It was a long day at the clinic, but I have a few pictures saved up from previous days to show you some today.
First up, we have a ruddy turnstone, which we’ve also seen on McKinley Beach in Milwaukee. As with the semipalmated plover and the American oystercatchers I’ve already shown you, however the ruddies here are surprisingly comfortable with people. I read that birds can quickly pick up cues from locals, so that’s probably part of the story.
I already showed you a lava heron on my first day here, but here’s a young one looking even more like a green heron, especially a young one.
I was happy to find a smooth-billed ani here, which we’ve seen once before in the Brazilian Amazon, …
and it turns out, as with the grooved-billed anis in Belize, they like to cluster up.
Back at Galapaguera de Cerro Colorado, in addition to the giant tortoises, I also spotted this dragonfly, which turns out to be a striped saddlebags (Tramea darwini), in the same genus as the black and red saddlebags we’ve seen in Estabrook Park. It appears that there is some reorganization going on with its scientific name now that “sequencing of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA” has shown that Tramea darwini “is conspecific with Tramea calverti.” Thus, “following the principle of priority in taxonomic nomenclature, Tramea calverti[, named by Muttkowski in 1910] should hereafter be considered a junior synonym of Tramea darwini[, named by Kirby in 1889.]” Wild, but poor Muttkowski, eh?
That’s a wrap for today, and we have one more day in the clinic till we are set free to explore the island further. In the meantime, I’m sure I’ll come up with something for you.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 