Visit to Campinas.

On our way back to São Paulo from Minas Gerais, we decided to stop over and visit Carlos Henrique and Viviane im Campinas. Carlos is a guide that has helped me out many a time with clients when I have been double-booked and since leaving Brazil. he is an excellent guide and I thoroughly recommend his services if you are hoping to bird in south-east Brazil.



Carlos helping me clear up some doubts I had about birds we had seen in Minas Gerais.

 

The reason for our visit, apart from seeing old friends, was to exchange books. I presented him with a copy of Confessions of a Bird Guide and he presented me with a copy of Aves do Campus da Unicamp e Arredores which he had co-authored with others including our friends Arthur Macarrão and Milena Corbo.

Me, Elis, Viviane and Carlos, complete with exchanged books.

He also presented me with a copy of a book written by a series of authors Monte Mor, a vida às margens do Capivari about the wildlife to be found in the Capivari region. Arthur and Milena had written the section about birds and it was she that had left the book with Carlos to present to us.

present to us. Both of these books have been published by Avis Brasilis which is run by another friend, the artist Tomas Sigrist.

Our time with this charming couple was all too short and we had to return to São Paulo the next day, but we had a great evening catching up and thank Carlos and Viviane for their generous hospitality.

Urban birding in Lima, Peru.

Visiting Peru as part of our Wader Quest gave us ample opportunity for general birding of course. Our very first day in Lima with Renzo Zeppilli gave us plenty to look at. The first bird we saw I recognised immediately as White-winged Dove only to be disabused of this idea and was informed that it was a West Peruvian Dove!

West Peruvian Dove

A gull flew over and also looked familiar, less confident now I suggested Kelp Gull and was relieved to find this time I was correct, but moments later a black-backed gull with a black head flew past, this then was surely a Belcher's Gull? Renzo confirmed my ID.

Belcher's Gull

There were also other familiar birds about, Black Vultures soared around the skyscrapers, Tropical Kingbird, Eared Dove, Bananaquit, Southern Beardless Tyrannulet and Southern House Wren were all seen. Another familiar looking bird was Groove-billed Ani which looked like a small version of smooth-billed.

Groove-billed Ani

The most vociferous bird around is the Scrub Blackbird. Its song sounds like some sort of futuristic weapon from some playstation game, or a rather drunk R2D2 from Star Wars. It is a common bird to be heard and seen in every one of the many planted squares and gardens in the city.

Scrub Blackbird

The only hummingbird of the city is the Amazilia Hummingbird, a lovely rufous and green bird that feeds along the many hibiscous hedges and bushes.

Amazilia Hummingbird

Vermilion Flycatchers are also a bird of the city streets, they can be seen flycatching from trees and aerials, but the interesting thing about some of them is that they are of the local form which has an all dusky plumage.

Normal male Vermilion Flycatcher

Dusky form of vermilion Flycatcher

There are two forms of the Blue-grey Tanager too, both occur in Lima, but both are introduced.

Blue-grey Tanager white winged form.

Blue-grey Tanager dark winged form.

 

Back in Ubatuba, Brazil.

Returning to Ubatuba presented us with a mixture of emotions, we really enjoyed seeing the scenery again, but some of the not so nice memories also returned to us, but largely, thanks to old friends, we were able to ignore them.



Female Green-backed Trogon

One of the highlights was a visit to Ubatumirim, one of my favourite birding spots in Ubatuba. We went there primarily to look for Collared Plover which we found on the beach as expected.



Ubatumirim marsh

Ubatumirim beach

Adult Collared Plover

A little later though, as we were watching a male Rufous-capped Antshrike singing away we heard a familiar sound...

Rufous-capped Antshrike

we were stunned to hear the calls of Brown-backed Parrotlets in flight!!! Looking up we saw 11, they flew in a large circle around us allowing us to make a sound recording of their calls and Elis managed, despite their height to get a recognisable record shot of them.

Eleven Brown-backed Parrotlets

Closer view of four of them.

An individual extremely enlarged.

A little later we heard and saw them again, this time flying at a greater height. We finished off our visit with some spectacular views of a Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture.

Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture.

Off to Brazil and Peru

Off to Brazil and Peru now doing Wader Quest, no doubt we will encounter some birds that are not waders to keep the blog updated, tanagers, hummers, antbirds all very exciting, some familiar old friends in Brazil and some exciting new ones in Peru where we will be guided by old freind Renzo Zeppelli.

