Heard the first cicada of summer early this morning as it briefly tuned up and quickly wound down, one of the earliest (if not THE earliest) dates that I've heard them. This is one of the annual cicadas not the periodical type (which did not hatch out here this summer). Which species is it? Frankly, I have never been able to identify cicadas by their song. I always called them Dog-day Cicadas (today certainly is a dog day) but there are other possibilities: Tibicen tibicen (formerly T. chloromera), Tibicen canicularis (Dog Day Cicada), Tibicen linnei (Linne's Cicada), Tibicen lyricen (Lyric Cicada). Tibicen auletes (Great Dusk Calling Cicada) and Neocicada hieroglyphica (Hieroglyphic cicada) have all been listed for LI but, alas, good as I am with bird songs, I cannot ID cicadas by their songs.
Green Heron still burping this morning. I also found a nest which might belong to this species but it's very high and I can't see if it's occupied.
More flowers in bloom: Chicory or Blue Sailors, one of the native smartweeds, Heal-all or Selfheal (an herbal plant in the mint family), and Asiatic Dayflower (one of the spiderworts).
We had to drop our plans to visit northeast Brazil and are now considering visiting a small cloud forest lodge in Ecuador owned by our friend Peter Joost. It is four hours from Quito (two from Otavalo), at about 6000 feet altitude so it is fairly cool/comfortably warm, and reasonably bug-free. You can see it on their web site: El Refugio Cloud Forest Preserve, or El Refugio de Intag Preserve. The lodge is on 75 acres, half forest, and has a main house, other cottages with about seven rooms (maybe more by now) including one cottage with two bedrooms and kitchen; the other rooms all have private bath. Usual price is $66 per person per night including breakfast; other meals seem to be extra but we anticipate some kind of discount if we can put together a small group of four or five people or more. If we did this we could rent a car at the Quito airport and drive to the lodge, and then use the car for local trips too. We already have one friend in Syracuse interested, so we would like to find one or two more at least. We haven't decided how long a trip it should be, but we think it should be at least ten days and probably no more than two weeks total. Starting August 26th we are completely free. September is the last of the less rainy months in the lodge region though cloud forest has light intermittent rains even in dry season.
If anyone is seriously interested please let us know so we can start making plans. No shots are needed. Otavalo has a marvelous Saturday morning artisan market, mostly woven goods, and attracts many tourists from Quito. Ecuador is arguably the most agreeable country to visit in South America. We did a long trip in the early 1990s to Ecuador with Peter and two other friends, on our own. Please spread the word to your friends and, if you are with a group, mention it at your next meeting or in your newsletter. There are other lovely places to bird and visit in Ecuador in case anyone wants to travel elsewhere before or after the lodge.
Eric Salzman
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