| Vol.
3, No. 2 July 2001
South Polar Skua Seeks Tropical Sun in Tortuguero
Rafa Robles wrote to say that on 15 April 2001
he observed a lone bird flying low over the breakers along the
Caribbean coast fronting the Mawamba Lodge. Although Rafa had
no previous experience with South
Polar Skua (Catharacta maccormicki), he eliminated
the possibility of one of the jaegers or Brown
Booby (Sula luecogaster) based on the bird's
robust body and rounded tail. The previous day, Dennis Willie
had told him that he had seen this species from the beach. Dennis
is familiar with this skua from his guiding stints aboard the
Clipper. In his note, Rafa also mentioned that a friend of his
who is just beginning to watch birds claimed to have seen a South
Polar Skua at Punta Uva, Limón, in February. The same individual
perhaps?
Rafa has spent about as much time in Tortuguero
over the years as anybody in the local guiding fraternity and
remarked that he doesn't recall ever seeing Brown Booby there.
That's interesting because I don't either, though I did observe
a single bird flying about 10 meters above the sea and about 50
meters off the coast when I was at Mawamba in early March. It
was a clear day and I had nice looks at the bird -- definitely
an adult Brown Booby.
On the subject of seabirds, I've heard a couple
of reports of possible albatross sightings off the Pacific coast
within the last year or so, including Cocos
Island. This would represent an entirely new family for the
Costa Rican bird list! Based on current species distributions,
my guess would be that Waved
Albatross (Diomedea exulans) ought to be the
most likely candidate to appear in Costa Rican waters, but at
least half a dozen other species could potentially do so, too.
As they say in the field guides, "to be looked
for!"
First
Record of Silvery-fronted Tapaculo Nest
In early April, Willow Zuchowski found the nest
of a pair of Silvery-fronted Tapaculos (Scytalopus argentifrons)
in the Monteverde
Cloud Forest Reserve. Bruce Young notified me of the discovery
reporting that the nest was "just two meters from the Sendero
Nuboso, about 200 meters from the parking lot. It was a domed
nest made of moss and fungal rhizomorphs placed inside of a burrow
on a hillside. A veil of moss covered the entrance hole. . . .
Two chicks apparently fledged from the nest."
Bruce and Willow were able to get photographs
and plan on publishing this nesting record, which, as Bruce noted,
is just "the ninth species of the 40 in the genus Scytalopus
to have a nest discovered."
Another rarely seen species, the Scaled Antpitta
(Grallaria guatimalensis), was also found nesting
in the Monteverde area this year (late June - July). The nest
was only about 500 meters from La Colina Lodge (formerly the Pension
Flor-Mar). Michael and Patricia Fogden were photographing this
nest, so we should be seeing some great shots of the process in
the near future.
Now
More Than Just Owls in Orotina
A swing into the town of Orotina to check on the
Black-and-white Owls (Ciccaba nigrolineata) that
roost in the village's central park has become an almost obligatory
part of any birding trip passing through the area. However, birders
should now also keep their eyes open for tiny raptors perched
on wires and bare branches or flying overhead in the general area,
because on 14 June 2001, Alex Villegas, Sergio Vega, and Clay
Taylor spotted a Pearl
Kite (Gampsonyx swainsonii) just outside of
Orotina! This sighting represents a significant range extension
for this recently arrived species in Costa Rica. [In fact, in
the previous newsletter I mentioned that Dominical (about 120
kms farther down the Pacific coast) was the current northern limit
of the species on the Pacific side of the country.] Using a digital
camera and a Swarovski AT-80 High Definition spotting scope, Clay
was able to get some great
photos of the bird.
How much longer will it be until we have the first
Pearl Kite report for the Central Valley?
Macaws
Making Their Way to San José?
Speaking of birds working their way up the Río
Grande de Tarcoles watershed, Morris Quesada informed me of an
unusual sighting: Scarlet
Macaws (Ara macao) at Balsa de Atenas. Morris
and Rafa Robles were with a tour group at the Escuela de Ganaderia
(Livestock School) on 23 June 2001, when a pair of macaws flew
past high overhead. According to personnel at the school, it's
uncommon to see macaws there, however, they do see them occasionally
and even in small groups. That would suggest that these are most
likely wild birds, not just a pair that might have escaped from
local captivity. Of course, Carara
Biological Reserve is not all that far away -- just 30 kms
as the macaw flies.
