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Season_4_USGS_et_al

Greetings SoCal and the rest of the world!

Amazing how time flies when you look at your blog post record and see that the most recent posts were from a couple of months back now (Galapagos). Since Galapagos, I haven’t ventured too far – although, once again I moved from Davis, CA back down to San Diego County for season 4 with USGS. I went through my usual routine of beginning to pack up in Davis about 3 weeks before I was to head south which made the move less rushed and it seems to have been an easier shift this year. The big change this year was not staying at SMER (Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve) for the ~6 months I spend down here in SoCal with my work @ USGS. Fortunately, I found a place to stay here in Leucadia/Encinitas with a friend who has been living here for about 6 months. Living on the coast has been a nice change of pace, weather, for new local explorations, local fish tacos, and more. The coastal lagoons are a blessing on this stretch of coast and I try to go to a few of them each week. The highlight of Batiquitos Lagoon (closet lagoon for me) was the discovery of an active Great-horned Owl nest about a month ago. Frequent visits to the nest have been rewarding as we see the owlets getting bigger each week. This past week the first of the owlets completely left the nest and the other two explored many feet out of the nest and onto the limbs surrounding the nest. I only am posting a few photos of the nest in this slideshow as I will have a video of the owls (and more) ready in a fews days hopefully. Working on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton (BASE) daily keeps me immersed in nature 6-7 hrs a day. Surveys on BASE for the California Gnatcatcher(s) (CAGNs) prove a great way to get to know the various habitats, backroads, and training areas on the base. Our CAGN plots are scattered all over from near sea-level all the way up to about 1000 ft up in the coastal mountains. Unfortunately, I don’t think most of us detect a lot of CAGNs on BASE, but the past week I had fledgling CAGNs at one point, so that was fun and hopeful. Spring breeding/nesting for all birds is moving along for many species we encounter. Seeing various species’ active nests is always an encouraging site – especially the local owl and Osprey nests with growing nestlings. Trips to San Diego have been adding good wildlife sightings at seal beach, La Jolla Cove, underwater at the Cove (Horn Sharks), San Diego River, and up at Cabrillo NM. Seeing a drone scare most of the seabirds off the cliffs at La Jolla Cove wasn’t such a good experience – the cormorants are on eggs down there along the cliffs! Fish tacos have been keeping me semi-nourished once a week and Leucadia Donut Shoppe’s 5am donut visits round out the perfect SoCal diet. A recent trip to San Diego River near Mission Beach to watch the terns, skimmers, gulls, and egrets mill around in the tidal flats went well until a homeless man on a bike swerved over and kicked me in my knee (I wasn’t hurt at all, but seemed like it could have gone worse for sure) – that killed the buzz of enjoying what usually is a decent place to just walk and observe. A guy spinning donuts in the same area in his truck topped that off as he was about 100ft from a killdeer nest (with 4 eggs) I had just found on the edge of the parking lot. Ugh! Anyhow, most everything else is going smoothly in SoCal life here in Leucadia/Encinitas. Being close to the beach (200m) makes it easy to escape into sunsets and waves, and I have about 6 days of attempted surfing now (I don’t even know if I can call myself a beginner yet – standing some on the board). On the way home from San Diego River I had a most unusual encounter on I-5. I was driving in the lane second from the right and saw a dead animal in the road near Del Mar. I drove around it and got a glance of some white and dark features. Then, seconds later in my lane I saw what looked like two medium-sized songbirds (blackbird size?)…..right away I realized what it was – two ducklings! Holy Cow – what can you do on a packed highway to avoid hitting something like that. The ducklings somehow got to the dividing line between lanes and I passed them! Then, I kept my eyes on the right rear mirror as these little ones had one more lane to go across to “safety?”. Well, I watched those two little bodies make it to the shoulder – both kind of leaning into their stride the way ducks walk/run. Somehow, I feel like this moment/event altered my perspective on the fragility of life. Interestingly, I had just seen three ducklings in the San Diego River that were happily following their mum in the river. Such precious life! Well, I could go on with some more tall tales and deep philosophy about how profound it can be to spend every day outdoors immersed in natural environments focused on wildlife or at least in wild habitats, but mainly I am just here to post some pictures and show what is I see and do day-to-day. Enjoy the slideshow – complete with Rihanna music (song titled “work”) that I find somewhat fitting as most of what I do here is related to work and/or looking for neat wildlife or scenery to photograph that also takes a little work/effort….stay tuned for owl video…..

