When a Snowy Owl photobombs your Surf Scoter vid

 A new video is up, this one featuring a cracking close range male Surf Scoter.

Of course I wasn't the only one monitoring the harbor...

Colima Pygmy-Owl

I suppose I could have titled the post My Most Frustrating Great Look at a bird ever.

Evening of Day 3 found us in some dry forest scrub after spending the afternoon driving east towards the border of Oaxaca and Chiapas.  Alex found a couple of Cinnamon-tailed Sparrows, a bird I just could not get a decent look at.  I kept getting an elbow, branch, or head in the way every time I sort of saw the bird.  It didn't help that the little double malar mark, the field mark I'd learned for the bird, was quite a bit harder to see than I expected.

A western type Redtail soared out

I managed to spot a White-tailed Hawk, a bird I thought might be more common than it was.  This individual was the only one we saw.

I don't remember how I managed to lag behind the group a little, I think Alex started playing a tape at a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl that was really far away and I was distracted by something that seemed closer, but when I caught up they were looking at something.  They said it was the pygmy-owl.  It took forever to find the bird, it was quite close but the same color as the dusk lit surroundings and a bit higher than I thought.  Usually I'm pretty good at looking at the angle of people's bins and gauging where to look, but I was failing utterly.  When I eventually found the bird it looked way different that I expected.  Because it wasn't Ferruginous, it was Colima Pygmy-Owl!  Whoops.  Keep up with the group.

We stayed past dark hoping to hear Buff-collared Nightjar, which maybe Alex heard.  Finally a view of one of the Mottled Owls that came in to the Black-and-White track he was playing.

Down the mountain

 We'd spent the morning of Day 2 in the pine forest elevation level in Oaxacan highlands.  We spent the midday there too, trying to find Dwarf Jay, a bird whose breeding range is comparable in size to Kirtland's Warb.  It took some doing.  We would occasionally hear Northern Pygmy-Owls, but they were quite hard to see, and it took some walking around and craning our necks upward at different angles before Alex located the bird.

We drove around a bit and stopped for some activity.  Gray-barred Wrens were again calling form the treetops, but this time Alex was able to bring them down

We found Red (which again wouldn't stop for a pic) and Golden-browed Warblers 

Suddenly Warren and I had a jay fly across, it turned out to be a group of 3 or 4 of the Dwarf Jays, which didn't like to come out in the open at all.

I'm not totally sure what this next bird is.

Alex thought it was a young Golden-browed Warbler, but it's not a plumage that's in any of the books.

With success on Dwarf Jay we headed down the mountain, to a thicket of scrub habitat that potentially could hold Dwarf Vireo.  The Vireo's habitat was flooded by the full sun and heat of the late afternoon lowlands and we didn't see many birds, and definitely not the vireo.  A Myarchid flycatcher appeared above us as Alex was taping for the vireo.

I looked with interest since Nutting's Flycatcher is a bird that just reaches Arizona occasionally, and is differentiated from Ash-throated based on how much dark outer color of the tail wraps around the end of the tail.  On this bird ... it's neither, the tail's mostly dark with some lighter color along the feather shaft.  I realized it was a Dusky-capped Flycatcher, which Alex pointed out was in the background of the vireo tape he was playing.  Well, at least something responded.

Finally a little empid we found.

With the big teardrop behind the eye it's clearly not one of our Eastern empids, and I was suspecting it was Cordilleran.  I forget why Alex said it couldn't be Cordy, but the entirely pale lower mandible eliminates most of the other Western empids ... so, what's left.  Oh yeah, Mexican empids, because we were in Mexico! It's a Pine Flycatcher, a bird that actually lives next to, but not in pines, so perfect!

No ahhhh

 Returning to Mexico, and piggy-backing off of the last post, is Barred Owl's southern cousin, Fulvous Owl.

It was too distant (and lit dimly by flashlights) to see if it's actually warmer colored than ours.

The sound very much had a Barred Owl cadence, but stayed on one pitch, and didn't fall off at the end in the characteristic Barred Owl ending, so no hooo-ahh.  They turned out to be reasonably common since we heard them on a couple different nights, sometimes spontaneously, even though they seem to have a pretty limited range.

Here's Barred's for comparison.  There's a few pips in western Mexico that's currently classified as a subspecies of Barred, which doesn't make a ton of sense given how far apart they are from the rest...

A quick search on SORA doesn't really seem to reveal very much in terms of why the west Mexican ones are subspecies of Barred whereas the east Mexican (and Central American) one is its own species.  (I probably should listen on xeno to see if the other one has a hooo-ahh maybe)

hoooooo-ahh

Earlier in the week I was whistling saw-whet in a pine stand.  The wind bit through my clothes, but low in a needle-y knoll there was some (much welcomed) shelter.  And as I whistled, there started to be a little noise in the trees overhead.  It created an eerie feeling, anticipation mixing with the unknown.  Something was there in the night, but what?  Maybe bill clicking, maybe a small mammal, maybe even the saw-whet.  But then 10 times bigger and 15 feet from my forehead, a Barred Owl belted out, "Hooooo-ahhh!"   I wasn't the only one interested in seeing a Saw-whet!  It was a climactic moment.  Though the Barred, as far as I know, flew away hungry.

