about 35F. We are hoping our luggage is on the flight that is due to arrive at 3:45. If not we heard it is suppose to be on a cargo plane arriving at 10:00 PM. I now know what it’s like to brush my teeth with my finger. Luckily someone let me borrow some toothpaste.

We did a little birding from 3 to 4:00 but heard the plane arrive and YES our luggage was here! So after reorganizing a bit and getting on our waterproof boots we did a tad more birding before going to dinner at Trident. After dinner we slogged around thru some marshes but it was generally pretty quiet...just the usual suspects like Rock Sandpiper, Lapland Longspur, Gray Crowned Rosy Finches and new for this location, Winter Wren (which may be split) and Snow Buntings. We then did a short steep very scenic hike along a ravine with great views near the Northern Seal Rookery and when we returned to the car a big male was very near the van. Forrest’s group was there and gave us a tip on some Emperor Geese in great light so 5 of us jumped in another van and headed out for the Northeast part of the island where there was a lot of black sand dunes – the area kind of reminded me of Cape Cod, Truro area. We did get distant and scope views of the Geese, but they flew off before I could get any close photos.

June 6th: Travel to the Pribiloff Island of St. Paul

2010-11-28T13:21:00.009-05:00

June 6th: today was primarily a travel day to St Paul in the Pribiloff Islands. Our flight departed at 12:20 PM but despite the fact we checked our luggage in by 10:00 AM, Pen Air decided to not ship any of the luggage because they wanted to ship a lot of cargo at our fuel stop in Dillingham. The plane was a propeller plane and needed to make this stop to refuel after an hour just in case it could not land on St. Paul immediately due to weather. But the weather was sunny and about 43. We were on the plane with Forrest Davis’ group and none of us got luggage. Luckily I brought enough warm clothes and hopefully our bags will be shipped tomorrow, but there is a chance they may not. If they had told us this in advance we would have packed a little differently as I think the main item missing will be our toothbrush and paste as well as waterproof boots and rain pants.

We landed at 3:40 and our first bird on the Island was a Gray Crowned Rosy Finch which are residents here, a life bird for us! Sean, our local guide, took both groups around a few spots on a shuttle bus. We had amazing views of Thick Billed Murres on the cliffs mixed in with a few Common Murres. Both Tufted and Horned Puffins were flying nearby and lots of Black Legged Kittiwakes were gathering nesting material. Rock Sandpipers are common here.

We then went to view the Northern Fur Seals, mostly males, who were establishing their territory. The numbers of these beautiful creatures are declining, but still plentiful here.

We had dinner prior to birding at about 5 PM at Trident Seafood. All the meals will be here. The Swordfish was delicious, soft and moist, unlike any other times I’ve had it.

June 5th Kenai Fjords cruise aboard the Alaskan Explorer

2010-11-28T11:39:00.011-05:00

June 5th: Paul had to drop off Jim and Joan near the harbor for breakfast at 6:50 which gave me a little extra time to get ready and update this report. We plan to meet at 8:00 AM for the Kenai Fjords cruise aboard the Alaskan Explorer. There was talk that our longer trip may be cancelled for a shorter one which means we may not get the Kittlitz’s Murrelet. Luckily they decided to go for it even though we had 10-12 foot waves in some areas. Some people got sick, including Bill, and I didn’t feel well a few times, but managed not to get sick thankfully.

We had incredible and numerous sightings of thousands of Black Legged Kittiwakes, Common Murres, and large numbers of Tufted and Horned Puffins. The rarities/targets seen included: Kittlitz’s and Ancient Murrelet, Rhinocerous, and Crested Auklets, Red faced Cormorant and thousands of nesting Glaucous Winged Gulls. We also had sightings of Dall Porpoises, Pacific Humback Whales, Orcas, Stellars Sea Lions, Harbor Seals and 3 Mountain Goats.

The weather was cloudy, drizzly and the seas were rough on the open water to the bay. Overall a very pleasant experience. We watched some glaciers calve including Northwestern which is where the Kittlitz’s was found.

We arrived back in port at 6:05 PM, did a quick dinner stop at Subway and headed back to Anchorage, back to the Quality Inn for the night. Paul plans on dropping off the rental car tonight so that he doesn’t need to rush tomorrow prior to our flight to the Pribiloffs on Penn Air at noon. We need to have all the luggage on the plane before 10:30 AM. A total of 7 life birds for the day – so far a trip record.

Alaska June 4th: Drive to Seward, Kenai Fjords

2010-11-28T10:04:00.013-05:00

June 4th: This morning the guys went to pick up the rental cars at 7:30 for our drive to Seward – about 120 miles. We left the hotel about 8:00 and made a 45 minute stop at Potter Marsh where we saw Red Necked Grebes and Mew Gulls nesting.

We stopped at a Bakery across from a large wetland where we had brief looks at Northwestern Crow.

We checked a few stops along the way for Varied Thrush which we heard a few times, but never saw. We did find a Townsend’s Warbler at one of the rest stops.

There was a beautiful campground along the way on Rt 1 at a Lake (Summit?) which I would love to camp at some day. We had two Merlins here actively calling to each other and perched at the top of Fir trees and a pair of Barrow’s Goldeneyes. I got a poor photo of a digiscoped Barrow's Goldeneye.

One stop produced a Porcupine who climbed a tree once he knew we were watching him. Our last stop was at the Kenai Fjords National Park where we took about an hour to do a quick hike to the bottom of Exit Glacier.

They had markers dating back to 1814 from where the Glacier had receded from. Amazing! We had very distant looks at 5 Mountain Goats up on one of the mountain faces close to the peak. It turned out to be a beautiful day despite the weather forecast of drizzle. High was about 66F, but near the glacier was very chilly.

Checked in to the Harborview Motel in Seward and going to Rays Waterfront for dinner and then a quick grocery shop to prepare for the Pribiloffs.

Paul and I both had Spinach salad with Salmon for dinner and a Crab, artichoke appetizer. The food was very good and the scenery of the port was fabulous. Snow covered mountains against the bay filled with small boats and a Celebrity Cruise ship. Black-legged Kittiwakes were abundant and a few Pigeon Guillemot, Marbled Murrelets and Harlequin ducks were swimming in the bay, but the best sighting was the very large cute sea otters swimming close to shore doing a back float and rolling.

An ebird report of a Boreal Owl came in reported by Todd in Hope Alaska which was about 1.5 hrs from our hotel so a small group of us, Bob, Paula, Dave, Paul and I decided to try for it. When we were partially there Dave realized Todd had made the report and luckily he had gotten his phone number. So after a quick call we learned he had only heard it, but we decided to try anyway, unfortunately with no luck, but we did get great views of a Varied Thrush and Olive Sided Flycatcher and returned to the hotel at 1:30 AM!

Alaska June 3: Kougarok Rd and back to Anchorage

2010-11-28T09:42:00.006-05:00

June 3rd: A 6:00 AM start and we wanted to try for the Arctic Warbler one more time so we drove out Kougarok Rd about 20 miles or so to where Bill has traditionally had them very easily in trips past in July, but although the arrival date was supposed to be June 1st, there was no sight or sound of them. But we had another fox sighting. This one was mostly a dull white, but the poor thing was only using 3 legs.

