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Amazon Birding Bonanza at Sani Lodge

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Braden here.

The majority of our first week in South America was spent in Ecuador’s portion of the Amazon. It was May, 2017, and we were staying at a place known as Sani Lodge, a resort run by the Yasuni people. The lodge was located about a half mile from the Río Napo, a large tributary of the Amazon River, nestled on a small lagoon. The only way to reach the lodge was by a combination of motorboating, canoeing and hiking.

Hoatzins, an Amazon version of a crazy turkey, provided plenty of entertainment around Sani Lodge. (Photo by Braden Collard)

Bird-wise, I was super excited about the Amazon—it hosted more species than all of the ABA area! As we approached Sani Lodge, though, we saw and heard few birds. Our guide, Danny, pointed out flocks of oropendolas flashing through the canopy or the echoing call of a lone tinamou, but birding was tough as we hiked to our canoe dock, and my expectations slowly diminished. I figured there were lots of birds here, but almost all of them would be difficult to see through the brush. The lodge itself proved my idea wrong, however.

As we canoed up to the dock, our guide began pointing out a broad array of activity—White-winged Swallows flying low over the lagoon, Black-capped Donacobiuses meowing from the marsh, and “stinky turkeys”, or Hoatzins, weighing down branches and screaming about it. As we walked up to the open-air lounge, Danny pointed out two Tropical Screech-Owls roosting in a palm tree next to the trail. In the bar, a chicken-like bird picked crumbs off the floor. Danny introduced us to Apasha the Gray-winged Trumpeter. An Australian birder nearby, the only other tourist in the lounge, stressed that Apasha was “completely wild,” and therefore “completely countable” on ebird. Apasha had shown up a few years ago and just stuck around. In fact, my sister soon discovered that Apasha enjoyed picking insects off of peoples’ heads.

Got critters in your hair? A Gray-winged Trumpeter may be just the ticket! (Photo by Sneed B. Collard III)

Feeders were set up next to the bar, snagging my attention from the manager, who was giving us a presentation on the expectations of the lodge. Silver-beaked and Masked Crimson Tanagers decorated the fruit feeders, while White-eared Jacamars and Scarlet-crowned Barbets watched from nearby.

Masked Crimson Tanagers were some of the most spectacular “feeder birds” at the lodge. (Photo by Braden Collard)

The lodge grounds were small and mostly unmanicured, as the Yasuni wanted to be as eco-friendly as possible. This also meant that the electricity generator ran only twelve hours a day, around mealtimes.

One day, we went for a canoe ride around the lagoon. The story behind the lagoon was that it was a sanctuary for endangered Yellow-spotted Turtles and Black Caimans, both of which we saw. In fact, we released four baby turtles into the lagoon, named Tortugi, Speckles, Rick Turtle and Terminator. As we canoed around, we all suddenly heard drumming. As we looked into the trees nearby, we glimpsed a brilliant-yellow woodpecker—one Danny said was the rare Cream-colored!

One of the most thrilling birds we saw around Sani Lodge, this Cream-colored Woodpecker even made it into my dad’s book, Woodpeckers: Drilling Holes and Bagging Bugs. (Photo by Braden Collard)

My expectations were filled, but more was to come…

Listers Anonymous Mid-Year Crisis Meeting

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Minutes from Listers Anonymous Meeting 7/1/18

Us: Hello.

Group: Hello!

Us: Our names are Sneed and Braden and we are Listers. It’s been exactly four hours and twelve minutes since we last posted on eBird.

Group: Amen!

Biologist Dick Hutto leads Listers Anonymous meeting with birders from Helena in the Rice Ridge Burn. (Photo by Sneed B. Collard III)

Us: I mean, we’re not just Listers. We love to watch birds and photograph them and write about them, but…

Moderator: Go on. We’re all friends here.

Us: Thanks. Yeah, but we’re also Listers. We like to keep track of how many birds we’ve seen in a given year, month, day—not to mention how many in every county and state and, well, you get the idea.

