WC took a few days off from the bird species count for a road trip, likely the final camping trip of the year. Here’s a pro tip for RV owners: don’t even try to drive on a freeway in 35 mph winds with gusts to 50 mph, not even a short distance. Just. Don’t. Except…

“Plumbeous” means “lead-like,” and while the Plumbeous Rail’s body is dark grey, the bill and legs more than make up for the drab body. It’s not the best quality photo, but it’s a high-quality bird. It’s a widely distributed Rail, ranging from southern Ecuador to Tierra del Fuego. It’s also one of the easier rails…

WC continues to slog through a lot of pretty bad photos from a 2009 trip to Ecuador. About two-thirds of the way through 8,000 image library, WC has discarded about 4,000 photos. Whatever other lessons WC is learning from this experience, it’s clear that (a) the conversion from film to digital made WC shutter-happy, with…

WC’s effort to count the number of bird species he’s photographed continues. All the photos from Peru, Antarctica, Oaxaca, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago and the Galapagos have been reviewed. More than half have been discarded. The process necessarily slows down as you start running into duplicates. And it took about three hours to sort out…

A buddy of WC asked recently how many species of birds WC has photographed. It’s a little embarrassing, but any answer would be a guess. So WC is working through about 170,000 photos, trying to total them up. It’s complicated. First you have to decide what list of bird spcies you are going to use.…

WC found it completely by accident. Birding with Marcelo de Cruz in Tierra del Fuego National Park, Marcelo was imitating a pygmy-owl call, a birding technique to make songbirds move where they can be seen. To our surprise, he got an answer. After considerable searching in the soggy thickets of Tierra del Fuego, we found…

This week there’s a bonus bird, for a reason that will be apparent. Steamer Ducks are birds of the genus Tachyeres meaning “fast rower.” And they can motor right along. Here’s a trio of Flying Steamer Ducks from Tierra del Fuego on the southern tip of South America. These are dabbling ducks, like Mallards, but this…