Since we were flying to Anchorage later today we didn’t have too much time as we had to be back at the Aurora hotel to check out, return the rental vans and get to the airport at least 2 hours before our 1:20 PM flight. I planned to get a lot of “work” done at the airport, like writing this report, downloading photos, etc, but this didn’t happen again so I am now trying to catch up on all this tonight. Our flight actually stopped at Kozebue in the Arctic Circle before getting to Anchorage. It was a tiny airport with lots of ponds around the runways filled with a variety of ducks – definitely a unique airport. The Quality Inn airport shuttle took 45 minutes again to pick us up. We had to call them twice before they showed up and then once at the hotel, they neglected to tell us that our room was in a different building so we were riding the elevator looking for a room that didn’t exist. This hotel definitely has issues and I would not recommend it! Dinner was at Gwennies where I had Eggs Benedict and Paul had all you can eat Ribs. It’s now 8:30 PM and I am beat. It’s time to finish up some stuff and get to sleep.

June 2nd Council Rd.

2010-11-27T17:15:00.009-05:00

June 2nd. A little later start today at 6:30 since we were driving the Council Rd which is the same one that went to Safety Sound, but the plan was to go further to look for Gyrfalcon, but also take our time to look for Loons, Eiders and other rarities. Unfortunately it seems that it may have been too early for Spectacled and Stellars Eiders as well as for Arctic or Yellow Billed Loon as we had no luck. So far each day we had been getting one life bird, but the chances didn’t look good today. We did have two very pleasant surprises in finding a Surfbird and a very pink Lesser Sand Plover (also known as Mongolian Plover).

We followed Forrest down the road towards Council and he put us on a nesting Peregrine Falcon and eventually a nesting Gray phase Gyrfalcon! So we did get our life bird with the Gyrfalcon. But the best sighting today was when we saw a gorgeous Arctic Fox pouncing on prey. His legs were black, very bushy tail and multicolored coat as he was losing his winter fur.

Dinner was at Airport Pizza again and this time I tried the burrito which was very good. So far this trip has produced very little exercise opportunities and too many opportunities to snack and eat… Hopefully this will change soon.

June 1st - Teller

2010-11-27T16:31:00.009-05:00

June 1st. Our target destination today after leaving at 6:00 AM was the small community of Teller. Along the way we had great looks at Rock and Willow Ptarmigan and I actually counted them on the way back giving us 32 Willow and 8 Rock.

The landscape was not as mountainous on this drive, but a very rocky landscape, similar to the countryside of England. We managed to find a Northern Wheatear also, but the highlight was seeing a distant Wolf as it walked along the ridge line.

Not long afterwards we watched a herd of Reindeer run across a ridge, across the road and over to another ridge. We wondered if there may be other wolves around. Herds of Musk Ox also were seen after spotting an adult with one young one at the town dump. The town itself looked like a very rundown fishing village. There were a couple of dead seals on the shore and also some blubber that the gulls were picking at. The weather had gotten progressively colder. Birds we often see along the road include Hoary Redpolls, Golden Crowned Sparrows, Wilsons, Yellow and Orange Crowned Warblers, Tree and Fox Sparrow and Grey Cheeked Thrush. When we returned to Nome we took a short drive to check out the mouth of the Nome River and had scope views of three Aleutian Terns found by the Wilderness Birding Group. Dinner was at Airport Pizza. Paul had a very large burrito and I had a very good gyro with salad. It was another long day of birding as we finished at 8:00 PM. The sun seems to be strongest and brightest here at night and makes it hard to realize we need to go to sleep.

Alaska May 31: The quest for the Bristle Thighed Curlew

2010-11-27T16:18:00.005-05:00

May 31: The quest for the Bristle Thighed Curlew brought us further down the Kougarok Rd and when we arrived Bill was very upset that a car was already there. If he had known, he would have asked the person (Todd) to go for the bird with us. We waited a short while as we could see the single man coming back down. He told us that he had played the tape, but the bird did not respond, but he did see one bird and showed us a photo of it. It was about 8:30 – 9:00 AM by the time we started the ascent up the tussocked hills.. It wasn’t steep, but we had to walk carefully as there were lots of holes that we may end up sticking our feet into between the tussocks and lots of small underground puddles. Once we made it up to where Bill usually gets the bird we waited a bit, but nothing so we moved on and we heard the kee-oh-wee call so we approached and saw a distant bird as it walked just over the hill out of site. Then we heard another call coming from the right so we walked over to that area and waited, had brief glimpses of the bird before once again it disappeared over the hill. We all decided to sit on the ground to wait but after about 15 minutes a few of us headed over to the original place we saw it and heard it call along with hearing calls of a Bluethroat! We ended up watching 2 Curlews fly further away and land on a distant hill. We moved closer and actually ended up getting great views of a male Bluethroat with its blue throat glistening in the sun. The day was actually a lot cooler than the previous days and I wore 4 layers along with a winter jacket and was comfortable! It was time to start heading back down since it was about 1:30 – how the time passed quickly. Just prior to leaving we watched a beautiful very large snowshoe hare run off as it had heard us in the snow. The drive produced views of a few Long Tailed Jaegers kiting or sitting on nests – what a beautiful bird!

Just as were almost to the cars we spotted 2 Whimbrels and since they closely resemble the Curlews, we had to take very close looks. On the drive back we stopped at Salmon Lake briefly and then headed back to Nome. Along the way we witnessed a heartbreaking event where we watched a guy put a young spaniel type dog on the back of his ATV, probably a hunting dog. We were on a dirt road and another car was approaching from the opposite direction. We were in the car with Dave behind the ATV when as the dog heard the car approach decided to jump off and ended up rolling under the back tire of the approaching car even though the car was going only about 10 mph. The car appeared to run over the dogs neck and the dog ran off as we were all in shock. It would be a miracle if that dog survived and being in the middle of nowhere I’m sure there was no vet anywhere near by. Very sad. After our 6 PM return we went to Milanos for pizza for dinner where Paul and I sat at a booth next to Forrest Davis from Hi Lonesone tours who was scouting for his group's trip to Nome. We had a nice chat with Forrest and he gave us some tips on birds he had found.

Alaska - May 30 Kougarok Rd Nome

2010-11-26T17:32:00.013-05:00

May 30: 5:45 AM departure for our first drive out the Kougarok Rd. The scenery at Salmon Lake was stupendous with the snow-capped mountains reflecting on the lake. We had incredible looks at lots of Willow Ptarmigans, both male and female. The male was even doing a very cute strut and croak as he walked across the road.

We had fleeting looks at a female Bluethroat at Salmon Lake who was carrying nesting material. We got a quick look at her orange throat and although we watched her fly back and forth from her nest she never perched in a spot where we could get good looks. Paul also spotted a Rock Ptarmigan, another target and life bird up on a rock on a hill along with road! We walked onto the tundra a bit and spotted a beautiful American Golden Plover whose back was sparkling in the sun. We also watched a few Long Tailed Jaegars sitting on nests!

