Author Archives: AWOlivieri

New Butterfly Photo Gallery!

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Please take a look at the new Butterfly Photo Gallery we have just added to this website by clicking here. We hope this new feature will interest you as much as it does us!

The species shown are all commonly seen here in the Coto Brus region and can be found near your house (or sometimes in it!), by the roadside, in gardens and often on bird walks. They are every bit as fascinating and beautiful as birds, with complicated life cycles that, for some species, even include migrations.

You may notice we have omitted the iconic butterfly of the tropics: the omnipresent Morpho. Here is one of those so you won’t feel bereft.

Blue Morpho. Photo by unknown photographer, posted on www.mini-life.com.

In the not too distant future, we plan to add another photo gallery — this one of moths — to complete the other half of the order Lepidoptera as well as broaden the scope of our website. We will post an announcement of this feature as soon as it is published.

Afield in Ecuador: from the Andes to the Amazon Basin

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The flag of Ecuador. Photo by Alison Olivieri

Sigue en espanol

Ecuador is a wonderful country with breathtaking scenery, a violent history, fascinating and diverse cultures (shrunken heads, anyone?), bountiful natural history, yummy soup, good infrastructure and friendly people.

Due to its incredible biodiversity, birding in Ecuador is on the “Absolutely Must-do List”. If you were to wear eye patches there and only took them off to view tanagers, it would still be a ‘wildest dream’ trip of a lifetime.

Along with those tanagers, you would see the most spectacular hummingbirds, parrots and macaws, and many representatives of bird families you may not now know including: donacobius, cinclodes, conebill, plushcrown, canastero and more. All this is in addition to Andean Condors, many species of monkeys, llamas, Giant River Otters, and new and different species of lizards, insects and plants: so don’t even think about staying home.

Glacial lake in Cajas National Park. Photo by Alison Olivieri

After touring Quito, a World Heritage Site, we flew to Cuenca to visit high elevation Cajas National Park with Andean Teal, Andean Gulls on a nest, llamas in the distance, Andean Pygmy-Owls popping out of the bushes and rails calling in the reeds beside a beautiful glacial lake.

After driving south to Loja and Zamora, we stayed at Copalinga Lodge (Spangled Coquette!) and birded in nearby Podocarpus National Park, a forest with good trails, well-known to birders as the home of the Coppery-chested Jacamar.

We traveled back to Quito to fly to the town of Coca, gateway to the eastern lowland Amazon basin. From there we boated to the Napo Wildlife Center where we stealthily moved along the rivers and canals in canoes to view specialties of the flooded forest like this Hoatzin:

Hoatzin on the Rio Napo. Photo by Alison Olivieri

Potoos, macaws, toucans, trogons, puffbirds, oropendolas, raptors, woodpeckers and hummingbirds enthralled us, especially when seen from above the canopy on a 120′ tower that climbed into the crown of a ceiba tree. From there one evening after sundown we called in a Black-banded Owl that obligingly perched in our tree and called to another owl below in the forest canopy.

After this magical experience, we elevated ourselves to Antisana National Park and, at 13,000-plus’, saw Ecuadorian Hillstars, the highest elevation hummer in the world, at a nest; Silvery Grebe in a glacial lake; a flock of Baird’s Sandpipers; Carunculated Caracara, and Black-faced Ibis.

Antisana Volcano. Photo by Alison Olivieri

This is also the home of the majestic Andean Condor. On a pre-breakfast outing, we were lucky to see five of them leaving their nighttime roost of rocky crags preparing to soar off with barely a wing flap for the entire day. As only about 40 remain in the country, Andean Condors are considered critically endangered in Ecuador.

Sword-billed Hummingbird at Guango Lodge. Photo by Alison Olivieri

Our last birding stop was the hummingbird feeder-laden Guango Lodge, slightly lower, where we watched this Sword-billed Hummingbird, a bird about which the guide book says, ” . . . can never be seen enough”, in addition to Collared Inca, Long-tailed Sylph, Tourmaline Sunangel and White-bellied Woodstar.

