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by Gunnar Engblom May 13, 2011 0

Birding Peru 2011

Upcoming trips and birding opportunities in Peru

Kolibri Expeditons is having a good year so far when it comes to bookings, but it is very uneven. We had 3 months of hardly any work to begin with, then a very busy April with myself in Colombia and several trips running in Peru including a large Thai group. Now comes May and June and again it is slow. July and August again is very busy. Therefore, I am forced to make a blogpost which chief purpose is to sell more. There are saleries and bills to pay also in the slow months, you know. On the other hand you are about to get some offers that rarely come back. Are you ready.

May Marvelous Spatuletail and Long-whiskered Owlet

We are already over one third may. We have one client who got a very good deal on hiring car and driver for 10 days presently in Northern Peru and who will end on May 20 in Tarapoto.
Here is an offer. Bird your way back to Chiclayo, Cajamarca or Lima for US$150 per person and day Max 10 days. If just one person you’d have car and driver for this price and if more than one person the price is per person including guide, basic lodging and food. Try to beat that. A fast check on Kayak.com shows flights with Continental to Lima from Miami for mere 380 dollars. The flight to Tarapoto is around $100.

Limited offer until May 18

June birding.

It looks as empty as May. But I hope there will be some people who take us up on the following offer. Base price is $200 dollars per day per person 1-2 people $175 for three and $150 when four people or more. Costs for flights and hotel upgrades may apply if you wish for additional services.

These prices are aplicable on budget tours in North Peru and Central Peru. Both programs support conservation initiatives in which Kolibri Expeditions is involved.
Two 8 day sample programs are here:

We are flexible for discounts also on other destinations in Peru. Offer is valid until June 1.

Vilcambamba exploratory with Gunnar and Alex in June.

Chance of the lifetime to go birding with Alex Duran and Gunnar Engblom at low cost. We are interested in connecting Cusco with Machu Picchu overland and continue to explore the areas of birding around along Urubamba river and Vilcabamba mountains, where there now is a road between Quillabamba and San Francisco/Kimbiri on the Apurimac river. The road reaches altitudes of over 2500m, why it should be good for the endemic Vilcabamba Brush-Finch. Furthermore, there are recent range extension of Scimitar-winged Piha from this area.

Add all interesting birds from mid levels that were recently reported in Cotinga by Robins et al., such as Black Tinamou, Ashy Antwren, Shrike-like Cotinga and Ceruelan-capped Manakin, just to mention a few. Additionally, there is excellent bamboo with all the specialists of the region at lower altitudes and the possibility to continue furthe down river to Timpia passing the Pongo Mainique before reaching the Machiguenga community Sabeti Lodge, for Selva Cacique, fantastic macaw-licks and brilliant lowland birding.
Cost: $180/person and day. Main expedition in the core area will last 6 days from Cusco, with possibility to do extensions to Abra Malaga, Machu Picchu and Sabeti Lodge.

July-August Birding.

July looks good. There are several trips that have a few availabilities.

Budget trips

July 26-August 2: Carpish and Satipo road
August 3-11: North Peru Budget
August 31-Sep 7: North Peru Budget

Culture and Birding:

July 13-17: Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and Abra Malaga -program C3.
July 15-17: Machu Picchu and Abra Malaga – shorter program.
August 13-25: Southern Circuit – birds, nature and culture for 13 days including Paracas, Nazca, Arequipa, Puno, Cusco and Machu Picchu.

Manu

July 18-31. Manu Jaguar Safari – birding and mammal watching at its best. Only two vacancies.

Pelagics

Join our celebrated Pelagics.

July 14 – Steve Howell is joining as client
Jully 25
August 9 – Peter Harrison is joining as client
August 16
August 22

September-October SALE

All trips in the calendar starting on dates in September or October sell at 20% discount when booked and 20% deposit paid before May 31.