On the return trip we tried for the Bluethroat again for a very short time and the group split up, some wanted to stay for hopefully better looks at the Bluethroat while others including us started back to look for Gyrfalcon (which we didn’t find), Wandering Tattler and Golden Eagle. We spotted the Tattler in the river but it flew deeper away from the road so we bushwhacked a bit and got great looks. We also spotted a White Wagtail fly over and had some nice looks at Yellow Wagtails. Dinner was at the Vietnamese restaurant in Nome. 4:45 AM departure tomorrow morning for the Bristle Thighed Curlew.

Alaska May 28-May 29 2010

2010-11-26T16:08:00.010-05:00

May 28th: 6:30 AM flight connecting in SLC where we had a 5.5 hour layover before departing to Anchorage with a scheduled arrival time of 6 PM. We took advantage of the time in SLC to watch some of the instructional video for our camera that we never seemed to get a chance to watch at home and to write up our Ohio trip report.

Arrived in Anchorage at 6:00 PM. It took awhile to get our luggage and then we noticed Delta broke the strap right off our brand new duffle bag! Now they say they are not responsible for handles – even though there is a hole in the cloth, ugh! I had called the Quality Inn Airport shuttle before getting our luggage, but they did not show up for 45 minutes because they said he was stuck in traffic! Another great start to a trip. But we decided to walk a bit near the hotel over to Lake Hood and had a large group of both Scaups, Wigeon, Red Necked Grebes doing a display and then when we walked back closer to the hotel ran into another trip participant David and as we talked got a look at a Common Redpoll, White Crowned Sparrow singing, Yellow Rump Warbler, Hairy Woodpecker and a pair of BC chickadees as the Tree Swallows flew overhead chattering. At about 9 PM Alaska time we split a sub at subway and headed back to the hotel since we had now been up over 24 hours. Time for sleep!

May 29:

Prior to departing Anchorage on our 11:00 AM flight to Nome both Paul and I walked by Lake Hood, separately, as he got up as some crazy hour and after he got back I went. He mentioned how the guy came to the lake and shot a cap gun to get all the ducks to move before all the seaplanes landed… Our flight to Nome went over well on Alaska Airlines and Bill was at the airport to meet us. He rented 2 vans and a small SUV. By the time everyone checked in to the Aurora Inn, went to Subway for lunch, it was about 2 PM when we started out on our first official birding trip with the group out to Safety Sound. We had some distant looks at Bar Tailed Godwit, great and plentiful looks at Arctic Tern and Mew and Glaucous Gull, but the biggest surprise was the pair of Emperor Geese along the ocean shore. Dinner was at Milano’s where Paul and I split the Alaskan Halibut.

Nov 20 - Santa Eulalia

2009-12-22T09:17:00.012-05:00

A 3:45 AM wake up prepared us for our last day in Peru. We were picked up by Alejandro (guide) and Carlos (driver) at 4:30 to be taken to Santa Eulalia to see the Andean Condors. I slept part of the way there knowing that it would be a very long day, but I awoke when the ride became too bumpy. We were starting to ascend the mountain. The road was thick dust, not paved, and hugged the side of the mountain, once again only wide enough for 1 car, but a 2 way rode nonetheless. Our first stop we had White Capped Dipper and Peruvian Pygmy Owl and Carlos set out our breakfast in the trunk of his car. We had our favorite of the trip: liquid mango yogurt mixed with granola, which was very good since it was mixed with peanuts. Then we continued the ascent stopping for small flocks of Mourning Sierra Finch and Hooded Siskens. I spotted a Canyon Canestero, which looks very similar to the mystery bird of 2 days ago that we could never figure out in the book since we did not see it well enough. We arrived at the spot where the Condors are typically seen by about 9:30 and waited for about an hour with no luck. Alejandro said he usually sees anywhere from 4 to 10 birds. I guess it was not our lucky day. While we waited we had a Black Chested Buzzard Eagle fly very close overhead and perch on a pole about 100 yards away. Shortly thereafter an American Kestral perched very close to the Buzzard Eagle. As we watched the Kestral kept moving closer and closer. Eventually the Buzzard Eagle flew off and we watched the Kestral continually dive bomb the Buzzard Eagle on the back, until it was far enough away that the Kestral was satisfied that it chased off the bird. At this point I asked if we could try for the Plover, but they said the car could not make the drive and it would be too far. We were disappointed that Kolibri’s checklist for this area included many birds that were not possible on this tour. We picked this day tour out of the 3 day tours we paid for because of the most chances to see birds we had not already seen the rest of the trip, but given that we only had 38 species for the day and no condor it was hardly worth the cost of the one day trip price!

We started heading back and stopped to try for the Rufous Breasted Warbling Finch which I found almost instantly, but it flew off before we could all see it well. So we waited a bit longer and a very cooperative Black Necked Woodpecker flew into a cactus and Paul was able to get very close to it to get some great photos. During this time the Warbling Finch reappeared with many Rusty-Bellied Brush-Finches and Mourning Sierra Finches. The next stop was when we spotted Black Winged Ground-Doves on the road. Paul went down to take photos and ended up seeing a group of Pied Crested Tit-Tyrants that I missed, which was really sad because that was one bird I had noticed in the book that I really wanted to see. It was now time to make sandwiches from the back of the car and hope to see some more birds, but the only one around was the White Browed Chat tyrant. Our final stop was at a recreation area that had lots of flowering lantanas filled with 3 species of hummers: Oasis, Amazilla, and Peruvian Sheartail and the very common Long Tailed Mockingbird. We headed back to town descending what seemed like the never ending mountain road. We passed 3 villages built into the mountains along the way. At one point the road was blocked by a herd of goats. Closer to Lima the traffic started to build. It was about 4:30 and it seemed like all 8 million residents of Lima were sitting in traffic. We stopped at the Indian Market – our only shopping stop for the entire trip – especially since most of the places we were in, did not even have shops, picked up a few gifts and souvenirs and headed to our “day” room hotel to clean up prior to our 12:20 AM flight from Lima to Miami. Gunnar met us at the hotel at 8:15 PM and had a taxi waiting to take us. Now here we sit waiting to board our flight and doing the last day’s trip report!

Nov 19 - Cajamarca and flying back to Lima

2009-12-22T08:08:00.013-05:00

Today we started at 5:00 AM to head to San Marcos to look for the Great Spinetail. The first stop produced a Tawny Crowned Pygmy Tyrant, and a few already seen hummers. The plants were interesting because there was a lot of re-growth on burned areas such as on cactus and guava type plants. The second stop produced lots of Tropical Gnatcatchers, Amazilla and White Bellied Hummers and just when we were about to give up on the Spinetail, Juan came to get us to say he had great views of it. So we walked back and after about 5 minutes the bird responded to the taped call. It was now 9:30 so we decided to drive back to the Creek we were at the day before, but with the distance, bad roads and traffic we didn’t get there until about noon so we only had an hour to bird.

