Mid April to Mid May – Migration Begins in Washington

Posted on May 19, 2025 by blairbirding

In general the peak of migration in Washington is probably the first week or so in May but some of the migrating species begin to return as early as February and in-migration continues into June and out migration begins as early as late July for some species. Although I could certainly put together a timeline for my intersections with each migrating species using the hundreds of Ebird reports I have for April through June (I have 800 checklists just for May), I am not yet willing to undertake that project. I know other birders keep track of the arrival dates each year for species first appearing in their yards and they suggest that there are pretty tight windows for each appearance – a species returning each year within even the same two or three day period. With our earlier trip to Japan and upcoming trips to Colombia and Brazil, this will be another year with lots of international birding and not unlike most of the past 5 years, I again will be doing less birding in Washington than I did say in the 2010’s. But every year as migrating birds are returning, some internal switch is pulled and the urge to see the returning species compels me to get in the car and go look.

There have only been a few such trips this year, but the birding has been good and this blog post covers that experience, birding in Washington from April 14th through May 7th. I have another visit to Eastern Washington planned for next Tuesday. If it goes well, maybe I may revisit this post and add those observations. If it goes really well, maybe it will become a new blog post on its own. On April 13th my Washington State year list was 155 species – all but 6 of which were seen in relatively short forays in Western Washington. On April 17th Cindy was scheduled for foot surgery that would require me to stick around home both to look after her, a very undemanding patient, and more relevantly at least for birding activities to be in charge of dog Chica’s two walks a day making anything other than short departures from home impossible. Anticipating that period of constraint, I planned two trips to Eastern Washington – solo trip to Kittitas County on April 14th and a trip with Tom St. John on April 16th covering some of the same ground as the trip on the 14th but adding a venture into Grant County primarily to see a Burrowing Owl.

April 14th

On the 14th I followed my usual route for a first Eastern Washington trip in the Spring with stops at Bullfrog Pond, Wood Duck Road and the Burlington Northern Railroad Ponds in Cle Elm. Bullfrog Pond was almost birdless and the only new species added at Wood Duck Road was a Cassin’s Finch. It wasn’t much different at the Railroad Ponds where at least I did add Pygmy Nuthatches (they nest there) and Northern Rough Winged Swallows. On the way to my next important stop, the sagebrush area on Durr Road, just south of Ellensburg, I added my first of year Osprey and Turkey Vulture. I arrived at Durr Road just after 9:00 a.m. and although I had seen 29 species, only 5 were new for the year.

First of Year (FOY) targets at Durr Road were Brewer’s and Vesper Sparrows with Sage Thrasher likely and Loggerhead Shrike and Prairie Falcon possible. I found the first three but not the last two, however a surprise was a FOY Wild Turkey that crossed the road in front of me and then disappeared in the sagebrush.

Durr Road is one of the best places in Washington to find both Mountain and Western Bluebirds. I had seen both earlier in the year on my first Eastern Washington foray but it is hard to pass up a photo of the electric blue Mountain Bluebird and any time I get a photo of a seemingly camera-phobic Black-billed Magpie, I like to include them.

I had an ulterior motive for this trip that determined the next part of this journey. Although I am not a dedicated “County Lister”, Ebird automatically tracks how many species I have seen in each county in Washington so I am aware of the totals. I do try to see every new species in my home Snohomish County but otherwise generally do not chase a new species for any other county. I had noted that my county list for Yakima County was 199 species. I had also noted that surprisingly I had never seen a Cackling Goose in Yakima County. So also noting that they were reported at Kerry’s Pond in Yakima County and knowing that some other species new for the year were likely there, I back tracked to Interstate 5 and then headed south on Interstate 82 and after a brief and unsuccessful attempt to find White Throated Swifts at the Selah Canyon rest area where at least I did add FOY Cliff Swallows I made a quick stop at Pumphouse Road and the Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge where I missed a couple of targets and then headed east on Yakima Valley Highway to get to Kerry’s Pond.

Indeed there was a Cackling Goose at the pond – in fact lots of them, estimated at 250 but maybe more. Thus Yakima County became the 10th county in Washington where I have seen 200 or more species. I had seen Cackling Goose in Western Washington earlier in 2025, so not new for the year, however three other species at the Pond were new for the year – American Avocet, Black Necked Stilt and Redhead.

**Cackling Goose – Species #200 for Yakima County**

I retraced my steps and headed back north to Kittitas County again on Interstate 82 where I had a White Throated Swift fly overhead – species 170 for Washington at that point. I then headed east on Interstate 5 getting to Vantage and then accessing Recreation Road looking for new species for the year. I added Say’s Phoebe, California Quail and Rock Wren but was unable to add either Canyon Wren or Chukar which were both possible. It was getting late as I started towards home (160 miles away) heading west on Old Vantage Highway with a stop at the Wildhorse Wind Farm hoping again for a possible Loggerhead Shrike, Prairie Falcon or Chukar, all of which I have seen there. No luck on any of those but I did find a rather uncommon for the area Rough Legged Hawk, a species I had somehow missed in Western Washington previously.

There were no exceptional sightings that day but I had seen 61 species, added 19 FOY’s and reached 200 species for Yakima County – and had thoroughly enjoyed the long day in good weather. I would be back to Eastern Washington in two days.

April 16th

Tom St. John and I got off to a reasonably early start that allowed us to get to Cle Elum at 7:45 a.m. Based on my experience two days earlier, we decided to skip Bullfrog Pond and Wood Duck Road and head straight for the Railroad Ponds in South Cle Elum. We spent over an hour there and had 30 species. We missed an almost great photo op for a picture of a Sharp Shinned Hawk (FOY) that flew by us and perched in the open – only to fly off as soon as we were able to get cameras ready. My only photos were again of a Pygmy Nuthatch and its close relative Red Breasted Nuthatch. White Breasted Nuthatch is also possible there but I have not seen one there recently.

We made a quick search in South Cle Elum itself hoping for Cassin’s Finch or better yet, Evening Grosbeaks – nada. So we continued east to Durr Road. Nothing uncommon there with pictures again of Mountain Bluebird and Brewer’s and Vesper Sparrows. No Wild Turkey but a nice photo of one of the many Western Meadowlarks. We visited the reliable Osprey nest at the intersection of Canyon Road and Thrall Road and decided to then skip the sage area between Ellensburg and Vantage and head directly to Grant County across the Colombia River.

Tom and I had seen Burrowing Owls in Grant County in 2023. They are regular there in the Spring and seem to particularly like a large rockpile on Road D Northwest near Ephrata where they were being seen every day. We got to the rockpile and began our search – nothing for more than 30 minutes. Just as I was about to give up and head home, Tom spotted one flying from one rocky area to another – but then it disappeared. So we knew one was “there”, but where exactly was “there”? Tom kept watch from his spot near the road and I hiked around the entire rock pile – still nothing. I stopped at a spot maybe 30 yards from Tom and “clapped my hands” – not expected to draw out the owl, but just to feel like I was trying something. Immediately it flew up from its to us invisible perch maybe 15-20 feet from where I was standing. It had clearly been there the whole time but was so well camouflaged against the rocks, that we had missed it. It landed on a conspicuous rock at the top of the large pile in the open and posed for photos for the next 15 minutes plus. A photographer’s dream in good light.

The Burrowing Owl was new for the year and I also saw an “interesting” sparrow fly by on one of my circumnavigations of the rockpile. Later I heard the buzzy call of a Grasshopper Sparrow, known to be in the area and new for the year. I had seen a report of a Loggerhead Shrike on Baird’s Springs Road not too far from us and a place I had not visited in a while. We only had three species there but one was the Loggerhead Shrike, a good FOY.

Continuing West, we stopped at Frenchman’s Coulee – no Canyon Wren or White Throated Swifts but we enjoyed distant views of male and female Northern Harriers hunting the northern canyon walls – once swooping down and apparently missing some prey animal. We crossed the Colombia where work continues on the bridge but there were no traffic delays. We briefly birded the Rocky Coulee area on Recreation Road but it was very quiet and we added only California Quail for the day. At the Wild Horse Energy site we again added a single species – Horned Lark – probably saw a dozen or so. That was it for the day – 46 species for the day including 4 new year birds for me. The highlight was clearly the Burrowing Owl – glad Tom’s patience paid off.

Cindy’s foot surgery went well but she would be wearing a heavy duty air cast walking boot for 6 weeks. She was able to walk from the start but anything major was out of the question for at least a couple of weeks. She was hoping to go on a long planned trip to Tucson with girlfriends on May 5th. Her two week after surgery visit with her doctor was positive and she got a greenlight to make the trip if she took it easy. She needed the break and was able to go. We took Chica to her favorite vacation place – Klaus Mountain Dog Ranch and that enabled me to be free for a few days and get in a trip to Okanogan and Grant Counties seeking to add new birds for the year and hopefully to add Okanogan County to my 200 species list. I had added Black Throated Gray Warbler and Cinnamon Teal to my 2025 Washington year list on short trips between my dog walking duties while Cindy was in the early stage of recovery, so my 2025 state list was at 180 species. In addition to getting to 200 species for Okanogan County, I also hoped to pass 200 species for the year for Washington.

May 5th

Cindy had an early flight out on May 5, and I was able to drop her off at the airport where a wheel chair awaited to get her to the plane, and still get a relatively early start for what was sure to be a very long three day birding trip. It had been 3 weeks since I had visited Bullfrog Pond in April. Surely some new birds had arrived. As soon as I got out of the car, I heard a FOY Yellow Warbler. Later I would hear and briefly see a FOY Nashville Warbler in addition to previously seen Common Yellowthroats and Yellow Rumped Warblers. I also had a FOY Hammond’s Flycatcher and heard a distant Red Naped Sapsucker. I was expecting Swainson’s Thrush, Black Headed Grosbeak and Warbling Vireo but had none of them. I also had my FOY Rufous Hummingbird, a good thing since the hummingbird feeders Aja Woodrow’s house in Cle Elum seemed inactive. But at the Ranger’s Station in Cle Elum I had a very active feeding flock of 25+ FOY Evening Grosbeaks. Unfortunately due to operator error later that night I erased all pictures from the first day of this trip including what may have been my best ever photo of a Rufous Hummingbird. The only photo I can add from the first part of the day is a decent shot of a Common Yellowthroat at Bullfrog Pond.

In addition to adding new species to my 2025 year list, I had defined specific goals of adding species to my Grant County List (then at 185 species) and Okanogan County (then at 194 species). I figured I would be able to add maybe 6 species for Grant County and that many or more for Okanogan County. Accordingly I skipped my usual birding haunts and following data from Ebird either for recent observations or observations from May 2024, headed to targeted spots in Grant County where my first official stop was at Soap Lake looking for new waterfowl or shorebirds for my list. On Interstate 90 on the way I had my FOY Swainson’s Hawk. At Soap Lake, I did not find any of the ones I had thought possible but did add a very surprising Willet. At the time there had been no reports of this species here so I thought I might be the first, but it turned out someone else had seen it a couple of hours before but the report had not yet been posted. Both a First of Year for me in addition to being new for the county and also my first east of the Cascades and possibly the first I had seen in breeding plumage in Washington.

Not new for the County, but new for the year, I also had Least Sandpipers and Yellow Headed Blackbirds at Soap Lake in addition to the many Ruddy Ducks and Eared Grebes in breeding plumage that are easy to find there. Continuing to look for new shorebirds and waterfowl for the County I continued north to Lake Lenore and then Blue Lake and Banks Lake. These are large bodies of water and I acknowledge that my search was not meticulous, but not much was seen. I had a surprising Peregrine Falcon at Dry Falls SP in addition to some White Throated Swifts. Along the way I also numerous FOY Western Kingbirds, often in pairs. Leaving Grant County I continued on through part of Douglas County to get to my real destination southern Okanogan County where hopes were high for shorebirds that had been reported at two places I had never visited – Cassimer Bar and the Monse River. The former was very interesting and I probably did not cover the right spots in the very large area. The latter was confusing as I never found any spots that looked like shorebird habitat. There had been reports of good target lifer species at both places from the day before.

At Cassimer Bar I did add a new Okanogan County species – a FOY American Bittern – buried and invisible but noisy in a reed bed and also a FOY Bank Swallow. I had spent more time than intended at Cassimer Bar and it was getting late. My initial plan had been to spend the night in Omak 30 miles north of the Bar. It was already 6:00 p.m. There had been a number of good reports with county lifer possibilities from Cameron Lake Road which was close to halfway to Omak. It is a favorite birding place but is mostly a dirt road and takes a long time to bird the 30 mile loop. Should I bird it now or wait until tomorrow? I decided to “go now” and that turned out to be a really good decision as I added 4 new species for Okanogan County: Lark Sparrow (also a FOY), Black Necked Stilt, American Avocet and Long Billed Dowitcher. I had photos of all of them – but with a single keyboard error, poof!! Gone. But the observations hold and now my county list was at 199!! I got into Omak at just after 9 p.m. and grabbed a late dinner at the Mexican Restaurant next to the Omak Inn where I would stay. By the time I got into my room at the motel it was almost 10 p.m. and I had been on the road for 16 hours – my excuse for the operator error deleting my photos. I needed one more species to get to 200 – many reports said that White Throated Swift was essentially guaranteed at Pipestone Canyon, That was plan for the next day.

May 6th

This was going to be an interesting day. My targeted destination, Pipestone Canyon, was about 43 miles from the Omak Inn, heading south on Highway 97 and then turning west on Highway 20 towards Twisp and Winthrop turning off to Upper Beaver Creek Road then to Lester Road and finally to Campbell Lake Road which dead ended at the Pipestone Canyon Trailhead. For the last 10 miles or more I did not see another vehicle or human being – just beautiful scenery on a beautiful day. I had never been to this area and it was easy to fall in love with the rolling hills, forests, snow clad mountains in the distance and clear blue skies. Just before reaching the trailhead I ran into a parked car. A couple was walking their dog. I was not yet sure that I was near the trailhead and they assured me I was close – just past Campbell Lake and be careful of rattlesnakes – but only later when it got warmer. The temperature then at around 8:00 a.m. was barely over 40 degrees and it felt that cold at least in the shadows of the trees in the forest.

At Campbell Lake I found what I thought was going to be species #200 for Okanogan County as I saw first a female Barrow’s Goldeneye which was then joined by a male. I was mistaken as the Barrow’s Goldeneye was one of my unfound targets in Grant County the day before but had been seen in Okanogan County in June 2013. Any disappointment at that error was replaced by the very fun spectacle of watching the two ducks go through a very touching courtship ritual, the first time I had seen such a display.

It was then into Pipestone Canyon itself. I have to rank it as one of the loveliest places I have birded. Tall trees, wildflowers in bloom, “pipestones” atop the canyon walls and blue skies. A bit cool to start and then warmer as the morning progressed. I did not see a soul for the first hour and then a mountain biker rode by, stopping for a short pleasant chat. The serenity, beauty, quiet and being alone made it a spiritual experience as my eyes and ears were concentrating on song and movement of any birds to be found. It helped, too, that I quickly found White Throated Swifts flying along the canyon walls – species #200 for Okanogan County a fait accompli.

I spent almost two hours at Campbell Lake and in Pipestone Canyon and between them had 25 species. The most frustrating one was a Williamson’s Sapsucker. I heard its slow syncopated tapping and then its “chyaah” call. It was several layers back in the trees and not visible. I heard it again and then played some drumming calls on my phone. I got a response and it flew past me, circled and returned to the distant trees. I tried again and just got the distant response, probably translated to something like – “Ha, you are not a potential mate or competitor, so forget it.” I would have loved a photo but did not want to further disturb the quiet of the place or the sapsucker. I left Merlin on sound identification mode but that was my last use of playback. Much more cooperative were the Lewis’s Woodpeckers. They seemed to be everywhere, at least a half dozen. They remained up high as they flew from tree to tree so not the greatest photos, but they are such unique woodpeckers and any photo is worthwhile.

A bird that did accommodate the camera at eye level was a Northern House Wren which began singing/scolding as I passed by its favorite little area and continued for several moments. At several times during my hike, I also heard the beautiful cascading song of the Canyon Wren, my first of the year. I separated at least three calling from both sides of the canyon, up high, and I suspect there were more than that. No photos. Cassin’s Finches and Mountain Chickadees were also quite active. As I was leaving the Canyon, I heard a seemingly familiar song but as is often the case, my hearing was better than my processing and I just could not recall what it was. Merlin to the rescue as it told me that we were hearing a Lazuli Bunting. Of course, the habitat of brushy slopes was perfect, but I think I was not expecting it “so far north” or maybe that early. It was easy to track down and obliged with a lovely photo op. The Williamson’s Sapsucker, Canyon and Northern House Wrens, Lewis’s Woodpecker and Lazuli Bunting were all new for Washington in 2025.

With one county listing mission accomplished it was time to embark on a new one although I would have enjoyed more time in Pipestone Canyon. It looked like a great place for owls, but I was surprised to check Ebird records and find only a single owl species report there in the past 5 years – a Northern Pygmy Owl in November 2021. My new county listing mission was to finally do some birding in Ferry County. There are 39 counties in Washington State. As I was leaving Pipestone Canyon. I had seen birds in all of them except Ferry County. The lowest county total was a paltry 26 species for Skamania County more than half of which were from a chase to find a Hooded Warbler on the Cape Horn Trail in July 2013. Twenty-six is a bit embarrassing but ZERO is downright shameful. I had another day and a half of “freedom” to keep on birding, so it was time to bird in Ferry County which was the next county to the east of Okanogan County. Well it may have been the next county east but Okanogan is a big county and there are just not that many roads between the two, so to get to Republic in Ferry County was going to be almost 100 miles and take almost two hours.

And it would have taken just those two hours except…as I was heading out on Campbell Lake Road, a small deer bounded out in front of me coming from brush to the right of my car. I was not going very fast – maybe 30 mph, but I most definitely did not want to hit that deer having had a disastrous encounter with a small group and avoiding three but hitting one five years ago near Cle Elum. I braked and swerved to the right and thankfully missed the deer. BUT…the road was narrow and there was almost no shoulder so I ran into some of the brush that had hidden the deer. I hit it so softly that I honestly felt that at most there would be some scratches. Today’s cars however are pretty flimsy, plastic not metal, so there was a dent – actually more like a puncture in the passenger side front fender as shown below.

At first I had not even gotten out to look at the damage – expecting just a scrape as indicated but a warning light on my dashboard told me that my front right turn signal was not working, so I got out to check and got the bad news. But OMG it could have been so much worse as there was zero impact on drivability. Had it been worse it would have been a disaster – miles from anywhere, no cell reception, and no traffic on the road over the last few hours other than that mountain biker and the dog walkers. Nothing to do about it then, so I got back into the car and headed towards Ferry County.

It was just after noon when I added my first birds for Ferry County as I drove into a forested area on a side road just off State Route 20 near Republic. I think the first species was actually an American Robin and it was then followed by Mountain Bluebird, Mountain Chickadee, Red Breasted Nuthatch, Pine Siskin and Yellow Rumped Warbler. Nothing exciting but at least I was on the board. I had not planned any specific birding in the unfamiliar county and did not know of any don’t miss hotspots, so I just kept birding as I drove on stopping at a couple of ponds/small lakes along the road.

I added a species here and a species there with the first species of note being my FOY Sora heard whinnying at one of the roadside ponds. I had at least 4 more Soras at other stops – all heard, none seen. The only other noteworthy species for me was my first Blue Winged Teal of the year, seen together with Cinnamon Teal at one of the ponds with Sora. Altogether I had 44 species with the last being a Northern Rough-winged Swallow at the Keller Ferry which would take me across the Columbia River to Lincoln County.

**Northern Rough Winged Swallow – Keller Ferry – Ferry County**

It was 5:30 p.m. when I drove off the ferry onto Lincoln County. Now what? My county list for Lincoln County was an unimpressive 137 species mostly (99 species) from trips in May and June when I was birding along the way as I was heading to Spokane or Pend Oreille Counties with the others being from October again as I was headed to Pend Oreille County. My options were either to continue birding in Lincoln County spending the night who knows where or to continue on back to Grant County and try once again for some new birds there to at least get in sight of 200 species (then being at 186). I made it back to Soap Lake where I spent the night at the Masters Motel – let’s just say it is “dated”.

May 7th

My motel was just across the street from the south end of Soap Lake so I was there early hoping for something new. No Willet this morning but I did find a FOY Semipalmated Plover which I thought might be new for the county but saw that I had one there in September 2022 – it is not common. It was surprisingly my first for the year – I have not yet visited the Coast. I then moved on to first Lion’s Park and then Oasis Park in Ephrata – places that are migration traps and my hope was to find Nashville and or MacGillivray’s Warblers, both of which had been reported there earlier in the week. I missed both of those warblers but had a quick glance at a Townsend’s Warbler which was new for Grant County. My best sighting was of Matt Yawney who also could be called “Mr. Grant County”. He is a great birder and I am sure has the largest list for Grant County and has also found many rarities. As I was talking with Matt a pair of Western Kingbirds flew into the tree right over my head – an irresistible photo op. I also had a FOY Western Tanager there.

