Tag Archives: Birds

High Noon Birdwatching Society, Tasman Division

01 Friday Feb 2019

Posted by in Australia, Tasmania

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We knew the birds would be different in Australia, but we didn’t realize how quickly we would see them. On one of our first afternoons in Tasmania, driving home across dry, sandy colored farmland, we swerved to a halt to see a flock of cockatoos! If you haven’t been to Australia you will never see this because cockatoos are really big and even zoos usually have two or maybe four of these birds. To see eight or a dozen big white birds land in the branches of a tree, pop up their yellow topknots, and start squawking causes us childish delight. Look! We can see them! It’s just like the pictures!

One day we saw a flock of around 100 cockatoos swirling over our heads. It was amazing. The specks are cockatoos, and this photo is by Jonathan.

We carry our binoculars everywhere because you never know what you will see. While making a U-turn,  a frequent activity of ours, Jonathan spotting something moving and we pulled over and got a look. It was a Superb Fairy Wren. What a name! What a bird! Who wouldn’t want one of these in the yard? It turns out that these lovely little birds are not uncommon in Tasmania, it’s seeing one for the first time that is such a treat.

We’ve seen other delightful and interesting birds, including native hens (a bit like the gallinules of New Zealand), hawks, and falcons, but the birds with bright colors are the ones that amaze me most.

[As usual, most of my bird photos come from the internet. Thanks, internet! If you’d like to see fabulous bird photos look on Instagram at awbirder for the photos of professional bird guide Andy Walker.]

Kapiti Island

01 Saturday Dec 2018

Posted by in New Zealand

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We almost didn’t get there. I put off our reservation because the weather forecast was all rain–then the sun shone every day. We were finally scheduled to visit the island nature reserve two days before leaving the area–and our trip was cancelled to make some repairs to the boat. We rescheduled for the next day, before we were to fly to the South Island, and got on the last boat of the day (10 am) to Kapiti Island, one of the largest island reserves in New Zealand open to the public. On this island there are no mammals, all the invasive rats, possums, sheep, goats, and horses were removed between 1897, when it first became a park, and 1998, when the last possums were finally eradicated.

We boarded the boat after it was towed up onto the beach with a tractor. All loaded on land, the tractor towed us back into the water and we floated away. A new experience.

Our boat arrives
Gets pulled onto the beach
We board and the tractor launches us.

The absence of land mammals is crucial to survival of native New Zealand species like the little spotted kiwi that was moved to Kapiti and now is found nowhere else, and myriad bird species, along with reptiles. The native species only know how to hide by holding still and blending in, to hide from owls and hawks. Many build nests in holes in the ground or bushes. They are easy prey for any land animal that can sniff them out.

Birdsong was all around us when we got to Kapiti. After an orientation by a guide very knowledgeable about the range of birds, we were set loose. The sounds were unfamiliar and delightful, and we saw unusual birds before the orientation even ended when a weka wandered across the deck and peeked into the meeting room.

A feeder for the hihi, or stitchbird, one of New Zealand’s rarest birds, was described as one-third of the way up the trail to the top of the island, and we decided to try it. We had no intention of hiking to the top of the island (just over 1500 ft), as we were told most of the birds live in the lower levels. When the switchbacks started on the path, we should have known enough to turn back, but we kept thinking it would be just a little farther. When we asked people coming down, they’d say, “Not too far…”

By the time we staggered into the tiny clearing with the two nectar feeders, we were about to collapse. Imagining the return trip made it even worse. We’d climbed most of the 1500 feet. The latter two-thirds of the trip to the top appears to be walking the relatively level upper spine of the island. We’d inadvertently done just what we had planned not to!

We sat at the picnic table, eating lunch and watching the bird feeders, when a male stitchbird snuck into the feeder and then shot back out again. There was barely time to get a peek, but we managed. Another came by shortly afterward, ducking into the feeder through a small hole intended to keep other birds out, sipping some nectar and shooting out again. All that climbing, but at least we did see this rare  bird. Eventually, we set out down the hill, spotting other birds on the way, including parrots, parakeets, and a North Island robin rummaging in the undergrowth. (Robins are not red in New Zealand.)