No new birds there, but it was nice to enjoy the sunshine in this scenic spot.We had great views of the Black Metaltail, Gray bellied Comet and Giant Hummingbird again, along with the Torrent Tyrannulet. At 1:00 we headed off to lunch in the same plaza area as the day before and I had fish (shark I think). Then we went back to the hotel to grab our luggage and head off to the airport for our 5:15 pm flight. On route Gunnar called to let me know that Juan would be buying our tickets as he forgot to book them! This actually went fairly smoothly, but there were issues with Martin and Ulf’s tickets because Gunnar bought them online and there was no way to indicate they weren’t Peruvian residents, therefore they had to pay a higher price at the airport. A van picked all of us up at the Lima airport and drove us to the Hotel La Castellana in Miraflores where Paul and I would be spending the night. Gunnar met us there and we all walked a couple of blocks for dinner. The diner’s doors were open and they were saw cutting the street outside, making a lot of noise and then 2 guys came in with guitars to drown out the other noise. After dinner we bid goodbye to Juan (our guide) and Martin and Ulf. They were headed off on a nighttime bus ride to Carpish for another 7 day birding event. Martin will have spent 2 months birding in Peru by the time he is done. Tomorrow we will have a 4:30 AM start and spend our last day in Santa Eulalia looking for Andean Condors and other higher elevation birds. The room at the Hotel this time is MUCH nicer than it was the first night in Peru. The first night the room was tiny and smelled musty.

Nov 18 - Celendin to Cajamarca & Santal Creek

2009-12-21T08:21:00.008-05:00

5:00 AM departure from Celendin on our first full rainy day. Our first stop was Cruz Congo at a high elevation to search the bamboo and pine forests for Antpitta, but it was a heard only bird. We searched the woods for other birds, but the rain made it difficult. We decided to stop for breakfast in this dark hole in the wall (literally) across from some farm fields. Paul and I just had yogurt as we had had enough eggs already this trip. While we waited, we saw an Andean Lapwing, and a Peruvian Sierra Finch in the fields across the street. The big Rottweiler was following us waiting for handouts – there are too many homeless underweight dogs in Peru – very sad, but I believe the restaurant owner owned this one at least. We snuck him some bread. Next stop was at the bottom of a winding gravel road that we climbed and had quite a few good birds as we listened to the cows mooing as they were being milked and watched the donkeys climbing the road strapped with silver milk bottles on each of their sides. Highlight birds were the Rusty crowned Tit-Spinetail, Lined Cheeked Spinetail, Rufous Crested Tanager, Tufted Tit Tyrant, Black masked Flowerpiercer and Black Crested Warbler. The rain became more steady, so after about an hour we rushed to the car, feeling pretty cold and wet. We then made the journey past the highest elevation point of the trip, but unfortunately with the rain, all the windows were fogged up and it was like driving thru a cloud so we missed all the views. We made our way to Cajamarca for a lunch stop at a modern restaurant, in comparison to some of the others, and then headed to Santal Creek to find the Gray Bellied Comet. This was a very scenic area with a small river, narrow dirt road and more small shacks. We watched a short Peruvian woman with her sombrero, skirt and wool in hand trying to drag her cow down a hill and then the cow got away for a short bit and she started throwing rocks at it, quite a site. I asked her if I could take a photo and she said yes if I paid her. Some great looks at Giant Hummingbird, Black Metaltail, Torrent Tyrannulet, White Winged Cincoldes, White browed Chat Tyrant, Morning Sierra-finch, Band Tailed Seedeater, Black Crested Tit Tyrant and Andean Swifts. Heading to our hostal “El Mirador”, we hit quite a bit of traffic going thru Cajarmarca. I had no idea it was such a big city. We walked to dinner near the plaza and on the way back I took a night shot of the beautiful church just off the plaza.

Nov 17 - Leymebamba to Celendin (the day of huge temperature ranges)

2009-12-21T07:46:00.011-05:00

5:30 AM departure from Leymebamba. We had breakfast on the road behind the van and heard a Rufous Vented Tapaculo which we eventually got to see. We also watched a pair of Barred Becards building a nest. Another highlight bird of the morning was the Lined Cheek Spinetail. We took the road to Celendin which went up to 3700 meters then down 3000 meters to Balsas, then back up to 2570 meters in the town of Celenden, leaving the department of Amazonas and entering the department of Cajamarca. It was a cold start to the morning – probably mid 40’s. Our first stop was when we spotted a few Andean Lapwings and on the other side of the road two Andean Flickers. The lapwings were very large compared to other Lapwings we have seen before on other trips. By lunch we reached the lowest point in the town of Balsas where it was probably 100F. We ate at a very dirty small restaurant and had chicken and rice. Upon leaving we stopped on the other side of the river where it looked like we were in Big Bend Texas – lots of cactus, guava, and century plants, with the muddy river flowing thru the mountains. We saw a small flock of scarlet fronted parakeets. The ground was littered with small cone shaped shells – very odd. At the next stop we spotted a Black necked Woodpecker (endemic), Bare Faced Ground Dove and Buff Bridled Inca Finch. The Chestnut Backed Thornbird stuck it’s head out of the hanging stick nest when we played it’s song, while it’s mate was under a tree listening. Martin spotted a Tarantula crossing the road so we stopped for photos then continued our way to Celendin which is a much larger town then Leymebamba. The hostal we are staying at is called Loyer’s. The rooms all face an open air courtyard which is larger and simpler than previous places. We went to a restaurant next to the hotel and were excited to order pizza – we’ll see if it comes. It is 8:45 PM already and no dinner…

The drive thru the mountains was pretty scary at times. It was really only passable by one car so it was very interesting when another card approached. We had to blow the horn at every curve to warn potential oncoming cars. It was a dirt road and sheer drops with no guard rails. It was interesting to see a house here and there in such remote places. Women wearing tall straw hats carrying baby’s in a blanket attached to their back as they walked or farmed the fields. We even saw one lady knitting with the whole family sitting outside with her. Houses are basically small shacks with no electricity or running water.

At the end of the day we stood in a field by the side of the road while thousands of white collared swifts passed by. Since some people had gotten Chiggers, I was a bit hesitant to walk too far into this field.

Nov 16 - Chillo to Leymebamba

2009-12-20T15:41:00.022-05:00

5:30 AM breakfast of a fruit cup sprinkled with quiwicha and some bread. It was a nice change from eggs. We visited the 2 snuggled together Koepcke’s Screech Owls once more before taking off to Leymebamba. We actually passed thru the town and started on a very bad dirt road of which we had to turn around since it wasn’t passable. The primary mode of transportation here seems to be by Horseback instead of by Motorcycle Rickshaw, which was more prominent at lower elevations. We took the road to Sixsi. We walked the road first crossing the river and then back to the main road. The landscape was littered with moss covered rocks and logs and we were surrounded by Andean hillside at an elevation of 2500 meters. We had scope views of a beautiful Slaty-Backed Chat-Tyrant sitting near the river (and got a photo too). We walked about 3 miles total and turned around when the threat of rain was looming. It was at the end of the walk where we had the most birds and great views of the Gray-Breasted Mountain Toucan and the Golden Headed Quetzal. There was also a nice flock of Blackburnian Warblers, Mountain Caciques, Spectacled Whitestarts (Redstarts), and White banded Tyrannulets.

Later, we stopped at the home of a German woman called Kentipata who had lots of hummingbird feeders and had lunch there – chicken sandwiches and banana bread. The gardens were beautiful and we had great looks at many hummers including the Sword-billed, Purple Throated Sunangel, Sparkling Violetear, White bellied, Marvelous Spatuletail, and Rainbow Starfrontlet to name a few.