**Semipalmated Plover – Soap Lake – FOY**

**Western Kingbird – Lion’s Park, Ephrata – Note thin white outer tail feathers**

I checked recent reports and did not find any realistic opportunities to add new species for Grant County so I decided to go to some of my regular Grant County stops and maybe add some new year birds and to include Sentinel Bluffs – a birdy area south of Vantage that Matt said might be a good bet for a Nashville Warbler. My first stop was at the Warden Lake Access Road. The only new bird was a FOY Ring Necked Pheasant and I also got photos of one of the very loud Marsh Wrens and Yellow Headed Blackbirds and a posing Western Meadowlark.

**Yellow-Headed Blackbird – Warden Lake**

My next stop was at Lind Coulee where I hoped to find Clark’s Grebe or any tern. No birds in the water at all except a Double Crested Cormorant. Then it was on to Potholes State Park stopping at both the boat launch in the park and also the one at the Blythe Public Access just before the park itself. At the latter I had my first Spotted Sandpiper of the year and then had a real treat. No Clark’s Grebe but I got to watch courtship behavior between two Western Grebes. They never got to the point where they would dance/run across the water but the interaction was very fun.

I moved on to the Potholes State Park itself hoping for some warblers in the trees. Passerines were almost totally absent, although I acknowledge that I may not have been as thorough as I should. At the boat launch I found no terns only a couple of California Gulls, numerous Ring Necked Gulls and distant grebes that all seemed to be Western. But there were two more Spotted Sandpipers that took turns with a Least Sandpiper parking on favored rocks.

At Para/McCain’s ponds, I could not find any Tricolored Blackbirds but there was another surprise Willet – new for Adams County, and I was treated to a show of a hunting Great Egret that stalked quietly for a few moments and then with a lightning strike caught some kind of rodent. There was also a large number of Long Billed Dowitchers – maybe 100.

**Willet (Adams County Lifer) with Long Billed Dowitcher and Killdeer**

My next stop was at the County Line Ponds back in Grant County. This is a usually reliable place for Black Necked Stilts (there were at least 9), American Avocets (there were at least 2) and Wilson’s Phalaropes – FOY – (earliest and there were 3) and Red Necked Phalaropes (later none). Sometimes, and this was one of those times, you can find an American White Pelican – FOY.

**Two of the Three Distant Wilson’s Phalaropes – FOY**

My next and last stop in Grant County was at Sentinel Bluffs. I picked up my first Bullock’s Oriole of the year and yet again failed to find a Nashville Warbler, thus ending my Grant County list at a disappointing 187 species. A good if somewhat scary experience occurred when I inadvertently got too close to an unseen Bald Eagle nest. As I was concentrating on shrubs and trees looking for passerines, I heard a Bald Eagle calling not far away and then closer and closer. Both adults were unhappy with my unintended intrusion and continuously circled back and forth overhead getting perhaps as close as forty feet as I retreated when I realized what I had done. Eagles are big birds and look really big when they are that close and looking right at you – and are unhappy!!

The eagles were a good close to my three day birding trip. There had been great experiences (definitely not including the car vs. brush incident), some great birds, some nice new county birds for Okanogan and Ferry County and not enough new County birds for Grant County, The interactions with the hunting Great Egret and the Barrow’s Goldeneyes and Western Grebes as they courted each other and then with the Bald Eagles as they chased me off were special. Finding Willets first at Soap Lake and then at Para’s Ponds were the rarest moments. For the three days I had seen 123 species of which 29 were new for me in Washington for 2025. I had gotten my targeted 200th species for Okanogan County and finally seen some birds in Ferry County. I had visited beautiful places, banged up my car, put on a lot of mileage, eaten some rather unhealthy food, had too little sleep and very much enjoyed myself. Adding species seen on those earlier trips in April would have only brought the total to 140. An interesting aside – at least to me – is that there were 19 species of duck seen on my three day trip.

I am hoping to get back again this month to look for some of the newly arrived migrants and maybe to find some owls. As indicated previously a trip to Colombia is scheduled for late June and there is a possible trip ahead to Brazil in October. My world list for the year so far is 342 species. If all goes well on those two trips and with some more Washington birding maybe 1000 is possible which I hit in 2023 and 2024, but that number really matters not. I hope to add a number of new world lifers and world life photos – and just to enjoy the journey! That’s birding!

Birding in Japan Part 3 – Cranes+ in Kyushu and Finishing in Osaka

Posted on February 24, 2025 by blairbirding

We were able to get in a little birding as we drove from the airport to our hotel in Kagoshima, primarily along the Sendai River in Satsuma. In less than an hour I added three lifers: Chestnut Eared Bunting, Siberian Pipit and Long Billed Plover and four life photos: the Bunting and Plover plus Bull Headed Shrike and Meadow Bunting. I would get a photo of the pipit the next day. I was very pleased to get the photos of the Meadow Bunting and Bull Headed Shrike as they were two of the species I had seen in Japan in 1983 before I even had a camera. The Chestnut Eared Bunting has another back story. I only discovered that I had “seen” this species when an Ebird reviewer saw photos I had attached to my Ebird report and told me they were Chestnut Eared Buntings instead of Meadow Buntings per my list. The Chestnut Eared Bunting was not even on my awareness list, but the photos left no doubt – a nice new lifer. One final photo but not new or a lifer was of a Dusky Thrush, a mega-rarity I had seen and photographed in Nanaimo, British Columbia in 2019. Nice to get on its home turf.

**Long Billed Plover – Lifer and my 45th Plover/Lapwing Species**

**Chestnut Eared Bunting – Ebird Reviewer Aided Lifer**

**Dusky Thrush – first observation and photo on its home turf**

Adding the Ural Owl and Red Crowned Cranes seen in Hokkaido, I had added 4 lifers and 6 life photos for the day. The next day would be busy starting with a visit to the Izumi Crane Observation Center promising thousands of cranes and maybe enough lifers to get to 3700, a benchmark that I had felt certain was attainable when planning the trip.

Day 5 – Cranes and More in Kyushu

Seeing cranes at the Izumi Crane Observation Center is a humbling and overwhelming experience. We spent the whole morning of February 7th at the Center and in the adjoining nearby fields. A feeding program at the center where grain is brought in for the cranes attracts two species in the thousands and also attracts other species including two crane rarities. The predominant species are the Hooded Crane (estimated to be over 12,000 the day we were there) and the White Naped Crane (several thousand) but two other cranes species – Sandhill Crane – our only regular crane in the U.S. – and the Common Crane – a mega-rarity in the U.S. that I have seen in Washington were also being reported. At the center itself, there are almost too many cranes. Rather than an up close and personal experience it is the overwhelming totality of so many cranes in the fields that is experienced. That up close connection with photo opportunities is easily found driving the many roads of the adjoining fields where many other species can be found as well. The first photo below is the best I can use to show the numbers of cranes at the center, but it is only a very small percentage of those present. I took hundreds of photos of the cranes, many very poor and none “perfect” but I am including a sampling to give the reader a taste of the experience.

**A Small Portion of the Cranes at the Center**

Hooded Crane Photos

**Hooded Crane in Flight – Wingspan just over 6 Feet**

**Hooded Crane – Standing – A Little over 3 Feet Tall**

White Naped Crane Photos

**White Naped Crane Standing – 4 feet 4 inches tall** **– Lifer**

**White Naped Crane Flight – Wingspan is up to 6.5 feet**

**White Naped Crane – Adult Left and Juvenile Right**

Sandhill Crane Photos

We only saw 4 Sandhill Cranes and did not locate the single Common Crane that was being seen by some.

**Two Sandhill Cranes – 3.5 feet tall and 6+ foot wingspan**

Other birds seen near the Crane Center included 9 more lifers and 13 life photos, but unfortunately I did not get photos of two of the lifers: Brown Headed Thrush and Chinese Penduline Tit. The latter was a little rascal in on the reed fields playing “now you see me and now you don’t repeatedly”. I thought one distant photo might have captured it, but the beyond blurry photo that I got cannot erven qualify for ID purposes only. In addition to those two species, the lifers were Swan Goose, Asian Skylark, Reed Bunting, Ochre Rumped Bunting, Common Shelduck, Daurian Jackdaw, and Black Faced Spoonbill. I got a barely acceptable photo of the Ochre Rumped Bunting, another species not on our target list. It stood out from the other buntings seen in the reed beds and was identified as such by Koji. So far the Ebird reviewers have let it stand. I cannot recall which I saw first, but either the Reed Bunting or the Ochre Rumped Bunting was species number 3700 on my life list.

**Possible Ochre-Rumped Bunting – Lifer (if it stands)**

Two of my lifers were birds I had seen before but were not countable either as introduced (Eurasian Skylark) or as an escapee (Swan Goose). I had seen the Skylark both in British Columbia where there was at the time a pretty strong population near the Airport and then also almost 50 years ago at American Camp on San Juan Island in Washington where a smaller population was probably immigrants from the B.C. colony and is now completely gone. In any event, both groups were recognized only as introduced. I had seen a domestic/escapee Swan Goose both in Utah and in Washington, was confounded trying to identify it and never expected to see one in the wild. It is found primarily in Eastern and north central China with occasional vagrants in Japan and Korea. The one at the Crane Center was well known and a highly sought after sighting for all birders. We found it fairly quickly in the area it had been seen the past week. It is now gone, a two or three week wonder.

**Eurasian Skylark – Lifer – one of many seen**

**Daurian Jackdaw – Lifer – One of Many Among the Hundreds of Rooks**

In addition to the life species, there were some welcomed life photos, including Siberian Pipit which had been seen as a lifer the previous day and was now seen many times in the fields. In those same fields there were several Northern Lapwings, a species I had seen 23 years ago in Hungary but not photographed. This photo was my 14th of a Lapwing – now missing 4 photos from the 18 seen – two from Australia from days before I took photos and might someday get with a return visit and one from South Africa and another from India – misses I am unlikely to ever get.

There are both European and Cheeked Starlings in Japan. We saw several individual and one large flock of the European Starlings which are “junk” introduced species and a pest in the U.S.. More commonplace were the White Cheeked Starlings which were seen frequently and which I had first seen outside of Hong Kong in 1979 but not since. Another species I had seen previously in Hungary but not photographed was the Rook, seen here in the hundreds.

The last lifer photo of the morning was of an Asian House Martin, a species I had seen in Japan in 1983 again when I was not taking pictures. Not a great photo of a hard to catch in flight single bird.

After the full morning at the Crane Observatory and surrounding area we had a quick lunch and dropped Cindy off back at the hotel and Koji and I headed off to the Kogawa Dam and surrounding area in Izumi looking for forest birds or birds in the lake formed by the dam. We were extremely pleased to quickly find a small flock of White-bellied Green Pigeons. Unfortunately Koji was not able to stop the vehicle before they took off so no picture of this lifer. We got another chance later as I spied a single distant bird perched mostly in the open – sufficient for a photo. It was the more drably colored female, but a very welcomed addition to my world photo list.

In the lake we found a huge flock of more than 150 Baikal Teal. They were too distant for a decent photo, but were quite a spectacle. Closer and more cooperative was a mixed group of 11 Common Pochards, a life photo of a species I had first seen in Hungary and then again in India but not photographed, with both males and females in view here.

**Male and Female Common Pochards – Life Photo**

There were two other lifers on our circuit around the lake – a single Copper Pheasant that shot off the road as we rounded a corner – no photo – and a Gray Bunting, a very frustrating species that we saw flit by us more than once – again no photo. I did get a life photo of a Daurian Redstart – a female which pales, literally, compared to the male, a photo of which I got later. It was then back to the hotel.

**Daurian Redstart Female – Life Photo**

February 8 – A Coastal Stop and then the Bulllet train to Osaka

Today we would be catching the Shinkansen, the Bullet Train to Osaka but that would follow a morning birding at the Kuma River Estuary and Osozo Ryokuchi Park targeting Saunder’s Gull and Kentish Plover – two lifers – and possibly other shorebirds. I have never seen such a convoluted route as was needed to get to the breakwater adjoining the tidelands. The tide was lower than hoped for, so the birds were not close, but we were successful in finding both targeted species, two lifers for me. The Saunder’s Gull reminded me of our Bonaparte’s Gull, small, black-headed in breeding plumage and with a black spot behind the eye in nonbreeding plumage. It has a graceful, tern-like flight and we often saw it chasing Dunlin which were plentiful on the beach. I was very happy to get the gull because it has a very restricted range, and this was likely my only opportunity to see one. I was equally happy to get a photo of one of the Kentish Plovers scurrying around on the beach. It has a large range, but I had missed one in Indonesia and was really pleased to be able to add it to my growing list of plovers, having previously added the Long Billed Plover to that list.

We saw another species that I thought was a lifer – the Vega Gull. It has recently been split off from Herring Gull as its own separate species. It is generally found in East Asia, but in its updating process after the latest taxonomic changes, Ebird changed my report of Herring Gull from Nome Alaska to this species. So not a lifer – just a life photo.

It would be a 3 hour and 45 minute ride on the Shinkansen – aka the Bullet Train – from Kagoshima to Osaka. Very comfortable and fast – for a train – and departing and arriving exactly on time, riding on this famous train was part of our cultural exposure to Japan. It was an easy walk to the hotel near the train station in Osaka. There would be one more day of birding in the Osaka area on February 9th and the next day we would say goodbye to Koji and head off to Kyoto on our own for four days of sightseeing without birds.

February 9 – Saying Goodbye to Koji and the Birds

Now in Osaka, our priority was to find a Baer’s Pochard that had been seen frequently but not every day in a small pond which would be our first stop for the day. Again Koji felt the odds would be maybe 50/50. It was a classic chase moment. As we drove up to a very nondescript little pond, a Japanese birder was there with binoculars and his camera looking out on the pond. The first rule when going after a rare bird is “go now” – meaning as soon as you learn of it because there is no guarantee it will stay. Rule 2 is if you miss the bird because you didn’t follow Rule 1, you can’t whine about it, because you knew and ignored Rule 1. A corollary of Rule 1 is that once you get to the target area, first look for another birder hopefully already on the rarity or if not, then probably with useful knowledge that might lead to its discovery. As soon as we pulled up and saw the birder already there, we were pretty sure we were good. It took all of one second to find the rare bird after we got out of the vehicle.

Ebird says the Baer’s Pochard is an “extremely rare” diving bird. Koji had told me one had been seen in Japan before I left home and I hoped it would stick around. Apparently it has been coming to this same pond for at least 5 winters in a row. Found mainly in Eastern and Southeast Asia, it would not have been even on my maybe list if this one was not in Japan. Other species at the pond included Common Pochard, Tufted Duck, Eastern Spot Billed Duck and a Great Egret and some close up White Cheeked Starlings.

**Great Egret – I Was Surprised they Were Not Seen Very Often**

Our main task accomplished we would visit two local parks looking for a few more birds to end our tour on a positive note. At Kirakata-Yamadaike Park, our major add for the trip was a lifer Masked Bunting. It played hard to find for awhile but finally several came into the open. The park had a large pond/lake. The views were distant and would have been a disappointment if we had not had the great views at Odawara Castle, but there were many Smews to be seen – at least 16. On the other hand, it was here that we had our best look at Falcated Duck as both males and females made an appearance.

**Yes A Male Smew – But Thankfully We Had the Earlier One**

Not a lifer, so I cannot say it was the best bird at the park, but the killer view and photo of a male adult Daurian Redstart was a definite highlight – really a beautiful bird.

Again not lifers nor life photos, but a fun group of birds seen at the park were three Wagtails, Japanese, White and Gray.

As we were leaving the park I noted some movement in the brush on a side of the trail. Just a peekaboo view at first but then flashes in the open of some of the prettiest little birds anywhere. Red Billed Leiothorix is an introduced species in Japan just as it is in Hawaii where I also saw one in 2019 almost exactly 6 years earlier. I had also seen one, native and not introduced, but without a photo in Corbett National Park in India in 2011. They are quite simply incredibly cute.

Our last stop was at Takarazuka-Yamatayamate Park. There were three possible new birds – two lifers and the third a life photo for me and all low probability. The park was very pleasant and filled with birders or bird photographers. We asked each one whether they had seen our targets, White’s Thrush, Japanese Green Woodpecker and Yellow Breasted Bunting. The White’s Thrush had been seen but not within the last half hour. The Woodpecker had been seen briefly by a single birder at the other end of the park and the Bunting had not been seen. We had no success on the Woodpecker or the Bunting and spent almost all of our time there thoroughly covering the area where the thrush had been seen. Finally it was time to go and as sometimes happens, it was then that the White’s Thrush made an appearance, flying like a rocket right past and within 20 feet of us before disappearing over a hill into thick trees. Maybe it would have returned if we stayed but I was happy with the clear if brief view that we got even while disappointed that there was no photo. On the way back to the car we had a nice final photo op – another Red Flanked Bluetail, either a female or immature, but radiant in the sun and a good way to close the day and the trip.

It was then back to the hotel near the Osaka train station. A last dinner and Koji would be leaving early the next day to join another tour group he would lead. We would brave the Japanese rail system to get to Kyoto vis the Shinkansen with the biggest worry being navigating the huge station with three suitcases and two packs on our back. It all worked out and a final post will be about the rest of our Japan visit, the part without birds, but with the splendor of Kyoto.

Unfortunately Cindy had picked up some flu or cold and was not 100% but she had never let that get in the way and it had been a great trip. Koji came through like a champ, handling every detail excellently and finding all of the most important birds, missing only a couple and turning up some surprises as well. The final species count for 7 days was 113 species. This included 38 lifers (4 of which I had seen elsewhere but were introduced species in those locations) – and I got photos of 97 species of which 54 were life photos (including three of the aforementioned introduced species – now legitimate).

At the end of group tours, the tour leader often asks for a top bird or a top 5. The top bird here of course is easy – my Bucket List Smew. But it would be unfair to only pick 4 more top species. It would be unfair to at least Baikal Teal, Mandarin Duck, Hooded Crane, Red Crowned Crane, White Naped Crane, Blakiston’s Fish Owl, Ural Owl, Steller’s Sea Eagle, White Tailed Eagle and Swan Goose. So with those additional ten, and without ranking them, I will call that group my top ten, since there is no way I would put anything on the same pedestal as the Smew and also recognizing that there were lots of less charismatic species that were fabulous as well.

Birding in Japan Part 2 – Hokkaido

Posted on February 24, 2025 by blairbirding

Even without the Smew, yesterday had been a great day, but of course it was the Smew that made it one of my very best birding days ever. Our bodies were still adjusting to the jet lag and time differences, but we were doing fine – ready for more – with the plan being to fly to Hokkaido for several days birding there looking for some very special species

Day 2 – Birding in Hokkaido – Maybe

As Koji planned it, we would have flown from Haneda Airport to Kushiro Airport on Hokkaido on a 7:50 AM flight arriving in Kushiro at 9:30 AM. We would then rent a car and drive to spots to see Red Crowned Cranes, and a Ural Owl, look for eagles on the coast and also look for some seabirds including the Stejneger’s Scoter which would be a lifer. We would stay that night and the next at the Yuyado Daiichi Onsen where we would have a good chance of seeing the Blakiston’s Fish Owl. Unfortunately that plan did not take into account that there would be record snowfall (up to 36 inches) that night canceling all flights to Kushiro and closing all roads to travel in the area. Among the many reasons that I bird with local guides rather than striking out on my own is that they are really good at coming up with a Plan B when necessary. It was necessary and Koji came up with a Plan B that would effectively mean that we would lose a day but would also get us to Hokkaido to be in a position to touch all intended bases when (if?) conditions improved. So we took a later flight into the Memanbetsu Airport and rented a car which would take us to alternative lodging as we learned that the road was still closed to the Yuyado Daiichi Inn. It still meant hours driving on snowy roads, but hopefully the next morning the roads would open and we could get to Rausu for one of the big treats of the trip, a boat trip to see the magnificent Steller’s Sea Eagles.

Day 3 – Birding in Hokkaido – For Real

On short notice Koji had been able to find lodging. It was the least appealing of the places we stayed on the trip but was safe, convenient and comfortable. And fortunately the roads became passable the next morning for our 90+ minute drive (with not too many white-knuckle patches) to the port of Rausu and in beautiful weather we were able to take the boat trip. The departure time for the boat was pushed back an hour to allow more people to get there over the snowy roads. This gave us time to do a little pre-boat birding including seeing our first (and lifer) White Tailed and Steller’s Sea Eagles which were flying overhead and perching on trees on the nearby hillside. Not knowing what would follow, I took pictures, distant and low quality but good enough to ID the species if no others were seen. I needn’t have worried. There was a small stream flowing into the bay and species there included Tufted Ducks, Red Breasted Mergansers and Whooper Swans. I had seen the latter on two occasions in home state Washington where one appeared as a mega-rarity bringing in birders from all across the ABA area in the winters of 2022, 2023 and 2024. This was the first time seeing them on their home turf. Also seen were both Carrion and Large Billed Crows and several gull species although predominantly Slaty Backed Gulls, another rarity I had seen in Washington. One lifer gull was a Common Gull, recently split from Mew Gull. The split left us in Washington with Short Billed Gull and now I had both parts of the split.

