FONT E-NEWS, Volume 24, Number 1

February 10, 2014

Some Good Birds & More in Japan in January-February 2014


The FONT Japan Winter Birding & Nature Tour in January & February 2014 was our 37th tour in that country and our 24th there during the fall & winter seasons.

During our tour, 145 species of birds were found, as we travelled on 4 Japanese islands: Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Amami.
The northernmost of those islands, Hokkaido, was, as it always is during January & February, the most wintry, with snow and cold temperatures. 
But also, again, as has been the norm during this tour, there were, in the setting there of spectacular scenery, some special birds including dozens of both Steller's Sea Eagles and White-tailed Eagles along the seacoast, Red-crowned Cranes in a flock as they called and danced on the snow, and Whooper Swans also calling as they were on the open water of an otherwise frozen lake. 

Whooper Swans in Hokkaido
(photo by Alan Brady, during a previous tour)

This tour was dedicated to our good friend Alan.
He passed away the day before it began.

Elsewhere on Hokkaido, at a place with a hot spring and Japanese bath, by a fast-flowing stream in a snowy woods, a little wren walked at the water's edge. Also there, a very attractive animal, a mostly orange-colored Japanese Marten was in view as the big Blakiston's Fish Owl repeated its deep call, at dusk, from up in the trees.

While on the more southerly island of Kyushu, we saw Saunder's Gulls and Black-faced Spoonbills along the coast. Both are rare birds, and both come from mainland Asia, visiting Japan in the winter. 
The Saunder's Gull comes from China; the Black-faced Spoonbill most likely from Korea. 
The next day, in reeds, two other species that are nice to see were enjoyed, the Chinese Penduline Tit and the Pallas' Reed Bunting.
Not far from them, were flocks of thousands of White-naped and Hooded Cranes. 
Among nearby Rooks, there was the Daurian Jackdaw.
All these species also come from mainland Asia, to be in Japan in the winter, 
We had come, of course, to be in Japan in the winter, but we came from places even further away. Some in our group came from Holland, some from England, while one of us (me) came, of course, from the eastern US.

Another bird came to Japan from mainland Asia with the adjective "Daurian" in its name. 
The male Daurian Redstart was one of the most attractive of the smaller birds during our tour.
Rare in Japan on Kyushu was a species more likely to be in mainland Asia, the Forest Wagtail.
The Japanese name for that bird is "Iwani-sekirei" which means "sideways-swinging wagtail", and is that what bird does.
Photographers had set food for it on two stumps, with a horizontal stick in between. The bird came in, and walked back and forth on that stick with its distinctive swaggering, sideways-swinging walk.
As it was on on one of the two stumps, an attractive male Daurian Redstart was on the other.  
The Forest Wagtail was a first for FONT tours in Japan, making 397 species cumulatively found during our 37 tours.  

On the southernmost island during our tour, Amami, we had very nice looks at one of the endemic and specialty birds, the Amami, or Lidth's Jay. That bird is endemic not only to Japan, but actually to Amami and one small adjacent island.
Considered subtropical, Amami is a green island, with forested hills. 
During our stay there, other birds that we we encountered included 3 species of owls, the Black Wood Pigeon, the Ryukyu Robin, a single Solitary Snipe (not to be redundant), 4 species of plovers on a single beach where offshore a Brown Booby flew, Pacific Reef Herons on seaside rocks, and both the Amami and the White's Ground Thrushes. 
Ending the tour, a beautiful little turquoise jewel sat streamside, a Common Kingfisher. No matter how common, it's always a nice bird to see - and were many of the birds during our January-February 2014 Japan Tour.

An Amami, or Lidth's Jay,
photographed during a previous FONT tour.

The Common Kingfisher

Links:

More about the FONT Japan Tour in January-February 2014

Birds & Other Wildlife during FONT Japan Tour in January-February 2014  

    

FONT E-NEWS, Volume 23, Number 10

December 27, 2013

Birds and Mammals in Argentina in December 2013

From many places in the world, and from where most of us live, the region of Patagonia in southern South America is long distance away, thousands of miles, or thousands of kilometers, regardless one measures.

As the sign indicates, only Buenos Aires in Argentina
and Santiago in Chile are relatively close.

And that far-away place, known as Patagonia, is different than others that most of us know. 
It is vast. Much of it, in what is known as the steppes, is treeless. 
It is often windy, sometimes very windy. 
Roads, some of them dirt and gravel, seem at times to be endless. Along those roads, between small towns and between junctions, there is often no sign of people.
In Argentina, we're told, that one of every three people live in and near the capital city of Buenos Aires, by far the largest city in the country. Somewhere else, the second largest Argentine city is not large at all.
A vast country Argentina certainly is, and its southern region of Patagonia is about as unpopulated as it gets, and seemingly empty.

But yet it is a good place to see nature, with especially birds and animals not to be found elsewhere. 
And among them are some that unique and special. 
And many of those birds and mammals we saw during our December 2013 Southern Argentina Tour, either where there was some truly dramatic scenery as where the treeless plains meet the forested slopes of the high, rocky and snowy peaks of the Andean mountains, or along the also-dramatic and picturesque seacoast, and in between in that land seemingly with nothing.

153 species of birds were found during our tour. Some, such as the Masked Duck and the Masked Gnatcatcher, and the Southern Yellowthroat (formerly the Masked Yellowthroat) were seen only in Buenos Aires. Yes, a Masked Duck was seen in the heart of that bustling city.
But most of our bird species were found in Patagonia.
There were those that were "Magellanic", including the unique Magellanic Plover (that's not really a plover), the Magellanic Penguin (we saw thousands), the Magellanic Oystercatcher, Magellanic Woodpecker, and Magellanic Tapaculo.
Also, the Upland Goose, that we commonly saw, has also been called the "Magellan Goose", the attractive Dolphin Gull has also been called the "Magellan Gull", and the Rock Shag, or Rock Cormorant, has been called the "Magellan Cormorant".
Magellan (that is the explorer Ferdinand Magellan) came from far-away to Patagonian oceanic waters, years ago, in the early 1500s, when he and his crew were the first to circumnavigate the globe.

And there were birds during our tour that were "Austral", including the Austral Rail (a species only found a very few times during the entire 20th Century). the Austral Parakeet (the southernmost parakeet in the world, yes where we were in Patagonia was further south than New Zealand), and the Austral Canastero, the Austral Thrush, the Austral Blackbird, and the Austral Negrito.
The last of these, a dapper little flycatcher, commonly seen and often out in the open, has had some other common names: the Patagonian Negrito, or, as it was known for years, the Rufous-backed Negrito.
The adjective "Austral" means "southern", as in "Australia", but where we were in Patagonia was again further south.    

Birds during our Southern Argentina Tour in December 2013 included: tinamous (seen often), rheas, swans (2 species), geese (2 species), ducks (15 species), a penguin (only 1 species, but thousands of them), a giant petrel, grebes (4 species), a flamingo, ibises, egrets, cormorants (or shags), a condor, falcons, such the Aplomado, and other raptors, and rails, gallinules (2 species), coots (3 species), oystercatchers (3 species), plovers including the very attractive Tawny-throated Dotterel with young, some shorebirds (away from the shore), gulls, a tern, a skua, pigeons and doves, parakeets and the Burrowing Parrot, a cuckoo, an owl, a nightjar, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, flycatchers (including some not often seen such as Chocolate-vented Tyrant and the Hudson's Black Tyrant), furnariids including a miner, earthcreepers, cinclodes, hornero, rayadito, canasteros, and a treerunner).
Also, martins and swallows, a wren, gnatcatcher, mockingbirds (3 species), thrushes (4 species), pipits (3 species), siskins (2 species), various icterids, a sparrow (that seemed to be everywhere), a cardinal, a tanager, seedeater, yellow finches (2 species), sierra finches (3 species), and a warbling finch.

3 of the bird species seen during our tour are flightless: the Chubut Steamer Duck (a localized Argentine endemic and a globally threatened species), the Magellanic Penguin, and the Lesser Rhea.
The subspecies of the last of these in southern Argentina is also called the "Darwin's Rhea". In the 1800s, Charles Darwin went to Patagonia, like others and like us, from a long way away.
Along one of the dirt roads during our tour, on the Valdes Peninsula, one morning we truly had quite a sight in front of us. We counted as many as FIFTY Lesser Rheas. One was an adult. All of the others were youngsters, some larger and some smaller. Male Rheas raise the young from a few different females. But, again, seeing just the one adult with 49 young Rheas running about was something extraordinary.

