20 February, 2012
Daniel Lebbin

In November, I visited Peru to check on the progress of some ABC projects and partners, and in the process, had the pleasure of visiting several field sites.

In northern Peru, I helped lead an ABC field trip to Abra Patricia Reserve and Huembo,  two project sites operated by our Peruvian partner Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN). Visiting sites allows project managers like me to ask questions and observe progress that is difficult to do over Skype and email from abroad, and to interact with local managers to better plan for future needs at reserves. One such advance was a surprise. Local guard Roberto Bazán Culquí (see my earlier blog — Local Conservation and Conservationists in Peru) had recently habituated “Dorita” an Undulated Antpitta to worm feeding, using techniques he mastered and figured out alone.

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This trip was not a birding tour, but a conservation tour (with a lot of birds).  In addition to spectacular views of endemic birds, such as Royal Sunagel, Johnson’s Tody-Flycatcher, Marvelous Spatuletails and a Long-whiskered Owlet  we spent a lot of time visiting tree nurseries and restoration sites, and touring a newly constructed administration house and research center – the bricks and mortar of conservation efforts here. We even picked up shovels and participated in the tree-planting efforts. On degraded land within the western edge of Abra Patricia Reserve, we planted a few Andean Alders with the help of local community members that had been hired as part of the reforestation effort. At the main lodge, we also demonstrated a new product called ABC BirdTape to help prevent bird collisions on windows. ECOAN’s lodge has many windows and staff previously asked me about solutions to prevent hummingbirds and other birds hitting them. ABC has been developing BirdTape to apply on existing windows to make them more visible to birds. Please visit abcbirdtape.org  to learn more about this product, which will soon be available for order to place on your home windows. As part of this demonstration, I cut the tape into artistic shapes including a hummingbird and orchid, for decorative effect. We left several BirdTape rolls behind for ECOAN staff to apply to other windows.

At the conclusion of the tour, our guests returned home and I went on to Cusco in Southern Peru to take part in the the 9^th Neotropical Ornithology Congress, where over 700 scientists attended shared their latest bird research, networked and visited the enchanting city of Cusco. Here, I and ECOAN’s president Tino Aucca co-lead a roundtable discussion to establish a Peruvian Alliance for Zero Extinction. As interesting as the talks and meetings were, hundreds of passionate bird-lovers won’t remain inside conference rooms for long without some seeking escape outside. On Saturday, well over a hundred ornithologists from the Congress visited one of our project sites at Abra Malaga Thastayoc-Royal Cinclodes Private Conservation Area in the Vilcanota Mountains near Cusco. ABC and ECOAN have been working here with the local community for more than a decade to protect and restore Polylepis forests for ecosystem services and habitat for the Royal Cinclodes and other endangered birds. I went early with a small ECOAN group that included ornithologist and illustrator Jon Fjeldså, author of Birds of the High Andes. Despite undergoing open heart surgery a few years before and wearing sandals, Jon clambered through the mud and up and down steep slopes (off trail) with the confidence of a mountain viscacha (a fury rodent that looks a bit like a small kangaroo and lives here. The thin oxygen at this elevation (well over 4,000 m or 13,100 feet) did not seem to deter the other groups either, who must have been buoyed by adrenaline from the many potential “lifers” they were pursuing. We entered the newly constructed visitor center and saw information panels that I helped write just a few weeks before. These panels begin to tell the story about the conservation efforts here. The local people greeted Jon like a returning hero, or perhaps like an Incan Santa Claus. In return for his gift of promoting greater awareness of Polylepis forests through his decades of research and publications, they gave him a traditional poncho as a symbol of thanks.

While I was photographing the improved infrastructure and new signs posted in the reserve, other groups were having an entirely different kind of fun exploring the Polylepis forest. November is the onset of the rainy season, a time when many birds begin breeding. Richard Amable, a friend from Puerto Maldonado and founder of the Jacamar Bird Club, photographed an endangered White-browed Tit-Spinetail exiting a nest cavity. Justin Hite, a friend from my time at Cornell University, was traversing steep slopes to count hummingbird nests suspended under daunting cliffs. But of all the nest finders on the mountain this misty day, Harold Greeney of Ecuador’s Yanayacu Biological Station was probably the champion. An antpitta expert, he found three Stripe-headed Antpitta nests in short order. He told me that the nest of this species has yet to be described, but by the end of the day he had taken nest measurements and was planning to go back to take video of the nesting birds to collect more behavioral data. This illustrates one of the great opportunities afforded to researchers in neotropical forests, even regularly visited ones such as Abra Malaga or Abra Patricia: there is still so much to discover.  As long as ABC is working to protect places like these, birders and researchers will be able to visit them and learn, and the birds will continue to thrive.

If you are interested to read more about what ABC staff do, please check out our recent issue of Bird Conservation magazine for more stories.