Arriving at sea level with about an hour left before our return trip, we strolled the paths through wetlands and along the shore. We heard a slight noise behind us and turned around to find one of the other rare birds, the takahe, a giant red-nosed chicken. Not a chicken at all, it is a flightless bird native to New Zealand that looks like an overgrown version of a purple gallinule. Takahe are rare, and we thought we would not see one, yet there it was. It bobbed in and out of the trees beside the trail, a happy surprise.

When we first saw a purple gallinule in Europe, we were amazed. So purple! So red-beaked! In New Zealand, purple gallinules roam farm fields like stray poultry. We even saw one crossing the road with two fuzzy black chicks. We are having a lot of fun with birds, and good fortune, too. Part of this is because we are here during nesting season. We’ve seen brown-speckled blue eggs in the nests of black-backed gulls, and watched a pair of chicks of the endangered New Zealand dotterel follow their mother along the shore. Dotterell nests on public beaches are carefully fenced off and very clearly visible. Seeing the chicks was a bonus.

We ended up bobbing up and down on the water for a half hour waiting for the final two passengers to turn up. Though the guide says that this is rare, it seems unsurprising that twenty or more people let loose on the island and told to return at a specific time would always result in a couple of latecomers. With no pressing duties, we chatted with a Dutch woman who had also enjoyed the birds, and a young man and his mother who spotted the super-elusive kokako and heard its mournful call. The lost couple turned up and we sailed away. We can see Kapiti Island from our backyard in Te Horo beach, making our final night’s sunset more memorable than ever.NB: Only two of the bird photos are pictures I took (takahe and weka). The others are courtesy of people who post bird photos on the internet. Thank you to all of them!

Bloobies, Roobies and Nazoobies

15 Saturday Sep 2018

Posted by in Ecuador, Galapagos

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The High-Noon Birding Society held a meeting as we looked toward the skies from lounge chairs on the upper deck of our cruise ship in the Galapagos.  We glanced upward and realized we were being shadowed by magnificent frigate birds. (That’s their official name “Magnificent Frigate birds”). Frigate birds float over the ocean and are incapable of diving into the water (their feathers aren’t waterproof), meaning they steal most of their food from other birds, or skim it off the surface. They look like a cross between a bat and a bird skeleton, and show the close relation of birds and dinosaurs by resembling pterodactyls of the dinosaur era. They attract females by inflating a pouch under their beaks and squawking pathetically. Go figure.

Our first excursion off the ship took us to N. Seymour Island to see nests of frigate birds. The chicks are very cute, the youngest looking like stuffed toys, the slightly older ones rather regal sitting on their pile of sticks.

Here we met our first bloobies (blue footed boobies). Our guides had mentioned three species of birds and we discovered that Bloobies are blue-footed boobies, Roobies are red-footed boobies and Nazoobies are Nazca Boobies (in guide-speak).

Nazoobi–Nazca Booby
Roobie
Bloobie

Later in the trip, we visited an area where all three species of booby nest in the same area. We have seen Nazoobis, or Nazca boobies, on the coast of Peru, but not the Roobies, Red-footed booby, a tropical species that likes islands. Weird fact, red footed booby feet bend, while the blue footed booby’s feet don’t. Reds nest in trees, blues on the ground.

9.4.18 Pta.Espinoza Fernandina-031crsm.jpg9.5.18 Tagus Cove Isabela boat ridecrsm.jpg

Other birds of note include the Galapagos Flightless Cormorant, such a good swimmer that its wings no longer have much purpose and are small and stunted. The other is everyone’s favorite Humboldt penguin, an unbelievably fast swimmer. In the Galapagos, their motto is “so many fish, so little time.”