We also saw young of other birds during the tour as December was "that time of year", spring in the Southern Hemisphere. 
Such youngsters included those of the Upland Goose, Crested Duck, Black-faced Ibis, Southern Lapwing, Two-banded Plover, and those, already mentioned, of the Tawny-throated Dotterel. And of course those of the Magellanic Penguins, as fluffy as they were.
But only was that one Lesser Rhea with so many, nearly 50, little ones.

The 50 Darwin's, or Lesser Rheas on the road in front of us
during the December 2013 FONT Southern Argentina Tour

Mammals during the tour included: many Guanacos (a cameloid), the Mara (an odd mammal, indigenous to where we were in Argentina), the Small Patagonian Cavy (called locally the "cuis"), the Magellanic Tuco-tuco, the Big Hairy Armadillo (actually better-looking than its name sounds), the Patagonian, or Humboldt's Hog-nosed Skunk, the Lesser Grison, 2 species of Fox: one called the Colpeo (or Zorro Colorado) and the South American Gray (Zorro Gris), and 2 species of wildcats: the Pampas Cat and Geoffroy's Cat.
We saw more Guanacos than imaginable, including one chasing a hare (the European Hare, introduced and now very common in Patagonia).
Along the seacoast, we saw colonies of South American Sea Lions and Southern Elephant Seals. At one place, we were able to sit close to the elephant seals. Generally docile, they lay on the sand of the beach, sometimes making sounds hard to describe (at least pleasantly). 
Of course, later we would go, by plane, thousands of miles away. I thought of how those seals would swim, later, hundreds of miles away or more, and dive into the ocean to depths of thousands of feet. Routinely, they dive to about 3,000 feet beneath of the surface of the sea for squid and fish. They have been known to dive as deep as 7,000 feet below. No mammal in the world dives deeper.
From an overlook, along the coast, we saw an Orca, or Killer Whale in the surf.

In all, we saw 15 species of mammals during our December 2013 Southern Argentina Tour, with nearly all of them as with the birds, creatures that one had to be where we were in order see them, in a seemingly-empty place called Patagonia.


Links:       

More about the FONT Argentina Tour in December 2013

A Gallery of Photos from our December 2013 Argentina Tour

List of Birds & Other Wildlife during the FONT Argentina Tour - December 2013

FONT E-NEWS, Volume 23, Number 9

November 24, 2013

Birds, Other Nature, and Culture in Japan in October-November 2013 

The Blakiston's Fish Owl as we saw it during our Japan Tour in November 2013.

Our FONT 2013 autumn tour in Japan was filled with things to be remembered, and among the most memorable were big, rare Blakiston's Fish Owls, close to us at a stream (we saw 3), and stately Red-crowned, or Japanese Cranes, known as  "Tanchos" out on fields, so nice to see as they walked about. These owls and cranes were on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

On the main Japanese island of Honshu, never to be forgotten were the brilliant colors of the trees in the mountains. Beneath fresh snow on peaks up to about 10,000 feet above sea-level, the fall foliage was an incredible profusion of reds, oranges, and yellows. The forests on the slopes were ablaze with color.
In that marvelously scenic area called the "Japanese Alps", we rode a gondola to be as high as we could be. 
Then, getting away on a trail, from the others who had taken the same ride, we were in a wonderful forest of conifers, where we looked eye-to-eye with a bird endemic to Japan, the Japanese Accentor, and later a Spotted Nutcracker perched nearby on a treetop. 

At the classy Japanese inn where we stayed, nestled among snow-topped mountains and surrounded by the incredible bright foliage, and where we ate and slept "Japanese-style", there were, in the morning, outside the door, more nutcrackers and a large flock of Bramblings that had just arrived from further north.    

A gondola was just one of many ways we traveled during the tour. We were, on the ground, in four different hybrid vehicles, a couple taxis, a skinkansen (or "bullet train"), while in the air, we were in a plane from Honshu to Hokkaido, and at sea on a large ferry, going overnight from Hokkaido back to Honshu. 
During our morning on that big boat, after the sun rose in the "land of the rising sun", as Japan is called, we saw seabirds all morning, with thousands of Streaked Shearwaters and other pelagic birds including 2 species of Albatrosses, the Black-footed and the Laysan, along with jaegers and gulls. Among the latter, there were kittiwakes.
We saw two pods of Pacific White-sided Dolphins swimming quickly in the water. As rapid, or even more so apparently, were the Pacific Blue-finned Tuna being chased by the dolphins. One big tuna leaped completely out of the water.

Mammals seen on land during our October-November FONT Japan Tour included Red Fox, Sika Deer, Raccoon Dogs (3 of them seen well), and the Japanese Macaque, or "Snow Monkey". 

Butterflies during our autumn tour in Japan, even as late as the end of October and early November, included: Nepargynnis anadyomene (a fritillary), Polygonia c-album hamigera, the race in Japan of the Eurasian Comma, Goenpteryx aspasia, the Common Brimstone, and Pieris brassicae, the Large White.  
The last of these, a close relative of Pieris rapae that we know in the US as the Cabbage White, was seen along the seacoast of the northern island of Hokkaido, even as late as in November.

In all, we found 122 species of birds on Honshu and Hokkaido during our October-November 2013 tour in Japan, during which there were also innumerable "Japanese experiences" for us, including:
sushi, tea, various footwear, onsens (hot springs), ryokans (Japanese inns), temples, rice fields, bonsai, and the gardens where we saw some of our birds.
Near where we saw the Red-crowned Cranes, a young Japanese lady gave us an "origami", a small paper replica of yes, the crane. It was just one of the nice moments during our tour.


Links:

More about the FONT Japan Tour in October-November 2013

Birds & Other Wildlife during FONT Japan Tour in October-November 2013  

The following commentary was received at FONT by e-mail following our Oct/Nov 2013 Japan Tour by one of the participants:

"Hi Armas,

Your autumn 2013 Japan tour was a very interesting trip for me. I very much enjoyed interacting with the Japanese people, and the country.
I have many great memories of a wonderful adventure.
Your knowledge of the birds and fauna is very impressive.
I hope you and your family had a good Thanksgiving and will have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."

Robert Dix
Texas, USA 

FONT E-NEWS, Volume 23, Number 8

October 10, 2013

Birds and Other Nature in Iceland in September-October 2013  

A string of male Harlequin Ducks

The FONT Fall Tour in Iceland in September/October 2013 was our 19th birding & nature tour in that country. 
Even though there have been that many FONT tours there in the past, during both September/October and May/June, this tour was different than any other.

We traveled the circumference the island, along the "ring road", during our week or so in Iceland. We've done that previously, so that's not different. But again, it was a great way to see "so much" of Iceland.

And, as we did, we had a wonderful time. And once again, that's not different than during our previous Iceland tours, as we've had wonderful times in the past.

But, along the way, we went to some interesting and scenic places, not visited during previous tours, as we saw and experienced such a mosaic of colorful and striking scenery, fascinating geology, seascapes, tundra, glaciers, waterfalls, thermal sites, good Icelandic food and culture, along with of course the birds and other nature.

62 species of birds were seen during the tour. Of them, 6 were "new species" for FONT in Iceland, bringing our cumulative total to 110 species.  
Among the 62 species, 11 were gulls, including, as we were having lunch by a harbor in a picturesque small fishing village, a Sabine's Gull and 2 Little Gulls together with the more numerous gulls, mostly Black-headed, while later that day, at another place, on glacial icebergs, with other gulls, including Iceland, and again mostly Black-headed, there was a completely "new species" for Iceland, a first-winter Mediterranean Gull.

Among the birds most enjoyed during our tour were the flocks of Common Eiders, Barrow's Goldeneyes, and Harlequin Ducks, as well as those of Whooper Swans, along with 3 species of alcids, including, for the first time for us in Iceland, the Dovekie, or Little Auk, and 2 species of godwits: the Black-tailed Godwit, an brightly-colored subspecies endemic as a breeder  to Iceland, that was about to leave the island, while the Bar-tailed Godwit, a non-nester in Iceland that had just arrived from Norway.

