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Duck Quest in Costa Rica

10,000 Birds

I need lots of cloud forest birds for the year and love hanging out in that oxygen-rich habitat but I also need ducks and in Costa Rica, most of those old web-footed ones are local, rare, and only possible a few months out of the year. No ducks, nor Cave Swallows but the other additions were very welcome. What on Earth do they eat?

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Who cares for your ducks in the winter?

10,000 Birds

Now, I do hope you have stayed with me to this point, because there is a moral to this story: How much do you like your ducks, grebes, sandpipers, and plovers? The lake’s shallower western half, on which dabbling ducks and shorebirds depend the most, is seriously affected by fluctuating water levels.

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Pat’s 2020 Bird List, Mostly from Costa Rica

10,000 Birds

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck – Dendrocygna autumnalis; Lakeside Catfish farms, 11-Jan. Muscovy Duck – Crypturellus cinnamomeus; La Garita, 8-Jan. Black-bellied Plover – Pluvialis squatarola; Punta Morales, 10-Jan. Wilson’s Plover – Charadrius wilsonia; Punta Morales, 10-Jan.

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Water, Water, Everywhere

10,000 Birds

Photographing the ducks flying overhead was a pretty quixotic enterprise. Even so, I could tell (just barely) that these were Mexican Ducks. Ruddy Ducks don’t care about a little rain. The moral of the story? (I brightened up the other photos in this post — a lot!). It got wetter.

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Highlights from a Cancelled Pelagic Trip in Costa Rica

10,000 Birds

Another vagrant that has been hanging out in Costa Rica, an individual of this duck species from either Peru or the Galapagos has been living at the shorebird hotspot of Punta Morales for more than a month. On our fateful day, this rare vagrant for Costa Rica perched on a nearby ferry for wonderful views. White-cheeked Pintail !

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Signs of Spring Migration in Costa Rica

10,000 Birds

The Red-shouldered Hawks , the quick flapping Accipiters and the legions of blackbirds and ducks moved through the cool airs of March and April but the orioles, grosbeaks, and wood-warblers wouldn’t show up until the trees had their buds and many had their leaves. Costa Rica is an important place for wintering Wilson’s Plovers.

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Roger Cohen Realizes Dogs=Pigs, Sort Of

Animal Person

If you eat meat you cannot logically find it morally or ethically repugnant to eat a particular meat (I’m setting cannibalism aside here.). I repeat: If you eat meat (I'd say: products that come from animals) , you cannot logically find it morally or ethically repugnant to eat a particular meat (i.e., Or pig, or duck, or fish.

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