FONT E-News, Volume 22, Number 1
January 5, 2012
The Recent FONT Tour in Chile: With
Parakeets, Penguins, and the Pudu
Our recent birding and nature tour in November 2011 in Chile
was enjoyable indeed! It was spring there, in that beautifully scenic
and diverse country.
We went from the Andes Mountains to the Pacific
Ocean. From Santiago, in central Chile, we went south to
Chiloe Island, a wonderful place to be.
Among the birds during the tour: Andean Condor, Burrowing
Parakeet, Slender-billed Parakeet, Humboldt Penguin, Magellanic Penguin,
Gray-breasted Seedsnipe, Many-colored Rush Tyrant, Crag Chilia,
Snowy-crowned Tern, Great Grebe, Kelp Goose, Flightless Steamer Duck, and
Black-necked Swans with cygnets riding on their backs.
Also: 3 species of oystercatchers, and 4 species of cormorants including the
beautiful Red-legged Cormorant.
And these are just some of the birds. There were many more.
Among the mammals during the tour: a Kodkod (a wild cat), a
Pudu (the smallest deer in the world), a Grison,
an Akodont (a vole-like mammal), and the Marine
Otter (a relative of the Sea Otter of the Northern Hemisphere).
The following are some excerpts from the full narrative of the
tour in the FONT website: www.focusonnature.com
A rare, endangered, and localized bird in Chile is the Burrowing
Parakeet, a large parakeet about the size of a smaller macaw.
Also called the Patagonian Conure, it has an array of colors. Its
upperparts and long tail are olive-green. Its rump is yellow. Its head is
olive-brown. It has a gray forecrown and white around its eyes. It has a
white breast band. Its abdomen is yellow, with a streak of red on its belly.
Its wing primaries are blue. It has yellow legs and pale red feet. Putting
all this together, the bird has, yes, an array of colors.
The species also occurs in Argentina, but west of the Andes in Chile, where
it is called the "Tricahue", it is an isolated, endemic
subspecies.
*******
Two species of penguins that we saw on rocky islets, alogn
a picturesque stretch of the Chiloe Island seacoast, were close
together, but breeding with their own kind.
Superficially similar, they were the Humboldt and the
Magellanic Penguins. Basically, the Humboldt breeds along the
Pacific Coast of South America from that Chiloe Island site north, while the
Magellanic breeds from there south (and also on the Atlantic side of
southern South America).
With the penguins, that were on
the rocks and in the water, we saw Fuegian (or Flightless) Steamer
Ducks, Kelp Geese, Kelp Gulls, the attractive Dolphin
Gull, South American Terns, and 4 species of Cormorants:
the Imperial, the Rock, the Neotropic, and the Red-legged.
*******
Chile is long and narrow, rather like a
string bean" of a country. Its length is one-tenth of the Earth's
perimeter, extending 38 degrees of latitude.
Putting that in distances we can relate to, the length of mainland Chile is
2,700 miles (or 4,345 kilometers). It is the equivalent of going from
Ketchikan in Alaska to the southernmost tip of Baja California in Mexico.
And with that length, comes diversity. And that's why Chile is as
interesting and fascinating as it is.
In the far-north, there is a very dry desert, as dry as a desert can be in
the world.
In the far-south, there is rainforest, about as wet as a forest on this
planet can be.
And another factor adds to the diversity of the nature of Chile. Even though
it is narrow, with an average width of 110 miles, the elevation in that
width is from sea level to the high mountain peaks of the Andes. Actually,
from the offshore submarine trench that parallels the Pacific coast to
those Andean peaks, there is a difference of about 40,000 feet.
Due to the tremendous variety of natural environments and climates, a
summary of what has been found naturally in the long "string bean"
of a country reads like this:
4,600 flowering plants, 1,187 mollusk species, 606
crustacean species, 1,179 species of fish, more than 43
amphibians (a few have recently been discovered), more than 94
reptiles (again, a few recently discovered), 456 bird species,
and 148 species of mammals.
*******
We traveled south, crossing the Rio Bio Bio. It is at that
river that the aspects of the countryside become "Patagonian".
South of the Bio Bio River, in a region of forests and snow-covered mountains
(many volcanic), settled mainly by German immigrants, after a wonderful
dinner and even more wonderful pastries for desert, a step outside the door
of our hotel in the darkness of night was awe-inspiring.
There were no cities, or even town, for miles in any direction. What
there were in the clear sky overhead were stars - more
stars than imaginable. There were thousands to the
eye, and innumerably more with a scan of one's binoculars.
It had not been dark long, so a satellite shone with reflected light as it
went across the sky. Later, a falling star, or meteor, blazed its way in an
arc. The planet Jupiter was brilliantly bright. In binoculars, four of its
moons were there as they should have been.
There was not a single cloud in the sky. Actually, that wasn't true.
There were two: the Magellanic Clouds, Nubeculae magellani
- the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small
Magellanic Cloud (SMC), two irregular dwarf galaxies that appear in
the sky in the Southern Hemisphere to be rather close to each other. Of
course, "close" is relative.
Those two "clouds", looking like fuzzy patches, are members of our
Local Galaxy Group, orbiting our Milky Way Galaxy.