Especially enjoyed was the strikingly beautiful Long-tailed Duck, a bird now classified by Birdlife International as a "threatened species".     

Two "Icelandic Wrens" near us as they popped in & out of a rock jetty, along the far eastern Iceland coast, as well as one that sang its song in a beautiful Icelandic forest, were treats.     
        
Some birds that we've found during our autumn Iceland tours previously eluded us this time.
For example, we saw not one Snow Bunting.
But we did see more Redpolls that usual, at various places throughout the island.
Of course, most (actually, nearly all) were Common Redpolls, including the Iceland endemic subspecies "islandica". 
But a couple birds, at the beginning of the tour, were of an interesting race of the Arctic (or Hoary) Redpoll. Those birds, pale "Greenland, or Hornemann's Arctic Redpolls" were nearly as white as snowflakes.
Also, we did not, unfortunately, cross paths this time with a Gyrfalcon, but during one remarkable scenic ride in northeast Iceland, we did enjoy as many 5 different Merlins, the other, smaller falcon that breeds in Iceland.

Also different than during all of our other Fall FONT Tours in Iceland was that the "Northern Lights", or Aurora Borealis, was not meant to be. 
Such activity in the nocturnal sky in October 2013 was less and more limited than usual in the Northern Hemisphere, but during our last night, which was so very clear, we saw stars, from horizon to horizon, and the Milky Way overhead, for us as "never before". It was truly memorable, especially as we stood, miles away from any city lights, but right next to a geyser that periodically lifted a hundred feet or so into the air.

Links:

More about the FONT Iceland Tour in Sep/Oct 2013

List of Birds during the FONT Iceland Tour - Sep/Oct 2013  


The following commentary was received at FONT by e-mail following our Sep/Oct 2013 Iceland Tour from one of the participants:

"Armas,

I want to tell you how much I enjoyed the trip - I couldn't have asked for a better experience.
With birds, waterfalls, glaciers, geysers, hot springs, fall colors, black sand beaches, rocky coastlines, and rugged highlands. Plus a few adventures!

Maybe we'll have a chance to travel together again."

Alan
Virginia, USA  

FONT E-NEWS, Volume 23, Number 7

August 6, 2013

Birds, Mammals, Butterflies in Panama in July 2013

Panama is a small country. 40 of the US states are larger than it. 10 US states are smaller. The closest US state in size to Panama is South Carolina, which is slightly larger.
In size, Panama has only 77,381 square kilometers, or 29,762 square miles.   

But even though Panama is small, it has a big bird list, in fact one of the highest lists of lists of birds of any country in the world, and certainly so for its size.
Nearly a thousand different bird species have been known to occur in Panama. 975 species are included In the Panama bird-list in the FONT website (link to it below).

A LIST OF BIRDS IN PANAMA 

Actually the "official list" for the country is even slightly higher than that, with 978 species as of 2010.
In all of North America, north of Mexico, and even including vagrants, not nearly that number of species have been found.

During FONT birding & nature tours in Panama over the years, nearly 600 species of birds have been tallied.

During our one week-long FONT Panama Tour in July 2013, over 220 bird species were found. That's over 20 per cent of the total species in the Panama bird-list.
And when it is taken into account that a good chunk of Panamanian birds are only in western Panama (where we were not), and that a substantial number of vagrants have occurred in the country, and that about 150 Panamanian species are seasonal migrants from North America (not there when we were in July), our number of birds was quite good indeed.        

Many of the birds that we found during that tour were in one region, the Canal Basin, with, in that area, some prime birding places such as the Pipeline Road, Gamboa, and the Metropolitan Park in Panama City.
Birds for us included an assortments in Neotropical groups of parrots and parakeets, trogons and toucans, motmots and manakins, wrens, and antbirds.

Even though, as noted, the number of birds in Panama is great, the number of ants that country is far, far greater, and so we watched again, as we have in Panama in the past, frenzies of feeding birds following the masses of ants and other creatures escaping from them. The avian ant-followers included antbirds of course, and also woodcreepers and tanagers.    

Also during the July 2013 tour, we ventured further east in Panama, as far the lowlands in the remote and wild Darien province. 
Doing so, we saw a number of birds either restricted to eastern Panama and Colombia, or birds more "South American" than "Central American".
In those categories were species such as White-eared Conebill, Black Oropendola, Green Manakin, Double-banded Graytail, Slate-throated Gnatcatcher, Spot-breasted Woodpecker, Spectacled Parrotlet, and Orange-crowned Oriole.
At a very pleasant place, with good accommodations and meals, where we stayed near the Darien border, we saw not only the just-mentioned Spot-breasted Woodpecker (a very local bird in Panama) and Spectacled Parrotlet, but also a nice assortment of hummingbirds.   

Mammals during our July 2013 Panama Tour included: two species of sloths, Kinkajou, Capybara, Coati, Agouti, Paca, Neotropical River Otter, Crab-eating Raccoon, and every day Howler Monkeys either seen or heard.
Butterflies were numerous. Among them were Morphos, some bright blue and others pale, nearly white, along with many other butterflies such as Malachites and various Longwings and Swallowtails, just to mention a few.

So, during our summertime week in Panama we saw much, and, as we did so, we had a good time! 


Links:

More about the FONT tour in central & eastern Panama in July 2013 

A List of Birds & Other Wildlife during our Panama Tour - July 2013
 

FONT E-News, Volume 23, Number 6

July 29, 2013

Birds, Whales, Moths, & More in Ecuador in July 2013

A Great Grebe photographed during a FONT tour

Our birding and nature tour in Western and Southern Ecuador in July 2013 was the 20th FONT tour in that country, and our second tour in Ecuador in 2013.

Highlights during the tour were many, as we observed creatures from as small as the hummingbird called the Short-tailed Woodstar (2 and a quarter inches) to as large as the Humpback Whale (up to 50 feet long).

Over 1,100 bird species have been found during the 20 FONT tours in Ecuador over the years. 
235 species of birds were found during our July 2013 tour, with many of them being "regional specialties".
But 2 species were found during the tour that were NOT in the book, "The Birds of Ecuador - A Field Guide", by Robert Ridgely and Paul Greenfield, published in 2001.       
Nor were they in the 4-part "complete" list of Ecuadorian birds in the FONT website that contains 1,632 species. 
Species have been added to Ecuador country-list since the publication of the Ridgely & Greenfield book, and they have been added diligently into that list of 1,632 species. 
Such additions have included birds such as: Dwarf Cuckoo, Panama Flycatcher, Northern Pintail, Southern Scrub Flycatcher, Yellow-throated Vireo, Yellow-backed Oriole, Yellow-throated Brush-Finch, White-bellied Pygmy-Tyrant, and the recently-discovered Choco Vireo previously considered endemic to Colombia.
But even with additions such as these, those 2 species that we found during our July 2013 Ecuador Tour were not in the list.
The two species: the Peruvian Martin, and the Great Grebe.
A mostly dark martin (that appeared to be a "Southern Martin") was seen by itself late in the day when we were in Salinas along what was nearly the westernmost Ecuadorian coast. As darkness was approaching, it favored a perch, not too far from us, on a pipe at the side of a building. 
The Peruvian Martin (formerly a part of the Southern Martin) is a species classified as "vulnerable" by Birdlife International. It occurs along the Peruvian seacoast, not all that far, "as the martin would fly", from the Ecuadorian coast. Our bird was photographed, although the photos are not as good as we would wish.           
Even though there may be a question (by others) as to the ID of a darkish martin, there can not be any as the Great Grebe we saw later during the tour.
It is a large and distinctive bird, mostly red, with a grayish head, that has been seen during many FONT tours in Chile, Argentina, and in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.   
The Great Grebe , that we saw in Ecuador in July 2013, was seen at a wonderful marsh, not far from the coast, in the southern Ecuador province of El Oro, late in the day, with the setting sun shining on it as it swam close to us. 
We learned later that there had been a sighting of a Great Grebe, months earlier, further north (a couple hundred kilometers) along the Ecuadorian seacoast.

Other avian highlights during our tour included one bird of only two pairs of Waved Albatross nesting on an offshore Ecuadorian island, where also we enjoyed walking among both Blue-footed and Nazca Boobies.