Let me put in a shameless plug for the Ecuadorian travel company that organized this trip: Neblina Forest Tours. If you take it into your mind that you would like to see something of the natural history and cultural sights of countries in Central or South America, you’d be well advised to visit this website: www.neblinaforesttours.com and see what they have to offer: it’s impressive.

Second, a word about our group: first and foremost, we had Charlie ‘Without You We See Nothing’ Gomez, a natural history guide extraordinaire from Costa Rica; also our Ecuadorian driver Edwin Herrera whose keen eyes and ears added immeasurable pleasure to our journey (Giant Conebill, heard at 30 mph); and Remigio, a birding guide from the community of Añangu that built and runs the Napo Wildlife Center; plus four members of the SVBC: Susan England, Andrew Robertson and Alison and Michael Olivieri.  You can see us being silly in the photo below:

Charlie Gomez, Michael Olivieri, Remigio of the Anangu Community, Susan England, Alison Olivieri and Andrew Robertson

The group’s favorite birds included Paradise Tanager, Vermilion Flycatcher, Torrent Duck, Spangled Coquette, Black-necked Red Cotinga, Long-tailed Potoo, Capped Heron, Great Jacamar, Ivory-billed Aracari, Blue-and-yellow Macaw, Striped Manakin, Zigzag Heron and Gray-mantled Wren.

Are you ready? I’ll even loan you my book, The Birds of Ecuador, by Robert S. Ridgely and Paul J. Greenfield.

Espanol aqui:

Ecuador es un país maravilloso con unos paisajes que te quitan el aliento, una historia violenta, diversas y fascinantes culturas (cabezas reducidas, alguien?), amplia historia natural, sopas deliciosas, buena infraestructura y gente muy amigable.

Una iglesia bonita en Quito. Foto de Alison Olivieri.

Debido a su increíble biodiversidad, observar aves esta en la lista “Absolutamente debo de hacerlo antes de morirme’’.

Si te vendaran los ojos y solo te lo quitaras para ver tangaras, seria aun en tus sueños mas alocados el viaje más memorable de tu vida.

Junto con los tangaras, se pueden observar los mas espectaculares colibríes, loras y lapas y muchos representantes de familias de aves que posiblemente no sean del
conocimiento de algunos de nosotros, incluyendo donacobio, cinclodes, picocono, coronifelpa, canastero entre otros. Además sin olvidar el Condor Andino, muchas especies de monos, llamas, nutrias gigantes, y nuevas y diferentes especies de lagartijas, insectos y plantas: por eso ni se les ocurra pensar quedarse en casa.

Cerceta Andina. Foto de Alison Olivieri.

Después de hacer un tour por Quito, un sitio de interés cultural mundial, volamos a Cuenca a visitar el parque Nacional Cajas situado a una alta elevación del nivel del mar o tierras altas donde pudimos observar Cerceta Andina, Gaviota Andinas en un nido, llamas a la distancia, Mochuelo Andinos enanas que aparecieron repentinamente en los arbustos y Rascones Ecuatorianos llamándose entre si entre las cañas (tipo de pasto que crece en las alturas andinas) a la orilla de un bellísimo lago glaciar.

Viajamos al sur a Loja y Zamora para quedarnos en Copalinga Lodge (Coqueta Lentejuelada!) y observamos aves en el cercano parque nacional Podocarpus (arboles de la familia Podocarpaceae o coníferas que también son conocidos localmente como pinos), con un bosque con buenos senderos, muy conocidos para los observadores de aves como la casa de el Jacamar Pechicobrizo.

Regresamos a Quito para volar al pueblo de Coca, una de las ventanas de la cuenca oriental de la zona baja del rio Amazonas, de ahí viajamos en bote al centro de Fauna Napo donde nos movimos silenciosamente a lo largo de ríos y canales en canoas para ver especialidades del bosque inundado.

Pájaros estaca, lapas, tucanes, trogones, bucos, oropéndolas, aves raptoras, carpinteros y colibríes que cautivaron nuestras miradas, especialmente cuando son vistos desde la copa de los arboles en una torre de 120 pies (36 metros) que sube hasta la copa de un árbol de ceiba. Una tarde después de la puesta del sol, observamos una lechuza se llama Buho Negribandeado que convenientemente se poso en nuestro árbol llamando a otra lechuza que se encontraba bajo la copa de los arboles cercanos.