**Common Gull – Lifer – Note the thin all yellow bill**

**Glaucous Gull – rare but seen annually in Washington**

**Glaucous Winged Gull – Larger Gull behind smaller Slaty Backed Gull** – **Common Gull in Washington but often hybridized with Western Gull**

**Red Breasted Merganser Male – Common in Washington**

So much for the preliminaries. It was now time for the real show as we boarded the boat in the Rausu Harbor for our Eagle Watching Cruise. No other noticeable birders but many Japanese tourists. We were told that the cruise would be shortened by 30 minutes. I didn’t know if that was due to the late start, the not quite full boat or sea conditions, but not being familiar with the operation, early on I was concerned as our views of the eagles were pretty distant or of an occasional flyby. Many eagles had stationed themselves on a snow covered breakwater and in the outgoing part of the trip the boat did not get close and I was disappointed. Patience please. On the return journey the boat returned on the inside of the breakwater and it was “SHOWTIME” – time for chumming. Crew on the boat throw whole fish to the eagles, in the water and on the breakwater and it is a fish feast for them and a photo feast for tourists on the boat – aided today by perfect light and blue skies. It was now obvious. There are many eagles in the area, but the numbers, hundreds, we saw seemed disproportionate to the area, but a symbiotic relationship has developed. The eagles have learned that the boats will be providing easy food and they arrive early en masse to take advantage. In turn the tourists benefit from the number and proximity of eagles. Win/win. Many Slaty Backed Gulls and Large Billed Crows come for the party as well.

There are two eagle species that come to Rausu: the White Tailed Eagle with a light brown body and white tail and about the same size as our American Bald Eagle; and the much larger and showier Steller’s Sea Eagle which along with the Harpy Eagle of South America and the Philippine Eagle is the largest eagle in the world. It can weigh up to 20 pounds with a wingspan of up to 8 feet and a height of almost 3 feet. It’s talons are described as ” like those of a grizzly bear”. With beautiful black and white plumage and a huge orange beak to go with those huge orange talons, it is a very impressive animal. Its range is essentially Japan, Korea and Russia with some records in Alaska and over the past few years in the northeastern U.S. and Canada as a single individual was seen by many. It was an awesome show, one of my favorite birding experiences.

**Lifer Steller’s Sea Eagle with Russian Mountain in the Background**

More Eagle Photos

With so much action and so many photo ops it was not possible to keep an accurate count of the number of eagles we saw. Our conservative number for the Ebird report was 150 Steller’s Sea Eagles and 100 White Tailed Eagles but there were probably many more than that. Anyone not getting a great photo, even with a Smartphone, had only themselves to blame. We also saw many Harlequin Ducks, some Common Goldeneyes and some Pelagic Cormorants. Unfortunately no scoters or alcids.

Koji’s Plan B had worked well. We had 15 species at Rausu (with good photos of all). There were the three lifers (both eagles and the Common Gull) and another life photo – Carrion Crow. We would spend the rest of the afternoon stopping at various places along the coast looking for alcids and the much desired Stejneger’s Scoter and would then make it to our hotel, Yuyado Daiichi and the Youroushi Hot Springs in time to watch the feeders for awhile and hopefully have an owl visitor.

Koji noted that there seemed to be far fewer birds in the water than expected and we were generally unsuccessful finding any targets. We added a Black Scoter, some Greater Scaup and some Great Crested Grebes and that was it. We did see our first wild mammals of the trip – Red Fox and Sika Deer. There were two foxes and the deer were plentiful. Both gave us good photo ops in the barren landscape.

**Black Scoter – Unfortunately Not a Stejneger’s**

**Sika Deer – Two of the More than a Hundred Seen**

We got to our lodging around 3:30 PM. It was our favorite place on the tour so far and remained as such until we got to Kyoto. Beautiful room looking out onto the creek flowing by. There were hot springs there and Cindy braved a visit to this very Japanese bathing place – picking up some cultural guidance along the way. I passed on the opportunity and elected to sit in the lobby watching two feeders along the creek that attracted both birds and birders. Light was already beginning to fade, but the birds were still active and I added lifer Marsh Tit and Eurasian Bullfinch and got a lifer photo of a Great Spotted Woodpecker. The only other one I had seen was almost 23 years ago during a few hours of birding in Hungary! I also got decent photos of Asian Tit, Eurasian Nuthatch and another Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker. I saw a Coal Tit (my first one in 42 years) and thought I had a lifer photo but cannot find it.

**Eurasian Bullfinch – Lifer that came in for a few seconds and seen only by me**

**Great Spotted Woodpecker – Life Photo**

Dinner at the hotel was a mix of traditional Japanese food. This is one area where Cindy and I differ. There are definitely Japanese dishes that I do not particularly like, like most pickles, but I am fairly adventurous and enjoy most Japanese food. Cindy is less adventurous and this was not her favorite meal but as I will discuss much later in the part of this blog covering our stay in Kyoto, this was an important lesson learned. But there would be something far more important this evening. The Inn is famous as probably the best place in Japan (the world?) to see a Blakiston’s Fish Owl. It is the largest species of owl and one of the rarest, found only in China, Japan, and the Russian Far East with an estimated world population of between 1000 and 1500 individuals. There is a small pond/bathing area at the Inn where the owl regularly comes to visit to get an easy meal of trout that are stocked in the pond by the Inn, thus creating a rare opportunity to see the owl – available only to guests of the Inn, a good business promotion. There is a chart at the Inn telling when the owl has recently visited. It generally makes two stops – once around 10:00 PM and then again around 2:00 or 3:00 AM. It is such an important part of life at the Inn that you can arrange for the front desk to call you when it appears.

Even though it was before the regular visiting hours, several birders were camped out at seats with a view of the log near the pond where the owl usually sat. After dinner Cindy and I joined them, both with fingers crossed and also just to socialize. Not more than 15 minutes later, the magnificent owl made an appearance. Photos were through glass and affected by the artificial light but who cares, the opportunities were awesome as the owl stayed longer than usual and caught two fish in front of us. Apparently it usually only takes one, so the suspicion was that eggs had already been laid and this owl was fishing for two. Of all the hoped for lifers on the trip, this was the one that seemed the least likely – maybe a 50/50 chance it would show at the pond and then the question of being there for what might be a short visit. It could not have been better this night.

**Blakiston’s Fish Owl – The Lifer’s first appearance**

**Blakiston’s Fish Owl – Perhaps Viewing Its Appreciative Audience**

**Blakiston’s Fish Owl with its First Fish**

**Blakiston’s Fish Owl with Second Fish**

Nothing was going to beat a day with my bucket list Smew followed by a Baikal Teal, but this day with Steller’s Sea Eagle and Blakiston’s Fish Owl was a very close second. I slept well that night – despite the adrenalin rush.

Day 4 – Hokkaido in the Morning

Having lost a day due to the heavy snow, the pressure was on for a make-up morning. There were two important objectives – Ural Owl and Red Crowned Cranes. Koji’s plan had us first driving to a stakeout spot to hopefully see a Ural Owl on its favorite roost and then we would head to the Ito-Tsurui Red Crowned Crane Sanctuary to see the beautiful Red Crowned Cranes, an iconic species often seen in Japanese art and very much on the top of Cindy’s want list. Then we would get to the Kushiro Airport for our long flight to Kagoshima on Kyushu Island in southern Japan. We had a fairly tight schedule – enough time to hit both target places but no time to linger. When we got to the Ural Owl spot, there was fortunately a trail of sorts heading downhill through deep snow. We had followed Koji’s suggestion to get cleats for our boots to better handle ice and snow, and this was when we needed them and they were great. The trail down to the viewing spot was no more than a quarter mile. At the end there was a small flat area where we could look across a ravine to a tree with a large hollow – the place the owl liked to roost. Sure enough, we could see the owl almost completely in the open as soon as we arrived. It was not real close and the light was not perfect, but it was a beautiful sight. It is found from Japan through the norther coniferous and mixed forests all the way to Scandinavia. Like many owls, Ebird treats it as a “sensitive” species, hiding locations, but it is not greatly endangered. On our way out several birders were coming down the trail as we returned to the car.

Our last Hokkaido stop was both wonderful and disappointing. It was wonderful because we were able to spend 20 minutes watching the majestic Red Crowned Cranes. Only a few were there when we arrived joining a small crowd of observers. Then 4 more flew in and they were later joined by 4 more. The disappointment was only that we could not spend more time with them. Under the original plan we would have visited the crane sanctuary and possibly other crane gathering spots in the afternoon and there would have been many more of them, with closer views and possibly with them more active. Sorry for what we may have missed. we were thankful for any chance to see these graceful birds – both adults and juveniles. Snow covered the ground both fitting for the wintering mostly white cranes but also challenging for photographs. We saw only a few moments of interaction, none of the elaborate courtship displays that we hoped for in a romanticized world, but there was no denying their appeal, their beauty, their elegance.

**At first there were 3 cranes, then four more flew in.**

**Juvenile Red Crowned Crane on Left and Adult on Right**

**As close as we got to Red Crowned Cranes “Dancing”**

More cranes were arriving as we had to leave. Maybe if we had another hour we would have gotten better shots. It was sad to leave them, but we had a flight to catch and there would be more cranes in Kyushu after a long flight of almost 4 hours including a stop back at Haneda Airport. The actual air distance is about 1070 miles not much different than the air miles between Seattle and Los Angeles.

**Kushiro Airport, Hokkaido to Kagoshima Airport, Kyush**u

Next up…Kyushu…

My Bucket List Takes Us to Japan – Part I

Posted on February 23, 2025February 23, 2025 by blairbirding

It has been almost 30 years since I was last in Japan and over 40 years since I last birded there. That birding was a one day happening during a longer vacation visit in July of 1983 with my former wife, Mary, that resulted in a Japan life list of 30 species and far more importantly the creation of one of the most important people in my life, my daughter, Miya who was born in April 1984 – do the math. At that time and on the later visit ten plus years later, building a birding life list was just not on my mind. I had done a fair amount of birding prior to that including some international birding in Jamaica, Trinidad and Hong Kong and had been to some ABA hotspots in Arizona, Texas and Florida and had a respectable life list of 750 species. Adding 30 species in Japan was great, but honestly at that time, pre-dating Ebird, I really had no idea of what my numbers were and whether a new bird was a “lifer” or not. And, oh yeah, that was before the age of digital cameras and my life photo list was – ZERO.

**Asa Wright Nature Center – Trinidad – my first international birding – 1978**

Fast forward to 2025. That daughter is fully grown, a professor at Harvard Medical School, practicing as a Pediatric Neurologist at Children’s Hospital in Boston with a great husband and two great kids of her own, and I know it can’t be impossible but is now 40 years old. Yikes. Sadly Mary and I have gone our separate ways but happily six years ago Cindy Bailey came into my life, we got married and have been very fortunate to have traveled the world often centered around my birding trips and while she is not a “birder”, she has learned much about birds and birding and if she kept track, which so far she does not, she would have a life list larger than the one I had before Japan. I have definitely acquired a camera and definitely keep and care about a life list and a life photo list, and after this trip the former is now over 3700 species and the latter over 2400 species. Cindy has acquired a camera, too, and that has definitely raised her interest in birds – at least the charismatic ones as opposed to those LBJ’s – little brown jobs.

2024 was an especially fortunate and productive year for travel with visits to Chile, Argentina, Ecuador (including the Galapagos Islands) and Uganda. Those were all bird rich countries and my bird list for 2024 was over 1400 species, by far the most I have seen in any one year. Despite having been to Argentina and Ecuador before and having birded extensively in Tanzania and Kenya with much overlap with Uganda, I still added 400 species to that now important life list. Yes my daughter is really 40 and in a few years, I will be twice that, so who knows how many birding adventures lie ahead. While I would love to get to 5,000 species, I think that is unlikely so I have lowered my aim to 4,000 hoping in addition to significantly raising the number of species photographed to get to 3,000. I am pretty sure the first goal will be reached and since I did not take any photos in the early years, while repeat trips to bird rich places like Costa Rica and Australia may not add all that many “lifers” seen, the opportunity to add new photos is pretty good and both of those places are on our “want to visit list”. No guarantee and it won’t be easy, but I think 3,000 is doable.

So now you know some goals and aspirations that have been in place for a while and will guide travel planning for the future. How does/did Japan fit into that picture? Especially given the overlap with birds seen previously in Japan and Hong Kong and elsewhere in Australasia, from a numbers perspective Japan is not a target rich environment. When first thinking of the trip I thought that 50 new lifers were possible but something closer to 30 was far more likely – small potatoes compared to possible trips to Southeast Asia, Colombia, Brazil, India, or China, which could each add 100 to 200 species to those now important to me life lists. Forgetting the birds for a minute, Japan is a fascinating place with a unique culture and history. I have been fortunate to have been there to see the cherry blossoms and the fall foliage – well worth a visit. And Cindy had never been to Japan, or anywhere else in Asia, so that was appealing. But visiting Japan when the cherry blossoms are out, or the foliage is in full color means gigantic crowds and peak season expenses and high temperatures and high humidity – not very appealing. How about in the winter? There would be smaller crowds; lodging would be available and less expensive. OK, it might be much colder, but there would be no humidity or temperatures in the 90’s. Those factors went into the plus column. And there was more thing – a small black and white duck that had been at the top of my birding list for many years – a species that breeds in the far north, is almost never seen in the U.S. outside of remote Alaskan islands, and with good planning is a certainty in Japan – but only in winter.

On our first date I learned about Cindy’s passion for dogs – especially Black Labs, like our dog Chica; and she learned about my passion for birding. At that time, I knew nothing about dogs and she knew nothing about birding. Also at that time, I told her that if I ever got word that a certain little duck was reported anywhere in the U.S. outside of Alaska, I would immediately drop whatever I was doing, go pack, grab my gear, book the next available flight, and go chase it – but only if it was a male!!! That bucket list bird was a Smew, a small merganser duck. The female is quite non-descript with some rust or chestnut on its head with some feathers sticking up in front of its eyes but otherwise a pretty drab little girl.

The male features only two colors – black and white – and a crest, and yet somehow, evolution had combined those two colors and that crest to perfection. A male Smew is striking, gorgeous without being ostentatious, perfectly patterned and for whatever reason it had become my dream bird. I showed her a picture and she sort of understood my interest and at least acknowledged that it was a pretty good looking bird. I should add that later I would show her Harlequin Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, and Wood Ducks, and if she were being honest, the Smew would likely rank lower than all of them. Yeah, those ducks are spectacular, in a showy kind of way, and maybe if I lived elsewhere and had never seen them, one of them might top the bucket list, but those birds can be found easily, and a Smew is definitely not easy. There have been only 2 or 3 sightings of a male Smew in the U.S. outside of Alaska in the last 34 years. The only photos are from a male seen along the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington in 1991. I was in quiet mode for birding at that time fully concentrating on work and young kids, and I did not even hear of its existence. If I had, without there even being a bucket list, I would have traveled to see it.

For me, the Smew would have been enough, but it helped to sell the idea to Cindy that there were some other great birds to be seen in Japan – only in the winter – several species of cranes, two very cool owls, two very impressive eagles and some other ducks that, although not nearly as cool as a male Smew (at least to me) were pretty awesome – Baikal Teal, Mandarin Duck and Falcated Duck to name just a few. There would be no cherry blossoms or fall foliage, but even in winter the many cultural sights of Japan, the temples, the castles, the gates and gardens, the Bullet Train, the Ryokans and Onsens, the geishas and maikos of the Gion district and even the awesome department store – Takashimaya – were well worth experiencing. Cindy was sold. We would be going to Japan. Now how to do it.

I have gone on birding tours with many of the large bird tour companies. They offer birding trips to Japan in winter, but Cindy and I agreed that we did not want this to be 2 or 3 weeks of just birding. We had hired independent guides before and agreed this was the way to go. One of the lead guides for Wings Birding Tours is Susan Myers who leads their Japan trip as well as many other tours in Asia and Australia (her native land). I had met Susan many years ago in Seattle when she was living there and thought she would be the perfect private guide scheduling a trip after her Wings tour. But she had other engagements and suggested her local Japanese co-leader, Koji Tagi. It turned out to be the perfect solution as he was available and put together a great itinerary that would include 7 days of birding on three of Japan’s main islands, Kyushu in the south, Hokkaido in the north and Honshu in the middle. We would then have 3 or 4 days for sightseeing on our own in Kyoto. Most importantly, Koji-san almost guaranteed we would see the Smew. Airline tickets were bought, details were filled out, and our lodging in Kyoto was committed. Koji would meet us at Haneda Airport near Tokyo on February 2 with us flying there nonstop leaving on Delta Airlines on February 1st at 11:30 AM It was only a 10 hour flight but since we were crossing the International Dateline, we would lose a calendar day arriving at 3:30 PM too late for anything but meeting Koji (fortunately he was there as promised), checking into our first Hotel – very nice within the Airport itself, and getting some dinner. Birding would start on January 3rd.

**Our First Hotel at the Haneda Airport – 2 nights**

February 3, 2025 – A Good Day for Ducks

There have been times on my previous birding trips with tour companies or private guides when movement from one part of a country to another involved air travel, short domestic flights. Otherwise all travel was on the road by car with the guide/driver or depending on the size of the group, by van or safari vehicle. This trip was going to be different, utilizing two domestic flights, and with some private car travel (rental cars) but otherwise using Japan’s well developed rail system. Our first foray exposed that to us immediately as we would be traveling by rail from Haneda Airport to Odawara, a “town” of almost 190,000 people on Sugami Bay, southeast of Tokyo. We had chosen a flight into Haneda airport instead of Narita airport (the other large airport serving Tokyo) to be closer to Odawara and the Yokohama area where we would bird later, but it was still more than an hour to get to Odawara by train. I had impressed on Koji early and often that unless we had a decent look at a male Smew, the trip would be a failure. He did excellent work tracking sightings of the species in Japan before our arrival and had changed our itinerary to begin at the Odawara Castle accordingly because a pair of Smew had been seen there regularly, and if there, should be pretty close for a photo op. There is never a guaranty that any bird will be at any particular place at any time, but they are often creatures of habit, and our odds were good – better than 50/50.

There are many restored castles in Japan, drawing many tourists especially at Cherry Blossom time. If this had been a sightseeing trip only, it is unlikely that the Odawara Castle would be the castle we would have chosen to visit, but since it was our top Smew viewing spot, it was a great place to go with a view of the castle as a bonus. It was a short walk from the train station and the weather was good – no rain, no snow, no wind and in the mid thirties (note although temperatures in Japan are given in degrees Celsius, any references I make will be converted to Fahrenheit.) Now we just needed a cooperative Smew.

As is typical with Japanese castles, there was a moat surrounding the castle, with a walkway crossing the moat to gain entrance to the castle itself. As we approached the castle I could see a white object moving in the moat/pond. Was it going to be that easy? Not quite. The first species I saw was a Black Headed Gull, almost all white in its nonbreeding winter plumage. Common in Japan and elsewhere in Eurasia and Africa, it is a rarity in the U.S. including in my home state of Washington, where I seen it twice, once discovered first by me in 2016. Then I saw some ducks: a Mallard (seemingly nearly as common in Japan as in Washington), a Eurasian Wigeon (common in Eurasia and a regular “rarity” among the American Wigeon flocks in my home state) and some Tufted Ducks (again commonplace in Eurasia and a rarity found annually in Washington). I was still at the corner of the moat, and while happy with ducks being there, as generally happens during a “chase” unless the bird is seen immediately, the thought of missing it was already forming in my “lister’s brain”. The thought passed quickly as two small ducks swam out from near the walkway into the center of the moat/pond. There it was, my bucket list male Smew, along with his better looking than expected mate. A sigh of relief, a shot of adrenalin, a big smile and immediate movement by me towards the walkway to get a better view and some photos. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

**First Look at the Male Smew with its Head Tucked**

Koji and Cindy caught up to me, and we all watched as the pair of Smews swam about in the pond, but solely with their heads tucked back into their feathers, pretty close but not the dreamed of killer profile shot with crest exposed that I had thought about for years. This continued for 10+ minutes with brief seconds when the male would lift his head and then immediately put it back down. It was great but not great enough and I figured it had to get more energetic and lift its head, and I was not going to leave until it did. There were some fun photos ops but I wanted “the one”.

Then finally the two Smew woke up and turned to give the look I wanted and I was ready. These were the full-on photos I wanted, first of just the male then of the female and then of the pair. I was a happy birder.

**Female Smew – Better Looking than Expected**

There was more ahead on this day and another 7 days of birding plus the sightseeing in Kyoto, but now all the pressure was off (for me and Koji) and if the trip had ended then, it still would have been a success – I had my Smew and now for the gravy, the whipped cream or whatever additional pleasures were ahead. I have included more photos of a single bird on a trip than usual because it was that special for me. There will be many more special albeit less special birds ahead, and with a few exceptions, only single photos will be included. Here are photos of the other species seen at Odawara Castle including lifer photos of Asian Tit, Japanese Wagtail and Blue Rock Thrush taken as we were leaving.