We stayed there until about 4:00 PM and then took the road toward Cajamarca to do some birding along the road before returning to the hotel in Leymebamba called Laguna de la Condores. The birding was at an area that seemed to have endless skies – very open hilly habitat. We had 3 Mountain Caracaras flying over head mixed in with Black and Turkey Vultures. Some other highlight birds were the Scarlet Bellied Mountain- Tanager, Streak Throated Bush Tyrant, Red Crested Cotinga, and lots of Blue and White Swallows that had burrows in the side of the cliffs near the road. They were getting ready for roosting just before we left at 6:00 PM. We checked in to the hotel which is behind a stone walled front on a very narrow street. There was a nice courtyard in the center with a garden where we did our checklist before going to dinner. We ate at a small restaurant in town after walking thru the town square. – steak and rice. We were the only ones there.

Nov 15 - Abra Patricia to Chillo

2009-12-20T15:04:00.010-05:00

Paul went owling again for the last time at Abra Patricia at 4:15 AM. Once again I decided to sleep in, but Paul woke me up at 6:10 to tell me he had found the endemic Johnson’s (Lulu) Tody Tyrant. So we rushed down the hill to near the guard shack and within about 15 minutes relocated 2 birds. Paul got some photos but is not sure if the lens setting was focused properly. After satisfying looks we also had great looks at Rufous Naped Brush-Finches and then decided to walk a little of the lower trail. There was quite a bit of bird song this morning and we followed one small flock with a mix of tanagers. Breakfast at 7:30 and then we went to pack up. We decided to walk the lower trail again and had Inca Jay, Flame Faced, Blue and Black and Saffron Crowned Tanagers and great looks at Pearl Treerunner and Montane Woodcreeper. We waited for Martin to get back and then left at 10:45 for our departure to Chillo. We stopped at a small restaurant at the turnoff to Chillo. The floor smelled like oil and the food was bland – we both had trout which was very bony. The landscape changed dramatically on our drive as we followed a river that had cut thru the Andes. The hills were littered with Cactus and as we got closer to Chillo, more banana trees were present. Paul spotted a Fasciated Tiger Heron standing on a rock in the river and I got a digiscoped shot just before my camera battery died. We had some Mitred Parakeets perched in trees by the river – which is unusual as most parrots and parakeets we have seen this trip have been flyovers. We saw a rufous colored bird fly across the road, so decided to pull over to do a little more investigating. It was a female White Lined Tanager, but there was a tree there full of fruit and birds. We had a view of a 3 tiered waterfall that cut thru the cliffs in the distance and there was a rainbow on the other side of the road. The stream that flowed by the road produced a Plumbeous Rail to our surprise as it walked along the river. We also had Blue-And-Yellow Tanager, Maranon Thrush, Yellow Rumped Euphonia, Golden Bellied Grosbeak and many others. We arrived at the hotel about 6:00 – a beautiful castle looking place with nice gardens and 2 Koepcke’s Screech Owls sitting in the tree across the road. Chillo is the name of the hotel and I’m not sure if there is even a town name since it is on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere.

Nov 14 - Abra Patricia, Afluentes, Aguas Verde, Royal Sunangel spot

2009-12-20T14:37:00.008-05:00

Paul went owling again this morning at 4:15 AM and I slept till breakfast at 7:30, yeah! We then took the van to Afluentes, where we got just a few birds including the Variable Bristle-Tyrant, but in general it was very slow – probably because it was too hot and sunny. We then went to Aguas Verdes and looked for Cock of the Rock again – we saw one all orange immature one and then down by the river I had great looks at an Orange Male with Black wings – no photos though since it was too far away. At the river, we had the male and female Torrent Ducks with 2 chicks – mom was giving them swimming lessons. Then we went back to Abra for lunch at 1:15 (seemed like we should have brought a boxed lunch since we wasted 2 hours in the car driving back and forth). After a short break we took a drive down to the Royal Sunangel spot again and it was very quiet there as well except for on the return I had great looks at what we are guessing were a male and immature Bar Winged Wood Wren – although the photo in this book doesn’t show the immature and the male in person seemed to have blacker wings with white dots. Quite often we go without getting a comfortable ID. We waiting for dusk so we could try for Cinnamon Screech Owl, which we did hear and had a quick fly by – but too dark to really see much. But while we waited a Sickle Winged Guan perched on the hill above our heads. I was happy to see this bird as Paul had it on his morning owling adventure, but I hadn’t seen it yet.

Dinner was once again very good: pumpkin soup with leeks and celery, spaghetti and peaches for dessert. Juice was Mango and Papaya.

Nov 13 - Abra Patricia

2009-12-20T14:08:00.010-05:00

This morning Paul got up to go owling at 4:00 AM with the group, but I decided to stay in. He said they were hearing lots of sound, but the guide, Juan, was not playing the tapes to match the sounds, so no owl sightings! I met them for breakfast about 6:15 and then we walked the lower trail at Abra Patricia. Once again, it was pretty quiet, but the first bird we got was a great one – the Golden Headed Quetzal! Fabulous looks, but no photos as it took off too quick. The only other highlight bird was the Long Tailed Antbird, gorgeous one. We checked the road for a bit and decided to head back up to the room around 11:00 to catch up on stuff. I’m still trying to dry out all my wet stuff – but our room is in the shade which makes it difficult. I figured I would come down to the lodge to try to connect to the internet using a cable since there is no wireless here, but they said the generator was down. Hopefully it will be back soon.

After lunch it started to rain so we had to wait until about 3:00 to go birding on the back trail, but we did bird from under the overhang of the rooms, primarily watching the hummingbird feeders: Emerald-Bellied Puffleg and Speckled Hummingbird. It is amazing how the birds come out after the rain, but are very quiet when it is sunny. We had quite a few nice birds towards the end of the trail: Emerald Toucannet, Masked Trogan, Band Tailed Fruiteater, Streaked Tuftedcheek, Pearled Treerunner, Metalic Green Tanager along with lots of other tanagers previously seen this trip. We had on and off light showers the whole time, but this didn’t interfere with the birding. We met to start the checklist around 6:45 and also had a nice dinner – spinach soup and chicken with rice and French fries. The food has been very good here. Julio arrived with the repaired van just after dinner.

Nov 12 - Mishkyacu to Abra Patricia

2009-12-20T13:48:00.005-05:00

A 5:45 AM start today – nice to sleep in a bit for a change – but I think I still only got 5 hours…A taxi picked us up and brought us to nearby Quebrada Mishkyacu to bird a humid forest. The trails were steep, muddy, narrow and jungle like. The birding was tough as we were mostly in Antbird type of habitat. We spent a lot of time calling in White browed Antbirds successfully, but the highlight was really the pair of Saddleback Tamarin monkeys that we hopefully got good photos of. They were very small with a white face and a flat head. They clung to a side of 2 trees and kept hopping between each as they watched us. It started to rain just as it was about time to head back. So we carefully made our way back down the muddy steep trail. Back at the hotel by 9:30 for breakfast and packing up. We left there about 11:00, but to our shock in the same taxi. This time it had to fit luggage for 5 of us for a 2 hour ride! It was not very comfortable and here I must add that I have been very disappointed in the transportation end of this trip, among other things. Julio stayed back to fix the van and plans to drive to Abra Patricia tomorrow. We have 3 nights here. The regular van has no air conditioning and in 90 degree temps with little ventilation in the back, it can be quite unbearable. There is not one comfortable seat in the van either – most seats you feel the springs in.