Después de esta mágica experiencia, nos desplazamos a tierras altas a el parque nacional de Antisana y a mas de 13,000 pies o mas observamos en un nido colibríes se llaman Estrella Andina, especie de colibrí que vive a la mayor altitud del mundo; Zambullidor Plateado en un lago glacial; una bandada de Playero de Baird, Caracara Curiquingue y Bandurria Carinegra:

Bandurria Carinegra en Parque Nacional Antisana. Foto de Charlie Gomez.

Este es también el hogar del majestuoso Cóndor Andino, en un pre-desayuno al aire libre tuvimos la suerte de ver 5 de ellos dejando su lugar de descanso nocturno en los acantilados o despeñaderos preparándose para remontar el vuelo con un simple aleteo que les permite volar por el transcurso de todo el día. Dado que solo 40 de ellos permanecen en el país es considerado una especie en peligro de extinción en el ecuador.

Nuestra última parada para observar aves fueron los comederos para colibríes en el Guango Lodge. Ligeramente a menor altitud, donde pudimos observar este Solangel Turmalina, además del Inca Collarejo, Silfo Colilargo, Colibri Pico Espada y Estrellita Ventriblanca.

El Solangel Turmalina. Foto de Alison Olivieri.

Déjenme decirles atentando en dar publicidad sin permiso que la experiencia con la compañía de viajes Ecuatoriana que organizo este viaje: Neblina Forest Tours ha estado fantástica. Si alguno de Uds. está considerando ver algo de historia natural o tener contacto con la cultura de Centro y Sur América, les recomiendo que visiten este sitio: www.neblinaforesttours.com y vean que tienen que ofrecer, es impresionante.

Segundo, refiriéndonos a nuestro grupo: primero y antes que todo teníamos a Charlie ’’sin ti no habríamos visto nada’’ Gomez un guía naturalista extraordinario de Costa Rica; agradecer a nuestro conductor Ecuatoriano Edwin Herrera el cual con esos ojos y oídos impresionantes dio un valor agregado e inmensurable a la experiencia (Picocono Gigante, escuchado a 30mph) ; Remigio un guía de aves de la comunidad de Añangu que es la encargada de administrar el centro de fauna Napo, y a los 4 miembros del Club de Aves de San Vito: Susan England, Andrew Robertson and Alison and Michael Olivieri.

Están listos? Hasta podría prestarles mi libro, Las Aves de Ecuador, por Robert S. Ridgely and Paul J. Greenfield.

Visit to Butterfly Paradise

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Recently, four SVBC members spent the morning visiting Butterfly Paradise, part of a development called Osa Mountain Village about halfway between Palmar Norte and Ojochal on the Pacific Coast. This is an easy drive from San Vito and the views from the road going up the hill are breathtaking.

View from Osa Mountain Village. Photo by Harry Hull.

Dave Fishell, the owner-designer-builder of this new outdoor butterfly vivarium, gave a brief talk on his ongoing efforts to manage a natural environment for his winged charges while keeping track of species counts and hatching pupas. Butterfly life cycles are complicated, involving egg-laying on specific host plants, the eating machines we know as caterpillars, pupation periods and the dramatic emergence of a re-arranged life form: the adult butterfly.

He has exciting plans to expand with an adjacent, open air hummingbird garden. We spotted a Bat Falcon perched across the road, Swallow-tailed Kites swooping overhead and heard many other birds vocalizing in the adjacent forest so we are rooting for Dave to create a birding destination as well.

A thrilling experience for would-be or even accomplished natural history photographers, we plan to offer this new day trip whenever interest is expressed by members and friends. In fact, we were so inspired we’re working on a new photo gallery for this website of butterfly beauties commonly seen in the Coto Brus region. We will announce this with a ‘post’ when it is ready to view so you won’t miss it.

