Death Glass-November 29th, 2008

When I woke up this morning I found a dead Sharp-shinned Hawk on our patio. It looked like it had hit the window of the sunroom yesterday evening because it had a layer of snow on it. I then buried it in our yard (woods) and then came back inside.
Later that morning I was sitting in the living room and relaxing. Just then I hear a "BANG" on the window and I sit bolt upright. I run outside and find a Pine Siskin lying on the ground. Its not dead but not in great shape. And it doesn't get better when Zia picks it up in his mouth and starts munching on it. I run up to Zia, carefully open his mouth and get the bird out of his mouth. Unfortunately for the siskin, Zia ripped its tail off as I got the bird out of his mouth and it was sopping wet. I put Zia inside and then tried to think what to do with the siskin. Of course now it can't fly with its tail off so we put it in a box and put it on top of our hot-tub.
I really think that the most dangerous thing for birds is windows. I call them death glass because so many birds die from hitting windows. We have hummingbird stickers on our windows that are suppose to catch birds attention and make them keep from killing themselves on your death glass. I think that everyone should have some kind of window sticker or something like that to keep the death rate down on birds in your backyard.
This year already, about 15 birds have hit our windows and about 7-8 have died. In September a Black-headed Grosbeak hit my window but its mostly been siskins that have hit windows. Either they're a little dull in the head or they just can't tell whats outside and whats inside our house.
On the brighter side of things I just got a new scope! Its a Swarovski 65mm Standard and it is really good! We're also getting a camera. Well, good birding to all you folks and happy holidays!

Las Vegas NWR-November 2, 2008

This Sunday I went out with the Santa Fe Audubon group to the Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge from 7:00 to 1:30 p.m. We saw a total of 33 species and I saw 1 lifer. On the way back to the headquarters of the refuge, I saw a Ferruginuos Hawk which is a lifer! It was gorgous. With a white chest and tail and a reddish back it, in my opinion is one of America's prettiest birds. We chased it for a while and finally got it rioght over the highway!

Sorry, I don't have much time to write anything and we lost our camera so I'm unable to put up any pics.

Good Birding!

Cassidy

Here is the bird list from Sunday:

Ducks, Geese, & Swans:
Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Canvasback
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser

Grebes:
Pied-billed Grebe
Clark's Grebe (1 adult, 2 immature)

Pelicans:
American White Pelican

Cormorants:
Double-crested Cormorant

Herons, Bitterns, & Allies:
Great Blue Heron

Hawks, Kites, Eagles, & Allies:
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk

Falcons:
American Kestrel

Rails, Gallinules, & Coots:
American Coot

Cranes:
Sandhill Crane

Gulls, Terns, & Skimmers:
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull

Pigeons & Doves:
Rock Dove

Crows & Jays:
Common Raven

Larks:
Horned Lark

Thrushes:
Mountain Bluebird

Starlings:
European Starling

Towhees, Sparrows, & Allies:
American Tree Sparrow
Grey-headed Junco

Blackbirds:
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark

Here are some pictures from the trip

Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Mission, Texas

Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge-Alamo, Texas

Great-horned Owl
Tucson, Arizona

Transitions-October 13th, 2008

Now we are really back home. Teslin and I started school on August 22 at a charter school called Rio Gallinas and dad is working at El Centro, a Health place. It feels weird, stopping in one place more then a week. The guy we bought the house from is a birder and has a whole bird habitat in the backyard. We have 14 acres, all scrub-land, and there are plenty of sparrows and bluebirds. When we got here on August 2nd, there were lots of Black-headed Grosbeaks, Lewis's Woodpeckers, and Lesser Goldfinches. Now there is just occasionally a Red-winged Blackbird or White-crowned Sparrows. I've seen a couple lifers (Lewis's Woodpecker and Lark Bunting) and plenty of old ones.
Before we came here we were on Cape Cod with my grandparents for a month. I saw 2 new lifers there, Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow and American Oystercatcher. Of course I saw plenty of seabirds and shorebirds, but not many new ones. We had a great time on the Cape and celebrated mom's, dad's, and grandma's B-day in July. One of the highlights was 18 miles offshore, were I caught a 90-pound Bluefin Tuna off my grandpa's boat! It me half-an-hour to reel it in and when I finally got it in the boat, my arm was aching! Teslin and mom came to New Mexico on a Southwest flight on the 2nd of August and dad and I rented a Penske moving truck and packed up all our stuff and left for home on July 28th. I saw a lifer on the trip, a Mississippi Kite over a Ramada Inn in Oklahoma! We got to Las Vegas (New Mexico) on the 1st and then we started unpacking.
Now we have almost everything unpacked and we are finding old items every day! We kept most of our stuff but some we are going to give away. The house does not look anything like what it did when we got here and we are going to expand the house soon. When we got here my room was lime-green and then dad and I painted it orangish-yellowish. Aside from other things happening around here, Teslin got gerbils and 2 cockatiels (named Bernie and Arwen)and I got a pair a parakeets that are very much in love with each other named Verde and Coco! I think the parakeets will mate this winter or spring because they have been hanging around their nest box a lot and are very into each other. We also have a 8-week old Golden Retreiver named Zia after New Mexico's symbol that is very cute!
I joined the Santa Fe Sangre de Cristo Audubon and the first bird trip was a couple weeks ago to the Las Vegas NWR and to a private ranch (Ruby Ranch). I saw 4 lifers which were Lark Bunting, Sabine's Gull, Western Grebe and Clark's Grebe! We saw Clark's and Western Grebes on the same lake!
On the downside of things, I broke my wrist 6 weeks ago falling off our neighbor's trampoline. And on the good side of things, I get off my darn cast this Wednesday!

Updates:

Life List- at 595!
School-have done about 7 weeks
Where we live-Las Vegas, New Mexico
Books I've read recently-Brisingr, A Wizard of Earthsea
Animals-2 Parakeets, 2 Cockatiels, 2 Gerbils, 1 Siamese, and 1 8-week old Golden Retriever

June 21st, 2008, Journal Entry

This morning I woke up in an instant (very unusual) because I knew today we were gonna hike with Dave, Isabella and Eddie around Carson National Forest.

At about 8:30 I woke up and we had cereal and cleaned up poppi for D, I, and E. After a quick breakfast of frosted flakes we went down to the office and payed for our time at the KOA Campground. Just then Dave arrived with Eddie sleeping in the back seat! We then went over some maps in poppi and then went to Subway to get some sandwiches for our hike (I got an Italian BLT, dad got same, mom shared turkey one with sis and Eddie and Isabella shared foot-long tuna).

We listened to the cat tape on our way and the seating arrangements were Dave, Eddie and dad in Dave's car and mom, Teslin, Isabella, and me went in "Big White". On the way to Carson we stopped by a lookout that overlooked the valley we had drove through and some surrounding mountains! I picked up a hiking stick there too.

We got to where we wanted to hike at about 1:30 and we got on the trail (well, actually there wasn't a trail, just bushwhacking) shortly afterward. I carried the pink backpack for about 5 minutes and then I gave it to da because it was way too heavy.

We hiked all the way to the bottom of a snow field and then I gave out. The whole way I was feeling kinda queasy and had a little hard time breathing and finally I just collapsed and couldn't go any farther (at least up). So mom and I went back to the car while the rest of them went up.
On the way down I got even more queasy and then I had to move my bowls. It got worse and worse until finally I squatted down in front of a pinyon and the rest is none of your business. Actually I guess I'll tell you. Right before I "squatted in the bushes" mom and I saw 2 male hummingbirds perched on 2 different trees. At first I thought that they were just Black-chinned but then, holy-moly, they had pink bibs!! And the only hummer in the US that has a pinkish bib (other then Ruby-throated) is the Broad-tailed Hummingbird! Sooo, I figured out that I just saw my first two Broad-tailed Hummers!!!

Since right where I pooped was right above the car, we quickly went down to the Seqouia and crashed (well, at least I did). Actually we just relaxed and wrote in our journals.
After a while the rest of the Ruges and Benavidas's came back and we hopped in our cars (I was with Dave with Teslin and Isabella in the back and mom and da were with Eddie) and headed for a restaurant in Penasco (a little town near Las Vegas). Once we got to Penasco, we found the Sugar Nymph (the name of the restaurant we were going to) and had din-din. We ordered a pepperoni pizza with two goat cheese salads. After dinner we payed the bill and hopped in our cars (this time I went with mom, dad Isa, and sis) and drove to the KOA (Dave decided to stay the night).