Described first in Arabian astronomy back in 964 A.D., the Magellanic Clouds
are only visible at the southernmost point of Arabia.
They were observed during the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan when it
circumnavigated the world in the Southern Hemisphere, and later the
name "Magellanic" was applied.
Having said that the two Magellanic Clouds appear relatively
"close" to each other, they are roughly 21 degrees apart in the
night sky, and the true distance between them is about
75,000 light-years (so not so "close").
Until the discovery of the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy in 1994, the
Magellanic Clouds were the closest known galaxies to our own.
The LMC is about 160,000 light-years from us, while the SMC is about
200,000.
The LMC is about twice the diameter of the SMC (14,000 light-years and 7,000
light years respectively).
For comparison , the Milky Way (containing us) is about 100,000 light-years
across.
The Large Magellanic Cloud lies between the constellations
of Dorado (the Swordfish) and Mensa (the
Table Mountain). Overhead, that night in Chile, there were also the constellations
of Cetus (the Whale) and Eridanus
(the River), long as it was with its bright star, Achernar. Among other
nearby constellations were Hydrus (the little water snake),
Tucana (the Toucan), and Octans (the
Octant).
None of these constellations are ever visible in the Northern Hemisphere.
*******
We went to see the Araucaria trees that grow on the higher
mountain slopes in the Bio Bio Region. The national tree of Chile,
Araucaria araucana, is most interesting.
Araucaria trees were among the earliest of
seed-bearing plants. Their fossils have been carbon-dated back to the Mesozoic
Age. They do have a "prehistoric look" to them. During
the Jurassic Period, 180 million years ago, they were food
for sauropods.
The trees grow up to 165 feet. They live as long as 1600 years, and
some longer. It takes them more than 20 years to bear seeds. When they do,
they have male cones in August and females cones, a s we saw, in November.
*******
Something special on Chiloe Island, at the time of
year when we were there, were the large flocks of Hudsonian
Godwits.
About one-quarter of the entire population of the species spends the Austral
Summer on that island. They feed in big flocks on mudflats that can be
expansive due to a significant difference between high and low tides. Those
large flocks are generally composed of just the godwits,
and it is not unusual to see hundreds of them at one place and time.
Scattered about on the mudflats are also Whimbrels, but
never in flocks, and often vocal whereas the godwits are
generally quiet. And there are smatherings of peeps,
usually Baird's Sandpipers.
To read the full narrative of the FONT November 2011 Chile tour,
please click:
http://www.focusonnature.com/ChileNov2011TourNarrative.htm
To see a gallery of photos from the FONT November 2011 Chile Tour,
click:
If you like poetry, and especially poems about birds, there's
now a special feature in the FONT website, with poems about
Chilean birds accompanied by photographs. The poems are by the renowned
Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, who lived from 1904 to 1973. For
his poetry, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.
Click here for the special feature: http://www.focusonnature.com/ChileNerudaBirds.htm
The poems and photos in the feature relate to these
birds: Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle, Wandering Albatross, Peruvian
Pelican, Black-faced Ibis, American Kestrel, Black-necked Swan, Andean
Condor, Southern House Wren, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Great Egret, Gray
Gull, Black Vulture, Long-tailed Meadowlark, Ringed Kingfisher,
Magellanic Woodpecker, White-tailed Kite, Magellanic Penguin, Southern
Lapwing, Many-colored Rush-Tyrant, Chimango Caracara, and the Dodo.
The last of these of course was not a Chilean bird.
My favorite of the above poems is that about the Black-necked Swan. And not
necessarily because it's the shortest.
Wishing you a good year ahead,
Armas Hill
A link to upcoming FONT birding & nature tours in 2012 &
into 2013:
http://www.focusonnature.com/ChronologicalToursList.htm
And, here now, to conclude, a poem by Pablo Neruda,
about himself, written shortly before the end of his life.
Entited: "The Poet says Good-Bye to the Birds"
A provincial poet
and birder,
I come and I go about the world,
unarmed,
just whistle my way along,
submit to the sun and its certainty,
to the rain's violin voice,
to the wind's cold syllable.
In the course
of past lives
and preterit disinterments,
I've been a creature of the elements
and keep on being a corpse in the city:
I cannot abide the niche,
prefer woodlands with startled
pigeons, mud, a branch of chattering parakeets,
the citadel of the condor, captive
of its implacable heights,
the primordial ooze of the
ravines,
adorned with slipperworts.
Yes yes yes yes yes yes,
I'm an incorrigible birder,
cannot reform my ways -
though the birds
do not invite me
to the treetops,
to the ocean,
or the sky,
to their conversation, their banquet,
I invite myself,
watch them
without missing a thing:
yellow-rumped siskins,
dark fishing cormorants
or metallic cowbirds,
nightingales,
vibrant hummingbirds,
quail,
eagles native
to the mountains of Chile,
meadowlarks with pure
and bloody breasts,
wrathful condors
and thrushes,
hovering hawks, hanging from the sky,
finches that taught me their trill,
nectar birds and foragers,
blue velvet and white birds,
birds crowned by foam
or simply dressed in sand,
pensive birds that question
the earth and peck at its secret
or attack the giant's bark
and lay open the wood's heart
or build with straw, clay, and rain
their fragrant love nest
or join thousands of their kind
forming body to body, wing to wing,
a river of unity and movement,
solitary,
severe birds among the rocky crags,
ardent, fleeting,
lusty, erotic birds,
inaccessible in the solitude
of snow and mist,
in the hirsute hostility,
of windswept wastes,
or gentle gardeners
or robbers
or blue inventors of music
or tacit witnesses of dawn.
