Alvaro's Adventures

11/02/2025

Today was eagle day here in Hokkaido, Japan. This is one of the indescribable Steller's Sea-Eagles we saw today. But you have to consider that we likely saw 400-500 eagles today, and a good 150 -200 were Steller's, with White-tailed Eagle being the rest. It is frankly amazing, and the views are spectacular. And yes, we are returning next year if you are interested. 😀

12/01/2025

Thailand birding. We are on day 2, eating well and seeing some superb birds.

08/01/2025

Spring Trips - Antarctica - Assam India Safari - https://mailchi.mp/alvarosadventures/thailand-cuba-live-event-9296900

04/01/2025

Birds and Wine - Chile/Argentina. This is the classic birding and wine tasting tour, and we have been doing this longer than anyone. It is amongst our most popular tours, and why not? We see a superb assortment of birds, eat great food, and taste some of the nicest wines in the Americas. Win-win-win. Well, we have had some last minute cancellations and we have openings currently on this tour in March 2025. Are you interested? Let me know ([email protected]) or message me and let's go and have a great time eating and birding our way through the south.

27/12/2024

This is awesome, useful and gorgeous! All of the resident cetaceans of Hawaii, which include some of the real goodies. By the way, the Cascadia Research Collective does incredibly important work on the biology and conservation of these whales in Hawaii. Check out their website, and consider putting them on the organizations you support financially.

Thanks to Uko Gorter for producing this, an 8.5" x 11" poster that can be printed and laminated for those who spend time on the water in Hawai'i - if you would like a pdf version please contact us!

We had originally produced 3" x 7" stickers of this design, but had several requests for a larger version that could be printed and taken out on the boat.

All of these species are known to have resident, island-associated populations in Hawaiian waters, based on genetics, photo-identification, or satellite tagging, of a combination of these. If you want to learn more about any particular species, one of the QR codes will take you to our species page, and the other is for how to contribute photos to our long-term catalogs.

Edit: we've added the pdf to our website, just click on the image at https://cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii/hawaiian-odontocete-species/ to download it!

16/11/2024

Here is one of the least known birds in South America, the Pincoya Storm-Petrel from Chiloe, Chile. I helped to describe this species just over 10 years ago, and we still know essentially nothing about it. The nesting grounds are a bit closer to being found. They seem to be resident in the Chiloe area, and there are not huge numbers of them. On our Heart And Soul trip of Chile we did a concerted pelagic to try and find them, it was a success although a bit choppy and the birds were elusive. At first I was a bit troubled and confused, as the birds we were seeing were not "standard" looking with the big bold white underparts. The features that were there on these birds were the bold whitish ulnar bar, and the white stripe on the underwing, and white on the outer vane of the outer tail feather. There is also a pale tone to the brown body plumage on the back and the lower breast/belly. This bird seems to have two new primaries and worn inners. Wear and molt needs to be assessed and sorted in terms of overall appearance. It seems like some of the "classic" birds are actually juveniles, and perhaps white on belly varies depending on age? All information that needs to be sorted out. Nevertheless, the newly described Andean Storm-Petrel which is to the north of this species is quite dull on the ulnar (upperwing) bar, and has a restricted but noticeable two pale lines on the underwing, not a white stripe on the inner part of the underwing. Andean can have pale on the belly, sometimes not, but most have some white flecking there. Little by little we are learning. Thanks to https://quilun.cl/ Quilun Ecoturismo for making our trip possible!

08/11/2024

20/10/2024

Yesterday was my last pelagic of the season. We have another boat next weekend, but I can't be on that one unfortunately. A great trip to end the season for me, with Laysan Albatross, many Tufted Puffins, and lots of great looks at marine mammals and birds. But it started off with one of the best views we have had this season of Marbled Murrelet. Half Moon Bay is now extremely consistent for this bird, they were not so consistent 10 years back!

15/10/2024

We have two remaining spaces on the Japan in Winter tour (Feb 2025). This is perhaps THE most awesome winter birding destination anywhere, with key bucket list species seen, as well as huge concentrations (cranes, geese, ducks, eagles). We have also included a short 3 hour boat trip to fine Kuril and Spectacled guillemots along with various other alcids, and there are the super landbirds - Japanese Waxwing, Long-tailed Rosefinch, buntings, Green Pheasant. Lots to see - here are the details https://www.alvarosadventures.com/japan-in-winter.html.