I wonder what became of the macaws that were being
raised at Iguana Park? It's my understanding that the project
shut down a year or so ago. Does anyone know if those birds were
released or if they're still in captivity somewhere? If they just
opened the cages, perhaps those birds might be the ones now being
seen further upriver near Atenas.
Digging
Digiscoping
You gotta love it! Anyone who enjoys trying to
take beautiful photographs of birds will instantly become hooked
on digiscoping. If you clicked on the above Pearl Kite links,
you'll have seen what I mean.
For anyone who may not as yet be familiar with
the term -- and you won't find it in your dictionary -- digiscoping
is the art of taking digital photos through the lens of a telescope.
This is a wonderful breakthrough for would-be bird photographers
who were put off by the thought of having to carry around a huge
300mm (or longer) lens plus all the other accoutrement of the
serious photographer, PLUS birding gear. Now with just a high
quality telescope (actually, any telescope will work, but the
better the quality of the scope, the better the photographic image)
and a decent digital camera (one capable of capturing images of
at least two megapixels is recommended) you're in business!
I've been playing around with a Kodak DC3400 digital
camera and a Swarovski AT-80 HD scope for the past month and have
gotten some
nice results of a few common
yard birds. My technique is simple. Focus the scope on the
subject, bring the camera lens up to the eyepiece while viewing
on the LCD screen, zoom in enough so that there is no vigting
(the dark ring around the edge of the image caused by getting
some of the barrel of the scope in the picture), press the button,
and hope that the bird didn't fly in that precise instant! Although
it should have been fairly obvious, I've also learned that the
same basic rules of lighting and composition still apply to digiscoping
in order to obtain really good images. Another common problem
is camera shake, which will cause the image to be blurred. If
you really want to get serious about digiscoping you'll probably
eventually buy or make some sort of camera mount so that you won't
have to risk camera shake by hand-holding each shot.
In addition to the mere photographic aspect of
digiscoping, this new development in birding also means that we
should expect to start seeing a lot more rare sighting reports
backed up by this relatively easy-to-obtain hard evidence.
There are already a number of sites on the web with
lots of info on this subject, but for starters I'd recommend looking
at this
article on the Surfbirds.com web site and also this
nice piece by Andy Bright on the digiscoping web site.
Resolving
My Mystery Monteverde Hummer
Another use I've discovered for my new digital
camera is that it can effectively be used as a scanner. I'd been
having zero success finding someone with a scanner and a 35mm
slide adapter here in Costa Rica. Then I got the idea to try and
take digital photos of my slides by putting the camera lens up
to the eyepiece of my little slide viewer. It worked!
So now, for all who might be interested, you can
see the photos (by clicking here
and here)
I took of a hummingbird in Monteverde that may turn out to be
a rare Blue-tailed Hummingbird (Amazilia cyanura),
rather than the common Stripe-tailed Hummingbird (Eupherusa
eximia), which I assumed it was at the time I was busy
taking the pictures.
You can read the original article here.
I welcome any comments on the identification of this bird.
A
New Hummingbird Mystery from Monteverde
If you enjoy a good mystery, I'm sure you'll like
this.
On 28 January 2001, James Barton and Luis Brunicardi
were birding at the Monteverde Skywalk. It was about 11:00 on
a cloudy, windy day with frequent bouts of rain, when they spotted
a hummingbird "hovering near the middle of one of the suspension
bridges . . . at the level of the footwalk, well above any vegetation,"
which was beneath the span where it crossed a deep ravine. Jim
and Luis were about 50 meters from the bird, but had a good view.
In Jim's words, "Clearly, this was an extraordinary
creature. Green head and upper body. Bill appearing straight and
short, not much longer than the depth of the head. Eye dark. No
evidence of a white post-ocular spot. Center of back down to tail
and along tail very rich, deeply saturated greenish blue. Tail
extremely long, at least three to four times the length of the
body. Tail gently decurved throughout its length, e.g. )). Tail
feathers unseparated except at the very end of the tail, where
the ends flared slightly outward." Luis adds, "The color, for
me, was dark blue with dark green on the chin and breast."
Obviously, there's nothing in Costa Rica that
fits that description, so they checked the Venezuelan and Colombian
field guides. Luis also examined specimens in the Phelps collection
when he returned to Caracas, and concluded that their bird may
have been a Black-tailed Trainbearer (Lesbia victoria).
This Andean hummer is known from northern Colombia to Bolivia.
Jim, however, after reviewing Birds of Colombia,
was more inclined to think that perhaps they had seen a Long-tailed
Sylph (Aglaiocercus kingi), whose normal range doesn't
get any closer to Costa Rica than the trainbearer's.
