PUERTO RICO DAY 3

So this was just one of those days that show the ups and downs we birders have to endure for our passion. We began up at Maricao, some 300m higher in elevation that our current hotel. That makes all the difference if you’re an Elfin Woods Warbler, as the habitat is subtly different and yes, there is smaller, dwarf-type vegetation here, but I’ve never seen the warbler in those smaller trees tbh! We arrived at 6.45am and it took a good 90 minutes before we layed eyes on the wee blighter but after what seemed an eternity we had excellent looks at this pretty endemic. 

Elfin Woods Warbler

Puerto Rican Tanager

Puerto Rican Tanagers are common up here as well and we saw plenty during our warbler vigil along the road, and we also picked up a Bay-breasted Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Northern Parula, several Green Mango’s, as well as PR Bullfinch, PR Tody, PR Spindalis, and the local race of Loggerhead Kingbird. We walked a little bit along a nearby trail and nailed our main target of Lesser Antillean/Puerto Rican Pewee. But alas….no euphonia. 

   Breakfast back at the ranch was excellent and we hung around a while in the vain hope of seeing the euphonia before heading back up to Maricao, stopping to check another euphonia site and only finding a migrant Rose-breasted Grosbeak. The forest was deathly quiet up here as it was now nearly midday, so we drove down to the lowlands and over to the far side of Cabo Rojo. Here, some really fab lagoons held nearly 50 White-cheeked Pintails, along with Great Blue Heron,  100+ Stilt Sandpipers, several Lesser Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer, Belted Kingfisher and lots of Black-necked Stilts. Walking along the beach trail we scoped some Royal Terns, found an obliging Mangrove Cuckoo, as well as Prairie Warbler, many Grey Kingbirds and David C found a Lesser Antillean/ Puerto Rican Mango. 

Lesser Yellowlegs

Mangrove Cuckoo

Stilt Sandpipers

   We left here just as the heavens opened for the second afternoon running and called in to La Parguera where we searched for Yellow-shouldered Blackbird despite the rain. A Yellow Warbler, Greater Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper and a Yellow-crowned Night-heron were scant compensation and with more heavy rain dogging us, drove just 15 minutes to our next hotel. 

Puerto Rican Nightjar

   After dinner we drove 7 minutes away and were treated to fantastic views of a Puerto Rican Nightjar hovering right overhead on two occasions before finding one perched in the bushes. What a great way to finish the day, more than making up for missing the blackbird…. At the moment!

PUERTO RICO DAY 2

    With sunrise not until 06:45 it felt like a lie-in not meeting at the minibus until 06:30 and a short 25 minute drive to Rio Abajo was over before we knew it. This is a fantastic birding site and incredibly we found at least 4 Puerto Rican Parrots quite easily as they were calling and constantly moving over the road and perching to feed on fruits in plain sight. Ok so one had a radio transmitter and one definitely had some rings/bands but this is the main reintroduction site for this incredibly rare species and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing them. 

Puerto Rican Parrot

    In fact our couple of hours was a bird fest from start to finish as we had our first Puerto Rican Tody perched up and calling right beside the road – it was just a shame it was tOo gloomy at this early hour to get a record shot. Oh well….! After the amazon experience we stayed for quite a while at a clearing where we saw several Puerto Rican Vireos, a Puerto Rican Emerald put in a couple of appearances, Lars found an Adelaide’s Warbler, we saw another Northern Parula and an American Redstart was seen, Puerto Rican Spindalis glowed in the canopy, and lastly a Puerto Rican Flycatcherwas seen well. We’d also had a Broad-winged Hawk perched up too. Just around the corner we glimpsed our first Puerto Rican Bullfinch high up in the canopy, but then found several more with one particularly obliging individual being seen just before a Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo decided to appear right next to Lars! This beast then started to sun itself with outstretched wings and a fanned tail whilst we drooled over the views. The only slight disappointment was a Puerto Rican/Lesser Antillean Pewee never stayed around long enough for everyone apart from me to see.

Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo

    Leaving here we returned to the hotel, had a nice breakfast and then packed up the minibus and drove around 20 minutes to some cliffs where the hoped-for White-tailed Tropicbirds performed admirably. En-route a flock of Cattle Egrets, some Glossy Ibis, Killdeer, Red-tailed Hawk and a Sharp-shinned Hawk were all nice padders. At the cliffs we saw up to ten tropicbirds flying over the ocean, with a few coming reasonably close. With our eyes to the skies we scored a few Caribbean Martins amongst the numerous Cave Swallows, as well as huge Brown Pelicans and Magnificent Frigatebirds, plus a pair of American Oystercatchers flew by. 

White-tailed Tropicbird..... much better photos to follow...

Cave Swallow

    Following this, a quick stop to collect our picnic lunch and a fuel stop were made before the 90 minute drive to our next hotel. This was when we hit a tropical downpour that lasted most of the rest of the day. Roads became rivers and the winding route through the hills became a little torturous to say the least. I was mightily relieved to arrive at our wonderful accommodation in the hills not far from Bosque Estatal Maricao.     