31 January – 13 February 2012
Cameron Rutt and Robby Kohley

Figure 2. Laysan albatross chick. Photo: R. Kohley

If our previous work period was a “feast,” then this most recent one, unfortunately, would fall under “famine.” It seems that our fickle Millerbird friends are trying (and succeeding, we might add) to do everything in their power to defy categorization. Without obvious rhyme or reason, some days are full of activity, interspersed among days where their discreet foraging, all but invisible to us, literally tests the limits of concentration. We hope that, like us, they’re taking notes of their songbird brethren – the Laysan Finches – who have begun laying eggs and incubating clutches.

With no long-lost birds resurfacing, our “resight of the week” again goes to B/S, B/W, who continues to endure the Millerbird version of a serious “time out,” holed up at the south end of the island, now going on 50 days. To the best of our knowledge, there isn’t a single Millerbird within a mile of this guy, not that he seems overly worried about it. We often hear his blithe mumblings, apparently unconcerned by the lack of a listening audience.

Figure 1. The yellow pin marks the breeding ground where EJ, the Bristle-thighed Curlew, was captured and banded.

In the latest blog, we highlighted a certain Bristle-thighed Curlew – EJ – that wore a green leg flag, from a then unknown banding operation in western Alaska. Well, thanks to Kristine Sowl, a Wildlife Biologist at the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, we now know a little bit more about him. EJ was banded alongside his mate on 2 July 2011 in Alaska’s Andreafsky Wilderness (Figure 1). In the first two years of this three-year study, Sowl and company have captured and flagged 69 curlews, with birds already turning up in Oahu, Midway, and now Laysan. Bristle-thighed Curlews are unique among migratory shorebirds for exclusively wintering on oceanic islands, not such a bad idea if you ask us. But first, they have to get here. For those birds embarking from the “southern” portion of their breeding range, like EJ, they must endure a 2,400 mile (4000 km) nonstop flight to reach the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands – no small task. But for others, breeding in the more northerly Seward Peninsula, a single leg of their biannual journey may exceed 3,600 miles (6000 km), ultimately depositing the worldly traveler in, say, Fiji! For more information on Sowl’s study, particularly if you’ve seen a similarly marked curlew, please visit:
Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge

The overwhelming avian highlight was the surprise appearance of a wayward Glaucous Gull (2/8), completely out of the blue! Far from its expected winter haunts along the coastal Pacific Northwest, this immature didn’t appear particularly desperate for land. Less than a minute after being spotted, it took off, only to make one last pass before disappearing, allowing only marginal photographic documentation (and that’s being generous) – our 43rd species for the island this winter. Second only to the gull on the highlight reel, many of the albatross chicks have now reached peak cuteness – if such a thing is measurable – fluffy, spunky, and alert, but not yet ballooning in size (Figure 2). Finally: a single “Brewster’s” Brown Booby was again detected (2/5 and 2/9); the once flock of 18 Northern Pintails found themselves stuck in a division equation, with a denominator of three (now 6 birds only; 2/8-2/9); the Peregrine Falcon (through 2/12) continues to stockpile an impressive array of discarded wings (the totaled prey items now comprise 21 Pacific Golden-Plovers, 27 Ruddy Turnstones, 1 Sanderling, and 2 Laysan Finches); and one Sharp-tailed Sandpiper was noted (through 2/8).

8 February 2012
Benjamin Skolnik

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The gorgeous Red-fronted Macaw is known only from central Bolivia, where perhaps only about 1,000 remaining birds inhabit vast expanses of dry, scrub forest. The bird is most easily observed along the cliffs of several rivers where they nest and roost. However, during the day, the birds venture far to nearby fields where they eat corn and peanuts — a habit that has caused them historically to be viewed as a bit of an agricultural pest.

People are very poor in this rural region of the country, and so it was somewhat surprising to many that in spite of the macaw’s crop-munching habits, it is now receiving protection across half a million acres. Two municipal protected areas have been established along the Mizque and Rio Grande rivers in the Cochabamba Province. Once the communities learned of the bird’s plight, they agreed to stop harming or capturing them. Previously, some residents took macaws from their nests to raise at home, waiting for visitors to purchase the animals for the illegal pet trade. Now, because of increased awareness thanks to over five years of outreach efforts in two dozen remote communities, things are changing.

The municipality has trained and hired several local guards to work with communities to identify practices or activities that will help ensure the continued existence of the Red-fronted Macaw. For example, a reforestation program supported the planting of over 10,000 native trees. Most of these trees, which are a variety favored by the macaw for foraging, will provide habitat for the species. The mayor has been an enthusiastic supporter, helping ABC build a field station that will serve as both an office for the guards and a dormitory for visiting researchers, as well as a meeting space for the town.