Woman with binocular strap scars on her shoulders: Oh, I know. Been there, Honey.

Us: The thing is, we’re really having a crisis right now.

Moderator: Go on.

Lister’s Dilemma: Great species, such as this Spotted Sandpiper, still abound, but NEW species are getting hard to find. (Photo by Sneed B. Collard III)

Us: Well, you see, last year we did a Montana Big Year. I recorded 207 species while Braden got 213. This year, I’m up to 196 while Braden has 204.

Man wearing birding vest, shaking his head: Have mercy. You are in trouble.

Us: We knew you’d understand. I mean most people, they don’t get it. They say, “200 species! Why that’s great! The year’s only half done and you’ve almost beat your old record already!”

Group: Lord, forgive them!

Us: Yeah, right? What they don’t realize is that the prime birding months are GONE! Sure, we need only ten or so species to break last year’s record, but seriously, it’s July! It’ll be a miracle if we can find that many in Montana the rest of the year.

Group: By the name of Sibley and Audubon, we feel your pain!

Us: What’s even worse, we aren’t even going to make it out to Far Eastern Montana this summer. No Upland Sandpipers. No Greater Sage Grouse. No Long-billed Curlews.

Woman with an arm tattoo “Big Year or Bust”: Children, you are in a fix!

Us: We know, but what can we do?

Moderator, polishing the lenses of his binoculars: Sneed and Braden, it’s one of the heaviest burdens for a Lister to bear. But you’ve got to fight it.

Group: Amen.

Moderator: You just can’t take “No” for an answer.

Group: Amen!

Moderator: You’ve got to keep getting out there, even when there’s less hope of finding a Year Bird than of getting a Democrat elected to Congress!

Group: AMEN, BROTHERS AND SISTERS!

For us, it seems like a record year for Lewis’s Woodpecker sightings, but would it be too much to ask to see a Black-backed? (Photo by Sneed B. Collard III)

Moderator: You can’t give up. Every day and every night, you’ve got to sling your optics around your necks and follow every lead, examine every perch. And even in your darkest days, when not a new sparrow is spotted within a hundred miles of you, remember, we’re all in this together. Take strength from that, brothers.

Us: We will. Thank you. Uh, by the way, is anyone up for some birding?

(Sounds of trampling feet as the Listers stampede out of the building.)

Fire In The Hole!

 

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Braden here.

At 6:30 on Sunday, June 17th, retired UM Professor Dick Hutto picked up my dad and me to go birding. In the passenger seat of Dick’s car was Dick’s former graduate student Hugh Powell, who was in Missoula to write an article for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Our mission was simple: see a Black-backed Woodpecker.

Townsend’s Warbler. (Photo by Sneed B. Collard III)

We were headed to an area known as the Rice Ridge Fire (after a quick coffee stop), to the northeast of Missoula. The first time we had heard about this trip was at Montana Audubon’s Wings Across the Big Sky Bird Festival. A birder from Helena told us that Dick (who had an abundance of bird knowledge, specifically about birds that liked fire) was leading a field trip up to the burn and mentioned we might want to come along. My dad, who knew Dick well, jumped at the chance and asked Dick if we could get a ride up with him. Well, here we were.

At Seeley Lake, a large tourist area as well as great birding stop, we met the rest of the group, all birders of different experience levels from Helena. Knowing that this area was good for American Redstarts and Northern Waterthrushes, my dad and I persuaded the group to look around Seeley before hitting the burn. We quickly saw and heard 15 species, including the uncommon Willow Flycatcher, identified by its characteristic call, Fitz-bew.

We slowly made our way up Rice Ridge Road, stopping regularly to look for our goal, the Black-backed. The burn area had not been logged, thankfully, and every time we stopped Dick emphasized that it should not be logged, either—why not just cut trees near town instead? Burn areas have some of the highest levels of biodiversity in the country! (For more information on this, check out my dad’s book, Fire Birds: Valuing Natural Wildfires and Burned Forests.)