In Jim's first email contact with me (3 May),
he asked if anyone keeps hummingbirds in captivity here. As far
as I've been able to ascertain, no. I also sent an email around
to some 70 local birders and guides with information of this strange
sighting, but to date no one has mentioned seeing anything like
this long-tailed hummer at the skywalk, or anywhere else.
Definitely a mystery.
Another
Singing White-eyed Vireo Report
After reading in the last newsletter of the White-eyed
Vireo (Vireo griseus) that was seen and heard
at Cahuita in April, Nancy Newfield dropped me a line to say that
she had a similar encounter in Monteverde a few years ago.
On 11 March 1997, while checking in with a group
at the Hotel Heliconia, one of the tour members came up to the
front desk and told Nancy that he'd just heard a White-eyed Vireo
singing. Nancy says that she diplomatically suggested that perhaps
it was another vireo species since there are only a very few records
in Costa Rica.
However, the next day upon returning to the hotel
for lunch, Nancy heard what sounded like a White-eyed Vireo singing
from a fruiting tree above the cabins. There was a lot of activity
in the tree, but no sign of the vireo. Intent on visual confirmation,
Nancy continued searching for about 20 minutes, until "the vireo
made a brief appearance -- perhaps 20 seconds. I noted his white
eye, white wing bars, and yellow spectacles. Then, he dove back
into the foliage and did not reappear. I didn't see or hear him
again."
Nashville
South, Way South
It seems that Robert Dean, who saw that vireo
in Cahuita, is trying to catch up with all of Nancy Newfield's
rare migrant sightings here in Costa Rica. On 18 May 2001, en
route to the Wilson Botanical Garden, Robert, along with Eduardo
and Patricia Amengual, stopped to check some roadside bird activity
not far beyond the town of San Isidro del General. In the flock
was what appeared to be a very brightly colored Lesser Greenlet
(Hylophilus decurtatus). When we met at the garden
(during the Birding Club's monthly outing), they mentioned the
sighting and wondered if maybe there was a southern Pacific race
of greenlet that was more yellow below. The field guide made no
mention of any such difference, and I couldn't say that I'd ever
noticed any change in plumage in the country's southern region.
While birding on the Río Java trail the following
morning, Robert and Eduardo saw Lesser Greenlets in a mixed flock
and it definitely was not what they had seen the day before! In
retrospect, they realized that their bird must have been a Nashville
Warbler (Vermivora ruficapilla). The field guide
mentions just two sightings of this species, one being Nancy's
at La Virgen del Socorro on 8 March 1987. [I was there that day,
but about 50 meters down the road at the time and never saw the
bird @#?/!] Nancy has told me that she saw this species again
a few years later on the University of Costa Rica campus in San
Pedro.
Let it be lesson to all of us that when something
looks "different" about a common species, it's a good idea to
check all of the possibilities, no matter how rare they may be.
Nothing
But Nests, or, Looking for Lifers in San Vito
High on our agenda during that May trip to the Wilson
Garden was to find Crested Oropendola (Psarocolius decumanus),
but despite two excursions to different areas where they had been
reported, the closest we came was a large tree with a dozen or
so nests. Perhaps even more frustrating for me was hearing but
never even glimpsing a Masked Yellowthroat (Geothlypis aequinoctialis)
at the pond beyond the San Vito airstrip. At least it was a treat
to see three Masked
Ducks (Oxyura dominica) -- two hens and a drake
in eclipse plumage -- floating in open water on the pond. I'd
only seen this species once before -- amid floating vegetation
in shallow water by the airstrip at Palo Verde (it seems that
water near airstrips is their preferred habitat) -- and as far
as I'm aware, they were lifers for everyone else in our party
on that outing. The birds apparently had been there for more than
a month, because Morris Quesada mentioned having seen five ducks
at the pond during Easter week.
Should
you be in the area and decide to visit the pond, walk up the dirt
road on the righthand side of the pond (as you face it from the
paved road) and at the third house on the left stop and ask
for Danny Ruíz. If he's there, he'll accompany you down
to the edge of the marsh and gladly do his excellent imitation
of the yellowthroat's song. Even though we never saw the bird
that sang from the far side of the pond, Danny's vocalization
sure got a quick response.
I
hope that you've enjoyed this newsletter and welcome any comments
at gonebirding@lycos.com
or if you're in Costa Rica, feel free to give me a ring at 293-2710.
Wishing you all great birding,
Richard Garrigues
http://www.angelfire.com/bc/gonebirding/index.html
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