The Red-fronted Macaw was adopted as a regional symbol of pride and identity, and the bird can be seen painted on the official government vehicles and buildings. The mayor wants to create a large statue in the center of the town plaza of Pasorapa! The first Red-fronted Macaw Day was celebrated on June 15th, and included competitions from surrounding schools in art, poetry, drawing, and music. An outstanding array of talent was on hand, and two of us from ABC were fortunate enough to participate as judges in the event. My favorite poem was by a child who adeptly observed that the Red-fronted Macaw is not only uniquely Bolivian because it resides only within the country’s boundaries, but because it’s “The only bird with the colors of our national flag!”

ABC has been working with three partner organizations to save this endangered species. The Center for Biodiversity and Genetics works out of the University Mayor San Simon in Cochabamba. Of course, the municipality of Pasorapa has been critical in gaining local support and building the field station. And ABC’s Bolivian partner, Armonia, owns a beautiful lodge and small reserve at an important breeding cliff for the Red-fronted Macaw where international tourists flock for a visit.

Consider a visit the next time you plan a South American birding trip.

20/20 Vision

17 – 30 January 2012
Cameron Rutt and Robby Kohley

Just one work period after reveling in the accomplishment that was 20 birds in 21 days, we somehow managed to drastically increase the efficacy of our efforts this past work period.  How about 20 different millerbirds in only five work days!?  This formerly far-fetched dream miraculously became our reality, where two days in particular found us resighting millerbirds with virtual ease.  We posted our best single-day resighting output of the season on 1/19, with nine different individuals, followed by an eight-resight day nipping closely at its heels (1/23), reminiscent of those September glory days.  Not too shabby considering our quarry is a 12 centimeter, 18 gram bird that could be anywhere on an island of approximately 1.4 square miles.  Despite these successes, however, we’re acutely aware of the work that remains to be done, particularly homing in on those last few missing millerbirds.  On that note, our “resight of the week” plugged one of those gaps, the one that O/W, O/S [orange over white left leg; orange over silver right leg] left when she all but disappeared following our last resight (11/28), 56 days before we managed to catch up with her once again (1/23).

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We’re not sure whether we or the parents had more anticipation, but, at long last, the albatross chicks have arrived!  After more than two months of incubation, the first members of the 2012 cohort finally appeared, with a Black-footed chick 1/17 and a baby Laysan Albatross the next day (1/18).  The chicks don’t get to see a whole lot of the sun, as the smothering parents keep them on a strict schedule of brooding, preening, and intermittent feeding.  But the majority of each day passes with the chicks quite literally sandwiched beneath the secure warmth of the parents’ brood patch.  Every day, new hordes of recently-hatched, peeping, grayish-white fluff-balls populate the island, adding a cute factor to the island which had otherwise been lacking (no offense to the other crew).  Our first impressions, however, are that their cuteness might be tempered by their unwieldy beak, which may take a bit of growing into.  Or perhaps it adds to their charm.  In any case, we and the chicks have months to figure that out.  The constant supervision of the parents will soon come to an end (Figure 1), with the chicks left to fend for themselves, and their growing hunger, while they patiently wait for that coveted next meal.

Signs of spring are already in the air: Great Frigatebirds with an excess of hormones on display; grounded Red-tailed Tropicbirds, Red-footed Boobies awkwardly navigating the sand in search of sticks; Gray-backed Terns on eggs, and Laysan Finches building nests.  A Bristle-thighed Curlew with a green leg flag – evidently from a recent banding program in Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta – was seen 1/27, our first and only of the season.  We’ll call him EJ for short (Figure 2).  Finally: the whimsical Lesser Frigatebird reappeared (1/26-1/27); the wary flock of 18 Northern Pintails (through 1/21) made a showing with the single American Wigeon (through 1/21) in tow; the Peregrine Falcon (through 1/30) continues to crash the shorebird’s utopic winter resort (the pile of leftover wings now amounts to 45 birds, 44 of which are shorebirds); despite 24 Peregrine-consumed Ruddy Turnstones, our high count for that species was surpassed (2,746 on 1/21); and the Gray-tailed Tattler (through 1/25), as many as three Sharp-tailed Sandpipers (through 1/23), Dunlin (through 1/23), and Ruff (through 1/21) all continue.

Hiding in Plain Sight

3 – 16 January 2012
Cameron Rutt and Robby Kohley

The once reticent millerbirds at last appear ready to announce their emergence from hibernation.  Not quite garrulous, but decidedly more chatty than their muted monotony of November and December, which was so disquieting for us and our resighting efforts.  This behavioral resurgence is a most welcome change of pace and in the past three weeks we’ve managed to locate no less than 20 of the 24 millerbirds.  Whether or not there is any correlation, this activity surge has coincided with the arrival of more seasonal wintry weather.  The nearly rain-free days of December, with its abundance of sunshine and temperatures that still soared into the 90s, may now be behind us.  With January, the weather has given way to chilling lows (56° F!) and brisk highs (73° F), but I doubt we’re drumming up much of any sympathy from our mainland audience.  Oh, and a day with 2+ inches of rain.  Now where are those long pants?