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Posted by devin.scott.taylor | April 25, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: California gnatcatcher, cormorants, ducklings, eggs, Egrets, great horned owls, La Jolla Cove, skimmers | Leave a comment

Galapagos_the end

Hello once again from sunny Davis, CA –

The final part of the Galapagos Island trip I took from Dec 24th-Jan 9th, 2016 is here! This set of images covers Isla Santa Fe (which you can see from above – as I flew over/along Baltra, Santa Cruz, and Santa Fe on my last day – you can just make out the aqua-blue waters of the bay we landed in and where we also did our final snorkel), South Plaza Island, Floreana, and Isabela Island. I do have a couple extra photos from other islands that escaped the last two posts. One photo shows proof that a Red-footed Booby really did walk on my mom’s back! This WILD seabird was as bold and curious as they get, I suppose. At Santa Fe and South Plaza we encountered many land iguanas. These iguanas are a completely different species from the marine iguanas that have also been in these sets of images. The land iguanas we saw were busy eating leaves, displaying for/with mates, and lounging in the sun. They are only found on some of the islands, so seeing this species was a good addition to our list of animals seen. The giant opuntia cactus were impressive on Santa Fe and South Plaza – they basically look like a tree with branches of cactus above. From the cliffs of South Plaza someone sighted some Spotted-eagle-rays in the waves. I managed to snap a few photos of them and I think they were mating, but not sure. The larger eagle-ray was huge. Also from the cliffs, various seabirds were cruising along as usual. The Red-billed tropicbirds are always fun to watch and listen to. They make screaming sounds as they fly about the cliffs and sea. A super bright male Yellow Warbler appeared along the trail we followed (all islands tourists disembark on have regulated trail systems/paths which you follow to minimize impacts to the wildlife and environment). Yellow Warblers are a common songbird on most of the islands. The sight of the colorful plants, blue-green-aqua sea, and black volcanic rocks was quite panoramic – and the volcanic history of these islands was evident in the uplifted features along the cliffs of South Plaza. South Plaza was actually our last stop on the boat tour and the following day we disembarked early in the morning for our trip overland on Santa Cruz Island to Baltra (where the airport is). I saw my family off at Baltra airport and then stayed a second week traveling with a friend on Santa Cruz, Floreana, and Isabela Islands. Most of the marine iguanas you see here were on Floreana Island. They had such a wild variety of scale colors such as black, red, blues, and yellow that it would be silly not to take a lot of photos of them! These iguanas have a flattened tail which allows them to swim in and under water – fun to watch, especially while snorkeling. Floreana had a great place to stay for us right on the main beach- Hotel Wittmer. The Wittmer family history goes back a long ways in Galapagos. We met a few of the Wittmers and even got a group photo with the family on the pier! Seeing more Galapagos Penguins while snorkeling and from the pier was a highlight. A trip to the highlands of Floreana was well worth the trip. We saw the island’s water source, the ancient pirate caves (which also ended up being the homes for the original settlers), a huge rock face-carving, more tortoises, and tons of green vegetation. After Floreana, we had a relatively easy boat ride back to Santa Cruz, and then some really rough boat rides to/from Isabela. Isabela Island was fun to explore too. We found penguins to swim with, flamingos, simple and good food on the streets, more tortoises, more swimming, and a fairly laid-back town to while-away the time there. Back on Santa Cruz, we gathered the necessary tourist goods (t-shirts) for family and friends, ate great food, and prepared for long travel days back to home bases. It took 4 flights, one BART, and one AMTRAK to get me back to Davis. Nothing compares to how Darwin traveled on the Beagle, so I won’t boast about any intrepid travels I made as far as getting to and from Galapagos – relatively, a piece of cake…That brings me to the end of this tall tale. I am sure I will be back in Galapagos again sometime. It is a neat place to explore and if you know your way around it does not have to be a hugely expensive travel destination. Some day I plan to insert my previous Galapagos months into this blog, so no need to write more now. cya later and take care…..

Posted by devin.scott.taylor | February 6, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Galapagos_2015_16_PT2

Hola Hola again!

