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

From SVBC member Judy Richardson.

It’s 6:30 pm;  the door bell rings and two neighborhood girls, age 6 and 7, are standing on my porch.

Their usual request is; ‘Can we pet Maggie?’, my pug dog. But today they hold out half a pale blue egg shell and ask ‘What kind of bird laid that?’ I wax poetic about how the mother bird doesn’t want anyone knowing where her nest is, so she carries the egg shells away. That’s why you found it on your lawn, I tell them.

I then tell them that I have a book where they might find out what type it is. I pull out my Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings book (do you have it??) It shows all the eggs life size and in color…as well as nests and babies. All three of us sat on the couch while they paged through the plates. There was much chatter about whose egg it was.

‘That one?’ ‘No, too white, big and spotty.’

And then, to the delight of my little scientists, it seemed to fit the Veery egg! There was another conversation about it’s being the right choice and off they ran to tell their mothers the good news!!

I have become not only the crazy granny that wears a Halloween costume with my pug dog, but also keeper of all the secrets about the birds in the neighborhood! The secret is indeed out!

Photo courtesy of eBird.

From SVBC charter member Lydia Vogt.

There are many reasons we are warned to be prudent with bird feeders. Are we interrupting migration? Could the food become rotten or contaminated? Are there laws against feeding wild animals? The danger of cats becoming aware of a steady food source is one of the most common for those of us residing in suburban areas.

I have been happy that none of my neighbors seem to have any outdoor cats, and so my seed feeders under a huge old camphor tree which is in front of my studio window have drawn an interesting assortment of both common and occasionally more exotic species for almost five years now, with impunity, or so I thought.

Today I had a Wild Kingdom moment.  It began with a cat- new to the neighborhood- who managed to grab one of the abundant House finches that typically eat the majority of any seeds put out. Luckily the finch managed to get away, but two alert Scrub jays nearby saw the action and soon had the poor finch in their beaks.  I ran out and rescued him, but they were sharp-eyed and managed to grab the finch again from the low branch I had hidden him on. I thought that was the end of him, and headed back indoors.  But they dropped their prize into the grass.  The cat came back, but a sharp knock on the window was enough to scare away.  Just then a crow took over the hunt.  He flew in, cautiously scouted out the views from various nearby branches, and finally made a quick pounce and flew off, the winner of the lengthy battle.  

I only hope the finch was, by that time, dispatched and no longer feeling anything. I’m reconsidering my feeder options.