What surprised me was that on our tour there was very little discussion of Galapagos finches. These are Darwin’s finches, the ones that adapted from a single original species to the conditions on each island in ways that resulted in their beaks ranging from very thin and pointed (picking insects out of cracks) to very strong and wide (cracking large seeds). There’s even one nicknamed “the vampire finch” because it dive bombs the booby’s tail and sips a bit of blood from it. The speciation of finches is one of Darwin’s observations that led him to consider the question of how evolution occurs. They are very important historically and scientifically.

However. Finches are small and mostly dark colors. They are difficult to see even with binoculars and most people didn’t bring binocs. We realized that Darwin made his observations while sketching specimens that had been killed. Dead birds don’t fly away, and you can measure their beaks carefully. It was a different era, when collecting specimens was more acceptable than it is today.

I was searching for a bird that Amanda was pointing out…..and finally found it.

Where? Where?
Oh……..

 

 

 

Visiting the Macaw Clay Licks

17 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by in Peru, Scotland

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We opted for a tour after finding it complicated to arrange an independent trip, choosing Birding Ecotours, a US based company that runs birding tours all over the world. An important starting point is to realize there are several clay licks. Make sure you know where you are going and what you may see. It’s also important to find a tour company that you believe will give you a good tour. I found Birding Ecotours through the website: Fatbirder.com that I’ve used to find birding spots on several occasions at places around the US and Europe.

Birding Ecotours home page

Travel

Visiting the clay licks involves a flight to Puerto Maldonado, Peru. Our group of six and a guide stayed overnight at the inexpensive Cabana Quinta. Our room was small but the AC and hot water worked. Dinner in the restaurant was fine. In the morning, we drove for about 40 minutes on a paved road and another 40 on a very rutted unpaved road that can be impassable in rain. We visited the area in August, the dry season (Wet season is approx. Nov.-May). A short boat ride took us from the end of the road to the lodge. We left Puerto Maldonado at 8:30 am, did some birdwatching and arrived at the lodge by about 2 pm.

Lodging

We stayed at Chuncho Lodge, slightly closer to the clay licks than other lodges. They have five cabins that sleep 1-3 persons each, and a cabin with two adjacent rooms of similar size. Beds have mosquito netting. Two more cabins were under construction during our visit, and construction noise began at breakfast and continued until late afternoon.

There is no wifi.

Phone service is limited to customers of Claro, and that can only be obtained at the top of the canopy observation tower that is 129 ft high and a 15 minute walk away from the lodge. A maximum of six persons can be at the top of the tower at one time. Despite this, guides and guests seemed to walk to the tower in the evenings (in the dark!) to make calls and admire the Milky Way.

Hot water and sometimes all water is only available when the power is on, 6 am-1 pm and 3:30-9 pm.

Weather

During the day the weather was very hot and very sticky with lots of insects. Bug spray was necessary and the day I forgot to shake all my clothes out in the morning before I got dressed I got a bunch of bites from a spider that seems to have climbed my pant leg. Consider tucking your pantlegs in your socks. The guides do.

Despite the lack of air conditioning and the fact that fans stop runnning at 9 pm when the power goes off, we had no trouble sleeping because of an unusual weather phenomenon, a “friaje.” In the past this occurred about twice a year at predictable times, this year it has occurred more than six times. Currents of cold air from further south toward the Antarctic are channeled up the river and chill the area at night resulting in temperatures much lower than normal. It can get to 10 degrees C. (50 F). Rather than tossing and turning in the sticky heat, we slept under all the available blankets. It was coldest on our first night at Chuncho Lodge but it was cool all three nights we were there, and it was easy to sleep.

Meals

All meals were provided. The food was very abundant but utterly uninspired. One birder who had been on the tour for three weeks before we arrived said he’d never look at another plantain after the tour ended. I was happy to have brought a few packets of starbucks instant coffee, cookies, peanuts and dried fruit. We ate it all.

Several different species of birds were in and out of this huge tree during our morning on the observation tower.