On another day, during a most enjoyable and productive bird-walk in a dry forest in western Ecuador, late in the morning, we saw, in addition to many other birds, two species of owls: a Pacific Pygmy Owl and a Peruvian Screech Owl.

In an area with forested hills in southern Ecuador we were thrilled early one morning to see and hear a male Long-wattled Umbrellabird.
Also in that area, we were continuously thrilled to see a frenzy of bird activity at feeders at a lodge where we stayed. That lodge was named after the umbrellabird. 
The frenzy was of birds, many of which were hummingbirds (at least 50 at any given time), along with honeycreepers, tanagers, bananaquits, and larger birds such as aracaris and chachalacas. Being there, with so many birds, was, for us, a delight.

And, at that same spot, it was also exciting after dark, where (as a Black-and-white Owl either sat on a distant limb, or called in the woods), there was yet another frenzy - of moths, as dozens of them, with an array of sizes, shapes, and colors, came into the lights.

In all, we had, from start to finish, a great tour!
   

Links:

More about the FONT Ecuador Tour in July 2013

Birds during the FONT Ecuador Tour - July 2013

A Photo Gallery of Birds, Mammals, Scenery & Culture 
during the July 2013 FONT Ecuador Tour  

A Photo Gallery of Moths & Butterflies
during the July 2013 FONT Ecuador Tour

FONT E-News, Volume 23, Number 5

June 27, 2013

Birds, Mammals, & Other Nature in Alaska in June 2013

An adult Gray Jay.
Both adults and their young were seen
during our Alaska June 2013 Tour

During our FONT Alaska Birding & Nature Tour in June 2013 we enjoyed some wonderful bird sightings, including those of:
both Tufted and Horned Puffins close to us,
rafts of Common Murres on the sea along with many others on their cliff-side ledges,
clouds of Black-legged Kittiwakes in the air, and also on their cliff-side ledges,
a male Northern Wheatear singing its song, miles north of the Arctic Circle,
male and female Varied Thrushes together in a spruce tree,
both male and female Rufous Hummingbirds,
pairs of Barrow's Goldeneye and Surf Scoter on tranquil remote lakes,
Gray Jays accompanied by their darker than gray young,
and more, including both Bald and Golden Eagles, as well as Pine Grosbeaks and Pine Siskins, Redpoll and Raven, Boreal Chickadee and Alder Flycatcher (both outside a window at a place where we stayed), and both Red-necked and Horned Grebes close to us, as were both Tundra and Trumpeter Swans.
The last of these, as much as any bird, symbolizes the wilderness of Alaska, as it fits in so well with the beauty of the vast landscape.      

The beauty of the Horned Grebe, in its breeding attire, was truly something to behold.
A flock of over 20 Harlequin Ducks, males & females, compactly together, was extraordinary.
And wonderful to see were two Wandering Tattlers, also along a rocky coast. Those peregrinators were behaving for us as if sometime in their travels, they had taken the time to read a bird guide themselves. Their actions were just as the book said they should be, as they bobbed and called.
Calling atop treetops were Wilson's Snipes and Lesser Yellowlegs, as the book says they do in their nesting areas.
Watching birds in Alaska is fun, even if they are birds that we might see closer to home, acting differently.

And watching mammals was fun for us too, during our June 2013 Alaska Tour. Those we saw included:
Brown (or Grizzly) Bear, Moose (even 2 of them walking about in the parking lot of a place where we stayed), North American Porcupine, North American Beaver, Barren Ground Caribou, Dall's (or White) Sheep, Mountain Goat, the little Arctic Ground Squirrel, the big Humpback Whale, Dall's Porpoise, Harbor Porpoise, Harbor Seal, Steller's Sea Lion, the Sea Otter (on its back in the water), and the Hoary Marmot (atop a rocky ridge).

Among the butterflies we saw were the Old World Swallowtail, Western Tailed-Blue, Arctic White, Red-disked Alpine, and Mourning Cloaks on an alpine tundra not far from the Arctic Circle.

Among the wildflowers and plants that we saw were Alpine Bearberry, Labrador Tea, Moss Campion, Arctic Lupine, Wind Flower, and fields full of Alaska Cotton. 

No reptile lives in Alaska, but we did encounter, a few times, an amphibian, the Wood Frog.

All of the wonderful nature and beautiful scenery that we saw and enjoyed were from the Seward area in the south, to the Copper River in the east, and north to the Brooks Range, well north of the Arctic Circle.
Geographically in the middle of these, perhaps the best of all was the magnificent mountain known as either Denali or Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in North America.
Many people during their time in Alaska either do not see that mountain, or have just a glimpse of part of it, as the weather of the mountains often covers it with clouds. 
But we were so fortunate to see it well, again and again, as we were lucky to have crystal clear days, even in the Alaska Range. 
At various times, we saw the massive mountain at a distance, but more than once we saw it closely. Just about the only way we could have seen it more closely would have been to climb it, and that we did not do.

In addition to the wondrous nature and the beauty of the land, and the remoteness of places that most only read about (such as the Yukon River and Brooks Range), we also enjoyed during our tour some very fine meals (such as those with fresh Alaskan Salmon), and some great companionship as we traveled and had our adventures. 


Links:

More about the FONT Alaska USA Tour in June 2013

Lists of:  
Alaska Birds    Alaska Mammals    Alaska Butterflies & Moths     
Alaska Wildflowers & some other Plants    Alaska Marine Life (inc Fish) 

Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in Alaska  

 

FONT E-News, Volume 23, Number 4

May 5, 2013

Birds during the FONT tour in Ecuador in April 2013

Above: a male Andean Cock-of-the-rock
And below: a female Andean Cock-of the-Rock
photographed during the FONT tour in Ecuador in April 2013.
(lower photo by Marie Gardner)    

In Ecuador, during the FONT tour in April 2013, we saw birds, many of them. Nearly 300 species.

So many were hummingbirds. Over 40 species. Many, with their iridescence, were colorful. All were fast as they flew. Many were distinctive, some with long tails, and one with a long, very long bill.
During our April 2013 Ecuador Tour, surely we saw the most hummingbirds ever seen during any FONT tour,
for both the numbers of individuals and species seen.  

And the most antpittas - and among them, a number seen very well, including the Moustached, Ochre-breasted, Rufous, and Tawny.

Antpittas can be hard to see. As can be tapaculos. During our April 2013 Ecuador Tour we enjoyed a great look at one of the largest and most boldly-patterned in that family, the Ocellated Tapaculo.

A spectacular bird, for us, was the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock. We saw a female before she flew to her nest, and the following morning we encountered a group of males as they noisily flew about at their lek.

Other birds we saw with the adjective "Andean" included the rarely-seen Andean Potoo, the Andean Gull and Andean Lapwing, and the biggest of all, the Andean Condor.
At one time and place, we saw what has been for FONT, the biggest number of Andean Condors, as many as 21, concentrated on a field apparently partaking in a meal. 
That was an experience in the high Andean mountains of Ecuador never to be forgotten.

The Andean Potoo was one of two species of potoos during our tour. Twice, Common Potoos were seen, as still as could be, camouflaged as branches during the day.
An unusual experience for all of us was seeing another nocturnal bird, the Oilbird, sitting by day on ledges in a narrow cave-like chasm. 

Others in the avian cast of characters during our April 2013 tour in Ecuador, included a good assortment of   toucans, tanagers, trogons, and manakins, barbets, woodpeckers and woodcreepers, and wrens, euphonias, conebills, and flower-piercers. 
All of the birds mentioned here made, of course, for a great birding tour.   
        

Links:

A Photo Gallery of Birds & Butterflies during the FONT Ecuador Tour in April 2013

A longer Narrative relating to the FONT Ecuador Tour in April 2013

Birds during the FONT Ecuador Tour - April 2013

A List & Photo Gallery of Ecuador Birds, Part 1 of 4
(with links to Parts 2 to 4)

Rare & Threatened Birds of the Andes & Patagonia

South American Mammals  (with some photos)

A List & Photo Gallery of South American Butterflies, in 5 Parts

Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in Ecuador

 

FONT E-News, Volume 23, Number 3

April 15, 2013

Birds with the Longest Wings & the Biggest Talons

In the Focus On Nature Tours website, among the most popular features, that continue to receive the "most hits", are those about Rare & Threatened Birds at various places that we've visited over the years during our tours.  
Spreading interesting information about such species is a good thing, as it helps, overall, in their conservation.

