Bird Explorers

In Colombia, the bird photography fraternity gives a challenge to any bird photographers who visit the country to see if you meet the grade and are truly good at your skill.

Now Toucans have a habit of picking up a piece of fruit with their big beaks and then throwing it up in the air with their heads tilted so the fruit goes straight into their gullet.

So my guide Gilberto said that to be seen as a truly good photographer, you need to get a photo of a toucan with the fruit between the beak suspended in mid air without touching either side of the beak. This is made double hard by the fact the toucans only show up to feed infrequently, and then only for a few minutes.

Not being one to ever flee from a challenge, I was able to do it on one of the first shots. Although in all honesty, it was shear luck over skill.😂. But then the Bird Gods do seem to look out for me.

Here is the very beautiful and highly photogenic Grey-breasted Mountain-Toucan, locally called 'Terlaque andino', resident of the High Andes of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru at around 3,200 m (9600 feet) up in the High Andes on the slopes of the restive Nevada del Ruiz Volcano.

The Andean Cock-of-the-Rock is one of the most iconic species in the world for wildlife watchers. It was so very emotional seeing these amazing birds and photographing them.

To get to this lek, we had to get up at 3:30 AM and hike down a very steep trail in the dark. The trail was very steep so I had to use a head lamp and a sturdy walking stick.

You sit in a small hide where the male birds start calling from about dawn 6:00 AM only 2-3 metres from you at eye level, which is amazing to be so close.

But the light is so low you need to use ISO 4000-5000 for the camera, but these mirrorless cameras do the trick very nicely. They only lek for about 30-60 minutes before they are off to the forest to find their breakfast. There were two adult males and a juvenile.

Between the amazing birds and steep hike straight back up the mountain, the whole experience leaves you physically and emotionally exhausted, but what a glorious form of exhaustion❣❣

Enjoying the rainforests and amazingly colourful birds of the Valle del Cauca, near Cali, Colombia. Around 60 species photographed today.

Some highlights include Red-headed Barbet, Crimson-rumped Toucanet, Colombian Chachalaca and Bronze-winged Parrot.

Off to find the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock tomorrow!!!

I am very excited and optimistic by the events of recent days and the thought of a historic Harris presidency, so expect a bit more than usual political posts. The new surge of excitement is palpable.

Many of you might not be aware I was elected as Secretary of Democrats Abroad Thailand earlier this year. There are approximately 100,000 Americans that permanently reside in Thailand, and we have 2,000+ active members and many others in Democrats Abroad Thailand, many from swing states.

So I will be actively getting the votes out and making sure that all Democrats in Thailand vote in their respective states, as well as being very active on social media, particularly Democratic TikTok.

Also would like to thank President Joe Biden. He did the right thing, and I am sure that with all his legislative accomplishments and his selfless action here, his presidency will be regarded very highly by history.

Enjoying Northern Music Week at Ashokan in the beautiful Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York. The combination of wildlife photography and beautiful folk and traditional music is totally magical.

Wildlife highlights include the North American Porcupine, Indigo Bunting, Spicebush Swallowtail and Eastern Kingbirds. These were mostly found in the area of the Eastern Meadows and the Old Cemetery.

I have now made it back to Ashokan in the beautiful Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York for Northern Music Week. This is where musicians from the across the North from Quebec and Northeast USA through Ireland, Scotland and England on across Scandinavia get together for traditional folk music and dancing.

During the week I spend a fair bit of time in the beautiful mixed hemlock and deciduous forests cataloguing all the amazing wildlife.

Todays discoveries include a (1) White-tailed Deer doe and fawn, (2) Wood Thrush which are singing beautifully around the Homestead, (3) Yummy Wineberry Bush before you get to the waterfall and (4) Shadow Darner, one of North America's larger Dragonflies, and new species for Ashokan sitting on the door to the Homestead.

On my way to Virginia, I had a few days in Honolulu and went into the tropical montane forests to photograph any Hawaiian endemics that I could find.

Unfortunately Hawaii, especially Oahu, has lost most of their endemic birds due to habitat loss, climate change and avian malaria. In their place, many more generalist invasive bird species have settled in. The parks of Honolulu feature invasives from Africa, South America, North America and Asia.

However, I was able to find two cool endemics:

Oʻahu ʻAmakihi --One of the Hawaiian HoneyCreepers, this lovely yellow bird is member of the same finch family as the American and European Goldfinches, Grosbeaks, Crossbills and Buntings.

O'ahu 'Elepaio--A member of the Monarch Flycatcher family which is common across the South Pacific.

Most endemics are adapted to local vegetation, and a common and beautiful plant is the Ōhiʻa Lehu, a flowering tree that is part of the myrtle family.

One of the invasives, the beautiful Java Sparrow is actually far more easy to photograph in the park's of Honolulu than on its native island of Java where it is endangered from poaching for the caged bird trade.

In Virginia celebrating my mom's 92 birthday. When I'm not spending time with the family, I have been down in the neighbouring tidal swamp which is alive and buzzing with so many cool things in the summer heat and humidity.

Finally after decades of trying got a good photo of a male Blue Grosbeak in an adjacent field, as well as an Eastern Towhee, Northern Cardinal, and, for lack of a more gentile name, the Eastern Cicada Killing Wasp 🤣.