A people's poet,
provincial and birder,
I've wandered the world in search of life:
bird by bird I've come to know the earth:
discovered where fire flames aloft:
the expenditure of energy
and my disinterestedness were rewarded,
even though no one paid me for it,
because I received those wings in my soul
and immobility never held me down.
Pablo Neruda's poems were of course written in Spanish. The translation
by Jack Schmitt
FONT E-News,
Volume 21, Number 15
October 4, 2011
A Quiz with Two
Questions (A Sentence with Two Qs)
"What Species are they?"
Number 1:
In 1784, in England, a
man named Thomas Pennant published "Arctic Zoology".
In it, there was a beautifully detailed engraving of two birds. One was a
Pied-billed Grebe, shown as it should be, on the water.
But the other bird in the illustration was problematic.
It was standing on the bank of a shore, with its webbed feet firmly on the
ground.
It was in strange company being with the grebe, but even more strange
(or wrong) was its being on a dirt bank.
Also incorrect in the engraving was the thrust of its head, the splay
of its legs, and the angle of its body.
But so few Europeans, if any, who looked at the beautiful engraving, had
ever seen the bird. So the image did not seem implausible.
The species had yet to be described. It would be, 5 years later, in 1789.
But its nest would not be found until nearly 200
years later, in 1974. That was even though ornithologists looked
diligently for it for decades.
That nest was found to be high in coniferous trees, miles away from the
sea where the bird usually seen, and no where "the dirt bank of
a shore" where the bird never is.
That first nest was found in the most populous state in the United States.
WHAT IS THE SPECIES?
Number 2:
This bird has evolved a complex, communal social system, of
"cooperative breeding".
The colony, of this species, is an extended family (kinship) group that
consists of a breeding core of 4 or more males, usually brothers or a
father and his sons, who share up to 3 related females, usually sisters or
a mother and her daughters.
Older offspring may join in the group as "helpers", attending to
the granaries and assisting in raising younger birds.
The word "granaries" is a clue.
Such granaries are found in the most populous state in the United
States.
WHAT IS THE SPECIES?
The above & more can be found in the FONT website: www.focusonnature.com
scrolling down the
left-side of the home-page to the appropriate bird-list and photo
gallery.
In the same list as the two species above, there is also interesting
information about these birds:
Short-tailed Albatross, Ashy Storm Petrel, Leach's Storm Petrel,
California Condor, Clapper Rail, Surfbird, Rock Sandpiper, Heermann's
Gull, Common Murre, Cassin's Auklet, Spotted Owl, Anna's Hummingbird,
Nuttall's Woodepecker, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Loggerhead Shrike,
Island Scrub Jay, Yellow-billed Magpie, California Gnatcatcher,
Swainson's Thrush, Varied Thrush, Wrentit, Tricolored Blackbird,
California Towhee, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White-crowned
Sparrow.
Both of the species in the quiz above are likely to be seen during
the upcoming FONT West Coast USA Tour,
September 7-16, 2012.
Two Big Eagles, each about as Big as Eagles can be
Eagle Number 1: the Harpy Eagle
Just published in the Journal of Raptor Research is the news that
between October 2000 and December 2006, nests were found in Panama
of 25 breeding pairs of Harpy Eagles in the province of
Darien. Most were in tropical rain forest at an average
altitude of nearly 400 feet above sea level, ranging in elevations from 150
to about 900 feet. Nest densities are estimated to be 4 to 6 in about
50 square miles. Each breeding pair occupies from 8 to 12 square
miles of forest. This nesting density of Harpy Eagles
is the highest that's known for the species throughout its entire
breeding range.
The Harpy Eagle is the national bird of Panama.
And the next FONT birding & nature tour in
that country is scheduled for July 22-28,
2012.
There has been a re-introduction program underway in Panama of the Harpy
Eagle, outside the Darien, and in what was the "Canal
Zone".
There's a list of Panama Birds in the FONT website, with over 900
species. It's being updated, and now nearly done.
Eagle Number 2: the Steller's Sea Eagle
Another large eagle, in another part of the world, is the Steller's
Sea Eagle. The length of the bird (the larger female) is more
than 3 feet. Across its wings it is about 7 feet,
from one wingtip to the other.
The total population of that species is less than 5,000 and declining.
It nests only southeastern Siberia, not far from the sea. Most (more
than half) winter on the northernmost island in Japan, Hokkaido.
The Steller's Sea Eagle is solitary where it breeds.
But is is social where it winters.
Sometimes during our winter tour in Japan we see a
few hundred of them. We always see dozens. And we always see them well.
Our next FONT birding & nature tour to Japan,
including Hokkaido, is scheduled for
January 25-February 6, 2013.
In addition to the Steller's Sea Eagle on Hokkaido,
also, during the tour, we will see White-tailed Eagles,
Red-crowned Cranes, and the Blakiston's Fish
Owl, one of the largest and rarest owls in the world.