For a few years, there have been features in the FONT website about:

RARE & THREATENED BIRDS IN THE CARIBBEAN

RARE & THREATENED BIRDS IN JAPAN

RARE & THREATENED BIRDS IN BRAZIL

Now, two new features have been added:

RARE & THREATENED BIRDS IN NORTH AMERICA & MIDDLE AMERICA

RARE & THREATENED BIRDS IN SOUTH AMERICA, IN THE ANDES & PATAGONIA    

In each of these, during the months ahead, more information about the birds will be added, but already there are some interesting things to read.

For example:

About the birds with the longest wings, in the new feature about the Rare & Threatened Birds in the Andes & Patagonia, click the link for the Wandering Albatross (in the "vulnerable species" category).   

And about the bird with the biggest talons, in the feature about the Rare & Threatened Birds of Brazil, click the link for the Harpy Eagle (in the "near-threatened species" category) and scroll down to the photo of the talons.

In the new Rare & Threatened Birds of North America & Middle America, you can read about the Turquoise Cotinga and Alexander Skutch, the late renowned naturalist in Costa Rica. The Turquoise Cotinga link is in the "vulnerable species" category.  

Also in that same feature with North & Middle American Rare & Threatened Birds, one can read about the Red Knot, a migratory bird that is now, if you are reading this in April, starting its migration north from southern South America.
Click the link for the Red Knot in the "endangered subspecies" category.  

In that narrative, not only is there a lot of information about the Red Knot, but also referred to is the Yellow Cardinal (rather than the red one), and a place in southern Argentina where that Cardinal lives, near where the Knots occur.
That place is the farm of Senor Manana. Yes, it's true. We've been there, and we'll be going again during our tour in Southern Argentina, in late 2013. 

While referring, here, to that migratory shorebird, the Red Knot, it's also noteworthy to say that Birdlife International, the organization that keeps track of what's rare and threatened (critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, and near-threatened), has recently added the Semipalmated Sandpiper to the list, as a "near-threatened species".
it is a species that those of us who have birded for a while have considered plentiful, far from threatened.
But it is now a species in our North & Middle America Rare & Threatened Bird List. Not that it's rare yet, but certain recent population trends and indicators are not good. 

Another interesting piece in the Rare & Threatened Birds of North America & Middle America relates to an annual "Mountain Plover Festival" in a small, in fact a very small town in Colorado.

There is so much of interest relating to birds.    

And to mammals too. One of our highest ranked website files is that of
SOUTH AMERICAN MAMMALS

While typing the names of those species into that listing, I couldn't help but be intrigued as to how a couple got those names:
the Intelligent Grass Mouse, and the Tail-less Tailed Bat.
Now, those two creatures I'd like to see some day.

I hope you visit our website features, such as those noted here, to see about such nature in the world, and to take a look at our upcoming scheduled tours to see birds and other nature, rare and otherwise.  

All the best,

Armas Hill 
      



FONT E-News, Volume 23, Number 2

March 4, 2013

Rare Birds and a New Bird now Named

First, the new bird:

Seen during a FONT tour in Chile, in December 2009, from the ferry to Chiloe Island, what was then a "mystery storm petrel" has since been described as a new species. And it has now been named:
the Pincoya Storm Petrel, Oceanites pincoyae

For more about it:  NEW CHILE STORM PETREL 

Now, the rare birds:

This past year, in 2012, according to the organization, based in the UK, known as Birdlife International (a source of much good information):
Of the 10,064 species of birds in the world, 1.313 were classified as "threatened species".
In that group there are 3 further classifications, with species that are:
1) critically endangered
2) endangered
3) vulnerable
And there's another grouping of "near threatened species".

This past month, in February 2013, Armas Hill of FONT gave presentations in Maryland and Pennsylvania about some of these threatened and near-threatened birds of the world.
In his program entitled "Birds on the Brink", there were some birds that are now on the brink of extinction, and others that have been there ""on the brink"" and are now doing better.
Armas is pleased to give such a program to interested groups, whether it be a club or organization, or any group that may what to learn about and view photos of some of the rarest and most interesting of birds.  

FONT has had 3 printed booklets (for distribution) and corresponding website files about:

RARE BIRDS OF BRAZIL (one of the three countries in the world with the most threatened bird species)

RARE BIRDS OF THE CARIBBEAN

RARE BIRDS OF JAPAN

And now there is a fourth booklet, and website file:

RARE BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA AND MIDDLE AMERICA, SOUTH TO PANAMA

In it (as of now), there are 132 species of birds, plus 3 subspecies, along with 9 species now believed to be extinct.   

Here's a bit of a breakdown:
57 species in North America (including the US and Canada)
17 species in Mexico only
25 species in Central America (including Mexico & Middle America)
24 species in Middle America (from Guatemala & Belize south to Panama)
13 oceanic species  

In the new booklet, or website file, you can see which of the species are categorized as:
critically endangered (4 of them), endangered (18 of them),
vulnerable (50 of them), near-threatened (59 of them).

More is yet to be added, but now in that file (reached from the link above) you can scroll down and read interesting things about birds such as:

California Condor, Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Cozumel Thrasher, Horned Guan, Gunnison Sage Grouse, Black-capped Petrel, Whooping Crane, Azure-rumped Tanager, Greater and Lesser Prairie Chickens, Short-tailed Albatross. Bristle-thighed Curlew, Marbled Murrelet, Turquoise Cotinga, Bicknell's Thrush, Cerulean Warbler, Rusty Blackbird, Harpy Eagle, Corn Crake, Mexican Sheartail (a hummingbird), Kirtland's Warbler, and these now either known or believed to be extinct: 
Atitlan Grebe, Eskimo Curlew, Great Auk, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Bachman's Warbler.  
 

   
FONT E-News, Volume 22, Number 7

October 30, 2012

Upcoming FONT tours in places as diverse as Estonia & Ecuador,
and our upcoming winter-time tours in the Caribbean,
and the tropics of Central & South America

Above: an Umbrellabird in Ecuador,
Below: butterflies in Brazil

BRAZIL:

FONT E-News, Volume 22, Number 5

July 27, 2012


One Murrelet becomes Two, and what became of Caprimulgus?

Now here's a name to try to say quickly: "Scripps's Murrelet".
Yes it is the correct spelling , and it's now the name of what was part of the Xantu's Murrelet. Now Mr. Xantu only has a hummingbird for a namesake.

The Scripps's Murrelet, Synthliboramphus scrippsi, occurs at sea in California. It ranges outside the breeding season north, rarely, to northern California, and more rarely to Oregon and Washington State.
It breeds on islands off southern California: San Miguel, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, Santa Barbara, San Clemente, and formerly Santa Catalina, and in western Baja California, Mexico on San Benito, and Coronado and San Jeronimo islands. On larger islands (such as San Miguel, Santa Cruz, and San Clemente), it is confined largely or entirely to offshore rocks.

The other half of what was the Xantu's Murrelet is now the Guadalupe Murrelet, Synthliboramphus hypoleucus. It breeds on offshore rocks and islands off western Baja California, Mexico from Guadelupe Island south to the San Benito islands.
Breeding is unconfirmed on San Martin Island, in Baja California, and San Clemente and Santa Barbara Islands in California, USA.
It presumably winters offshore within the breeding range along the Pacific coast of Baja California.

Other changes in the 53rd Supplement of the American Ornithologists' Union Check-List of North American Birds, July 2012, include the following:

If you've been in Costa Rica and you've seen what has been the Gray Hawk in BOTH the northern and the southern parts of the country, you can add a species to your list.

Gray Hawk

From northern Costa Rica north to Arizona and Texas, and rarely New Mexico, it is still the Gray Hawk, with the scientific name of Buteo plagiatus.
From southern Costa Rica south into South America, it is now the Gray-lined Hawk, Buteo nididus.
South of Costa Rica, it is in Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago, the Giuanas. It is further south, west of the Andes to western Ecuador and east of the Andes to Paraguay, northern Argentina, and southern Brazil.