When we arrived at AP it was still raining, which was not very lucky on our part as far as luggage goes. It is about ¼ mile walk up a steep muddy path to the lodge. The lodge staff came down and carried our bags up for us – trying to keep them covered, but apparently failed because when I went to put on my rain pants I was shocked to find they were already soaked along with a half of my clothes and all of my magazines! Good thing we are here for a few days so they can dry out, though it is much cooler here since we are at about 2500 meters. When the rain ended, we had 2-3 nice flocks of birds pass through around the lodge and trails. We got great looks at the florescent Green Grass Tanager which was the bird of the day for me. After dinner and doing the bird list (which is always very painful and takes hours because not everyone has the same list since it was not provided to us from the start, and we need to look up birds because our new guide has a tendency not to tell us what the birds are when we see them, probably because he needs to look them up first), we walked down to the main road to try to call in some nightjars with no luck, but the night sky was amazing as there was no light pollution. I wish I could see this many stars at home. Paul continued with the group to try for Owls, but I wanted to write today’s report before bed because by tomorrow I will forget everything… The rooms here are very nice, quiet and homey. They are separate cabanas which is almost like being home, but the place is run by generator so I am writing this using my headlamp since they turn the generator off by 10:00 PM.

Nov 11 - Tarapoto to Moyobamba - heading back the way we came

2009-12-20T12:44:00.011-05:00

A 5:00 AM start brought us to birding the road from Tarapoto to Yurimaguas with our new guide for this leg of the trip, Juan Jose Chalco. There are only 4 of us now: Paul and I and Martin and Ulf.

It was a beautiful vista point, but with only a few small flocks. We heard the Cock of the Rock’s calling in the background. We had great views in the scope of Swallow Tanagers and Cliff Flycatchers. We also had a few groups of Euphonias, a Gilded Barbet, Bay Headed Tanager and a Blackish Pewee. Paul spotted a small Saddleback Tamarin. Unfortunately everyone else missed it as soon as he saw Paul looking at him, he took off. We returned to the hotel for breakfast and to checkout. We took the 2 hour drive to Moyobamba where we will spend the night and actually had some welcome rain along the way to cool off the 90 degree temps. We had lunch at the hotel Marco Antonio at 1:45. Then we were picked up by taxi since Julio now needs to spend the next 2 days fixing the van. The taxi had 5 of us plus the driver squished in like sardines. The back seat middle felt like sitting on pointed metal! We went to the Tingana reserve to take a motorized wooden boat upriver and then into a narrow jungley channel where after about halfway we got into a six seater dugout canoe. We had a few Black faced Nunbirds, lots of Amazon, Ringed and Green Rufous Kingfishers and a very interesting potential bird of Little Tinamou just sitting still deeper into the woods. The neck seemed a bit shorter than what the book shows. The only other bird that looks possible is Ruddy Quail Dove. We also had nice views of a Coati and 2 Greater Yellowheaded Vultures. On the return down the main river at about 5:30, the sky cloud patterns were beautiful with one thick white cloud even containing a rainbow. We had many views of Oriole Blackbirds, 2 Collared Plovers, Drab Water Tyrants, and a Red capped Cardinal. We returned to the hotel, met to do the list at 7:30, but didn’t eat dinner until 9. Another late night…

Nov 10 - Rioja to Tarapota, saying goodbye to half the group

2009-12-20T12:06:00.007-05:00

5:00 AM departure today using a taxi service to Morro de Calzada. Jane stayed back at the hotel. It is the last day of the North Peru 2 trip and tomorrow will start the North Peru 4 trip with just 4 of us. The landscape was quite scenic this morning with Palm Trees, Mountains, and fields. We walked down a narrow sandy trail hoping for nightjars, but it was too late as the sun was already rising. Our first birds were Lettered Aracari, and Yellow Ridged Toucan, Black Faced Tanager, and White Browed Purpletuft. Further along we had the Buckley’s Forest Falcon. The taxi picked us up at 9:30 to return to the hotel for breakfast. Luckily Julio fixed the van by converting it to 2 wheel from 4 wheel drive. He has been amazing – our driver, cook, and mechanic! This afternoon we are going to Tarapoto via an Oilbird shaft canyon and then on to Juan Guerra. The Oilbirds were awesome – resting in a narrow cavern right by the road. Birding at Juan Guerra was pretty quiet as we walked on the dusty road above the river. Then we checked into our hotel Cumbaza in Tarapoto, had dinner and said goodbye to David, Jane, Gunnar and Norbert.

Nov 9th - The big day - Yacumama, Affluentes - 150 species!

2009-12-20T11:09:00.010-05:00

Today we started at 5:30 AM and headed to Yacumama to bird a fabulous area - tons of birds. It was the best day so far in terms of variety and the number of species. We had 150 species for the day! We were escorted by a very friendly female dog who proceeded to chase every bicycle that passed by us. She also ran ahead of our group to ward off any intruders. There was a noisy group of Speckled Chachalacas, a brief glimpse of a Buckley’s Forest Falcon, Amazonian White tailed Trogan, Black fronted Nunbird, Gilded Barbet, Crimson Crested Woodpecker, and Masked Crimson Tanager to name a few. Then on to Affluentes, where we ran into one flock after another – lots of tanagers, a female Wire-crested Thorntail, Booted Racket-tail, lots of Woodpeckers, Woodcreepers, Spinetails, Xenops, Versicolored Barbet, and a beautiful Scarlet-Breasted Fruiteater that I found, to name a few of the birds! It was amazing, everyone was calling out a different bird and trying to keep up! This was quite a different experience from yesterday when we birded this same area. Today was cooler and cloudier, which may have made a difference. Just before lunch we saw a large group of Brown Capuchin Monkeys. We had lunch across from the restaurant that we ate at yesterday out at our tables that Julio set up in the open lot so that we could watch for birds. We also stopped at the Cock of the Rock place, but only heard them in the distance today, but we did find White-Capped Dippers in the river! Then we went back to Yacumama before dusk where we had a Striped Owl fly over our head! We also had a Capped Heron – beautiful white bird with a plume and 3 Chestnut Eared Aracaris. That is where the vehicle started making noises. We made it back to the hotel (same as last nights), but we will have another temporary vehicle tomorrow. Every day there is some snafu! We got back to the hotel at 7:15 and actually finished dinner (take out Chinese) by 8:45, a new record for the trip. But doing the checklist takes hours…

