Community based birding tourism

by Gunnar Engblom April 25, 2010 1

In 2010 I will go birding in…..

….a lot of places …and I like you to come with me.

This past year immersing myself into social media, has been amazing getting to know so many birders on line. I would like to meet all of you. Although my year is not completely staked out, I’d like to give you an outline the birding trips and events I have lined up for myself. Maybe our paths shall cross somewhere. Or maybe you want to come along joining me on some of these adventures. I shall write more detailed blogposts presenting each of them. Let me know which you would like to hear more about in the comment section below and I will prioritize.

I have already knocked off a North Peru trip and two Tumbes itineraries with Pelagics in January. In February I was in Colombia with the family and managed to see a couple of nice new birds. (Blog post is practically ready, but need some photos – maybe someone can please lend me photos of Golden-ringed and Black and Gold Tanager?). I am planning to get a Colombia tour together for Januay 2011 if anyone is interested. Here is an old draft of a Colombia Tour, but I certainly will change some as there are now new exciting reserves that can be visited.

Marathon. May 2 and July 18

First on my agenda is Lima Marathon. One may ask what that has to do with birding, but it does. Last year I ran it for the first time and turned it into a fund-raiser for the community on Satipo road. A marathon for conservation. This activity made Rain Forest Partnership interested in starting a small project here. My training has not gone the way I wanted this year, but I am still running the Marathon. I shall be happy if I make it all the way around. So here is a pledge – the same as last year. I will run the Lima Marathon 42.195km on May 2 after sporadic training the last 10 weeks (interrupted by 2 weeks sickness and an injured knee) at 4h13min or less. 4 hours and 13 minutes makes an average speed of 6:00 min per kilometer, which is more or less the speed that I have managed on the long runs I have done so far.

Sign-up in the comment section. And if you have not made the donation from the pledge last year available yet to Rain Forest Partnership, let me know.

My personal goal is to qualify to Boston Marathon. It will not happen at this race, but I have already a new Marathon in my mind where I shall much better trained. Rio de Janeiro Marathon on July 18. That is one week before I turn 50. I have to run in 3:35. I have 14 more weeks to find my top form.

Pelagics

I guess it is the viking in me that always take me to the sea. Contrary to our Peruvian guides, I never get seasick – so I guide practically all of Kolibri Expeditions’ pelagics. Pelagics from Lima are very good with up to 5-6 species of Storm-Petrels seen regularly including the localized Markham’s and Ringed (Hornby’s) Storm-Petrel. The Critically Endangered Waved Albatross is seen on practically every trip. So far the following pelagic tours have clients booked and will thus surely run: May 6, July 19 and 26, Sep 9 and 25, Oct 2, Nov 13 and 26. There are a couple of more dates in the tour calendar but without bookings. Most of these dates have been put there because they are at the beginning or the end of a scheduled trip. Since all trips in Peru begin or end in Lima it is easy to add a pelagic tour – providing we get enough people to run it.

May 17-24 Young Birders Manu community Tour

This is an idea that struck to me recently. Why not offer some tours that needs more assessment to people who would not normally come on birding tours, but are highly motivated birders. When testing new things, there may be things that will not work 100%. Therefore a pre-trip to the community lodges in the Manu area that are promoted this year with the help of bloggers ,will get a jumpstart by young birders on a promotrip.

The gain is on several levels.

Young birders get some guiding in the most difficult habitat to bird. The Amazon rainforest and at a reasonable price.
Our company keeps staff busy and paid, and while the revenue for the company is not great, there will be lots of important pieces of information of what works and what doesn’t on this pilot trip – to be implemented on the coming trips.
The communities get some revenue and the chance to set all right for more comfort demanding clients.

And it will be fun to bird with intense young birders up to 25 years old. I bet we shall make a monster list of birds seen – and that there will be very little sleep! There are 4 vacancies on the trip. Max age 25 years old.
If you don’t qualify age wise, check out all the fixed departures that supports the communities in the Manu area. Still very good value for money and a good cause.

Meet-up / Tweet-up in Lima May 29

@Burdr tweeted a few days ago that it would be wonderful to meet every birder that one has been connected with via Twitter, Facebook or the blog and I could not agree less. When I said so in my tweet-reply, @Burdr said: Let’s all meet in Peru. It clicked as an idea. Dawn Fine has arranged meeting with birders all over the US arranging meet-ups for birders that blog, tweet or chirp. We could do something similar in Lima.

