About Gunnar Engblom

Gunnar Engblom was born in Sweden and lives in Peru. He is a birder, runner, post-punkrocker and blogger and he is especially keen on social media for birders. Gunnar Engblom organizes birding tours in Peru and the Neotropics with Kolibri Expeditions. Gunnar is passionate about new Peru tours that support community based ecotourism and conservation and has initiated several project this way. In October 2010 Gunnar started a multi-author blog - birdingblogs.com - which fast has become one of the most popular blogs for birders.

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Gunnar’s weekly Twitter links about birding, birds and Social Media 2010-07-05

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Gunnar’s weekly Twitter links about birding, birds and Social Media 2010-06-28

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Santos – the guy who found the Marvellous Spatuletail lek

Santos Montenegro – The spatuletail kid

Santos Montenegro - the Marvelous Spatuletail Guy

In November 2003 Roger Ahlman came back to Lima after a Kolibri Expeditions trip ecstatic about having seen a lek of Marvelous Spatuletails. Several males dancing in mid-air with their tails over their heads. Santos Montenegro was the local kid (looked a kid but was already 23 at the time), who showed the lek to Roger and has been a protégé of Kolibri Expeditions since. Kolibri Expeditions raised the money so that Santos could purchase the area.

In April 2008 this display was filmed with high speed camera by the BBC for the Attenborough series Life and Santos was the person who guided the film crew to the lek on a property set of for the conservation of Marvelous Spatuletail.

  A sour aftertaste is that the BBC did not make effort to make sure this unique site was conserved for the future and paid Santos less than 300 dollars for the unique footage.  I made a futile intent to write David Attenborough but had CERO response.

Here is an interview I did in November last year with Santos. I hope by sending around this interview it shall be possible to raise the $5000 necessary to make a visitor center and a community sustainable development project at Santos reserve.

Marvelous Spatuletail Loddigesia mirabilis. Photo: Alejandro Tello

Santos Montenegro Interview

When did you start watching birds, Santos?

Santos: Year 2000

And why? Why did you start watching birds?

I was curious. I was working in my chacra (field) up the Rio Chido trail, where I bumped into a man who was looking for the Marvelous Spatuletail. It was Rob Dover who has a tourism operator agency in Chachapoyas and three people more who were looking for Marvelous Spatuletail. I walked up to them because I was curious and they showed me a  painting of the bird from the Birds of Peru
book to be  published  by Clements and Shany. I told them that at my chacra there are loads of them. (laughs).

Was that true, or an innocent lie?

Yes, it was true. There were lots there.

They were surprised to hear this, as they had spent 5 days without seeing the bird, and consequently decided to try the next day. At 6 Am they showed up at my house and together we went to my Chacra.

The lekking males can be seen December to May. Marvelous Spatuletail. Photo: Alejandro Tello

And they saw it.

And they were very happy.

How much did they pay you that time?

They gave me 200 soles (around 70 dollars).

Wow, 200 soles. They must have been very happy?

They were extremely happy. I was also very happy. They were some photographers who wanted to take a photograph of this little bird. They must have been very happy to pay 200 soles. (One of the photographers was James Hecht who managed to get the first good photographs of the species.)

What were you thinking? That much money for just a bird?

Indeed. I was thinking: Can that bird be worth that much? It completely changed my way of looking at birds. From that moment on I started looking for birds. It changed me. I went into the fields specifically looking for birds and I really liked birdwatching.

Later birdwatchers started looking for me.  Roger Ahlman was shown 3 males in 2003. The next year I went with you to Abra Patricia and Tarapoto. You persuaded your clients to donate a birdbook to me.

There was another guide Edilberto that I had used previously, but he was not to be found when Roger went nor when I met you for the first time.  I understand there was some competition between you.

Edilberto later moved to Lima. From that time on after going with you to the other places I really got into birding. And of course even more now.

How many birders have you guided?

Santos: Some 300 in total. Most of them have visited our reserve.

And then BBC came. When was this?

April 2008 and they stayed 3 weeks. Filming not only at the reserve  but also the ECOAN:s visitor center at Huembo. The best place for filming was at our reserve.

How many days did they film there?

Around a week.