    Upon arrival we headed into the restaurant for coffee as the torrential downpour still hadn’t  abated, much to everyone’s frustration. We were reduced to scanning from the restaurant veranda until the rain eased and we could actually pick out a few Scaly-naped Pigeons perched up in the forest below. Fortunately the rain did stop briefly, allowing us to offload the luggage from the minibus without getting drenched, but we had to endure several more showers. We were actually getting quite good at dodging them! In between bursts of rain we found a much-wanted Puerto Rican Tanager that allowed fine scope views but it didn’t make it look any prettier! A pair of Venezuelan Troupials positively glowed in the canopy of a cecropia, a Green Mango gave repeated views beside the restaurant, a Magnolia Warbler was found and we ended the day with a Puerto Rican Owl. Nice!

Puerto Rican Screech Owl

PUERTO RICO 2022 - DAY 1

    With everyone arriving a day early we had a really nice rest this morning, not leaving the hotel until after I had picked up the rental van and returning to the hotel at 10am. It wasn’t the best hotel in the world but it served a purpose, but what was good (and you have to be a birder to appreciate this) was we were only 1.9kms away from a Green-throated Carib stakeout that had been producing superlative looks at this tricky species for the past few weeks. It wouldn’t still be there, would it? Oh yes baby it was! No sooner had we exited the minibus we were watching a pair feeding amidst a large flowering tree right next to our parked vehicle. We enjoyed repeated views of this cracking hummer (and is there ever such a thing as a bad hummer?), which seemed to be doing a circuit of the surrounding area and returning to its favourite tree every ten minutes or so. We also saw our first Puerto Rican Spindalis, Red-legged Thrush and tried hard to ignore the ubiquitous Greater Antillean Grackles all around us. 

Green-throated Carib

    Leaving here we drove around 30 minutes to El Yunque, arriving at the worst time of day, and it showed as we struggled to get on anything for a while. Eventually, Puerto Rican Loggerhead Kingbirds were admitted to our fledgeling island list, along with Grey Kingbirds, a single Northern Parula and a Magnificent Frigatebird. Oh I forgot to mention the driveby flock of Caribbean Martins seen by a few of us as we drove along the motorway en-route - but they'd be a daily sighting from now on. A very brief Puerto Rican Mango (split from Antillean Mango allegedly) didn’t make it onto our lists due to the ultra brief sighting, although I did note it had a black belly and the mantle seemed to be a light gold colour in the sun…. 

    So giving this up as a bad lot we drove down and visited a nice little restaurant where we spent way too much time, no doubt due to the cold beer being consumed by my group! However, it was worthwhile for our first sighting of Puerto Rican Oriole and Puerto Rican Woodpecker, some showy Zenaida Doves, along with a group of Smooth-billed Anis. This little lot really gave us an adrenaline surge so we headed over to Las Croabas where our search for Antillean Crested Hummingbird drew a blank, but we did have Venezualian Troupial, another oriole and woodpecker, as well as Common Ground Dove. 

Puerto Rican Woodpecker

    By now it was 4.30pm and we drove the two hours to Cambalache Forest, but our journey was prolonged by a long tailback just the other side of San Juan but during the drive we did see a Western Osprey and a flock of Cave Swallows. Arriving at dusk, it was too late for any other birding apart from a stab at Puerto Rican Owl, which was our aim anyway. We heard two individuals but try as we might the forest was just too dense, despite getting rather close on one occasion. Oh well, we’d save that one for later!  Our digs for the night were a little quirky but the restaurant did us proud with a very nice meal and we were tucked up in bed by 10.00pm ready for a big day tomorrow.

OMAN BIRDING ADVENTURE

So the world is opening up at last. And where to go birding? Certainly Oman ticks a lot of boxes, whether it's Crab Plover, Hypocolius, Omani Owl or the other Arabian specialities that float your boat. Or just some good birding visiting mountains, lagoons, desert, wadis and oases, and a pelagic thrown in for good measure..... Oh and for sure there's a mad-mix of Palearctic, Afrotropical and Oriental birds on offer.... 

We have tours to this amazing birding destination in December 2021 and February 2022

View the tour itinerary here: Oman Birding Adventure Tour Info

Grey Hypocolius

Crab Plover

Arabian Babbler

Sand Partridge

Arabian Wheatear

Crowned Sandgrouse

Jouanin's Petrel

Menetries's Warbler

Nile Valley Sunbird

NW ECUADOR 10TH - 23RD OCTOBER 2021

 ECUADOR IS OPENING!

In a couple of British newspapers today, it was stated that Ecuador (along with Argentina, Colombia & Peru) are being upgraded to the UK's Green List from next week. If that is true then our  NW Ecuador - Chocó Specialities Tour is good to go. 

Take a look at our Ecuador Tour Info and let's go birding!

Long-wattled Umbrellabird

CYPRUS MINI-BREAK 4th - 10th September 2021

It's been a long period of staying at home due to the global Covid-19 pandemic and most of us are tentatively looking towards the future and foreign birding trips. Cyprus is currently on the UK's Amber List and if you are fully vaccinated all that is required for entry is an online form to be filled out. Upon arrival, everyone will be tested by the local Cypriot authorities. And that is it! The FCO have cleared UK citizens to travel to Cyprus so your holiday insurance is not affected.  

