Striped Owl

Yesterday, while birding my 'local patch', I found this Striped Owl. We've been birding this little laguna about 10 minutes from our house fairly frequently since we discovered it back in January. This place, Laguna Villa Royal it's called, delivers consistently, and after 17 visits thus far we've accumulated 136 species there, including species considered uncommon in Central America. Almost every time we go there, we pick up something new. I expected the pace to slow down a bit during the summer (with all the migrants gone) but we're still adding new resident birds, like Thicket Tinamou and Yellow-billed Cacique last week, and this week Striped Owl.

It wasn't difficult to find. Tropical Kingbirds, Melodious Blackbirds and Groove-billed Anis were kicking up a tremendous racket, so I knew upon approach that there was likely a raptor perched somewhere.

The owl seemed completely oblivious to all this commotion, as it sat there low on a branch dozing in the late afternoon sun. As I got closer, it became more alert, and then flew off a short distance, with loud, angry passerines in tow. Although easily relocated, I decided to leave it alone and give it some rest.

Striped Owl occurs from Mexico through Central America well into South America. Here in Central America it is rarely reported, with most of the eBird records from places more heavily birded by tourists (Belize, Costa Rica). eBird has no records from Guatemala, El Salvador or Nicaragua for this species, and my record is the first Honduran eBird record.

Laguna Villa Royal is just a small, artificial lake (or large pond, if you will) in a valley surrounded by pine-oak forest. The valley is mostly cattle pasture and dry scrub forest. The laguna area is privately owned and fenced off, although the owner allows people on the property. Many people from the nearby hamlet come here to fish or swim, and there's usually cattle or horses grazing the area. The birding there is as good as any in the area, with notable sightings such as Ruddy Duck, Lesser Scaup, Masked Duck, Roseate Spoonbill, Great Black-Hawk, Bell's Vireo, Mangrove Swallow, and Mourning Warbler. Resident species such as Limpkin, Lesser Ground-Cuckoo, Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Brown-crested Flycatcher and White-lored Gnatcatcher are easily observed there.

Another pulse in Monte Uyuca

As I write this, it's late Friday night, and I've just returned from another bird banding trip to Monte Uyuca in Honduras. Tomorrow morning at 6:15 AM I am expected at the SalvaNATURA office, to start on another assignment here in El Salvador.

Of course there are stories to tell and photos to show, but with such little time at my disposal (laundry to do, batteries to charge, sleep to catch up with), I'm afraid it's just going to be a brief selection of highlights.

The bird at the top is a juvenile Common Bush-tanager. With the rainy season well under way, many birds are either nesting of have just finished nesting. We caught a fair number of hatch year birds from a variety of species.

And, as always at this site, many hummingbirds, although this time practically all were Green-breasted Mountain-gems, like this bird. I think we caught only one or two Azure-crowned Hummingbirds, and zero White-eared Hummingbirds. These last two species were quite abundant as captures only a month ago.

This morning, while walking the net lanes, I found this Mottled Owl.

The owls of Whitefish Point

Many North American birders associate Whitefish Point with owls, and indeed where else can you see up to nine different owl species? I'm already at seven - only one that's missing for me besides Barred is the one I want most of all: Northern Hawk Owl. Still possible...!

Two days ago I saw a Short-eared Owl flying out over the water along the eastern shore of Whitefish Point. That was already very cool, but it was topped yesterday by an all-white Snowy Owl flying along the other side of the Point! Both times, the birds were too far away to get decent photos.

The bird at the top of today's entry is a Northern Saw-whet Owl. As small as they are, they can be feisty! Owl banders Chris and Nova let me remove a few of these guys from their nets, and I banded one of them. As we walked the net lanes with me holding this bird in my hand, it was quiet most of the time, but eventually started picking at my thumb with its bill.

Here's a Boreal Owl, only slightly bigger than a Northern Saw-whet. This is supposed to be a peak year for them, yet the numbers caught at Whitefish Point this spring have disappointed a little bit so far. This is one of the most sought-after North American birds.

Another denizen of northern boreal forests is this Great Gray Owl. Here I am, sleepy-eyed, holding one that was caught a couple of hours before sunrise. Chris and Nova woke me up for this bird. A few days later, I heard one during the hawk count from the platform.

You never know who you'll run into over breakfast. Here is Chris with a Great Horned, in the kitchen of the bird observatory. For him and Nova it had been a long night, for me the day was just starting with coffee, cereal and... a Great Horned Owl.

And here's a photo from last night, a Long-eared Owl. They were around in good numbers, because we could see several flying around in the beam of the lighthouse. Chris and Nova caught 18 of them a couple of nights ago, and another 14 last night.

Postscript: Just after I had posted this blog entry, I went out to the tip of the Point, to bring the waterbird counter a cup of hot coffee, and to see if I could turn up some interesting birds, it being migration and all... Normally I would have been on the platform counting hawks, but rain all day meant a day off for me.

Well, what do I find on the Point but this all-white Snowy Owl! So I deliver the coffee and go back to the house to get Chris and Nova. The four of us - Chris, Nova, waterbird counter Andy and myself - watch this bird until a second one shows up!

This bird is clearly more marked than the other one. Possibly the whiter one is a male and the mottled one a female, although there is quite a bit of overlap apparently. The mottled one did seem a little bigger to me.

Here they are together. Chris and Nova have better optics and got better shots than I did. (As always, click on the photos for better views.)

Acosta

Saturday around noon we left Monteverde empty-handed, and headed out to our next site, Acosta.

Acosta is just an hour south of San Jose, but – unlike Monteverde – is not a major tourist destination. The weather was sunny and warm when we stopped for ice cream in a park in one of the towns along the way, where our Costa Rican assistant Pablo got me this life bird: Black-and-white Owl. What an awesome bird!

By the time we got to Acosta, the weather had changed to gloomy, overcast skies and moderately heavy rain. We were happy to get there nonetheless, because this site seemed the one with the most potential for encountering a Golden-cheeked Warbler. In Monteverde, despite several records of goldencheeks, we never really found suitable wintering habitat for this species. But Monteverde gets birded a lot, by birders of all skill levels, so those records may represent chance encounters with a really rare species through abundant coverage (the so-called Patagonian Pick-nick Table Effect), or they may represent misidentifications by less careful birders. Who knows? Females and immatures, after all, are quite similar to Black-throated Green Warblers, a species that does winter in Monteverde.

Around Acosta, however, we found ample suitable habitat, and we agreed that this was likely going to be our best site. If we don’t find them here, we’re not going to find them anywhere.

Two Tico birders, Adilio and Paola, graciously provided a place for us to stay, took us out to a concert at night, and got up with us at 5 AM the next morning, to help us look for our warbler.

Although still overcast, it was dry when we left their homes, the five of us all slightly hungover from the previous night. Soon after, it started raining, and steep, unpaved mountain roads turned into slippery mud baths, some of which were difficult to navigate even with 4WD. But at least it wasn’t windy, and light rain often makes for excellent warbler watching.

But then the rain became heavy, and birding became difficult, or pointless. We returned to the car for some coffee, and after one and a half hour in the car, tried to bird the area again.

Adilio took this photo of me, pointing to a non-existent goldencheek; Alberto, pointing to another one; and Pablo and Paola, both saying “oh yeah, sure, we see ‘em”. We saw some Black-throated Greens there, some Wilson’s Warblers, some Black-and-whites, a Summer Tanager, but no goldencheeks. Around 11 AM, we decided to return to the village and look for some food, instead of birds. We found a nice meal at great value, and even though we now had to leave our most promising site empty-handed again, at least we got to experience the warmth and the hospitality of the Costa Ricans we met here.