A complete list of Japan Birds is in the FONT website, with over
560 species. That list has already been updated, and contains a
number of photos.
Information about all upcoming FONT birding & nature tours
is in the website: www.focusonnature.com
Wishing you the best,
Armas Hill
FONT E-News, Volume 21, Number 14
September 19, 2011
If you haven't visited there lately, you are, by all means, welcome.
There have been some recent updates.
On the upper-left of the home-page, you might go to the "ARCHIVES" where
some "older" materials have been presented in a "new"
way.
On that section, you can go back in time to some FONT tours, over the
years, in: Arizona, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Hungary (&
Romania & Slovakia), Iceland, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Sweden.
A number of you may have been receiving our BIRDLINE
e-mail bulletins, including one recently summarizing birds disrupted
by the hurricane/tropical storm Irene in the Northeast US.
That Birdline and others are kept for reference, and can be read by going
down the right-side of the FONT website homepage, to the file
entitled "Birdline".
In it, there are some Birdline archives, including features about the
Red Knot in both North & South America (from 2005), and about the
Woodcock, or "Timber-Doodle" (from 2000).
More such features will be added, and we have many in our
"archives", from the Birdline, done by Armas Hill, on the
telephone & internet for about 30 years, and on the radio for about 10
years.
Although occasionally an item not related to birds is included in our
BIRDLINE, we also send out periodically an e-mail called NATURELINE,
referring to various aspects of nature other than birds. If you'd
like to receive NATURELINE, please let us know.
A major part of the FONT website has been the LISTS of
birds and other nature that occur at the various places
where our tours go. Some of these lists are also PHOTO GALLERIES.
To get to these lists and photo galleries, scroll down the left-side of
our website home-page.
There have been updates lately to some of these lists,
including that of the birds in Guatemala. In the list,
711 birds in the country, 557 of which have been found during FONT tours.
Our Annual Holiday Tour this year will be in Guatemala,
Dec 26, 2012 to Jan 5, 2013,
in both the highlands & lowlands of the country, and including the
Mayan site at Tikal, a great place for birds & other
nature.
During this Guatemala tour, previosuly, we've enjoyed 3
species of hawk-eagles (during one morning), Orange-breasted
Falcons (at Tikal temples), ant swarms in the forest with many
birds, the Pink-headed Warbler, Pheasant Cuckoo,
and what's said to be the most beautiful bird in the world, the Resplendent
Quetzal.
Also, the rare Horned Guan! The status of that bird, by
the way, has recently been changed, unfortunately, from
"endangered" to "critically endangered".
Our list and photo gallery of Japan birds has
recently been updated. In the list, 561 birds in the country, 393 found
during FONT tours.
We're scheduled to go to Japan: January
25-February 6, 2013.
Going, of course, to Hokkaido, to see the Steller's
and White-tailed Eagles, Red-crowned Cranes,
and more, including the Blakiston's Fish Owl, one of the
largest & rarest owls in the world.
Our lists and photo galleries of California birds and butterflies
have just been updated. In the bird-list, 624 birds in the state, with 263
found during FONT tours (only in the late-summer & fall). Some
interesting information about these birds & butterflies is
incorporated into the list, and more will be.
Our next West Coast USA Tour, in Washington
State & California, will be September
7-16, 2012. Please contact us soon if you'd like to join to see
many birds, killer whales, and some
truly beautiful country.
There is still availability on some upcoming FONT
tours in the Caribbean (when there may be wintry
weather where you live) and in Belize, January
13-22, 2012.
Info in the Amazonian bird-list in the FONT
website has just been updated. Nearly 1,100 birds (1,094) in that
list, and those found during FONT tours are coded as to where &
when.
We have a tour scheduled to Amazonian
Brazil for May 4-14,
2012. To be
along the river where Theodore Roosevelt was in 1914, after he was US
president.
Birds during our upcoming tour that are possible, there
and elsewhere, are: Razor-billed Curassow, Dark-winged
Trumpeter, Crimson Fruitcrow, Crimson
Topaz (a wonderful hummingbird), Crytic Forest Falcon,
several species of macaws, the White-cheeked
(or Kawall's) Amazon, Pavinine
Quetzal, Curl-crested Aracari, Gould's
Toucanet, Spangled Cotinga, Pompadour
Cotinga, Black-necked Red Cotinga, Black-bellied
Gnateater, Rusty-belted Tapaculo, and even Harpy
Eagle.
Mammals that are possible include: Silvery
Marmoset, Brown-mantled Tamarin, Red-bellied Titi, Prince Bernard's Titi,
Bolivian Red Howler Monkey, White-nosed Saki, White-fronted Capuchin,
Tufted Capuchin, Brown Woolly Monkey, and Peruvian
Spider Monkey.
Also: Southern River Otter, Giant Otter, Brazilian Tapir,
Collared Peccary, White-lipped Peccary, and Red Brocket
Deer.
Both the Amazon River (or Pink)
Dolphin and the Tucuxi (or Gray)
Dolphin occur.
There's a fine book relating the story of how the Rio Roosevelt
in Amazonian Brazil came to be called that, and describing
the journey there by the former US president, Theodore Roosevelt, in the
early 20th Century.
