August 2010

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Gunnar’s weekly Twitter links about birding, birds and Social Media 2010-08-30

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Kolibri August Newsletter

Kolibri News

The Kolibri Expeditions News has already reached our subscribers. Here is an extended version for you on line. Nevertheless, the newsletter is quite short this time and contains several special offers for the remainder of 2010 and 2011. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter, not to miss any important information.

British Birdwatching Fair 2010

If you happened to be at the British Birdwatching Fair and looked for me, you looked in vain. I could not go this time. In fact, in spite of it surely being a great social event, it seems a bit silly to use as a sales point. The cost to participate is high, when you add up the fees, the flight and the material one need to produce. Then consider the enormous amount of trees used to produce all those broschures and the fuel used to transport both exhibitors – across the globe – as well as visitors. What was that about global warming and the clearcutting of the forests again? Why not make a Virtual Birdfair on line instead? So I blogged about it on this link. See what you think!

Considering all the money I saved not going to the birdfair, I figured I could do some special offers instead to you and your friends. If you scroll down to the bottom you shall find the time limited Special offers. The offers are valid only to Sep 5.

Photo Safaris in Peru

Not all birders are listers, and when the photography becomes more important than the life-list, then hard-core birding and photography is not compatible. With the boom of digital photography and more and more people getting into birding via photography (and the other way around as well), we want to offer a new set of tours for photographers and videographers only. Right now our collaborator Alejandro Tello (birdguide and photographer) is writing up new itineraries.  A few have been uploaded to the web-page. Some of these are still in Spanish but will be translated within the coming week. The prices will also be set next week.

Here is a sample itinerary from the Coast. If you are interested in photography, contact us

Satipo road and Carpish

Cock of the Rock - by Ruth. Apaya-Calabaza. Satipo roadAs you know I helped Rainforest Partner ship with the fundraising for Satipo road and the Pampa Hermosa area. Over $15000 was raised.  From September there shall be proper beds at Apaya-Calabaza and a working shower with hot water.  In December it is planned the building of a community lodge will start! To celebrate we are giving extreme discounts for the remaining trips this year. It is a good idea that the area is commercialized now and this way by the time the lodge is ready there will already be a lot of birding information amassed and a demand created.  You find the itinerary here.

New Budget Tambopata trip a smashing success.

We just ran the new budget trip to Tambopata and Alex was a magician (again!).  He even managed to find a new species for Peru. Unicolored Blackbird – check that link! We have 5 trips coming up giving the great discount as mentioned above – time limited to Sep 5. On the first September 17 trip shall have a very interesting crew with myself, Alex (the magician), Rick Wright (from Wings and ABA) and young birder whiz Chris West plus two other clients. We have three spaces left only for $1180 including the flight from Lima. Don’t wait too long.
If you can’t make it on this one, you may come on the ones in October, November, December and January. This trip can be combined with Satipo road/Carpish and a Pelagic trip in between. Prior to the trip you may add a day at Machu Picchu and maybe a day at the Polylepis forest at Abra Malaga. The new budget trip you find here.

List price guarantee

The last offer is simply a pre-booking concept for 2011. We guarantee the list price based on groups of 7 people even if you are on your own on any trip. Read more on the relevant blogpost here.

Pelagics

I also must mention some pelagics. We had the first confirmed Chatham Island Albatros last year, this year the first photographed Brown Booby and a month ago first confirmed Westland Petrel with photos.

Westland Petrel

More from the July 26 pelagic here.

We have finally found a boat which is faster than the one we have used previously. It is an open large speedboat (that usually take 30 passengers) for a maximum of 12 birders – and 4 staff equipped with 2 brand new 100hp Yahama outboard engines.  This new boat shall allow us for extended stay at deep waters if necessary and their is a wish to do so. Since the boat is faster and get back to shore earlier, it also allows for some birding on shore (there is an excellent shorebird locality nearby at Poza Arenillas).  On the downside, it is an open boat, which means that you may get sprayed upon in higher seas.

Larger groups will be managed with the comfortable Catamaran we have used in the past.

Upcoming confirmed pelagics

Here are the confirmed upcoming pelagics for the remainder of the season.

