After three weeks of full-on mud, rain, mosquitos, humidity, and everything else the lowland rainforest has to offer us in Tortuguero, Ed and I are packing to travel tomorrow to the highlands of Costa Rica. This week we’ll be banding birds at a place called Cerro de la Muerte, which, I’m told, is cold and […]
Since it was a Red-capped Manakin last time, it’s only fair that the White-collared Manakin gets a turn. Male White-collareds are gorgeous – black, white, and yellow. Actually, White-collared Manakin is by far the most common bird we catch, accounting for about a third of all birds banded at Tortuguero, so no big deal. But […]
The rain let up enough for us to band a full six hours this morning, and we were rewarded with this awesome male Red-capped Manakin – almost the last bird of 2010. (The very last bird we banded today, if you’re curious, was a Kentucky Warbler.) This is going to sound very nerdy, but Ed […]
It rained continuously and aggressively for seven days; Ed and I have been going stir-crazy indoors this week. We slogged through pages of data that a previous bander (ahem) didn’t enter, made hummingbird bands, and sat around generally complaining about the weather. Last evening we decided to watch Invictus on my laptop, but had to […]
It’s been raining for four days: Six inches so far, and another five inches predicted to fall by Wednesday. Ed and I spent a fairly miserable morning setting up mist nets in a downpour at 4:30 am, waiting five hours for a lull, then taking down the nets in another downpour without ever having opened […]
This morning we caught a flycatcher the size of a hummingbird with a shovel attached to its head. It’s called a Golden-crowned Spadebill, it lurks in the dark understory of tropical rainforests, and it’s one of the coolest birds I’ve ever fondled. Like a feathery cotton ball with a big mouth. Then, just after we […]
I landed in Costa Rica on the coldest day in 15 years: it was 61 in San Jose. At least, though, I can understand people better here than in the Atlanta airport (where they were also complaining about the cold, I think). I’m skipping this winter to band birds at various rainforest sites. I’ll get […]
When eight guys in a weird-looking boat showed up this week, flying a pirate flag, and started trolling for sharks around the island, we got curious. You need a special permit to approach Great Whites at the Farallones, and none of us had seen this boat before. And when they launched an inflatable Zodiac, along […]
This is the fourth Thanksgiving I’ve spent away from home (Antarctica, Galapagos, California), and likely not the last, so I’m getting used to celebrating the holidays in new places. (I’ll also be in Costa Rica this Christmas, New Years, and for my 25th birthday). Our island crew had a fine dinner. Even though Jim’s vegetarian, […]
Our island is surrounded by vertical cliffs and open ocean, so it’s tricky to land here. Standard procedure is to winch the entire boat out of the water with a large crane, which then swings the boat ashore; in bad weather, landings are impossible. Even so, we get resupplied once every week (or three) via […]
After three days of sustained 20 knot winds, the “fresh breeze” (as it’s officially called) died down last night enough to open a mist net at dusk. Our saw-whet owl has been roosting faithfully outside the living room window each day, and we hoped to catch it. We can see it from inside, so I […]
I’d only ever seen one Saw-whet Owl during daylight before, so was pretty excited to hear Liz’s radio transmission this afternoon: “There’s a Saw-whet in our tree!” Since I was watching for shark attacks from the lighthouse, I had to wait a nervous two and a half hours before seeing it, but the owl’s still […]
November is supposed to be pretty slow at the Farallones, but yesterday was awesome! Low clouds and light winds created perfect vagrant conditions, and some good birds showed up. First I found a Scarlet Tanager up at the lighthouse (about the 6th island record). Then we caught the tanager in a mist net and I […]
Here’s what’s happened over the last couple days: The fog rolled in, the fog rolled out. I got some pictures of it from the lighthouse during a brief clearing yesterday morning – kinda looks like a painting. We’re apparently due for some rain on Sunday. November closes in… A few good birds are still showing […]
We live in this 140-year-old wooden house overlooking the Pacific. It’s got creaks and groans, sure, but it sure beats a tent – actually, inside, the house is nice and cozy, especially during foul weather, which we’re getting more and more of as winter looms past Halloween. (Speaking of Halloween, there’s supposed to be a […]
Today was a slow day until Liz found a strange-looking bird on a cliff up by the lighthouse near dusk. After a frenzied dash across near-vertical rocks, the rest of us converged on what turned out to be a Summer Tanager – pretty high on the jealousy-inducing scale! We also had Grasshopper and Lark sparrows […]
A precursor of winter storms arrived today with rain, fog, big surf, and wind strong enough to flush the upstairs toilet. Unfortunately a boat landing was scheduled, and we spent four hours in soaking conditions at the North Landing crane dealing with an island tour, $1,500 of new groceries from Costco, a 78-foot schooner, and […]
The last two days have been AWESOME. The weather has been almost perfect and the forecast looks good all week. Birds are raining from the sky onto Southeast Farallon Island. We banded 107 new birds yesterday (!) and a few dozen more today. There are rare birds among the not-so-rare birds. Birds, birds, birds, everywhere […]
It’s getting sharky around here. This is peak Great White season at the Farallones, and shark attacks are happening almost every day (today we saw two). Each of us spends two hours each day observing from the lighthouse – the highest point on the island – and I’ve now watched sharks dismembering seals three days […]
Yesterday I spotted a shark attack from the top of the lighthouse. Attacks are pretty obvious: look for the bright red patch of blood on the water, the cloud of wheeling gulls, and the thrashing shark. We’re starting to see Great Whites pretty consistently this season. Pretty cool. Otherwise, things have been crowded. Yesterday there […]
It’s been a varied week on the Farallones. Unfortunately, the “perfect” weather system never really materialized, so we didn’t get a big push of migrant birds. It’s still been pretty solid, considering: yesterday we banded a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (about California’s 22nd record), and a Gray Catbird (the island’s 17th record) and a couple of Palm […]
As the sun sets today on Southeast Farallon Island, expectations are rising. The weather forecast looks nearly perfect for the next three days: light south winds, limited visibility, and patchy overcast. This is exactly what we’ve been hoping for. If it really happens, we’re set for a big migratory bird wave, the kind of spectacle […]
The last three days have been busy on Southeast Farallon Island! On October 1st, the weather suddenly changed, and birds have been raining from the sky ever since. We’ve been running to keep up with the migrant wave. What a change from last week! In the last three days, 16 species of warblers arrived, including […]
Today began with dense fog, which lifted agonizingly slowly throughout the morning. By mid-afternoon, the fog hung heavily just above the lighthouse, allowing a crack of visibility at ground level. It wasn’t much of an opening, but it was enough to let in a few birds. Finally! To kick things off, Matt spotted a Magnolia […]
The weather hasn’t changed much, and birding continues to be dismal (the only new birds today were one Swainson’s Thrush, one Red-winged Blackbird, and one Long-billed Dowitcher, hardly stirring stuff). But the wind has shifted toward the south, giving us something to live for: if the fog lifts tonight, morning might bring some surprises. So […]