November

The Neotropical Ornithological Congress in in Peru between Nov 8-15. Kolibri Expeditions offer a number of tours around these days. Again check in the calendar – or talk to us (kolibriexp@gmail.com).

by Gunnar Engblom November 10, 2010 2

Canopy Walkway at Reserva Amazonica

More birding at Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica

Due to my many recent trips, the continuation of the reports from our stay around my birthday in July at Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica near Puerto Maldonado has become a bit delayed. Here are the previous reports.

Anyway, I have looked through my photos from the trip and it brings back good memories. I believe one should be absolutely clear, so I should make it known that the whole family was invited to stay there. My task was to blog about our experience and also make suggestions to Inkaterra how to reach birders and make improvements for birders.
Inkaterra, under the direction of conservationist and visionary luxury hotels entrepreneur Jose Koechlin, has been of the forefront of making birder-friendly lodges in Peru. Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel is of course the flagship with all the hummingbird feeders and in reality the first hotel in Peru that implemented feeders extensively to became a tourist atraction. So while Pueblo Hotel is ever so famous among birders, the luxury lodge Reserva Amazonica near Tambopata is lesser known. Very few birders have visited there.

As mention in the first post above Inkaterra is constructing a new lodge – in the economy bracket (still probably over US$100/night with full board) at Concepcion – even closer to Maldonado (so close that there is cell phone reception!!!) that shall be ready in the beginning of 2011. This means that there are great resources available in a combined program of the two lodges. Or using one lodge and visit the other.

What makes Inkaterra different?

Luxurious treatment. There is even a spa! Sure the lodges are costly, but really not much more costly than a fancy bird tour with bird guide.
Ample material available for birders such as checklists, bird call CD:s and plates with the most common birds – so even non birders can be introduced to the birds this way.
Eco Eco Eco. Everything is planned in detail to minimize the impact. You get a waterbottle you can fill up as often as you want. you don’t have to buy loads of plastic bottles of potable water. Heck, you can even buy “organic wine” in the restaurant.
A la carte menue. Excellent choices, free fruit juices with the meals.
Ambiance music in the dining room is by Peruvian musicians. Some of these music productions have been sponsored by Inkaterra.
Ample cooperation with researchers in different fields. For instance a Flora over the plants of the reserve has been produced with Missouri Botanical Gardens and collaboration of botanists from Cuzco.
The best gift shop I have ever seen in a jungle lodge. Bring the credit card!
Fantastic and very helpful staff
Child friendly – in spite of not specifically targeting to families, we had no problems with Luciana (three and a half year old) and Anahi (1 year old) and the staff was marvelous.
Resident guides that know birds and have equipment such as Jesus and Percy. You can therefore bring a non-birding spouse and your family.

The cabins were very spacious and comfortable. The kids and Elita loved the hammock.

Birding Highlights

Canopy walkway – for the birds in the tree tops
Boardwalk into an aguajal – a palm swamp
Lago Sandoval – although the walk is long – a huge lake that has Giant Otters.
The creek at Concepcion – a very good alternative to Sandoval and much closer without a long walk.
The bamboo birding available at Concepcion and Sandoval lake.

Canopy Walkway

The canopy walkway is without doubt the best attraction at InkaTerra. Luciana and Elita loved it, while Anahi stayed with one of the girls of the lodge.
The staircase to reach the the walkway is very sturdy and safe. Luciana loved it!

Hanging bridges in the treetops. Very well built.

Here is a view from the highest platform (taken with my iphone) from where we watched toucans, aracaris, tanagers, woodpeckers and woodcreepers.

Best to bring a telescope to get good views of more distant birds. Luciana added several birds to her increasing Peru list.

How many 3 and a half year olds do you know that have seen Striolated Puffbird? Digiscoped (with too high ISO)

Some animals found near the lodge itself

How often do you see a Tinamou? This Great Tinamou was surprisingly easy to see from a boardwak from the kitchen over a little moist area with Heliconias.

Gray-necked Wood-Rail in the clearing.

Brown Agouti in the clearing. There were several running around between the cabins. Yes, it is a rodent!