10/10/2024

White-throated Swift from Hawk Hill, Marin County, CA the other day. These birds are so weird, they remind me of an Albacore tuna! Seriously, the shape, the fin like wings, and those big and sort of lifeless looking eyes.

08/10/2024

Got lucky with a close Vaux's Swift today! The tail is awesome, and why do swifts and swallows have these points on the secondaries? That must do something. Then check out how it holds its feet.

04/10/2024

The New World Quails have to be some of the most stunning birds in the Americas. Our local one, the California Quail, is common but seldom do they just sit and let you get close. This particularly bold one sat out for me in Half Moon Bay yesterday. You can see that the topknot is made of multiple overlapping feathers! Also check out the forehead feathers with those dark streaks, the nape feathers showing a black edge, and interior section that is gray at base and white at tip. How do they even grow a feather like that? Finally something I had never seen before, that the nostril has a hard lid on it. So cool to see a wonderful local bird close up, and really study it.

01/10/2024

Congratulations on this Award Winning!! awesome work and partnership Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge.

The Council for the Conservation of Migratory Birds has recognized an important NOAA Fisheries partnership to conserve seabirds.

27/09/2024

Humboldt Current Killer Whales are hunting dolphins. Interesting. We will be there doing a pelagic on our Chile tour in November. Would be pretty awesome if we see any, more likely we will find Fin Whales and Dusky Dolphins. We shall see. Hopefully Ringed Storm-Petrels too!

The Humboldt Current’s orcas have yet to be assigned to an ecotype, and their hunting behavior provides clues about where the mysterious population might belong, researchers say.

24/09/2024

Good ol' "carneipes," the meat foot. Well, it translates to Flesh-footed Shearwater, and it can be a rare find except at this time of the year and into October. They show up late in the season, and often where there are whales or a group of Pink-footed Shearwaters. This one came in on our Monterey trip (California) last Saturday. This is one of the few birds not named for a person that may have its name changed in the future. You see, the name is not about the color of flesh (meat), but the color of skin and making white the "standard" which seems inappropriate to say the least. Folks in Australia-New Zealand suggest the new name could be "Sable Shearwater" for the color Sable (very dark shade of brown). The old and boring name is Pale-footed Shearwater. I like the playfulness of "Chocolate Shearwater." In any case, we saw one and we were happy to see it.

23/09/2024

People do not quite get how random pelagic birding can be. Day to day it changes radically. But yesterday was a day of weirdos offshore. Here one of the best comparisons I have ever had, anywhere.... I mean anywhere.... of Clark's and Western grebes!! This about 25 miles offshore in the middle of nowhere. A Townsend's Warbler flew by, both Chimney and Vaux's swift!!, a Merlin, and an unidentified pewee. Nutso. And yes, we do have some open spots on our October trips. Check it out on www.alvarosadventures.com.

18/09/2024

Flying into Paro, Bhutan is the best. So gorgeous, and exciting. There you know you are in good hands as the pilots are so uniquely skilled and trained. I guess in a few years we will be flying in down in the flats, it will be totally different.

Ringed by mountains, Bhutan’s Paro International Airport (PBH) is widely considered one of the most technically difficult plane landings in the world.

17/09/2024

Ok, time to begin looking at the data and realizing that the Jared Diamond story about Rapa Nui is not correct. The culprits that got the trees may have been Polynesian rats. And also we should begin to understand that although their numbers were few, the Rapa Nui made it to Chile, gave the Mapuche chickens before the Spanish ever got there, and took back Sweet Potatoes with them to the islands. This amazing history is being unraveled as we speak, and it is not history - the Rapa Nui and the Mapuche still exist. But it is amazing to contemplate travel of that distance, back before the Spanish ever contemplated anything of this sort.

Scientists turn to ancient DNA to understand the history of Easter Island, a remote island in the Pacific Ocean also known as Rapa Nui.