Once we got to the campground we set up Dave's tent and built a fire. Dave played his guitar and we had s'mores and we (Dave, da, and I) stayed up till 11:30. Finally , after we had all talked enough and had enough s'mores, we hit the sack (I was with Dave in his tent).

We're Home, But Not Yet

In the past 2 weeks its been very exciting. We bought a house, decided to move to Las Vegas, and I saw about 4 lifers here. Well, were to begin... I'll start with when we got to Vegas.

We stayed in Milagro for 2 weeks and then moved out and headed for Las Vegas. We thought that we would maybe look at a few houses, see if there is any good schools or jobs for mom and dad and overall we didn't think that we would be impressed. We were wrong. First we found a fabulous school that was centered on outward-bound stuff and was 1st grade to 8th grade and then dad found a nursing clinic that he really liked that would work for mom too. And then we found an amazing house on the outskirts of Las Vegas that had a excellent birding area and a sun room where you can watch thunderstorms. There is also a room that would be mine and has room for a bed and a study. After we looked at the house 3 different times we decided to buy it!

I'm still getting over the shock of getting a house and that our trip is almost over (it ends after we come back from Cape Cod to the house on August 2).

Yesterday night we did a big hike at about 12,000 feet in Carson National Forest with our friend David Benevidas and his two kids Isabella and Eddie.There wasn't a trail and we went to the top of a snow field (I didn't go up because I was too queasy). On the way back I saw a lifer-a Broad-tailed Hummingbird- and I also saw a Golden Eagle getting mobbed by a Red-tail (hawk)! I wrote I journal entry on the hike too so you can just read the other post (June 21st, 2008). After the hike we had a campfire with Dave, Isabella and Eddie.

We are going on a plane (it'll be the fist time I've been on a plane in about a year) to Cape Cod on July 1st and are gonna visit with our grandparents for a month (from 7/1/08 to 8/1/08).

Back Home, kinda

We are back in the US of A and having to deal with cultural shock! I mean, there two very different countries and with two very different cultures. In the states you can't watch El Superbowl in Spanish or go to the zocalo and have 10 limonada minerals and in Mexíco you can't watch the Red Sox on NESN or the Diomondbacks on FSN!
Well, overall I'm a little shocked about the different cultures but am glad to be back where I can see Elegant Trogons and Flammulated Owls. Our border crossing was extremely quick, it only took 10 minutes! After crossing we drove to Del Rio and stayed at a campground with internet (wow!) and then the next day popped down and went to the Historic Prude Guest Ranch (for short Prude Ranch or HPGR) and stayed there for 4 days and did lots of fun stuff. Teslin rode with mom on a 45 minute ride (was spose to be longer) and the four of us did a half-day ride from Fort Davis Stables, about 10 minutes away from the Prude Ranch. That ride was pretty fun and I saw a lifer, Scaled Quail but afterwards I felt like I was sitting on a pointed rock for days (finally its better) and didn’t like that i couldn’t play b-ball or tennis!
During the 4 nights we were there I saw a family of Elf Owls (a lifer for me) nesting in a phone poll near our pop-up and every night I dragged myself out of bed and went to see the cute litttle owls! After 4 nights at the Prude Ranch we made for Tucson and got there the same day we left the Prude Ranch.
Now we are staying at Milagro Co-housing for a couple of weeks (at first we stayed at my aunt and uncles place). We have settled in and got a hummer feeder and a thistle bag and thistle seeds. We now have lots of hummers feeding and drinking out of the founting but the finches haven’t found the thistle yet. I was invited to a meal with two other young birders (a 9 and 13 year old) by a volonteer at the Tucson Audobon Society on May 31. I’m pretty excited for that and for meeting other youngsters like me who our into birding! I think the TAS just finished their yearly Birdathone and the meal is in that honor.
Yesterday we went to the Pualo Frier Freedom School to check it out and see if we want to go there or not and we liked it a lot! It was a little crazy though.