How much did they pay you? Were you with them the whole time

800 Soles (US$282) for the 3 weeks – during which I was practically with them the whole time.

But you did also have your salary from ECOAN at the same time – so it was extra money.

I still had to check on the visitors center an hour or so per day.

The pay I suppose  could have been better considering how much your first group paid you for just a mornings work, but considering not too bad. What bugs me is that BBC did not offer any donation to the reserve where the lek is. What are the urgent actions needed to make the reserve easier to visit and how to diminish envy among your neighbours?

Leading water from above the reserve to the villagers would be a fantastic convincing action that would make all my neighbours in favour of the reserve.

Would the neighbours be committed?

Yes! I asked the president of the community. If we could get money to buy all the piping from the visitors that visit the reserve, would the community be in favour and provide the labour?  Por Dios! That would be fantastic, he said.

They also have to commit to conservation.  It would be put as a condition. They put aside some already forest area to join the reserve and in turn get the much needed water for the pastures. We’d make a meeting and everyone signs a document of  commitment. It would be no problem.  

Could there also be a visitor center there in the reserve? What is your vision.

That would be fantastic. It is until now the best place to observe the Spatuletail – and especially the lek.  This could be a place where the community sells some handicrafts. Later there could be sales of food and drinks, and souvenirs.

Let’s see what the results of this interview could bring. Hopefully BBC will see it and may in conscience make a donation. Also the tourists visiting will be an asset for the community as we can ask them to bring gifts such as school material, clothes for the kids, etc – like some groups we brought in the past.

Yes the people were very happy because of this.  

Do you think the fact that there is already ECOAN:s visitor center would mean competition for them or for you?

No, they would compliment each other. People like to see the birds also at the lek between December-May.  This time of  year is also good for Pale-billed Antpitta which sings only in the wetter season.

What is the estimated cost to lay down the tubing and how many meters would be needed?

It’s around 1500m of PVC 2 inch tubing that is needed.  Have to calculate the exact cost of the material needed. But more or less $3000 should do the trick.

And for a basic observation platform with roof and a sales area, to start with without toilets. How much?

With the community members doing the work around 6000 soles ($2120)

So overall just a little above  5000 dollars to make a fantastic project with your neighbours!

Yes.

Hire Santos as a guide!

I recommended Santos to ECOAN when they needed a person who could do bird surveys in the area. I also insisted he’d be contracted receiving the social benefits established by law. This has proven very important now that his wife is seriously ill and in public hospital in Chiclayo.

Santos is on a cross road in which he could start earning a much better salary as a birdguide.  Unfortunately, we could not get a group together for June, but I just thought of another option for Santos.  To start with he could join independent groups as a guide.  He knows the birds between Pomacochas and Tarapoto very well after the trips he did with us. I hope some independent birders would take him along also all the way from Chiclayo so he gets experience along the full length of the road during June to mid-August 2010.  Just cover his costs during the areas he does not yet know and pay him 35 dollars per day for the areas he knows.  You can pride yourself of the making of a guide! I am sure Santos will become one of the great Peruvian bird guides very soon. Write me if you are interested at kolibriexp@gmail.com so I can coordinate with Santos. You pay to Santos directly!

Santos is learning English with lessons on an MP3 player – but he could use some practice with bilingual birders.  He does know all the bird names in English of the birds between Pomacochas and Tarapoto – and most the calls. He is the only birder I know that IDs the spatuletail on flight calls.

Additional resources.

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RainForest Partnership support Satipo Rd.

Rainforest Partnerships starts backing Satipo road.

Saffron-Crowned Tanager Tangara xanthocepahala. Satipo road. Photo Tom Pavlik

I am very pleased to see that Rainforest Partnership starts supporting Satipo road and the community of Pampa Hermosa of which Apaya where we usually stay is a part.  The idea is to in a first step improve infrastructure so that birders and other nature lovers can start visiting the area more comfortably. Running to Marathons for this cause was worth it.  Here is Maurine Winkley’s mail to Brian Allen, who was on our last Satipo Road/Carpish trip and just donated $250 to the project.

From: Maurine Winkley
To: Brian A
Cc: Patricio Prieto 
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 4:33 PM
Subject: Re: Rainforest Partnership Satipo Rd.