Harry Hull with a new friend. Photo by Alison Olivieri

An added bonanza of this pleasant excursion is the proximity of three excellent restaurants in Ojochal: Citrus, Exotica and El Castillo. Also of note, we’ve been told by Jarvia Fishell, Dave’s wife, that Osa Mountain Village offers other activities including canopy tours, zip lines, overnight jungle excursions, vacation rental properties and more so we look forward to exploring this destination further with all of you!

 

Visita al paraíso de mariposas

Recientemente, 4 miembros del Club de aves de San vito  visitaron por la mañana  ‘’Butterfly Paradise’’, parte de la empresa llamada  ‘’Osa Mountain Village’’ aproximadamente a medio camino entre Palmar Norte y Ojochal en la costa pacifica.  Es un viaje sencillo en automóvil desde San Vito y por supuesto con unas vistas del camino subiendo la montaña que quitan la respiración.

Oruga de mariposa ‘morpho’. Photo by Harry Hull.

Dave Fishell , el dueño-diseñador–constructor de este nuevo vivario de mariposas al aire libre, nos dio una corta charla de sus continuos esfuerzos para ofrecerle un ambiente natural a sus amigos alados mientras intenta mantenerse al tanto de la cantidad de especies y pupas eclosionadas. Los ciclos de la mariposa son complicados, envuelven la puesta de huevos en plantas huéspedes especificas, las maquinas de comer que nosotros conocemos como orugas, periodos de población y el dramático nacimiento de una forma de vida  totalmente nueva que llamamos mariposa adulta.

También encontramos muchas plantas interesantes para expandirse con un jardín de colibrís al aire libre. Pudimos observar un halcón, Bat Falcon (Falco rufigularis) posado al otro lado del camino y Swallow-Tailed Kites (Gavilan Tijereta) descendiendo por nuestras cabezas en picada después de escuchar muchas vocalizaciones de aves en el bosque adyacente. Esperamos muy impacientemente que Dave cree un destino para ver aves.

Este lugar ofrece una experiencia inolvidable para fotógrafos interesados en la historia natural, planeamos ofrecer este viaje de un día, cuando el interés sea de nuestros miembros y amigos. De hecho nos ha inspirado tanto que estamos trabajando en una galería nueva para el sitio web de las bellas mariposas comúnmente vistas en el área de Coto Brus. Se anunciara con un mensaje cuando este listo, así que no se lo perderán.

Un agregado fantástico a esta excursión es la proximidad con tres restaurantes en Ojochal llamados: Citrus, Exotica y El Castillo, también se nos ha comentado por Jarvia Fishell esposa de Dave que ‘’Osa Mountain Village” ofrece otras actividades como canopy tours, zip lines (o cables para deslizarse en línea recta), excursiones al bosque nocturnas, renta de propiedades para vacacionar y mucho mas, por lo que esperamos explorar en mas detalle este destino con todos Uds.

 

Butterfly Paradise Day Trip

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Please join us for a day trip Sunday, September 9, to Butterfly Paradise near the coastal town of Uvita and for lunch at Citrus Restaurant in Ojochal.

Hesperid Butterfly. Photo by Alison Olivieri

We will meet at 7:30 am at Finca Cantaros to carpool to this beautiful new butterfly garden, arriving there around 10:30 am. We will hear a talk by the designer, builder and owner Dave Fishell after which we will be free to take photos and look around on our own. The admission fee will be $10 per person with children under 5 admitted free.

At about 11:30, we will head up the coast to Ojochal for lunch at Citrus Restaurant. Lunch will cost about $20 per person. We plan to be back at Cantaros by 4:30 or 5:00 at the latest.

Please join us for this fun adventure: let us know if you plan to come so we can organize a carpool by sending an email to: sanvitobirdclub@gmail.com and DON’T forget to bring your binos and a camera.

Report from Scotland: Falconry and a Lurcher

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A glorious morning. Photo by Michael Olivieri

Dramatic landscapes abound in the Scottish Highlands and, if you also like large, strong men in kilts and distilled spirits, then Scotland is the place for you. We recently visited the eastern Highlands, close to the Burgh of Tain (settled in 1066), and enjoyed watching burly and brawny men play Highland Games along with touring the Glenmorangie Scotch Distillery, visiting an inhabited castle, watching rabbits hide in prickly gorse, riding on a wee ferry, oohing and aahing over puffy lambs AND, say it with me now: b-i-r-d-i-n-g!