  • Sep 9  Speed boat
  • Sep 25  Speed boat – extended itinerary
  • Oct 2 Catamaran
  • Nov 13 boat to be determined
  • Nov 26

So many reasons to come to Peru now!!

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Time-limited special offers

Kolibri Expeditions time-limited special offers for 2010 and 2011.

Extended Special Offer

Since we could not participate in British Birdwatching Fair this year, I figured we needed to present some material anyway for this time, so I ran a campaign for three days with special offers for a limited time period. One offer per day were presented between Aug 20-22, valid between Aug 20-29 Sep 5.  These offers originally appeared in my post about creating a Virtual Birdfair.  We now offer an extra week to take advantage of these great offers – until Sep 5.  Both time and space are limited.

SALE ONE / Tambopata

We have four departures with special price to the tour to SE Peru Tambopata rainforest and the lodge project of the Durand brothers. I say under construction so I do mean it is very basic, but then again – it is well possible to bird at the site and then go back to sleep in Maldonado at night – to come out again the following morning – for a small surcharge. The 8 day trip in October, December 2010 and January 2011 is only US$1180 (£760) including the flight from Lima to Cusco and return. The trip hosted by high demand Moth expert Seabrooke in November is US$1330. This price is held regardless of the number of participants on the tour. The normal price starts at US$1552 (£999). Young birders up to 25 pay only US$695 (£450) (excluding internal flight). The offer is only valid  until Sep 5!

SALE TWO Satipo road and Carpish

Following the successful fundraising in July by Rainforest Partnership from September there will be no camping on this trip as there will be proper beds in the School at Apaya on the Satipo road. The Satipo road and Carpish 8 day trip featuring Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager and Diademed Sandpiper-Plover in September, October, November, December and January 2011, for only US$999 (£640). Normal price starts at US$1212 (£780). Young birders up to 25 pay only US$695 (£450). The Sale is valid until  Sep 5 only!

SPECIAL OFFER THREE .

The last offer may actually be the best of all.
All Peru birding trips for 2011 on the Kolibri Expeditions web-page sell for list-price (which usually involves 7 people for that price) no matter how many people book. If no other people book, you will still enjoy list price (although you would have to pay for a single room). So why is this such a good deal? Isn’t going to be list price anyway, by the time the trip runs?
Possibly, but you get to set the dates and have a price guarantee. Most of our departures are run below max number of passengers which could mean a surcharge for you. You are also protected against sudden price increases. The Kolibri Expeditions list prices are among the lowest in the market, but our guides are among the best in Peru. I have said it before and say it again: Why pay More? Why see Less?

Check out all the Peru trips on this link

Kolibri Expeditions birding tours in Peru

At the top of this page the tours are organized in geographical regions to help you find a tour. Then follows an intent to group the trips into different type of birders and styles of birding. Finally all the possible trips are listed. We are sure you will be overwhelmed, so send us a mail (kolibriexp@gmail.com) with your time limit, a description of yourself and what type of birding you enjoy and which areas or species you are most interested in seeing.

You only have until Sep 5  to decide which trips you want to do in 2011 and until Sep 7 to pay 20% (minimum 700 dollars) of the total fee to activate your booking and secure the list price.

The moment you decide for a tour and a date, that same tour will appear on our tour calendar, which will make it easier for others to find the same tour. It is also possible to specify in the tour calendar what type of birding you enjoy – so that others signing up for the same trip will have similar qualifications (for example specify id you want a hardcore birding with as many species as possible, or if you enjoy photographing birds, or a program with birding and visiting several archeological site.)

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New bird for Peru

Unicolored Blackbird Agelaius cyanopus – First for Peru

Unicolored Blackbird, female Tres Chimbadas, Tambopata. New for Peru. Photo Alex Duran

Unicolored Blackbird Tres Chimbadas, Tambopata. First for Peru. Photo Alex Duran

Clients of Kolibri Expeditions, John Arnett and Jason Mann, found a new species for Peru last week at Laguna Tres Chimbadas in the Tambopata area close. Two individuals were seen the one that was not photographed was possibly an immature, as it was a bit darker. As one enters Tres Chimbadas with canoe the birds were seen almost immediately in a low wet grassy pastizal.