One mid-morning we were called by the staff. The had found a Rainbow Boa near the administration. Beautiful and harmless.

The only other snake we saw was this inoffensive Common Swampsnake Liophis reginae.

Some of the staff looking after Anahi!

Here is our bird guide Jesus with Anahi.

Barnman Tony – who spoke excellent English – in spite never been outside of Peru and Sherlock the waiter – who has heard Holmes mentioned in combination with his first name more than once…… Look how spacious the dining area is. Lots of room for Anahi to crawl around and explore.

Lovely Diana met us in Puerto Maldonado. She fell in love with Anahi and took every opportunity to kidnap her for a while.

Final thoughts

Although only 19km east of Puerto Maldonado, there is a surprising abundance of birdlife. I think birders who bring their non-birding spouses will love Reserva Amazonica combined with new lodge in construction and yet yield a very good species list. Sure, there are less large macaws compared to Manu or Tambopata, but this is out-weighed by the extreme comfort available.

by Gunnar Engblom July 29, 2010 1

Satipo road – last chance – last post

Future birders on Satipo road

The kids at the school at Apaya-Calabaza had a painting contest. Here are the winning items. You can easily tell that these kids are fascinated with nature. In the village sling-shots are now prohibited and not sold in the store. This is the place for the future lodge that RainForest Partnership is raising money to. We hope that this contest will both bring necessary funds and awareness so more people visit this wonderful area.

Pampa Hermosa is the district that comprise Mariposa, Calabaza/Apaya and Carrizales on the birding route known as Satipo road which house endemic birds such as Eye-ringed Thistletail, Marcapata Spinetail (weskei race), Fire-throated Metaltail, obscura ssp of Rufous Antpitta, Unstreaked Tit-Tyrant, the undescribed Millpo Tapaculo and access to Black-spectacled Brush-Finch and the undescribed Wren and Thornbird in the Andamarca valley (Mantaro drainage). Birding is simply fantastic with spectacular birds such as Cock of the Rock, Umbrellabird, Golden-headed and Crested Quetzal, Black-chested and Solitary Eagles, Torrent Duck, Fasciated Tiger-Heron, Sunbittern, Lyre-tailed and Swallow-tailed Nightjar, 45 species of Hummingbirds and 53 species of Tanagers. The species composition reminds me very much of Manu road. There is contineous forest habitat from around 1000m to 3600m.
A more complete species list and birding information can be found on Birding Peru https://www.birdingperu.com/peru/details.asp?idperu=26

The community is commited to conservation and RainForest Partnership is doing great awareness work here. Right now the project is in fifth place in the Global Giving Open Green Challange competition. If RP could sail up as a winner, 10000 dollars extra would be granted.

The money will be used to build a basic community lodge with clean beds and linen and working toilets and showers – as a minimum infrastructure to promote tourism (not only birding) and leave some funding with the community itself. There will also be workshops for the locals to learn to provide food for visiting tourists (hygiene and presentation) and mapping of eco-tourism in general such as waterfalls and cock-of-the-Rock leks. Other projects in a near future include sustainable Butterfly and Orchid farming.

You simply have to visit Satipo road. We shall not only do birding trips there, but also workshops of all type of biodiversity, specific butterfly watching, orchid watching and nature photography trips. The beds will be implemented immediately in the village school. There are already clean toilets implemented this year.

Spot less bathroms, assigned and cleaned by students. Photo: Patricio Prieto

Satipo road goes to Mindo

Below follows the three videos from 2008 when Kolibri Expeditions took three farmers from Pampa Hermosa together with three farmers from Carpish to Mindo in Ecuador. Pampa Hermosa is like Mindo was 10-15 years ago. With this in mind, the farmers now have a vision how the want their valley to develop within the coming years. RainForest Partnerships project and Kolibri Expeditions committment will make this possible – but not without your help.
The videos now have English subtitles thanks to Patricia Gonzales, who kindly helped me. Enjoy!