Falconer at Dunrobin Castle. Photo by Alison Olivieri

To start us off in that direction, we saw a Falconry Demonstration at the Dunrobin Castle in Golspie. Still inhabited by descendants of William, the first Earl of Sutherland, this castle is the most northerly of Scotland’s great houses and the largest in the highlands with 189 rooms! Pictured in the photo here is a Harris’s Hawk, native not to Scotland but to the southwestern US and as far south as Chile. This raptor is popular with falconers all over the world.

Something especially fun about birding in Europe is that no bird has a name remotely like, for example, Red-collared Foliage-thrower-upper. All the birds have sensible names. The name of the one species of swallow is “Swallow”. Any swiftlike bird you might see is the “Swift”. The kingfisher is a “Kingfisher” and so on. This makes it a whole lot easier to ID them with confidence; for example, a plump white, rust and black bird bobbling in a river? It’s the Dipper!

One of our favorites has the unfortunate name of “Buzzard”. It is a sizable and handsome raptor with honey-brown plumage, seen everyday hunting over the hills and fields. As we were there in mid-August, those fields and the moors were turning purple as the heath and heather began to bloom.

Heath and heather, blooming together. Photo by Michael Olivieri

A final note about Scotland, every third or fourth person had a well-behaved dog on a leash. We saw many breeds not commonly seen anymore like Irish Setters that require endless exercise and many Border Collies.

Lilly at the Fringe. Photo by Alison Olivieri

The most unusual dog we saw was a Skye Terrier. It was almost as big as a Basset Hound and looked like an enormous caterpillar but our personal favorite (in addition to the Golden Retrievers at our B&B) was Lilly, a Lurcher who was part of a street performance at the Fringe Festival. She is 2 1/2 and was recently rescued in London by the Ives family with whom she lives in Grimsby North East Lincolnshire. This was her first vacation in Scotland and, believe me, she was a sensation in Edinburgh!

Going to Heaven

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Unidentified Butterfly (Photo by Alison Olivieri)

The other day, Liz Allen and I went to heaven. At least, if there is anyplace resembling heaven anywhere on earth, this would be it. And it’s only about two hours northwest of San Vito, near the town of Uvita on the Pacific Coast.

Heaven’s real name is “Butterfly Paradise” and it is part of the Osa Mountain Village community. It looks like a 16-sided circus Big Top but instead of clowns and jugglers, it’s full of butterflies. We found ourselves surrounded by shining blue Morpho Butterflies and many other drop-dead beautiful creatures going about their butterfly business.

For you butterfly enthusiasts, we saw Malachites, Swallowtails, Crackers, Postmen and Caligos. Not only that, we found caterpillars and a chrysalis with help from Dave Fishell who owns, designed and built “Butterfly Paradise”.

So, I say, let’s all go to heaven! Admission is $12 per person; children under 5 get in free. We can arrange a tour with Dave and a group discount for a Sunday morning in September. Let’s plan to spend some time in heaven and then have lunch at Citrus or Exotica, wonderful restaurants in nearby Ojochal. Send us an email if you are interested with dates that work for you and we’ll make a plan!

Let the Breeding Bird Surveys Begin!

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Eastern Meadowlark (Photo by Julie Girard)

In the mid-1960s, the US Geological Survey initiated a long-term, large-scale international avian monitoring program with the Canadian Wildlife Service called the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). It was undertaken in response to the noted decline of songbird populations accompanying the widespread use of DDT for mosquito control at that time. (To learn more about this effort in North America, please click here.) Continuing to this day, the BBS is run out of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, home to the Bird Banding Laboratory where records of all birds banded in the US are stored. Although rampant use of DDT has declined as a cause of songbird mortality, bird populations continued to be subjected to numerous omnipresent threats including habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, land-use changes, chemical contaminants and other problems. These issues occur worldwide and need to be closely monitored so that local populations are not lost and species do not become extinct simply because no one is paying attention.