If you've been in Costa Rica, you may have another adjustment to your bird-list. it is now the Costa Rican Brush Finch, Arremon costaricensis, in southwestern Costa Rica and adjacent western Panama, and the Black-headed Brush Finch, Arremon atricapillus, further east in Panama. Both of these were part of the Stripe-headed Brush Finch of further south, in South America, Arremon torquatus. 

If you've been to the Galapagos Islands, the Galapagos Shearwater, now Puffinus subalaris, has been split from the Audubon's Shearwater. Genetics have shown it to be more closely related to the Christmas Island Shearwater.

Other changes in 2012 relate to genera:

The genus of the Calliope Hummingbird is now Selasphorus, the same genus as the Rufous, Allen's, and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds. 
The Calliope was in a genus of its own, Stelluta.

Caliope Hummingbird

Three North American finches are now in a new genus. The Purple, Cassin's, and House Finch are now Haemorhous.
Previously they were in Carpodacus, an Old World genus containing the Common, or Scarlet, Rosefinch and other similar species.

House Finch

Some of us learned Caprimulgus as the genus for the crepuscular and nocturnal birds known as "goatsuckers". That Latin word, Caprimulgus, means "goat-milker".
Aristotle, among others, a long time ago, accepted the belief of shepherds that the birds would fly to the udders of goats for their milk, and thus the name.
Of course, in reality, those birds, both in the Old World and the New World, feed on flying insects.

Not due to nomenclature, but for anatomical reasons, Caprimulgus is GONE in the New World. The new genus of most of those birds is now Antrostomus, and for some others, Hydropsalis.
Those in Antrostomus include: the Chick-will's-widow, the Eastern Whip-poor-will, the Mexican Whip-poor-will, and the Buff-collared Nightjar.
Others in Mexico and Central and/or South America are: Rufous Nightjar, Tawny-collared Nightjar, Yucatan Nightjar, and the Dusky Nightjar.
Those on Caribbean islands are the Greater Antillean Nightjar, and the very rare & localized Puerto Rican Nightjar. 
Birds formerly in Caprimulgus that are now in the new genus Hydropsalis include: the White-tailed Nightjar and the Spot-tailed Nightjar. 

Rufous Nightjar

15 species of wrens, of Central & South America, and Mexico, are now in new genera:
Now in Pheugopedius, these Wrens: Black-throated, Black-bellied, Rufous-breasted, Spot-breasted, Sooty-headed, and Happy (guessing it's "happy" now to be there).
Now in Thryophilus, these Wrens: Sinaloa (that's the rarity that was found a couple years ago in southern Arizona), Rufous-and-white, and Banded.
Now in Cantorchilus, these Wrens: Stripe-throated, Stripe-breasted, Plain, Bay, Riverside, and Buff-breasted.
All of these wrens were in the now-defunct genus Thryothorus.

Some raptors in Central and South America are now in different, or new, genera:
The Montane Solitary Eagle has been merged into Buteogallus, the genus of the Black Hawks (the Common and the Great) and others.
For the Plumbeous Hawk, of Panama for example, one now has to type more letters as Leucopternis plumbeus has become Cryptoleucopteryx plumbeus.
Also exiting Leucopternis have been the White Hawk, now Pseudastur albicollis, and the Barred Hawk, now Morphnarchus princeps.
Cryptoleucopteryx, Pseudastur, and Morphnarchus are all new genera, and each of the 3 species just mentioned, the Plumbeous Hawk, the White Hawk, and the Barred Hawk are the only members of their genera.

White Hawk

The Central American Smoky-brown Woodpecker has been moved from the Veniliornis genus to Picoides.

Also in the AOU 2012 Checklist, there is the first NEW bird species to have been found in the United States in nearly four decades, 37 years.
But the bird was identified in a museum collection! It has been seen in life, but not often.
The bird is the Byron's Shearwater, Puffinus byroni. It was described in 2011, but from a specimen that had been collected in 1963 on Midway Atoll, northwest of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.
At that time, that small shearwater was thought to be a Little Shearwater. Later, a second specimen was tagged and recorded on Midway in 1990.

In February of this year, DNA tests on 6 specimens of Puffinus byroni, found on the Ogasawara Islands of Japan, alive and dead between 1997 and 2011, determined the birds to be Byron's Shearwaters.
It is assumed that the species still survives in the uninhabited Japanese Ogasawara Islands.


The above narrative, along with some photographs, as well AOU changes in summary for the last 3 years are in the FONT website:  Taxonomy Revisions

Also, most the bird-lists in the FONT website have now been updated to reflect the new changes. Those that have not yet been will be soon. 

If you missed, in a previous FONT e-mail bulletin, the narrative of our recent Focus On Nature Tour in Iceland, it is here:  Iceland June 2012 Tour Narrative

And, now, a photo gallery of mostly birds from that June 2012 FONT Iceland Tour:

And, now in our website also, a photo gallery of nature during our March 2012 Costa Rica March 2012, again mostly birds, but also some mammals, butterflies, and reptiles. 


Regarding a reptile, here's some news about what has been said to be the rarest snake in the world, the Saint Lucia Racer, Liophis ornatus. This year about a dozen were found!

Liophis ornatus occurs only on the tiny Maria Islet off the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia.
It was declared extinct back in 1936, with its population having declined on Saint Lucia following the introduction of the predatory Mongoose, causing its disappearance on the island.
But on the offshore 30-acre, rocky Maria Islet, it was found again in 1973.
And, now, more recently, this year, after it was thought to have gone extinct again, 11 individuals were found there on the islet, bringing it back from the brink again.
The Saint Lucia Racer is a small, brown, non-venomous snake, that can be gentle and docile. 

An interesting item such as this are among those in the lists & photo galleries of various wildlife throughout the FONT website:

I recently, this week, had the good experience of doing a program, at a birding club in Pennsylvania, about "Birds & Other Nature in Chile", incorporating some poems by the renowned Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda.
You can read here:  those poems and others by Neruda

And I would be pleased to give such a program to other clubs and organizations about Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, Iceland, and other fascinating places. Please contact us if interested.  

FONT E-News, Volume 22, Number 4

June 20, 2012

A Recent FONT Tour in Iceland, with Puffins, Ptarmigan, Phalaropes, Foxes, Whales, and More 

An Atlantic Puffin 
photographed during 
the FONT Iceland Tour in June 2012
(photo by Gabi Hauser) 

During June 2012, we truly had a wonderful and enjoyable tour in Iceland. We circled the entire island, counter-clockwise, and then some as we went to the westernmost point in Iceland, the impressive Latrabjarg Cliffs where we saw thousands of nesting seabirds including Fulmars, Kittiwakes, both Common and Thick-billed Murres, and the favorite of most, the Atlantic Puffins.

While Iceland itself is of course an island, the fourth largest island in the Atlantic, and called Island by the locals, we visited two notable smaller Icelandic islands during the tour: Flatey in the big bay known as Breidafjordur, and Heimaey, one of formerly 14, now 15 islands in the Westmann Islands group. At both we also enjoyed, again, that favorite of most, the Puffin.

Also during the tour we were at the most powerful waterfall in Europe, the largest glacier in Europe, and the lake with the most ducks of any in the world. 
We saw volcanoes and more waterfalls, and many birds in addition to those already mentioned, as well as other wildlife too including 2 Blue Whales, the Northern Minke Whale, White-beaked Dolphins, 3 Arctic Foxes, both Gray Seal and Harbor Seal, and Reindeer, as well as an assortment of wildflowers. 
All of these natural aspects of Iceland were in addition to some fine food and Icelandic culture (and wonderful weather). 
During our last day, which was the Icelandic Independence Day, prior to our departing flight, we were in the capital city of Reykjavik, where the Icelandic people, young, old, and in between, and with some in old-time garb, paraded down the main street, commemorating their country's national holiday.
When our tour was finished, we all felt that we had really experienced Iceland, one of the most beautiful places on Earth, in so many ways.

Above, I have just skimmed the surface as to our FONT Iceland tour in June 2012, our 18th tour in that country. A more-complete narrative follows:
 

During over two decades, there have been FONT birding and nature tours on varied islands throughout the world, including those in places as far-flung as the Caribbean, Japan, and Iceland. 
In the Caribbean, we've been to Barbuda and Barbados, Dominica and the Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent, as well as the Caymans, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Guadeloupe.
Off the west coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu, we've been, over a half-dozen times, on the tiny island of Hegura, in the Sea of Japan, where in the spring, bird migration has been extraordinary. And we've seen specialty birds and butterflies on the small Japanese islands of Amami and Okinawa.

