The Bird Is The Word

Remember this?

That was then, this is now.

Yesterday I did my first real hummingbird observations for Todos Santos Eco Adventures and ProFaunaBaja Hummingbird Monitoring Project. I got up bright and early and even before my first cup of coffee I was on the scene at La Cochora. I tried to ease into the dunes as inconspicuously as possible, strapped down with my binoculars, camera bag, pen, notes, identification illustrations, glasses and signature hat, all of which I juggled awkwardly every time I saw or heard a hummingbird. I soon realized all I had to do was sit on a rock quietly and watch. I began to see hummingbirds every where, buzzing around small red flowers (later identified by fellow birder Roger Snyder as Anisacanthus quadrifidus wrightii) zipping up to a high sprig of an unidentified shrub as an observation point, or literally zooming right by my nose on their merry hyperactive ways. The light was not such that I could discriminate color for identification purposes, but Roger, who has a much better camera than mine, took excellent photos and has determined that the hummers we saw were Costa’s. I’ll show you the photos I took of the birds, their flower choice and some of the scenery I saw yesterday at dawn. I went back later at dusk and due to thick clouds and minor precipitation saw absolutely nada.

Live From The WOW Factory

Another WOW Factory (c) Production

A Word In Edgewise: Los Colibries

Since Aldo has pretty much taken over the daily comic strip I will of necessity be required to draw another strip if I have anything to say about my own activities, dadgummit!

Below, you will see the contents of the email I received today alerting me that the project will be officially started as of next Tuesday. If you are in Todos Santos are nearby it is probably not too late to get involved. It should be fun and edumacational too.

Todos Santos Eco Adventures and ProFaunaBaja
Hummingbird Monitoring Project
Todos Santos and El Pescadero, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Dear Michael,

Thank you very much for participating in the first annual Citizen Science Hummingbird Monitoring Project for Todos Santos and Pescadero, a joint project between Todos Santos Eco Adventures and ProFaunaBaja. The first volunteer training will be held on Tuesday, December 17, 2013, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM at the Palapa Society in Todos Santos. The Palapa Society is in Bario San Vicente on Fco Bojorquez Vidal, half a block from the N.E. Hayles and Victoria Galleries, on the corner across from El Litro RV Park. It is in a green house.

Stephanie Rousso will lead the training session, and will have Hummingbird Guides and data sheets for everyone. If you cannot make the training session for any reason, please let us know and we’ll make other arrangements to get the documents to you. A PDF document with useful information on hummingbirds as well as an excel workbook with the monitoring data sheet and observations points are attached here:

Useful Hummingbird Information
Data Sheet and Observation Points
.
Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you soon and to getting the project underway!

Best regards,

Bryan Jáuregui
Todos Santos Eco Adventures

http://www.TOSEA.net
Tel USA: 1-619-446-6827 Tel Mexico: 145-0189
Email: TSEcoAdventures@hotmail.com Stephanie: profaunabaja@gmail.com
Explore the Beauty of Baja!

I can’t wait to get started!

Birdie Brawl For It All!

Nothing ever happens in this neighborhood, huh?

Last wing flapping. Thunderpole: Two birds enter, one bird leaves.

Tortuga Mission Accomplished

For the last couple of visits to Todos Santos Gail has expressed a strong desire to participate in a turtle release at Las Playitas. The releases are announced at various times when eggs in the greenhouses maintained by Proyecto Todos Tortugueros begin to hatch. Interested parties are notified early in the day by email when a release is to take place. I am as much of a nature freak as the next guy. I’m a minor league birdwatcher, whale watcher, you name it I’ll watch it.

https://mongrel4u.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/i-like-to-watch-chance-the-gardener-being-there-1979/ But the drive to that particular beach is daunting, even for some of the locals.

We had already had a couple aborted attempts to make the ten mile trip to the beach where the turtles are released. Once last year we drove all the way there but got there two hours before sunset. The itty bitty tortugas have to be released as close to night time as possible to minimize the possibility of predator interaction. On that occasion I played the part of the old curmudgeon who didn’t want to hang out at any stinkin’ old beach for two hours. Truth told I was horrified by the effect that the unbelievably rocky road was having on “Ballena Azul” and was not thinking favorably of the drive back in the dark, with parts falling off along the way. We tried again earlier this trip and had to turn back because I noticed we were nearly out of gas.

Today I just couldn’t come up with any more excuses, we’ve only got a few more days left here, and I couldn’t live with a disappointed esposa for another whole year, so I packed my anxiety in the trunk and at about five o’clock we took off for La Playitas Beach. The road, thank the prevailing deities, had been slightly improved and we got there in time to see the baby Olive Ridley and Leatherback Turtles being signed in for their epic trip to the Pacific. Two members of the staff were measuring the length and width of each turtle while they gave us some basic information about the greenhouse where the temperature is regulated to make sure it’s not too cold for the hatchlings.

Let my turtles go.

After a while we were led to the beach, given a turtle to hold in each hand (just the Olive Ridleys however; the leatherbacks may not touch turista flesh because of government regulations) and when the staff member in charge said it was okay, we released them. It was interesting to note that the baby leatherbacks used a breast stroke style to move n the sand while the Olives used more of an Australian crawl. We all quietly exhorted them as they slowly struggled toward the surf.

I am slowly struggling to finish this blog after that bumpy ride over ten miles of corduroy road and the subsequent quarter mile walk to the beach and back on soft sand. Did I mention I’m old? Let me just hope these pictures are worth the thousand words I’m too tired to write.

A tortuga in both hands is better than George In a Bush.

Fistful of Turtle

Leatherback Breast Stroking To the Pomised Land.

It’s Great To Be Queen!

How to get rid of me: http://www.getridofthings.com/get-rid-of-yellow-jackets.htm

 

I am the Yellow Jacket Queen. As the most important entity in this sector, I must be protected from the erratic and violent confrontations initiated by the big, soft creatures who live in the good-smelling box, with the long-haired rat who makes painful loud noises.

This year because of more water our numbers will be great. Great enough to threaten the soft things, make them fear our stings and abandon their aromatic meat to our hungry hoard. ZZZZTTTT-ZZZTTT! We will be strong enough to discourage the galling attacks of the big gray soft one and his water weapon. He will be the one to flee or suffer the pain of a million venom-tipped needles.

I see the fat lazy thing, sitting on his fleshy buttocks, scratching with a black stick on a flat white-surfaced object he holds on his bent appendages. He is not making a web but something is coming out of the stick and staying on the flat white surface. This behavior does not appear threatening but with the soft ones one can never be certain.

In the middle of the last Cold Time the soft ones suddenly failed to consistently replenish the Feeder of All with the nectar we need to truly thrive, then stopped altogether. It was bad enough that we had to battle the feathered buzz-beasts for control of the Feeder, but for the source to be cut off in this cold fashion. It will incur hive hatred for millenia.

It would be like mixing a potent nutritional supplement which fulfilled needs for hive/thrive and personal pleasure simultaneously to sting the old gray one on the tip of that reddened protuberance above his whiskered feeding orifice. ZZZZTTTT-ZZZZTTTT! But I must quietly observe from our breeding site under the metal roof of the box the soft ones call Zhedd.

Now that the water from the sky falls less frequently and we are warmed by the sun, the soft ones have become more annoying with their increasing noisy interventions. Perhaps we should start the process of limiting their access to the metal roof box with a display of force. If they fail to resume nectar tributes we would next try to kill or disable the soft ones and gain access to the rich treasures which ripen inside their box. I know that this defies the hive-mind as an irrational, individual expression, but dammit, I just love Spring, and it’s great to be Queen!