It was not yet 10:00 AM. I had my Bucket List Smew and an additional three life photos. What next? Next was the second most wanted duck on this tour, a lifer Baikal Teal. Koji’s itinerary would take us to Zama Yatoyama Park. I do not have notes or a specific memory but believe this meant another short railway ride. It would be a good visit as we spent an hour at the park walking through some sparse forest and visited the pond where the teal was expected. We had 15 species at the park including that lifer Baikal Teal and 3 more lifers: Pale Thrush, Ryuku Minivet and Japanese Grosbeak plus life photos of Long Tailed and Varied Tits, Large Billed Crow, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker and Brown Eared Bulbul. Unfortunately the Grosbeak was “heard only”, the only species in that category for the trip. But I had photos of all the others. But first more on that Baikal Teal.

The Baikal Teal is definitely a striking bird with a very unusual facial pattern. It is seen primarily in northeastern Asia with a very few records in the U.S. including a couple in Washington, again during my quiet period for birding. We found it in the pond where it was regularly seen within the park, probably 5 individuals including two males, but three of them were at the distant end of the pond, visible but terrible photo ops. The other two, a male and a female were on an island not too far out in the pond, surrounded by Mallards. The female remained almost entirely hidden in weeds and the male was in the open but rarely lifted its head to reveal the facial markings that set the species apart. The photo was only okay, but is treasured nonetheless as it was definitely in the top ten targets list for the trip.

We would see many Pale Thrush during our trip, but one in the open briefly at the park was our best look at this lifer that Koji said is generally pretty shy. A surprising find, discovered by me only as I looked at a photo that I could not identify, was a Ryuku Minivet. Found almost exclusively in Japan and Eastern China, I had not been aware of its existence so it was not on the target list and was a very welcomed and completely unexpected addition to my life list.

I had life photos of Brown Eared Bulbul, Varied and Long Tailed Tit, Large Billed Crow and Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker. All were photographed again later as they were seen more than once, and in the case of the Crow and Bulbul many, many, many times. But you can’t have a second one until there is a first one, so they were welcomed additions to my photo life list.

**Brown Eared Bulbul – Life Photo of a Species Seen Everywhere**

**Large Billed Crow – Life Photo of Another Species Seen Almost Everywhere and Looking and Behaving Like our Northern Rave**n

**Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker – Life Photo**

I am including two more photos from the park – Eurasian Turtle Dove and Warbling White Eye. I have seen each many times and have photos of both, but the photo of the White-eye is better than others and the photo of the dove could turn out to be a life photo as the only other photo is of a Eurasian Turtle Dove seen and photographed by me in British Columbia last year which just might turn out to be of a released or escaped bird rather than a wild one. Both species are common and were seen often during this Japan trip.

There would be two more stops this day. The first was at the Sagamihara Reservoir, where the main target was a Mandarin Duck. A ridiculously gorgeous bird maybe competing with our American Wood Duck for the most beautiful duck prize, as the name suggests, it is typically found in East Asia, including in good numbers in Japan. I had seen and photographed one in Washington in 2021 and again in 2022 in Lake Washington, almost certainly an escapee from a collection. So these (there were at least 40) were my first birds seen in the wild. Unfortunately an iron fence prevented us from getting real close but even with that constraint and less than ideal light, the ducks are so spectacular that we got good photos. There were two other important species at the reservoir, a lifer Eastern Spot Billed Duck and a Falcated Duck, another striking species. I had seen and photographed a wild Falcated Duck in Washington in 2017, a mega-rarity that was in a flock of hundreds, maybe thousands of American Wigeon. The Eastern Spot-billed Duck was recently split off as a separate species from Indian Spot Billed Duck which I had seen in India in 2011.

**Male and Female Mandarin Ducks – First Wild Ones Seen**

**Falcated Duck – Second Ever, First In Japan**

Two other duck species were seen at the reservoir: Green Winged Teal (Eurasian subspecies) and Gadwall. The Eurasian subspecies of the teal is seen rarely but regularly in the U.S. and Washington and the Gadwall is abundant in Washington. The last photo is of a Great Cormorant – common in Eurasia and Africa and in the Northeastern U.S. I keep expecting one to show up in Washington but as far as I know, it has never happened.

Our last stop was at the Yokohama Children’s Park where the main target was a bird that is common in Washington but the one wintering there was a big rarity in Japan – a Ring Necked Duck. It was easily found and photographed but of far more interest to me were a lifer Brown Cheeked Rail expertly found by Koji and fortunately seen and photographed by me, a Chinese Hwamei and some Oriental Greenfinches both being life photos. In other circumstances I would also have been excited at some really good photos of a Red-flanked Bluetail, a striking bird common in Asia but a mega-rarity in the U.S.. I had been fortunate to see one in Idaho with a good photo and in both Washington and British Columbia in pouring rain precluding photos. There were not many misses on our trip, but there was one at the park – a missed photo of an Eurasian Jay – a species I had seen or heard 5 times in Italy without ever getting a photo. That would be the case here as well.

**Ring-necked Duck Female – a Rarity in Japan**

And one last photo for the day – a Common Kingfisher. All kingfishers are photo worthy and I am happy to include it here. I had seen and photographed it before in India, but this was the first for Japan.

Even without the Smew, it had been a great day, but of course it was the Smew that made it one of my very best birding days ever. We ended the day with 43 species including 7 lifers and 17 life photos. We had 11 duck species including 5 or six that would have to be considered special. We took the train back to the Haneda Airport where we returned to our hotel rooms and had dinner there as well. It would be another early start the next morning. Our bodies were still adjusting to the jet lag and time differences, but we were doing fine – ready for more – with the plan being to fly to Hokkaido for several days birding there looking for some very special species.

Blair and Tom’s Excellent Ecuador Adventure – Part 2

Posted on December 5, 2024February 28, 2025 by blairbirding

It would be a 4 hour drive south and east from Zaysant Ecolodge to our destination for the last two days of September – WildSumaco Lodge. Our route would take us over Papallacta Pass and in addition to birding there, we would also have birding stops at La Brisa and at Wayra Reserve. At our first stop up high into the Andes we were on the lookout for Andean Condors and Spectacled Bears. Scanning the cliff face across the road and quite distant, Nelson picked out the bear and then shortly later Tom found a pair of Condors. With a wingspan of up to 10 feet, the Andean Condor is the largest bird of prey in the world. I had been fortunate to see them in Chile, Argentina and Peru in addition to my earlier trip to Ecuador. Still not a real close look for a great photo, but every Condor sighting is special. We also had nice looks at another high-altitude raptor, Variable Hawk. A great start to the day.

Still relatively early we birded a bit higher on the way to the pass at Bosque de Quishuar and picked up a number of mountain species including a lifer White-throated Tyrannulet that appeared in the open for brief seconds only. Thirteen of the 15 species seen were new for the trip, but I had seen them in 2022. Getting photos was great though.

A very brief stop at Laguna Papallacta added another five species including a distant lifer Buff-breasted Mountain Tanager. I thought I had a photo but could not find it. We left the high pass and moved on to the hummingbird feeders at La Brisa (The Breeze). In just over 75 minutes there we had 29 species, including 12 hummingbirds of which remarkably 9 were new for the trip, and two were lifers for me. Two non-hummers were lifers as well. Earlier I posted a photo of the White-booted Racket-tail. With its long tail feathers with rackets, the equally special Peruvian Racket-tail was recently split as a separate species – its boots are orange.

New for the trip and new for Tom was one of the more striking birds of the trip – a Green Jay. This bird which is also called an Inca Jay makes its way into South Texas and is seen throughout Central America and Northwestern South America.

It was not the greatest look, but a species we had searched for and had eluded us at every river crossing was finally found from the bridge crossing the Cosanga River as we drove south on the Troncal Amazonica, the Pan American Highway. It was a male Torrent Duck. Cindy and I had seen only a female in 2022 but had great looks as it somehow managed to navigate the raging waters. This was a very distant view, but still very welcome.

**Coming Up onto the Bridge over the Cosanga River**

**Surprisingly Decent Photo of a Very Distant Torrent Duck**

As we continued on our way to Wild Sumaco, we made a quick stop at the Wayra Reserve, a family owned reserve on a river with yet more hummingbird feeders. Of the 18 species we saw there in just over an hour, 10 were new for the trip, including 4 more hummingbirds, all of which were new for me in Ecuador and one of which, the Golden-tailed Sapphire was a lifer as well. This is a good place to expand discussion on two of the amazing aspects of birding in species-rich Ecuador. As mentioned before, birding at hummingbird feeders can be challenging, exciting and chaotic as multiple species swarm a single feeder, and especially when there is another swarm at adjacent feeders. I do not have other photos from Tom St. John for the trip, but I asked him to send one with many hummers around a single feeder to evidence that point. It is included below. The second point is how just traveling a short distance, especially with a change in altitude can bring so many new species into the mix. There are dozens of reserves in Ecuador, many with hummingbird feeders, and as we saw many times on this trip and with Wayra Reserve being a great case in point, each reserve can have a very different assortment of species. They may seem similar surrounded by a forest, but there are so many different mini-habitats that one species but not another finds appealing.

**Tom’s Photo of Multiple Species at a Single Feeder**

**Black-throated Mango – New for the Trip and for My Ecuador List**

**Many-spotted Hummingbird – New for the Trip and for My Ecuador List**

**Fork-tailed Woodnymph – New for the Trip and My Ecuador List**

Other new birds for the trip were Black-billed Thrush, Yellow-browed Sparrow, Silver-beaked Tanager, Golden-faced Tyrannulet, Chestnut-bellied Seedeater and Red-crested Finch. Not new for the trip, but finally seen well and photographed was an Orange-billed Sparrow and the Blue-gray Tanager here was different than ones seen earlier with white wing bars.

As we neared Wild Sumaco Lodge, Nelson made a stop on a promising section of road and during the half hour there we had 24 species, 9 new for the trip, of which 5 were new for my Ecuador life list and one hummingbird, a Glittering-throated Emerald, was a lifer – no photo on the road but I would get one soon later at the Wild Sumaco feeders. Many species did not provide photo ops, and I was especially unhappy to miss a photo of a Violaceous Jay, but although not a great photo, I did get one later.

**Chestnut-bellied Seedfinch – New for the Trip and My Ecuador Life List**

**Magpie Tanager** **– New for the Trip**

**Blackpoll Warbler – a North American Warbler that Migrates South for the Winter (New for both the trip and My Ecuador Life List)**

We made it to Wild Sumaco Lodge just after 4:30 with enough time left in the day to spend time at the feeders and watching the grounds of the lodge. We had 13 hummingbirds of which 4 were new for the trip, 3 new for my Ecuador list and two lifers. Altogether we had 21 species including flybys of two parrot types and two toucans and the first barbet we had had in a while, a Gilded Barbet.

It had been a long and very productive day with 99 species including an awesome 23 species of hummingbirds, 12 tanagers and a great mix of other species including ducks, warblers, sparrows, woodpeckers, raptors and more. Sixty-four species were new for the trip; 22 were new for my Ecuador Life List and 11 were lifers. We would spend the next three nights at the Wild Sumaco Lodge with lots of birds ahead.

It was another early start as we would bird the grounds around Wild Sumaco and then visit the feeders as the light improved. We started with two new birds for the trip and for my Ecuador list, Plain Antvireo and Western Fire-eye which was also a world lifer. And it just kept getting better as we added a Spotted Tanager and then two iconic birds, Collared and Green-backed Trogons all providing great photo opportunities.

**Plain Antvireo – Life Photo and New Ecuador Lifer**

**Spotted Tanager – New for Trip and Life Photo**

**Green-backed Trogon** **– Life Photo**

Then it was two lifers in succession, a Black-streaked Puffbird and Gould’s Jewelfront Hummingbird, both cooperating for photos. In my planning for the trip, I had noticed the Jewelfront and was hopeful that we would find one. It was a good morning for charismatic birds as we also had three parrot species – Military Macaw, Maroon-tailed Parakeet and Blue-headed Parrot, two Aracari species – Many-banded and Chestnut-eared, and three toucan species – Golden-collared Toucanet, and Yellow-throated and Channel-billed Toucans.

It was another hummingbird rich location with 13 species in the morning highlighted by the Gould’s Jewelfront and two other lifers: Napo Sabrewing and Rufous-vented Whitetip.

We birded at Wild Sumaco for more than 6 hours before our lunch break and had an amazing 102 species some of which have been included above. Unfortunately many of the birds were either heard only or seen poorly, but there were some exceptions like those above and the Black-faced Antbird, White-crowned Manakin and the White-winged Becard, all of which I had seen previously but not photographed.

And then there was one more – a lifer Band-bellied Owl buried deep in foliage with just enough clearance that using manual focus I could at least get an ID photo.

Photos were even harder to come by in the afternoon as I got photos of only 7 of the 62 species seen one of which was of a Blue-rumped Manakin, a lifer seen but not photographed in the morning, and another was of a lifer Blackish Rail. Probably the best photos were of Plain-backed and Ochre-breasted Antpittas. I had seen and photographed the latter at Refugio Paz in 2022 and heard the latter as a lifer at Reserva Mashpi-Amagusa earlier on this trip.

There would be one more species at Wild Sumaco that day – a Common Pauraque seen and photographed at night, new for Ecuador but seen in a number of other countries including the U.S. We also heard but were unable to get a visual of a lifer Rufescent Screech Owl.

**Common Pauraque – New for the Trip and my Ecuador List**

Planning for the trip I had known that Wild Sumaco was species-rich with a lot of potential lifers. Including the previous afternoon we had seen 129 species: 66 were new for the trip; 46 were new for my Ecuador list; and 26 were lifers. The next day promised to be very birdy as well as we would be birding roads near the lodge.

Welcome to October. We had really only been on the official tour for barely 5 days but we had covered a lot of territory. Today we would be birding near the Wild Sumaco Lodge and then would work our way into the beginning of the Amazon region at Gareno near the Napo River. Another day with lots of birds but again with many heard only or seen only briefly. No more feeders and many fewer photo ops. In three hours along Sumaco Road we had over 70 species. Only seventeen were new for the trip as many were species already observed at Wild Sumaco, but most of them were new Ecuador birds for me and nine were lifers – but without photos of any of them many of which were in the dark foliage of the early morning or heard only. A word about lifers. Everyone has their own standards for counting new birds. Mine are different for various lists. In my home Washington State, I will only count a new state bird if I get a photo. In the ABA area, I will only count it with a visual. So in neither case is “heard only” sufficient. Disagree with me if you wish, but for other areas I will count a heard only species if (1) I hear it clearly (2) my guide is certain of the ID; (3) I can recognize the call/song and match it to a recording and (4) I hear it again and match it to the first time I heard it and to that recording. That satisfies me and I am sticking to that.

A highlight of the morning was a large kettle of more than 50 Swallow-tailed Kites soaring overhead. My photos were ID quality only but I was so spoiled by an up close and personal interaction with them in the Everglades in Florida seven years ago, that I don’t even care about photos again after that experience. A photo from then is included below. There were some other photos from the morning as well including lifer photos of Coppery-chested Jacamar and White-thighed Swallow. The Jacamar had been on the list from the previous day as a lifer but without a photo, so it was a particularly well appreciated photo that morning.

**Swallow-tailed Kite from the Florida Everglades in 2017 – Soaring within 10 Feet of Me**

**One of 50+ Swallow-tailed Kites in Kettle**

**Coppery-tailed Jacamar – Lifer from the Day Before**

Piculets are essentially tiny stub-tailed woodpeckers found primarily in tropical South America with 20+ species and a few species in Africa and Asia. We had two this morning with a decent photo of a Lafresnaye’s Piculet. They are very small – only 4.5 inches on average and are very easily missed as they are mostly brown looking for insects on brown barked trees. I have often heard them described as “cute”. The second photo is the original uncropped or processed from the camera – already magnified 10 times by the 500 mm lens – a testament to the amazing sensors in modern digital cameras.

**Lafresnaye’s Piculet – Highly Magnified**

**This is original photo from which the Lafresnaye’s Piculet photo above was produced – already magnified 10** **times by the 500mm lens on my camera**. **The Piculet is in the circle.**

One of the new birds for the trip was a Long-tailed Tyrant. Tyrants are flycatchers with many species found in tropical Central and South America. This species indeed has a very conspicuous long tail. I tried to capture that tail in flight – not so great but definitely makes the point

The last photo from the morning is of one of the most spectacular of the many spectacular tanagers that we observed, an aptly named Paradise Tanager. One subspecies has bright red on the back. I could get only a partial photo of that one.

**Paradise Tanager – Red Backed Subspecies**

I am a strong believer in using local guides. Yes, it is more expensive than birding on one’s own, but acknowledging that I am fortunate to be able to allocate funds for this, there are just so many benefits starting with the obvious of familiarity with species that are not known by me. But it goes way beyond just the identification of species. These guides know both general areas and specific places to find particular species, know local roads and people and restaurants and cultures. They both broaden and deepen the experience with their knowledge of all of the above. I might be able to learn from Ebird that a particular species might be found at a certain park, but I could spend hours at that park looking for the specific location while my guide would know exactly where to look. A great example was our stop on Loreto Road at “the Cliff Flycatcher Spot” a hotspot recognized on Ebird. Nelson knew exactly where to stop and as expected we had Cliff Flycatchers there – a species I had seen but not photographed in Peru in 2013. We are all eco-tourist birders and the money we bring into local economies for lodges, tourism companies, restaurants and guides helps support and sustain conservation in these localities and builds a culture of environmental awareness and care in the process.

After lunch on the road, we stopped at the Ama Ecolodge and Reserve, near the Napo River in the Amazon region. Almost half of the 50 species we found there were new for our trip, 12 were new for my Ecuador List and 7 of those were lifers. The only photos of lifers were terrible photos of Yellow-bellied Dacnis and Orange-fronted Plushcrown. I did get life photos of White-banded Swallow, Scarlet-crowned Barbet, Dusky-headed Parrot, Masked Crimson Tanager and Violaceous Jay (the latter really poor). And there was another very welcomed photo – a Hoatzin, one of the truly bizarre birds, that I had seen often before but was new for and greatly appreciated by Tom.

**Dusky-headed Parrot – New for Trip and Life Photo**

**Masked Crimson Tanager – New for Trip and Life Photo**

**Scarlet-crowned Barbet – New for Trip and Life Photo**

**Lemon-throated Barbet – New for Trip**

There are almost always regrets on a day of birding in the forest – birds missed or photos missed – but of course the first regret also includes the latter as you cannot take a picture of a bird not seen. There was one species at Ama that I really regret not being able to photograph, a lifer White-eared Jacamar. Including one from Ebird here, because they are really cool birds.

**White-eared Jacamar – Lifer – Ebird Photo by Stephen Gast**

We arrived at Hostal Yuralpa, scheduled to be our last lodging stop on the tour just before dusk. As one reviewer termed it – a mixed bag. Located by the Napo River in the Gareno area within Waorani Indigenous area it is a mix of a birding hostel and a dormitory for oil company workers. Food was just ok and served in a large cafeteria shared by all. Our rooms were also OK. The grounds were utilitarian/industrial rather than “in nature” but the birding in the vicinity was great. There was an immediate problem when we arrived as we were informed that there was no electricity – explained as “a problem in the system”. This was the warmest of our locations and the prospect of a night without AC or fan was pretty daunting as was the prospect of no hot water, no Wi-Fi and no ability to recharge equipment and then there would be the darkness. Especially since it was critical for me to be able to communicate with spouse Cindy who was about to fly down to meet me for our upcoming trip to the Galapagos, none of this was well received. I still don’t know if it was poor communication or a change in circumstances, but what started off looking like a disaster turned out to be just a big inconvenience. There was electricity but only during limited hours due to blackouts caused by water shortages due in turn to the many months long drought that had curtailed hydroelectric power production in much of the country. We ate more than once by candlelight and only had electricity in the rooms after 8 or so, but it was survivable.

And there were lots of birds in this very different habitat. Now not all of them were seen clearly if at all, as the forest was very thick and many of the species were canopy dwellers – a big challenge without a tower. But the numbers were impressive. During our time in the Gareno Waorani area, we had 134 species adding 73 for the trip list, 47 for my Ecuador list and 31 for my Life List. Unfortunately most were not photographed. Not distinguishing by day, I am including some of the photos that I was able to get.

The original plan had been to spend three nights at Yuralpa but Nelson, perhaps recognizing some of the issues there and also wanting to shorten the return trip to Quito made arrangements to spend our last night instead at the Cabanas Tamiaju very close to the San Isidro Lodge. After our morning birding at Gareno, we moved on to the Cabanas and its very active hummingbird feeders with a dozen species of hummingbird with one, the Greenish Puffleg, a lifer for me . At night we went owling and found a lifer Rufous-banded Owl which called a number of times but would not come into the open.

The next morning, our last with Nelson, we birded first at the Cordillera Guacamayos continuing to Borja Road. Of the 35 species at the first location, 8 were new for my Ecuador list and 4 of them were lifers, but conditions were challenging with a lot of early morning mist, so I only got a photo of one of them – Smoky Bush Tyrant. Other photos are below as well.

**Grass Green Tanager** **– Ecuador Lifer**

On Borja Road, we added new species for the trip including Torrent and Golden-faced Tyrannulets and my Ecuador lifer Spotted Sandpiper as well as a few new species for the trip – heard only.