But different than any other island we've visited has been Iceland, a place with fire and ice and much in between, and many birds. As of our June 2012 tour, we've done 18 tours in Iceland.
Iceland, about the size of the US state of Kentucky, has with it a number of smaller islands. During our June 2012 Iceland Tour, we visited two especially notable, Flatey and Heimaey.

Flatey is one of over 2,000 islands in the big bay in western Iceland with a big name,  Breidafjordur. Like Hegura in Japan, Flatey Island is very small, only about a mile long and less in width, and with only a very few motorized vehicles, almost none. Cars can not exit the ferry onto Flatey, as they can not onto Hegura. On Flatey, we saw two tractors and one small utility truck.
In the small village, there are some wooden buildings painted various colors. The place is picturesque. Our weather was superb, making our time on the island and the setting and scenery equally so.
Only 4 people live year-round on Flatey. The other cottages, along with a small hotel and restaurant, are only in use in the summer.  

Whereas people are few on Flatey, birds are many. 
As we walked along the lane, as noted as stated without a car in sight, there were some Red-necked Phalaropes walking on the road with us, catching some small little insects as they went, on the ground and on roadside flowers. Those little phalaropes were literally at our feet. Others were on nearby pools of water spinning around as phalaropes do.
On the roof of one of the small houses, a male Snow Bunting sang a beautiful song. Nesting Snow Buntings are rather common on Flatey.
In the air, above us, Common Snipes were displaying, or winnowing in fast flight, with the reverberating sound that comes from from their wings. Another shorebird, or wader, the Common Redshank continuously scolded us as we walked along our way. Even better at scolding were the Arctic Terns. "Shrieking" would a more appropriate word for them, and even though there's no "Common" as an adjective in their name, they were.
Along the mostly-rocky coastline, there were Common Eiders, many of them, and mostly with their little ones, eiderettes.
Also among the birds along the coast, there were European Shags, that we watched fly, fish and swim.  
As we sat on some coast-side rocks, Black Guillemots in breeding plumage, with their black bodies, white wing-patches, and red feet, were beside us, or on the nearby water.
As we sat on a grassy bluff by the sea, Atlantic Puffins, with their bright red feet, were below us on the water. Others flew out from their burrows between the seaside rocks. Northern Fulmars flew out from their stony perches.
Flatey was a wonderful place to be, and during our entire time there the birds that were always around kept reminding us of their presence. In all, we saw 18 species of birds on the island. But it wasn't so much that we saw 18 species. It was that we "experienced" them.  

  

A swimming European Shag photographed during 
the FONT Iceland Tour in June 2012
(photo by Gabi Hauser)     


Heimaey Island is one of 15 small islands off the south coast of Iceland known collectively as the Westmann Islands, or in Icelandic, Vestmannaeyjar. The islands are said to have been created entirely by volcanic activity, after the end of the last glaciation and since. Most recently, the 15th of the islands, named Surtsey, was created during a submarine eruption between 1963 and 1967.

Heimaey is the largest of the Westmanns, and the only island of the group inhabited by people. All of the islands are inhabited by birds, notably seabirds, with many of them nesting on sheer cliffs.
Under 3 miles in length, Heimaey Island has had some dramatic volcanic history. In January 1973, an eruption began there, just beyond and above the one town on the island. The entire population of about 5,000 people was successfully evacuated during one night by boat and plane. The eruption continued until May. Lava flowed down into the streets. About half of the town became submerged by it. During our visit in June 2012, we saw remnants of houses now covered by volcanic soil where flowers, notably Lupin, flourish.

The Westmanns, including Heimaey Island, are, as just noted, the haunts of many nesting seabirds. 
During the ferry ride to and from, and near the islands, we saw Manx Shearwaters, Northern Gannets, Great Skuas, Parasitic Jaegers, and gulls, along with many Arctic Terns, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Northern Fulmars, and numerous alcids including Common Murres, Razorbills, and Atlantic Puffins - a plethora of puffins.     
Manx Shearwaters breed in Iceland only in the Westmanns, and the Gannet and the Great Skua are most commonly seen in Iceland along and off the southern coast.

But it was in far-northwest Iceland where we saw the most seabirds. At the western end of a rugged peninsula, at the western end of Iceland that is also the western end of Europe, we visited the Latrabjarg Cliffs. From there, it is about 300 miles across the sea to the hyperborean coast of Greenland. 
The Latrabjarg Cliffs are massive and truly one of the most impressive places anywhere in the world, and especially so for those who like being where birds are.
The cliffs rise to over 1,650 feet above the ocean, and they continue for 12 kilometers, or 7 and a half miles. And they teem with nesting seabirds including a huge number of alcids, fulmars, and kittiwakes.



A Black-legged Kittiwake cliffside 
during the FONT Iceland Tour in June 2012
(photo by Gabi Hauser)


Among the alcids at Latrabjarg, there are tens of thousands of Thick-billed Murres (known in Europe as Brunnich's Guillemots), alongside vast numbers of Common Murres (known in Europe as Common Guillemots).
About 40 per cent of the Common Murres in the North Atlantic breed in Iceland with, it has been said, over a million pairs.  About 75 per cent of the Common Murres that breed in Iceland do so on the 3 largest bird-cliffs of the western fjords of northwestern Iceland. One of those 3 cliffs is Latrabjarg.
Those same 3 cliffs in northwestern Iceland, including Latrabjarg, are the nesting sites of about 90 per cent of the Thick-billed Murres that breed in Iceland, and that area has the largest number of Thick-billed Murres in the North Atlantic. It has been said that about 580,000 breeding pairs of Thick-billed Murres nest in Iceland.   

An estimated one-third of the world's Razorbills nest at Latrabjarg. We saw them nicely on the ledges, either standing erectly or resting on their bellies.
The Razorbills at Latrabjarg constitute the largest known colony of the species in the world. About 60 per cent of Icelandic Razorbills breed there. The population of Razorbills in Iceland has been said to be an estimated 380,000 breeding pairs.
     
But it is the Atlantic Puffin that is the star of the show at Latrabjarg. Late in the day, atop the cliffs, there are just so photogenic. And so tame, allowing humans to be unimaginably close to them. 
I watched people lying on the ground as they photographed the Puffins. The lying people and standing birds were eye-to-eye.     
I couldn't help but observe as I watched the few dozen people who were there, either lying on the ground or walking on the dirt path, within reach of the Puffins, that they certainly were smitten by them. 
All the people noticed, of course, the impressiveness of the place and the swarms of seabirds on the cliffs, in the air, and in the water. But it was that "chorus line" of sorts of continuous Puffins, one after the other, and so very close, that got the most attention from person after person. People certainly liked the "Sea Parrots", as Puffins are also called.



Looking at the seabirds on the clifftop,
1,650 feet above the ocean,
during the FONT Iceland Tour in June 2012
(photo by Gabi Hauser)


Following here are some other birds with which we had notable experiences during our June 2012 Iceland Tour:

About half of the Great Skuas in the world breed in Iceland, with an estimated 5,000 pairs. Most nest on barren ground along the southeastern coast. 

One of the Great Skuas, that we saw in that region of Iceland, was very close to us in a pool alongside the road. Seemingly it was holding down some prey in the water. The big, dark bird with the splashing is what first caught our attention. After that went on for a while, however, the Skua lifted up into the sky but with nothing in its talons.

Late the previous evening, we had watched two dark-morph Parasitic Jaegers (or Arctic Skuas) methodically creating havoc among Arctic Terns, and some gulls and shorebirds (or waders), as they, the jaegers that is, continuously and quickly flew around above the other birds nesting on the grassy ground. But in the end, at least as long as we were there, those Parasitic Jaegers came up empty-taloned as well.
Nearby, another predator was in the air and then on the ground, a Short-eared Owl. 

Red-throated Loons (or Red-throated Divers) in their breeding plumage as they floated on a pool of still water, were, with whatever name, memorable. 
Actually, they were beautiful with their burgundy-red throats, light-gray heads, and the lines on the back of their necks. But when that species vocalized, it lacked the beauty of the sound of the Common Loon (or Great Northern Diver) that we also saw.

