Razorbill, 1/5/15.

Razorbill by brick911, on Flickr

Razorbill is my most wanted bird right now

We don't get many of those on the left coast

-nightdriver

40 or so new birds on Bioko so far. Most recent was Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird.

I saw 306 new species of birds this winter in Equatorial Guinea and Ethiopia. The last was the Tawny-flanked Prinia. This put my world list at 1515. I guess 2000 is the next goal.

These are just the ones I liked best, not necessarily the rarest or prettiest.

Top 5 Bioko
1. Gray-necked Rockfowl
2. Yellow-billed Turaco
3. Gray Parrot
4. Yellowbill
5. Black-necked Wattle-eye

Top 5 Ethiopia
1. Lammergeier
2. Vulturine Guineafowl
3. Lappet-faced Vulture
4. Prince Ruspoli's Turaco
5. Pygmy Falcon

Cool list. Lammergeier would be an awesome bird.

Black-billed Cuckoo. Finally. This was my curse bird. I have been actively birding for 14 years now and have lived in its range the entire time.

A couple days ago, we were driving on an abandoned farm road when I saw a cuckoo hop up from a low branch to the top of the tree. I shouted stop, and was able to get out and confirm it was a Black-billed Cuckoo with quality views. That night we were doing foraging telemetry on bats, and I heard another one at around 3:30 AM. I have heard at least 2 more in different areas in the week since I first saw the original. Funny how its years of nothing and then see one, hear 3 in a week.

Curtis

Other than the four new birds I got from ebird's taxonomy update (viewtopic.php?f=19&t=22434), I did get finally get a bird off my curse bird list last week while in New Zealand.

I have heard Moreporks (a NZ name for the Southern Boobook Owl) many times while visiting NZ. I have been just a few feet from a pair of them calling in a small tree in the front yard. I recorded them in the dark but waited to turn on a flashlight until my better half came out.
While I waited, they flew off!
I did get a good recording though -



It has gone on like this for at least 10 trips I have made to New Zealand over the last 12 years and I sort of felt like I was never going to see one. I heard a lot of them, just couldn't find one.

Last week, my parents and I had gone down to the local coffee shop for morning coffee and as we drove back up the hill to their house, I happened to glance into a patch of young Kauri trees and noticed a bird shaped lump backlit on one of the branches. New Zealand Pigeons are large and often sit like this on branches, so I was not very convinced, but after we got to the house I grabbed my camera and binocs and hiked the mile or so down the hill to see if I could see it. I didn't notice it as I passed the first time going down the hill, so I figured it was a pigeon and had flown. As I walked back up the hill though, I managed to look into the correct group of trees from the correct angle and spotted it.....at it was a Morepork!!!

Unfortunately, it was facing away from my and I couldn't get a good angle, but I got a photo anyway and a lifer!!



After I took these photos, it never moved so I packed my camera back in my backpack and started to head up the hill home. Right as I started to walk up the hill I glanced over and it had turned around to face the road! I quickly and carefully put my camera bag down and took out my camera, but when I stood back up it had flown. Bummer. I scanned that patch of trees several times over the next few days but I could never find it again.

Common Tern was my latest lifer. But it was somewhat iffy. My favorite recent lifer was a few weeks ago, a Mississippi Kite. Gorgeous bird. Didn't have my camera, naturally. Even though i KNEW i was going to look for this bird.

I added a new US and Texas bird to my list last week, but it wasn't technically a "lifer" since I had seen it before in Mexico but it was Texas number #468, US #549.

Collared Plover - this bird has been hanging around a playa in south Texas last summer and reappared this summer. Couldn't get a decent photo because it was simply too far away and I saw it at 8:15pm just after sunset. My scope view was OK, but this is the best I could do for a photo (major crop of a shot at ISO 16000, 400mm lens from 140 yards away) -



I know you can't tell from my photo, but it really was,...really.

The only downer of my trip down there was a known Leptodeira locality nearby that I searched to no avail.