Satipo road goes to Mindo part one. Arrival and Butterfly garden

Satipo road goes to Mindo part 2. Rafting and Orchid garden

Satipo road goes to Mindo, part 3. Maria the Antpitta and Angel Paz

Upcoming departures.

It is mainly our new community trip to Satipo road and Carpish that has scheduled departures between September to December. Let us know if you want to visit at other times.

by Gunnar Engblom July 18, 2010 2

Nature watching deals in July

Nature watching excursions in July with Kolibri Expeditions.

I’d like to present a couple of nature excursions that Kolibri Expeditions are organizing this month for very modest prices. These are chiefly directed to residents in Peru who are enjoying holidays over the Fiestas Patrias (Peru National Day July 28) and the weekends around the 28th of July and no previous knowledge of birdwatching is necessary. Obviously visiting independent birders may also be interested in these excursions as some of them are offered at special prices – especially for Young birders up to 25 years old.
I also present some of our regular birding excursions here which are directed to visiting birders but which can be joined by residents for a lower cost.

July 19. Full day Pelagic – Seabirds, whales, dolphins and sealions. Guiding and food included. Cost: Regular price $175. Young birder up to 25 $90. Price for expat and Peruvian residents $55.

July 24-25. Santa Eulalia Canyon and Milloc Bog. Condor, Alpacas and Diademed Sandpiper Plover.
A great program . Who would have thought there would be Condors 3 hours from Lima. Night in Huacho Pampa. Food and lodging included. Regular cost: 270 . Special offer $220. Young birders $180. Price for expats and residents 130 dollars. Guide, driver, transport, lodging, and food inlcuded. Guide Alejandro Tello.

July 26. Full day Pelagic – Seabirds, whales, dolphins and sealions. Guiding and food included. Cost: Regular price $175. Young birder up to 25 $100. Price for expat and Peruvian residents. $75Guide: Gunnar Engblom

July 28.- Aug 1. Fiestas Patrias to Satipo road. Photographic expeditions with Alejandro TelloDay 1. July 28. Lima-Ticlio-La Oroya-La Merced-Satipo- MariposaMostly a driving day with selected stops en route. Night in Mariposa villageDay 2. July 29. Visit to Water fall near Mariposa watching birds and butterflies on the way. Transfer to San Antonio.Day 3-4 birding Satipo road.Day 5 return to Lima via Comas and Concepcion.
Cost Normal Price around $650. Special Offer: Non-residents $400. Young birders pay Resident 250Additionally 10% of the fee goes to the Satipo road (aka Pampa Hermosa project) run by Rainforest Parntership. Please consider supporting this project. Check out this blogpost. When did you last spend $10 wisely. There is a contest going on right now and Rain Forest Partnership is second.

Also check my post A marathon for Conservation 2010 for more background details.

Alternative trip for Fiestas Patrias to Tambopata.
Tambopata July 28-Aug 1. Short Mega birding trip
This trip is a bit more advanced with birdwatching from dusk to dawn. We travel via the new road to Puerto Maldonado. Our expert birding guide Alex Durand will show you up to 400 species in a mere 5 days
July 28. Drive via Huacarpay lake to Marcapata. En route you can observe Bearded Mountaineer, Giant Coot, Andean Snipe and Andean Goose. Near Marcapata Alex has recently found Red-and-White Antpitta and Marcapata Spinetail. July 29. The birding via Quincemil to Puerto Maldonado is simply excellent. Some of the great birds we have found include Cock of the Rock, Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo, Black-backed Tody-Tyrant, Slaty Gnatearter, Blackish Rail and many more. There are very good bamboo-patches en route that house those special Manu birds that were only accessible by paying high lodge prices previously. Night in beds with mosquito netting under roof in lodge under construction. Showers and toilets are available. July 30-31. Birding trails near lodge. Special birds include Peruvian Recurvebill, Rufous-headed Woodpecker, Puru’s Jacamar and many more. On the 31st at night we drive back to Cusco.Aug 1. Free day in Cusco or Visit Abra Malaga. Our vehicle shall be leaving Cusco airport at 7 AM and via Sacsayhuaman go to Ollantaytambo. At 9 AM we continue up to the Polylepis woodland at the Abra Malaga pass.
Price: non resident. $600. Young birders up to 25 years old. $400. Resident expats and Peruvians pay $300
August. 11-20. Same program as above but 10 days, although this program also visit a macaw lick and a Giant Otter cocha. ..Price: non resident. $1200. Young birders up to 25 years old. $795. Resident expats and Peruvians pay $600

