David McDonald Photography: August 2010

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Bulletin #120 – Alaska #8

David McDonald Photography

Friendswood Texas
August 28, 2010

Bulletin #120 – Alaska #8

I had a great trip to Alaska with TOS (Texas Ornithology Society). They run an annual trip to Alaska in early June. We visited Anchorage, Nome, Barrow, Denali Highway and had a pelagic trip out of Seward. It was a fantastic trip with most usual birds seen and photographed along with numerous mammal species.

There were several highlights of the trip to Alaska in June. One was seeing the birds in breeding plumage, and the other was seeing birds nesting and some of the babies.

I have already posted several photos of birds on the nest. Here is the Great Gray Owl. Also, we found nesting Gyrfalcons. I also had an American Dipper taking food to the nest box.
Here are some other birds on the nest. The Common Loon builds its nest in reeds along the shore of a quiet lake.

We saw several pairs of Red-necked Grebes building floating nests of reeds in the middle of lakes.

In Potter's Marsh in Anchorage, there is a nice boardwalk that extends out into the marsh. Numerous birdhouses were put up on the support posts for Tree Swallows. Here is a male with his head out of the hole.

Potter's Marsh was also a great location to see plenty of chicks and young birds, due to the sheer numbers of breeding birds there.

There was a nest of Mew Gulls very close to the parking lot. Here is a downy young. I don't know why these chicks and the tern chick to follow are spotted, but maybe it helps to hide them in the reeds from predators. Here are a couple of photos of a single chick.

And here is the pair together.

Here is one begging from the parent.

And another with the parent showing the chick that she has no food available at this time.

The Arctic Tern has a bright red bill and so does the chick behind.

There also was a family of Red-necked Grebes. As you have probably seen on nature TV shows, the baby grebes will ride on the back of the parents at times. I had never witnessed this before. The babies have striped faces.

In the next series of photos, both parents are present and a total of 3 babies can be seen. One of the parents has a large minnow and was trying to feed it to the babies, but none of them were able to swallow it.

I will be leading a 9 day bird photography tour to Costa Rica in conjunction with Lillian Scott-Baer of Baer Travel March 3-11, 2011. We have worked out an itinerary to visit La Selva Preserve, Savegre Mountain Hotel in the central mountains for Resplendant Quetzal and other montane species and Wilson Botanical Gardens (Las Cruces). We have also retained the services of local guide Rudy Zamora to accompany us and locate and ID the birds for us to photograph. We will also have beautiful flowers and hopefully some mammals - tamanduas, monkeys etc.

The trip is now sold out.

All comments and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

email: davidkmcd@comcast.net

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Bulletin #119 – Alaska #7

David McDonald Photography
Friendswood Texas
August 8, 2010

Bulletin #119 – Alaska #7

I had a great trip to Alaska with TOS (Texas Ornithology Society). They run an annual trip to Alaska in early June. We visited Anchorage, Nome, Barrow, Denali Highway and had a pelagic trip out of Seward. It was a fantastic trip with most usual birds seen and photographed along with numerous mammal species.

There were several cormorants in Alaska. The Red-faced Cormorant (Phalacrocorax urile) is a resident bird of the Aleutian Islands. In breeding plumage the facial skin is red. In basic plumage, it is orange as seen here. The orange extends around the eye. This was a lifer for me.

Jaegers are closely related to gulls and are in the same family. They nest on the tundra across the arctic, but otherwise are oceanic birds. They feed by harassing gulls and terns to make them release their fish.

We saw 2 species in Alaska, both on the Nome section of the trip. The Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus) is dark above, light below with a dark chest band. Notice the elongated pointed central tail feathers.

The other was a lifer. The Long-tailed Jaeger (Stercorarius longicaudus) has a clean black cap, white underparts, no chest band and very long tail. All these field marks can be seen in this bird that we found right beside the road eating some carrion.

Ptarmigan are members of the grouse family that inhabit the Arctic. There are 3 species in North America and we found 2 of them in the Nome area. They were both life birds for me. Because the length of the winter season, these birds are almost pure white in winter, for camouflage. The male Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) in courtship plumage has a brown head and neck and white body. The edges of the tail are black. Notice the red eyebrows!

The male Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) in courtship plumage has the red eyebrow, is mostly still white, but has a beige wash. The black stripe through the eye is another ID mark of this bird. This bird is number 92 in the book '100 Birds to See Before You Die'. It earns its place in the book by being the most northerly wintering land bird in the world.