Terns at every Turn 5/2/08

Today we went to Rio Lagartos and went on one of the boats that tours provide with a guide that really knew his birds. I ended up seeing 7 lifers and 49 species overall. Here is how it all turned out.

6:45AM: I grudgingly got out of bed, had a quick breakfast (cereal), and got ready to go.

7:45AM: We got in the car and headed for Rio Lagartos (listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as dad drove).

9:15AM: We arrived at RL and looked for a good boat launch.

9:30AM: We found a good bird guide (named Eddie) to drive the boat and headed out into the rio.

9:30-1:00PM: We wove through mangroves and I saw 4 species of terns, Sandwich, Royal, Gull-billed, and the beautiful Black Skimmer (all of these being lifers for me). Terns were everywhere! At one place there was Caspian and Royal flying together and a Gull-billed and Sandwich on a sandbar! The Black Skimmers I saw where on a dock mixed with Laughing Gulls and a Sandwich [Tern]. I also saw my first Laughing Falcon perched right next to the waters edge! It looked at us for a while and then took off when we got too close. The Greater Flamingos were pretty fun to watch and I saw 2 Western Sandpipers (my first ones). Our guide taught me how to identify Westerns from Least (there very similar). Western Sandpipers have black legs while Least have paler legs. Also, in breeding plumage Western has some reddish blotches on its head and other parts of its body.
Aside from those 7 life birds and the 49 species I saw, I didn’t see that much. I was aiming for 30 so I guess I passed that mark. I heard a Mangrove Vireo but couldn’t find it. Here is the whole list from Rio Lagartos:

Bird List for Rio Lagartos

1. Sandwich Tern*new
2. Black Skimmer*new
3. Magnificent Frigatebird
4. Brown Pelican
5. Laughing Gull
6. Black Vulture
7. Lineated Woodpecker
8. Barn Swallow
9. Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
10. Turkey Vulture
11. Double-crested Cormorant
12. Snowy Egret
13. White-winged Dove
14. White Ibis
15. Reddish Egret
16. Wood Stork
17. Yellow Warbler
18. Common Black-Hawk
19. Great Egret
20. Great Blue Heron
21. Golden-fronted Woodpecker
22. Tropical Kingbird
23. Osprey
24. Tropical Mockingbird
25. Laughing Falcon*new
26. Spotted Sandpiper
27. Little Blue Heron-White Morph
28. Boat-billed Heron
29. Anhinga
30. Tricolored Heron
31. Common Ground-Dove
32. Least Tern
33. Greater Flamingo*new
34. American White Pelican
35. Western Sandpiper*new
36. Least Sandpiper
37. Caspian Tern
38. Royal Tern*new
39. Gull-billed Tern*new
40. Bobolink
41. Dunlin
42. Savannah Sparrow
43. American Avocet
44. Black-necked Stilt
45. Roseate Spoonbill
46. Long-billed Dowitcher
47. Mangrove Vireo (heard)
48. Cattle Egret
49. Common Moorhen

List of Tern Species I saw in Rio Lagartos

1. Black Skimmer
2. Caspian Tern
3. Gull-billed Tern
4. Least Tern
5. Royal Tern
6. Sandwich Tern

Resplendent Quetzal Report

Description
Resplendent Quetzals are one of the world’s most gorgeous birds. I have never seen one myself, but I’ve heard of how beautiful they are. Males have a red breast, green body, bluish back and very long, green tail streamers. They also have a yellow beak, which is fairly small (the females have black beaks). Males are 39 inches in length, including their plumes or streamers. Females have much shorter plumes (just extending right below the tail) and are drabber in color. The “song” is like “a whimpering pup” or as kyow or vi-viu, which is sometimes repeated monotonously. They have other unmusical calls too.

Range and Habitat
“Resplendents”, as I call them, are found from southern Mexico to western Panama. There is also a subspecies found in Costa Rica, P.m. costaricensis. The population in southern Mexico (Pharomachrus mocinno) is found only in Chiapas in remote montane cloud forests called “bosques de niebla”. The “bosques de niebla” are dense and wet and have mixed trees including pines. One of the quetzal’s favorite trees is the tepeaguacate tree, which has small avocados that the quetzals like to eat (see diet).