Hi Brian,

Thank you for contacting us and what appropriate timing!  We actually have someone heading to the area on Thursday to kick start the ecotourism project there.  He will be in the communities for 1.5 months and is will set-up the project plan for the area with the help of our program coordinator, other contacts in the region (including Gunnar Engblom) and most importantly the community members.

We are setting up the smaller portion of the project now which includes making basic infrastructure improvements to the area in order to host more ecotourists in the area.  We want to help the communtiy generate an income so that they can preserve their incredibly biodiverse cloudforest (as you are well aware) instead of choosing to detroy the forests to raise cattle.  The larger part of the project will focus on getting the community title to their land or protecting it through a conservation or ecotourism concession.

The first phase of the project will require between $2500-5000 to complete.  Gunnar has already raised $600 by running the Lima Marathon and setting financial goals based upon the time it took him to complete the marathon (a fun way to raise funds).  One way to help would be to participate in the Global Giving Challenge we have going on at the beginning of July.  We will promote it through our Facebook page (become a FAN!) and also our website.  The challenge is to raise $4000 in July for this specific project.  If we can raise enough funds and/or get enough people to join the challenge, the amount will be matched.  We will need support from everyone involved in Rainforest Partnership.  If you don’t object, I will put you on our mailing list (we only send out newsletters quaterly) so you can keep in touch with us and the projects.

We also rely on our wide network of supporters who provide both knowledge and financial support  to help us grow.  There are many ways to get involved so let me know a little about you and we can figure something out.

Good to hear from you!

Maurine Winkley
Director of Operations
Rainforest Partnership

www.rainforestpartnership.org

P.O. Box 49268, Austin, TX 78765 (mailing)
505 Willow, Austin, TX, 78701 (physical)
Office: (512) 420-0101
Cell: 831-325-6190
Skype: mwinkley81

Have you not yet made a donation to rainforest partnership here is a donation page set up for my Marathon fundraiser.

More information, videos and links can be found on the Marathon for Conservation 2010 blog post.

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Gunnar’s weekly Twitter links about birding, birds and Social Media 2010-06-21

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Why birders blog?

Day 9. Blogging. Social Media for birders.

Reasons for blogging

There are different reasons for blogging. Blog is short for web-log – originally meaning a web-diary – with the big difference – while a diary is secret the blog is open for anyone to read. The inner soul of millions of people are exposed around the world through blogs.

In a way it is strange that not more birders blog. Think about it. Birders share information and photos. Birders are very thirsty for birding information. Looking at the success of Birdfourm, Surfbirds and Fatbirder it is clear that birders already use the internet A LOT – and to some extent are already using some social media. In spite of this, neither Facebook and to even a lesser extent blogging and Twitter, have won the masses over. There are still many birders who do not use social media as much as they could.

Why should birders blog?

In the past posts I have mainly dealt with Facebook, except for the last post where I talked about the blogging platform Posterous.  Certainly, Facebook is in some ways Blogging, Flickr and Twitter in one single interphase. But there are limits and the most important one, is that you have to have a Facebook account to interchange information and see the posts of someone on Facebook. I’m sure you know a lot of birders who still have not connected with Facebook .

  • With a blog there is no limit to how many people you can reach.
  • Post your bird pics and discuss them.
  • Easy to share on forums and birding lists.
  • You can use Facebook to promote you blog.
  • Some birders use the blog only for birding trips. It is like a trip diary but kept on line. See Sheridan Coffey’s and Diana Fruguglietti’s blogs to get an idea.
  • If you have a birding business you SHOULD have a blog to create content on your URL.
  • Check the keywords in the illustration above.  All are reasons why some of us blog. Which are applicable to you?

Platforms.