Despite relocating B/S, B/W (blue over silver on left leg; blue over white on right leg) in his self-imposed solitary confinement at the southern tip of the island, there is no competition for this installment’s “resight of the week.”  That singular honor goes to G/Bk, O/S (green over black on left leg; orange over silver on right leg) who was on our “most wanted” list after going AWOL following an 11/3 resight.  After more than two months, a routine visit (1/6) to an occupied territory yielded an unknown singer along the outskirts of the northern vegetation.  Much to our surprise, there was G/Bk, O/S – 64 days since we had last laid eyes on this mysterious male!  And to make matters even more perplexing, this was a location that we had regularly visited throughout November and December.  How a male could reappear in this fashion, singing in the midst of core millerbird habitat no less, is beyond us.  Where he spent those months is anybody’s guess.  Or perhaps he just broke his vow of silence.  Whatever the case, the shadowy nature of these millerbirds can transform a seemingly routine resight into a surprising discovery.

The ill-fated chased-by-a-Peregrine list now includes Bristle-thighed Curlew, in addition to the regimen of smaller shorebirds.  So far, we’ve watched as it gave chase to a Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Great Frigatebirds, an adult Red-tailed Tropicbird, Black and Brown Noddies, White Tern, and Laysan Finches.  Our holiday scrooge – the Short-tailed Albatross – was back from its nearly three-week hiatus (1/11), having chosen to spend Christmas and New Years at sea.  The first Humpback Whale of the season spouted its offshore greetings (1/11) before flipping a fluke of a farewell.  Finally: single “Brewster’s” Brown Boobies made appearances (1/6 and 1/13); the well-fed Peregrine Falcon (through 1/15) apparently shows no intentions of dieting as its 2012 resolution, maintaining its breakneck pace of nearly a bird/day (its totaled roosting fare has increased to include 17 Pacific Golden-Plovers, 19 Ruddy Turnstones, 1 Sanderling, and 1 Laysan Finch); our high count for Sanderlings was eclipsed (111 on 1/3); and the Gray-tailed Tattler (through 1/13), Wood Sandpiper (through 1/13), 2 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers (through 1/13), Dunlin (through 1/13), and Ruff (through 1/13) all continue.

New Beginnings

20 December 2011 – 2 January 2012
Cameron Rutt and Robby Kohley

Figure 1. “Brewster’s” Brown Booby, showing whitish head and neck. This subspecies of Brown Booby nests on islands in the Gulf of California and off the western coast of Mexico south to the Revillagigedo Islands, and is an occasional visitor and rare breeder in the Hawaiian Islands. Photo: Cameron Rutt.

Twenty-twelve – a new year.  What better chance to participate in the decidedly human act of extracting ourselves from the present, to simultaneously reflect upon the past and gaze into the future.  If millerbirds were to join us in such visionary festivities, our batch of 24 translocated birds would have much to contemplate.  Last year’s calendar swap found them in the familiar steep, rocky terrain of Nihoa, 628 miles (1,047 km) away – quite a leap for this sedentary species.  Now 2012 finds them among new neighbors in a faraway place, but doing exactly what millerbirds have always done.  Since they’re evolutionarily shortsighted, we’ll look ahead for them.  It isn’t hard to envision a successful 2012, with the abundance of time necessary for them to reclaim that precise niche that we deprived Laysan of nearly a century ago.  And in line with our humanity, we ponder what sort of musings might be shared this time next year.  The millerbirds, however, haven’t passed the time idly.  We’ve now seen multiple individuals in heavy molt – particularly tail molts – no doubt in preparation for the upcoming bout of breeding that is sure to ensue.

If we thought the days of nomadic millerbirds on Laysan were behind us, then B/S, B/W (blue over silver left, blue over white right) provided us with a friendly wake-up call.  Starting in mid-September, this obliging male set up shop at a reliable location in the northeast corner of the island.  It was there that he found a mate, built a nest (which, unfortunately, was depredated), and remained, last seen in lackluster fashion on 11/28.  This guise of routine and complacency did not prepare us for his reappearance, 12/22, in the southernmost vegetation of the island, for the largest distance between successive resights – 1.43 miles (2.39 km).  Needless to say, we were floored.