That's the technical bit over with. And now for the good stuff......

We are staying at a private villa on the west coast of Cyprus where we will be catered for without the need of visiting local restaurants. This tour is only for a select group of 4 people, staying in 2x twin bedded rooms at our villa. We will have five and a half days birding where our primary focus will be on seeing the 3 endemics: Cyprus Pied Wheatear, Cyprus Warbler and Cyprus Scops Owl. We will also head up into the Troodos Mountains for a number of endemic subspecies and then spend the rest of our time visiting various sites such as Paphos headland, Akrotiri Salt Lake and others in search of a variety of species. Our trip is timed to coincide with the peak dates that Demoiselle Cranes stop off on their southward migration, and although a great deal of luck will be needed to see them this is the best site in the whole of the Western Palearctic for this particular species. Fingers crossed! We will aim to take a break in the middle of the day and take advantage of the pool and have lunch at the villa before heading out again in the late afternoon. 

As well as the 3 main endemics, there's a whole host of mouth-watering possibilities for us to look for such as Black Francolin, Long-legged Buzzard, Bonelli's Eagle, Greater Sandplover, Slender-billed Gull, European Roller, Eleonora's Falcon, Masked Shrike, Lesser Grey Shrike and Cretzschmar's Bunting amongst many others.

Cyprus has all the elements of a classic birding destination with anything possible: there's flocks of shorebirds moving through, flocks of terns, hirundines, wheatears, shrikes, warblers, pipits and buntings. Add to this  great weather, great food and a fantastic private villa. Sounds horrible right? So for a first foray overseas after a while, then this could be just the ticket. Let's go birding.

See the full tour info here:   https://www.zootherabirding.com/cyprus-endemic-and-migration-tour-intro.html

JUST ONE SPACE LEFT...

India Tour - Himalayan Monal Quest

So with the Covid vaccine being rolled out, hopefully we can look forward to getting overseas later this year (2021). What i'm currently working on is a little change to the Classic Himalayas tour to include a visit to Chopta in search of the amazing Himalayan Monal. We'll be posting the new itinerary within the week on the Zoothera Birding website.

But just take a look at this beauty....

Thanks to Shyam Sharma/Asian Adventures for the photos.

Face Masks for Birders

 Like it or not, face masks are here to stay. Nobody likes them but the science suggests it's to protect others as well as ourselves, so let's do it! And if we have to wear them, then why not do it birder style?

There are a number of different designs for all sorts of situations...

Take a look at this website for birder's face masks and other gifts:

Country View Arts

Monteiro's Storm Petrel Pelagic

Graciosa Island is Monteiro's Central, with a couple small islets just offshore being home to most of the world's population of this rare seabird. We had 3 pelagic booked but unfortunately after the first the weather began to deteriorate and we did just a short boat trip close to shore on the second day and everything was totally cancelled for the third day. However, our first and only deep water pelagic was good enough and we got to see double-figures of Monteiro's Storm Petrel. It was a great pelagic and I think we did pretty well during our 7.5 hours out to sea.

Classified as Vulnerable by BirdLife International as it only breeds on these few small islets off Graciosa Island in the Azores.The population is estimated at 375-1499 individuals making it probably the rarest regular breeding seabird in the Western Palearctic.

Monteiro's Storm Petrel

At this time of year the Monteiro's are approaching the end of their breeding season and are looking rather worn, with the base of the inner primaries missing on many of the individuals we saw - but not all. And most of them had noticeable deeply-notched (forked) tails too. We did have a few 'odd' looking petrels and two birds in particular looked like good candidates for Grant's Storm Petrel. This species replaces Monteiro's on the breeding grounds usually from September onwards, with a big overlap during that month. So the 2 darker, squarer-tailed stormies probably have to be left unidentified. There was a paler. greyer-looking stormy that 'got away' too!

Cory's Shearwater

During our time at sea we had awesome close views of 1000's of Cory's Shearwaters and with the news there had been a White-chinned Petrel the week before on the other side of the Azores we grilled every single one! But to no avail!

But we had several Wilson's Storm petrels attracted to our chum slick....

Wilson's Storm Petrel

We were all hoping for Swinhoe's Storm Petrel but there wasn't much variety in seabirds at all, not a single Great Shearwater or even any skuas... But we did see a few Azores (Yellow-legged) Gulls, Leatherback Turtle and stacks of Portuguese Man O' War....

Azorean Gull

Leatherback Turtle

Portuguese Man O' War

On the much shorter second trip we managed to find a Sooty Tern, a much wanted lifer for yours truly (and yes I know it's a tarts tick and I was constantly reminded of this by my 'ship mates'...!), but it's a good Western Palearctic tick. And it was this bird that got me excited about Western P listing, and after counting up I realised what a pathetic list I have for this region. So I made a mental note to do something about this... 

Sooty Tern