Kolibriexp@gmail.com or telephone 988555938 or RPM #752755

by Gunnar Engblom April 18, 2010 3

Fake Facebook profiles

Faked Profiles

One of the things I have picked up as good practice as a blogger is to try to give suggestions that will solve someone’s problems. This is such a post. I am not intending to point fingers and make this into a rant -which certainly struck me as a possibility – but to try to suggest a solution to an increasingly annoying problem. Please share this post as you feel necessary.

New Facebook Community Pages

I started two new Facebook Community Pages a few days ago. One for Worldbirders and one about SocialMedia. Community Pages are like a combination of groups and pages. Posts will show on the walls of the members and the page can be seen also by non-users just like pages, but one may promote a general topic as with groups as well as un-official fan-pages. The new concept was created to tackle pages that did not follow the guide-lines. Once the pages grow to a certain size of a couple of thousand members the original admin will lose the admin rights and the whole community will manage the page.

This is good news. The groups I have started have very strict rules regarding spam and self-promotion. Since they are open to all public they need to be heavily monitored. For the time being I have no problem doing the daily admin duties. The community can help in reporting the posts that are not following the rules. Advertising is generally not allowed.However, there is one thing that worries me which is the topic of this post.

UPADTE September 4, 2011: The new Facebook groups make community pages for small communities superfluous, as dialogues and updates are easier to monitor for both the admins as well as the group members. Read about the new groups here.

What to do with fake names?

There are a lot of profiles that have names that does not respond to a person’s real name. Most of the time, I think these names have been created not really understanding how Facebook works. When creating an account in Facebook you SHOULD use your own REAL name and tie that to your email. Fake names can be sorted into 3 categories.

Pseudonyms or alias. Most of the times, these are pretty harmless – and I don’t make a big fuss about it. Although, it would be nicer to know whom you are actually talking to. While it is allowed to use a pseudonym on Twitter it s not allowed on Facebook.
NGO:s and causes. Most of the times due to having not understood well the Facebook structure. NGO:s and Causes do well to have proper pages.
Businesses. Every tweet is in effect advertising. Some users are using this as a strategy by posting on every single group about birds they can find. It can become quite annoying and even though it give exposure, it also hurts the business as it upsets a lot of people. Business should have Facebook pages.

Advantages of Facebook page for businesses and NGO:s

You can talk about your product 24/7 and you are expected to. With your personal REAL profile you can take part in conversations without looking like a spammer. Soon enough without being too obvious you will be the person behind the brand which in turn will give strenght to your brand if you come off as a nice, helping person.
As a person you can send invitations to become fans of your page. If you have been engaging it is more likely people will become true fans. Sure, it is a bit like friend invitations and you may not get as many fans as you have friends this way, but I would not worry too much about that. As for your fanbase you want to have real fans. Among the Facebook Friends you can build relationships that indirectly supports your brand.
There can be several people as admin for a Page. It shall be much easier to create content on your fanpage if there are various people on your team involved.
With a Page you can advertise. It is remarkably cheap to advertise to specific age groups with specific interest in specific geographic areas. I have had around 100 000 impressions for only 20 dollars in a recent campaign.
The Page will be 100% searchable by search engines. The Facebook page for my company now has Google Page Rank 5 after 6 months!
You can customize the looks of your page. UPDATE: Facebook now use iframes which are much easier to use than the old FBML code. See this link for some tips. Also check this post from John Haydon about custom tabs.
You can add a widget of your fanpage to your blog or your web-page. That is pretty cool.