In addition to North America, many other countries around the world use bird monitoring surveys to estimate populations, understand species’ distributions and discern decline. Although many professional ornithologists and biologists take part in these surveys, the vast majority of participants are local birders practicing citizen science.

Laughing Falcon (Photo by Alison Olivieri)

This year, Gerardo Obando of the Asociacion de Ornitologica de Costa Rica (AOCR) has taken the initiative and begun a national program of Breeding Bird Surveys! These surveys can be either a single place survey, like a garden, or a route with at least 10 stops, 200 m apart, for five-minute bird counts. The surveys must be completed between May 15 and June 30, the height of many of our resident birds’ breeding season.

Your bird club completed three surveys in mid-June consisting of one privately-owned garden, a route through Finca Cantaros (one of our Avian Monitoring Project field stations) and a route through the Wilson Botanical Garden. Very special thanks go out to Mauricio Sarmiento of the OTS Las Cruces Biological Station for helping record the GPS coordinates of each point along both of the routes. Next year we need to add more routes and we will need more volunteers to accomplish this! “Ace Birders” of the SVBC: please come join us in 2013 — we need your help!

You can read about this new effort — and practice your Spanish if you are not a native speaker — by clicking here.  We are proud to be a new Institutional Member of the AOCR, about which you can read more by clicking here.

The Departing Desvenains

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Our VP Kate and her family, Patrick and Luca, recently left Costa Rica for Washington, DC, a city that Kate has described many times as one of her favorite places to live.

All of us who have enjoyed Patrick’s hospitality and culinary skills; who have walked, talked, birded and banded with Kate, and who have played with “Luca-paduca” will miss them terribly. But naturally we saw them off with a terrific Farewell Party at Las Cascatas and we wish them all the best the world has to offer!

‘Kate’s Last Walk’ photo by Landon Daft

This photo was taken on June 16 at the Wilson Botanical Garden to commemorate what will now be known as “Kate’s Last Wilson Walk”. Standing from left to right are Liz Allen, Barbara Keeler-Barton, Peace Corps Volunteer Darien Combs, Elena Murillo, Heysen Esquivel, Hellen Castillo, Wally Barton, Alison Olivieri, Judith Ippolito, Erick Ilama Loria, Joe Ippolito, Roni Chernin, Mark (who is taking over Morphose Mountain Retreat B&B) and Wendy Schulz. Kneeling in front are (from left to right) Kate Allen Desvenain, Edwin Borbon Abarca, Yoiner and Royce Schulz (really not kneeling). Special thanks to visitor Landon Daft for taking this picture.

The Nidification of San Vito

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Golden-hooded Tanager in nest. (Photo: Harry Hull)

This will sound a little strange to North Americans: “Winter’s in the air and nests are everywhere“! We are two months into our rainy season, aka tropical winter, and that puts us deep into the nesting season. When we stand still and watch, we find nests everywhere: under the eaves, high in the trees, low down in shrubs, under plant leaves, in tree trunk cavities and even on fence posts.

Common Potoo with its egg on a fence post. (Photo by Barbara Keeler Barton)

Because the nesting season started back in April we see now, in early June, fledglings chasing their parents begging to be fed. In a short walk this morning, I counted at least six young birds pestering adults: Tropical Kingbird, Cherrie’s Tanager, Variable Seedeater, Bronzed Cowbird peeping at a surrogate parent Rufous-collared Sparrow, Lesser Elaenia and Silver-throated Tanager. By the time they get to this stage, you can almost see the parent birds swiping their foreheads with the side of their wings thinking: will these young birds EVER learn to feed themselves?

A few days ago, an adult Blue-crowned Motmot led two young birds to our banana-papaya feeder and sat there alternatively stuffing pieces of fruit into the gaping bills of each of its offspring. This was, of course, a truly  thrilling ‘National Geo’ moment with my camera nowhere nearby.

Then, too, I recently caught a Fiery-billed Aracari peering into a large shrub outside our front door where a pair of Cherrie’s Tanagers are going for a second nesting. No doubt it was looking for food for its own young but it’s hard not to root for the littler guys.