Tour

Our tour included everything but alcoholic beverages and tips. It was expensive for us, just over $1600 pp for four days but there were no hidden costs. Our guide, Eduardo Ormaeche, was excellent. He worked hard to make sure everyone saw what they wanted to see and more. There are both cheaper and more expensive ways to see the phenomenon of the macaw clay licks and we were content with this version. Our tour included lots of birding time in addition to the visit to the clay licks. We spent at least six hours a day birding in total. We went on a walk at night to see owls, and on a sunset boat ride to see owls, nighthawks, nightjars and a potoo. The trails near the lodge always yielded new birds. The morning we spent on the canopy tower was full of interesting birds seen from a new angle above the canopy of trees. We saw 106 different species of birds during our four-day visit.

Positives and Negatives

Positives

1) Experience of a lifetime.

2) It’s all organized. People met us at every stop or change of transport. Eduardo was on hand from Lima to Chuncho Lodge and back to Puerto Maldonado. There were no surprise expenses.

Negatives

1) The region is hot and humid, there’s lots of walking, mosquitos, spiders.

2) The lodgings are rustic.

3) Seeing birds involves early mornings. We left at 5 am for the clay lick and almost as early on the other mornings. There is time for napping at midday but it can be too hot to sleep.

4) On a tour, you take your traveling companion as they come. You may or may not make new friends.

Would I do it again? Heck, yes.

FYI: We were in the Amazon rainforest, where the humidity was usually at least 80% and the temperature over 80°F. Giant trees like the one we posed by are rare, most were logged over the past 20 years as the population of the region expanded and foreign desires for mahogany furniture overcame the scruples of people who had been farmers. One of the lodge staff members told us that his mother trained to be a nurse, but took a loan from an uncle and made a handsome living heading into the forest to commission (illegal) tree-cutting, until there were almost no large, desirable trees left. At that point, nature reserves and national parks were established. Everyone shrugged and became tour reps. There is still a lot to see and lots of birds in the forest even if it is recent regrowth. The occasional giant tree is a reminder of what is gone now.

 

When a Wish Comes True

16 Thursday Aug 2018

Posted by in Amazon, Peru

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It was almost dawn, 5 am when we left the dock for an hour’s ride up the Tambopata River. Boatmen know their way around snags and shallow spots even in the dark. Our boat was long and narrow, the eight of us sitting on benches that faced each other, all of us leaning out to stare at the shore. They make no promises but many animals feed at dawn. Before long we saw three capybara (like 50 pound guinea pigs) grazing on the riverbank, then a caiman and then two more. A large heron stood by the shore, and turtles perched on logs. Looking at the river more than 100 yds wide and still hundreds of miles from emptying into the Amazon, it is difficult to comprehend the immense size of the Amazon Basin.

We came to see a special part of the Amazon, short clay cliffs that attract macaws and parrots. Since I first saw a picture, I have wanted to visit. If you watch TV, you may have seen images of large bright-colored macaws perching on the clay as the narrator explains that the clay provides minerals and helps the birds digest the fruits and insects they eat, counteracting toxins that are found in some of these.

It is a dream come true to be riding along the river. As we ride along, I consider my desire to see this in person and my expectations. I am thrilled to have gotten here and I’m not as tired as I thought I might be at 5 am. I can’t wait to see the birds. I’m apprehensive, too. I don’t want to be disappointed and we’ve been told there are some mornings when the birds don’t come down to the clay or are scared away. We stop at a ranger checkpost where one boat is just pulling out and another is right behind us. Each boat carries 4-8 tourists. Our local guide runs up the steps cut into the steep clay bank. He reappears a minute later and we cast off, hurrying upriver. Finally we pull up onto a gravel bar where two boats have already put in. The clay lick in on the other side of the river. We’ve arrived.

The cliffs are not as high as they look on TV because cameramen use telephoto lenses, but with binoculars you can see all the birds very clearly as we’re barely 100 yards away.

There is a pattern to the way the birds visit the clay lick. Smaller birds come first. Flocks of as many as 100 blue headed parrots shimmer blue and green as they fly by.