I went on a pelagic trip out of Dana Point CA yesterday. For most people, the highlight was a Red-footed Booby, which was only an ABA lifer for me. New birds for me:

Elegant Tern
Craveri's Murrelet
Cassin's Auklet
Pink-footed Shearwater
Black-vented Shearwater
Black Storm-petrel


Some lifers from my drive west:
Townsend's Solitaire
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Juniper Titmouse

State lifer today - White-winged Scoter.

Not an easy bird to get in Texas. They appear now and then but are usually one day wonders. This pair stayed around for 3 days so far.

Couldn't get close enough for a decent photo, but I got a documentation shot -

Been awhile since I've been on here. But my latest was a Kelp Gull (December 9, 2015). Tried for it and missed the other day.

I saw several Montezuma Quail in Arizona in October.

I'm currently in Brunei where I've seen 26 new species so far. Some favorites have been Purple-throated Sunbird, Orange-bellied Flowerpecker, Raffle's Malkoha, and Crimson Sunbird.

I should have a pretty decent winter with time in Sabah, Flores, Komodo, northern Sulawesi, and Raja Ampat. Carrying that many bird books is heavy though.





How is your ABA chase for 500 going?

Wow. That should add a few birds to the list.

Rajah Ampat is very high on my "to visit" list. Snorkeling there is supposed to be the best on the planet. Add a few Birds-of-Paradise and the trip would be complete! I hope we'll see a bird post on the forum!

Yeah, Raja Ampat is supposed to be incredible. If you haven't already, check out stayrajaampat.com, it makes trip planning simple and affordable, especially with how strong the dollar is at the moment. I doubt there will be a birding post, as I rarely photograph birds. I don't think I've done an actual post of any sort in a couple years. I have a few on the back burner, it just takes a lot of time.

Not as well as hoped. Life got a little wonky for a few years here. I am still 16 or 17 birds away, but going to S. Texas this December for another shot at Lower Rio Grande Valley birding. If I play it perfect, I'll make it since this there isn't a ton of regular occurring birds left for me down there.

Black-throated thrush.

Copenhagen, today.

These days, I am not serious about birding (some would probably say I never really was). I am not an active member of the community, I don't "subscribe to the hotline", I don't twitch (much).

Nonetheless, from time to time, when all other channels of procrastination seem to have run dry my browser finds its way to a local birder website. Thus, I chanced this afternoon upon reports of a black throated thrush (the 13th ever seen in Denmark) in an urban Copenhagen backyard wedged in between somewhat run down apartment blocks and small businesses in a rather derelict part of town just four miles from my home.

A major change in the weather overnight forecasted greatly increasing the risk would it move on I hurried out the door to try to catch a glimpse of the rare visitor in the weaning light of a sunset completely obscured by a blanket of dreary gray. We must have made for a strange sight indeed, a small group of standard issue, slightly odd looking birders peering into our bins and camera lenses through the bars of a locked gate as if in a zoo at some to the outsider rather nondescript little bird, several friendly but befuddled bypassers as well as inhabitants of surrounding apartments, their ever growing curiosity forcing them out in the snowy streets, stopping by to inquire.

Anywho...

first lifer of 2016 in the bag, first hometown lifer snice 2014

Not big on life listing these days, but in the past year or so I have knocked Yellow-breasted Chat and Bachman's Sparrow off the list. I did see what I'm pretty sure was a raven in western NC last fall but I didn't get a good look since I was driving. That would definitely be a new one for me.

I've seen 134 new species of birds since I last posted. 51 in Malaysia, 71 in Indonesia, 1 in Mexico, and 11 in the US.
There were many highlights, but the ones that stick out are Wilson's BoP and Red Bop, finally getting Golden-cheeked Warbler, Black-capped Vireo, and Colima Warbler, and Philadelphia Vireo in Michigan.

Wilson's Bird of Paradise (sorry for the photography)


Yellow-billed Kingfisher


Rufous-backed Dwarf Kingfisher

You globe-trotting birders make me feel small. Heck, I get excited seeing Orioles. I just seriously started my list in Oct 2015. I'm now up to 227 U.S. species with photo-vouchers. Newest were a Red-faced Warbler and Painted Redstart in AZ last week, but I really like Orioles...probably because they're tri-colored...

