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Birding without Binos at Petra - 10,000 Birds
There is a German word, fernweh, which, according to the internet, literally translates to “farsickness,” but it is used to describe the feeling of being homesick for a place you have never been. For me, there are a few places I can think of that I yearn for – although I have never been. One such place was somewhere that I never thought I would ever actually go: Petra. If you are an Indiana Jones-obsesee, such as me, you may already be aware of Petra. It was featured prominently at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In the movie, the characters explore the ruins of the Treasury building to find the holy grail. Sean Connery’s character calls it “the cup of Christ.” This is thought to be the cup from which Jesus Christ drank during the Last Supper, which was then used to collect Jesus’s blood at the crucifixion. After the cup is found and the bad guy is defeated, Jones and his crew are found outside with horses and on their way home. The Treasury is shown behind them. So, when we competed in BirdLife Israel’s Champions of the Flyway (COTF) in 2023, I knew I had to take my chance to visit Jordan and Petra. The COTF is based in Eilat, Israel, the southernmost edge of Israel along the Red Sea, a very narrow part in which Jordan and Egypt are only a few miles apart. Several tour operators offer day or overnight trips to Petra and Wadi Rum.The COTF competition and celebration came and went, and then the morning to explore Jordan was upon us. Our tour guide met the eight of us, including myself, my husband, and a couple of our teammates, at the hotel and quickly noted that we were weighed down with binoculars and cameras. She told us we would not be permitted to bring these items into the country – talk about a gut punch for a bunch of birders! We begrudgingly dragged our gear back to our hotel rooms and returned with our essentials. A quick bus ride brought us to the border crossing near the International Birding & Research Centre, a fantastic birding site in Eilat. Our guide directed us through the border and told us we would meet our Jordanian guide on the other side. After going through the multi-staged crossing, we reached the other side. We saw the lengthy line of Jordanians waiting to cross into Eilat, likely heading to work for the day in the hustling-and-bustling tourist destination. We found our guide and hopped on a bus, ready for the long ride to Petra but feeling naked without our binoculars. I was panicking and working through in my head how we would maximize the day without our gear – all those birds just too far away, the pictures we would not be able to take. The drive from Eilat is about 2 hours long through a mix of rocky, rugged landscapes and small communities in flat, arid areas. It was an uneventful drive-in with glimpses at red-winged Tristram’s Starlings and Common Buzzards. A brief bathroom and convenience store stop atop a mountain overlooking Israel, awarding us a lifer Hooded Wheatear, a striking black-and-white bird with a white crown and belly and black otherwise, playing peek-a-boo with us around a dirt pile. Before heading down into Wadi Musa, the town nearest Petra, we saw ubiquitous Crested Larks and another lifer – Fan-tailed Ravens, which are hard to miss. Upon arrival at the archeological site, our guide briefed us on the route down through the gorge and then, as it narrows into the Siq, about a 2.5-mile-long hike. Crested Lark We started down with the many other tourists. Much to the annoyance of our guide, we were lagging behind and not exploring on his well-set timeline. I savored every inch of the site; others in the party listened to the guide’s explanation, and the rest did what they could to see birds. A few small facades, which were small burial niches, were carved into the rock. Tomb Facade Entrance Sign to The Siq We rounded a curve and then faced the entrance to the Siq, a deep split in the sandstone rocks that narrows to ten feet in some places. Partway in, we noticed a few birds playing around on the rocky outcroppings near the top, which turned out to be Sinai Rosefinches, aptly named as they are small, rosy-colored finches. Lower down, wherever water collected and sunlight reached down, were wildflowers and European Greenfinches taking advantage of the water. Eurasian Crag-Martins and Rock Martins could be seen in the narrow bit of the sky. Narrow corridor The Treasury Facade We finally reached the Treasury, the star of Indiana Jones, and a sea of people dropped their jaws at the incredible creation that has stood the test of time. Our guide herded us along the rest of the site, which had so many amazing things to see—it does deserve more than one day to visit.After a buffet lunch at a restaurant on a cliffside with views of Petra in the distance, we jumped back on the bus and headed to our other stop, Wadi Rum. Also a famous filming location and UNESCO World Heritage Site, Wadi Rum is a river valley cut into the landscape of sandstone and granite rocks. We jumped into the back of pick-up trucks and were taken to a few stops nearby to see the views from a dune, a Bedouin campsite, petroglyphs, and the Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It was late afternoon, so few birds were seen beside Tristram’s Starlings and Eurasian Crag-Martins. Seven Pillars of Wisdom It was a magical day exploring some truly incredible historical sites. It was definitely a challenge not to have our optics, as we wish we could have had closer looks at the lifer birds and some distant sites. As these locations are desert areas, birds are sparser but still worth the effort! Make sure...