Smaller parrots at the clay lick (Photo: Andy Walker)

As they turn and tilt upward the color changes to the red of the feathers under their wings. Smaller numbers of other species are there, too, and our group gets busy identifying dusky headed parrots, yellow crowned amazons, white eyed parakeets, orange cheeked parakeets. There are even a few blue headed macaws in among the blue headed parrots. The crowd of smaller parrots flies onto the clay and we watch them cling to the surface as they gnaw bits of clay and scuffle, keeping up a constant chatter. The audience is largely silent, pointing and muttering descriptions and species names, focusing their binoculars, spotting scopes, and cameras. Many visitors have 300-400 mm lenses to be able to capture the details of every bird. We are fortunate to be with them and see their spectacular images.

After an hour we’ve seen the small parrots flock on the clay. We’ve identified all the species present and we’ve seen the birds spooked by something and fly away in a mass of blue wingbeats. Slowly they return to the branches above the cliff and even more slowly a few fly onto the clay again and begin to nibble.

Meanwhile, the macaws sit high in the trees. They arrive in pairs, blue and gold, scarlet, red and green, and the smaller chestnut fronted macaws. After a while they come closer, moving in pairs. Eventually the scarlet macaws are sitting on the branches just over the clay, and then fly down to the clay surface and take over.

We see the process twice as we change sites. After the first hour our group returned to the boat for breakfast onboard though still in sight of the birds. We drank tea and coffee, ate rolls and butter, hard-boiled eggs and sipped juice boxes, then set off around the next bend to another spot where birds gather on the clay. The other boats moved as well and we all end up sitting on folding stools or standing quietly waiting for the birds. This time, a flock of scarlet macaws arrived two at a time to two trees above the clay. About 30 of these huge birds huddled together as they awaited some invisible signal. Little by little they began to fly onto the clay. Shutters snapped like it was a presidential news conference.

Compare my photo with Andy’s: Macaws on Clay Lick

Not all went as planned. We all expected the flock to descend to the clay but just as the first dozen birds began investigating the clay, a group of vultures coasted in over the trees, spooking the macaws. In an explosion of red wings the macaws dispersed, circling down the channel and up into the trees. Slowly the flock re-formed in the trees over the clay, mostly scarlet macaws but also red and green and chestnut fronted macaws. By this time it was 10:30 am and we’d been watching the clay and the birds for more than four hours. It was time to go. We were all tired but not entirely happy to leave. This scene repeats itself every day and we were walking away after only one long look. We motored back downriver, stopping to look at other birds and the now-sleeping capybara. I’ve just realized one of the great dreams of my life and all I can think of is a second cup of coffee and a nap.

Still, I’ll have the picture of macaws on clay in my head forever.

Tea Time Birding Society Meets in Aruba

05 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by in Aruba

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High noon birding doesn’t work well when it’s over 90 and extremely humid, so the High Noon Birding Society moved its adventures to tea time, waiting until after 4 pm when the sun began to dip toward the water. Despite being a desert covered with cactus, Aruba has a lot of birds. One of the most fun is the national bird of Venezuela, the Troupial, that lives in the local trees and may be sitting in the branches over your head if you sit in the shade anywhere.

There is a native variety of brown throated parakeet, called the prikichi. We saw the parrots zoom overhead though we never got a good at them. Our experience in Colombia was similar, the parrots never seemed to perch near us.

The north end of Spanish Lagoon was where we saw burrowing owls, yellow warblers, herons and egrets.

The Bubali bird reserve and the other ponds that parallel the shore inland from the big hotels were where we saw black-bellied whistling ducks, white cheeked pintails and our most enjoyable sight–roseate spoonbills. These big birds look like a flamingo with a spatula instead of a beak. The flock of ten included some with bright red patches on the wings. They sat and groomed themselves with their wide beaks, looking as incongruous as you can imagine. They were close enough to get a picture. None of the other bird photos are by us. Taking good photos of birds is a special art. It takes lots of patience and a long lens.