Diet
Resplendent Quetzals eat mainly fruit; their favorites are the wild avocados from the tepeaguacate trees. They also like fruit from the trees of the Laurel family. The birds swallow the fruit whole and then regurgitate the pits, which helps to increase the population of these trees.
Resplendent Quetzals are weak fliers and they have some predators. These include the Ornate Hawk-Eagle, owls, and Kinkajou, which hunt the birds themselves. Emerald Toucanets, (yes, little toucans) and squirrels, eat the eggs of the quetzals when the nest is left unguarded.

Breeding
Resplendents usually start calling and looking for mates in February. They start nesting a little bit after they call and mate. The female chooses a suitable tree for nesting (mostly rotting tree stumps) and then the pair pecks out a good-sized hole for the nest. Then the female lays 2 pale blue eggs and starts incubating them. The male and female share incubating: the male sits on them in the daytime while the female incubates at night. The incubation period lasts 18 days while the pair keep switching off incubating. When the male is sitting on the eggs, his long tail hangs out of the nest-hole so that from a distance it looks like a green fern is growing out of the hole! When 18 days are up, two little quetzal babies pop their heads out of their shells and say “give me some grub, mom”! Both parents take care of the little youngsters and feed them their grub, which includes fruit, berries, insects, and some frogs and lizards (big grub). Here is when it gets interesting. Near the end of the rearing period the female gets sooooo fed up with her little furballs that she says “vaya con dios you little scraps”, and leaves the dad to finish rearing the young until they are ready to fend for themselves!

Myth and Legend
Resplendent Quetzals play a big role in Mayan and Aztec legend and myth. The Mayans and Aztecs viewed the quetzal as the “god of the air” and as a symbol of goodness and light. Mesoamerican rulers wore headdresses made from quetzal feathers that symbolically connected them to Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl was the god of wind and the creator god. It was a crime to kill a quetzal so people simply captured and plucked its tail streamers and then released the bird. The tail feathers supposedly grew back in time. Ohh, I forgot. Mesoamerica was a region of Central America and South America that was inhabited by the Mayans and several other pre-Columbian civilizations.
The Resplendent Quetzal is Guatemala’s national bird and the quetzal is on their flag and coat of arms. The bird is also on the paper money and of great relevance in the country. It is mentioned in the widely popular legend of Tecún Umán, a prince/warrior of the Quiche Maya. The legend is that when the conquistador, Pedro de Alvarado, fought against Tecún Umán, there was a quetzal flying above the fight. Pedro de Alvarado managed to disable Tecún Umán’s horse and then killed him. Then, the quetzal flew down to Tecún’s chest and dipped its chest in the warrior’s blood. It was there that the quetzal acquired its gorgeous red chest feathers.

Conservation
Resplendent Quetzals are as Wikipedia states “near threatened”. They are not on the Endangered Species List but they might be on it in the near future. The population in Guatemala and southern Mexico is most threatened due to loss of habitat and hunting for their feathers. Costa Rica’s population of quetzals is in better shape because Costa Rica is setting aside some forest for quetzals and other wildlife.
I wrote this article so I could learn more about quetzals and help the species. I traveled through the quetzal’s forest in southern Chiapas and never saw one but I’m glad I at least know a little bit about them.



References:

1. Resplendent Quetzal, by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2. El Quetzal, by Miguel Limón Rojas, Edmundo Salas Garza
3. A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America, by Steve N.G. Howell and Sophie Webb
4. The Resplendent Quetzal, by TED Case Studies