We then spent a couple of hours at the Rio Quijos Ecolodge where Cindy and I had stayed and birded in 2022. There were a number of new species for the trip but only one Ecuador lifer for me, a Yellow-olive Flatbill, a species I had seen in Belize and earlier in Trinidad 46 years ago. No photo of that but I did get photos of a Bronze Green Euphonia (life photo), Scarlet-rumped Cacique, several tanagers and another photo of a Torrent Duck.

There would be one more stop – back at Papallacta Pass. Seventeen species seen including two new lifers for me – Purple-backed Thornbill and Giant Conebill. Nelson worked very hard on the first and we just got quick glimpses as it darted around against a thick vegetation background. He worked even harder to get the Conebill to finally get out into the open. Two other new birds for the trip were a Red-crested Cotinga and a Brown-backed Chat-tyrant.

And we were done…back to Quito and the Wyndham Quito Airport Hotel where my family waited for me and Tom would be able to get a little sleep before his early morning departure to return to Seattle. Hopefully the stories and photos in these two blog posts have successfully conveyed the success of this trip. Lots of great birds and good times at lovely places with the excellent care and guidance from Nelson Apolo Jaramillo.

Yes, I wish there had been more birds and especially more photo opportunities, but that is often the case, and forest birding is really tough. My 482 species did not reach my hoped for goal of 500 species, although there were 10 species seen or heard only by Nelson that I did not count. At the beginning of the trip I felt that 125 new lifers would be the minimal acceptable number. It was only 126 but that at least crossed the threshold and brought my life list to 3654. And there were 216 new species for Ecuador bringing that Country list to 672. (Both would be larger after our visit to the Galapagos Island.) I don’t have an exact count on the new life photos on the trip, but I managed to get photos of 220 species. Sadly I only got photos of just over 26% of my new world lifers. The ratio of photos for the new life species speaks to the challenges of forest birding. I generally try to get photos of at least two thirds of the species seen and I was at just about that level before this trip on a worldwide basis. Fortunately I did much better in the Galapagos where I had photos of all but one of the 21 lifers.

This had been my second trip to Ecuador and it continued with our family trip to the Galapagos Islands. Cumulatively after the Galapagos, I have now birded more in Ecuador than in any country other than the U.S. The total time spent in Ecuador is not quite a month, while the time spent birding in the U.S. spans more than 50 years. The numbers are striking as my U.S. list is 780 while the Ecuador list is now 714 species (much larger than my third largest country list – Kenya with 515 species – although I have seen a higher percentage of the birds in Kenya (44%) compared to Ecuador (42%) and of course far less in either case than for the U.S. (70%)).

I love Ecuador with its beautiful mountains and forests and wonderful lodges, birds and people. I doubt I will ever return as the years are running out and there are many places still on the wish list. It was great visiting in 2022 with Cindy and to share it with Tom St. John was special as well. My next birding trip is set for Japan in February – finally to see the bird that is atop my birding bucket list – a male Smew. Stay tuned.

Birding Ecuador with Tom and Nelson – Part 1

Posted on November 25, 2024February 27, 2025 by blairbirding

Ecuador ranks high on every birder’s must do list. At about 109,500 square miles, Ecuador is just a little larger than the state of Colorado. By North American standards, Colorado with 519 species is a bird rich state. With habitats including the Amazon basin, the Andes mountains and the Pacific Coast, Ecuador is the most bird species dense country in the world with more than 1,666 species in essentially the same area. In June 2022, Cindy and I spent two weeks there birding on a private tour arranged by Neblina Forest that included lodges in the Andes and 4 days in the Amazon. We had 455 species of which 208 were “lifers” – new for my world list – for me. The reason there were not more lifers was because of the overlap with places I had birded before – especially Peru and Brazil, and to a lesser extent Costa Rica, Belize and Trinidad. It was a great trip – but as comments from others we met along the way and after our return, it was missing two things – a visit to the Galapagos Islands and more birding at lodges and areas we did not visit on that first trip.

As covered in two blog posts on our trip to the Galapagos, Cindy and I took care of one of those omissions in October (https://blairbirding.com/2024/11/01/the-magical-galapagos-islands/ and https://blairbirding.com/2024/11/12/the-galapagos-islands-birdies-and-beasties/) and since we were going to be in Ecuador anyhow, it provided a chance for me to go earlier and visit some of those other locations. When Cindy and I knew we would be going to the Galapagos I contacted Nelson Apolo Jaramillo, an excellent guide in Ecuador and after sending him details of my earlier trip, he put together a very appealing itinerary that meshed well with the Galapagos schedule. Tom St. John is a friend that is new to birding but not to photography and is a wonderful photographer. He has taught me much about that and I have taught him about birds and birding. Earlier attempts to find a birding trip for the two of us had not worked out. His calendar was good so this would be a great opportunity. It was easy for Nelson to add Tom to the trip and the cost was attractive so he signed on.

Tom St. John, Nelson Apolo Jaramillo and Blair Bernson

Our trip would leave Seattle early on September 24th on a United Airlines flight to Los Angeles then a switch to Copa Airlines for a flight to Panama City and a final leg to Quito, Ecuador arriving very early on September 25th. After the rest of the day to catch up, we would then meet Nelson late on the 26th at Sachatamia Lodge to begin the official tour. The early departure from Seattle gave us a chance to see a beautiful sunrise over Mt. Rainier. We would be spending many days in the Andes in Ecuador, but for me, nothing is better than our own mountain.

Air travel is never fun and every time there is a stop along the way, there is a chance for trouble. That was our fate in Los Angeles. After a very long walk from the arrival gate to the scheduled departure gate for our Copa Airlines flight, we learned there would be a delay due to an equipment problem. The plane was at the gate but there was no sign of leaving on time, and we started to worry about making our connection in Panama City. After maybe an hour we were finally allowed to board and although it would be tight, there was still a chance to make that connection. Then…nothing. After a very unhappy 30 minutes waiting we learned that there was some kind of electrical problem at the gate that would preclude our departure. So we off loaded and moved on to a new gate – more than a half mile away where another Copa Airlines plane would take us south. Of course by this time, any chance of making our connection was long gone and the new worry was whether we would ever see checked baggage in Quito.

We had sprung for business class for the 6+ hour flight to Panama City so it was comfortable but with some anxiety about what was ahead. One fun thing was that Copa had a very clever video for the safety routine that is usually onboard performed by flight attendants in a mechanical manner that 90% of the passengers ignored. I took some photos of pieces of the video with my phone. The one below was used to show where the emergency exits were located. We were told that we would get “hotel vouchers” in Panama City since we would have to spend the night and then leave on a flight to Quito in the morning. Well, not really. Instead we got passes to the Copa Lounge – a tacky bright and noisy room with some drinks and snacks and where the only possibility for any sleep was by pulling three chairs together for an uncomfortable horizontal “bed”. So maybe an hour of sleep and then a departure on an early morning flight to take us to Quito. There was good news: our luggage arrived on our same plane, we were met by someone from Nelson’s company (he was out with another client as we knew), and finally we would be arriving at our first stop, the Zaysant Ecolodge, mid morning (rather than at two in the morning which would have been the case on the original flight schedule) enabling us a little time for a nap and then some time to look for birds.

The Zaysant Ecolodge was convenient to the airport and was both very comfortable and also gave us a good introduction to birding in Ecuador and the first chance for Tom to see some hummingbirds coming to feeders, one of the highlights of any trip to Ecuador. We birded in the afternoon and then caught a little sleep before dinner. We would bird there again the next morning and then Nelson had arranged for a driver to take us on to Sachatamia Lodge with a great stop at the Alambi Reserve. This was a change from the original plan which Nelson added – a brilliant move. At Zaysant we only had 15 species, but that included 5 hummingbirds and a Vermilion Flycatcher – always a treat. None of the species were new for me but as would be the case for every new bird we would see, all were lifers for Tom – welcome to Ecuador.

Alambi Reserve proved to be an exceptional stop. Our 26 species included 13 hummingbirds and 7 tanagers with photos for all of them and oh yeah, the Red-headed Barbet, definitely one of the best looking birds anywhere. None of those were lifers for me, but two others were: Choco Brushfinch and Orange-crowned Euphonia. As a bit of background, on my 2022 visit to Ecuador, I had also visited Alambi Reserve and had 28 species including 12 hummingbirds and 10 tanagers. As evidence of the diversity of birdlife in Ecuador, only 6 of the tanagers were seen on both visits and 2 of the hummers seen in 2022 were not seen in 2024.

I cannot recall any other stop on any tour where I was able to get photos of such a large percentage of the species seen as at Alambi. Unfortunately none of Tom’s photos will be included in this blog post but from what I have seen, they are often better than the ones I took. It was great fun for both of us, and this continued when we arrived for lunch at Sachatamia Lodge. There would be no new lifers there but when we left Alambi, our species count for the trip was 40 species. That afternoon at Sachatamia, we added another 28 including 3 more hummingbirds and 3 more tanagers. We heard but never saw our first Quetzal and first Trogon, saw our first Toucan and also saw 4 very striking Aracaris among others. Nelson joined us for dinner. In addition to being an exceptional birder and guide, he is very personable, has excellent English, must have hot sauce on everything he eats and has a great sense of humor. It was going to be a great trip.

On September 27th, with Nelson behind the wheel of his comfortable SUV, we were off early headed for Rio Silanche Bird Sanctuary. With our knowledgeable guide and his keen hearing and eyesight, birding for the rest of our trip would be different in two distinct ways: first we would find many more birds than Tom and I had on our own and second a much larger percentage of them would not provide photo opportunities as often they were either heard only or seen at distance, perhaps mostly hidden in foliage. There would still be many feeders but not like at our first locations. In the 5+ hours we spent at Rio Silanche, we had 82 species, of which 65 were new for our trip including 15 lifers for me. The photos below are a mix of lifers and favorites from Rio Silanche.

**Peruvian Pygmy Owl – One of Six Owls on Our Trip**

**Black-capped Pygmy Tyrant – Lifer and Sometimes You Just Cannot Get a Good Shot**

We continued birding in the area and mostly on forested roads where birds were mostly either heard or glimpsed briefly and distantly – a good way in this bird-rich area to pick up new species but not to get photos. All told we added 91 species to the trip list for the day, 19 of which were lifers for me. The last was an Ochre-breasted Tanager. It was the end of the first “official day” of the guided trip although it was actually day 4 including the travel days and the time before we met up with Nelson. Our trip list stood at 161 species. There would be a lot more.

We spent the night of the 27th at Reserva Mashpi-Amagusa in the cloud forest in the Choco area which is very bird rich. An aerial photo of the area is shown below and another shows the veranda at the lodge – ideal for bird watchers. That night we heard a Common Potoo with no visual of this very odd looking nocturnal species. After an early breakfast we started birding on the grounds of the lodge and the surrounding area.

We had a great mix of species, some seen and photographed, some seen without photos and some heard only. All told including species seen later at the feeders, we had 95 species. I got photos (of varying quality) of almost half and I had 18 lifers. One of the lifers was a species that was near the top of my wish list for the trip – Glistening-green Tanager, and another was one that would have been near the top if I had realized how spectacular it is – Orange-breasted Fruiteater. As is often the case at lodges with feeders, there were lots of tanagers – 12 species in all. The photos below are some I like best. The last one is of a Black-Striped Sparrow, a life photo of a species I had seen only once before – in Costa Rica 27 years ago.

**Chivi Vireo – A Much Wanted Life Photo**

**Black-Striped Sparrow** **– Life Photo**

At most Ecuadorian lodges there are feeders for the hummingbirds and bamboo pole feeders with bananas and other fruit to attract other species. The hummingbirds are both wonderful and frustrating as they zip in and out sometimes feeding for only the briefest of moments and often with more than one species at multiple feeders – a challenge to find the one you want and get a photo. That is not a complaint as it is a great experience. At this lodge there is also an area where visitors can hold flowers in their hands and the hummers will land on the flowers, or the hands, providing unique photo opportunities. Altogether we had 8 hummingbirds species at the lodge feeders: White Whiskered Hermit, White Throated Daggerbill, Green Thorntail, Violet-tailed Sylph, Violet-purple Coronet, Purple-bibbed White-tip, and Green-crowned and Empress Brilliants. The Dagger-bill, Thorntail and White-tip were new for the trip and the Daggerbill was a lifer. Sadly I missed catching the Daggerbill for a photo the only two times it showed up.

**Nelson and Friend (Velvet-purple Coronet)**

We would spend the next night back at Zaysant Lodge and we could either head directly there or go an hour out of our way and visit a special spot which had Oilbirds, a unique species found in only a very few locations anywhere. Of course we chose the latter – a great decision as we were able to get very close to these odd birds which got their name because the young birds are so fat that they were once rendered for oil for cooking and lighting by indigenous people. They are nocturnal and generally roost in caves, or in our case a cave-like crevasse blocking out all sunlight. I had seen them only once before – in Trinidad 46 years ago!

There were several other good birds along the way to the Oilbirds and then on to Zaysant. My favorite was a rare close up of a Hook-billed Kite that was perched adjacent to the road for no more that three seconds after we stopped – just enough time for a quick life photo. No lifers but other life photos were of Pacific Parrotlet, White-browed Gnatcatcher and Scarlet-backed Woodpecker.

**White-browed Gnatcatcher** **– Life Photo**

**Scarlet Backed Woodpecker – Life Photo**

We were only a few days into our trip and we had seen 216 species including 28 hummingbirds and 19 tanagers and 40 lifers for me plus many life photos. Our next destination was Wild Sumaco Lodge – a species rich new location for me. On our way we would pass over Papallacta Pass at an elevation over 10,800 feet. And I will continue that story in my next blog post.

The Galapagos Islands – Birdies and Beasties

Posted on November 12, 2024August 15, 2025 by blairbirding

In case you missed the first Galapagos blog, here’s a quick recap. Cindy and I had a wonderful visit to the Galapagos this October, traveling with two family members and joining 12 other adventurers on an 8 day cruise through those magical islands aboard the Ecoventura “MV Theory”, a luxury super yacht with an incredible crew of 13 and a level of impeccable service that we will likely never see again. That previous blog gave some background about how we chose the Galapagos, some facts about the islands and an in-depth description of the boat and life aboard. This blog is going to dig deeper into our itinerary, our activities and the amazing “birdies and beasties” we encountered up close and personal in this very special and unique natural wonderland. Of course, with me being a birder, much of my focus was on the birds and the Galapagos have some spectacular ones in addition to the many Darwin finches that played such a key role in his conceptualization of evolution and natural selection and the development of species.

Everything in the Galapagos is highly regulated to preserve the unique environment. This includes limiting the size and number of ships, the control of itineraries to avoid overcrowding and impact on each island, and the need to have a licensed local guide/naturalist aboard each visiting vessel and every visit to any island. This coupled with the isolation of the islands almost 600 miles west of mainland Ecuador and South America, has sustained a place with a unique natural history and with fascinating and charismatic animals and plants on land and in the sea. Galápagos National Park protects more than 3,000 square miles of islands and islets, while the Galápagos Marine Reserve protects an additional 50,000 square miles of ocean around the islands. Of the 127 volcanic islands in the group, 18 are considered major and only half of those are generally visited by tourists. Ecoventura offers two itineraries – each Sunday to Sunday with 7 nights at sea, originating and returning to San Cristobal Island which has the only airport. We chose the Beaches and Bays itinerary which gave us the best chance of seeing Galapagos Penguins and the only chance of seeing Waved Albatross, but meant we would not see the endemic Flightless Cormorant seen only on Fernandina and Isabela Islands.

Although we had time to relax, have a drink and just enjoy being on the water and the beauty of the islands, this trip was very active with at least two and often three activities each day. Generally the boat would travel at night and would anchor fairly close to our island of the day which we would then access using the two motored Zodiacs taking us ashore with either wet or dry landings. The former meant getting wet maybe up to the knees and the latter meant stepping directly onto a sandy or rocky beach or in one case onto a simple stairway up to a small dock. Our buffet breakfast was always at 8:00 a.m. and was typically followed by our first activity of the day boarding the Zodiacs at 9:30. These first activities were always a visit onshore to one of the islands either to walk on a beautiful sandy beach, to hike on designated paths or to climb a hill for great views. In every case we would encounter wildlife immediately upon our landing – an exciting array of birds, reptiles, and the only mammal native to the islands, Sea Lions. We would also usually see birds on the way in and often saw fish, Sea Lions, Green Sea Turtles and of course seabirds as we made our way to shore.

If you listen to stories from visitors, something that is always emphasized is the ability to get really close to all the wildlife. It is used to human visitation but unlike wildlife almost everywhere else, there is no association of humans with danger as there is no hunting and touching, and chasing or otherwise interfering with all wildlife is strictly illegal. This results in fantastic experiences and unlimited photo ops. I am not much of a swimmer and although I tried snorkeling on two occasions, I sat out some other snorkeling trips and due to equipment issues I cut both of my experiences short and due to my lack of skill I also did not get very far below water where some of the best experiences were to be had. With one noted exception, all of the wildlife photos will be mine. And one caveat about the snorkeling: unlike Hawaii, Australia, the Caribbean and other South or Southeast Asian waters, snorkeling in the Galapagos at this time of year meant relatively cold waters that were often fairly murky. We all wore and needed wet suits.

I was on the lookout for new bird species as soon as we left the plane in San Cristobal. Ecuador is a very bird rich country with the highest density of species of any country in the world having over 1700 species. Compare that to the United States and Canada which together have less than 1100 species. If there was the same density of species in the U.S. and Canada as in Ecuador, we would have over 60,000 species. The diversity in Ecuador is due largely to the rainforests, cloud forests and altitude changes of the Andes. The situation in the Galapagos is very different with only 190 species having been recorded of which only 56 are native to the Islands and of these depending on whose definition is used and how it is applied there are between 25 and 35 endemics which are prized by visiting birders since they can be found nowhere else on earth. Although they may be the dullest colored birds on the islands, the Darwin finches (actually members of the tanager family) are of the greatest interest to many birders and naturalists. They are endemic to the Islands and were the key to Darwin’s thinking on evolution, natural selection and the origin of species.

A major plus for naturalists and birders is that so many of the species found on the Galapagos, especially the finches, are unique either in that they are found either only there or a few other places and they are not shy generally seen out in the open. As a result, anything seen is likely to be special, so I was looking for anything. And it did not take long to find something special as some Small Ground Finches were foraging in the city as we approached the Zodiacs that would take us to our mother ship. And at the water’s edge we were greeted by Sea Lions, again very approachable and found almost daily during our visit. And there was quickly more as Wedge Tailed and Elliot’s Storm Petrels (both lifers) followed us on the Zodiac ride and Magnificent Frigatebirds soared overhead.

**Small Ground Finch – A Lifer for Me – One of the Darwin Finches**

**Wedge-tailed Storm-petrel – Another Lifer**

**Magnificent Frigatebird – often following our boat with as many as 20 soaring above us**

On board, introductions were made for guests and crew, cabins were assigned, luggage was delivered, safety protocols were outlined and of course there was a welcoming drink and then a lovely lunch. We met at the back of the yacht to choose our wet suits and snorkeling gear for adventures to follow. There were no excursions this day as our yacht left the harbor and took us to the Leon Dormido (Sleeping Lion), a split rock rising 500 feet above the water which we circumnavigated providing us with our first looks at roosting Nazca and Blue Footed Boobies, Brown Noddies and the highlight for me, a lifer endemic Galapagos Petrel. After a cocktail hour and a briefing for the next day’s activities, we had the first of many incredible dinners before retiring to our first night aboard – fortunately with very calm seas.

On Monday after our first scrumptious breakfast and lots of excellent Ecuadorian coffee, we were off for our first excursion taking the Zodiacs to Cerro Brujo (Wizard’s Hill) on San Cristobal Island where after exploring the rocks with views of close by Brown Noddy Terns and my lifer endemic Lava Gull, we were met by Sea Lions on the beach and Sally Lightfoot Crabs and the endemic Marine Iguanas on the rocks with Blue Footed Boobies and Brown Pelicans fishing in the surrounding waters. We had the beautiful sandy beach to ourselves free to swim – joining the sea lions or just to explore.

**Lots of Marine Iguanas – The Red Ones are Males Looking for Females**

We then returned to our ship and had a welcoming snack and a little down time before lunch onboard. In the afternoon we returned to San Cristobal at a spot called Punt Pitt with a relatively long hike on the rocky island. Our guides rated the walks/hikes on a scale from 1 to 5 with 5 being the hardest. This was rated 5. The trail was a bit rough with lots of rocks to clamber over and with challenging footing requiring constant attention. There was some elevation gain but not too bad and we were at sea level so no altitude/oxygen challenges. If this was a 5 then our gorilla trek in Uganda was at least a 10 or maybe even a 15. And the scenery and wildlife distractions made us forget about the rigor. Certainly for me the highlight was seeing all three of the boobies that can be found on these islands together in one place including seeing birds and young on their nests. The name “booby” is generally thought to have derived from the Spanish “bobo” which means “stupid”. These birds do sometimes have that look and were often eaten when they were easily captured on ships at sea, the birds being tame and unsuspecting. They live on fish that they catch after lightning quick dives from significant heights over the ocean.