Is it too late now to start a new Page?

Actually, it is not. It is very easy. Four steps

Just enter https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and follow the instructions.
Make sure to send invitations to all your friends by the Suggest to Friends link under the profile picture in the newly created Page.
Change the name on the profile to your real name. I am not sure this option was there before, but it is now. Just enter Account top right and Account settings – then edit your name. As easy as that!
You should also send a direct message to all your friends explaining what you are doing. You can only send to 20 people at a time so it may take you a while. You can naturally also post on your wall which hopefully your friends will see.

In the end you win big time this way, not only have you created a Facebook page for your company, but you also give a face to your company. A real person your clients and supporters can relate to.

More about Pages can be found on this recent post in the Social Media for birders series.

Image by Streetart

by Gunnar Engblom April 16, 2010 0

5 Steps How to Read the Greatest Bird Blog Carnival on Earth

I and the Birds #123 coming your way!

So after long absence I threw in a blog post to the largest Bird Blogging Carnival on the net, that attracts millions of readers every second of week. Not! In fact there is relative small readership of this blog carnival and individual posts. I am sure for most readers of this modest blog, this is old news. Hand on heart. Do you read all the posts? Do yo comment? The most important reason why someone participate in the blog carnival is to be discovered by other birders. The second reason is because it gives link juice. That is a backlink to your own blog which helps search engines to find and index your blog and hopefully increase the Google position for your important keywords. But everyone likes to have more readers. Have some pity on these self-sacrificing bloggers. Do the bird blogging community a favor and follow these simple steps and everyone will be so more happy. You know the reason. Good Karma. You will be a Problogger in your next life.

Five steps to read the Greatest Blog Carnival

Find the time of day when you are killing time doing something that absolutely gives you no value. Look, you don’t need to watch American Idol or watch the CNN news again, again and again. If you are going to waste some time, let’s waste it on something that matters. Bird blogging. The bloggers are heroes. Support them. Read their stuff. Gaze with awe at the beautiful pictures.
Start with an empty browser. Close down all other programs and tabs. Open Idaho Birding Blog where Robert Mortensen guide you through the entries of the 123rd I and the bird. Idaho is the Gem State and Robert is keeping the theme up by presenting us with an introduction of different precious (semi-precious is probably the correct term for something that is not a diamond, emerald or a ruby) stones from his home state.
Scroll down and browse all the posts. Ugh, there are 30 posts referred to altogether. This will take ages!! Give it an hour and read 12 blogs today, then an hour tomorrow to read another 12 and half an hour the day after tomorrow. I am sure you can find a dead hour today to do so.
Choose the 12 posts that seem to interest you the most based on the titles and open these one by one in a new tab in your browser. Keep Ctrl pressed as you click on each blog.
Set your timer. 5 minutes per blog including the comments you leave. Repeat tomorrow.

Have fun. Your are a real gem, because you took your time to read and comment a bird blogger reaching out to you. They will all love you. Good Karma to you indeed!

by Gunnar Engblom December 9, 2009 13

Ghana-Nigeria scam now on Skype

Scammers offer you money for nothing through the screen - Don Hankins

Sorry for this non-birding and non-Peru note, but considering that my last Nigeria scam post had quite a few visitors of thankful tour operators being hit by false bookings, I thought I’d warn for this new variant of the infamous Nigeria 419 Scam .

It is pretty amazing really. when I thought all ends had been covered, I get an instant message from Dr Allen William through Skype. Now the Nigeria scammers want to chat with you! It is a new level of trust all together – Oh, and this one is from Ghana!

Anyway, there are several things that should make you lift your eyebrows and see through this. My comments in brackets.

