"What a thousand acres of Silphiums looked like when they tickled the bellies of the buffalo is a question never again to be answered, and perhaps not even asked." -Aldo Leopold
Missouri marshes are a great place to find a number of bird species in late summer and early fall. This Common Yellowthroat, a species of wood warbler, was photographed this August at Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary. This guy was packing Mayfly in his beak two or three at a time to bring back to the hungry chicks in the nest.
Caspian Tern
A visitor to Missouri’s marshes during migration, the Caspian Tern will always take advantage of the easy fishing that can be found at Riverlands and surrounding wildlife refuges along our great rivers.
Great Blue Heron
Anyone who spent any amount of time in the marsh will know the Great Blue Heron. This giant, yet leery bird is a common site, hunting for fish or any other vertebrate it can catch.
Dickcissel
A very common nester in Missouri marshes and fields, the Dickcissel advertises its presence with its incessant song.
Marsh Wren
So attached to the Marsh, they named the bird after it. The Marsh Wren sings its musical song throughout the day and is quite territorial.
My third and final day to myself in southwestern Puerto Rico would be quite memorable. I placed myself within the center of the Elfin Woods of the Maricao State Forest. I arrived at ~ 06:30 and did not leave until ~19:30. The AM weather was spectacular, with cool temps and some steady breeze and partly cloudy skies. I stayed the entire day in a little recreation/biological station that was about 1/4 of a mile long. It contained nice bathrooms and covered picnic tables. This was a good thing because the rains came onto the mountain at about 13:00 and stayed mostly through the time that I left.
Kilometer 16
On mountain road 120, look for this sign. This is one of only a likely two spots on earth to have a good chance of seeing the Elfin Woods Warbler, one of the endemic bird species to the island and one I had little hope of finding.
CCC at Maricao
There were a couple of those old CCC signs here as well.
Elfin Woods – Tourist Style
I had read bits and pieces that there were trail heads here and others scattered throughout this small forest preserve, but I could find no signs of those anywhere. Ultimately, I doubt I missed much. The ~1/4 of a mile I had was split mostly between the birds and myself. All it took was some patience, or, lots of patience as the birds came and went into the thick vegetation that rose or dropped steeply on one respective side of the road or the other.
Antillean Mango
Many species of tropical hummingbirds are known to occur within a narrow range of altitude. The Antillean Mango can be found throughout the rainforest habitats of Puerto Rico, up to the highest peaks of the island.
Puerto Rican Bullfinch
The Puerto Rican Bullfinch is not a finch at all, but a Cardinal. It has a song that is quite reminiscent of our Northern Cardinal. I found these guys, like so many of the birds on the island, to be a bit shy and tricky to get a clear view of.
Puerto Rican Tanager
The Puerto Rican Tanager is another endemic bird of the island. The cloudy skies made photography quite challenging.
Pearly-eyed Thrasher
After this Pearly-eyed Thrasher had its fill of the water-apple, I made sure I got my two or three as well… 😉
Exotics
While this stretch of mountains is a dream for the botanist (more than 250 species of trees), several of these are imports from other tropical locations. Similar to the El Yunque forest on the eastern side of the island, several exotic tree species have been introduced here from Australia. While several of these species seem to have a small or even neutral effect on the native ecosystems, some have become quite problematic, like these invasive eucalyptus.
Puerto Rican Tody
The Todys were here as well! And I was in for quite a surprise.
Puerto Rican Tody
One of the several highlights of the day was finding a PR Tody nest cavity in the side of a mud bank. These guys are in the same family as the Kingfishers, and build a similar nest cavity. I happened to be walking by as a bird hopped to the entrance and darted within feet from my face while giving me a terrible scolding. I backed off a bit, hoping it would come back for a great photo opportunity. After 20-30 minutes no birds came, so I pushed on, not wanting to be the reason a youngster was not getting a meal. I would walk by the cavity a few times over the course of the day, but never had any luck. I don’t think they spend a lot of time within sight of the nest cavity, it being a quick in and out operation.
Puerto Rican Tody Nest Cavity
Although I was able to find a couple of the PR Woodpeckers the day prior at Cabo Rojo, I was not able to get any photographs. Thankfully a group came through the area and I managed a couple of mediocre shots. Spectacular birds, as are most Woodpeckers.
Puerto Rican Woodpecker
Finally, the quintessential bird for this most Tolkienesque of forests. The Elfin Wood Warbler. I was able to watch a small group of these quite mobile darts move in and out of the dense, roadside wall of the forest canopy. Only described by science in 1972, it has been estimated there may be as few as 1800 of these birds left on the island.
Elfin Woods Warbler
Human modification and destruction of these mountain forests are having major detrimental effects on these habitats throughout the tropics. In Puerto Rico this habitat is being lost to communication arrays and the roads to service them – one of the costs of global connectivity. I was appalled by some of the views I had of antennas being stacked as thick as trees on some of the mountain tops in this Forest.
Coffee is king here and some of the oldest and largest coffee farms are found within Maricao. I was able to speak with several folks on the island who worked as, or were part of families associated with farming coffee. Not one of them practiced or had any plans to practice shade-grown, bird-friendly coffee. Although it certainly is not the perfect answer in protecting these endemic mountain species, purchasing shade-grown coffee is an important practice in enabling conservation in these areas.
As the light waned and the rains began to lighten, I sat listening to the coqui frogs and other pieces of the night symphony begin their warm up. Just when I thought it couldn’t get better, I heard what I had hoped to hear – the Puerto Rican Screech Owl. This bird gave me a total of 17 of a possible 18 endemic bird forms for the enchanted isle. The only miss was the Puerto Rican Parrot, which is only found in small patches of El Yunque to the east. I can only hope that these birds can continue existing in their present forms long after I have not.
