Eastern
Michigan University in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands
May 3, 2008 - May 20, 2008
Trip Report
prepared by Bill Sverdlik
Greetings
On most birding expeditions, the keeper
of the birding list typically compiles and produces a "trip report" at
the end of the journey. Please consider this such a report. However,
this report will be a little different than what usually appears in
bird journals. I have made the jump into digital photography, and this
trip represents my first efforts at nature photography. Thus, photos
are enclosed. I have included not only bird photos, but also random
shots of rare and endangered EMU students experiencing wonders south of
the equator.
Uli and I discussed the possibility of
me giving a talk about birds and birding. For whatever reason, it did
not occur. So I will also use this opportunity to give you all some
more perspective of birds and birding.
Why keep a bird list ??
A good question! There are two reasons
for keeping a list. The first
may seem a little silly: for the sport of it! Birders are notorious
listers: they keep lists of everything. Most birders in the United
States compile at least one list: his/her ABA (American Birding
Association) life list. This is a list of all birds one has seen in
continental United States north of Mexico. A point of
interest: the individual with the longest ABA life list is a resident
of Ann Arbor. I believe his list has approximately 890 species on it.
Other lists that people might maintain: state lists (e.g. birds seen in
Michigan, birds seen in Nebraska, etc.) . Locals in Michigan sometime
maintain a MOO list (Michigan/Ohio/Ontario). I am aware of another Ann
Arbor birder that consistently turns down offers to go birding anywhere
outside of Michigan because he is only interested in enlarging his
Michigan List . Here are two really strange lists I've heard of: the
C-list ( a list of birds seen copulating) , and the TV-list (see that
Kildeer on the field of Monday Night Football? Add it to your TV-list).
So what is the seond reason to maintain a bird list ? Quite simply, to
maintain an historical record of bird patterns. So why might this be
important ? I'll give an example. In the 1970's , serious bird listers
were noticing a decline in the number of Bald Eagles in the United
States. Let's think about this. The serious bird lister lists EVERY
bird seen on every outing (approximations are OK....at least they are
better than nothing). So a birder in Michigan may have noted 10 Bald
Eagles at Erie Metropark in June of 1970, 8 Bald Eagles at Erie
Metropark in June of 1971 and 4 Bald Eagles at Erie Metropark in June
of 1972. See a pattern ? Note that number of species, date and location
were recorded. Some birders also list weather conditions, ages of
birds, gender, or many other "variables" (incidentally, I made the
Eagle/Erie Metropark numbers up. But the problem was real). Now birders
tends to share their lists. In the 1970's, shared lists showed a
dramatic decline in Bald Eagles around the country. Why ? After much
investigation, it was determined that the insecticide DDT was causing
Bald Eagle egg shells to be too soft; many eggs were not hatching. This
led to the eventual elimination of DDT in farming here (I know....some
would say that was a bad decision. But that is a different matter. The
point here is that a problem was INDENTIFIED via detailed bird
listing). Migration patterns (whether it be birds, fish or
any other animal) and habitat alteration can only be revealed via
copious record keeping. Listing IS good.
After this small introduction, it may
come as a surprise to hear that I
am NOT a lister. I almost never keep a list when birding in the US .
Fortunately for me, I often bird with an excellent lister (my hat is
off to you, Bruce). I do tend to keep a list on trips. They serve as
another momento of the trip, and I have found as I collate this list I
can recollect details of the trip I would otherwise have forgotten.
How this site is organized
I have not written down every bird we
saw. I definately *did* write
down every new species. On accasion, not knowing if a bird had
previously been seen or not, I wrote it down. In the lists that follow,
birds previously seen will be denoted with a double asterisk (**) after
the name. You will find commentary from me, as well as randon photos
interspersed in the pages. I have broken this down into several pages
to lessen the load time of any individual page. Please let me know of
any errors or omissions!
So is this list biologically useful ?
Sure. Uli has made this
trip often, and may offer this class for some time to come. So this
list can certainly serve as a baseline of species encountered in
Ecuador during the month of May.
The Tally
We saw a total of
168 species in 16 days. Recall that
Ecuador has a total of approximately 1800 bird species, so I guess we
all need to return soon to see the others.
Links to other pages
The "Coast" Days (Serro Blanco, Andaluz, Machalilla National Park, etc)
May 4-6
Galapagos Islands-Santa Cruz
Galapagos Islands - On the High Seas (including Bartolome,
South Plazas ,Seymour and Isabela)
The Cloud Forest (Mindo)
The Rain Forest ( La Selva)
Flying over the Forest
Canopy
Things that Crawl
Some candids
Some favorite photos
Parting Words