  • Posterous. My favorite. The easiest way to blog. Just send an email with some photo’s attached and your blog post is ready. You can also connect all your socialmedia platforms, so that when you post to your posterous blog you also post to Twitter, Facebook, You Tube and Flickr. I dealt with Posterous in the previous post in this blog series.
  • Blogger – blogspot.  This is Google’s platform. Very easy to use -and directly connected to Picasa to upload photos and Google Friend Connect to get your friends involved – although Google Friend Connect also can be set on Word Press blogs now. Most birdbloggers seem to use Blogger, maybe because its name – sort of a default first stop for anyone who wants to blog.
  • Word Press. This is the platform to chose if your blog will be part of an already existent web-page – and especially if you are to use the blog for “promoting” your business. Word Press has tons of applications that help Search Engine optimization, comment management, spam control, etc. There are also a lot of free themes to chose from and some excellent themes for pay that can be customized.
    It is easy to import a pre-existing Blogger blog into your WP blog if you want to.

Some great blogs to seek inspiration from

These are some of the blogs that I have been checking out lately.

  • Dawns Bloggy Blog Dawn and her husband Jeff travel around North America in their mobile home looking for birds, mushrooms and nature in general – and meet up with other bloggers. Fasten your seatbelts and follow Dawn.
  • John Riutta Multifaceted birder – and a great writer. I love the flow in his writing.
  • A DC Birding Blog. John Beetham does not only write on birds. This past week there are stories with bugs and cleaning of Kemp’s Ridley Turtles after the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. I particularly like his weekly series called “Loose Feathers” with links to interesting articles and blogs from the past week.  John always digs up great stuff that are must-reads!
  • 10000 birds hardly needs presentation.  Mike, Corey and Charlie is the strong blogging team that deliver daily posts. 10000 birds is one of the oldest and the most consistent of bird blogs -and the brain child of Mike Bergin.  I don’t know a birdblogger who does not check out 10000 birds daily.
  • Reservoir Catz. Naughty Naughty! And certainly not for the prude. But extremely funny. Short reports from the British twitching scene with lots of irony. It is written like press releases and the serious tone together with frequent four letter words make it hilarious reading.
  • Bird Canada Pat Bumstead’s blog is a good example of good crafted blog with a regular deliveries. I like her Bird News. Similar to John Beetham’s Loose Feathers.
  • Aimophila Adventure’s Rick Wright is not only a great birder of  Wings fame, but also a great writer. His recent deliveries from Tuscuny and Provence are a delight. I am anxious to see what his writing will be like when he visits Peru with us in September.
  • Bird, Words and Websites. Laura Kammermeier has a good eye for good stories and a way with words.

These are just a few of the blogs I read regularly. There are lots more of course.

NatureBlogNetwork

NBN is another nature blogger’s institution created by  Mike Bergin. Nature blogs are rated on the unique number of daily visitors and sorted into different categories. Naturally, it is a place where you can discover other blogs.  Those blogs that publish daily or several times per day rates much higher than those that only post a couple of times per week, so don’t be too fooled by the rating. There are lots of brilliant blogs that don’t make top 40 that simply do not publish that often.

Nevertheless, follow the instructions to sign up your blog to the network. There is a weekly presentation in the NBN blog of new blogs. This way your new blog get a presentation and hopefully some readers will check you out.

Homework:

  • If you have not started a blog – start one.  Chose one of the platforms above. You can always transfer to your own URL later.
  • If you have a blog make sure you are member of NBN.
  • Which are your recommended blogs that you read often? Let us know in the comment section.
  • Present your own blog and some words about it in the comment section.

Previous posts about blogging.

Previous posts in the Social Media for Birders series.

If you still have not signed up for the workshop, which will give you an email notice when there is a new post, please do so below. It is not too late. There are still 23 posts to go! Set up a folder in your mail program to which you import each delivery to have it handy for future reference.

Photo Blogging Keywords by MexicanWave/Steve Bridger

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Budget Tambopata vs Budget Manu

Change of plan

Sunbittern Eurypyga helias - Tambopata Alex Durand

Sunbittern is one of the birds that is easily seen at the new Lodge that is being built near Puerto Maldonado. Photo: Alex Durand

Sometimes one has to make a change of plan. A great idea needs to be modified because the external conditions have changed. The initial conditions two years ago was that the communities of Amarakaeri  reserve had four lodges spread out along the eco-touristy fluvial route down the Alto Madre de Dios river to the Blanquillo area and the spectacular Macaw-clay lick, Giant Otter lake , the Tapir clay-lick and 12 species of monkeys. This is the heart of the wild Manu at the edge of Manu National Park and the richest, most bio-diverse place on earth. Finally, the indigenous communities had the means of getting their piece of the cake of the lucrative eco-tourism industry. Had they really?