After seeing the spoonbills, we were out of time. We could have spent many more hours waiting for parrots to perch or flamingos to arrive. Instead we went home to pack.

The High Noon Bird-Watching Society: Colombia Edition

19 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by in Colombia

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Colombia is famous for the hundreds of bird species within its boundaries. You can spend two weeks or more on a dedicated birding trip just to get started. The High Noon Birdwatching Society takes a low key approach, looking at lovely flying creatures when it is most convenient. We have seen and heard some highly entertaining species. In Cartagena, we met the squirrel cuckoo. These are named after their sound, vaguely like that of a squirrel. We found two young individuals sitting in a tree by the sidewalk begging to be fed. The mother bird was in a tree overhead, declining to answer their frantic screeching. The young birds hopped and flopped upward among the tree branches trying to reach mama, though they didn’t succeed. I later read that squirrel cuckoos leave the nest before they can fly. That’s just how they looked—unwillingly out of the nest.

By our beach house, a pair of brown fronted parakeets ate seed pods from the neighbor’s tree. Near the house we also saw a white winged swallow, brown chested martin, and the biggest wren we’ve seen, the bicolored wren.

When we drove inland to the town of Tubara we found the town spread across the crest of a high hill and down into the adjacent valley. From one moment to the next you go from a coastal region to an inland one, covered with forest. In a clearing by the road we saw yellow oriole, red crowned woodpecker, boat billed flycatcher, smooth bill ani, tropical kingbird, blue black grassquit, ruddy dove and a gray bird sitting on a nest that we couldn’t identify. A very gangly savannah hawk stood on a stump staring at us by the side of the road. Other raptors we saw included yellow headed caracara, pearl kite and American kestrel. On the way home we saw a group of orange chinned parakeets.

At the Hotel Monasterio in Saint Agustin the guans were making so much racket that you couldn’t hear the roosters crow. Unfortunately, we never saw any guans though we heard them all around us. We also saw the scrub tanager, a blue and yellow tanager sort of bird, a rufous collared sparrow, and an Andean siskin.

Not bad for high noon.

 

Finding Red-Fronted Macaws

18 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Bolivia

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After Tiwanaku, our goal for Bolivia was to see where Red-Fronted Macaws live in the wild. We drove to Cochabamba, setting out the next day for the Red-Fronted Macaw Lodge. At Aiquile, we turned off the Cochabamba-Sucre road and continued for 40 km on a road under construction until we reached Perereta, a hamlet beside the Mizque River. The landscape is dry and stony with steep cliffs and prickly vegtation. It reminded us of northern Arizona. Our local contact, Don Filemon, was out in his fields when we arrived. It appears we are the first tourists of the season. After a few minutes of uncertainty, a young neighbor showed us where to park. “No one will touch your car,” she said. We left it behind the house of Don Filemon and walked us across the suspension bridge and out to the lodge.  We’d brought backpacks with a minimum of clothing for our three nights because it was a 2 km walk to the lodge. We crossed the suspension bridge over the river then cut through fragrant fields of oregano.

The lodge was rustic, but we avoided the shared bath by being the only people there. We saw our true goal of the entire trip, a pair of red fronted macaws flying overhead!

We watched others disappear into cracks in the cliff where their nests are located and we heard lots of their bass squawks. The night was impressive too. There were no outdoor lights and we could see the Milky Way looping across the sky. It was spectacular.

The next day we walked along the river, adding more birds to our list. In the afternoon, we walked the edge of the oregano fields. We identified many birds while sitting on the porch of the guest bungalow. This is definitely our kind of birdwatching, sitting at a table with a cold drink and binoculars, sighting new birds both mundane (woodpecker, hornero) and spectacular (blue and yellow tanager). The blue and yellow tanager has a Day-glo orange patch on its back, while the Purple Throated Euphonia looks like a flying peach. We loved it. We managed to keep busy for our two night stay despite the absence of an internet connection. Our birdwatching was successful and we left with an appreciation for this region of dry scrub, red cliffs, and rivers, managing to see twenty-two more species of birds most of which we had never seen before.