The three boobies found in the Galapagos are the Blue-footed, Red-footed and Nazca Boobies. I had seen all three species before including the first ever record of a Red-footed Booby that somehow found its way to Port Townsend this summer and in fact is still being seen there. I had seen the first North American record of Nazca Booby in San Diego 5 years ago and also saw one that was on a container ship in Puget Sound that sailed in front of my home. And I had marvelous views of Blue-footed Boobies in Mexico with Greg Homel in December last year. But those experiences all paled compared to being able to see dozens of each species of booby up close on San Cristobal. The Red-footed Booby nests only on San Cristobal and is rarely seen on the other islands.

**Red-footed Booby Coming in for a Landing**

There are eight booby species in the world. In addition to the three found on the Galapagos, I have seen Brown Booby, Cocos Booby, Masked Booby and Peruvian Booby. The only species I have not seen is Abbott’s Booby which is extremely rare and localized, breeding only on Christmas Island in the South Pacific. There are three closely related and similar looking species of gannets: the Northern Gannet found on the East Coast of the US and in Europe, the Cape Gannet, found off South Africa and the Australasian Gannet found primarily off the coasts of Australia and New Zealand. I have seen the first two but missed the Australasian Gannet when I was in Australia.

I had two other lifers on this excursion: the Medium Ground Finch and the Galapagos Flycatcher, both endemics. As mentioned before, the finches are probably the most famous birds of the Galapagos because of their importance to the development of the theory of the origin of species through natural selection developed by Charles Darwin. Somehow perhaps millions of years ago, the precursors of these birds made it to the Galapagos in sufficient numbers to begin breeding. It is theorized they crossed the many hundreds of miles of open ocean either due to a storm or a raft of vegetation that made it to the island shores. Over the millennia they bred, colonized other islands and developed unique features, primarily related to the size and structure of their bills that allowed them to fill the habitat and food niches that were available to them on the islands and were not being used by other species – since there were none. Thus there are Ground Finches, Tree Finches, Cactus Finches, Woodpecker Finches, Warbler Finches, Vegetarian Finches and Mangrove Finches. Some are found only on a few islands or even a single island. On San Cristobal, I was able to see only Small and Medium Ground Finches. Note the differences (small) in bill shape and size between these two species. It it more pronounced in some of the other finches that will be included later.

The Galapagos Flycatcher is very similar to many small flycatchers found on both the South American and North American mainlands. It is obviously related to and has evolved from an ancestor common to them all. Again how did its ancestor get to the Galapagos – a mystery. There are dozens of flycatcher species on every continent. This is the only one in the Galapagos. Why? Probably the main reason is that there are relatively few insects on the islands due largely to their arid nature.

**Galapagos Flycatcher – Lifer and Endemic**

There was one other bird species of special note on this excursion. The Swallow-tailed Gull is not endemic to the Galapagos but that is where there are generally found. There is a notable exception. On August 31, 2017, Ryan Merrill, one of the super birders in Washington State found a Swallow-tailed Gull at Carkeek Park in King County, Washington. It was the first time one had been seen north of the Equator. He posted his find on Tweeters, a local listserv and I was able to get there 30 minutes later, the third person in Washington to see it. The bird remained in the area, including making several appearances in my hometown of Edmonds. It was also a big deal nationally as more than 1000 birders from across the nation came to see this mega-rarity generally seen only in the Galapagos. I saw more than 100 of these beautiful gulls this afternoon and would see many more later on our trip.

One last bird species of note was the Great Frigatebirds, both adults and juveniles – both because they are so striking and because we saw some uniquely plumaged juveniles – the first ones I had seen. There is not a lot of non-bird wildlife on the islands we visited. As was often the case, there were again many Sea Lions and some Marine Iguanas – the only iguanas that swim in the ocean. Otherwise the only other animals we saw were some Lava Lizards.

At night the yacht moved to Espanola Island our adventure land for Tuesday and a day I had looked forward to since booking our tour and choosing this itinerary as it is the only place in the world where Waved Albatross breed. There are 22 species of albatross in the world, all but three of which are found in the Southern Hemisphere. I have seen all three of the ones occurring in the Northern Hemisphere on pelagic trips out of Westport Washington. These are the Black-footed Albatross (common), Laysan Albatross (regular but rare) and the Short-tailed Albatross (extremely rare). We saw more than 30 Waved Albatross on Espanola, only albatross #4 that I have seen out of the 19 southern hemisphere albatrosses, so I have a long way to go. Albatrosses are fascinating animals, long lived (up to 50 years) which mate for life, spend almost their entire lives at sea except when they return to remote islands to mate and nest, have extremely efficient body structures with very long thin wings (up to 12 feet for the Wandering Albatross) that enable them to soar seemingly effortlessly without ever flapping their wings. Some albatrosses remain at sea – mostly in flight – for up to six years before returning to land to breed. Studies show that an albatross may fly 10,000 miles in a single journey and can circumnavigate the globe in 46 days. The Waved Albatross has a wingspan of up to 8 feet and an adult weighs 7.5 pounds.

**Waved Albatross near its Nest** **– Lifer, Endemic**

I had 5 other lifers on the island: Red-billed Tropicbird, Galapagos Hawk, Espanola Mockingbird, Gray Warbler-finch and Espanola Ground-finch. The Tropicbird was the one I most wanted to see, not because it is the rarest as that honor goes to the Galapagos Hawk, perhaps the rarest raptor in the world with fewer than 500 individuals remaining, but because I think it is very beautiful, very cool looking with its needle thin long tail.

**Gray Warbler-finch** **– Lifer, Endemic**

Espanola Mockingbird – **Lifer, Endemic**

Espanola Ground-finches **– Lifer, Endemic**

In the afternoon the activity was snorkeling in Gardner Bay. As I mentioned had earlier I am not big on swimming and snorkeling so this was not a successful activity for me. Many of the others on the trip had a good experience seeing a variety of small fish, a couple of swimming sea lions and an octopus – sorry no photos to attach. Dinner was an outstanding ceviche.

Although this post is focused on the birds and animals of the trip while the first post covered details of the ship etcetera, this is a good place to repeat how great the service and food was – with attention to every detail. One of the delights of food in Ecuador in general and also onboard the MV Theory, were the great soups. On the mainland, we had soup with every dinner and every lunch – usually served with popcorn I guess to provide body. No popcorn on our yacht but excellent soups.

On Wednesday we had moved on to Floreana Island where on our morning visit we were greeted by American Flamingos. Although I had seen literally more than a million flamingoes in Africa (Greater and Lesser) and Chilean Flamingoes earlier this year in Argentina, the only American ones I had seen previously was one 46 years ago in the Florida keys (no photo), and an escapee from a collection near San Diego. My photos were the first of this species that I could “count”.

**Welcoming American Flamingo** **– Life Photo**

**Amazing to Get This Close to a Feathered not Plastic Flamingo**

There were two world lifers for me on this visit – Small Tree-finch and Galapagos Dove. I kept waiting for the dove to come out fully in the open, but I could never get a really good angle. Sometimes it just works out that way. There were a number of other birds seen on Floreana that were new both for the Galapagos and for my Ecuador list. I had spent 10 days on the mainland birding with friend Tom St. John and guide Nelson Apolo Jaramillo which added significantly to my list of Ecuador species from the visit with Cindy back in 2022. That mainland birding was in the Andes and in the Amazon – nothing coastal and no real opportunities for shorebirds, so there were lots of new Ecuador birds on this Galapagos visit. By the end of the visit I added 42 species for Ecuador bringing my total to 713, a number surpassed only by my United States list which is at 780. Adding to that U.S. list will be very difficult with it very unlikely to get even close to 800 species. If I ever return to Ecuador, a carefully planned trip would get over 800 for sure. The shorebirds added in the Galapagos were American Oystercatcher, Whimbrel, Least Sandpiper, Killdeer, Black-bellied Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, Wandering Tattler and Sanderling. On Floreana, I also added White-cheeked Pintail for Ecuador, a species I had seen 44 years ago in Trinidad and seen and photographed in Argentina earlier this year.

I have already mentioned several species that were seen earlier from the MV Theory or on our Zodiac trips, storm petrels shearwaters, frigatebirds, boobies, terns and petrels. We saw some of these species every day. Earlier I included a photo of a Wedge-tailed Storm Petrel seen from the yacht when I first got on board. By far the more common storm petrel was the Elliott’s Storm Petrel, probably seen every day and sometimes in groups of 10 or more. There are two other storm petrels seen in the Ecuador – Band-rumped and Markham’s. I had seen the first on a pelagic trip off the coast of North Carolina. It is not common in the Galapagos and is very similar in appearance to Elliot’s so I did not try to pick one out – in fact I am not sure I could have identified it. There is speculation that the species seen in the Atlantic is different from the one seen in the Pacific. If it is split off as a distinct species I will scour my photos of Elliot’s Storm-petrels from this trip and hope that I may find one. Markham’s is not found in the Galapagos preferring warmer water closer to the mainland.

I have to add one more sighting on the island that morning, unfortunately not by me. When we went on excursions, we would split into two groups, one led by each of the naturalists. On Floreana I was with Billy Maquilon and the other group was with Martin Loyola. At the end of the excursion, Martin showed me a photo he had taken with his phone of a bird he did not recognize. It turned out to be a Tawny-throated Dotterel, a species that had been seen in the Galapagos only once previously more than 30 years ago, it being found only in limited habitats on the mainland. Sadly it was not possible for me to go back to where he had seen it, and especially since I had never seen one, it was the worst miss of the trip. Including it here for the story only.

**Tawny-throated Dotterel – found by Martin Loyola**

After yet another wonderful lunch and some rest, we returned to Floreana in the afternoon to participate in a thrilling Galapagos tradition. Floreana is home to Post Office Bay, the site where English whaling vessels erected a post barrel in the late 18th century. They would leave letters in the barrel with the hope that other visitors would find them and take them back to England for delivery. We had been given post cards which we filled out and dropped into the barrel, no postage required. The tradition is to search through the postcards left by previous visitors, and if you see one addressed to a location near your home, you may choose to take it with you. However, you must deliver it in person. Similarly, your postcards will be delivered by future visitors. Later we returned to the yacht and for an Espresso Martini made from Galapagos grown coffee.

Thursday morning, we disembarked at Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, the social hub of the Galapagos Islands with a population of 24,000 and boarded a private bus for a scenic excursion to the highlands of Santa Cruz traversing diverse vegetation zones with lush greenery at higher elevations. The main objective was a visit to a privately-owned ranch where the amazing Giant Land Tortoises roam freely in their pristine natural habitat. These gentle giants grow to exceed 500 pounds and offer an awe-inspiring spectacle. We had the chance to approach these tortoises within only a few feet (never touching them) and watching them lumber around the terrain. These animals are the first thing I think of when anyone mentions the Galapagos. Altogether we saw more than 100 during this excursion.

During the visit we saw many of the Darwin finches, including my first Large Ground Finch, my first Woodpecker Finch and also two new birds for my Galapagos list – Smooth-billed Ani and Common Gallinule, the latter new for Ecuador as well.

**Smooth-billed Ani** – **Not Native to the Galapagos**

On Friday, October 11th, we had repositioned to Bartolome Island and our morning excursion would be a hike described as a challenge, with about 400 wooden steps winding around Bartolome island, ending in a gorgeous panoramic view of Pinnacle Rock. Our pace was slow and the footing was good so no problem getting to the top. On the way out to the island we had some good looks at Common Bottlenose Dolphins and close to shore we had a close up of a Marine Iguana swimming in the surf.

**Cindy and Blair at the top of the Climb**

**Marine Iguana Swimming Just off the Beach**

During the morning hike we saw some nice birds on the way: American Flamingo, Brown Pelican, more Small Ground Finches and the Galapagos Form of a Striated Heron – called a Lava Heron. I also had a nice photo of a Yellow Warbler. We also saw more American Oystercatchers and some Least Sandpipers on the sand.

After the hike there was some swimming for anyone interested before returning to the ship with Frigatebirds overhead and then yet another great lunch before returning to the Zodiacs for a trip back to Bartolome looking for Galapagos Penguins.

There are 18 species of penguins, flightless birds, all of which are found only south of the equator except for the Galapagos Penguin which ventures just a bit north. For most of us Penguins are generally associated with Antarctica, but only two species, the Emperor Penguin and the Adelie Penguin live only there with some others found at the tip of the Antarctic peninsula or on nearby subantarctic islands. The King and Emperor Penguins are the largest and most striking. Earlier this year, Cindy and I saw Humboldt Penguins in Chile and in 2014 I saw African Penguins in South Africa. The former were pretty far away and the latter were quite close. We got to see these endemic Galapagos Penguins at pretty close range on the rocky coast of the Island and in the water. To my eye, these three species look pretty similar.

On the way back to the ship, I got my only decent photo of a Green Sea Turtle swimming on the surface of the water. All of my other shots were of the head only.

We were now coming to the end of this marvelous trip. It is Saturday and we are moored off of South Plaza Island. Another breakfast and more good coffee and we were off to explore the island which provided an opportunity to see nesting Swallow-tailed Gulls and Red-billed Tropicbirds and gave me a chance to see my lifer Common Cactus-Finch, the last of the Darwin Finches that I would find on the trip. There was also a single Kelp Gull a species I had identified as a possible lifer when I first planned the trip but added in Chile so now it would be “just” another species for Ecuador. It was also fitting that I also had my last Nazca Booby – joining with the Swallow-tailed Gull as species that I had actually seen in hometown Edmonds – both extraordinary rarities.

**Swallow-tailed Gull** Juvenile with Injured Wing

**Red-billed Tropicbird in Cavity – a Nest?**

**Common Cactus-Finch – Lifer, Endemic**

Land Iguanas were plentiful on the island, many in bright breeding color and munching away on cactus, a favorite food.

After our last lunch onboard, we took the Zodiac to North Seymour Island where the main attractions were nesting Great and Magnificent Frigatebirds and nesting Blue-footed Boobies – presenting endless photo ops. The frigatebirds with their bright red inflated neck pouches was one of the visual highlights of the trip. We saw more than 60 frigatebirds – often 10 or more at a time – adults, chicks and juveniles.

**Male Frigatebird with Fully Inflated Pouch**

**Male Frigatebird Close-Up (wish I could remove that stick)**

As with other island visits, we could get close to the Sea Lions and to the Land Iguanas – our last views this time. The last image is of a Zodiac returning to the mother ship after leaving us onshore.

A few more comments and photos to finish our story. There was no set seating arrangement for dinners and aside from the family of five which always sat together, seating was pretty fluid and mixed. One evening, however Cindy and I found ourselves alone at a table – no seats available at the other tables. We felt a bit old and out of it and although we enjoy our own company, it did drive home that we were old enough to be the parents of most of the others there. The real reason for the seclusion was the practice every night for some of the guests to be invited to sit at the table with the Captain and maybe another member of the crew or Roxanna, the Quality Control person from Relais & Chateau, the luxury collection of hotels and restaurants around the world which includes the Ecoventura yachts. The numbers varied and it just worked out that night that one table would only have two people. (If the full complement of 20 guests were on the trip, there would never have been a table for just two, but since we were only 16, this was the result.) We had not been aware of the invitation to dinner with the captain practice and mentioned to Roxana how we had felt isolated and that maybe fewer people at the Captain’s table would solve the problem. The next morning in typical Relais & Chateau classiness we received a platter after breakfast with an apology, some fruit arranged as two birds, some chocolate covered strawberries and an invitation for us to join the Captain. Since it was only the two of us doing so, that table for two would now be a table for four – no isolation for anyone.

I mentioned it earlier and forgot to include details and a photo, but guests had opportunities to use kayaks and paddleboards. Cindy and I enjoyed one kayak excursion in fairly calm water along the shore of one island. It took a few minutes to synchronize our paddling but then we easily covered a pretty good distance and were able to maneuver around rocks and back eddies. No close encounters with sharks but we were pretty close to some sea lions and both Green Sea Turtles and Marine Iguanas – a very unique Galapagos experience.

On the last night we had a party with the crew dressed as pirates, with music from the multi-talented Billy Maquilon and dancing, well sort of dancing, including the Macarena (when was the last time we heard that!!). We doubt we will ever see any of these folks again and it is unlikely we will return to the Galapagos, but it was truly a magical adventure.

Had this been a trip with a birding group, the focus would have been on seeing as many of the species on the Galapagos as possible. Not the case this time which was just fine and although I missed some species that were possible on the islands we visited, it was still beyond great. Altogether I saw 46 species of which an amazing 42 were new for Ecuador and 21 were new world lifers and there were many new photos for my world photo list. That is important to me, but for this trip probably more than any others, it was the ability to get so close to all of the wildlife seeing it in the unique and pristine habitats of the Galapagos Islands that was so special. Wow – what an adventure!!

The Magical Galapagos Islands

Posted on November 1, 2024August 15, 2025 by blairbirding

In Spanish “galapagos” are saddles. What do saddles have to do with these beautiful islands 600 miles from the Ecuador mainland? The answer involves the giant land tortoises, one of the most iconic images from the Galapagos Islands. They are found on several of the islands, especially on Santa Cruz. Since the males can reach six feet in length and weigh over 500 pounds, I guess you could ride one – maybe using a saddle, and I expect someone may have tried that, but the connection with a saddle is because the shells of the tortoise apparently reminded early visitors of a horse saddle, so there you have it – the surprising origin of the name for these islands which are full of surprises and many delights.

**Giant Land Tortoise with its “Galapago”**

In early October this year, Cindy and I had the special privilege and pleasure of visiting the Galapagos for 8 days joining 14 other guests aboard the “Theory”, one of three spectacular yachts owned and operated by Ecoventura which describes itself as for over three decades, having “redefined the luxury expedition yachting experience by immersing travelers in an intimate voyage with exceptional itineraries, refined gastronomy, and life-enriching experiences in the Galapagos Islands.” Granted we have no other cruise data for comparison, but we could not agree more with that description of our experience with Ecoventura, truly an exceptional adventure.

*“Theory”* – **Our Yacht in the Galapagos**

In this first of probably two blog posts, my objective is to provide some background for our trip, history and details about the Galapagos Islands, our vessel, our itinerary, fellow travelers and an overview of our activities and the wonderful creatures that we encountered. A second post will focus more on specific animals and activities with lots of photos of course. There is no way I can do this journey justice as one simply has to have been there – on the ship, on the ocean and on the islands to really appreciate how incredible it all was. We have been fortunate and spoiled to have now had several “trips of a lifetime” – none have been better than this one.

Background – Before the Trip

Where to start? How about with why the Galapagos. In 2022 I had dragged Cindy off to Ecuador for a birding trip. She mostly knew what she was getting into as we been on a birding trip to Oaxaca, Mexico with a small group. That trip was just OK as the approach and makeup of the group was not what we would have liked. So for our Ecuador trip, we changed our approach and had a private trip with our own driver and guide, our own itinerary. It cost a little more than with a larger group, but surprisingly not as much more as one might expect. We loved Ecuador, the colorful birds at feeders at charming and comfortable lodges, the empanadas, the amazing Andes, the incredible Sacha Lodge in the Amazon and wonderful people. Ecuador is one of the top birding destinations in the world, and while our 450 species were barely 25% of the species possible in that relatively small country, it was a very successful trip from my perspective which was mostly interested in seeing and photographing birds. Cindy loved many of the birds, especially the hummingbirds and tanagers, but more so, she loved the experience, the feel and flavor of the place. Improving on the Oaxaca experience, we felt comfortable in planning future trips with lots of birds and nature in somewhat exotic out of the way places. Cindy was very happy with Ecuador, but we learned that maybe we had made a mistake planning this trip. Including the travel, our trip in June 2022 had been for just over two weeks with no time in the capital city of Quito and most importantly with no time in a place that came up extremely positively and often in conversations with other travelers we met. That place of course was the Galapagos. People literally gushed about their experiences and said “you have to go”.

**Sacha Lodge in the Ecuadorean Amazon – June 2022**

The seed had been planted and it grew. But there were other seeds as well including a trip that we had planned even before that first Ecuador trip but that had been cancelled by Covid. It was to Tanzania – on the very top of our wish list. Especially if traveling with tour companies that organize these kinds of trips, it is essential to book well in advance maybe even a year or more out. So we grabbed two open spots on the Tanzania trip for February 2023. Pre-Covid, we had thought we would do two trips a year mixing birding and non-birding activities. With that plan in mind and having an opportunity to travel with friends, we also booked a non-birding trip to Italy in October 2023. Tanzania was fantastic and the Walk About Italy trip was mixed. Lots of good pieces but some disappointments as well. But we loved being with friends and thought we would pursue that again – maybe even with friends interested in at least some birding along the way.

We had also learned that we had to admit that we were getting older (even if hopefully not yet “old”) so with the number of years ahead with good health probably decreasing with each passing year, we decided to do three trips a year if we could, adding travels with friends and combining birds with other interests where possible. What to do in 2024? Before Covid we had planned to join “Field Guides Birding” on a trip to Chile and Argentina combining birds and wines. It had been cancelled but our interest remained. We checked and were at first pleased to see that it was still open for February 2024, but then disappointed to learn that only three people had signed on. Our joining would leave the threshold for a good to go decision still one short. Friends that might have been interested had other plans for the dates, but after some pricing negotiation, the decision to go was finalized. It was a great trip with nice birds (too many nondescript brown ones for non-birder Cindy) and lots (and lots and lots) of excellent wines. We really enjoyed the other couple on the trip, convincing us further that traveling with friends was a great idea.