I was invited to fam trip (“fam” is tour operator lingo for familiarizing trip) by the community company Wanamei two years ago and it became very clear already on that tour that the communities would not be very prepared to run the lodges with all the logistics involved. They needed a commercial partner. Kolibri Expeditions had sustained talks with Wanamei about starting to market the route to birders.  Many birders are prepared to take some logistical deficiencies, as long as the birding yield is great. This way the communities would slowly get into the operation and do it well.

To market the product I organized a big give-away of one free trip per departure to prominent bird bloggers as well as Twitter and Facebook users, who would help spreading the word on Social Media platforms. We also offered a pretrip to young birders at a much reduced price – with the idea that young birders would be even more resilient to logistical problems as long as they saw the birds.

So far, in theory, this looked interesting and feasible as well as a novel marketing approach. We just finished the first two trips in May. One Young Birder trip on May 17 and the first regular departure for bloggers with Bill Lynch as host on May 23.  The coming hosts and takers of these trips are of course curious to know how it went and what was seen, why I will deal with this below.|

I shall principally deal with the logistics here. The birding result from the trip shall be seen on the Facebooks, blogs and Flickr accounts of the participants.

Here are the names of the participants of each group and their Facebook and Flickr accounts. For Facebook you will need to be friends with them to see the photos and walls.

Young birders:

Alex Harper          Facebook

Ross Gallardy       Facebook

Josh Wentz          Facebook

Briana Adams       Facebook

Blogging trip.

Josh Shramo         Facebook

Bill Lynch               Facebook Flickr

Dana Patterson    Facebook

Logistics.

Maybe I have not been all that clear but running a rain forest lodge is a logistical nightmare, especially in the Manu area. Supplies can only be brought in by truck/air and boat. It is expensive. Contact with outer world (Cusco) is via short-wave radio with a minor obstacle in between – the Andes! Reception is often very poor and it may be days before a message can actually come across. Furthermore, everyone else (the competion and the rivals) will hear about your logistic deficiencies (more common than organization). Some of the more renowned lodges have put in Satellite Telephone/Internet services which of course is the solution to connectivity problems. But in order to afford the service there is a need of a continuous stream of visitors. It’s a Catch-22.

When you put indigenous community into the equation there is yet another factor. Community in the Amazon doosn’t exist. The communities we see today are families lumped together by the church or the  geo-political “progress”.  We need your oil, Indian!

In reality, the natives in the amazon are grouped by their kin. Their family or the clan is what is important. This is a major factor why community projects imposed from the outside rarely are successful.

Budget Manu Lodges.

Shintuya.

End of the Manu road. Worked well. This lodge has been in used almost continuously for two years and the community now has some experience of managing it. The birding is very good along the roadside and at the lodge itself. We only stayed one night here, but may opt to two nights in the future.

Centro Medicina Tradicional.

Situated on the other side of a river island. The river arm next to the lodge has been cut off, so it was hard to get there.  Time was wasted on the first Young birder trip and the second trip did not even try. A nearby budget lodge called Yanayacu was used instead. They were a bit unprepared for our arrival but did provide showers and beds with mosquito netting.

The toilet had a huge Tarrantula nesting, which maybe is not the kind of jungle experience the clients want.

Charro.

I am sad to learn that this lodge could not be used at all. I was very impressed by the birding here two years ago and our guide Alex Durand praised the place with great birds that included Elusive Antpitta.
The trail was overgrown now and hard work. The young birders did see some good birds here, but the boat staff headed on the lodge area to see it was totally deserted without beds. The first group decided to head on to Blanco Lodge and the second group did not bother to even try.

Blanco Lodge.

This is the key lodge in the system of lodges as it is very close to macaw clay lick and the Giant Otter lake of Cocha Blanco. Furthermore there is a tower nearby overlooking the small Cocha Nueva lake. We knew in before hand that the water supply to the lodge was not working, as all the tubing was broken. When the lodge was build all the PVC tubes were not laid in deep trenches but too close to the ground, why people later have trod on them resulting in smashed tubes.