Rotterdam - 10,000 Birds
Rotterdam is the only city in the world where shops sell shirts with the sleeves already rolled up. It’s a city that prides itself on its hard work mentality, diversity, modern architecture, its absolutely fantastic football club Feyenoord, and its super-sized port. It’s this port we will be visiting. The Rotterdam port stretches from its origin near the St Laurens cathedral to the second Maasvlakte – a distance of 40 km as the Carrion Crow flies. Buried beneath the port: entire villages and pretty awesome natural areas. All that’s gone but in return we now have “rocky shores”, endless steppe-like areas and the province’s tallest mountain, a toxic waste dump. Note – Dutch people will call “mountain” anything above the height of a dike and I see no reason to change that convention just because some of you live in the Alps, Rockies, Andes, or Himalayas. The city centre consists of shopping areas and lots of harbours. These harbours have their population of Mute Swan, Mallard and Black-headed, Herring, Lesser Black-backed and Mew Gull. The trees lining the harbours can contain anything from House Sparrow (yes, they are still here!), European Blackbird, Chaffinch, Great Tit, Rose-ringed Parakeet and other common birds. The birds are very approachable. You won’t be adding “ticks” to your list of lifers but you would be able to see a pair of Great Crested Grebe care for their young up close and personal. While enjoying a cold beer or a hot coffee. Jackdaws and Carrion Crows eat discarded chips throughout the city. My award-winning picture of a Feral Pigeon was of course taken in Rotterdam. Even somewhat exotic birds like Red-crested Pochard are always a possibility. If you have to rely on public transport there’s quite a few options. The metro can take you to the Kralingse Bos – a large and relatively wild park and lake. The combination of woods and water will almost guarantee a full slate of common Dutch birds, with an occasional less common specimen thrown in for good measure. Alternatively, take the Water Bus out of the city to Krimpen aan den IJssel. A short walk from the ferry’s quay – through a very unappealing industrial area – is the Stormpoldervloedbos, a tidal freshwater swamp. Amazingly, it’s not an eBird hotspot. When I lived in this village (obviously prior to my eBirding days) I visited often, because this is a very reliable place to see Marsh Warbler. The tides also create rare botanical circumstances. Do watch those tides – you do not want to be trapped here due to the rising tide. If you rent a bike in Rotterdam you can explore further afield or continue sailing to Kinderdijk for the windmills. If you were to have a car you can follow the Village People and go west. To the new ports – built in the second half of the last century. Big enough quays and deep enough water to receive super-tankers and enormous container ships. The newer parts of the port are vast and relatively empty. Many species come here to winter, breed or moult despite the presence of six refineries. For instance, Lesser Black-backed Gulls have a substantial breeding colony right next to a chemical plant. Heading west on the A15 you will soon realise how far west you actually are: you will pass a sign telling you to turn right for England! Instead you will continue straight ahead on the A15 for many kilometres until exit 8, Oostvoorne-Brielle-Rockanje. Turn off, follow the parallel road towards the Slufter, the mountain… There’s a hide overlooking the Oostvoornse Meer and the recently created Slikken van Voorne. When I visited in February a cold strong wind prevented me from staying too long, but I managed to see sizable flocks of Greylag Goose, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Eurasian Curlew, Sanderling, Dunlin and Herring Gull from the look-out point. A nearby little wetland allowed me some good looks of Greylag Goose, Canada Goose; Egyptian Goose, Mallard and Eurasian Teal. This place becomes very “ducky” when temperatures start rising. If you continue straight instead of turning towards the Slufter you will be entering the Maasvlakte – a wide open steppe-like area. Most of the time it will be empty bar the occasional Common Kestrel or gull, but keep an eye on the rarity alerts and eBird. Eurasian Dotterel may even be considered a “regular” rarity. Lanceolated Warbler, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Pink-footed Goose have all been spotted in this area. Looking out to sea from one of the vantage points may occasionally result in sightings of Sabine’s Gull or Sooty Shearwater. In short: anything can show up when you show up.