On December 24th, Laysan’s inhabitants banded together for the island-wide Christmas Bird Count.  Albatrosses aside, we tallied just shy of 10,000 individual birds, recording 32 species, 1 identifiable subspecies, and 4 hybrid albatrosses.  As if knowing that this was an important day – that we were, quite literally, counting on it being there – the Short-tailed Albatross timed its first absence flawlessly, and was missed!  Despite this shortcoming, it was a great day and the weather teamed up with an impressive effort to produce nearly all of the unusual birds that had been accumulating.  Beginning nearly an hour before sunrise and not finishing until four hours after sunset, Cameron traversed more than 16 miles.  Robby even managed two millerbird resights (this was supposed to be a day off!?), for what, in all likelihood, marks the first time this species has ever graced a Christmas Bird Count checklist (in all, four were found).

Finally: the Lesser Frigatebird made a timely comeback (12/23, 12/24, and 1/1); early morning visits to the South Ledges have now produced three (!) “Brewster’s” Brown Boobies (Figure 1; 12/22, 12/24, and 12/26); the high count for Northern Pintails (through 12/24) has stayed at 18; the single American Wigeon remains (through 12/24); the content Peregrine Falcon (through 1/1) continues to showcase its abilities (totaled scraps now from 13 Pacific Golden-Plovers, 14 Ruddy Turnstones, and 1 Laysan Finch); a new high count for Sanderlings was achieved (87 on 12/29); and the Gray-tailed Tattler (through 12/24), Wood Sandpiper (through 1/1), Sharp-tailed Sandpipers (through 12/28; only two birds appear willing to stick it out for the winter), Dunlin (through 12/24), and Ruff (through 12/27) all continue.

Local Conservation and Conservationists in Peru, Aug.-Nov. 2011

Daniel Lebbin

Undulated Antpitta by Greg Homel

During recent trips to Peru, I met local people who are working to conserve birds and start birdwatching ecotourism operations in many unexpected places.

At Bosque Pomac, a national sanctuary supporting a dry scrub forest in the Tumbezian region of Peru, I met Edwin Remberto. From December 2006 through June 2008, Edwin coordinated and participated in training workshops conducted by ABC’s partner ECOAN with funding from ABC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Several of the people mentioned below (e.g. Santos Montenegro, Jose Oriel Altamirano, Roberto Bazán Culquí), among other participants, also received training during these workshops.

At these workshops, Edwin learned about bird monitoring, guiding tourists, and use of digital cameras and microphones for recording bird calls. With these new skills, Edwin was employed by Bosque Pomac as a park guard, and now participates in monitoring and habitat restoration activities for the endangered Peruvian Plantcutter at the sanctuary. Plantcutters are unusual for having serrated bills they use to forage on leaves, buds, and fruits. Edwin showed us where the Plantcutters were, spotted a Rufous Flycatcher, and was also able to locate the nest holes of the rare Tumbes Swallow within the reserve.

Further inland, I met Luciano Troyes and his family at their Gotas de Agua reserve which they established on their land above the dusty town of Jaen in Peru’s Marañon Valley.  Luciano has spent over twenty years working to protect these dry forests and develop ecotourism in the area.  He has created firebreaks, a rustic tourist lodge, and a restaurant overlooking bird-feeding areas in the reserve. Luciano led our group along the reserve’s trail system to spectacular overlooks, where we saw Little Inca-Finch and Marañon Crescentchest, and watched as hundreds of birds passed by in the evening, commuting from the river below for one last drink before settling in to roost for the night in the higher woodlands within the reserve. An observation tower overlooks a feeding station where Streaked Saltator, Red-crested Finch, and Tataupa Tinamou come for water and ground corn. Endemic Spot-throated Hummingbirds visit nectar feeders near the lodge. This reserve is not well-known, despite the many rare endemics found here, but birding groups are starting to visit.  Visitors might also be impressed by the artwork on the trail signs – all done by Luciano’s twelve-year old son Pier.

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To make this reserve a reality, Luciano has sold other properties to raise the funds necessary to invest in tourism start-up costs and to pay reserve guards. ABC’s partner Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN) and its president Tino Aucca have also provided some support to Luciano to help him submit an application to the Peruvian government to recognize his land as a Private Conservation Area in the national system of protected areas.

Some of the best bird conservationists I have met in northern Peru are now employed by ECOAN. For example, Santos Montenegro now works as ECOAN’s manager of the Huembo reserve, and may be the world’s expert on the ecology of the Marvelous Spatuletail, which is protected at Huembo as well as on his own family’s property near the town of Pomacochas. At Huembo, he is happy to guide visitors to where the Spatuletails are feeding and identify other birds as well. I hope to help him write up and share what he has learned about the spatuletail, including its foraging plants and breeding behavior. ECOAN also employs two other locals, Dennis Poclín and Santos Chasquibol, who together started new tree nurseries in their local communities and coordinating reforestation efforts there. The project first began with one tree species, the Andean Alder, but over 40 species of trees and shrubs are now cultivated for planting. They are currently managing reforestation projects to plant over 250,000 trees in northern Peru’s Amazonas department. For Dennis, reforestation work is a family affair. The Pomacochas nursery is located on his family’s land across the street from his parents’ home. On one visit, his parents invited us all in and his father served drinks to celebrate.