The cabins and the main dining-hall/kitchen building were infested by termites. While the young birders found that quite fascinating, it was not at all appreciated by Bill Lynch’s group. The mosquito nets were not present with the first group, while some mosquito nets were arranged by the boatmen of the second group.

After hearing of some of the problems of the first group, I made arrangements to let second group to come back via Amazonia Lodge at the bottom of Manu road. While this was appreciated and added many good observations it also lead to more travel time. Furthermore, Bill Lynch’s group had bad luck with the weather. A Patagonian cold front known as friaje was present during most of their trio, which lowered the general birding activity. The Young birder group were lucky with a massive Army Antswarm at Blanco which positively added to their experience. Both groups saw Giant Otter and visited the Macaw Lick. The macaws at the macaw lick never came to the mud wall to digest the clay, but kept flying around perching on nearby brances.

Operating problems

All this show that there are severe problems operating this trip, and frankly I don’t think it is worth our while, if the lodges are not accessible and improved. We thought we were going to be able to arrive some agreement with community company Wanamei, who managed the set-up, however some of the individual communities are no longer interested in having Wanamei as operator and prefer to make a deal directly with individual companies.  This makes our participation as lodge operators more difficult as we wanted to operate a network of lodges. It is no problem of buy the services of another operator though once they get strarted, but to me it seems likely that CMT and Charro are decaying even more as they are less attractive for non-birders. Blanco can possibly be turned around because of its strategic position, but it will take some while before it is offered to the public and as good or better than other nearby more basic options.

Another complaint was that was that the transport sections were too long. The lodges lying between  Shintuya and Blanco was too log without CMT and Charro as stepping stone. Too much time is lost in a program as short as only 8 days if the lodges are too far in between. In any case, I shall have to make it clear in the programs that there is a lot of travel.

Alternative program – Budget Tambopata

We still have many booked trips for the community programs, why I must find alternatives for these.  The costs of the Manu program with alternative lodges will simply become too expensive, especially if the group size is less than 7 people. What further make it difficult to operate within the budget I originally set for the trips, is the fact that the flight prices for foreigners with LAN have increased since last year, and the alternative airline to Puerto Maldonado – Star Peru – does not give return prices for open jaw routes.

Suddenly the perfect alternative emerged from nowhere, solving many issues of the deficient community program. The brothers of Kolibri Expeditions’s top guide Alex Durand are building a lodge in vicinity of the Infierno community near Puerto Maldonado. This is just a stone’s throw away from the more famous Posada Amazonas, with access to Giant Otter lake and macaw lick by 30 minutes of boat on the Tambopatata .  Right now it is more of a camp than a lodge, although cabins are being built. Having said this, they have a dining room and kitchen, toilets and showers, and a platform with beds and mosquito netting. The Young birders spent two nights here and the report the trail system was excellent. Alex Duran made a 3 day recce to check what birds are there and compiled a birdlist of 370 species. Birdwise there is no difference to Manu.  There is good bamboo at the lodge with all the specialist birds. The main advantage with Manu is Tapir and the large number of monkeys. You will see monkeys in Tambopata as well, but there will be fewer species.

Purus Jacamar - Galbalcyrhynchus purusianus. Tambopata. Photo: Alex Durand

Purus Jacamar is an uncommon Jacamar of flooded forest, which is difficult to get in Manu but easier in near Puerto Maldonado.

Overall, we solve several issues with the community program this way. Let’s list the advantages.

  • less travelling and more birding efficient.
  • beds with good mosquito netting
  • working toilets
  • running water
  • a great trail system
  • Access to Harpy Eagle nest with NO surcharge.
  • return flight tickets Lima-Cusco allowing birdng at all different altitudes along the new Transoceanic highway between Cusco and Puerto Maldonado. It also gives almost a full day of birding in Lima.
  • Overall the number of species in 8 days will be much higher with this alternative program with more different types of habitat and more time in field and less time lost on transport.

Here is the new 9 day  program that we shall run in August replacing the community program while the condtions are not great. It has one extra day added to sample the cloud forest more amply. For other programs we shall run the same program over just 8 days. Young birders up to 25 years old have a special price of $699 for 8 days trip (airfare and Lima day not included) and $609 for 7 days (later programs) .