I have been slowly getting some new birds over the last couple months. I saw my first Sedge Wrens in MI over the 4th of July. I've been working in California this fall and finally got a Western Wood-pewee, which I have no idea how I didn't have before. I also saw Ridgeway's Rail, Short-tailed Shearwater, Surfbird, Greater White-fronted Goose, and a Rufous-backed Robin.


Curtis

Not a lifer, but Texas bird number 470.

There have been Brown Boobies reported more and more frequently along the central TX coast recently so I finally decided to drive down and just get the bird on my Texas list. The ones I chose happened to be a couple of miles out in the bay on a channel marker. If I hadn't spotted one flying up to roost there, I never would have noticed them and certainly wouldn't have ID'd them. Fortunately, I got good looks in flight.

Shoot through a 1000mm spotting scope attached to the camera from 1-2 miles away.



Since it was a lousy sighting, I'm glad it wasn't a lifer! I have seen the species many times before in 7 countries, including the Dry Tortugas in the US.

My last lifer was a Scott's Oriole in AZ in Sept (see pic). I ended my first year of bird pics with 297 species. I would have passed 300 if I hadn't had to have hernia surgery this month. I haven't been birding in 3 and a half weeks...I'm getting cabin fever...

This is tragic to hear Brian. And the thing was, you knew better. You had seen grown adults throw away otherwise productive lives when they started birding. It starts off so innocently, "Maybe I'll just take a photo of this Robin" and the next thing you know you are dressed in all khaki, laden with scopes, big lenses and binoculars and whispering things like "ticks", "lifer", "LBJ", and "ebird" to other addicts as you stare pointlessly through your lens hoping for that briefest fix.

The worst moment is when you say "maybe I should stop road-cruising early so I can get up and look for (fill in the bird name) first thing in the morning". It is a pathetic and slippery slope.

Yes, but it's a fun slippery slope...ya know, herps have gotten kinda boring for me...so this is new and exciting. I still photograph herps, but not with the enthusiasm I did a few years ago. I think I've seen too many...

BTW, last week I was on Wake Is. in the South Pacific and I got a pic of a Wake Is. Rail. I was hungry so I ate it. They taste a little like chicken...

Got a few new lifers in New Zealand over the Xmas break.

New Zealand King Shag - bird #2003
Yellow-crowned Parakeet - bird #2004 (no photo because one of the annoying people with me scared it off by yelling that they saw it as I tried to photograph it from 10 feet away )

Here's the lifer King Shags (quick shot as the boat powered by) -



and a shot from their breeding colony the next day. This is probably one of the most handsome of the cormorants and is only found in this very small area off the South Island of New Zealand -




_________________________________________________________

....but today I did something I said I would never do.

When I first started birding (33 years ago! gulp!) my birding buddy and I used to laugh about "border birders". We cracked up at the thought of people standing along the Rio Grande in Texas watching a bird on the Mexican side of the border waiting for it to fly at least over the middle of the river before they could count it on their US bird list.

Today I spent three and a half hours watching one Amazon Kingfisher sitting on a branch on the south side of the Rio Grande waiting for it to fly into US "airspace".
I told myself I wouldn't do it. But when I got down to Laredo and pulled into the park where the bird was I saw it sitting in a tree on the Mexican side of the river. It was obviously the right bird. There was another guy there who said it had just been over to the US side about 2 minutes before I drove up, so I thought...."what the hell, I might as well wait a few minutes just to be official".
The first guy left and another couple showed up who had been there for 4 hours already but had missed its brief US visit because he had to drive her to the bathrooms (some distance away). He wasn't very happy.
I wondered if I should wait, but decided I would give it a few minutes because I knew if I drove home the first thing I would read on Facebook was that it had flown over to the US and posed on a tree in perfect light for 20 minutes immediately after I drove off!.....I'll wait until I get hungry for lunch....

The bird came and went along the Mexican side, catching fish and moving back and forth between two trees. I got great looks at it since it was only 200 feet across the river and we were looking through binoculars. It never crossed and I got hungry so I went and got some food......then drove back to the river. What if it came immediately after I had driven off? I mean, I had waited an hour already, what's a few more minutes.