Nov 8 - Abra Patricia to Rioja

2009-12-20T10:25:00.009-05:00

With headlamps on we headed up the trail at 5:00 AM and started to hear a few bird sounds. We struck out on the Long Whisked Owlet, but did hear a White Throated Screech Owl and a Rufous Banded Owl. On the walk back we had Variable Antshrikes, both male and female. We then ascended the tower, but there was not much up there except pretty views of the jungley hilly habitat of the Andes. Julio prepared breakfast for us to eat at Abra Patricia and then we descended the road on our own without Gunnar as he had to check his email, etc since we had not had access in 2 days. At the end of the road we ran into a big flock of a variety of beautiful tanagers including Saffron Crowned Tanager and a Chestnut Crested Cotinga. Once the flock moved on, we walked down the main road birding along the way. Once Julio and Gunnar caught up with us we birded with Gunnar, Martin and Norbert sitting on the roof of the van watching for birds while we sat in the van. If they saw something they would stomp on the roof and Julio would stop and we would get out. Some of the highlight birds were the Andean Solitaire, Vermillion Tanagers and White Capped Tanagers. We then made our way to a roadside stop for lunch, where we had a mix of Lentils, rice and tuna. We continued to walk down the road, but it wasn’t too birdy until we got the flock of Black Capped Donacobius’ which were being chased off by Smooth billed Ani’s. There was also a group of Thrush-like Wrens, Yellow-Rumped Caciques, a Magpie Tanager and a Squirrel Cuckoo. We then made a stop to see the Cock of the Rock at Aguas Verdes, what a fabulous bird! Unfortunately it was in a forest so it was hard to get photos. We then said goodbye to Alan Wilkinson (a London Nokia employee) that we met on this trip. He was continuing his trip to Southern Peru. But we had to call him back because Paul spotted a Torrent Duck from the bridge over the Rio Verde River. This was one of our target birds so it was exciting to see! Then on towards Rioja where we are spending the night at the Gran Bombanaje Hotel , but we made a stop at the Poisic rice fields to check for Crakes. I got to sit on the roof of the van this time, but all we saw were Purple Gallinules, Striated Herons and a Yellow Browed Sparrow. We arrived at the hotel at about 7 PM, and had takeout Chinese in the restaurant of the hotel.

Nov 7 - Marvelous Spatuletail and the Royal Sunangel spot

2009-12-19T19:38:00.014-05:00

With a 5:45 AM start we made our way to meet Santos to view the Marvelous Spatuletail at what we are calling the "Kolibri reserve" since Gunnar helped raise money to purchase this land. It was a steep hike and the birds were moving fast, but eventually we got some great looks! We also had some Blue Capped Tanagers and a variety of other Hummingbirds including both Trainbearers. The next stop was at the reserve that had hummingbird feeders, where we got even better looks at the Spatuletail, and other hummers. Then we headed back to the hotel to pack up for our drive to Abra Patricia and to have lunch. The gardens of the hotel were beautiful with lots of orange and red lantana and red hot poker flowers. We then got the bad news that we couldn’t stay at Abra Patricia tonight because there was no power and the next night they were full. Kolibri screwed up the reservations (or forgot to make them), but we were told we would still be able to bird there. However when we got there the gate was locked and the guard said that he didn’t have a key!!!! So he said he would try to get one while we birded the road. We went to the Royal Sunangel spot and were greeted by a pair of Cinnamon Flycatchers. We hiked along this narrow steep path at the top of a ridge and did get looks at the Royal Sunangel Hummingbird, along with quite a few pretty tanagers including the Flame Faced Tanager and Beryl Speckled Tanager. We returned to Abra Patricia and (were finally able to get in) and got a few more views of Hummingbirds at the feeders, but otherwise it was pretty quiet. Funny though there was power and we were wondering what happened with our reservation??? Anyway we decided to try to get to back to the hotel in Pomacochas at a reasonable hour, which ended up being about 7 PM, but decided to eat out since the guy running the hotel said it would be about an hour and a half before dinner would be ready since he was the only one doing everything at the hotel. We decided to risk eating out at a local “dirty” restaurant and had fried chicken with rice and potato. It actually wasn’t bad considering how dirty the place looked. We also fed some chicken to this cute black dog that sat next to the table. We got back to the hotel by 9:00 and bed by 9:15 as we had to wake up at 3:20 AM to get to the Long Whiskered Owlet spot at Abra Patricia by 5:00 AM.

Nov 6 - Jaen to Pomacochas

2009-12-19T18:26:00.009-05:00

A 6:00 AM departure brought us to Gota de Agua Reserve in Jaen, comprised of 1800 hectares, to look for the Maranon specialties. The landscape included Palm trees and Banana trees and wasn’t as dry habitat as we have had previously. By 7:20 the temperature was already up to 94 degrees. The paths were narrow and tall vegetation on each side made it very difficult to see any birds. Paul kept getting little black flies in his eyes and the mosquitoes were biting our backs. Some highlight birds were the Green Jay, Yellow tailed Orioles, and Maranon Black Capped Sparrow. We spent until about 11:00 there and then returned to the hotel to grab our bags. There was talk that the road to Pomocochas, where we will be spending the night, that it closes due to a water project and is only open for an hour, but Gunnar was told it was open today. Unfortunately this was wrong and we made it to Bagua to discover that the road would be closed until 6:00 PM! So we decided to stop for lunch at a restaurant. After a nice lunch we took a drive into the back of a neighborhood and walked the narrow jungly trails, found a few silver beaked tanagers and another Peruvian Pygmy Owl. We then took a ride over to a fast moving river. Got a few distance birds, but then it was time to make the dusty winding road drive which was under construction, to Pomacochas. Checked into the Puerto Pumas Hotel in Pomacochas at 9:45 PM and had dinner at 10:15 PM. So far the nicest hotel – some interesting art, gardens and antiques.

Nov 5 El Limon to Abra Porculla, Jaen

2009-12-14T08:16:00.011-05:00

Overnight my cell phone battery died, therefore no alarm, so we awoke with 5 minutes to prepare to depart! Our morning hike was successful in finding the Guan, thanks to Lino and his cute dog's help, although it took much longer than expected.
We finished our search by 10:00, made our way back to the van, escorted by Lino’s dog, for a nice outdoor breakfast that Julio had prepared for us – yogurt, granola, fruit and pastries all with a table setup just behind the van. When he cleaned up we walked down the road, and met a man walking out to us from his ranch that wanted to sell us a white winged guan! So much for this being a protected area for the birds! Two cute baby goats came out of nowhere and seemed lost and cautiously followed us calling, Ma… Not too many highlight birds for the morning since our primary goal was to find the Guan, but some nice ones included Black Capped Sparrow, Vermillion Flycatcher, Pacific Hornero, Streak-headed Woodcreeper and White-Edged Oriole.

We got back to the hotel to pick up Jane and Alan who decided to sleep in, and headed off to Abra Porculla in the Andes to search for some higher elevation species. First we walked the road a bit and had a perched Ecuadorian Trogan, Rufous Winged Tyrannulet and then we hiked up and down this steep path probably 3 times which led to a small stream. We had Three Banded Warbler, Slate Throated Whitestart (Redstart), Elegant Crescentchest, Black Cowled Saltators, Chapman’s Antshrike, Azarra’s Spinetail (elegantior race), Purple Collared Woodstar, and Black Chested Buzzard Eagle. We then tried to make our 3 hour drive to Jaen, but kept finding good birds along the road where I found a Speckled Hummingbird, which Gunnar thought may be split (Western form) and if so would be a life bird for him, some Rufous Collared Sparrows, Aplomado Falcons, and American Kestral. We arrived at the Hotel Prim’s at 8:30 and sat down to dinner for Chinese at the hotel at 9:45 PM again – another late night.