Lincoln’s Sparrows are known for nesting in higher altitude wet areas. (Photo by Braden Collard)

No Black-backeds showed, but the birds did not disappoint—MacGillavry’s Warblers and Lincoln’s Sparrows skulked in the low brush, Bluebirds danced across the black trunks, and woodpeckers of many species drummed and called. On that one stretch of road we observed four species—Northern Flicker, Hairy Woodpecker, Williamson’s Sapsucker, and (new for the year) at least three American Three-toed Woodpeckers, the Black-backed’s slightly less burn-dependent cousin.

In one spot, sort of a mix of burn and old-growth with a creek running through it, we were amazed with the number of species. A dipper, nesting under the bridge. Great looks at a Townsend’s Warbler. Large numbers of Western Tanagers and robins, both burn-preferring species. Sharon Dewart-Hansen, a Helena woman who was first in the state for the year, pointed out a new call for us—the Whip Three Beers of the Olive-sided Flycatcher.

Dick was slightly disappointed at the low number of woodpeckers, saying they would reach their peak two or three years from now, but everyone else was ecstatic. It had been a great trip, Black-backed or not.

The number of American Three-toed Woodpeckers that are in burns is double that of those not in burns. (Photo by Sneed B. Collard III)

Warblers Across Montana

We heard more Northern Waterthrushes than saw them, but did manage an occasional glimpse. (photo by Sneed B. Collard III)

During our 2016 Big Year, Braden and I were fortunate to attend the Monterey Bay Birding Festival. Our all-day “California Specialties” field trip was one of the most exhilarating days of birding we’d had to that point and ever since, we’d wanted to attend a similar event. Last weekend, we finally got our chance by going to Wings Across the Big Sky, held in Kalispell, Montana. As you might imagine, the event was loaded with terrific speakers, good food, and amazing field trips.

Picking our field trips proved a challenge, but on Saturday Braden and I opted to bird in Glacier National Park. Our top target species? Varied Thrush, Chestnut-backed or Boreal Chickadees, Harlequin Duck, and a pie-in-the-sky possibility, the endangered Black Swift. Shortly after 6 a.m., we followed our intrepid leader, Steve Gniadek, out of Kalispell and by 7:30 were birding the woods around Apgar. Almost immediately, we picked up one of our target birds, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, but what really stunned us was the profusion of warblers. In the thick, damp woods, seeing the birds proved a challenge, but their calls rang out all around us and, under Steve’s tutelage, we did our best to start learning them. Over the next two hours, we heard (and eventually saw) eight species—Yellow, Yellow-rumped, Townsend’s, American Redstart, Northern Waterthrush, Orange-crowned, Common Yellowthroat and MacGillivray’s. For Montana, it was an astounding total and almost a quarter of the 33 species we recorded.

MacGillivray’s Warblers have become one of Braden’s and my favorite summer arrivals in Montana. (photo by Sneed B. Collard III)

Our group’s next mission: Harlequin Ducks. The iconic Going-to-the-Sun Road was still closed, but we drove to Avalanche Creek to find a mob scene of hikers and bikers taking advantage of the closed road before cars were allowed up and over Logan Pass. In the confusion, our cars got separated, but as soon as our group stepped out of our car, we heard the eerie, drawn-out call of a Varied Thrush. “Let’s find it!” Braden exclaimed, leading us into a patch of conifers and, sure enough, we caught good, brief glimpses of this spectacular bird.

No sooner had we stepped out into the open, Braden and another member of our group shouted “Black Swifts!” We looked overhead to see several large black birds zooming about 100 feet above us. “How do you know they’re not Vaux’s?” I asked. The large size and slower wing beats strongly suggested Black Swifts, but a few minutes later, we got a clear answer when a Vaux’s and a Black Swift flew right next to each other, articulating the size difference between the two.