Roberto Bazán Culquí is a local resident hired as a park ranger by ECOAN at Abra Patricia Reserve  an hour’s drive east of Huembo. He is a remarkable birder in the field and taught himself how to habituate antpittas to worm-feeding. In November 2011, I and a group of eager birdwatchers followed along a trail a short distance from the Owlet Lodge at Abra Patricia, and watched as he called in an Undulated Antpitta named “Dorita.” Dorita appeared for breakfast without fear. Roberto has since trained another local park ranger, Ever Garcia Perez, to feed Dorita her daily meal, freeing himself up in the morning to habituate additional antpittas, with a Chestnut Antpitta next in line. Roberto also guides tourists to see the Long-whiskered Owlet along a trail in the reserve, where he knows the locations of multiple territories. Guy Foulks of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recently captured fantastic video footage of this owlet on one such guided hike this past November.

Click here to see the full press release.

Experiences like these attract visitors from all over the world, who provide a source of income to this reserve to help finance its operations. Artwork by Pier Troyes (of Gotas de Agua, mentioned above) is now on sale at Abra Patricia Reserve.

I first met Jose Oriel Altamirano, another employee of ECOAN and keen birder, at Abra Patricia. He now lives at a reserve owned and operated by his family called Waqanki along the Quebrada Mishquiyaquillo, also known as Mishquiyacu to many birders. This spot is situated at the base of wonderful foothill forest on an outlying ridge, about two hours downhill from Abra Patricia. It is an easy stop on the way between Abra Patricia and the airport in Tarapoto. Like Luciano Troyes, Jose’s family has sold other properties to finance their ecotourism venture on their own. They have built several cabins for overnight guests. Jose’s younger brother Carlos Luis Altamirano Guerrero is also a skilled bird guide who can accompany birders along the trails and knows where to find specialties. During a visit in August, Carlos guided us up to the extensive hummingbird garden below an observation tower where we easily saw a dozen hummingbird species in an hour. Curiously, the hummingbird feeders are homemade by a man named Billclinton. There is also an orchid garden, and trails leading up through a shade-coffee plantation into the hill forest, where Carlos leads birders to find Stripe-chested Antwren, wintering Cerulean Warblers, Fiery-throated Fruiteater, Band-bellied Owl, and the endemic Ash-throated Antwren. During a visit in November, Jose accompanied our group to explore an open savanna below the cabins, where birders can find several species sparsely distributed in Peru, including Spot-tailed Nightjar after dark. During the day, we were lucky enough to see Stripe-necked Tody-Tyrant, Rusty-backed Antwren, and the recently described Varzea Thrush.

I recommend that visitors to Waqanki also stop at the nearby Hospedaje Ecológica Rumipata resort and restaurant, only a few minutes away, operated by Seizo Siraishi and his wife. They are Japanese immigrants to Peru and serve up a bounty of fresh food, including vegetables from their garden, and tilapia from their fish ponds. While you eat lunch here you can watch a diversity of tyrant flycatchers around the fish ponds, hummingbirds at feeders, and a noisy colony of oropendolas and caciques. They too offer overnight accommodations, and are expanding the trails leading into good hill forest habitat. This lodge is also next door to the popular San Mateo thermal baths.

At Caseria Filoque, a village near Olmos, there are small wetlands surrounded by cattle pastures along the main highway. These wetlands are not well-known, but happen to be a great place to see Spotted Rail. Facilities here are rudimentary, but the seed of grass-roots birding tourism has been sown and locals like Jose Luis Lopez Torres are interested in conserving wetlands and learning more – especially as more birding groups stop here and share their sightings.

Frejolillo (also known as Quebrada Limon) is home to the endangered White-winged Guan as well as Linor Rico, who for decades has helped protect the dry forest habitat and the guan as a volunteer forest guard, as well as guiding visitors along the hilly trails and registering their names in a visitor logbook.

People like those profiled here are the future of conservation in northern Peru. Tino Aucca, president of ECOAN commented “I am so happy that these friends are engaged in conservation and hope more visitors come to northern Peru to enjoy seeing their successes.” I agree.

If you are interested in visiting some of the places mentioned in this blog, the following links and address may help you.

Abra Patricia & Huembo Reserves: See Conservation Birding and ECOAN Peru. To make reservations, contact reservas@ecoanperu.org

ECOAN can also help you arrange visits to the following sites below.

Gotas de Agua: Contact Luciano Troyes at incaspizaw@hotmail.com. See the Gotas de Agua website for more information.  Be aware that this site will eventually move to www.acpgotasdeagua.com.