Here is part 2 of 3 from Galapagos trip 2015-2016. I had a few photos that escaped being entered into the last slideshow – these are from our stop at Genovesa (we disembarked 2 times on this island). This set of images is mainly from Española Island (Gardner Bay and Punta Suåraz) and Floreana Island (Punta Cormorant and Post Office Bay). For me, the highlight was being back on Española again – having spent about 8 months on this Island between 2004-2007 (at Punta Cevallos). Seeing Waved Albatross flying overhead and even a “99%” Waved albatross chick (almost ready to fledge with just a couple downy feathers) was most excellent! Española Island is the only island in the world (minus a few rare pairs) where Waved Albatross breed/nest. There are some shots of a Swallow-tail gull pairs allopreening, mating, and flying – they are the only nocturnal gull in the world and such beautiful gulls to see up close. The Nazca Boobies were in full breeding mode with all age ranges of chicks including some adults with eggs. It may look precious to see two young Nazca chicks sleeping on the parent’s feet – but, the sad biological fact is this is a siblicidal species where chick A always pushes chick B out of the nest just a few days after (and if) egg B hatches! An amazing flick-flight was going on between rival Hood Mockingbird groups – they have fantastic territory fights (they were literally tumbling in the sand at times!). Lava lizards from various spots were easy macro photography subjects. The lizards, like the bird species, vary slightly island to island in such things as size and color. Galapagos flycatchers were seen at various sites – precious little birds. We had a Red-footed Booby land on a few different people in the pangas – after landing on one person, it hopped along the backs of a few people! That is how fearless/bold wildlife can be in Galapagos! We spent New Year’s Eve on board the Galaxy and were treated to a minor feeding frenzy of sharks and a few bold sea-lions chasing flying-fish alongside our boat. The faded brown image of a shark, blurry flying-fish, and remains of a flying-fish found on the back of our boat (a sea-lion slept there that night) document that neat event…The sea-lions actually seemed to out-compete the sharks for the few fish being caught! A few birds you may find anywhere in the western hemisphere such as Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Oystercatchers, sandpipers, and Ruddy Turnstones were rambling along the beaches and lava rock. Seeing young sea-lion pups on most beaches offered simple meditation on the preciousness of life. Whenever I was on board our boat (Galaxy) I usually was on the look out for wildlife from the top deck or stern of the boat. I snapped many photos of the amazing flying/diving of Blue-foots (one which caught a fish on a dive), a sea-lion surfacing at the stern, Wedge-rumped Storm Petrels (Sp? – White-rumped?) doing their hovering behavior on the sea surface, and of the panoramic scenery around us. It was obviously breeding season for sea-turtles (mostly green) as we were seeing mating pairs in the bays at many beaches, including tracks from the females who lay their eggs above the tideline. On a few beaches, sea-turtles were along the shoreline or surfing the waves in search of mates…..plenty of wildlife wonder to see every day……that’s enough said for this round of the story…a final short part 3 to follow…

Posted by devin.scott.taylor | January 31, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Blue-footed Boobies, Espanola Island, Floreana Island, Galapagos, Genovesa Island, Green Sea-turtles Sea lions, Nazca Boobies, seabirds, Waved Albatross | Leave a comment

Galapagos 2015-2016_part1

Hola Hola, Greetings, and Happy New Year from Davis, CA….

Finally, I have a new post after way too long with little news and zero photos uploaded in months! So, here it is – Galapagos trip #5 for me. On December 24th, 2015, I left SFO at 12:30am and flew down to Quito, Ecuador and met up with my mom, sister, brother-in-law, and nephews (after they had traveled/endured through some tough re-routing and changes in plans…as well as some lost luggage). X-mas was spent relaxing in Quito seeing Old-town and a dinner at the hotel. On the 26th, we flew through Guayaquil and on to Baltra Island in the Galapagos with 10 of the other folks who were onboard the boat The Galaxy with us for this journey in the eastern islands of the Galapagos. As I had done fieldwork on Española Island in three separate years (once for about 7 months and twice for about a month each visit), I felt like I was returning to somewhat familiar territory – and what an amazing place to be returning to! We arrived at Baltra Island’s airport fairly smoothly and we were on our boat the Galaxy by mid-day – unfortunately, 3 pieces of luggage did not make it to the airport with us!. I always pack as efficiently as possible and usually roll my main luggage onto the plane, but for this final leg in the air (it took 4 flights to get from SFO to Baltra), I opted to check my bag – and it was lost…oh well, lesson learned – and thankfully, all 3 bags that were lost arrived by boat about 24 hours later! Once onboard, our Galapagos naturalist Greg Estes (who I will write more about in later post) introduced us to the boat, the crew, and debriefed us on our first stop – Mosquera, a tiny islet between Baltra and North Seymour Island. After lunch and a quick motor around Baltra to our first anchoring, we loaded into the two pangas (dinghies) and jumped off to say hi to the sea-lions, gulls, lizards, iguanas, white coral sand beach, whale bones, and beautiful scenery around us. As the sun set in the west, Daphne Major with its famously studied Darwin’s Finches sat in the distance – its clearly volcanic origin sloping into the sea. Great first day in the Islands! Generally, on boat trips in Galapagos you motor at night between islands – which is what we did this night and then woke up anchored in Sullivan Bay. This day was full of a great walk through the lava fields on Santiago Island, a bit of snorkeling and penguin viewing, and hike up the steps to the viewpoint on Bartolomé. The views were fantastic in all directions and the volcanic landscape was awesome. We were treated to many Galapagos Penguin sightings (both in and out of water), some good warm water snorkeling (water temp was around 80 degrees F!), Blue-footed Boobies diving into the bay, and great food for every meal. There are plenty of photos in the slideshow of things I have touched on so far… From Sullivan Bay, we again motored at night and woke up in Darwin’s Bay at Genovesa Island. We did two walks here and snorkeled for a good while in two different areas in the bay. Genovesa was awesome! Tons of seabirds of quite a few species (Nazca, Red-footed, and Blue-footed Boobies, Frigatebirds, Galapagos Storm-petrels, Shearwaters, Red-billed Tropicbirds…). The Storm-petrels were flying in huge masses above the cliffs – 100s of 1000s of this species live and nest on the island. We spotted one of their predators, a short-eared owl on the edge of the colony. I snapped a couple photos of it flying and landing on the cliffs where the petrels were. It was neat to see an owl during the day! A few species of the boobies had nestlings, some being quite old but still with a lot of downy feathers. Seeing the Nazca Boobies was particularly fun for me as this is the main bird I was working with on Española – they are such amazing birds. The beautiful Galapagos Doves were casually mating and nesting along the trail we were on. These doves (and so many of the Galapagos birds!) are striking in their plumage and colors. The Red-footed Boobies are quite a sight too- their bills and feet covering a wide gamut of colors – wonderful. We saw some of our first Darwin’s Finch species here as well as some Yellow Warblers. Genovesa was a great island visit and from there we motored way south to San Cristobol. San Cristobol is one of the islands in the archipelago with a decent size human population and little city located mostly around the port. We visited a Galapagos tortoise hatchery and adult tortoise sanctuary here (I also visited tortoise sites at Santa Cruz, Isabella, and Floreana Islands). It was interesting and fun to see all phases of the tortoises growing up and older. In the afternoon, we did some more snorkeling and then headed off to Española Island (where part 2 of this series begins).