While at Quivira, Steve and I happened upon one of the most patient, cooperative wild birds I have ever come across, this male Belted Kingfisher. It stayed perched, except when taking off to grab a prey item, as we slowly crept closer in the car.
Belted Kingfisher
In the photo below, the bird winds up to bash a crayfish that it eventually swallowed.
The White-faced Ibis are pretty abundant at Quivira and Cheyenne Bottoms and across the Great Plains in general. It is believed that this was primarily a western species that has been slowly moving eastward during the past century. Nesting grounds are still rather patchy and infrequent, but they have been documented to nest at both Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira.
On the first day of August I found myself sitting next to one of the larger field puddles in the RMBS area watching the groups of migrating Pectoral Sandpipers. These guys were probably less than a week or two outside of their nesting grounds on the arctic tundra and their hormones were still raging. I was pretty surprised by their level of territoriality on their migratory route. Maybe this is how they behave year-round, but I have not been able to confirm this in any source I can find.
The Chase is On!!The Chase Continues!!Pectoral Pounce!!A Peck of Pecs
A bird of the west, the Long-billed Curlew was quite a treat for Steve and I and a rare bird to be found at Quivira NWR. Imagine our surprise and pleasure at finding two!
Long-billed Curlew
As usual, habitat destruction via modern agriculture and livestock has severely diminished the numbers of this species. Will we ever again see the numbers that Audubon once observed? In describing the flocks of thousands he was able to observe, Audubon in The Birds of America wrote the following:
“They flew directly towards their place of rest, called the Bird Banks, and were seen to alight without performing any of the evolutions which they exhibit when at their feeding places, for they had not been disturbed that season. But when we followed them to the Bird Banks, which were sandy islands of small extent, the moment they saw us the congregating flocks, probably amounting to several thousand individuals all standing close together, rose at once, performed a few evolutions in perfect silence, and realighted as if one accord on the extreme margins of the sandbank close to tremendous breakers. It was now dark, and we left the place, although some flocks were still arriving.”
I heard about the death of a friend this week. I had only known Gary since March, when I met him and his wife, Patricia, while we were all looking for American Woodcock at Young C.A. one evening. I did not know Gary long or even very well, but to give an idea of what kind of person he was, I will share this story.
I lent my binoculars to the Bohns in order to share the Woodcock I was watching and photographing. We watched the bird while we introduced ourselves and after a few minutes said goodnight. When I arrived home later I discovered I was without my binoculars. I have a horrible habit of leaving equipment on top of my car and driving away. Forgetting that I had lent the binoculars to Gary and Patricia, I assumed I had made yet another expensive and embarrassing mistake. The next day at the office, still smarting from my assumed mistake, I noticed I had a voice message. It was Gary informing me they had my binoculars. Gary had remembered what he learned about me the night before and taken the steps to track me down to make sure I got my binoculars back.
Gary and I met for dinner later that week and discovered we had several things in common. He shared that he had worked as a photographer for the St. Louis Post Dispatch for a number of years. In recent years he had gotten more interested in birds, butterflies, habitat restoration and nature photography. We had agreed to get together in the near future for some spring birding/photography. We were only able to do so together on a couple of occasions, and the photo above was from one of these outings. Gary took me to a popular birding destination at Weldon Springs C.A. – a place I knew about but had never visited before. We had pretty good luck with getting a number of nesting songbird species, including hearing no fewer than three singing Cerulean Warblers. We were both able to get shots of this cooperative Blue-winged Warbler. Looking at the images on the back of his camera, I liked his better.
In May, I had shared with Gary the details of a trip that Steve and I took to Quivira NWR and Cheyenne Bottoms in central Kansas. He was hooked and couldn’t wait to get there himself. I shared the details we had gathered and I know he made the trip sometime in the weeks prior to his passing. Unfortunately I was not able to hear from him about his experience there. I do hope he enjoyed it.
This warm season, including this spring at Quivira, I finally took some time to get to know the Swallows a little better, not only in visual description, but in song, behavior and flight. Other than their beauty, I find the Barn Swallows to be the most gracefully designed and beautiful fliers of their kind. With their long, forked tail and sleek and slender wings, I am sure they could beat any other swallow in a dogfight. It’s a simple pleasure to watch them swoop down, mere inches above a field to catch an insect on the wing, to then see them rise a few hundred feet while banking and rolling. Their varied and constant chatter ranks among my favorites as well.
Cliff Swallow
Pete Dunne most appropriately describes the Cliff Swallow as a “…husky crop-tailed Barn Swallow wearing a miner’s lamp.” Another gorgeous swallow, this species is very communal and will often nest in the hundreds or thousands together, making gourd-shaped nests out of mud. The image below shows a few birds collecting mud on the banks of a stream that runs through Quivira.
Tonight I am sharing a few miscellaneous shorebirds. First up to bat is a shorebird that isn’t much of a shorebird at all – the Upland Sandpiper. So named due to its preference for higher and drier habitat, the Upland Sandpiper can be found in fields and meadows. Look for it on a typically elevated perch and find it by its haunting song.
Red-necked Phalarope
With a ratio of what must have been close to 1000:1, the Wilson’s Phalarope greatly outnumbers any other Phalarope. However, Steve and I were still able to find and ID a couple of Red-necked Phalarope in winter plumage, as pictured above.
Black-necked Stilt
A true wetland favorite, the Black-necked Stilt is as pleasing to watch for its behavior as it is a piece of natural art.
Willet
As stout and cute as a Bulldog puppy, Willets are always a site for sore eyes.
Willet
On our last evening and during our very few hours of decent, golden hour light Steve and watched a number of Willets and Avocets feeding in the shallows near the road.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 