Recent Photos Gallery - June 2019

A big wing-waving Welcome to our June 2019 Recent Photos Gallery! This displaying male Buff-breasted Sandpiper put on quite the evening show at Utqiagvik (Barrow) on the Alaska tour this month, calling and flying around, raising the wings, puffing out the breast, and generally behaving like a wind-up toy (even the alula is deployed here!). Thanks to participant Holger Teichmann for sending in this and the next seven Alaska beauties.

On St. Paul Island, the Alaska bunch had great encounters with alcids, including both Pacific puffin species in their breeding finery of horns and tufts. This baleful Tufted Puffin seemed to be waiting for a mate to return.

Enjoying a calm Alaska sea, this Sea Otter raised the feet out of the water to catch some rays (a neat way to thermoregulate in a cold ocean).

The name Pectoral Sandpiper really comes to life in the far-northern breeding grounds, as here at Utqiagvik. This male gave its unique tooting call as it flew around its display ground late one evening, distending the air sac in its breast to show off the patterned breast feathers.

On the mainland near Nome, the trek to see Bristle-thighed Curlew at Coffee Dome on the Kougarak Road was a real success. This bird was so cooperative that the group could count the bristles on its thighs!

The sneaky Spruce Grouse can be tough to find, even when the males are displaying, giving a low hooting call. This male located along the route from Denali to Anchorage blended in beautifully with the spruces on the final day of Part 1 of the tour. It eventually posed for the entire group to see!

More conspicuous on the mainland was this adult male Pine Grosbeak of the subspecies leucura, which inhabits boreal forest from western Alaska all the way to Newfoundland. Part 1 of the Alaska tour regularly encounters this species.

St. Paul Island also gave the group this fetching Lesser Sand-Plover in breeding plumage, the subspecies "mongolus" formerly known as Mongolian Plover (and perhaps, if split, to regain its more exotic name?).

Montezuma Quail! We've jumped from Alaska to the year's second Arizona: Birding the Border tour, guided by Cory Gregory. This male quail in Ash Canyon cooperated uncommonly well for the group, as this image by participant Bill Parkin attests.

Five-striped Sparrow is a Mexican species whose range just barely crosses the border into Arizona. This bird at California Gulch obliged the group by posing for photographs (here by participant Bill Parkin) before ducking back into the underbrush.

Louis Agassiz Fuertes was one of North America's great ornithological artists, but his name graces only a few birds, among them this Red-tailed Hawk (of the pale desert subspecies fuertesi) that the Arizona tour enjoyed. The other birds that bear his name are Fuertes's Parrot of Colombia and Ochre Oriole, currently considered a subspecies of Orchard Oriole, of Mexico.

Always a tricky bird to locate in the West, Northern Pygmy-Owl played nicely for the second Arizona: Birding the Border tour in Miller Canyon of the Huachucas this spring. Photo by participant Bill Parkin.

Formerly known as Coppery-tailed Trogon (for the coppery sheen, visible here, of the subspecies ambiguus), Elegant Trogon is often the "first" trogon species for North American birders. Its range extends barely into Arizona, where it is uncommon in the mountains of the southeast. This bird was in the South Fork of Cave Creek, in the Chiricahuas. Thanks to Bill Parkin for this photo.

One of the most colorful of the hummingbirds found in the United States, Broad-billed Hummingbird is a common bird of southeastern Arizona canyons and foothills and rather uncommon in adjacent New Mexico. In recent decades, strays have been found as far north as Washington state and New Brunswick, Canada! Photo by participant Bill Parkin.

Orioles rival the hummingbirds and warblers in their vivid beauty, if not in diversity of colors. Although a common, widespread species in the West, this Bullock's Oriole was a welcome find on the Arizona: Birding the Border tour. Photo by Bill Parkin.

Another great tour! Cory sends thanks for the fun times and fond memories. "How could we not pose with that giant jackrabbit?" Photo by participant Ian Puckrin.

Megan Edwards Crewe and Willy Perez led a very merry bunch through the Birds of Britain tour this spring. Here is the group leaving Blickling Hall near Cley after enjoying a Barn Owl bringing food to the young. Photo by guide Willy Perez.

Eurasian Oystercatchers, unlike their American kin, often forage and nest well away from coastlines, where they use well-drained substrates such as gravel beds for nesting. Photo by participant Jeanette Shores.

At Minsmere, a sanctuary of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Jeanette Shores also managed to get a photo of this Pied Avocet with prey, a neat trick!

Minsmere is also home to nesting Little Grebes ("Dabchicks"), whose breeding plumage includes a chestnut face and neck as well as a white dot at the base of the bill. From hatching through fledging, chicks peck at this white dot to solicit food from parents. Photo by guide Willy Perez.

The Scottish highlands, the heath and moors, are like no other place on earth, seeming almost melancholy in their starkness at times, serving as inspiration for poets and musicians for centuries. Red Grouse nest in remote areas here, and the terribly elusive Western Capercaillie and Black Grouse haunt woodlands nearby. Photo by guide Willy Perez.

Red Grouse (as Willow Ptarmigan is known in Scotland, where the subspecies scotica has no white plumage in winter) was a confiding subject for photography on the moors of Findhorne, near the village of Farr. Photo by participant Jeanette Shores.

A local Scottish guide, Malcolm O’Reilly, took the group to the forests of Badaguish to search for Western Capercaillie, and it was here that they saw the enigmatic Scottish Crossbill. Photo by guide Willy Perez.