Posted by devin.scott.taylor | January 26, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Birds, Espanola Island, Floreana Island, Galapagos, Genovesa Island, lizards, Nazca Boobies, Sea Lions, seabirds, Waved Albatross | 2 Comments

Season #3_USGS

Greetings from Davis, CA!

The weather has changed here in NorCal and we’ve had some light rains and cool days here lately. It is nice to have some changes in the weather and signs that the seasons continue to revolve….

I pulled out about 100 photos from the 6-month period I spent in San Diego County from March 8^th, 2015 – August 24^th, 2015 while working on a 3^rd season with USGS as a surveyor for three bird species there (Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, Least Bell’s Vireo, and California Gnatcatcher).

The season started a little earlier this year than last year. We began with some new vegetation protocol learning lead by our fearless leaders SL, BK, AH, and KF. I thought some of our crew looked a little suspicious in their face masks (sun protection) – border patrol must do a double take if they see these USGS characters way down south in SD County? After the major fires of 2014 on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton (BASE) and elsewhere in San Diego County, a lot of habitat was lost for all of the birds we work with – the fires last year just kept erupting/popping up for a couple days in many areas it seemed. Some of the photos here show the extent of some of the burns – a lot of the areas were filled with invasive mustard (yellow flowered hillsides) as well as tons of burnt shrubs, cacti, and trees when we first got to BASE. The Gnatcatcher surveys were an addition to our surveys this year, and this gave us a good chance to see and explore a lot more of BASE via back roads, tank trails, and fire breaks. At times, I felt like I was preparing for a truck commercial while driving 4WD up steep hillsides and up to panoramic vistas on the BASE. Before too long, we were into out Bell’s Vireo surveys and shortly after those began, we started the Willow Flycatcher surveys. There was plenty to stay busy with this season, I felt. Added perks to the season were yet another CPR/First Aid class with our return instructor who always amuses us – and, we got to try out the new choking vests! (photo/video). Up at Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve (SMER) we had a new mix of people, some of the same local rattlesnakes, Red-Tails successfully nesting in the same tree just off the dirt road we use to get to SMER, and plenty of oranges and avocados for all! MAPS banding filled in some time once again with Warner Springs being one of my regular jaunts some Fridays. It was fun to see some birds in hand and keep in touch with the Pyle Guide. The Vireos seemed to have a decent year from my perspective (not sure what the esteemed science gurus in the OFFICE have found out from the DATA?) – there were plenty of nestlings and fledglings seen in many of my sites (photos/video). Surveys for Flycatchers even yielded a few nice highlights of color-banded birds, nests w/ eggs, and fledges (video). The Upper Margarita survey became a tactical/strategic adventure this year with truck leapfrog, escaping the survey via hillsides, and use of Fallbrook Naval Weapons Station for entrance and exits – fun. As usual, the end of season was filled with doing vegetation quads and transects – lots and lots of them! Finishing up the veg work in the area inundated with homeless camps added a little to the diversity and variety of the work – though, it really isn’t that fun to do a veg quad in the middle of an active homeless camp! Seeing a Vireo nest amongst a bunch of TP on the ground was a first for me – not the best sign of cooperation between Vireos and Homeless folks. Some transects through Typha/Scirpus proved to be a good excuse to sit or lie down on the job (photos). I don’t have any photos of the end of season SMER party – but I do have a few cool videos of long-boarders surfing Trestles (the end of one of my surveys) accompanied by Beyonce cuts (one of our featured musical guests at SMER party). Anyhow, I think the photos sum up much of the season. RD gets credit for foto of JG tactfully monitoring some Vireos in the SLR. I’m not sure who took the foto of Dr. Bowling with that cast of characters in the SLR – either way, I think we need to consider those dolls as possible SLR buddies next season?!?! Life in Davis is moving along with a few days a week spent working in Elementary and Middle Schools as a paraeducator III (working with students with ‘disabilities’) and wood work + a wood class I teach once a week @ UCD Craft Center. I’ll sign off for now – but, stay tuned…I’ll be posting more blogs soon!!!…warning, this is kind of a long slideshow (>16 mins?)…I figured 6 months is worth 16 minutes of photos, so be patient….