That book is entitled "River of Doubt", by Candice
Millard, and it is well worth the read, even if one never goes
there, but especially if one does.
The "River of Doubt", as Millard calls it, or
the Rio Roosevelt, as it came to be known, was, according
to the jacket of the book, "black and uncharted, snaking (at that
time) through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world.
Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunted in the shadows, piranhas
glided through its waters (and still do), and boulder-strewn
rapids turn the river into a rolling cauldron.
(What's in italics, I added.)
After his humilating election defeat in 1912, Theodore (or Teddy)
Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could
find - the first descent of of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary
of the Amazon River.
Together with his son Kermit, and Brazil's most famous explorer, Candido
Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many,
upon his return home, refused to believe it.
Along the way, Roosevelt and the men with him faced an unbelieveable
sequence of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing
whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease,
drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and
Roosevelt himself was at the brink."
THE FOLLOWING TEXT IS PARAPHRASED FROM THE BOOK THE "RIVER OF
DOUBT":
Although they had risen well before dawn, it was almost noon by the time Roosevelt,
the outdoorsman, George Cherrie, and Dr. Jose
Cajazeira, and their three paddlers finally climbed into
their dugout on the morning of February 28, 1914, and
headed off down the river in pursuit of the rest of the expedition, which
had left camp nearly 4 hours earlier.
Sympathetic to how difficult it had been, and likely would continue to be,
for the naturalists (Cherrie & Cajazeira) to collect specimens for the
museum while they were on the River of Doubt, Roosevelt had directed the
other two dugouts and two balsas to go ahead without them when Cherrie
heard some birdcalls near camp that morning.
Cherrie made it worth Roosevelt's while, capturing six birds, including a
large "red-headed" woodpecker and a brilliant turquoise-blue
cotinga.
Once back on the twisting river, Roosevelt and Cherrie resumed
their search for signs of life. Their efforts were rewarded by an otter
splashing in the river, and two tropical birds called guans.
With his face east in shadow beneath his deep sun helmet,
Roosevelt watched as the jungle glided past him, with its towering trees
and blue-sky reflected, like a trembling inverted world, in the water's
dark surface.
He drank in the rich array of beauty, admiring the many
brightly-colored butterflies that "fluttered over the
river", and marveled at how a spark of sunlight could cloak the
electric green jungle. "When the sun broke through rifts in the
clouds", he wrote, "his shafts turned the forest into
gold".
As Roosevelt, and the others, paddled quietly down the river, a long, deep
roar suddenly erupted through the jungle. It was the voice of a Howler
Monkey, one of the loudest sounds of any animal on earth.
It can be heard from 3 miles away, and is formed when the monkey forces
air through its large, hollow hyoid bone. The result is a deep and
resonating howl that vibrates through the forest with a strange
intensity, echoing so pervasively that its location can be nearly
impossible to pinpoint.
As important as the river was to the expedition, it was a capricious and
unrelible ally. Like many rivers in South America and elsewhere, it could
change character quickly and dramatically over a very short distance, and
with profound consequences for an expedition. Swollen and swift
during the rainy season, it was cluttered with dangerous debris and pocked
with shifting whirlpools that could flip a canoe and trap a man under the
water in a matter of seconds.
Even more complex and dangerous than the river itself were the fishes,
mammals, and reptiles that inhabited it.
Like the rainforest that surrounds and depends upon it, the Amazon
river system is a prodigy of speciation and diversity, serving as home to
more than three thousand species of freshwater fishes -
more than any other river system on earth.
Its waters are crowded with creatures of nearly every size, shape, and
evolutionary adaptation, from tiny neon tetras to
thousand-pound manatees, to pink freshwater boto
dolphins, to stingrays, to armor-plated
catfishes, to bullsharks.
By comparison, the entire Missouri and Mississippi river system that
drains much of North America has only about 375 fish species.
Able to swim freely through large swarths of the jungle during the rainy
season, for example, certain Amazonian fish, such as the tambqui,
have evolved teeth that look like sharp molars and are tough enough to
crack open even the hard, cannonball-sized shell of the Brazil
Nut.
The ancient, eellike South American lungfish has
lungs as well as gills. Unless it surfaces every four to ten minutes
for a gulp of air, it will drown. But during the dry season, while other
fishes around it die as the ponds and streams dry up, the lungfish
survives by burrowing into the mud and taking oxygen from the air.
Still another species, the so-called four-eyed fish, has
eyes that are divided in two at the waterline by a band of tissue. With
two separate sets of corneas and retinas, the fish can search for
predators in the sky above and at the same time look for danger in the
water below.
There's more in the FONT website: www.focusonnature.com
Wishing you the best,
Armas Hill
FONT E-NEWS, Volume 21, Number 13
August 10, 2011
Jaguar & Jabirus in Brazil
In Brazil, FONT conducted its 50th
birding and nature tour in that country since 1991.
In Mato Grosso do Sul, in a region known as the
Pantanal - a region known for its wonderful wildlife, there were large
concentrations of birds, along with mammals and other nature.
Previously, we had seen Jaguar during 4 Brazilian tours in Mato Grosso do
Sul, once previously during the day, and 3 times previously at night.