**A Glimpse of our Birds and Wine Tour**

I had a fabulous birding experience with super guide and super photographer Greg Homel in Mexico on my own in December 2023 and wanted to go out with him again this time with Cindy and friends. Cindy really wanted to get back to Africa and Greg had led many trips to Uganda which had great appeal as a new location with the special opportunity of seeing Mountain Gorillas and Chimpanzees. It was also of interest to a couple we knew, so we planned a visit for June 2024. Long story short, Greg’s local partner in Uganda reorganized and the trip fell apart after a month of back and forth negotiations. By that time we were frustrated but had really bought into Uganda as a destination. Unfortunately our potential travel partners soured on the whole idea. We found that a trip to Uganda with Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (the company we used and liked in Tanzania) would go if two more people signed on. We did and we went. What does this have to do with the Galapagos you might ask? First due to a bad experience with our companions on the Uganda trip (i.e. very poor chemistry) we were further committed to traveling with friends and secondly although the couple we hoped to join us in Uganda didn’t go, Tom, the birder in the couple, was still interested in a birding trip (his first). So we looked for a way to get in another trip, go birding with Tom and travel with friends. How about Ecuador now to include the Galapagos Islands? Tom and I could bird ourselves for a week or so and then I could meet Cindy and non-birding members of her family that we were close to for a trip to the Galapagos – that seed now germinated and just needing some attention.

**Proof of Our Uganda Gorilla Tracking Success**

We explored the various ways to visit the Galapagos and through some hard work and lots of luck we discovered Ecoventura. Reviews were fabulous; everything we read was fabulous; the photos and videos were fabulous; the size was very appealing – with a maximum of 20 passengers versus some other boats that were 70 to 100; and the price was … daunting but at least close to within our budget. There were two itinerary choices and the one we preferred was available on workable dates for all of us and I was able to find a birding trip for Tom and me that would fit the scheduling (to be covered in future blog posts) and we found acceptable flights. We were on.

Getting There

Both trips – birding for Tom and me and the Galapagos for Cindy, me, Mike and Stephanie, started with trips from Seattle to Quito. Our flights would all be with United and Copa Airlines and the route was Seattle to Los Angeles then Los Angeles to Panama City, Panama and then to Quito. For me and Tom, there was a problem in Los Angeles that delayed the departure to Panama City meaning we would miss our connection there and we would have to spend the night in Panama City. Since the problem was caused by the airline (Copa) we were given “hotel” vouchers which turned out to be a pass to a lounge at the airport that was pretty crappy with the only chance to lay flat being on the floor or on seats pulled together – awkwardly. Bottom line – maybe an hour or so of restless sleep. We then caught an early flight to Quito arriving midday. More detail will follow in a blog on that trip. For Cindy et al arriving later, they had no connection problems and arrived in Quito around 1:00 a.m. on October 4. After clearing airport hurdles, they got their bags and took a taxi to the Wyndham Quito Airport hotel – barely 5 minutes away and at a cost of $3.00 for the cab. The hotel was obviously super convenient (at least to the airport) and was very nice – good rooms, good service and quiet.

After my birding trip with Tom, I met the family at the Wyndham. We went into Quito the next day for a brief visit – brief only because we really didn’t find much to keep us there – and returned to the Wyndham which we would leave the next morning taking the shuttle back to the airport. Our departure instructions from Ecoventura were concise, accurate and reassuring. We were met by their representative at the airport who walked us through everything and gave us our tickets for the flight from Quito to Guayaquil (about 40 minutes), where we would stay on the plane which after refueling would then head off to San Cristobal in the Galapagos about 90 minutes away. Consistent with everything that would follow on this trip, every detail was perfectly planned and executed and always with a smile. We were clearly in good hands.

The Galapagos – Facts and History

The Galapagos Islands are part of Ecuador, located in the South Pacific Ocean about 600 miles west of the mainland. There are 127 volcanic islands of which 18 are considered major. Located close to the equator, there is approximately 12 hours of daylight year round and temperatures are relatively stable determined more by clouds and rain (which is limited). Although today approximately 30,000 people live on the islands, they were unpopulated when discovered by accident by Tomás de Berlanga, a Spanish noble and the bishop of Panama, whose ship was blown off course in 1535 while sailing from Panama to Peru. He described the barren islands as worthless. Though Spanish sailors, buccaneers, and whalers soon followed in Berlanga’s wake, the islands’ inhospitable dry terrain discouraged permanent habitation. The Galápagos was annexed by Ecuador from Spain in 1832, which led to a trickle of settlements and penal colonies. It wasn’t until the 1960s that an increasing number of Ecuadorians began migrating to the islands, drawn by opportunities in fishing and tourism.

Although Charles Darwin only spent five weeks in the Galápagos in 1835, his time in the archipelago left a lasting impression. Here, the English naturalist famously observed that the islands’ finches (later named in his honor) had beaks that varied from island to island, depending on local conditions and food sources. Darwin would later draw on this research as evidence for his theory of evolution by natural selection, which he presented in On the Origin of the Species.

97 percent of the Galápagos landmass is designated a national park. Established in 1959, Galápagos National Park protects more than 3,000 square miles of islands and islets, while the Galápagos Marine Reserve protects an additional 50,000 square miles of ocean around the islands. There are strict limits on visitation and activities with all visitors needing permits and all ships limited to no more that 100 passengers, with highly regulated itineraries and schedules and all requiring local guides/naturalists. It is illegal to remove or disturb any plant life, sea life or animal life or any geological items. Great care is taken to prevent any organisms from elsewhere to be brought into/onto the Galapagos Islands. As a result of these controls and a conservationist culture, the unique flora and fauna of the islands is being preserved and the animals are incredibly confiding, allowing close observation and appreciation by visitors. During our entire stay on the islands, we did not see a single piece of trash. We did see a few other small tourist vessels but almost always had beaches and hikes completely to ourselves.

Our Gang

The Theory is built for 20 guests. October is not the peak season probably due to little cooler temperatures (air and water) so we only had 16 passengers on board. To our surprise Cindy and I were the oldest passengers. Two others were in their 60’s, three in their 50’s, 6 in their 40’s and one family had three children aged 7, 12 and 14. The family was from Houston, TX, one couple was from Seattle, another from Atlanta and one from Nashville, TN. There was a single woman from New York City and Mike and Stephanie are from Arlington, WA with Cindy and I or course being from Edmonds, WA. Although Cindy and I often felt like parents or grandparents because of the age difference, and to some extent we were probably treated as such, everyone in the group was intelligent, considerate, and good natured. Despite an abundance of available free alcohol, there were no indications of over indulgence. Potentially problematic discussions of politics and/or religion were non-existent.

While our travel companions were major parts of the trip without question it was the quality of all of the crew that made the trip special. Altogether there were 14 members of the crew including many rarely if ever seen because of their engineering or other duties keeping them away from passenger activities. Bartenders, waiters, chefs, cooks, and Zodiac drivers were all consistently helpful, attentive, informative, engaging and well beyond pleasant. Our captain and others responsible for navigating and moving the vessel were the same. I give a special shout out for four special members of the Ecoventura team. I am not sure what title or job description to give for Maria, but she is listed as the Room Attendant which seems to be way too small for her actual work. She saw to it that every cabin was always clean, in perfect order and well stocked. Breakfast each morning would be at 8 and within moments of any cabin being empty, she would be at work, invisibly making it perfect despite the disarray that we may have created. By 8:45 or so when we returned, each room would be in complete order and Maria would have transitioned to help prepare for whatever our next activity would be on land. I never saw Maria without a smile or a kind word, even if in Spanish. A second shout out goes to Jessica officially our Concierge. She made sure everything was in order and everyone was happy, announcing schedules, helping with supplies, bills or anything that anyone wanted – at any time. If something didn’t work – or more likely we did not know how to make it work – like TV, wi-fi, blinds, safes, first-aid or whatever, Jessica was the go to person to take care of it. Again always with a smile and always with kind words.

In a special category of their own were the two wonderful naturalists Martin Loyola and Billy Maquilon. They were our leaders for each adventure on land or in the sea. Typically our group would split into two with one or the other naturalist accompanying each group whether it was for snorkeling, beach walking or hiking. Along the way they would regale us with stories, science, history, culture and laughs. They knew every rock, plant and animal – not just superficially but also in depth. It was impossible to be with them without learning something and without smiling and laughing. They captured many moments on cameras – theirs or ours – souvenirs of the trip.

Our Yacht – Some Details

(Much of the following is from an extensive 5 star review at http://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Ecoventura-MV-THEORY-Galapagos-2243) Built in 2019 and refurbished in 2022, the 434 gross ton MV Theory is 141 feet long with a 26 foot beam. The maximum passenger capacity is 24 (adding bunk beds to 4 staterooms). All staterooms are 160 sf and are located on the exterior of the deck with large portholes and full bathrooms ensuite. It has a crew of 13. It is classified as an ultra-luxury superyacht. It and its two sister ships are the only ships with the Relais & Chateau brand certification which signifies “charm, courtesy, character, cuisine and calm” for its 580 worldwide unique and independently owned luxury hotels and restaurants. It is operated by Abercrombie & Kent/A&K Travel Group via Ecoventura Galapagos. Each stateroom has its own tv, ample storage, and self regulated heating and cooling systems which were blissfully quiet. For the most part the ship traveled between islands at night with general calm seas. On two nights we had noticeable rocking and rolling. Nobody got seasick during our travels.

The boat has 4 decks, of which 2 are with cabins (one for the crew, one for the passengers). All passenger cabins being on a single deck is rather unusual (especially for a Galapagos-based ship), as opposed to other ships (superyachts and even smaller boats) where guests’ accommodations spread on two or three decks, and some are with small Portholes (round-shaped windows).MV THEORY staterooms (a total of 10 passenger cabins) are all outside and located on Beagle Deck (main deck 2). All cabins provide luxury hotel amenities and unobstructed ocean views. Four pairs (8 cabins) are with interconnecting doors making them ideal for families. All crew cabins (8 total) are on Finch Deck (lower deck 1).

Cabin amenities include King-size double beds (convertible to twins/single beds, premium linens, duvets, 3 pillows per berth), leather headboards, bedside cabinets (with a drawer), wall-mounted reading lamps, hardwood flooring, 2-3 large windows (non-opening, with shades), a small corner table/writing desk (stool, binoculars, magnifying mirror, reusable water bottles), radio/alarm clock, TV, in-built sound system, mood lighting, individually controlled air conditioning.

Cabin bathrooms also have a large window (non-opening) allowing natural light directly into the shower cubicle. Cabin showers are with sliding glass doors, the WCs are wall-hung toilets. All toiletries are biodegradable and include soap, shampoo, conditioner. Premium bathrobes and sleepers are also provided. Triple cabins additionally have a fold-away bed (concealed in the ceiling). Laundry service is provided complimentary.

Onboard venues and facilities include Bar Lounge, Dining Room, Library, Boutique Shop, Sauna Room, small Fitness center. The yacht has two Zodiacs (large-capacity RIBs/rigid inflatable boats stored forward on Deck 2) used for passenger transportation (ship-island-ship) and also for near-shore cruising tours. Besides the Zodiac tours to the islands, Ecoventura also complimentary provides all tourists with snorkeling gear and sea kayaks.

Ecoventura’s vacation travel experience features daily shore excursions (usually starting at dawn, after the buffet-style breakfast) as passengers are ferried via the Zodiacs to the island’s landing point. The Zodiac landings are two types (depending on the island/destination) – wet (you must step into the water and wade to shore) and dry (you step from the boat directly to the rock). Around 3-4 hours are spent ashore at each site. In addition to the guided tours are complimentary offered activities like deep water snorkeling (sometimes twice daily), beach swimming, kayaking, and boat rides.

Upon return to the yacht are offered snacks (meaning special preparations well beyond the common meaning of a mere snack) and fresh juices, leisure activities (swimming/snorkeling/kayaking near the ship or sunbathing/relaxing on the Sun Deck), followed by lunch, and another set of land tours. Dinners (at ~7+ pm) are served and with freshly prepared a-la-carte meals (including vegetarian and vegan dishes) prepared by the ship’s chefs with the freshest (mainly locally sourced) ingredients and inspired by Relais & Chateaux.

The ship’s top deck is a spacious sundeck/outdoor area for relaxation and sunbathing. The Sun Deck features a round Jacuzzi (bow-facing whirlpool bath) and is served by its own Bar (poolside wet bar with stools). Sun Deck’s flooring is of premium teak and the furniture includes 4-seat tables, sofas, daybeds, padded lounge chairs, two hammocks.

The MV THEORY yacht is equipped with 2x Zodiacs/RIBs (aka pangas), 1x glass-bottom boat, 5x tandem kayaks and 2x SUP boards (stand-up paddle boards/surfboards) which are provided to passengers free of charge during the entire voyage.

Onboard dining (all meals and beverages) are included in the Ecoventura’s fares. The food is freshly prepared using only sustainably sourced meats and seafood. All snacks are complimentary and available at the Bar throughout the day. Ecoventura’s Open-Bar policy provides complimentary beverages (wine by the glass, beers, spirits, cocktails, fresh juices, sodas, brand coffees and teas). Also included in the cruise tickets are the Wi-Fi Internet (ship-wide coverage), kayaking and snorkeling equipment (masks, fins, snorkels), wet suits (available on a first-come-first-serve basis), Galapagos land transfers (airport-ship-airport) and all guided shore excursions/boat tours.

Ecoventura’s Open-Bridge policy allows passengers to visit the Wheelhouse (Navigation Bridge forward on Deck 3) and engage in conversation with the Captain and the officer on duty.

Adding my own critical comments, the food was fantastic and diverse always with paired wines or beers and preceded (and/or followed) by mixed drinks or coffee. Special nights featured ceviche, pizza, tacos, or sushi and in each case they were wonderful and in keeping with the high level of preparation and presentation. Breakfasts were buffet-style with plentiful fresh fruit and juices, quality teas and coffees (including specialty coffee drinks) and omelets/eggs made to order. I was especially happy to have a mix of granola type cereals, my usual in the morning. A sampling of a dinner menu is shown below. It was like this every night. Over the top.

If you think all of this sounds pretty amazing, you are right and since this was my first real cruise adventure, I am spoiled beyond words and wonder if I can ever settle for another ship experience. And while it would have been enjoyable to have remained on the ship the entire time, it really was the onshore opportunities that made this trip so incredible. Everyone returning from the Galapagos says they were overwhelmed by the ability to interface with so many marvelous birds and animals. Darwin’s Finches and their place in the history of evolution are very interesting but frankly are the least visually exciting animals in the Galapagos – very important to birders like me but generally ignored or barely noticed by others. Not hard to understand when the list of possibilities, even probabilities include the following:

Birds such as Red Footed, Blue Footed and Nazca Boobies; American Flamingos; Magnificent and Great Frigatebirds; Brown Pelicans; Galapagos Penguins; Red Billed Tropicbirds; Waved Albatross; Flightless Cormorants and Lava and Swallow Tailed Gulls – Reptiles such as Marine Iguanas, Green Sea Turtles, Giant Land Tortoises, Lava Lizards and Land Iguanas – and myriad sea creatures including sharks, dolphins, whales, sea lions, octopus, sea stars, crabs and fish by the thousands.

The next blog will be full of our adventures on land and in the sea and will share photos of most of the creatures above – up close and personal. A couple of photos are included below as teasers. Enjoy them and come back for more.

Uganda Finale: Murchison Falls National Park

Posted on August 6, 2024September 14, 2024 by blairbirding

At just over 1500 square miles, Murchison Falls National Park is Uganda’s largest national park. It’s most famous feature is Murchison Falls itself where the entire Nile River flows through a narrow gorge measuring just over 20 feet resulting in extremely turbulent waters below. The Park is dissected by the Nile and is home to large bird and mammal populations. Our time at the Park included two boat rides and two game/bird drives including a night drive that was at or near the top of the list of highlights for the trip.

June 30

We were out early in the North side of the park in beautiful morning light.

This 4 hour trip produced a bird list of 70 species and good mammal sightings. Ten species were new for our trip but lifers were understandably much harder to come by. Still I managed two: Denham’s Bustard and Black-rumped Waxbill. We had been on the lookout for Bustards in this perfect habitat, surprised we had not seen one earlier in our trip. The first one seen was a Black-bellied Bustard that flew by us and then shortly thereafter a lifer Denham’s Bustard appeared. I also got photos of some species seen but not photographed earlier and others that were new for the trip. These included photos of the three lifer species from yesterday where “vehicle challenges” did not enable me to take photos: Swallow-tailed Bee-eater, Shelley’s Rufous Sparrow and Northern Red Bishop.

**Swallow-tailed Bee-eater – Life Photo**

**Vinaceous Dove – Lifer Photo – Another One Missed Yesterday**

It was a very good morning for photos as I got photos of 31 species although I missed a few I would have liked. I also did not bother taking photos of more than 20 species that had been seen and photographed often previously.

**Senegal Thick-knee – our 3rd Thick-knee for the Tour**

**Ruppell’s Griffon and White-backed Vulture**

We returned to the lodge for lunch and a short rest and then were off on another boat ride, this time to the base of Murchison Falls – or as close as we could get to it as the force of the water rushing and then falling through the narrow opening meant rough waters way past the base of the falls. As with all of our boat trips, expert handling of the boat enabled us to get quite close to mammals and birds seen along the way. Adding to our very birdy morning, we had 48 species, only four new for the tour and only one lifer for me, but it was one that had been high on my want list. Due to the high water level, there was some doubt if it would be seen. It was the Rock Pratincole – a specialty at Murchison Falls. Dion said he often had them on rocks near the base of the falls but due to that high water he questioned whether they would be on rocks that would be under water rather than exposed with the Pratincoles sitting on top. Since the falls were at the far end of the river, I am putting the horse before the cart as we did indeed see these lovely little birds – perhaps 30 of them, both in flight and perched on branches probably better than if they had been on the rocks.

Having gotten good photos of the Collared Pratincoles earlier in the trip, I was very pleased. Now to put the cart pack in place, there were lots of good mammal intersections as well – especially with elephants and the many hippos lining the shore of the river. One of the hippos gave us an up close and personal look at its saber like front teeth/tusks – reminding us again that there are more human deaths caused by hippos in Africa than by any other animals.

Earlier on our trip we had seen elephants drawing water up into their trunks before squirting it into their mouths for the drink. We watched this one for quite a while and we wondered if he was siphoning it directly.

We also saw Uganda Kob and Buffalo along the river banks as well as a number of good sized Nile Crocodiles. One group of Buffaloes was particularly welcome because they were accompanied by the only African Spoonbill that we saw on the trip.

**African Spoonbill looking very small next to the Buffaloes**

There were of course many other waders along the shore of the river: African Woolly-Necked and Marabou Storks, a single Black Heron, an African Openbill, Great, Little, Yellow-billed and Western Cattle Egrets, Hadada and African Sacred Ibis, and Gray, Purple and Goliath Herons, the latter the star of the show as it was on its nest with young.

Another photo was a much better one of a Piapiac, a plentiful crow in the area, here a juvenile told by its red bill hitching a ride on a Warthog waiting for an insect it would dig up.

Being on the water, of course we had many kingfishers – four species: Pied, Malachite, Woodland and Giant Kingfishers. I had missed an earlier opportunity for a photo of the latter. Finally got this one, even if not the best pose/shot. And there were other birds not associated with water that we saw on their perches onshore.

**African Gray Woodpeckers – Male and Female**

Our boat captain maneuvered us as close as he could to the Falls themselves – engines fighting against the current and turbulence generated by the river crashing through the small gorge. Murchison Falls is world famous and is impressive but in a way very different from other spectacular falls I have seen. The very thing that makes them special, the great volume of water coming through that small opening, is also the limitation as that narrow open is no comparison to the scale and visual impact of Iguassu/Iguazu Falls or Niagara Falls for their breadth and Yosemite or Bridal Veil falls for their spectacular scenery. Glad I saw Murchison Falls, but to be honest – not a must see.

**We could not get close enough for a photo showing the full fury of the falls and from a distance they are just not that impressive.**

It had already been quite a day as we again totaled over 100 species with many great photos and the view of Murchison Falls itself. But there would be more as we were scheduled to go on a night drive with a wonderful local guide/ranger – Silva. Definitely the highlight of our visit to the Park and among the top two or three parts of our trip.

The Night Drive

Being very close to the equator, darkness arrives in Uganda not long after 6:00 p.m. unlike in our home in Edmonds, Washington where at this time of year, it is not dark until after 10 p.m., thus it was not long after dinner that we could load onto our Land Rover, pick up Silva and head into the dark savannah armed with Silva’s rifle for protection (not needed) and two spotlights to search for wildlife. There was some light from distant villages but otherwise the only light was from our headlights. I have been out in total darkness returning from long birding trips or looking for owls, but I had never been out in areas like this where many animals were grazing and others were hunting. Just as with owling at night, you cannot see anything unless it is directly in the headlights or light from the spotlight. In essence then, we hunt with the spotlights trying to pick up “eye shine” as the light from the spotlight or headlights is reflected from the eyes of the animals. Almost immediately we had “eye shine” which told us where to direct the spotlight: a Hyena, the first visual of one we had on the trip as opposed to many calls we had heard at night.