Posted by devin.scott.taylor | November 11, 2015 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Birds, Endangered Species, Flycatchers, Gnatcathers, MACBCP, MAPS, Rattlesnakes, SMER, USGS, Vireos | 3 Comments

Fall_ once again_2015

Greetings from Davis, CA…

Keeping with the tradition of the past few years, I made a quick trip to the Eastern Sierra Nevada of California to see the Fall colors and to spend time in areas between roughly Bridgeport, CA and Bishop, CA. My first trip to the Eastern Sierra, I believe, was in 1986 while I was traveling solo in the SF area and I found my way out to Tuolumne Meadows via hitch-hiking into Yosemite from the Bay Area; that is a tale unto itself. After hiking around Tuolumne Meadows, learning some rock-climbing, and enjoying the vistas of Half Dome and other big granite features (none of which I take for granite…jejejeje) – I got a tip to check out Lee Vining and Mono Lake from some fellow hikers. So, I hitched up and down Tioga Pass and had my first experience in the Eastern Sierra and Mono Lake environs about 30 years ago!

For anyone who has never dropped down from the High Sierra (or the West side of the Sierra Nevada) into the Great Basin/High Desert areas of the Eastern Sierra, all I have to say is – go check it out if you like sagebrush, hot springs, huge lakes (i.e. Mono Lake) filled with birds, and wide panoramas of desert and mountains. When I arrived in Davis, CA in 1994, I was able to make a quite few trips into the Sierra and Eastern Sierra and I was fortunate to have a friend or two who helped me learn about and explore this special part of California.

Having grown up on the Northeast coast of the US where each season is full of changes in weather and especially things like Fall colors and deciduous trees dropping their leaves, I guess that is part of what leads me to get out and about in the Fall. Over the years, I have been to many places multiple times in this area such as; The Bristlecone Forest in the White Mountains, various trails and hikes all along/above route 395, many hot springs, Bridgeport, Bishop, Mammoth, a few of the massive sand dunes (i.e. Kelso…), the Alabama Hills, Owens Valley and River, and more!…. there is a lot to see/explore.

Seeing the gulls, shorebirds, grebes, and various raptors this trip around Mono Lake always inspires. One photo that stood out was of a falcon that came whizzing toward a pond near a hot spring – I was pretty sure it was a falcon so I started to shoot it as it approached…when it flew into a group of ducks flying over the pond, I didn’t realize it had struck one of them! When I looked back at the photos, I saw it had a duck in its talons, then dropped it mid-flight. Long-billed curlews, Avocets, Ibis, and Northern Harriers were also good sights to see.

Often, this time of year leads to some reflection and I think about the past year and experiences of the past. When I chose the James Taylor music to throw into this slide-show (I used JT last year as well for Fall_2014), I was reminded of the 9/11 tragedy in NYC and how JT sang ‘You can close your eyes’ as part of a memorial service at ground zero. Having grown up partly in NYC, I often reflect on the life in a big city and the vast difference of say being in wide-open spaces such as the Basin and Ranges of the Eastern Sierra vs. walking the city streets in the ‘concrete jungle’. I also consider the fact that two people from my high school (of a 300 student school) died that day (9/11/01) and the many other people family and friends knew who also died that day. Perhaps such thoughts are a reminder to me to make what I can of time and days and may help me keep perspective on daily life – not only for myself but for anyone else’s life/days in this world.