Links to previous posts with background about the Amarakaeri Manu community lodges:

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Gunnar’s weekly Twitter links about birding, birds and Social Media 2010-06-14

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Gunnar’s weekly Twitter links about birding, birds and Social Media 2010-06-07

  • Best Bird of the Weekend (Last of May 2010) https://bit.ly/cUhla1 #
  • RT @Dendroica Birds Spread Heavy Metals to Arctic Ponds: A recent study found that coastal seafood-eating birds ca… https://bit.ly/9IoRYR #
  • RT @DawnFine Visting Mom and Dad: Howdee all, We arrived in CT and are now parked in the driveway of the home I g… https://bit.ly/9DQd5x #
  • Marsh Diaries Part Four: Ahh, springtime in Alberta. Rain, snow, wind and temperatures  just above the freezing po… https://bit.ly/awk3Bx #
  • ReservoirCatz: Blakeney finch inspires world's greatest endurance race: The .. https://bit.ly/9gETPm
    – discretion adviced #
  • Great Bustard Group – Southampton https://bit.ly/bskpBy #
  • The Hawk and the Good Samaritan: When you live in a small town, being widely known as an avid bird watcher sooner … https://bit.ly/ctzmAd #
  • Little Birds, Little Camargue: At least the mosquitoes won’t be too bad.
    That was the most positive of my thoughts… https://bit.ly/aV12CY #
  • Birds in Rockland County and Orange County https://bit.ly/90NLiX #
  • Great shot Rachel!! RT @rachelbirder: 5-31-10, fluffed out male Yellow Warbler, Minor Clark fish Hatchery https://twitpic.com/1swu9z #
  • RT @Boraz @cassierodenberg @tvjrennie: Eye-opening Audubon article on the fakery rife in wildlife photojournalism. https://bit.ly/9cPCAC #
  • Fake fotos! Who’d have guessed… https://bit.ly/9OgmdU #
  • Empowering young leaders: Eleven young Moro and indigenous peoples leaders are flying to the United States to part… https://bit.ly/dnydML #
  • A First for Seychelles – Cousin celebrates IBA branding: Cousin Island Special Reserve has become the first IBA – … https://bit.ly/bGzWYx #
  • RT @Dendroica Red Knot Population Holding Steady But Not Growing Yet: In the last two decades, the Red Knot popula… https://bit.ly/9PXwDi #
  • Darwin’s Finches https://bit.ly/bca7Rw #
  • Love the double life of this guy. Lawyer defending the rights of immigrants by day &Punjabi Hip Hop star at night. https://nyti.ms/aesTKl #
  • ReservoirCatz: Egg collectors urge Shetland birders to reveal all: Britain's.. https://bit.ly/aC56ph
    – discretion adviced #
  • France 2010: Day Three: This infamous mistral continues to blow, making wildflowers dance a colorful tarantella on… https://bit.ly/cA1oDH #
  • Wading Bird Nesting Population in South Florida Up Significantly https://bit.ly/b4w8xo #
  • Please help to strengthen bird tourism in Iberia: In 2008, the BirdLife Partners in Spain (SEO/BirdLife) and Portu… https://bit.ly/dfuSvX #
  • Timber logging concession in Mutulanganga IBA: Two companies has been awarded a timber logging concession in Mutul… https://bit.ly/adA9uj #
  • RT @Dendroica Why You Should Record All Species and Bird Outside Hotspots: Accurate species distribution data is n… https://bit.ly/bnSFsQ #
  • Wednesday Wings: Coot Conflict: https://bit.ly/a3QJ97 #
  • New Birding App Supports Hatian Relief Efforts: Now, to the ever-expanding range of opportunities through which a … https://bit.ly/cbSQvC #
  • Birds Fly into the Red: The worst fears of shorebird experts in Australia were realised recently when it became cl… https://bit.ly/8ZgnFv #
  • The Predictive Power of Gambling https://bit.ly/9CplYV #
  • RT @Dendroica Birds of Haiti iPhone App to Benefit Disaster Relief: There is a new iPhone app for the Birds of Hai… https://bit.ly/cX5kBo #
  • Provence 2010: Day Four: The “back road” to Les Stes-Maries, by way of Pioch Badet, is just about the most excitin… https://bit.ly/a9LhcM #
  • Bird Group Warns that Oiled Birds Found Onshore May Be a Fraction of the Total Toll on Birds From Gulf Spill https://bit.ly/chkmlg #
  • ReservoirCatz: Twitchers quit as it all becomes 'ludicrously easy': As yet a.. https://bit.ly/aZFjLP
    – discretion adviced #
  • Ooopps. Noted that I have been sharing every single Tweet to my linkedIn account. Sorry about that! Will be much more sparse now #ln #
  • Sad to learn from frog researchers that projects in Peru mentioned here to save the Giant Titicaca Frog are not active. https://bit.ly/cTu2iJ #
  • Nature News #10: Bird News
    A record  number of raptors – more than 11,000 of 15 different species –  were recorded… https://bit.ly/9eHLzn #
  • RT @Dendroica Loose Feathers #241: Brown Pelican being released at Egmont Key NWR after being rescued and cleaned … https://bit.ly/bXjs7L #
  • ID Challenge — The Answer https://bit.ly/bsVynZ #
  • Provence 2010: A Better View: I owe you a better photo of the Red Sea sarcophagus in St-Trophime.