On August 10, 2011, at about 10 o'clock in the morning, we had another daytime Jaguar sighting. By
a channel of water. it was at a concrete covert, for just a short time, before
disappearing into the covert and probably out the other side.
Where we saw the Jaguar, we travel about in the area on high, open vehicles. The previous night, in
such a vehicle, we enjoyed a great look at an Ocelot, after seeing 3 Giant
Anteaters, Crab-eating Foxes, Marsh Deer, 6-banded or
Yellow Armadillos, Capybaras, and Caiman. We saw 3 species of
nightjars, and heard another.
Among the numerous birds, during this tour in Brazil, were Jabirus (the largest American stork), the Hyacinth Macaw
(the largest
parrot in the world), the Greater Rhea (the largest American
bird), and the
Toco Toucan (the largest toucan). In all, nearly 200 species of birds.
Wishing you the best,
Armas Hill
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FONT E-News, Volume 21, Number 12
August 5, 2011
Preentations
about birds & other nature to groups & organizations
In the Focus On Nature Tours website, we now have photos of over 1,300 different
kinds of birds, mammals, amphibians & reptiles, butterflies,
marine-life, wildflowers, and other nature.
Using this large resource of photos, we're giving presentations
to various groups, clubs, and organizations. Such
upcoming presentations are now scheduled for the next few months in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We'd be glad to give such a program to your
group, even if you're further from us. Yes, even as far away from us as Texas.
Presentations are prepared relating to Brazil,
Iceland, Japan, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Spain, Chile, as well as about hummingbirds in
various countries.
Please send us an e-mail if you're interested. We promise to make it an
enjoyable and interesting show.
A tour is in our schedule for the fall, to be about a
week in Wisconsin and Minnesota, October
13-21, 2012,
including visits to the International Crane Foundation and
the renowned "Birds in Art" exhibit at the Leigh
Yawkley Museum in Wisconsin, and the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory
in Minnesota, where the raptors should be flowing by during their southward
migration.
Information about this, and other upcoming tours still with availability, is
of course in our website: www.focusonnature.com
including tours in September
& October 2012, will be in the Western
US, Sweden,
Iceland, and in the warm Caribbean during the
winter months in 2012 &
2013.
Wishing you the best,
Armas Hill
FONT E-NEWS, Volume 21, Number 11
July 27, 2011
Again
a Gallinule as it should be, and more
In July 2011, in the latest supplement of the AOU (the American
Ornithologists Union), it became the Common Gallinule throughout the Americas,
Gallinula galeata, now a distinct species from the Common Moorhen, Gallinula
chloropus, of the Old World.
After all, it is GALLINULA galeata !
Common Gallinule
The only other member of Gallinula in the New World is Gallinula melanops, the
Spot-flanked Gallinule in South America.
And the Snowy Plover of the Americas, Charadrius nivosus, is distinct from the
Kentish Plover, Charadrius alexandrinus, of the Old World.
The Mexican Jay in the US has a new scientific name, Aphelocoma
wollweberi, as a portion of its population in Mexico has been split to be a
new species, the Transvolcanic Jay, Aphelocoma ultramarina.
A Mexican Jay during a FONT
tour
Further to the south, if you've seen the Chestnut-mandibled Toucan in Costa
Rica, you may be interested that it is now part of the more-southerly Black-mandibled
Toucan, Ramphastos ambiguus.
If in the West Indies or northern South America, you've seen what has
been called the American Bare-eyed Thrush, it now has a new name, the
Spectacled Thrush. It is still Turdus nudigenis.
Among the Wood Warblers, throughout the Americas, there has been a major
taxonomic revision. In North America, no species have been "lost",
and none have been "gained", but there have been some notable
changes as to the genera.
"Parula" is still in the common English names for the Northern and
Tropical Parulas, but that genus is now gone.
What has been a large genus, Dendroica, is now gone.
The birds that have been in it, as well as the two Parulas, are now in the
genus where, until now, there has only been one bird, the American
Redstart.
That now large genus is Setophaga.
A female American Redstart
The genus Wilsonia no longer exists. From it, the Hooded Warbler is now in Setophaga,
while the Canada Warbler and the Wilson's Warbler are now in Cardellina, where
previously there was only the Red-faced Warbler that only reaches the US in
Arizona.
Also now in the expanded Cardellina genus is the Red Warbler in Mexico, and if
you've never seen the dainty Pink-headed Warbler in Guatemala, you might like
to know that it is now in Cardellina as well. The Red and the
Pink-headed Warblers were in the now defunct genus, Ergaticus.
The Connecticut Warbler is now the only member of the Oporornis genus. The
similar Mourning and MacGillivray's Warblers, along with the Kentucky
Warbler,
have now gone to Geothlypis, the genus of the Yellowthroats.
If you've seen the Barbuda Warbler or the Saint Lucia Warbler on those
respective Caribbean islands, or the Adelaide's or Elfin Wood Warblers in
Puerto Rico, the Arrowhead Warbler in Jamaica, the Vitelline Warbler in the
Cayman Islands, or the Plumbeous Warbler on Dominica or Guadeloupe, you may
wish to know that they are all now in the genus Setophaga, rather than Dendroica.