The Red-Fronted Macaw Lodge is a hostel type accommodation on the edge of a small refuge that includes the largest remaining breeding area of red fronted macaws, a critically endangered species. The refuge is a project of the civic association Armonia.com in association with local communities including Perereta and San Carlos. The goal is to help the communities benefit from tourism and give them a reason to preserve these birds. Sales of birds to the pet trade is a major cause of this species’ disappearance. They are also considered a pest by corn and peanut farmers. Without advocates, red fronted macaws will disappear.

We went out of our way to visit this reserve because of our own pet red fronted macaw, Simon. He was bred in Florida from birds taken from Bolivia in the 1970s. Based on our experiences, we can attest to the annoying traits of these birds, but Simon is also playful and curious. I no longer think that having a tropical bird as a pet is a good idea. Yes, they are beautiful, playful and intelligent, but they are also easily bored, often neurotic in captivity, plucking out their feathers and screeching incessantly. Most refuges for abandoned tropical birds in the US are full as people realize that their bird is going to be annoying forever. There is no humane way to get rid of them.

In the wild red fronted macaws are beautiful, flashing their olive green, blue, orange, and red feathers as they fly. They are relatively large birds and fly high above the valley floor into their nests in crevices in the stony cliffs. Their distinctive voice, a deeper and louder call than other parrots, echoes across the valley. In such an open space, it doesn’t bother you as it might from inside a cage in your living room.

Though we were enchanted by the opportunity to see Simon’s family in the wild the Red Fronted Macaw Lodge is best visited on a birding tour. When we arrived the housekeeper made us lemonade and asked us which bedroom we wanted, then made up the bed. We were given soap, toilet paper and towels when we asked. Our ability to speak Spanish helped things along. The bed was comfortable and the hot water in the shower worked.  The downside to the refuge was the complete lack of information about the refuge, its size, age, how the community partnership works, where trails are located. There is no indication of how the $100 per person per night is used, whether a portion is tax deductible or how it is divided with the community. It was obvious that very little of the fee is used to maintain the guest quarters. That’s why I’d recommend visiting with a birding tour rather than independently as we did. It’s a place best experienced on a tour with a good guide. (The photos of birds are from the internet.)

 

An Epic Day: Star Wars and Puffins in the Skellig Islands

15 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by in Ireland, Paula

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Had my sister Paula not read in her guide book about an offshore rock group with an ancient monastery at the top, we might never have visited the Skellig Islands. We considered hiking to the top of the 600+ steps to see the domed stone cells that may date back to 600 AD. If that weren’t enticing enough, the site appears at the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and in the trailer for the next Star Wars movie.

Skellig Michael in the trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi

It’s an intimidating place. 12 km off shore, a jagged triangle juts from the water. After reading about landing, where there is no dock and heaving seas may toss you in or out of the boat, we decided against it (Tours are sold out for the entire season, too). We decided to take a ride around both islands to see the steep steps and birdwatch. It was a wonderful tour!

We had total weather karma. The day dawned sunny for the first time since we arrived in Ireland and stayed sunny and warm ALL DAY. It took us just over two hours to drive from our house in Dingle to Port Magee, mostly along the Ring of Kerry drive, so you could say we were multi-tasking in the tourism department. Our boat left at 11:45 am and we were asked to arrive at the dock by 11:30 am. A friendly young man named Brendan, dressed in a dirty tshirt and jeans strolled out and ticked our names off a list on his phone. He led us to the boat where there were 12 outward facing seats hung with life jackets. Dressed, we took off, heading straight out to sea for 45 min. The islands, two triangular chunks of rock, stick up out of the sea and are easily visible from shore. Cliffs and hills line the coast on the way out to sea from Port Magee, then Puffin Island off to the south, then sea birds zoom alongside the boat or bob on the water. (What are they doing, just hanging out in the middle of the ocean?) We saw gannets and then puffins, the world’s cutest birds.