Nov 4th - Piura to El Limon

2009-12-06T14:53:00.008-05:00

We had another early breakfast (5:30) on the outdoor patio at the hotel in Piura and then we checked the Sechura Desert scrublands for Peruvian Plantcutter. After a few stops we had success! This was the best stop as far as having trees – the other stops had been cleared of most trees.

The other highlight target birds were Necklaced Spinetail, Tumbes Hummingbird and Supercilliated Wren. We did see a very cool lizard by the side of the road that was about 2 feet long, spotted body and striped legs. Hopefully we’ll get a copy of Jane’s photo as our camera was in the car. We headed to Olmos and had a very good lunch of flat fish and rice at a local restaurant and then continued our search for Rufous Flycatcher with no luck. We had a hard time finding the road to look for the flycatcher. It was very hot and incredibly dry and dusty and sitting in the van was almost suffocating at points.

Our final very late stop (very bad planning on Gunnar’s part) was El Limon to look for the White Winged Guan. The areas was surrounded by mountains and continued to be very scrubby habitat at what seemed like a higher elevation.

Along the road Paul spotted 3 Peruvian Thick-knees. Hiking was tough as far as oxygen and Gunnar tends to walk incredibly fast, well ahead of most of the group. We ran into 2 local men along the way that mentioned they had seen a mountain lion. We had some nice views of King Vultures soaring.

The participants were getting nervous as it was getting late and we didn’t realize that we should have brought flashlights and water. We met up with a local guide who tried to find us the guans, but the sun was setting so 3 of us decided to slowly turn back. Of course as soon as we left the group, a Harris’s hawk flushed the guans for the other group, but the 3 of us never got to see them – although we did hear them making a racket. So he guided us to where they rest for the night and flushed 2 of them, but it was too dark to see. Now it was dark and we still had about a 30 minute walk in the dark. Somehow we managed to make it back to the car with only Jane slipping off the path. Checked into a nice clean hotel in Olmos, Valle Grande, that even had a toilet seat! Once again we are eating dinner at 9:30 from an outdoor chicken stand, but were able to sit in a nearby room. It was another long day with a 4:50 AM departure scheduled for tomorrow to try for the Guan again.

Nov 3 - Talara pelagic

2009-12-06T14:32:00.005-05:00

We did a morning 6 hour Pelagic on an old fishing boat out of Talara.

There were plastic stools to sit on and it was like riding a combo of a horse or an elephant depending on the waves. The birding was very good and we got lots of life birds, but Paul fell off his stool and hurt his back and got a wave over his head and I got hit with numerous waves that ended up soaking me from the waist down! I did win the stool contest as I was the only one to survive never falling off my stool… All that Yoga and leg muscle conditioning paid off.

The highlight bird was the Pomarine Jaeger which was so close over our heads and almost took food from someone’s hand – but it was smart in that there really wasn’t any food. But it had taken the fish that one of the crew had caught while it was still on his line and we saw the line flying in the sky along with the attached bottle. We were also saddened to hear that the fishermen catch and eat waved albatrosses and that Peru does not offer any protection for this species since it does not breed here! We had great looks at Sabine’s Gulls, White vented Storm Petrels, Black storm petrels, and White chinned petrels. We returned to the hotel to change out of our soaken clothes, packed up the van and headed to a nearby restaurant for lunch of a tuna salad and beef with rice.

On the drive to Piura we stopped in Sullana for the Tumbes Swallow spotted on a wire and then to St. Pedro de Vice to look for Chillean Flamingos in the marshes, of which there were none, but I found a male Least Seedsnipe and Paul found the female –very cute shorebird type of birds. Gunnar thinks this may be the northern most record for this species.

We said goodbye to Jeannie and dropped her at the Piura airport and continued on to our hotel – Algarrobos in Piura. The room is basic, but the interesting thing is that there is no toilet seat. We are now waiting for our dinner at the restaurant and it is almost 10 PM! With only 10 hours of sleep in the last 2 days, we are beat…

Northern Peru birding trip Nov 1-21, 2009

2009-12-06T13:36:00.018-05:00

Monday Nov 2, 2009

We arrived in Lima last night at 11:00 PM and got to the Hotel La Castellana in Miraflores at about 12:30 AM. Knowing we were meeting our guide Alejandro at 5:30 AM and that we would only get 4 hours sleep, we went to bed ASAP.

We departed right on time and were surprised to see it was light out already – although very overcast. Our first stop was Pucusana to look for Humbolt Penguins, Inca Terns and Red-legged Cormorants. We were successful with all and got stupendous looks at the gorgeous Inca Terns standing on the edge of cliffs, some tending to young. We also watched a pair of Band Tailed Gulls sitting on a nest.

The steep black rock cliffs offered no guards against falling into the ocean, so we walked carefully amongst the soft ground.

Next it was on to Puerto Viejo, first we stopped at the marshes, a strange site amongst the dessert and spotted a few pairs of Many-colored Rush-Tyrants, Peruvian Meadowlark, so beautifly red, Least Bittern and Wren-like Rushbirds were noisily clicking away in the reeds. Cinnamon Teals and incredibly blue billed Ruddy ducks swam the ponds with the Andean Coots (we learned that the bill colors of the coots vary from white, yellow or red).

Then we walked the beach littered with light orange colored crabs that quickly dove into their holes as we approached. Thousands of Neotropic and Guanay Cormorants were migrating or circling the waters in front of the crescent shaped beach. More Inca Terns were hanging out on the rocks. Lots of Peruvian Boobies passed by as well.

The Peruvian coast is mainly dry dessert and mountains. We walked thru a dusty scrubby land where we came upon 10 Peruvian Thick-knees, 4 Burrowing Owls, an Oasis Hummingbird, and a few Lesser Nighthawks.

Our final stop was at Pantanos de Villa which appeared to be a gated private property beach and marsh area. Hundreds of black vultures were sunning themselves between the marshes and beach along with Grey Headed Gulls. A mix of American Oystercatchers, Whimbrels, Snowy Egrets, Little Blue Herons were patrolling the beach – an odd site to see them at the shoreline trying to avoid the incoming waves. The marsh was filled with Great and Pied billed Grebes, Andean (Ruddy) Ducks, Moorhens with chicks, Coots with chicks, one Skimmer, and Puna Ibis. A quick stop on the way to the airport brought us a cute pair of White-tufted Grebes

We had a 4 PM flight to Piura, but we had to rush at the airport because they require a separate line to pay a departure fee and we almost missed our flight.

Once in Piura a driver picked us and Alan, from London, up. Alan also happens to work at Nokia, but we had never met before and he had happened to visit my office last week, how coincidental! We made the 2 hour drive to Talara to stay at the El Angolo Hotel. We met up with 6 more participants and Gunnar (our guide) and went off to dinner at a small “restaurant” in the back of a convenience store for pizza and lasagna.