The early success with the Hyena in the spotlight raised our excitement level and added to what was already sensed as a “cool adventure”. Those assessments increased as we returned to the area where we had seen many mammals on our daytime game/bird drives and we were stunned by the number of eyes that were found returning the shine of the spotlights. There were hundreds of eyes – everywhere. Mostly antelopes like the Uganda Kob and Oribi and a large herd of Buffaloes as well. Most were very distant but occasionally there would be something close on the side of the road (dirt tracks) like the Bushbuck below.

Mammals on the African plains are exciting to see in the day time but especially with the big herds of antelope and even buffaloes, it becomes commonplace and the excitement at least diminishes. But it was a very different feeling at night. There was a sense of mystery and more like a hunt. What would come next? In the daytime I might see an animal hundreds of yards ahead and watch it as our vehicle got closer and closer, perhaps readying my camera for a photo. It was very different at night with far less time to process what was being seen and thus a heightened feeling of a need to “Be ready” for whatever might happen without much warning. A feeling of anticipation for … what?

Silva was awesome as he searched the landscape with his spotlight looking for the next animal, the next surprise. Perhaps an hour into our drive the headlights of the Land Rover picked up some movement on the road ahead of us and Silva quickly got his spotlight on some lion cubs – first one then another and then the mother. Not real close but the way they had appeared out of the dark magnified the excitement acknowledging that any lion cub sighting is already very exciting. The cubs also meant that there were other lions in the area. Would we find them?

Silva was always animated, his positive vibrations felt by us all and we were confident that if there was something out there he would find it. He did. “Lions – feeding lions“, he called. Somehow maybe 150 feet away and mostly hidden in the grass and brush, Silva had spotted a group of lions with one of them on a kill. The general rule is that vehicles are not allowed to leave the designated tracks and drive off into the bush. Silva said “lets go”. Davis, our driver and local guide hesitated not wanting to break the rules – not that there was anyone, other than Silva, within miles of us who would know or report the infraction. Without an instant of hesitation, boss man Dion said “go” and Silva directed us to a spot less than 15 feet from where a large male lion was gorging himself on the kill – an antelope of some sort – and where at least 6 other lions were waiting their turns. Headlights and the engine were turned off and for the next 20 minutes, we were treated to probably the best up close spectacle of life and death on the African savannah I had ever seen – beyond awesome.

I took more than a hundred photos in addition to two videos of the dominant male feasting, another male waiting for and then taking his turn after the dominant male had finished and with females and cubs standing by hoping for opportunities of their own. If the spotlight was not directly on my target, the photos were useless, but there were successes. One of the females, probably the lead lioness, was wearing a radio collar. Silva said this pride was a study group. If the spotlight moved as the photo was taken – nada, but there were good moments when the light was steady. We watched as the first male roared after he was finished and then curled back his lips and seemed to sniff the air. This is called the Flehmen response and is a way for any mammal but predominantly big cats and mostly males to detect the smell of urine from another animal in the air to see if they are ready for/interested in mating. Our interpretation was that having satisfied one of his appetites, the big male was interested in satisfying another. I could have chosen dozens of photos but have included just a small sampling to give some idea of the great show, and unfortunately I cannot imbed the videos.

**Probably the Lead Female – Note the Collar**

**Male Lion Roaring and then “Air Tasting” – the beginning of the Flehmen Response**

**The Flehmen Response – Anybody Interested?**

It was hard to leave but it was getting late – time to return to the lodge. There would be one more treat. On our return we spotted a Grayish Eagle Owl on the road. It flushed at first but returned to the road and we were able to get in the spotlight for some great photo ops. Not a lifer or even a life photo but any owl is great, and finding this one on the road in the open was a fitting close to an amazing day, one of my best ever.

July 1st

The only way we might have topped the experience of the previous day was to see a Leopard hunting or with a kill. They are in the Park but we would not see one making this my only trip to Africa where I have not seen one. We were back on the Nile River birding in the delta. There were eight new species for the tour including two new lifers for me among the 84 species seen. This was our fifth boat trip of the tour and all were great. The two lifers were Northern Carmine Bee-Eater and Black-billed Barbet. The lifer Northern Carmine Bee-eater was one I really wanted and was very happy to get, but it was the Red-throated Bee-Eaters that stole the show as we saw more than three dozen. And it was just a great day for Bee-eaters period as we also had another Swallow-tailed Bee-eater and 3 Madagascar Bee-eaters.

**One of Our 40 Red Throated Bee-eaters**

It was also an excellent day for Kingfishers, as we had Gray-headed, African Pygmy, Malachite, Woodland and Giant Kingfishers – all seen and photographed before but always a treat whether in the forest on on the water. I was particularly glad to get another Giant Kingfisher photo.

It was also a good day for Barbets with the Lifer Black-billed plus Double-toothed and Spot-Flanked.

We had two gull species on the river. There were many nesting Gray-Hooded Gulls, seen earlier on the tour but these were in full breeding plumage with their gray hoods very apparent. The other gull seen was a Black-Headed Gull, very common in Europe and Asia and in parts of Africa but it was the first time Dion or Davis had seen one at this location. It is a rare vagrant in the U.S. and I have seen it both in my home state Washington and also in British Columbia.

**Black-headed Gull – My First in Afric**a

Not the greatest photo but my first for the species was of a Greater Swamp Warbler and the same as to quality and being a first photo applies to my photo of a White-crested Turaco. Much better photos were of three raptors seen and photographed earlier in the trip: Long-crested Eagle, African Harrier-hawk and a Black Kite. The Black Kite was different than ones seen earlier as it was “black-billed”.

**Greater Swamp Warbler – Poor Lifer Photo**

**White-crested Turaco – Life Photo (again poor)**

Another bird of note – new for the trip and apparently very rare for the location was a Red-billed Oxpecker, seen with several Yellow-billed Oxpeckers on the backs of some of the Hippos we saw.

As had been the case with most of our other boat trips, we also had great looks at some mammals and this time particularly a group of elephants that were bathing and also tussling. In one case I was able to get a sequence of one elephant completely submerging with only the tip of its trunk above water – quite a snorkel. I also photographed two elephants pushing each other around as we wondered if a full fledge fight might follow.

There would be one last treat on the water. It seemed ages ago that we had seen the Shoebill at the Mabamba Swamp and Wetlands. In the promotional material for the tour, this boat trip on the Nile was noted as a good possibility for Shoebill in case we had missed it earlier. And so it was as we located another Shoebill, this time having it all to ourselves. A fitting bookend to the tour to have this marvelous bird on both the second and second to last days.

Had it not been for the exceptional preceding day with the night drive and all the other sightings earlier in the tour, this may have ranked at or near the top with elephants, hippos, barbets, waders, bee-eaters, kingfishers, raptors and of course the Shoebill. It is testimony to the many great days on the tour, that it was “just another day” – well, without forests, chimps, gorillas, lions, owls or sunbirds.

July 2nd

This was our last tour day, starting with a visit to the top of Murchison Falls and followed by a very long drive back to Entebbe and the Boma Hotel where it had all started for us 19 days ago. There would be no new lifers this day but I added a life photo, I think. It is of what I believe is a Northern Yellow White-eye. We had Green White-eyes often earlier on the trip but Ebird says it is not found in this location – only the Northern Yellow White-eye. I cannot tell them apart so will go with the Ebird ID. I did not make it to the actual top of Murchison Falls. The rocky trail was extremely slippery from the spray and I was getting soaked even just at the bottom third. I decided to remain dry and forego the view of the Falls themselves settling for the raging river as it narrowed through the gorge to go over the Falls.

The 200 mile trip back to Entebbe would take more than 6 hours traveling through very congested towns, dealing with very slow trucks and the heavy traffic through and around Kampala. As with our other traveling days, we had a good chance to observe the non-safari, non-birding, non-National Park life in Uganda. I hope to write another blog post focusing only on that part of our visit, but will again omit it here.

Our last Ebird list for the tour was from our lunch at the Kabalega Diner. It was pretty birdy with 16 species including a lifer photo of a Yellow-throated Greenbul as well as nice shot of a Green-winged Pytilia feeding on the ground next to us.

**Yellow-throated Greenbul – Life Photo**

Back at the Boma Hotel, we had a last dinner – sadly strained by our interpersonal discomforts with our traveling companions. It was then off for a short rest before leaving very early in the morning for our return flight home. The short drive to the airport, our checking in and flights back home all went well even if very long. Due to the 10 hour time difference and our early departure from Entebbe, we left Uganda on July 3rd and were back in Seattle very late also on the 3rd – 18+ hours on the clock but actually closer to thirty hours of actual time. We were very tired and glad to be home.

Conclusion

Repeating what I think I recall from my first blog – which was written weeks ago – Cindy and I had been spoiled by our awesome trip to Tanzania last year where the birding was easier, there were many more mammals, our travel companions very enjoyable and the lodges were top notch. There were definitely parts of this trip that were “not great” – BUT there were also many highlights, great birds, the amazing gorillas and chimpanzees – even if maybe less incredible experiences than we may have expected/hoped for, the unforgettable night drive and especially some wonderful intersections with local Ugandans particularly our porters in Ruhija and the Ride 4 a Woman Collective in Buhoma. The forest birding was really tough and disappointing but that is what it is and is just a mismatch for what I/we most enjoy. Lots of new birds, but too many heard only or not seen well – lessons learned. All told we are very glad we went, have lots of stories to tell and have already been back in touch with Hilda, Cindy’s Ruhija porter and with Evelyn the founder of Ride for A Woman. Our first local guide, Veronica, has been wonderful in facilitating getting some funds to Hilda. Veronica was an awesome guide and driver – just an awesome person. Our second Ugandan driver and guide, Davis was also a great guide and driver (with a heavier foot – appreciated when passing those trucks) and always had a great smile and personality.

As was the case when he was the lead guide for my trip to India in 2011, Dion Hobcroft was an unbelievable resource for all things natural: birds of course, mammals, plants, reptiles bugs etc. He kept us all on schedule and on task and every detail of the trip went off as planned. Had I been a better listener I also would have learned a lot more about cricket, rugby and Australian rules football in addition to some very odd Aussie sayings.

Some numbers:

My Uganda list for the trip was 444 species.

I added 132 lifers to my World List and now sit at 3507 species – this is just about what I projected as reasonable to expect.

I got photos (some definitely pretty poor) of 306 Ugandan species. My goal is to get photos of 75% to 80% of the birds seen on a tour so being at just under 70% fell a little short. I am sure that if all of the forest species seen and all of the forest species photographed were removed from the equation, the percentage would be well over 80% – another lesson learned.

A disappointment – again connected to the forest birding was that I only added 140 photos to my life photo list. Given 132 lifers, this at first seems really good, but the reality is that only 78 of the new photos were out of those 132 lifers, a pretty poor 59%. I had expected at least 150 photos and had hoped for many more than that. My World Photo list is now 2500 species with photos – a nice round number but only 71% of the World species list. It was nice to get 62 photos of species previously seen in Africa on previous trips but not photographed. I hope someday to get to 3000 species photographed.

Someday I may get a chance to get photos of species seen in countries early on in my birding life when I was not taking photos – birding in Costa Rica, Trinidad, Jamaica, Japan, Hong Kong, Hungary, Christmas Island, Australia and on a fishing trip to Argentina. Altogether I saw 663 species on those early trips and have only 8 photos to show for it. There has been some overlap from later birding trips so a best guess might be that those trips represent maybe 500 species not seen elsewhere. Since my average of photos per species seen excluding those countries is over 80%, there are probably 400 missed photo ops that would be available with return visits. We have a trip to Japan scheduled for next year and are considering Costa Rica and Australia. Those three trips could add at least 250 photos. A trip to Ecuador in September/October that will include the never visited Galapagos and some lodges not visited before will hopefully add another 100 photos. That still leaves 150 or so photos to go. Guess I will have to keep on travelling.

And hopefully someday I can get to 4000 species on that World list. Especially since I am now probably not looking to do much forest birding, that will be a challenge. Those trips mentioned above at best would likely add no more than 150 to 200 life species. More South American trips seem in order.

I need a break from blog writing but do hope to get one out about our non-wildlife observations of Uganda. The country has many challenges ahead but has come an incredible distance in the last 30 years. We will share our impressions and photo in that yet to be written blog post.

Masindi: Next to the Congo, the Royal Mile, Budonga Forest and More

Posted on August 2, 2024 by blairbirding

June 28

The good news was that we were in a new bird-rich habitat. The bad news (for me) was that again a lot of the birding would be in dense forest with challenges for both good views and photography. But there was no doubt that we would have new birds as we would add another 40 species to our Uganda list in the area before our final major stop on our itinerary at Murchison Falls National Park. Further evidence of just how different this area, tied in to the great forests of the Congo, would be was that in just over an hour at our first stop at the Nyabyeya Agricultural fields not far from our hotel, we had 34 species and 7 of them were lifers for me.

It is not just the forest, however, that provides challenges for birders hoping for good looks at special birds. Grasslands and open areas pose their own problems. Two quick ground birds were a case in point. Out of nowhere a small bird flushed from a field, flew by us and disappeared never to be seen again. It was pretty easy to identify it as a Common Quail, a species I had seen in almost identical circumstances last year in an open area in Tanzania. No photos either time. Next we heard the call of a lifer Heuglin’s Spurfowl. We called back and it ignored us – repeatedly. Fortunately photos would come later. More cooperative were lifers Compact Weaver and Brown Twinspot (although neither photo is top notch) and my lifer Fawn-breasted Waxbill, a photo that took a while to identify. A welcomed life photo was a Brown Babbler, seen but without a photo the day before.

**Heuglin’s Spurfowl** – **Lifer (photo from next day)**

What makes seeing or photographing a particular species important to a birder? The rarity of the bird matters. If it is a lifer or a life photo or a wanted/needed year bird or one wanted for a state or county or country list, that might matter. One bird at the agricultural fields had a special meaning or importance for me. One of the first birds I saw in Africa was an African Yellow Warbler at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi in October 2007 – hard to believe but almost 17 years ago. No photo. And then I saw one again in Tanzania last year again with no photo. Not the best photo and it took a while before I could put a name on it, but my photo of an African Yellow Warbler was special because of that history. The last photo I include from that very productive spot is of a Gray-headed Oliveback. Of course it is important because it is a lifer, but the special meaning to me is that despite it being a decent photo (although highly enlarged), none of my photo ID programs could identify it and I kept missing it on the Ebird list for that spot. Then bingo, I noted it on yet another review of my lists and the gray head on the photo jumped out at me and the rest was easy.

In an earlier post I included with some uncertainty a photo of what I believed was a Brown-backed Scrub-robin. The picture from this morning left no doubt.

**Brown-backed Scrub-robin – Lifer Photo (if the earlier one is not**)

It was 9:30 in the morning, and we had a great start to our birding. We would spend the next 7 hours birding what is known as the “Royal Mile” in the thick Budongo Forest. Grading according to the number of lifers, it was a great place. Grading on photo ops and great looks – well that’s another story altogether. More than a sixth of the species were heard only and for another third, there were minimal views at best as the birds were distant, buried in foliage or just downright uncooperative. Now I must again acknowledge that this not my kind of birding and I am not at all good at finding birds in these conditions – especially predominantly green or brown ones in green and brown surroundings in low light. BUT there were some great birds and even a few, but only a few, that I photographed.

Let’s start with a list of the species that were “heard only” with the 3 lifers in italics: Dusky Long-tailed Cuckoo, Red-chested Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Barbet, Yellow Longbill, Gray Longbill, Uganda Woodland-Warbler, and Pale-breasted Illadopsis. This was the second time the very striking Yellow-billed Barbet was a heard-only species on a Uganda list, one I regret not having seen and photographed. On the other end of the happiness spectrum were lifers that were seen well and photographed: White-thighed Hornbill, Chocolate-backed Kingfisher, Blue-throated Roller, and Chestnut-capped Flycatcher, with the photo of the flycatcher being barely ID quality. The last photo in the group is a life photo of a Speckled Tinkerbird, photos of which were missed earlier in the trip.

**Very Enlarged Chestnut-capped Flycatcher – Lifer**

Last list for this fruitful and frustrating birding experience – lifers seen poorly and not photographed: Little Green Sunbird, Yellow-breasted Forest-robin, Fire-crested Alethe, African Forest-flycatcher, Spotted Greenbul, Rufous-crowned Eremomela, Lemon-bellied Crombec, and Western Nicator. With the exception of the Yellow-breasted Forest-robin and maybe the Rufous-crowned Eremomela, these are all pretty drab birds, many quite small, and all favoring the higher spots on very tall trees. Nonetheless, especially when added to the species that were heard only, it was tough and again, at least for me, some disappointing birding. Since it would probably have been more of the same for the quality of looks and photo ops, I had mixed feelings when our guides said that despite the number of new species, the “Royal Mile” was usually better and a number of species often seen (or heard) were missed.

June 29

Today was another moving day, starting with some more birding in the Budongo Forest and then birding our way to Murchison Falls National Park where we would be for the last 3 nights of the tour. Murchison was actually only a little over an hour from the Budongo Forest but with our stops for birding, it was not until 4:30 pm that we did our first birding in the park. Except for the birding there this afternoon, our visit to Murchison Falls NP will be covered in the next blog post. The rest of this one covers our birding before getting there and the time at Murchison that afternoon.

The morning started with the brief stop in the Budongo Forest Reserve again. The Ebird report lists 11 species, mostly repeats from the previous day at the Royal Mile, nothing new for the trip and no photos. I frankly do not remember the birding at all. Next was an hour plus birding at the Butiaba Escarpment on the shores of Lake Albert. Of the 13 species seen, 4 were lifers for me and 6 were new for our trip bringing it to over 400 species. The lifers were Red-winged Gray-warbler, Foxy Cisticola, Lesser Blue-eared Starling and White-fronted Black-chat. I had many photos of the species from last year in Tanzania, but I was happy to add a Uganda Beautiful Sunbird to my photo list.

You may note that there is no photo of a Lesser Blue-eared Starling. Shame on me. I watched several of them at the location, in the clear, decent light and not too far away. Somehow I simply failed to take a photo, probably processing them as something else. They are very striking, so I am including a photo from someone else on Ebird.

**Lesser Blue-eared Starling – Photo by Anton Lieberman**

Our next “stop” was literally 15 seconds for me to get a photo of the first Chanting-Goshawk (Dark) of the trip. I first saw one in Kenya in 2007 and had many of them in Tanzania last year and was surprised we did not have one earlier.

A short while later we had my first lifer for the day and a major frustration as a lifer Shelley’s Rufous Sparrow was spotted on the road in front of our vehicle, together with a couple Northern Gray-headed Sparrows. My request for a stop so I could get a photo was either unheard or unheeded – aargh! Fortunately there was another opportunity later in the trip and I did get that photo. And not too long later another frustration as a lifer Northern Red Bishop was seen and again, by the time we stopped, the photo op was gone. Again I would get a photo later. And, yes you guessed it, there would be another lifer without a photo as a much hoped for Swallow-tailed Bee-eater was seen, and again it disappeared before I got get a photo. These things happen, although three in a row was a new one for me.

I bring this up as a segue to a topic that has grown to have much more meaning for me after so many related challenges/frustrations/disappointments on this trip both with seeing birds and with getting photos. If it wasn’t before, it became very apparent to me on this trip that while I very much do want to add species to my various life lists, it is not very satisfying to do so with either poor looks or no looks at all for heard-only species and also that I do put a high priority on getting a photo, and hopefully a decent photo, of the birds I see. There are tours that are described as “photographic tours”. Others promote “great photo opportunities” and others barely mention photography at all. I may not need/want a photographic tour that spends hours trying for the perfect shot of all the birds, but I do appreciate it when there is at least a recognition of what is needed for photos and that I am interested in that. So for example, there are ways to approach a bird either in a vehicle or on foot that maximizes the opportunity for a good photo and might also consider for example the angle that best allows that to happen. That did not happen on this tour naturally – just not a part of the mind set. And repeating comments from earlier, maybe especially for me, it just is not a good match to have a lot of forest birding. That acknowledgement will be part of all future planning.

We checked in to Paraa Safari Lodge at Murchison Falls National Park and then returned to our vehicle for two hours of birding and hopefully some mammal watching. It was nice to be back in a place where we had both mammals and birds again and we quickly got reacquainted with elephants, giraffes, warthogs, buffaloes and antelope adding Red Hartebeest, also called Kongoni, and Oribi to that latter group. We also saw our first jackal – a Side-striped Jackal. And yes there were birds – 29 species – 9 new for Uganda and 5 new lifers for me including a Red-necked Falcon that was lifer number 3500.

Elephants Again

**Abyssinian Hornbills – Lifer – Better Photos to Come**

**Red-necked Falcon – Lifer – World List 3500!!**

Paraa Safari Lodge is adjacent to the Nile River in the heart of Murchison Falls National Park. It was one of the larger lodges on our trip, comfortable and as always with wonderful staff. We would be here for 3 nights and then return to Entebbe for our long flights home.

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blairbirding

Sharing pictures, stories, reflections of my birding adventures – past and present: great places, great people and great birds…

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