Birding Tan Phu Forest, Vietnam (Part 2) - 10,000 Birds
In this second post on the birds of Tan Phu Forest, let’s get the bulbuls out of the way first. Three seem to be particularly common here. The Ochraceous Bulbul looks similar to the Puff-throated Bulbul, with which it shares a genus – the similarity made one of my travel companions doubt the whole framework of species distinctions. Even for a bulbul, it is a “bulky, very noisy, conspicuous” bird (HBW). The HBW also indicates that these bulbuls can be hooligans: “Associates in loose noisy parties of 4–8 individuals … often aggressively displaces smaller bulbuls”. Presumably this includes the Grey-eyed Bulbul, a much lighter bird also often seen at Tan Phu. Not a particularly progressive bird – according to one paper primarily looking at molt, only female Grey-eyed Bulbuls build the nest and incubate, while the males do typical male things such as bringing food and defending the nest. This traditional lifestyle fits well with its unexciting species name of propinqua, meaning something like “related, similar, neighboring” – the kind of name unimaginative scientists give to a new species that looks too boring to merit naming it after some famous ornithologist or rich sponsor. The molt of the Stripe-throated Bulbul is the subject of another paper. Interestingly, the molt of the males takes about 20 days longer than that of the females – the authors speculate that this is because of the different peak time efforts in breeding, with the males being involved earlier (singing, establishing territory) than the females (incubating, nestling care). The Streak-eared Bulbul is not a favorite of the influential eBird crowd: a “dull brown bulbul”, not exactly a ringing endorsement. The HBW seems to agree, remarking that the species “has fairly nondescript olive-brown plumage”. That would certainly make for bitter reading for Capt. Paul Conrad (1836-1885), a German naturalist in the East Indies, after which the species is named (Pycnonotus conradi). But he might be delighted in finding a paper about the different vocalizations of two geographically distinct populations of the bulbul – even though most of the paper (except for the abstract) is written in Thai and thus beautiful to look at but rather unintelligible to most of us. There seems to be almost no information on Paul Conrad except that he used his life to get from Leonberg (where he was born) to Bremen (where he died). “You live your whole life just to travel to the place you?re gonna die” (Craig Finn, “Blankets”). The Greater Coucal spends most of its life feeling superior to the Lesser Coucal. However, this offers no protection against superstition. Greater Coucal body parts are used as traditional medicine by the Malays in Kuok Village in Indonesia (source). Traditional wisdom sometimes is massively overrated. Then again, smaller birds might think of this superstition when reading a paper on a Greater Coucal feeding on a Common Myna. An abstract of a scientific paper reads as follows (unabridged): “External examination of free range abandoned dead Greater Coucal in a veterinary dispensary, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India revealed presence of a large sized louse in the feathers and was identified as Laemobothrion maximum on the basis of morphology and size of the louse.” However, if you want to read the complete article, the pdf file costs 40 Euros. I am wondering what additional information could possibly be in there. Maybe some background on the color of the veterinary dispensary, or the birthdays of the authors. Similarly, a story titled “Call of the Greater Coucal” published by Middlebury College Publications is also inaccessible to me, so I cannot comment on its literary or ornithological merit. It starts with the sentence “Noomi wakes up early on Sunday morning because her right ear hurts with a dull, regular pulse.” Not sure if and when the coucal shows up in the story. One of my cats – when approached by me – typically shows one of the two following reactions – licking me or (play-)biting. Red Jungle Fowl spend their active time also almost exclusively on two things, namely ground pecking (60%) and ground scratching (34%) (source). Those Red Jungle Fowl not up to scratch are weeded out by evolution. Only a small number of the most dominant cocks and hens produced most of the adults of succeeding generations. As a result, the genetically effective breeding size of the population was only about 13% of the number of adult birds. While this sounds bad, the authors of this study claim it may be a positive factor in adaptive evolution (basically, the inferior birds don’t get to breed much). If you think this sounds very Darwinian, then that is because it is Darwinian. Who gets weeded out? For one thing, those birds carrying parasites – they are less attractive as mates (source). And those roosters with less red irises and smaller combs (source). In contrast, the courtship behavior of the males did not make much of a difference (source). Given the men some women choose, it seems these results are directly transferable to humans as well. That may not be true for the results of another study looking at personality traits of Red Jungle Fowl over their life. Apparently, these traits are not very consistent, so a chick having certain personality characteristics may have quite different ones as an adult. While this is quite interesting, the scientific terms in which the authors describe their findings serve as a powerful deterrent to casual readers: “Rank-order consistencies of behavioral responses were overall low across independence and sexual maturation”. To my disappointment, eBird does not highlight how cute the White-bellied Erpornis is, only describing it as a “small, crested, yuhina-like bird”. A missed opportunity. For the Indochinese Blue Flycatcher, eBird at least admits that it is an “attractive long-tailed flycatcher” The female. Some of the Siberian Blue Robins seen at Tan Phu looked remarkably shabby compared to the ones passing through Shanghai on migration. Maybe some pre-migration molt? Or just wearing shabby clothes when you...
Look out Li, Na and Fe want to beat your butt | Energy Central
Will sodium displace lithium as the key to high-density, long-lasting batteries to power smart phones, electric vehicles, and turn intermittent solar and wind power into dispatchable electricity? Are iron-air batteries heavyweights aimed at becoming serious contenders for the battery energy storage crown? Lithium’s strength is known. It is a muscular lightweight, the lightest
Family Returns to Retrieve Belongings but Leaves Dog Behind, Says Neighbor
It’s truly heart-wrenching to witness an abandoned pet, left without the love and comfort of a home. These once loyal companions roam the streets, exposed to harsh weather conditions and constantly searching for food and shelter. Overcrowded shelters struggle to accommodate the influx of stray animals, often only able to …