Green-headed Tanager, commonly seen but uncommonly beautiful.

Confessions of a Bird Guide reprint.

In response to the flood of enquiries we received from people not being able to get hold of a copy of my book Confessions of a Bird Guide we have now made it available again.

Same conditions as before; if you just want a really good read (or something to stop the table wobbling) go direct to Lulu and buy it from there.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/rick-simpson/confessions-of-a-bird-guide/paperback/product-20953280.html

If on the other hand you want a personalised copy, then send me an email and I'll send you a signed copy with whatever dedication you wish, but you'll need to add p+p (£1.40 2nd class UK, other destinations on request) to the price of £7.99 I'm afraid.

rick@rick-simpson.com

For the record, the cover photo is not a montage, but to get the full story you'll have to read the book!

High Island Texas.

Anyone who has dreamed of going to Texas will certainly have decided springtime is best and they will also have decided that High Island is a must-visit destination with the mouthwatering lure of Nearctic warblers lighting up the trees.

Magnolia Warbler

So when Elis and I discovered that we would be passing the end of the road on our Wader Quest journey from Galveston to Cameron Parish, Louisiana, we felt we just had to stop by and see what all the fuss was about! So on the 27th of April we stopped at Boy Scout Woods in High Island on a day that, we were told, was going to be a 'good' one with plenty of birds about.

We parked the car and as we walked to the centre we were stopped by a chap who asked "Is your name Simpson?" Naturally I confirmed this and he introduced himself as Gerald Mueller, one of our facebook friends. It was good to shake his hand after so much toing and froing and admiring of each other's photographs on the facebook pages.

Elis and Gerald Mueller

We spent a little time wandering around the sanctuary with Gerald and enjoyed the birds, the best spot by far though was a bottle-brush bush just outside the sanctuary gate in a private garden! In this I saw my first ever Prothonotary Warbler, some Tennessee Warblers and a lovely Bay-breasted Warbler.

Prothonotary Warbler

Tennessee Warbler

Bay-breasted Warbler

In addition we had a female Summer Tanager, Orchard Orioles and a White-crowned Sparrow in a tree next to the bottle-brush.

Female Summer Tanager

Male Orchard Oriole

Female Orchard Oriole

1st summer male Orchard oriole

White-crowned Sparrow

Other birds encountered were Kentucky Warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Scarlet Tanager.

Kentucky Warbler

Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Male Scarlet Tanager

Our stay at High Island was all too short, but we certainly got a feel for the place and could just imagine what it would be like on one of the big fall-out days, even on this day, which was considered merely 'good' there were birds in every tree and movement everywhere, but apparently this was not unusual according to the regulars, "Y'all should be here on a fall-out day!" one enthusiastic local birder told us happily.

Elis joins the viewing gallery.

As we drove away we came across this pair of Eastern Kingbirds but couldn't decide if they were being aggressive or courting, such is the course of true love I suppose!  

Eastern Kingbird

Some interesting birds from Louisiana and Texas

As part of our Wader Quest Elis and I found ourselves in Louisiana and Texas. Now everyone knows that birding the Gulf coast in April means you'll see much more than shorebirds, and so it proved for us too. This Common Nighthawk was on a fence post along the beach in Cameron Parish.

Common Nighthawk

I placed a shot of this Painted Bunting as one of my favourites in the right column of this blog, here's another of this gaudy little stunner.

Painted Bunting

My first Yellow-billed Cuckoo in the USA, I have seen several Black-billed before but not this species, although I had previously seen both in the UK, on the Isles of Scilly to be precise.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

We saw a good number of these and also Indigo Buntings, sometimes there was so much colour in a tree that it looked like Christmas had come early, these blue birds, yellow warblers, red tanagers and green vireos, wonderful birding.

Blue Grosbeak

Mixed in with the grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds we came across a few Yellow-headed Blackbirds, our first was near Welsh where Steve Cardiff and Donna Dittman took us to look for waders, but it was Elis that spotted it first that time.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Not very rare and rather widespread, it is still always good to see the Purple Martins, the males, when they catch the light are glorious.

Purple Martins

Another hirundine and a tick for me, these Cave Swallows would have eluded us if it had not been for Steve and Donna.

Cave Swallow

Wood Duck is contender for the most beautiful duck in the world (possibly being pipped at the post by Mandarin), we only saw this male and its mate during the whole trip.

Wood Duck