    Produced in the… https://bit.ly/bI4UlV #

  • Provence 2010: Day Six: Day Six–already!

    There was a strange sound in Provence today: silence. The crazy wind tha… https://bit.ly/cuW126 #

  • Wonder if I should get a TV? Had no idea who Rafael Nadal was until today. Apparently he's playing Tennis in Paris on Björn Borgs birthday. #
  • Just returning from a North Peru trip, searching for parrots with Thomas Arndt (a german expert). Well we find some… https://bit.ly/bvGgvz #
  • RT @Dendroica Pelicans in BP's Oil Spill: A cap is on what remains of the riser pipe and appears to be containing … https://bit.ly/b2RjXi #
  • RT @DawnFine Big Bloomers Flower Farm, water plants: Howdee all, When visiting my Sicksta in North Carolina I alw… https://bit.ly/d9dMYc #
  • RT @DawnFine How You Can Volunteer to Clean Up the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill – Tonic: How You Can Volunteer to Clea… https://bit.ly/dowLid #
  • RT @DawnFine Buy a print to help the Oil Spill: Matt Bango of Matt Bando Photography has come up with the Awesome … https://bit.ly/a2oO5M #
  • ReservoirCatz: Undead stilts haunt Titchwell: Police in Norfolk were warning.. https://bit.ly/95P130
    – discretion adviced #
  • Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-06-06 https://bit.ly/cAo8YL #
  • RT @Dendroica Green Frog at Scherman Hoffman: This is one of several Green Frogs that were calling in the small po… https://bit.ly/aFdodB #
  • Provence 2010: Day Seven: Twice a week Arles is transformed: it’s market day.

    Olives, fish and whelks, fruit, veg… https://bit.ly/aLeP7h #

  • BOLO for BP Oil Damage https://bit.ly/9bh1uJ #
  • Trogons Winning Awards https://bit.ly/9cdhCn #
  • ReservoirCatz: Over-twitched, over-ship-assisted, and over here: The discove.. https://bit.ly/95za1L
    – discretion adviced #
  • The Bavarian Alps: Day three https://bit.ly/cVQktH #
  • Provence 2010: Our Last Day of Birding: Already?
    To our delight, my beloved Jardin de Manon was open for dinner la… https://bit.ly/avfbjU #
  • Best Bird of the Weekend (First of June 2010) https://bit.ly/aGRJuL #
  • It doesn’t take brains to pick a world cup winner: The Cape Vulture – one of Africa’s largest birds of prey – is b… https://bit.ly/aIDxq7 #
  • Oil Spill Answers from Bird Conservation Expert on the Ground: A week after oil began pouring into the Gulf of Mex… https://bit.ly/be7D9f #
  • Our National bird: It’s Philippine Eagle Week and it is an opportune time to know about our national bird which, i… https://bit.ly/cZe60L #

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Gunnar’s weekly Twitter links about birding, birds and Social Media 2010-05-31

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