When I got back there, there were a few more birders from all over the US. We stood and talked and looked at the bird so close. Some of them were hardcore birders who were trying to figure out exactly where the middle of the river was. Then we argued about whether that island that it was actually on was in the US or Mexico. Google maps showed Mexico, but ebird created a US checklist when you chose that spot in the app? We went round and round, several people saying they were going to give up and come back in the morning, etc., etc. but not leaving.

Finally, at 4:15 pm it suddenly bolted east along the river but stayed on the Mexican bank. We followed it with our binoculars until it landed on a snag 100 yards downstream. We all picked up and moved down there hoping we might flush it and it would come back up to its normal haunt. The wind was favorable for it to blow across into the US airspace as it flew!

We got down there and chatted a while longer and while we were chatting, we looked up.....and it was gone. Panic set in as we scanned the river, particularly our side. Finally someone spotted it another 20 yards downstream still in Mexico. We started down that way when suddenly at 4:20pm it decided to fly over to the US side and fly 100 yards further downstream. But it had clearly flown along the US bank! It counted!!!! Actually, it landed in a small tree on the US side further downstream so we all got great looks at a US Amazon Kingfisher.

Some of them chased it downstream to try and get a picture of it in the US. I couldn't be bothered. I had lots of lousy photos of in the tree in Mexico so I didn't bother. As I walked to my car, I looked back and saw it fly further downstream out of their camera reach anyway.

So I waited 3.5 hours standing on a river bank for a stupid Kingfisher (which I had seen before BTW) to fly into US airspace so I could put it on my US list. God I suck! I'm such a birder and I'm so embarrassed that I did this.

Anyway, here's my 551st US bird and my 471st Texas bird (in Mexico a few hours before it became that).

Another new for US and Texas although not a lifer bird today.
I made yet another trip down to Refugio to look for the Golden-crowned Warbler that has been there for months. Of course, right as I arrived the handful of birders there were saying "oh, it was just here five minutes ago, flitting around right in front of us. We got great photos!"

I waited around after they all left and wandered back and forth in the area looking down low where GCWAs like to forage. I have seen hundreds of this bird in Mexico so I am very familiar with its habits. I looked up at a foraging group of warblers and spotted a Tropical Parula. Not a new TX/US bird, but always a good bird to see in TX.

Finally, after the other birders had wandered off, I spotted something preening in a big oak on the "wrong" side of the trail. Boom! Golden-crowned Warbler!
TX number 472, US 552.

Short trip to Manila produced Yellow-vented Bulbul, Spotted Wood Kingfisher, Blue-eared Kingfisher, and a couple Red-crested Malkoha

Also saw a francolin/partridge of some sort and a nightjar of some sort that both would have been lifers if I’d been able to ID them.

Recently I added a verdin, costas hummingbird, and a phainopepla. That one was easier to find than it was to pronounce.

The one advantage of being a LECH, is that sometimes we get some killer birds come through.

Pink-footed Goose by Justin (NoNameKey), on Flickr

Barnacle Goose by Justin (NoNameKey), on Flickr

Barnacle Goose by Justin (NoNameKey), on Flickr

More soon.

- Justin

Since I last posted here I have spent 4 months on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, 6 weeks in South Africa and Lesotho, a couple layovers in Frankfurt, Germany, and a bit of time around the US.

I had already spent a lot of time on Bioko, so I only got 11 new birds. Two were first records for the island, possibly even country, Greater Painted-snipe and White-backed Night-heron.

Greater Painted-snipe


Here's an African Finfoot that shared our swimming river for a couple months.


For a only a few hours, Germany turned out really well. We took the train one stop and walked around a park. We ended up getting 18 new species, including a pair of Great Tits, Black Woodpecker, and Hawfinch.

It was my third time I traveling in South Africa, however I was ale to see 91 new species in South Africa and two in Lesotho.

Gray-crowned Cranes


Shy Albatross




This spring I saw my first Golden-winged Warbler and although I have heard them a lot, I saw my first Chuck-will's Widow.