In Mexico and Guatemala, the Fan-tailed Warbler, formerly the sole member of
Euthlypis, is now in the genus Basileuterus, along with, among others, the
warbler that has the largest range of any in the Americas, the Golden-crowned
Warbler, that has also now been called the Stripe-crowned Warbler.
In the Bahamas, there is now a new species. The Bahama Warbler, Setophaga
flavescens, is now distinct from the Yellow-throated Warbler, formerly
Dendroica, now Setophaga dominica.
According to the July 2011 AOU List, the Yellow-breasted Chat is still a
"problematic" warbler, and the Mountain Chickadee remains as it has
been, one species.
What you've read here, is now in the FONT website: www.focusonnature.com
reached from a link on the
left-side of the home-page: "Bird Taxonomy Update, as of July
2011".
And the new nomenclature is being incorporated into the various bird-lists
in the website.
Some of the warblers now in Setophaga genus are among birds that should
be seen during our upcoming West Coast USA Tour, September
7-16, in
Washington State & California. Setophaga warblers such as the
Hermit, Townsend's, and Black-throated Gray.
What has been the Common Moorhen, or Gallinule, was first
described by Carl Linneaus, the doctor and botanist in Sweden who
provided, in his 1758 publication, the 10th edition of "System
Naturae", the classification of birds and animals that has continued
to this day. The first of the 3 American subspecies, that are now known
collectively as the Common Gallinule, was not formally described as a
subspecies until 1818.
It is most interesting how many species of birds, mammals, butterflies,
amphibians and reptiles, other wildlife, and of course plants, from
throughout the world, were described by Linneaus, in the woods of Sweden in
the mid 1700s.
We're scheduled to do a birding and nature tour in Sweden, during which
we'll pass by the woods near where Linneaus lived, September
22-28, 2012. It's a
great tour for bird migration in enjoyable, picturesque countryside.
We'll be seeing the "other" American Gallinula species, the
Spot-flanked Gallinule, during our tour in Chile,
January 13-22, 2012.
If you'd like to see the dainty Pink-headed Warbler, we will,
during
our Festive Holiday Birding & Nature Tour in Guatemala, December 26,
2011 - January 5, 2012. That now-Cadellina species is in the mountains of
Guatemala, where we will be during the first part of the tour. During the
second part, we'll be at the Mayan ruins at Tikal.
Earlier this year, we saw the Barbuda Warbler, now Setophaga
subita, during
our tour on the tiny West Indian island of Barbuda. That bird is no
where else in the world. We're scheduled to be there again, during our Lesser
Antilles Tour, February 4-12. 2012.
Also during that tour we'll be in the haunts of the Plumbeous Warbler,
Setophaga plumbea, on the islands of Dominica and Guadeloupe.
Information about these & other FONT tours is on our web-site: www.focusonnature.com
A 10 per cent discount is available on FONT tours for groups of 4 people or more.
Wishing you the best,
Armas Hill
FONT E-NEWS, Volume 21, Number 10
July 22, 2011
Lists
& a Quiz, Tours, & Frogs
In the Focus On
Nature Tours (FONT) website: www.focusonnature.com
there are numerous lists, some with photos, of: birds,
mammals, butterflies, amphibians & reptiles, marine life, plant life,
other wildlife. Just scroll down the left-side of the home-page to the links.
Lists of birds include those, among others, in North
America (in 6 parts), Arizona, California, Colorado, North Carolina, Texas,
and in Mexico, and the Caribbean (in 2 parts), Hispaniola, Jamaica, Lesser
Antilles, Puerto Rico, in Central America (in 4 parts), Belize, Costa Rica,
Guatemala, Panama, in South America in Argentina, Brazil (in 3 parts), Chile,
in Europe (in 2 parts), Iceland, Spain, Sweden, and in Japan (in 2 parts).
Now, here's the quiz:
In one of the bird-lists just noted, in which there are over 375
species, there are these birds:
Red-breasted Goose
Mandarin Duck
Bufflehead
Black-browed Albatross
Sooty Tern
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
American Robin
Siberian Rubythroat
Cerulean Warbler
Rustic Bunting
What is the country?
If you send us an e-mail, correctly naming the country, you'll be entitled to
a 10 per cent discount on a future tour to that country.
I must note that during our nearly 20 tours in that country, we've never seen
any of these species, but they are on that country's "list" of birds
that have been documented as occurring there.
As mentioned above, there are other lists of nature in the FONT website. One
that has just been done is a complete list of amphibians and reptiles in
Brazil.
In that list, over 1,525 species. But what's quite fascinating is that if that
list had been done just 30 years or so ago, it would have had one
two-thirds as many species.
Since the 1970s, just over 500 species of amphibians and
reptiles in Brazil have been described as new to science.
Since the year 2000, nearly 200 species have been described
there. Many of them have been frogs, but there have been
lizards and snakes also.
Many have been actual discoveries, rather than taxonomic "splits" of
previously-known species.
When I was typing the list, I almost felt as if new frogs and the like were
being found as I typed! It made it, for me, an enjoyable project.
And all the more fascinating as throughout the world, it is often being noted
that frogs and their kind are either declining or disappearing. Species that
were once known to exist, or were even once common, have been searched for
unsuccessfully.