7.12.17 Skellig Islands-0287.12.17 Skellig Islands-027crMore steps wind up the face of the rock. Made of slabs of the island rock, it’s a long hike. The path on the right is not used today, though rock climbers can access the top this way. The safety video that is recommended for people considering a landing on Skellig Michael shows what the climb looks like in wet weather. (As I write this, the fog is so thick that we can see nothing beyond the front yard of our house. I wonder whether the Skellig boats will go out today.) The safety video shows the stone steps.

Skellig Islands safety video

One reason to make the climb to the top is the archaeological site, a tiny monastery of stone beehive huts enclosed by a wall that was in use at various times from the 8th century until the 13th century. Monks rowed out to the island, climbed to the tiny settlement and lived their hermit existence. The island was finally abandoned when the climate began to shift toward colder weather after 1300. There are beautiful views of the archaeological site on the Heritage Ireland website.

Skellig Michael history and photos

From Skellig Michael we went on to Little Skellig, a bird sanctuary. The entire surface of the island is alive with birds. This is home to one of the largest gannet colonies anywhere.Up close, you see the white area is all birds, calling, flying, wriggling and doing what birds do. The majority of the birds are gannets, but in the lowest most sheltered crevices we could see puffins.So many birds, so little time.

From Little Skellig, we sailed back to Port Magee, delighted by our brilliant day.

 

Get in the car.

06 Saturday Aug 2016

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These may be the scariest words on the planet for someone approaching a right hand drive vehicle for the first time. The day before we left Edinburgh, with our rental car awaiting us in the morning, we took a driving lesson. One hour each behind the wheel with Michael, the most unflappable person I’ve ever met. We each had our hour of white-knuckle driving on the left hand side of the road, learning about merging, roundabouts (there are two kinds) and standard speed limits. We survived our lesson and went to the airport with trepidation. Some of the things that you immediately do wrong are to look the wrong way, attempt to enter a roundabout going the wrong direction, go to shift with your right hand and turn on your wipers instead (gears are on left). Then there’s driving too close on the left, and too close on the right, both at the same time!!! Roads are often narrow, I swear standard lanes are narrower than in the US.

I’d looked up historic sites on our route that would give us a break from driving. Our first stop was about 20 minutes down the road at Castlelaw Hill fort, just off the Edinburgh bypass. Not much of a surprise that we were already ready for a break.

7.31.16 Castelaw Hill Fort-009Even in blustery weather, the site was impressive, three rings of earthen embankments encircling the top of a hill, with occupation going back to the Iron Age, about 800 BC, and perhaps even earlier. There is also a subterranean chamber that may have been a hiding place, a storage space or ritual space. Called a “souterain,” similar rooms from medieval times hid priests after Catholicism was outlawed. (Author Erin Hart makes great use of a souterain in her mystery novel Haunted Ground.) It was a bit drippy crawling in and out of the underground room.

We moved on toward southern Scotland. Our next stop was Coulter Motte, a tiny flat-topped hill that used to hold a castle. There’s nothing left but the mound.

After this break, we got serious and headed for our destination, Aird Farm B&B in Crossmichael, near our new place in Dalbeattie. We move in tomorrow. The B&B is great, with bird feeders by the sitting room. We saw blue tits, great tits, a Great Spotted woodpecker and many of the usual suspects. https://i0.wp.com/www.psiloswildlifephotography.co.uk/birds/redleggedpartridgesm.jpg

On our drive out for dinner we spotted a red-legged partridge, a very weird dude. (The photo is not by me).

 

 

 

Dinner at the Kings Arms in Castle Douglas poring over the bird book.

It was great to be out of the car for a while, but tomorrow is move-in day including grocery shopping, so I’m going to have to get used to driving. We split the driving 50-50 so that we both learn how to do it. I still feel nauseous when I get into the car in the morning.