Waqanki: contact Carlos Altamirano at  altamirano200@hotmail.com and Jose Altamirano at  joseoag@gmail.com

Rumipata: Contact Seizo Siraishi at rumipata@hotmail.com

Caseria Filoque: email Jose Luis Lopez Torres at jluis_1414@hotmail.com

The Nest That Eclipsed the Rest

6 – 19 December 2011
Cameron Rutt and Robby Kohley

It is not without disappointment that we tentatively wrap up the 2011 fall/winter breeding season. Despite our best wishes and increasingly hopeful expectations, it was simply not to be. Regretfully, the final nest that we had been monitoring stalled midway through the nestling period, with two dead nestlings the only thing to show for all of the parental hard work. Moments like this call for some reflection, in order to gain proper perspective. After all, this last nest ushered eggs, followed by nestlings, successfully through 3.5 weeks – our best nest yet. It is important to note, too, that Millerbirds are not known to breed at this time of year, with no prior breeding evidence during the entire months of October, November, and December. Furthermore, nobody anticipated a full-fledged breeding season this soon after the translocation, with nest-building from more than half of all pairs and eggs laid by more than a third. So it is with renewed eagerness that we look towards February and March, a season with increased insect abundance, wintry weather fading out-of-style, and with the birds’ normal annual rhythms restored. If the Millerbirds build upon this promising start, we see only smooth waters in store for 2012.

With resights becoming more infrequent, it is not uncommon nowadays for birds to escape our notice for a few consecutive weeks. This installment’s “resight of the week” goes to four such birds that we happily crossed paths with during the past work period. The following is a list of each bird’s color combination, followed by the number of days since we had last bumped into them: R/Y, G/S (28 days), B/G, G/S (31 days), B/S, O/O (36 days), and O/O, O/S (40 days). Hopefully this much time will not pass before we next get a sneak peek into their lives. In some ways, it is hard to believe that for these Millerbirds – and for that matter, us – today marks their 100th day on-island (in other ways, this is not so unbelievable!). We’ve now surpassed the halfway point of our “human” winter tour; on the other hand, when it comes to the Millerbirds, Laysan is playing for keeps.

At a place where the term “light pollution” is meaningless, Laysan provided us backstage passes to the lunar eclipse on 12/10 (Figure 1), as most of the crew nearly pulled all-nighters to watch the show develop (total eclipse began here shortly after 4:00 AM local time). The other rare sight was a surprise Black Tern (Figure 2; on the late dates of 12/12 – 12/13) which, according to the Pyle and Pyle monograph, has only wound up in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands three times prior and is just Laysan’s second! For the first time since we discovered it, we did not see the male Lesser Frigatebird during the past two weeks (last seen 11/30) – apparently it has found another vantage point, one that nicely excludes us. Finally: the 18 Northern Pintails remain (through 12/15), with more males “turning” up; the single American Wigeon persists (through 12/12); the lingering Peregrine Falcon continues to exhibit a refined taste for shorebirds (so far, wings from 8 Pacific Golden-Plovers and 10 Ruddy Turnstones (through 12/19)); and the Gray-tailed Tattler (through 12/11), Wood Sandpiper (through 12/6), Sharp-tailed Sandpipers (through 12/6; dwindling to only two birds), Dunlin (through 12/6), and Ruff (through 12/6) all continue.

Nestling In For The Winter

22 November – 5 December 2011
Cameron Rutt and Robby Kohley

Like any good fireworks, the finale of the 2011 fall/winter millerbird breeding season was well worth the wait.  At least one pair has successfully hatched a plan to safeguard their eggs, navigating their nest (Figure 1) all the way through incubation.  It is with much anticipation that we officially announce the first genuinely “Laysan” millerbirds in nearly a century – the lone active nest now bearing one or two approximately week-old nestlings!  During our latest nest check (12/2), we were able to discern the raised, begging head of at least one nestling, although it is likely that two exist!  With every passing day, it is becomingly increasingly difficult to keep our hopes in-check, although we realize that they still have the better part of a week to go before fledging.  Nonetheless, the countdown is on.  Otherwise, we’ve been getting skunked by the millerbirds in the field, leaving no doubt that their reputation for being mouse-like is still very well intact.  In fact, this past work period we had no less than three days without a resight.  The millerbirds are literally shutting us out, that is, if we were keeping score.

With so few resights, it is tough to decide which is our “resight of the week.”  Although not a resight, per se, overwhelmingly the best candidate is the only one that doesn’t have bands – the nestling(s).  Second place, however, would have to go to Bk/S, B/O (black over silver left, blue over orange right;  #1), who has developed a penchant for showing up in random places, often in the company of yet another male.  Bk/S, B/O has debuted in this section of the blog before – due to her soap opera-esque lifestyle, although she now appears to be trying on the single life for fit.  This past work period, she made two random appearances in other pairs’ territories, each time unexpectedly popping into view without so much as a peep.  Throwing blind-folded darts at an island map might be just as likely as our best-made guesses to pinpoint her next location.