Dear Engblom, (I would have thought Dr William would have taken care to look for my first name to address me correctly)

I have been in search of someone with this last name Engblom,so when I saw your name I was pushed to contact you and see how best we can assist each other. I am Dr. Allen William, I am the regional manager of United Bank for Africa GHANA(UBA). I believe it is the wish of God for me to come across you on skype now. I am having an important business discussion I wish to share with you which I believe will interest you because, it is in connection with your last name and you are going to benefit from it.
One Late Shafi Engblom,a citizen of your country

(Yeah, Engblom is not a very common name in Sweden – and the combination with Shafi sounds just too incredulous)

had a fixed deposit with my bank in 2004 for 36 calendar months, valued at US$18,400,000.00 (Eighteen Million, Four Hundred Thousand US Dollars) the due date for this deposit contract was this 16 of January 2007. (You would have thought someone having 18.4 milion dollars in Ghana would show up in a google search – but NADA!)

Sadly Shafi was among the death victims in the May 26 2006 Earthquake disaster in Jawa, Indonesia that killed over 5,000 people. He was in Indonesia on a business trip and that was how he met his end.

My bank management is yet to know about his death,I knew about it because he was my friend and I am his account officer. Shafi did not mention any Next of Kin/ Heir when the account was opened, and Shafi was not married and no children. Last week my Bank Management requested that i should give instructions on what to do about his funds, if to renew the contract.
I know this will happen and that is why I have been looking for a means to handle the situation, because if my Bank Directors happens to know that Shafi is dead and do not have any Heir, they will take the funds for their personal use, so I don’t want such to happen. That was why when I saw your last name I was happy and I am now seeking your co-operation to present you as Next of Kin/ Heir to the account, since you have the same last name with him and my bank head quarters will release the account to you. There is no risk involved; the transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law.

It is better that we claim the money,than allowing the Bank Directors to take it,they are rich already. I am not a greedy person, (hahaha!)

so I am suggesting we share the funds, 50/40% to both parties, and 10% for Expenses, my share will assist me to start my own company which has been my dream. Let me know your mind on this and please do treat this information as TOP SECRET. We shall go over the details once I receive your urgent response strictly through my personal email address.
allenwilliam.gh2009@gmail.com

We can as well discuss this on phone; let me know when you will be available to speak with me on phone. Have a nice day and God bless.

Anticipating your communication.

Dr. Allen William.

Reply

Dear Dr William

I don’t know if I can trust you! It looks a bit fishy that there also are people who have gotten almost identical messages from Ghana….

https://pragmatic-strategy.com/ansuz/?p=13

Now, F**k Off!

Shafi was here!

It would not surprise me if there has been recent variants of Shafi with an array of different surnames. It’d be fun to know. Let me know in the comment section.

If you liked this post you may like: Nigeria scammer hitting on Peruvian birding company

Image by Don Hankins via Creative Commons license

by Gunnar Engblom December 5, 2009 0

The pelagic that never happened

Red-legged Cormorant. Photo: Gunnar Engblom

For November 18 there were 8 people ready to do a pelagic tour, but no matter how hard I tried, there was no boat suitable to take us. There are only three boat owning companies that have permits to operate with tourists in Lima. One boat was too large – and weeks before the trip already occupied, the boat we have used in the past has propulsion problems and been in dock several times the last year, but seems never to get it fixed. For this particular departure, we were told it should be ready…..but alas it wasn’t. The third company has open speed boats without toilet. We got very wet the last time last year – my camera was destroyed. It was my last resort and certainly not my favorite substitute. But that did not work either. One idea remained, to go to Paracas and charter an open boat there, but it meant a surcharge at around 100 dollars per person, and some people in the group were not prepared to take that.

So we ended up doing a short trip to the sea-lion colony on a nearby islet called Palomino. Not what we expected. One passenger asked whether to bring bread crums for the ducks in the pond.

End result: very common birds photographed and, as I blogged about the other day, two good ID-nuts to crack – a Skua and two Terns (now supplied with comments from Alvaro Jaramillo). I also already ranted about how eco-tourism should not be carried out in my blogpost about Swimming with the sealions in Until Jaws or Willy comes along.