Elated with this bonus—a Lifer for both Braden and me—we headed down to MacDonald Creek to try to locate Harlequin Ducks. We didn’t find them, but got a great look at a Fox Sparrow and heard yet more warblers. By this time our comrades had reformed and we all decided to walk up Avalanche Creek. None of us expected to find the ducks, but at our last stop along the creek, I happened to glance at a shady eddy upstream—just in time to see a large shape disappear beneath the surface!

A Lifer for me, this Harlequin Duck put an end to a two-year search. (photo by Sneed B. Collard III)

I grabbed Braden’s arm. “Braden, watch that spot!” A few seconds later, a gorgeous male Harlequin Duck popped to the surface. The duck performed for our group for twenty minutes. I can’t say I got great photos, but watching this happy, rare white-water paddler enjoy the currents is something Braden and I will never forget.

Breaking News: My fall book, Warblers and Woodpeckers: A Father-Son Big Year of Birding is now available for preorder from Amazon. Click Here!

The Big Weekend, Version 3.0, Part Two

 

 

Clay-colored Sparrow.

 

Braden here again, to continue our birding trip to Malta.

The next morning, after a brief detour at Malta’s Trafton Park, we thought up our slogan, “Bowdoin or Bust”. Last June, when we had visited Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge last, it had taken us at least forty five minutes to get there from Malta thanks to heavy construction on the way there. This time, thankfully, the road seemed all right, and we made it in about 20 minutes. We parked at the visitor center, shot bug-killing chemicals all over our exposed skin, and hit the pond loop.

The cottonwoods surrounding the small pond were alive with calls; some I knew, like the che-bek of the Least Flycatcher. Others were foreign to my ears. Our target bird for this area was Baltimore Oriole, an uncommon Montana migrant. We had searched for them at Trafton Park last night, with no luck, and now hoped to see the one that had been reported here recently. No oriole. There was also a surprising lack of Great Horned Owls; we had seen four here last summer.

Next we entered the Auto Tour Loop, a 15-mile drive around the huge lake that Bowdoin was famous for. The American White Pelican, Bowdoin’s biggest celebrity, nested here in huge numbers. As we began the drive around the lake, I called stop so we could identify a small sparrow perched on a shrub to the left of the road. This was the first, but definitely not the last “sparrow stop” of the day.

We continued up the road, identifying Clay-colored, Savannah and Grasshopper Sparrows every few minutes. At one stop, we met some fellow birders from Bigfork, near Flathead Lake, and they pointed out the strangely-metallic song of the grassland-dependent Baird’s Sparrow.

The drive was great, better than we expected. We saw grebes, ducks and shorebirds(including a Black-bellied plover) in large numbers on the lake, and ear-birded the surrounding prairie. At the end of the loop, as we began entering widely-spaced trees, a bird on the wing caught our attention.

Eared Grebe on nest.

“Turkey Vulture!” I said, watching the large raptor try to stabilize in the wind. Suddenly, though, another bird took off below it. The bird flew like a flicker, but had a very unusual black and white pattern on its back and wings. We could not see the head.

At the same time, my dad and I turned towards each other and said, “Red-headed Woodpecker!” My dad gunned the engine and we chased it. As it crested the hill, though, we lost it and couldn’t relocate it again.

Bewildered and sad, we took another walk around the visitor center pond. Nothing new showed itself—the day grew hot and the birds started settling down. As we finished, though, I spotted a tangerine-colored bird swoop down from a cottonwood into some distant trees.

“Daddy! Oriole!”

I didn’t want to get too excited, as both Bullock’s and Orchard were also possible, but I hoped for our target, the Baltimore. And as it popped back up into view, the neon orange body and black head confirmed it. We saw a Baltimore Oriole!

Bowdoin had not disappointed.

Baltimore Oriole, Bowdoin NWR. Bad Photo, great experience.