As I have finally landed in to my Fall-Winter sub-let, I am feeling more settled now after two weeks of having a more solid home-base! This post is a bit delayed in uploading, but better late than never? 19 seasons of field work has its ups and downs, and moving from place to place, State to State, and even country to country I think is beginning to tire me out a little more….I will be able post Season #3 @ USGS later today, I think. From Davis in the second rains of the Fall, I send a farewell for now….

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Posted by devin.scott.taylor | November 8, 2015 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Birds, desert, Eastern Sierra, ground zero, Hot Springs, migrations, Mono Lake, NYC, Sierra | 1 Comment

Panama Trip – The Final Part – III

Hola Hola –

This is the last post for this set from Panama. I put in a few short cuts of the camera video I took this time to spice things up. Seeing the Three-toed sloths moving in the Cecropia trees was great fun – shared some of that in video. The Kinkajou, too, was awesome to watch – these nocturnal mammals move about in trees with a smooth grace and confidence that rivals most of the monkeys I have seen in the tropics. In this series, I also threw in a few more photos from Barro Colorado – Smithsonian’s Tropical Research Area. When we got off the boat, our guide introduced us to one person who had been working on the Island with Smithsonian practically since the site became a research center. He reminded me of a man, Don Ramos, we would meet each year at the Darwin Station on Santa Cruz Island before we went off to Española Island – Don Ramos, similarly had been with the Darwin Station since it began and must have been about 70 yrs old the last time I went to Galapagos (2007). Don Ramos would get us into the long-term gear storage areas and help us with every aspect of preparing to be on Española for as long as 7-8 months. Neat to see people like this who stick with something so long!

If you listen to the section of video with the Orb spider wrapping up some prey, you’ll hear the typical Howler Monkey calls of the tropics. Howlers are fairly common in Central American rainforest areas – I love their sounds. I tried to put more species of birds we saw into this set as well. It was great to wake up in the morning, go to the roof, and just sit there and see what birds might show up – the Cecropia had fruits/seed pods that tons of wildlife were eager to eat. This set of photos shows birds like the female honeycreeper, the palm tanager, the Flatbill (a flycatcher), a Rufous-tailled Hummingbird, a Green Kingfisher, a couple of the Antwrens (one with a huge grasshopper it had caught), a Chestnut-Mandibled Toucan (brownish-purple lower mandible stripe), a Jacana with its young, and more Keel-billed Toucans (one is preening with its huge bill). The sleeping sloth is a Two-toed sloth – a good role model for anyone who is overworked/ing. The views and panoramas were extensive and nearly unbroken rainforest (most is secondary forest actually, but it is in good shape and much of it is preserved as part of the national park). Seeing the wet sloths day after day curled up in the branches touched me – they were tough and patient creatures. They would just curl up into a ball and sit there for hours if not a day until the rain would let up – quite a sight. Sloths have a poor diet and mainly eat leaves – this is why they move so slowly – they don’t have good energy from food, and perhaps this is just part of who they are? The iridescent morpho butterflies have always evaded open wing flying shots by me – not sure I will ever get one – but, one did land and you can see the bluish tint of its inner wings. Neat sights when they fly through the rainforest!!! If you watch the egg mass of a Red-eyed Tree Frog, you can see the tadpoles beginning to move about. That is life and development; just awesome!!! Also in here is a family of Capybara – the largest rodents in the world!!! They are rainforest mammals that are hunted by some for food. Neat to see the adult and young. You can see in the first slide that the United States Military first built this tower and it belonged to USA for a good time. Eventually the radar tower was shut down (not that long ago really) – and Panama became the owner of it (from what I understand). The vision of turning it into a eco-lodge with a focus on birds was a great idea and the idea became a reality. Such a neat idea and a cool place to spend some down time – just spending time on the roof is wonderful. That’s it for now…adios.

Posted by devin.scott.taylor | September 20, 2015 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Panama’s Canopy Tower – Part II

Hello Hello and Hola Hola –

Welcome back to Panama Trip – Canopy Tower – Sept 3-11th, 2015. Here is the next set of slides for you all. As I watched/edited the iMovie, it was easy to see how amazing life is just by looking at the images of things I saw in a short 8-day period!! Just to give you some perspective of an average day for me at Canopy Tower, I will just describe the routine:

Wake up at 5-530am or so (wow, pretty early for a “vacation”), get up to the roof by sunrise – or better yet – before sunrise, begin listening to the morning chorus of insects, birds, howler monkeys, start taking photos of birds feeding in the eye-level tops of the Cecropia trees that nearly touch the tower, grab a cup of coffee from the table on roof that has just been set up with coffee and tea, descend from roof for a delicious breakfast, take a few more pictures of any birds or perhaps the sloths visible from the dining room/living room/kitchen level 3 of tower, get ready for excursion, drive to morning site, walking, birding, wildlife viewing, taking photos, back to tower for delicious lunch, but – before lunch spot green iguanas and lizards in Canopy vegetation = take more photos, then eat, break time, up to roof for photos and wildlife watching, rest, rehydrate, get ready for afternoon trip, off to Pipeline Rd, birding, looking for wildlife, taking photos, looking at birds through scope/binoculars, back to Canopy, rest, delicious dinner, sunset on roof perhaps, resting, 7-9pm looking for night mammals with swiss-germans who have awesome spot-flashlight, photos of Kinkajou/night-monkeys, download images to iPad to see how they are turning out, share some photos through WiFi of Canopy Tower, sleep. Repeat daily.

Well, this set of photos shows more of the neat things we encountered around the Canopy, on the way to and on Barro Colorado Island, and at various local sites. I particularly enjoyed seeing the iguanas feeding in the local Cecropia trees, various colorful lizards prowling the vegetation along the fence, the night mammals like the the Kinkajous and Night Monkeys, perched and flying raptors – such as the Black Hawk-Eagle (photos), Short-tailed Hawk, and the Semiplumbeous Hawk (photo), the leaf frogs (some smaller than my fingernail (photo), and the common aquatic and wading birds one sees in the tropics like Jacana, Common Moorhen (photo), and Tiger Herons (photo). Birds like Black-Breasted Puffbird (photo), various kingbirds (tropical, photo), and flycatchers (Flatbill, photo) appeared in the local trees around the Canopy and on walks. Thanks to the few birds and wildlife that posed nicely for photos! If birds weren’t abundant or appearing at all, other wildlife often drew our attention in. Butterflies, leaf-cutter ants, howler monkeys, red-eyed tree frog larvae (tadpoles, photo), leaf bugs (photo), and various small to medium size lizards were fun to observe and take photos of. Seeing the night mammals ended up being fairly common as a few people were keeping and eye out for moving branches or shining a light into trees at night to look for movement. One Kinkajou spent nearly an hour wandering around the trees next to the Tower searching for ripe Cecropia fruits/seeds to eat. I will post some video of that in Part III. I think the images here show how diverse, beautiful, and amazing the tropical wildlife is – and this is just an hour from downtown Panama City!!! Really cool stuff. Looking forward already to another trip south before too long!!!!

Posted by devin.scott.taylor | September 19, 2015 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Birds, Canopy Family, Canopy Tower, iguanas, kinkajou, lizards, monkeys, Panama, rainforest | Leave a comment

Panama Trip – Canopy Tower – Part 1

Greetings from the purple house (I am cat-sitting at a friend’s house, which is indeed painted purple) in Davis, CA –

It is time to catch up on this blog again!! Just back from Panama City and the Canopy Tower, where I spent 8 nights/days exploring the local areas. Canopy Tower is one of four “eco-lodges” all part of the Canopy family. The tower is an old US radar site located inside Soberania National Park of Panama. This trip could not have been simpler for me. I hopped on an Amtrak in Davis at 12:30pm (Sept 2nd, 2015) and rode down to Richmond, where I then switched over to BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, for those who don’t know the SF area). BART goes right under the BAY and then onwards to SFO airport. I was on a plane @ SFO -> LAX by 6pm and then flew from LAX -> Panama City, arriving at 6:37am Sept 3rd, 2015. Thanks to an easy pick-up @ airport arranged by Canopy Tower, by 8:30am I was on the roof/observation platform of Canopy Tower looking at sloths, hearing howler monkeys, and getting my first glimpses of typical canopy/rainforest species like toucans, aracari, tanagers, honeycreepers, distant parrots and parakeets, and up above scissor-tail kites were beginning to migrate south. It really is an awesome place to visit and I recommend it to most everyone interested in birds, wildlife, and the tropics. From the roof, you can see stretches of the Panama Canal (The Culebra Cut), Panama City, the Pacific Ocean, large ships waiting at sea to enter the canal, and 360 degrees of rainforest!