Here is a Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus) that we found in the Anchorage area. He was foraging on the ground and flying back to the nest hole near-by.

There were several other mammals found on the pelagic trip. The first is the Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris). This wonderful mammal has the densest fur of any animal and consequently was hunted almost to extinction. But now with protection, they are making a comeback. They occur along the north Pacific coast and range as far south as Big Sur in California. They can usually be seen floating on their back while sleeping or eating. They are one of the few mammals to use tools. They often will place a rock on their stomach and then smash a crab or sea urchin against the rock to crack it open.

The other was a Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus). This northern fur seal is much larger and lighter color than the familiar California Sea Lion. The males may get to 11' in length and weigh 2500 pounds. The first photo shows a family group with the huge male, some females and a dark pup. The second photo is a pup. This was a lifer for me.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

email: davidkmcd@comcast.net

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Bulletin #118 – Alaska #6 – passerines

David McDonald Photography

Friendswood Texas
August 1, 2010

Bulletin #118 – Alaska #6 – passerines

I had a great trip to Alaska with TOS (Texas Ornithology Society). They run an annual trip to Alaska in early June. We visited Anchorage, Nome, Barrow, Denali Highway and had a pelagic trip out of Seward. It was a fantastic trip with most usual birds seen and photographed along with numerous mammal species.

Just as with shorebirds, there are a number of songbirds (passerines) from Asia that regularly extend their range into western Alaska. We saw several of these birds including Bluethroat and Eastern Yellow Wagtail but didn’t manage to get good photos. However, I did get photos of 2 species.

The Arctic Warbler (Phylloscopus borealis) is a member of the Old World Warbler family (Sylviidae) that also includes the gnatcatchers. The Arctic Warbler is a dull olive backed bird with a light eye line. It is best IDed by voice. This was a life bird.

Another Asian bird was the Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe). It is a member of the thrush family (Turdidae). The breeding male has a gray back, pale breast washed with buff, and a black mask. In flight, they have a distinctive white rump and tail with a black terminal band.

The male Varied Thrush (Ixoreus naevius) is similar to the American Robin, but it has orange stripes on the face and wings. There is also a dark stripe across the breast. This was only me second time to see this bird.

We saw several species of wood-warblers including Yellow, Yellow-rumped, Wilson’s, Orange-crowned, Blackpoll and Northern Waterthrush. I was surprised that we didn’t find a Townsend’s Warbler, as their range extends into southeast Alaska. The only photos I took were of a male Blackpoll Warbler (Dendroica striata). This black and white warbler has a solid black cap and white face. The legs are orange or pink.

2 members of the sparrow family were lifers for me. The male Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) is a striking white bird with black wings. These birds was found in Barrow.

The other bird was the Lapland Longspur (Calcarius lapponicus). We saw lots of these birds in the Nome area. The stunning breeding male has a black head and throat, reddish collar across the back of neck, brown streaked back and white breast.

The American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) is the only aquatic songbird. It feeds by hopping into swift flowing streams and walking along the bottom to catch insect larvae. It is overall dark gray with a short tail. We found a family of them using a nest box at a fish hatchery on the Denali Highway. I had never heard of these birds using a nest box, so I took a photo of it. It was on open rectangular box and they used moss as nesting material. Here is the bird with food in its mouth and the nest box.

The White-winged Crossbill (Loxia leucoptera) is a finch. They use their unusual crossed bill tip to pry open cones of evergreen trees to get the seeds. The male is reddish with white wing bars. The female shown here is yellowish.

The Boreal Chickadee (Poecile hudsonica) has a brown cap rather than black.

The last bird is the Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia). This black and white bird with a long tail is a member of the crow family. It is unmistakable.

I will be giving several talks in the evening on bird photography, Photoshop etc.

The price will be $1960 double to $2380 single. This includes hotels, all meals, guide, transportation in Costa Rica etc. The only other cost will be airfare and personal purchases (alcohol, souvenirs etc) . Space is limited to 10 persons to maximize our opportunity to see and photograph the birds. I have birded in Costa Rica previously. It is a wonderful country to visit and the bird life is exceptional. I hope that you can join us.

Here is the schedule of payments for the trip.

$ 25 reservation fee (not refundable)
$ 575 due April 30, 2010
$ 600 due July 30, 2010
$ 740 due January 15, 2011
Please send deposits to:

ScoBar Inc.
34 Galway Place
The Woodlands, TX 77382

There are only 2 spaces left for this trip as of today, so please email me, if interested.

All comments and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

email: davidkmcd@comcast.net

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.