Alex Durand took two photographs with a handheld point and shoot camera through the Telescope – in the woobly canoe!

Fabrice Schmitt told me three weeks that he had found what he thinks was a fem/imm Unicolored Blackbird in Cocha Blanco in the Manu area. Some poor pictures were taken, but according to reviewers of Fabrice’s pictures they are not conclusive. It is the nominate ssp of Unicolored Blackbird Agelaius cyanopus normally occuring in Bolivia that was found here.

Unicolored Blackbird Agelaius cyanopus, female dorsal view Tres Chimbadas, Tambopata. New for Peru. Photo Alex Duran

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Gunnar’s weekly Twitter links about birding, birds and Social Media 2010-08-23

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Virtual British Birdwatching Fair 2010.

Virtual Birdfair

Virtual BirdFair - Why not do the birdfair on line.

Virtual BirdFair - Why not do the birdfair on line?

Yesterday was the last day of the British Birdfair. Over 20000 visitors is the usual norm. Most people I know in the birding world have been talking about the event the last week. This year I could not go. PromPeru did not have a stand as they had all the 7 previous years. And we could not get a stand of our own. So even if I will be doing some ranting in this post, it is obvious that I am also somewhat envious to those that did go. If not for anything else, it would have been great to see some friends.

I have trying to convince myself that for my business, that my presence at the birdfair has very little importance. After all, I have sold  extremely few trips directly at the birdfair in the past – and I wonder if most of those I sell to, would not have found us on the internet anyway. The most undeniable advantage of being present at the birdfair is to give facetime to the people you know and those that would like to know you better.

Yet, when there, there is so much “sales-talk”,  and little time to just socialize-which is probably what one should do.

Most visitors will have collected several kilos of birding brochures with flashy catalogues.  Some have travelled over oceans in jets. In these brochures you find exactly the same stuff as you would findon the internet.  Seems like wasted resources to me! How many thousands of dollars have every exhibitor put into their stands and their own airfares? Meanwhile,  we are all outraged about global warming, deforestation and increasing numbers  of threatened birds.

If I go next year, I think the social part will be most important for me.  I will not worry about spewing out sales pitch messages on how great our trips are.  Instead I will say. Hey, if you are interested in a trip to Peru, have a look at our  web-page or our Facebook Page where you find the VIRTUAL PERUVIAN BIRDFAIR – now let’s get a beer and have some fun!

It is all on the web anyway, why do we need the Birdfair to sell or buy this stuff? OK, sure there is money that need to be raised for conservation. But could we not raise this money anyway? What if you could participate in a birdfair without spending all that money on hotels and travel? What if there is no need for those that sell products and services to produce all those colorful pamphlets? How much money could be freed to conservation? I propose to build a VIRTUAL WORLD BIRDWATCHING FAIR on line. A meeting space on the cyberspace, where all the products and  services can be found.  Here are some ideas summerized. What do you think?

  • CONSERVATION: money collected to bird conservation projects or organizations.
  • INCLUSIVE: inexpensive to exhibit for basic listing.  More expensive for fuller coverage and editing. Maybe some sort of quality vetting is necessary.
  • DONATIONS: donation campaigns for certain projects
  • TIMELESS: yearly editions, to culminate over the British Birdfair with lots of special offers, but does not need to be inactive before and after
  • NO-PRINTING  all birdfair catalogues and printed material downloadable in pdf format (Everyone, get an iPad, Tablet or a Kindle and save some trees!!).
  • NON-PROFIT: Totally non-profit web-page – just covering basic costs.
  • TEAMWORK. If you think this is a good idea and want to help and be part of  a new movement, I am all ears. Send me a line!

Originally, there were some special offers to birding tours in Peru here in this post, but they have been moved to a seperate post. Check it out here.

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Gunnar’s weekly Twitter links about birding, birds and Social Media 2010-08-16

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Gunnar’s weekly Twitter links about birding, birds and Social Media 2010-08-09

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Gunnar’s weekly Twitter links about birding, birds and Social Media 2010-08-02

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