You are browsing the archives of 2006 July.

July 2006 was an exciting month here at 10,000 Birds, featuring not one but two highly productive cross-country trips.  Business first brought me to the Bay Area, where I enjoyed cormorants at Cliff House, magpies on Mines Road, and avocets at the incredible Arrowhead Marsh.  California birding is always revelatory, as are the swampy [...]

Parque do Zizo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
30-31 July 2006
 

 
Introduction:
I’ve just spent an inspiring and wonderful couple of days birding the superb Parque do Zizo - an area of (mostly) primary rainforest 700m above sea level in the Serra da Paranapiacaba about three hours drive south of Sao Paulo.

Set up by the Balboni family using a government [...]

Magpie Tanagers Cissopsis leverianus
30 July 2006, Parque do Zizo, Eastern Brazil
 
Magpie Tanagers - clearly named for their pied, ‘magpie-like’ plumages - are found in mobile groups in forest borders and secondary growth or clearings around the Amazon Basin and in south-east Brazil. The eastern subspecies C. l. major (shown here) is larger and has a [...]

The biodiverse expanse of the Everglades is a lepidopterist’s delight, serving up really sensational butterfly species. However, the non-avian critter that really caught my attention during my trip to Loxahatchee NWR was the big, beautiful Lubber Grasshopper.
The Eastern Lubber Grasshopper (Romalea guttata or Romalea microptera) is fairly common throughout the southeastern United States, particularly Florida. [...]

Once the meeting I traveled for was finished on Thursday, I made an evening trek to MacArthur Beach State Park in North Palm Beach. My main goal was simply to enjoy the ocean and maybe spot a few terns. However, when I arrived, I heard that this quiet, well-designed refuge had something very special to [...]

Purple Gallinule
Wakadohatchee Wetlands sits merely a few miles from Loxahatchee NWR. This site sees a lot more visitors as locals and tourists alike walk, run, and bike its impressive elevated boardwalk. Wakadohatchee is cleverly constructed as part of a water treatment plant which may sound slightly gross to you but seems positively delicious to waders [...]

White Ibis
Ah, Florida…land of waders and waterfowl. Is there an American heron or egret that hasn’t made a home in the Sunshine State? Business brought me to the Palm Beach area, an ever-expanding commercial zone that might charitably be described as a wasteland of strip malls and ostentatious development. This part of the state isn’t [...]

The first time I beheld the awesome bounty of Oakland’s Arrowhead Marsh, that initial encounter with a wonderland of waterfowl, waders, and West Coast gulls, was some time before noon in March of 2006. Though my surprise then at Arrowhead’s amazing productivity could surely be described as pleasant, my surprise this time upon learning that [...]

Almost anything looks good at 400 pixels wide…
I learned that from Katie of bogbumper. She’s right too. Since I started posting my photos at 400 pixels wide, my meager images have assumed some small measure of aesthetic accomplishment. Katie knows plenty of other things too. An enthusiastic naturalist, she seems equally enthralled by birds, bugs, [...]

I’ve already credited Harry Fuller for offering incredible guidance on where to go and what to look for while I’m here in the Bay Area. However, helping me sort out the terns and gulls at Cliff House was far from the extent of his influence. During our correspondence, he dropped this nonchalant suggestion:
If you have [...]