Where the heck have you been Gunnar?
Or should I say Merry Christmas!
What has happened to Gunnar’s blog – you may have asked? Or not? Because, I have not recieved a single note that I have been missed. 🙁
The last 6 weeks every single blogpost has been an automated “Gunnar’s weekly Twitterlinks” orderly delivered on Mondays. Let me just conclude – and not really an excuse – I have been busy.
I am back now and I am blogging about how busy I have been the last 6 weeks. Eh, Merry Christmas by the way… Guess I missed that too!
Busy 1. Birdingblogs.com
Little more than two months ago, I started the project mentioned on this blog getting together 10 bloggers to make an international multi-author blog. We are very happy with the result – Birdingblogs.com gets around 300 unique visitors daily resulting in a position among the top 40 on both NatureblogNetwork as well as Fatbirder Top1000. We are less happy with the design. Well, the format is quite nice, but we want urgently a better logo (volunteering designers – help!!!). We would like to be aable to make the top right picture box scroll pics from the past blogpost with a title text (and link) rather than the current random picture, but none of us knows enough programming to do so. Again, please if there is anyone very avid with WordPress and especially the Thesis theme can help with that as well – we’d be delighted and officially praise you with link love, kudos, virtual flowers – and a beer when we meet face to face.
There has been a lot of tweaking to get the page how it looks today – but yet more is needed.
But what counts at the end of the day is the content and the visitors. I must say, and this has not anything to do with my own content (which is about the same old topic – you know Satipo road, Conservation, and rarely heard of weird birds in Peru), but the fantastic content my co-bloggers are providing. I shall be posting a specific BirdingBlogs post about my co-bloggers here in the comming days. Stay alert!
Just thought I’d share with you some Christmas inspired blogposts with you from the last couple of days to get you into the mood to read birdingblogs everyday!
- Tom McKinney sharpens his pen in A Christmas Carol – watch that supressing bastard Scrooge. Parental guidance advised! Foul language…but you know To, right? Part 2 will be published on Monday.
- Rebecca Nason is Going for Gold – some great pictures of the Goldcrest.
- Martin Garner has a good Christmas quiz for us.
- Rich Hoyer’s Christmas Quetzals could decorate the Christmas tree.
- Kenn Kaufman gives us Penguins in Macaroni and Cheese.
- Dale Forbes posted about African Christmas colors in his post about Turacos.
Busy 2. Birding trips. Sira Mountains.
Yes, I have been in the field quite a lot recently. More than probably is healthy for a funcional family life – and to be charge of the business. It was great to re-visit Sira Mountains, and although I did not see the Sira Tanager this time either – I have a good idea how to go about it next time. Furthermore, I have volunteered to help out the park administration with promoting the area. Where else can you hike in the wilderness like this far away from the Coca Cola trail.
Busy 3. Travelling with Hadoram.
The first leg I went to the Sandia area with Hadoram Shirihai and David Beadle. The second leg I did after in Central Peru. I was great to revisit Satipo road and see the results of the campaign for Satipo road last summer. Here are three posts about some of the birds we saw featuring Hadoram’s great pictures.
- Undescribed and new species from the Satipo road area. Also note that this post promotes a trip to Satipo road with special price on January 5. There are still vacancies!
- Eye-ringed Thistletail special. Fantastic shots from Hadoram.
- Central Peru birding videos from Satipo road and Carpish/Unchog shot in Janaury in 2006 and a short presentation of the Satipo road proejct.
Busy 4. Antpitta twitch in North Peru and Ecuador.
My last trip lasted 3 weeks and ended just about a week ago. Over 780 species were recorded over 22 days – if one includes 5 days post-tour to La Selva and three days in Lima prior to the departure – over 1000 species were recorded. One of the best birds was the Jocotoco Antpitta here featured in this birdingblogs post. We shall probably run the trip again next year, with a few small changed to maximise the birding. Stat tuned for more info.
Busy blogging from now on.
Anyway, I am back and I am in the mood to continue blogging – both here and on birdingblogs com. I will resume the Social Media workshop for birders and possibly start yet another blog. More info forthcoming here. I will be busy with blogging and to try to make 2011 the best year so far for the company. I want to line up more tours for our excellent Peruvian guides. After all that is what we are doing: Creating work for Peruvians and stimulating local communities to invest time and effort in eco-tourism. In the end, without being overly pretentious: What we do makes a difference! And your support makes it all happen.
I particularly want to push for some special offers on this space. So stay tuned during the coming days if you are thinking to come and visit us in Peru in 2011. Some offers can already be found on our web-site.
One thing that we started last year, was short budget trips to Northern, Central and Southern Peru – with additonal discount for Young Birders. These trips have been scheduled for 2011 already. Check out our tour Calendar.
