Adam J. Blake

2014 was another great birdwatching year for me with well over 200 species not including my November trip to Mexico making 2014 my best year yet (Fig. 1). Not surprisingly the majority of my birding happened in Metro Vancouver again this year but I did bird further afield than in 2013 (Fig. 2). Trips out to Alberta, Saskatchewan, Washington, the Okanagan, and Tofino helped bump up my year total relative to last year. Of my 245 North American (north of Mexico) species, 189 were from Metro Vancouver, 5 fewer species than in 2013. This drop in species was reflected in a drop in rank from 14 to 20 among Metro Vancouver eBird contributors [click to continue…]

This week’s photo is of the unmistakable Black Skimmer. Skimmers have a unique bill with the lower mandible extending beyond the upper. This arrangement allows them to “skim” the waters surface for prey or or hot chocolate.

Here we have a Pygmy-Owl demonstrating the amazing ability of owls to rotate their heads up to 270°. Owl eyes are fixed in their sockets so they must rotate their entire head to change their field of view. Owls have several adaptations to their circulatory system that allow for the unrestricted flow of blood to the brain during this extreme head rotation.

This week a return to the Yucatán with this shot of a very cooperative Common Black Hawk. There are several neotropical black colored hawks but the extensive yellow lores help to separate the Common Black Hawk from co-occurring species.

This week a break from Mexico photographs. I was out birding on New Years Eve trying to pad my year list. What first struck me was the height of these seed heads, which towered over my head (1.9 m), leaving me initially puzzled as to their identity. Great light from the low winter sun also helps to elevate this shot.

I’ve reviewed the 52 photos I selected as photos of the week and I’ve chosen my favorite. While I was less consistently photographing week to week, there were still lots of photos to pick from. I chose this shot of mating Common Eastern Bumble Bees as it was both a good macro photograph and it also captured a novel bit of insect behaviour. [click to continue…]

I really like this portrait shot of this Pelican. It shows off how much of a misnomer brown is for these birds in their breeding plumage. It can take anywhere for 2-5 years for juvenile pelicans to mature into this bright adult plumage.

Looking at this little guy you probably wouldn’t guess that it was the same species as this large lazy lizard but you would be wrong. Juveniles in the genus Ctenosaura start out their lives green only later becoming spiny and black.

Here we see one of the snake heads adorning the side of the Plataforma de Venus, a offertory platform located to the north of El Castillo. Kukulkan was a feathered snake god worshipped by the Maya.