February 27, 2016
We saw one of my favorite Chilean birds today. Twice! My mom asked me awhile ago what our favorite bays to survey are and what our favorite birds (besides our godwits are). Here’s your answers Mom!
R: One of my favorite species here is the Austral Negrito. We see it at some but not all of our bays - usually where there is still some natural habitat above the high tide line. They’re sexually dimorphic - meaning the males and females look different. The males are jet black with a rufous triangular patch on its back. The female is a really subtle pretty grey and tan with a paler rufous patch.
G: Mine is the Rufous-chested Dotterel. The Spectacled Duck was pretty nice too. Oh! The White-tailed Kite! And the Ringed Kingfishers are so pretty.
R: I could easily argue that San Juan - the bay we went to today - is a favorite. For me a good bay has the following requirements: is easy to see and survey the flock, usually has between 100-1,000 godwits, has had green flags, and is in a nice area. San Juan meets all of those.
G: I think my favorite bay is Compu. I like that theres usually been a neat mix of other species there that we don’t see elsewhere like the Dotterel and Ashy-headed Geese we saw last time.
Today we surveyed San Juan and found LY - our male with a touch of wanderlust. We had a good scan in the misty rain and moved on to Teguel. There we refound another male, C85, putting both males up into the 4 resight category!
G is really starting to get excited for food back home. We went from a conversation about Chilean breakfasts (which we are not particularly found of) somehow into grilled steaks, chocolate chip cookies, milkshakes, and more Mexican food. I’m not sure how that worked.
Still at 29 individuals
We saw one of my favorite Chilean birds today. Twice! My mom asked me awhile ago what our favorite bays to survey are and what our favorite birds (besides our godwits are). Here’s your answers Mom!
R: One of my favorite species here is the Austral Negrito. We see it at some but not all of our bays - usually where there is still some natural habitat above the high tide line. They’re sexually dimorphic - meaning the males and females look different. The males are jet black with a rufous triangular patch on its back. The female is a really subtle pretty grey and tan with a paler rufous patch.
G: Mine is the Rufous-chested Dotterel. The Spectacled Duck was pretty nice too. Oh! The White-tailed Kite! And the Ringed Kingfishers are so pretty.
R: I could easily argue that San Juan - the bay we went to today - is a favorite. For me a good bay has the following requirements: is easy to see and survey the flock, usually has between 100-1,000 godwits, has had green flags, and is in a nice area. San Juan meets all of those.
G: I think my favorite bay is Compu. I like that theres usually been a neat mix of other species there that we don’t see elsewhere like the Dotterel and Ashy-headed Geese we saw last time.
Today we surveyed San Juan and found LY - our male with a touch of wanderlust. We had a good scan in the misty rain and moved on to Teguel. There we refound another male, C85, putting both males up into the 4 resight category!
G is really starting to get excited for food back home. We went from a conversation about Chilean breakfasts (which we are not particularly found of) somehow into grilled steaks, chocolate chip cookies, milkshakes, and more Mexican food. I’m not sure how that worked.
Still at 29 individuals