Twice each year (Spring and Fall) eBird sponsors a Big Day. What is a Big Day?

(from the eBird website)

Mark your calendars for October Big Day—14 Oct 2023! Like Global Big Day, October Big Day is an opportunity to unite around our shared love of birds. Last October, nearly 35,000 people from 185 countries submitted 80,000 checklists with eBird, demonstrating the power of birds to bring people together.

Wherever you are on 14 October, take a few minutes to join in this global celebration. Participate from anywhere—even from home! By taking part in October Big Day you’re also celebrating Global Bird Weekend and World Migratory Bird Day. Be a part of the global team and help set a new record for October birding.

How to participate:

First, sign up for an eBird account, if you don’t already have one. It’s free-free-free.

https://secure.birds.cornell.edu/cassso/account/create?service=https%3A%2F%2Febird.org%2Flogin%2Fcas%3Fportal%3Debird&locale=en_US&__hstc=60209138.ed879f1873d0e8007cebce1860592b03.1688497064014.1697025793845.1697055959094.161&__hssc=60209138.2.1697055959094&__hsfp=86819162&_gl=140dwkm_gaMTQzMTg5MzMwOS4xNjg4NDk3MDYy_ga_QR4NVXZ8BM*MTY5NzA1NTk1OC4xNTkuMS4xNjk3MDU2MDE0LjQuMC4w&_ga=2.131922127.1778635686.1696717677-1431893309.1688497062

Second, take some time out this Saturday to identify and record some birds. You don’t have to be a ‘serious’ birder; all of us can identify quite a few of our local birds.

Third, submit those bird IDs from the eBird app.

Lastly, you can watch the world-wide results as they come in on the Big Day Page.

A crew of four, maybe five, road repair guys were working on a small landslide on the highway, just north of Ciudad Neily. Traffic was temporarily halted for the protection and safety of the workers.

As I sat in the car I noticed a pair of Yellow-throated Toucans (Ramphastos ambiguus) perched in a Cecropia tree. As is typical of this species, the two were giving forth with a loud and robust toucan duet; throwing their heads back and giving it all they had

As a birder, I found this charming…quite charming…and a pleasant way to wait until the traffic once again began to move.

One of the workmen, looked up at the toucans, who were perched just above where they were working. He then grabbed a stick–about the size of his arm–and threw it up as high as he could toward the singing toucans. Being clever birds, the toucans got the message and flew out of the Cecropia tree to find another singing perch.

My first thought was; ‘How insensitive of that guy, to throw a stick at two of nature’s creatures who were just doing what they were programmed to do.’

But then…then I thought about those guys working their asses off, out in the hot sun, shoveling roots and mud and rocks, with no windows to roll up; no escape.

‘OK, I get it.’, was my next thought.

Yellow-throated Toucans are great, yes they are. But that ‘song’ of theirs can become rather harsh, rather strident.

(Turn up the volume on your phone/computer when you play the video below.)

(From SVBC member Judy Richardson)

One fall I found a big cocoon, brought it home, put it in my screened porch and forgot about it.

The following spring, I was amazed to see it had hatched and hung from the cocoon, gathering strength to fly. At that point I rushed to take it outside, hoping to beat its first flight!
Luckily, it was still groggy and I managed to free it with this last photo of its beauty… an adult Polyphemus, one of our silk moths! They don’t feed, only breed, and live just a couple of weeks, spending most of their time a big green caterpillars.

Photos courtesy of Judy Richardson

The speedy and powerful Jim Zook, professional Ornithologist and friend to the San Vito Bird Club, shared a tiny moment with me a few years ago.

(I paraphrase Jim’s telling of the moment)

‘I was mentoring, guiding and instructing a group of non-science undergraduate students and attempting to teach them something about the bird life of Costa Rica. Part of my job was to help them identify some of the regularly seen birds and give them the common name of those birds,. These undergrads were assigned to take notes on the experience, share their insights and thoughts and turn in to me their papers on our time together. I read through the papers and to my surprise, I found that some of the students had mis-heard the names. Here are three of the more interesting bird names i read in those papers:

Clay-colored Thrush came out Clay-covered Thrush

Buff-throated Saltator came out Buff-throated Salt Eater.

Morelet’s Seedeater came out More-or-Less Seedeater.

Buff-throated Salt Eater (Saltator)

Birding is sometimes a team sport. And remember…there is no ‘I’ in ‘team’. (Of course there is an ‘I’ in the Spanish word for team…’equipo’.)

Today, four of us went birding up in Durica; a grassland ecosystem near Buenos Aires. One of our target birds was the illusive Oscillated Crake. As you can see, below, our team effort to create this tiny moment proved successful!

Our team assignments:

Jim Zook-Elite and long time Costa Rica ornithologist: Organize the trip. Identify the specific habitat and direct us to it.

Jeissom Figueroa-Naturalist Guide for Las Cruces/Wilson Botanical Garden. Dallas Levey-PhD candidate from Stanford. Hike up onto the grassy ridge…hunker down in the grass for a real long time while calling the Crake. Stay there (hunkered down) until it showed itself; something Crakes and Rails are ill-disposed to do. Take a perfect photo of it.

Greg Homer (me)-Drive the car.

Jeissom and Dallas, hunkered down in the bunch grass. Photo by Greg Homer.

The illusive Oscillated Crake; photo by Dallas Levey.

Please join the San Vito Bird Club for our Sunday morning bird walk at Wilson Botanical Garden (OTS Las Cruces). This walk will be led by the charming, whimsical and insightful Greg Homer.

Meet at the Wilson Recepcion office at 7:00am on Sunday July 16th. Coffee at the comedor to follow.

Hey, let’s ID some butterflies while we’re at it. This is a big time of year for butterflies. I’ll bring a couple of butterfly guide books.

Drawing of a bird, by Greg Homer.

The San Vito Bird Club wishes to bid a fond ‘adieu’ to our longtime member and friend, Tom Wilkinson; who died recently while in his beloved home state of Michigan. Tom was surrounded by four generations of his family and his lovely wife Portia.

Tom…my boy, you will be missed. You never failed to bring something new to the conversational table.

Tom Wilkinson