Searching for YBCU's near Yuma, AZ and Blythe, CA YBCU update

On the 23rd and 24th, Alex and I continued our surveys near Yuma.  There were no cuckoos to be found, and if they were there...they weren't talking.  As usual we kept from going into cuckoo-depression by finding some other birds at our sites. 

Abert's Towhee trying to knock down sunflower seeds

Vermillion Flycatcher

female Lazuli Bunting (lifer)

Red-tailed hawk being chased by a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds

We passed the time in town searching for bookstores, where, at Hasting's bookstore in town, we found the newest edition Peterson's Guide to the Birds of North America for just 8 dollars and had to refrain from buying multiple copies.  Even better, it was a "value" book, which meant that you could buy 2 at this value price and get one for a dollar.  So, three Peterson's for 17 dollars....what a bargain!  At a used bookstore we found a 1956 Peterson for 3 dollars, where we then passed even more time comparing the two Peterson's.  Aside from range accounts and a few species accounts, in addition to a few name changes, not much has changed!

Back in Blythe, we missed a lot of action!  Black Annie, a cuckoo that dropped her transmitter (and tail feathers) earlier in the season was spotted feeding fledgling cuckoos at a nest that Tim found a day earlier!  Even more interesting is that Black Annie now has a full yellow eye ring; when we caught her, it was all gray.  It is speculated that juvenile or younger cuckoos have this yellow eye ring, but this is clearly not the case!  Shannon says there is one account where a researcher made this observation of a full yellow-eye ring in the breeding season, but as with most theories about cuckoos, it needs more research!  Most of the cuckoos we capture have grayish eye rings, and only a few show slight yellow on the eye ring.  Alex observed another cuckoo with a bright yellow eye-ring at a nest we found about a week ago, while he tried to tape record some YBCU calls at the nest.  Also, two new unbanded pairs were seen copulating, and we will try to capture them tomorrow to band them and hopefully pin down some more nest locations!  In other news, LJ the cuckoo has abandoned his nest due to potential predation.  The last day he attended his nest was July 18th while I did telemetry on him, when he visited the nest a few times.  A chick was likely hatched, but got predated, as did the other egg in his nest.  LJ is now roaming around, likely looking for an area to re-nest.