According to the Bird Banding Lab’s website, the oldest Black-footed Albatross on record is listed at 37 years and 8 months.  This, however, will need to be amended as – drum-roll please – Andrea Kristof along with other USFWS Monument Crew resighted a suspiciously old banded bird on 11/25.  Thanks to some quick detective work by Alex Wang, we learned that this individual was banded as a chick here on 8 June 1967 (!) – for a minimum age of 44 years and 5.5 months.  Robby was especially pleased for the rejuvenating confirmation that, contrary to everyone else’s perceptions, he was not the oldest living creature on the island!  Finally: the adult male “Brewster’s” Brown Booby showed itself 11/26; the male Lesser Frigatebird emerged in-flight over the Great Frigatebird colony just once (11/30); there are now 18 Northern Pintails, with a few “turning into” males (high count 11/26, 12/1, and 12/2); the single American Wigeon continues (through 12/2); the lingering Peregrine Falcon (Figure 2; possibly japonensis) has set up shop at such a location where we can analyze its leftovers (so far, wings from 5 Pacific Golden-Plovers and 3 Ruddy Turnstones (through 12/2)), and the Gray-tailed Tattler (through 11/26), Wood Sandpiper (through 11/26), Sharp-tailed Sandpipers (through 11/26; high count down to only 14 11/24), Dunlin (through 11/27), and Ruff (through 12/4) all made appearances.

Hide-and-Seek

8 – 21 November 2011, Robby Kohley and Cameron Rutt

Although childhood memories of this game are undoubtedly nostalgic, the Millerbirds’ version is much less memorable – plenty of the usual hiding and seeking, not so much finding (Figure 1).  Lately, the Millerbirds have been getting very good at this game and our coevolution has been slow to catch up.  Following a first round of exciting, but largely unfruitful, breeding behavior, the birds may now be hunkering down for the winter, to save their reproductive efforts for the more standard breeding season beginning in January or February.  What this behavioral change means for us, however, is just that work became a lot harder.  Our daily resight spreadsheet now looks less like baseball scores and more like soccer.  Despite the downturn in breeding activities, the breeding season that was, is not completely relegated to the past tense.  A lone pair has managed to navigate a nest with two eggs successfully past mid-incubation – something to be thankful for – nevertheless, our fingers (and stomachs) remain knotted with each forthcoming nest-check.

 

Sex changes are by no means a human invention, nonetheless, we were surprised to uncover that the Millerbirds had a trick of this nature up their own sleeves.  It turns out that that “sly female,” B/S, B/G (Blue over metal, left; Blue over Green, right), that we had mentioned in our last blog post is actually a sly male!  Whew.  We had stated in late October that “all but one of our apparent females have at one point or another been in association” with a singing male.  Well, that one exception had good reason for abstaining from the company of turf-proclaiming males.  As luck would have it, we’ve only chanced upon B/S, B/G a handful of times, but this past week (11/17) we found him singing the tell-tale raspy song of a male Millerbird, which tips our sex ratio narrowly in favor of males (13:11).  Otherwise, the highlight was tracking down an elusive female (with an unfortunate color combination, B/S, B/O (Blue over metal, left; Blue over Orange, right)) that we had searched for repeatedly, but this time unable to elude us (11/16), after a span of 28 unseen days..

 

Albatrosses continue to dominate the avian scene, with first eggs found during the past two weeks for Black-footed (11/9) and Laysan Albatross (11/16).  The combination of their hormone-laced antics and ritualized dances provide constant comic relief, if not for the birds, than at least for us.  A nearly island-wide count (11/12) produced a dizzying 12,953 Black-footed and 27,894 Laysan Albatrosses – although not comprehensive as it excluded two regions that together probably held a few more thousand Laysans (Figure 2).  That day, our first two apparent Black-footed x Laysan hybrid albatrosses were observed, oddly attractive in their own unique way.  The other dominant force is the young Peregrine Falcon (11/4 – 11/21), whose presence, for whatever reason, seems to coincide with the absence of waterfowl and shorebirds.  Finally: the adult male “Brewster’s” Brown Booby reappeared 11/20; the male Lesser Frigatebird’s “regular” roost hasn’t been so regular (11/10, 11/15, and 11/17); there are now 17 female Northern Pintails (high count 11/11 and 11/19); a single American Wigeon remains (through 11/19); and the Wood Sandpiper (through 11/16), Sharp-tailed Sandpipers (through 11/16; high count 57 11/12), and Dunlin (through 11/12) continue.

 

The Millerbird Translocation Project is a partnership of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and American Bird Conservancy within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and World Heritage Site.  The Monument is managed by the Departments of Interior and Commerce, and the State of Hawai‘i as Co-Trustees.