I made it home safely this afternoon about 4:30pm, and the first thing I noticed is that you must have forgotten to pay the bill for heat. Yikes! Fall is here? Anyway, my sister Deb, had a much later flight today so she got to go back to the linear park in Guayaquil and see new birds without me. My only consolation is that she’s still in the air somewhere on her way to Hartford and will be for a few more hours.
Happily, we saw plenty of fascinating critters yesterday afternoon, and one of the surprises was spotting this large green iguana up in a tree and munching on the blossoms. You may remember the monsters I saw in Belize, but I did not have them on my bingo card for yesterday
Deb was the first to spot this character, and when she was finally able to articulate exactly where I should cast my gaze, I thought it might be the same rufous-backed wren we saw in Managua. I was mistaken however, so mark your calendars, and it turns out to be our very first fasciated wren (Campylorhynchus fasciatus) instead.
I heard this next critter long before I saw it, and I knew it had to be a gnatcatcher. Well, once in a great while I am indeed correct, and this little darling turns out to be our first white-browed gnatcatcher (Polioptila bilineata).
By then it was starting to get dark, and I wasted a ton of time and film trying to capture swallows that were darting around overhead. Happily, a local noticed us and asked, “do you want to see some turtles?” Of course, our answer was “yes,” and he nearly ran us a couple of hundred yards back up the trail to find these two, South American sliders (Trachemys callirostris), definitely up to something on the far bank of a muddy rivulet.
Finally, and if you look closely at this image, you can see how close to dark it actually was, we also heard this guy long before we saw him, but once we were able to get eyes on him, we could see that he was our very first scrub blackbird (Dives warczewiczi).
The forecast for our weekly wildlife walk tomorrow morning is not exactly balmy, at 58°F with 14mph winds and cloudy, but the chance of precipitation is under 10%, so come on out, if you can, and help me see if there are still any fall migrants to be seen. I’ll look for you at the beer garden parking lot at 8am.
Andy – are there migratory birds on these islands? Or are the islands too far from any place else?
I know that animals confined to an island will evolve traits distinct to the island population. Wondering if this applies to any migratory birds. Or sea mammals for that matter.
Do fish migrate ?
I better stop now or my curiosity will take up all my evening.
When we stop teaching women to doubt themselves, the earth will soar and then settle.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ann,
Yes, we saw migratory birds there: a Hudsonian whimbrel, a semipalmated plover, and about a dozen ruddy turnstones. I’ve seen instances of the second two even in Milwaukee. We did not see any migratory “land birds”, and the islands are not really on the way from anywhere to anywhere, so I bet that would be a very rare occurrence. As I understand it, sea birds don’t quite migrate as we know land birds do, but they often spend months at sea and then find a suitable remote island for breeding, and I would be surprised to learn that some don’t choose the Galapagos islands for that.
-Andy
LikeLike
Speaking of iguanas: when I lived in Philadelphia, around 1973, I had a rescue iguana. A schoolteacher had him/her in his classroom, and couldn’t take care of it over the summer. How that teacher got the creature, I’m not sure, and didn’t want to ask. I probably should have called animal rescue, but I was young—what the heck did I know?
I constructed a tall wire cage, so his/ her tail could hang down, and where would be room to crawl around. He/he was neither cuddly nor verbal, but I enjoyed watching its antics. He/she lasted for a year or two, totally out of its native habitat, thanks to my loving care.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Carolyn,
The 70s were wild, eh?
In the early 80s, I had a green anole from Florida hitch a ride north on a potted plant. I trapped bugs to feed it in the winter, and it survived a while, until I trapped it a spider that fought back and ended up mortally wounding it. Oh well.
-Andy
LikeLike
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
LikeLiked by 1 person