Hot, Tired and Owls 31 de Marzo, 2008

Whew, I thought that we would be stuck in Bonampak with our crazy friends, Esteban y Susan! But luckily, dad managed to somehow drag us all out of Bonampak and then drive us to Palenque, pick up our stuff, pick up a couple who wanted to go along with us folks and then hit the road. Our first stop was in Campeche at a restaurant/campground to eat and set up. The food there was ok and there were turkeys and chickens walking all over the place. After we finished popping up, I walked around the campground once and saw a male Altamira Oriole calling but not a lot other than the oriole. We stayed there one night and then went to the Calakmul ruins near the restaurant (well, sort of near, 2 hours isn’t that bad) and I saw 4 lifers-Ocellated Turkey, Lesser Greenlet, Olivaceous Woodcreeper, and a male Pale-billed Woodpecker. We also climbed up a huge structure that was the second tallest in the place (the tallest was a pyramid partly covered by grass and shrubs a little way off). We all were really hot and all had at least a mild sunburn. Lucky the wind was whipping so we all were in luck.
After going to the ruins we headed back to our camper with Nate and Nichole (the couple), ate lunch, and put the trailer down. When we left for Bacalar it was about 3:30p.m. When we got to Bacalar it was sunset and we had to pop-up fast so that we wouldn’t be setting up in the dark. I didn’t see that many birds (they were probably already nestled up in their sleeping perches) so I helped set-up and then relaxed (ahhhhhh). We ate dinner at a spaghetti restaurant, which was pretty good in my opinion and had great limonada minerales. I had a pasta dish with spicy peppers and butter. After a delicious dinner we came back to Big Poppi and hit the sack.
The next morning I woke up at 5:45 to grackles and a high hooting sound I couldn’t identify. So birder that I am, I got out of my very cozy bed, dressed, grabbed my binos off a shelf and went outside. I walked over to the sanitarios and met Nate. He said he wanted some toilet paper so I walked back to Poppi and grabbed the roll. As I was passing a tree next to our trailer I saw an unusual bump on a branch. I thought it was just a bump until I looked at it in my binos. Then I saw that it was actually an owl! I looked closer and saw that it was a pygmy-owl and either Northern or Ferruginous (I hoped it was Ferruginous because it is one of my favorite birds). Then Nate started calling to me to hurry up so I hustled the sanitary paper over to Nate (the owl still on my mind). Right after I had handed the paper to Nate I hurried to the tree and saw that the owl had moved to another tree on the other side of our pop-up. After I had located it I looked closely and then looked it up in my Howell and Webb Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Under range I found that Northern was in northern Mexico, Central American Pygmy-Owl was in the Chiapas rain forest, and Ferruginous was the only one on the Yucatan Peninsula. So it was pretty easy to figure out what species it was (Ferruginous). I was so excited because that was the bird I had first looked at in National Geographic’s Birds of North America that helped teach me to read when I was five!! It is also my 2nd favorite bird (second to Golden Eagle).
After I had admired the beautiful owl for a while I walked near the shore (we were in a lagoon) and saw a Spotted Sandpiper and some grackles bathing. I also saw a pair of Limpkins and Snail Kites! The Limpkins were wading out into the shallows and gulping down fish and the pair of kites were hunting snails near some reeds in shallow water. I jumped in the lagoon and swam as close to the kites as I could without disturbing them and watched them for a while; soaring, diving, and sometimes hovering above the water and picking off snails. It was a beautiful sight to watch (especially swimming 20 feet in front of them).
Oh, I almost forgot to describe the lagoon! Ok, the lagoon is actually more like a bay and is a popular place to swim in (especially at the campground) because it has clear blue water and has a sandy bottom. It is also a good birding spot-kites nest on little islands, cormorants rule the water, and there is plenty of waterfowl. Fair amounts of people (mostly extranjeros) have bought houses next to the lagoon and there are a couple of nice hotels. But the town is mostly about the lagoon and Cenote Azul (limestone hole filled with river water from 100-200 feet below the ground) across the road. We went there today (Monday) with Nate and Nichole and had great ceviche (kind of like pico de gallo but with shrimp, onions, and vinegar). Teslin and I also explored the cenote, which was about 70-100 feet deep. There were tons of fish including the big hunkers and little tiny minnows. We threw in tortillas and they all went bonkers! All the tortillas disappeared within 20 seconds and then they started looking at my leg! I quickly got out of the water before hungry fish ate me up!
Nate and Nichole are leaving tomorrow morning and are hitchhiking to Tulum, a beach town 220 mile from Bacalar. We are probably leaving tomorrow too (although we might stay here another night just for the swimming)!