So today as I was walking some bottomland forest it was again fun to hear Barred Owls, this time calling in the daytime, and quite close.  One soon flushed, but didn't go far, and teed up nicely.

Here it's looking off for the other calling bird.

And now leaning forward to answer.

And lest you think I've strayed too far from the Mexican content promised in the header, Barred has a close cousin south of the border ... stay tuned.

White eared jacamar ... and Owl???

 Our last afternoon of Ecuador birding saw us upstream of the claylicks birding around a Sani village (can you say Roasted Palm Grubs for lunch?  Ok, plural is an exaggeration.  But I did eat one.  It tasted like a really rubbery shrimp).  Anyway, we walked a trail among widely dispersed houses and came upon a White-eared Jacamar.

I don't know of any other burgandy jacamars, it looks like an Asian bird!

Our real goal on this hike was a roost spot for Crested Owl, an owl that's fairly widely distributed in the tropics, but a species I'd only seen once before.

Finally a view of one of the white-throated toucan species which came a lot closer than any had previously just to continue the white-eared theme of the walk...

Last yearbirds?

 We'll see if the CBC's have anything to say about that!

Earlier in the week both Purple Sandpiper and Snowy Owl (along with a continuing kittiwake) were at Tiscornia.  The morning I was there the Purple was walking along the edge of the pier.  The owl flew out from where it was probably hunkered down from behind the lighthouse and flushed it.

The owl eventually grew bored of the pier and flew in to the shoreline.  It might be the first Snowy I've had flying low over the lake so I figured a montage was in order

It teed up on the gazebo a little north of the overlook

Finally a look at the Purple Sandpiper in pretty dim light.

The next morning SW winds scoured the algae off the pier and not surprisingly I don't believe the bird was seen again

Seek and ye shall find ...

something.  Maybe not what you were looking for, but definitely something.

According to eBird I've walked close to 8 miles in Chikaming this month as a few people have reported Black-billed Cuckoo there.  I've only heard Yellow-billed to date, but did see a beaver out of the water for the first time ever.

A doe posed nicely.  I think I saw a fawn duck down just as I came around the corner and the doe only moved 20 feet away so I snapped 2 pics and kept walking.

I was also keeping my ears open for Blue Grosbeak (stop me when you sense the theme to this summer's birding), but chestnut-sided, prothon, and blue-winged warblers were the most interesting breeders.  One of the resident Barred Owls swooped up on one of my loops.

Finally a pic of a Giant Swallowtail from today in Warren Dunes...

Christmas (counts) are here!

With CBC season well underway I figured I'd post a few birds from some of the Berrien counts.

There's no time like CBC's to pin down your screech owl spots for Birdathon, and I do have a new spot that I think is going to be on the route this upcoming year.  This bird was at a traditional location however.

Quite possibly my best ever Eastern Screech shot.  I don't usually try to see them, but this one flew in silently to the tape.  It was an exciting morning

 Song Sparrow is always an exciting CBC bird, one that often will reward spirited pishing at cattail or waterside thickets

The swans were getting in the Christmas spirit.  It was a little unclear initially whether these birds were Tundras or Trumpeters, but then they were kind enough to fly directly to the near side of the pond.  The feathering of the jaw is the most useful feature here.  In Trumpeter it's more or less a straight line from the eye to the jaw; in tundra the feathering angles down about halfway out (like in these birds)

When Red-bellied Woodpeckers are dominating the soundscape it helps the Red-headed's stand out better.

Finally a Long-tailed Duck that would be a highlight bird in about 95% of Michigan CBC's, here semi-expected, hooray Lake Michigan.

Black Friday Snowy

Mike Bourdon found a Snowy at New Buff this morning so Hazel and I drove down to take a look.  It was still there, teed up in front of a post that the waves and wind had driven into the breakwall

It surveyed the harbor, perhaps wondering if Scaup could be on the Thanksgiving leftovers list.

I've been struggling this month to find the time to get out and find some photo targets, but the best two shots this month are a (mostly obscured) Barred Owl and a bright Red-shouldered Hawk

Lancebill!!

Green-fronted Lancebill is a bird that's been possible on a bunch (if not most) of the trips I've taken to Central and South America.  Afternoon at San Isidro however was the first time I've ever seen one.  The classic habitat is little snags along rapidly flowing streams or small waterfalls;  this one was away from the water though.

Really it ought to be named sword-billed and the sword-billed hummingbird (whose bill is double in length) ought to have the lance-billed moniker, but who's keeping score.  Honestly I expected the bill to be longer, but sword-billed probably spoiled me.  Some of the starthroats have similar length bills to the lancebill too. 

 The sun got up pretty well this afternoon (a nice respite from rain), but it did slow down activity a fair bit, but we did find some high tanagers.  This is my best pic of Saffron-crowned Tanager. 

We saw them a bunch of days but they tended to stay pretty high and move pretty fast.

Green Jays were common as well.

Finally a look at "San Isidro Owl", a bird intermediate between the Black-and-white Owl of Central American and Black-banded Owl of South America.

Some believe it to be a distinct species, others simply an intergrade.