Sedge Warbler is not the most colorful of British birds, but its voice is a very pleasing mixture of varied phrases that bring life to the reedbeds it inhabits. The French name "Phragmite des joncs" does a better job of capturing this species' essence! Photo by participant Jeanette Shores.

Over the years, a few species held in captivity have flown the coop and have established wild populations in the United Kingdom. Mandarin Duck must surely be the most beautiful of the bunch. Jeanette Shores photographed this pair at Thetford Forest, host to a small population of this Asian relative of North America's Wood Duck.

Spain! What lovelier place to be in springtime than the Iberian Peninsula? These Spanish Ibex entertained the group in the Gredos Mountains on the spring Spain tour, guided by Chris Benesh (who took this photo) and Godfried Schreur.

In the vast Coto Doñana of southern Spain, the spring tour visits many habitats, from seashore to freshwater marshes, and grasslands to oak and pine woodlands, in search of birds (and plants and other critters, especially with Chris and Godfried guiding!). This year's tour was super fortunate to find a breeding-plumaged Roseate Tern, a rather rare bird in Spain. Photo by participant Leslie Flint.

The flagship species of the Coto Doñana, or one of them, is Greater Flamingo, whose courtship is a joy to behold. This beauty was photographed by participant Barry Tillman.

Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robin is one of several passerines declining in southern Europe because of the change from old-fashioned olive groves (and vineyards) to modernized ones, which are too sterile for most birds. The tour group was lucky to see this one at in the Tierra de Barros area near Almendralejo. Photo by guide Chris Benesh.

On the plains of Extremadura, Little Bustards were in full display, like this male photographed by guide Chris Benesh.

Both Pin-tailed Sandgrouse and Black-bellied Sandgrouse (here) put in appearances on the Spain tour. The loss of native grasslands has resulted in a decline of both species, as well as bustards, across the Iberian Peninsula. Photo by guide Chris Benesh.

The Spain tour enjoys the distinction of seeing the majority of Europe's nesting raptors (20 species total recorded, including Spanish Imperial Eagle -- and not counting the owls!). Here, a delicate Lesser Kestrel scans the skies of Trujillo for insects. Photo by guide Chris Benesh.

Red Kite populations have increased in some areas in recent years, after a long decline, and this year's tour enjoyed fine looks at them in the Coto Doñana area, Extremadura, and Gredos Mountains.

The related Black Kite is more common, but it is one of the more interesting species to observe among the raptors. Here an Iberian Magpie has taken a dislike to this one passing near its nesting area. Photo by participant Barry Tillman.

Guide Chris Benesh captured this subadult Black Kite playing with its food! In some parts of the species' range, it readily accepts handouts of chicken and other scraps.

The first European Bee-eater on any tour means pulling off to the roadside immediately (even if the perch is not very photogenic). Europe's most colorful bird, the bee-eater was observed every single day on this year's Spain tour. Photo by guide Chris Benesh.

Cinereous Vulture (sometimes confusingly called Black Vulture) is a threatened and declining species in Europe. Its stronghold is now in the steppe of Extremadura, where the group saw dozens in Monfragüe National Park and even located a pair at their nest! Photo by participant Barry Tillman.

At the same latitude as Madrid in the United States? Well, that's Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania! Tom Johnson's welcome to his native state on the Pennsylvania's Warblers & More tour included this shy Eastern Box Turtle, which received help crossing the road.

Kim Nelson captured a great image of this male Blackburnian Warbler, one of a dozen on territory at Colton Point State Park, Tioga County, Pennsylvania....

...and this male Grasshopper Sparrow along Sandy Ridge Road in Clearfield County (also home to Henslow's Sparrow!) ...

.... and this curious male Magnolia Warbler at Colton Point State Park in Tioga County, one of several there that morning.

A shy bird of scrubby forest margins, mostly in the northeastern part of North America, Mourning Warbler is a sought-after species in the mid-Atlantic states. Tom's group enjoyed good views of this male and another at Colton Point State Park. Thanks to Nick Winograd for this photo.

The grace of courting White-tailed Tropicbirds is difficult to overstate! These birds called and displayed at the headland of Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, where we find ourselves now on Tom Johnson's spring tour. (Photo by Tom, who likes to call these Apricot-tailed Tropicbirds, quite rightly!)

Another of the birds we see in southwestern Puerto Rico, Yellow-shouldered Blackbird is an endangered species whose population numbers only in the few hundreds. This bird was one of a small flock foraging near the group's hotel in La Parguera. Photo by Karen Thompson.

Also a bird of the mangroves, White-crowned Pigeon can be inconspicuous when feeding. This bird near the coast posed well for Karen Thompson.

Puerto Rican Screech-Owl is widely distributed in wooded habitats on the main island. This bird near the group's quirky lodge in the Luquillo Mountains showed off its white brows and throat before vanishing into the rainforest. This bird is actually a close relative of Flammulated Owl, and though some still categorize it as a screech-owl (genus Megascops), that might change. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.

This picture-perfect Puerto Rican Tody was a show-stopper in the dry forest of Guanica, on the south coast. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.

Masked Duck sightings can't be assured on a tour, as the species is scarce, nomadic, and secretive. The Puerto Rico group was fortunate to find 11 in a small, thickly vegetated pond in the Lajas Valley, including a few males like this one. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.