The Common Loon nests in Europe only in Iceland, and two other birds also have that same distinction, the attractive Barrow's Goldeneye, and the more than attractive Harlequin Duck. The colorful male Harlequin is downright gaudy. 
But the most fascinating aspect of the Harlequin Ducks that we watched was how they swan so well underwater in a very swift river. Both males and females did so together in pairs. But the female appeared to stay underwater longer in the fast current.
The Barrow's Goldeneye and Harlequin Duck were just two of the species of waterbirds that we saw in the area of Lake Myvatn in northern Iceland. That lake is said to have the most nesting ducks of any lake in the world.
One of the most colorful of the waterbirds that we saw there was the Horned (or Slavonian) Grebe in its bright breeding attire. How many birds are there with bright yellow-orange head plumes?

Lacking much color were the Glaucous Gulls and Iceland Gulls that we saw saw along the coast in northern Iceland. They were all-white, with one species, the Iceland, a smaller version of the other. 
The Glaucous Gull is quite common in that area. 
The Iceland Gull was not, as we were there in June. The Iceland Gull is more common in Iceland in the fall, winter, and spring. Actually, the Iceland Gull does not nest in Iceland. It does so further north, in Greenland. A few, mostly non-adults, linger in Iceland in the summer.

In the highlands of north-central Iceland, we enjoyed the Pink-footed Geese. Generally they were timid birds, keeping their distance, but we saw a nice number of them well. We saw flocks of Pink-footed Geese, and a few, at various places, with their young.

A book that I like is entitled "In Search of the Pink-Headed Duck", referring to a duck now thought to be extinct that was in India. In the book, the searchers found much, but not the non-existent duck. 
However, the Pink-footed Goose can be found, as we did find it, in the wild highlands, where no people live, in Iceland.
Also in that area, at some ponds, we found breeding-plumaged Purple Sandpiper, and also in their breeding attire, Long-tailed Ducks.
The Purple Sandpiper does not nest along the coast, and where and when the species does, it is the male that rears the young, with the same role also had by male Red-necked Phalaropes that were also with nesting territories in the same area where we found the Purple Sandpiper.  
Female Red-necked Phalaropes have more color and a bolder pattern in their breeding plumage than the males. 
The Long-tailed Duck has just been classified by Birdlife International as a "vulnerable species", as globally its population has been declining. That is unfortunate, as it is such a beautiful bird, both the male and the female, and both in and out of breeding plumage.

Another bird that is as "non-existent" now as the Pink-Headed Duck is the Great Auk. It did live, formerly, in Iceland, and in fact the last known Great Auks lived there. From the top of a cliff along the south coast of Iceland, we could see the offshore island where the last Great Auks died in 1844. Where we were on that cliff-top, there is now a large sculpture of the bird.

Returning to the Pink-footed Goose, and a positive thread: The total Pink-footed Goose population of Iceland and Greenland combined, in the autumn, has grown ten-fold during recent decades, from about 23,000 birds in 1952 to 230,000 birds in 1995. Most of those birds winter in Scotland and northern England. They depart from Iceland in October.

I've noted that during our June 2012 tour in Iceland that we saw the goslings of Pink-footed Geese and the ducklings of Common Eiders.
Among other birds that we saw as youngsters with adults were those of Greylag Geese, Eurasian Oystercatcher, White Wagtail, and Snow Bunting, in addition to cygnets with Whooper Swans.

In addition to the displaying of many Common Snipe, high in the sky, there were flight displays, again and again, both in the video and audio mode of European Golden Plover, Common Redshank, and Whimbrel.
Among passerine songsters during the tour, there were two Turdus thrushes, the Redwing and the Blackbird. 
The former is common throughout Iceland. The latter is a recent addition to the spring and summer Icelandic avifauna. It is localized.

Outside, one day, where we were having a lunch inside, there was, on the other side of the window, a nice grouping of Redpolls, also feeding on food provided for them.
The resident endemic subspecies of the Common Redpoll in Iceland is Acanthis flammea islandica, sometimes referred to as the "Icelandic Redpoll".  

Another day, after our dinner, in a field behind the restaurant, there were Ptarmigan. First, a male Rock Ptarmigan was nicely in clear view on a rock, posing in the light of the late-day sun. Then the female appeared, equally as nice to view in that late-day sunlight. Not far from the nest, she also posed for a while, before slipping back to it in the grass. What a great experience that was - seeing the Ptarmigans as we did, with both Snipe and Whimbrel displaying around us, by a high hillside next to a pristine seacoast in northern Iceland - after having yet another good, Icelandic meal.    

The Rock Ptarmigan in Iceland in the summer is an endemic subspecies, Lagopus mutus islandorum. In all, globally, there are 27 subspecies of Rock Ptarmigan, with most on islands or in other remote places.   

Yes, there were birds during our June 2012 Iceland Tour - many of them. But, as probably it has been conveyed here, there were not just birds. 
We also saw the cliffs, volcanoes, waterfalls, glacial lakes, icebergs from a calving glacier, hot springs, boiling mud pools, steam vents and other geological phenomena, and innumerable wildflowers.

An Icelandic hot spring

In conclusion, some comments now about mammals we observed that included both Harbor and Grey Seals, Arctic Foxes, Reindeer, White-beaked Dolphins, Northern Minke Whales, and Blue Whales:  

We saw 3 Arctic Foxes. One was all-dark, the "Blue Fox", and two had white, or "off-white" tails. Later in the year, some Arctic Foxes in Iceland are all-white, as we've seen during our tours there in October.

We saw Reindeer, as we traveled, in 3 groups. The animal, with its scientific name Rangifer tarandus, is called Reindeer in Europe and the Caribou in North America.
It was first introduced into Iceland in 1771, with 13 individuals from northern Norway. There were no further introductions.
Numbers increased and peaked in the mid-19th Century. The population then declined rapidly, until less than 200 were left in 1940.
Now, only in eastern Iceland, numbers have increased again, and are stabilized at about 3,000.    

Off the north coast of Iceland, with a scenic backdrop of snow-topped mountains and coastline, we had the very good fortune of seeing two magnificent creatures, two Blue Whales. 
The Blue Whale is the largest of all living creatures on Earth. And it is the largest ever known to have existed. 
It can be with a length of 100 feet and the weight of up to 150 tons. We saw well portions of the bluish-gray backs of both animals, their fins, and the huge flukes of their tails before they dove. We were able to stay with them for 3 of their dives, each of which lasted about 10 minutes.
So big and so rare is the Blue Whale. It is estimated that only about 1,500 exist in the North Atlantic Ocean, with also about that same number in the North Pacific Ocean. The Antarctic population is said to be only about 6,000 individuals. 
The Blue Whale in the northern oceans is one of 3 subspecies, Balaenoptera musculus musculus. It is believed that the populations, or subspecies, in the Northern & Southern Hemispheres never meet.
We were so lucky that our path, as we did a counter-clockwise "circle tour" around Iceland, and the path of the Blue Whales did meet.

A Blue Whale photographed during the June 2012 FONT tour in Iceland,
1 of the 2 Blue Whales that were seen

The Blue Whale is classified as a globally endangered species. Following the slaughter of 30,000 of them in the Antarctic season of 1930-31, the population never really recovered. But at least, now into the 21st Century, it is not extinct.
When the big Blue Whale was given its scientific name by Linnaeus in 1758, it sometimes is thought of as 18th Century humor, as the Latin "musculus" means "little mouse". But that word can also mean "muscle" and that would be appropriate for the largest animal the world has ever known, that constantly swims and dives deeply in the ocean.

Also during that same sea-trip off northern Iceland, we saw at least one Northern Minke Whale and a couple pods of White-beaked Dolphins, along with a Pomarine Jaeger (unusual for Iceland) and numerous Arctic Terns, Northern Fulmars, some Common Murres, and again Puffins, with many of them, in groups, sitting on the surface of the sea and then sometimes flying and more often diving.

Yes, we were fortunate to see the Blue Whales, but also fortunate to see and experience so much else during our June 2012 Iceland Tour, that was the 56th FONT tour in Europe and the 18th in Iceland.

A traditional Icelandic lunch 
in the northwestern fjords region 
during a FONT Iceland Tour 

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

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

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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