Regarding Brazil, it is, granted, a big, very big country. And in many places
in the country, there has been little natural exploration.
A number of the newly-discovered amphibians have limited ranges, in isolated
forest and hills.
What would be interesting would be to pursue further and find out how many of
the "new" species are rare.
Interesting also, would be to find out, but unfortunately we probably never
will, how many species that existed in recent decades were never discovered.
In the Brazil Amphibian & Reptile List, there are about 800 species of
amphibians and 500 of reptiles. of those, over half of the amphibians (456)
are endemic to Brazil. And about half (246) of the reptiles are endemic.
Also in the FONT website, a List of Mammals of Brazil has
also just been completed, with just over 600 in the country. Of them, 175
are endemic.
And there have been some discoveries of "new species" in recent
years, including, among the larger animals, a new peccary, a new deer, and a
few new monkeys. In all, about 100 species of monkeys and allies are now known
to live in Brazil.
40 per cent of the Brazilian mammals classified as threatened are
primates.
With the 600 mammal species noted, Brazil has the most of any country in the
world. 66 of the Brazilian mammal species are classified as endangered.
As to birds, there are about 1,720 species in
Brazil (that's why the bird-list in our website is in 3 parts).
Approaching 1,100 species of birds have been found during FONT tours in
Brazil.
190 of the Brazilian bird species are endemic, and more than that are
considered threatened.
My doing a Brazilian Amphibian & Reptile List came about, partly, as
some people traveling with me in Brazil have commented that I should encompass
more relating to Brazilian nature (there's so much! ), in addition to the
birds that have, over the years, been my main emphasis.
And so I will be adding other website files and printed material also for
categories such as Brazilian orchids and Brazilian
fruits.
The second of these categories, by the way, have been especially enjoyed
during our Brazilian tours at meals - especially the wonderful fresh
fruits on the table at breakfasts!
About 825 different types of fruits are grown in Brazil, and over 300
different kinds are from plants native to the country.
As noted, Brazil is a big country. And, as there have been 49 FONT tours in
Brazil, during the last 2 decades, we've been to a number of very interesting
places. Having said that however, we've never seen anyone, at any of those
places, either observing or studying frogs. But there must be such people,
somewhere, somehow, across the country, because as I've noted here, so many
new species of particularly amphibians have recently been discovered.
Our next FONT tour in Brazil, is May
4-14, 2012.
Click here for more about: Upcoming FONT tours in Brazil
A tour scheduled for the fall, to be
about a week in Wisconsin and Minnesota,
October 13-21, 2012,
including visits to the International Crane Foundation and the
renowned "Birds in Art" exhibit at the Leigh Yawkley Museum in
Wisconsin, and the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Minnesota, where the raptors
should be flowing by during their southward migration.
In September 2012, there's still some availability on our tour in Washington
State & California, September
7-16.
Our hearts have gone out this year to people who live where we've toured in
the past, in Arizona and in Japan.
In Arizona, there has been disruption, and sadly destruction, at some of the
places we've enjoyed visiting.
Regarding Japan, we just received a message forwarded to us by someone in
Australia who traveled with us 3 times in Japan over the years. That message,
from a nature center where we've been near Tokyo, relates how things have been
there as of late. For example, this summer, due to the problem of there being
less operative power plants in the country, there has been a strongly
restricted use of energy.
In 2013, we'll go to Japan again,
January 25-February 6, for
the various cranes, eagles, and Blakiston's Fish Owl, on the northern island
of Hokkaido and the southern island of Kyushu.
Nest year, we're scheduled to go to Arizona, again,
August 26-September 7.
The other day, while going through some files, I came across a
little blue notebook filled with Japanese writing on the left pages and
corresponding English writing on the right.
An elderly man from California, who was on one of our Japan
tours in the 1990s, and who had previously worked for the U.S. State
Department in China, took the time to translate for me, some text from a
Japanese book about, of all things, gulls. He did that
translation, and I remember that he enjoyed doing it, during spare time,
mostly in the evenings, during the tour.
So, now, I'm pleased to have found that little note book, with Graham's little
writing, describing the various plumages and cycles of the likes of the Vega
Gull and others of that ilk in Japan.
It brings to my mind another occurrence at the end of a FONT tour in
Iceland a few years back, when one of the people on the tour,
from New Jersey, asked me to take him into Reykyavik, before we went to the
airport, to the Hofdi House where President Reagan and the Soviet Secretary
General Gorbachev had met in 1986.
When we got there, that same man who had taken a number of nice bird photos
during the tour, walked about photographing the house. His wife told me at
that time that he had been there previously when Reagan and Gorbachev were, as
he had been at that time the US ambassador to the Soviet Union. She told
me that he wanted to go back and see the place again, one more time.
Such people, from tours in Japan and Iceland, are among the many fine people
that I've had the good experience of meeting during FONT tours over the
years.
Earlier here, I referred to lists of birds, mammals, and other nature.
But the most important list I have here is that of 2,103 people
who have participated, during the last 2 decades, on FONT tours and
pelagic trips.
1,684 of those people participated more than once. That's about 80 per cent.
And about half of them participated more than twice, with a nice number doing
so as many as a half dozen times or more.
Wishing you the best,
Armas Hill
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