We also visited the excellent Poza Arenilla mudflats at la Punta before the boat trip. On the way there we stopped at a recently reliable stake-out for Peruvian Thick-knee along “La Costanera” highway. The boat-trip was pleasant and the Pisco Sours small but repeated!

Peruvian Thickknee. Photo: Gunnar Engblom

Here is a sample of the birds we did see, which hardly made up for not seeing all those tube-noses we did not see, but at least gave us a pleasant days birding. Three of the people asigned to the pelagic cancelled. When you want tubenoses, you want tubenoses. It is not negotiable!
But the Chilean Skua and the South American Terns were good.

: Peruvian Thickknee.

: Red-legged Cormorant. Photo: Gunnar Engblom

: Eared Dove.

: Semipalmated Plover.

: Ruddy Turnstone.

: Whimbrel.

: Semipalmated Sandpiper.

: Franklin’s Gull.

: Franklin’s Gull.

: Franklin’s Gull.

: Gray Plover.

: Spotted Sandpiper.

: Snowy Egret.

: Gray-headed Gull.

: Elegant Tern.

: Belcher’s Gull immature.

: Blackish Oystercatcher.

: Inca Tern.

: Blue-footed Booby.

: Peruvian Pelican.

: Peruvian Booby. All dots are boobies.

: Red-legged Cormorant.

: Inca Tern.

: Peruvian Booby.

: Humboldt Penguin.

: Peruvian Pelican.

: Blackish Oystercatcher. Note the Surfbird and the Ruddy Turnestone in the background.

by Gunnar Engblom September 5, 2009 15

Birdbloggers Tweet-club #004

Twitter club for birders. We need a logo! Anyone can come up with something?

Long overdue, mainly because the birth of my daughter Anahi a month ago and a very busy birdtour season here in Peru. Someone said on my facebook that I should enjoy and not feel bad about this since I have my priorities straight.

RT @SoaringFalcon1 Great photos of fledglings and juveniles, but no baby Quail. https://bit.ly/2Dr2W
RT @DawnFine I am not a bird! https://bit.ly/M4C0K
RT @journowl Uncommon foe keeps albatross from skies https://bit.ly/9ryLS (had122 clikcs prior to tweetclub launch)
RT @birdfreak – Bird Cliches – What the Heck is the Catbird Seat – https://bit.ly/FGKrE (had 85 hits prior to tweetclub launch)
RT @gwendolen Write a vulture blog NOW. https://bit.ly/34XjO (had195 clicks prior to tweetclub launch)
RT @kolibrix 10 best ways to avoid chiggers when birding in South America. https://bit.ly/25Qeo

That is it. Let’s tweet.

UPDATE:

Results of last tweetclub #003.

Here are the proofs that this really works to drive traffic to your blog. During a week the participants of the tweetclub retweets the articles posted here minimum 3 times. It is important to use the bit.ly link provided, so that I can measure the click success.

@birdingdude https://bit.ly/ZZBQk 110 clicks
@kolibrix https://bit.ly/YMCUY112 clicks
@soaringfalcon1 https://bit.ly/vbih7 118 clicks
@jeffgyr https://bit.ly/siD2 127 clicks
@journowl https://bit.ly/6Jni 152 clicks
@DawnFine https://bit.ly/I2owT173 clicks

The winner is Dawn Fine with her post on “How to make a digiscope adaptor”. Noticable that all participants got more than 100 clicks. What if we would have been 15 or 20 particpants?

Leave a link below to the next tweetclub. Hopefully presented by Thursday next week – if my priorities don’t get in the way :-).

Check these to understand what the birdblogger’s tweet club is all about and how it works.

by Gunnar Engblom September 5, 2009 3

How I got rid of my Social Media addiction.

Anahí Engblom Gallo. Here a couple of days old.

Actually a very simple reason why this is my first blog post in over a month. Anahi, my latest daughter was born on July 31. Healthy at 3130 g.
I rarely gets my thoughts together long enough to be blogging. As I got started now, we shall see how long I can keep it up. I have piles of blog ideas.

Stay tuned!!

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