Each day we went out on guided trips with the in-house guides who are excellent at finding birds and wildlife. They have a set of Leica spotting scopes to use on the trips and at the tower, so anything you can get in the scope is seen brilliantly. The guides Alexis and Michael were incredible at getting forest birds into view in the scopes on our daily walks. There were many good access points to local birding/wildlife spots such as: Pipeline Road, Summit Ponds, Ammo Ponds, Plantation Trail, Semaphore Road, The Discovery Center, Barro Colorado, Rainforest Resort, and the Chagres River. We visited each of these areas at least once and some multiple times during my stay there. The weather cooperated, for the most part, so that every day we were able to go out on two guided trips that lasted 3hrs to all-day (Barro Colorado) – using the great 4WD trucks and “bird-mobiles” that the Canopy Tower owns. Pipeline Road had some deep mud-puddle pits for the first visit we made, but the 4WD did fine and we covered a good stretch of this historic and famous birding spot in the rainforest. We did have some good rains during the trip (Sept 3-11th), but it never prevented us from getting out and about (it seemed to rain hardest between daily forays, during our mid-day break, or at night). The trip to the Smithsonian Institution site – Barro Colorado – was one day the rain didn’t have much mercy, but it was still a neat visit to this biological field station located in the middle of the Panama Canal. Riding in the canal on the Smithsonian boat, seeing big ships, watching the dredges at work deepening the canal, and the time walking the (wet) trails of the field station made for a fun adventure. And lo-and-behold, I met a UC Davis PhD student there who is studying capuchin monkeys.

As for the birds, wildlife, and general rainforest experience – it was great. Thanks to the guides and from lots of time searching for birds and wildlife from the tower or local trails, I saw over 150 species of birds, many mammals, some neat insects, and tons of nice rainforest and canal zone habitats (ponds, rivers, open fields). The photos I will post with this series of posts will show you some of what I saw. Photographing birds/wildlife in the rainforest takes a bit of patience I found as it is often dark, dense with plants, and birds move quickly at times. Using binoculars was always the best way to see wildlife, but bringing home a few good images to share with others is always fun. I will write more about the trip in the next two posts. I chose about 150 images to put into these “slideshows” – which were pulled from 1500 photos I saved (deleted plenty!!). I will put this set of 150 photos into a public Dropbox file soon (and will post a link) if anyone wants to download. For now, thanks to all for watching/reading and thanks to Canopy Tower, the guides, and people staying at Canopy for making it a fun trip….stay tuned, more to follow – today.

Posted by devin.scott.taylor | September 19, 2015 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Barro Colorado, Birds, Canopy Family, Canopy Tower, iguanas, kinkajou, lizards, monkeys, Panama, Panama Canal, rainforest | Leave a comment

Año Nuevo Elephant Seal colony

Greetings woofers fans!!

Here’s another post to keep the ball rolling. Last year (January 2014) at Año Nuevo State Park just south of the town Pescadero on the California coast, they opened the Elephant Seal viewing areas for an extended time as part of a special coastal conservation event. Each year during breeding season, guided tours are offered for a limited time of 2 hours or so to view the Elephant seals. The day I went we had 4 hours to go in and see the seals as well as to photograph as much as we liked. There were plenty of baby seals and hundreds of adults all over the beaches. A few of the bull seals were engaged in small fights, but I still haven’t seen the really rough fighting that leaves the bulls scarred and bloody. You can see some of this scarring in a photo or two, I think. Two seals were wearing GPS/time depth loggers on their heads; these sorts of devices have revealed amazing things about the ecology of these amazing marine mammals. Two major things such units have uncovered is the huge travel distances and depth of dives these seals make. The seals may appear fairly sedentary and lazy in the pictures, but in reality some of these huge seals travel distances in the 1000s of miles at sea each year while away from the breeding rookery. The seal pups hardly looked small – they were already getting fat and growing fast from some of the highest fat content milk any mammal gets as a newborn. Some of the large bull seals had a big funny looking (and elephant like) proboscis making them look quite cartoonish to me. For the most part, the breeding season is a lazy time spent on the beach for these seals – except for the battling the males engage in for control of a harem. It also a tough time for the seals for females especially, as they are not eating much of the breeding and pupping season. As the morning was warming up, many seals were flinging sand onto themselves to help stay cool or perhaps to also shoo away flies. It was fairly easy to get good photos of the seals as the viewing areas have platforms or trails that get you within a few meters of some of the resting seals. Out in the bay there were a couple of sea-otters floating in the waves and kicking back on their backs – which seems to be one of their pastimes. On the way home North, I stopped by Pescadero beach – as the waves were really breaking nicely. This was a Mavericks surf competition year and in fact, which means wave action was big. The sun, wind, and waves were aligned well – and as a result there were spectacular shows of refracting light from the wave mist and sun. I threw in a few photos of the light show here as well. Really amazing. It was a day well spent with the Elephant Seals, the coastal area, and it’s always fun to go see some of the fine woodwork in the town of Pescadero at one of their galleries. No major bells and whistles or country music in this slide-show, just some photos in an area I enjoy visiting from time to time.

Take care, and stay tuned….