Golden-hooded Tanager nestlings, 11 days old. (Photo by Alison Olivieri)

We are puzzling over what happened to two nestling Golden-hooded Tanagers that seemed ultra-secure in a hanging basket on our porch. The adults chose a safe-looking spot where the voracious local squirrels might overlook them, but they disappeared in mid-day while we had a little pool party with friends. They were 15 days old and didn’t seem big enough or strong enough to fledge. Maybe a snake wound its way up there or the squirrels managed to grapple up the beams after all.

Squirrel Cuckoo nest. (Photo by Aracelly Barrantes)

Predators and other dangers are everywhere here. First-time nesters sometimes build flimsy nests without adequate protection from heavy rains that are subsequently washed away. Hummingbirds in the ‘hermit’ group build nests hanging from the underside of large maranta or heliconia leaves that can be toppled over in strong winds or unrelenting rain storms. Trees fall over regularly at this time of year and raptors, like the Swallow-tailed Kites that come from South America to breed here, are constantly on the hunt. This is to say nothing about the many opossums, raccoons, weasels and snakes that patrol at night. Or humans wielding weed-whackers, machetes and chainsaws.

Because danger comes from all directions and at all times, birds must take counter-measures. My favorite is the swaying flycatcher nest attached to a wispy branch in a tall tree with the entrance hole on the side or at the bottom. It is an absolute marvel and one wonders how that clever pendant, retort or ovoid-shaped blueprint got started. No predator weighing more than a few ounces could ever get inside. We found a beauty at Finca Cantaros several weeks ago, painstakingly constructed by a Yellow-olive Flycatcher. In the meantime: go outside! Look around! It’s amazing what you will see.

Yellow-olive Flycatcher entering nest from below. (Photo by Harry Hull)

BirdSleuth Workshop at Las Cruces

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Lilly Briggs leads the BirdSleuth Workshop in San Vito, May 2012

Lilly Briggs leads the BirdSleuth Workshop in San Vito, May 2012

As noted on this website under the navigation bar Community>Current Projects>BirdSleuth, we hope to help implement this Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology environmental education program in San Vito in some way, shape or form. To begin this process — and to familiarize us with the course material and classes — a day-long workshop for Spanish speakers was help at Las Cruces on Sunday, May 13, led by Lilly Briggs a Cornell PhD student in the Department of Natural Resources, and Jennifer Fee, the Lab of O’s Manager of K-12 Programs.

Jennifer Fee setting up the BirdSleuth Workshop

Jennifer Fee Setting up the BirdSleuth Workshop

Las Cruces Biologist Ariadna Sanchez spent months planning and organizing the workshop and, to judge by the participants enthusiastic reaction, it was an enormous success. Nearly half of the registrants were teachers from elementary and high schools. Almost everyone else had taken the recently-offered OTS Naturalist Guide Course.

This educational program is geared toward teaching children to engage in and enjoy science. It is all about discovery and learning to record data, using Bird Journals and Cornell’s amazing public database, eBird. It’s also about having fun with hands-on activities that include making a personal bird journal, drawing and studying birds, learning bird families by sight and, finally, counting species and individuals.

During the nine completed classes, students play the Bird Survivor! Game and the Migration Game, both of which teach about migratory birds’ perilous lives as they fly north from Central and South America to breed and south from North America to return home. These games also lead students to think about social connections as they learn to view birds as international citizens. The concept of global cooperation can be well understood by connecting students from different countries that share the same species of birds.

Bird Survivor! Game

Bird Survivor! Game

Perhaps even more importantly, this program is about empowering children to find solutions to the critical issue of bird (and other wildlife) conservation: becoming Citizen Scientists and helping to solve problems on local, national and international scales. One of the most important classes focuses on creating a local Conservation Project and carrying it out.

BirdSleuth-International could be offered here as an ‘after-school Bird Club’: basically, an extended learning program. Or it could be used as the curriculum for a week-long or two-week Summer Day Camp. Or in some different way, that we have not yet discovered.

As we move forward with this exciting project, we will need the help of all our members in the form of creative ideas, financial support and local volunteer action. Please let us know how YOU can help by clicking on contact us!

Making a Bird Journal

Making a Bird Journal