International Vulture Awareness Day

It was International Vulture Awareness Day a couple of days ago and I missed posting this on the actual day so I figured I would catch up.

I don't have many vulture anecdotes or stories to tell but I do have a few photos.


Turkey Vultures are the vulture I am most familiar with. They are increasing in numbers in the northern Great Plains and we have had over 20 soaring around town recently.





The other vulture that I have observed fairly often is the impressive Andean Condor. I would love to spend some time in southern Chile photographing these guys. For me, the quintessential Patagonia panorama includes an Andean Condor soaring with the Torres Del Paine in the background.


Then there is this guy. A vulture's vulture. I believe this is a Cape Vulture (Gyps coprotheres).
It was taken a couple of years ago at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, CO. One of these days I would love to see these guys in their native habitat.

Leopard Seal News

I guess since I am not heading south, the online news people are going to rub it in. This was posted on BBC Earth News. It is a series of photos of Leopard Seals. The article that prompted the photos was a paper in the journal Polar Biology from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) staff at Bird Island off the coast of South Georgia concerning their observations of a Leopard Seal killing and eating a South Georgia Pintail. There isn't much about the paper other than a couple of photos of the actual predation event, but from the paper abstract I was able to see that the note describes how rare the event is since most flying birds can evade Leopard Seal attacks by flying away. Perhaps this pintail was going through molt and could not fly. The authors also emphasize how opportunistic and varied Leopard Seal diets are and the seal they observed attacking the duck was individually recognizable and had been observed eating Gentoo and Macaroni Penguins as well as Antarctic Fur Seals.



This Leopard Seal and pup were hauled out on the pack ice last year.

Albatross News

My favorite albatross made the news this week. Researchers on King George Island apparently found Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses breeding on a small offshore island on the Fildes Peninsula.



Researchers from Germany and the Czech Republic found at least two breeding pair and possibly 3 more unconfirmed nests. The nearest known breeding colony for Light-mantled Sooty Albatross is over 1500 km to the northeast on South Georgia Island. More here.

These photos were all taken on the western side of King George Island in December 2009.

Burrowing Owls

Last week I visited a small Black-tailed Prairie Dog town north of Glasgow. As I approached the town, I noticed a couple of Burrowing Owls fly from on burrow to another. As I got closer to the town and started driving on the trail through the burrows more Burrowing Owls began to pop up all over the place. I estimated there were at least 25, and quite possibly more, Burrowing Owls living there that day. Often I had ten birds in view at once. They all appeared to be young of the year, suggesting that reproduction may have been really good this year. Perhaps because of the high numbers of grasshoppers around this year. I am not sure if they were all produced on this small town or if some of them had already begun their migration south and wound up here for the time being, but either way it was an impressive pile of Burrowing Owls.

One More Dowitcher

I just realized I had a couple more photos of the bird that started the dowitcher discussion. Here is one that I think will help with the ID. For my two cents on this bird, I think this photo shows an overall rounded humpback shape (like it swallowed a grapefruit) that is more suggestive of a Long-billed Dowitcher than a Short-billed. This has been a good exercise for me in learning more about the confusion and contradiction in dowitcher ID as well as learning that others suffer from dowitcher ID depression.



And just to keep things interesting, here are three more photos from the day before that I think may be Short-billed Dowitchers, again based on the posture and shape (slimmer and no grapefruit in the gut). These were taken from a distance away and the light was horrible. I have lightened the photos considerably just to be able to see some color and detail on the bird. Comments on this one?


The bird just right of center.


Detail of the photo above


Another photo of the bird picture above.

Dowitcher, but Which One?

Yesterday I posted the photo above and labeled it as a Long-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus). I also posted the photo to our Montana birding group site with the same ID. This morning I received a note from my friend Dan Casey concerning my ID. He thought it might be a Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus hendersoni), a subspecies most likely on the prairies and most similar to Long-billed Dowitchers. I have to confess that I hate trying to ID fall dowitchers and defaulted to Long-billed after a quick glance and my interpretation of the overall shape as being more rounded. I have paraphrased Dan's comments below:

Subtle but apparent "kink" to the outward third of the bill.
Distinctly spotted breast sides.
Slender build
Relatively few "breeding" wing coverts.
It is a bit sparsly marked on the flanks for a Short-billed Dowitcher but I think the other features outweigh that, and hendersoni should have the least here anyway.
What little we see of the tail is inconclusive, but may indicate that the white bars are equal in width to the black bars, tipping slightly towards Short-billed.

I also received comments on the bird from Caleb Putnam too. Caleb thought that this was a tricky individual to ID, but was leaning towards a Short-billed Dowitcher as well.

Both Dan and Caleb asked if I had more photos and I have added a number of them below (click on the photos to get a larger version). There were about 20 individuals on the reservoir that morning and I am not sure if any of the new photos show the individual Dan and Caleb commented on.
If you have any comments on the identification of these dowitchers I would appreciate hearing them.


A few of the group of dowitchers and a few other species.


Photo 1.


Photo 2 ( a bit blurry but may still helpful)


Photo 3.


Photo 4.


Photo 5 (same bird as photo 4).


Photo 6.


Photo 7 (same bird as in photo 6).

I will readily admit that I struggle with identifying these species and I am trying to get better so any help on the ID of these birds is appreciated.

No Ice for the Prairie Guy

This winter will be a bit different than most of the winters for the past 15 years. I will not be heading south to The Ice this year. No Antarctica. Schedules and staffing finally caught up to me and I am on the sidelines this year. It is going to be hard, but I knew that it was going to catch up with me sooner or later. Hopefully next year will work out and I can get my penguin, whale, ice and albatross fix then. Until then I will have to settle for looking at my photos from past trips. I might even have to work in a few stories from past years and scan a few slides from my pre digital trips south.