Both locals and visitors and even clients – can meet up for some birding one morning every month. I am considering Saturday mornings when my wife works. That means that my two daughters (and our maid) would be joining us. Join Gunnar, Luciana and Anahi for the first birding meet-up on May 29. I hope to be able to do a meet up once every month or other month.

The training of a new Peruvian guide.

June 15-23 there is scheduled a trip to North Peru and the land of Marvelous Spatuletail. Santos Montenegro is a local campesino who has become interested in birds and in particular the Marvelous Spatuletail. He was the guy who found the displaying Spatultetail that was recently filmed by the BBC on land that was purchased by Santos with funds acquired by Kolibri Expeditions. I recently interview Santos to feature a blog about him and how he got interested in birds. Through help from our clients we have provided Santos with birdbook, binoculars and birdcalls so that he has learnt all the birds in the area so well that local conservation organization ECOAN employed him full time. In June he has holiday and time to join us on a full tour and in July he has to decide whether or not renew the contract with ECOAN or opt to become a bird guide. June 15-23 will be crucial. If you want to be part of forming a new local guide now you know.

British Bird Fair

August 20-22 it is time for the British Birdwatching Fair. Kolibri Expeditions have participated here every year since 2002 together with PromPeru, so we are sad to learn that PromPeru will not be putting up the stand this year. There may be stand for us anyway. I am waiting in anticipation for the decision by the organizers. In any case, I think I will go. It is a unique chance to meet up with clients and business partners. Especially after the Social Media boom, this event has the potential to become a giant meet-up, where you put person to a Facebook profile. Are you going to be at the BirdFair? Shall we meet up?

The biggest day!

September 1-13 . When I write this it is spring in the northern hemisphere and teams are forming to do Birdathons and big days all over for grand causes of bird conservation. Lots of fun, lots of coffee, adrenalin and speed birding.
How about transforming the idea to a business model in the bird richest area of the world? Is it at all possible? The Biggest Day tour!
Ted Parker and Scott Robinson set the world record of 331 species from Manu in 1982 – without motorized vehicle. The idea is to try to beat it or at least get very close to it at Amigos research Center between Manu and Tambopata. The trip will work as birding workshop where the participants will learn to seperate the Amazonian birds by sight and especially call the first 8 days. Day 9 is dress rehearsal, we form teams with the leaders who include guides Antonio Coral, Alex Durand and myself. All the teams should get over 300 species . The results are collected and analyzed before the gran finale on day 12. An attempt on the world record. Now the guides form a team together with one of the participants (a raffle will be made to select the person), while the rest form one or two teams to compete against the guides. Day 13 will be dedicated for the highlights once again and to see some of the elusive vocal species. Day 14 it is back to Puerto Maldonado and flight on to Lima or Cusco. Sound like fun?

Birding in Manu with Rick Wright

Rick Wright former editor of Winging-It and director and guide for Wings, hosts the Community Manu program in September 17-24 – together with me. Rick blogs at Aimophila Adventure. This shall be a fantastic trip with the possibility to add a pelagic in Lima on September 25 and Satipo road/Carpish Community on Sep 26-Oct 3 hosted by Chris West.

Photographic project with Hadoram Shirihai.

All through October to November Hadoram Shirihai and David Beadle will travel in Peru with us on a private photographic expedition. I shall be guiding the first part in Puno, while Alex Durand does all the Manu area. At the end of the period, I shall be guiding again in Central Peru (Carpish and Satipo road).

Scarlet-banded Barbet in Sira Mountains

I have a request for a Scarlet-banded Barbet expedtion from David Matson and Dave Sargeant around Oct 22. There is a new Barbet from southern Sira mountains yet to be described – whether species or subspecies status remains to be seen. Our expedition goes from Puerto Inca further North, where there is access to the highest peaks and from where Kolibri Expeditions already has a good set-up with local contacts. Obviously we don’t know that there will be a Barbet here but since it is the same mountain range as the southern population and our site is right between that and the original site of Scarlet-banded Barbet, there is a very good chance. We get a good gradient of habitats as we reach the highest peaks of over 2000m. Other species that can be seen on this trip include the endemic Sira Tanager, (Peruvian) Horned Curassow (good species based on voice and genetic isolation soon to be split), Sharpbill, Rufous-brown Solitaire, Rufous-webbed Briliant, Creamy-bellied Antwren, White-plumed Antbird, Blue-headed Macaw, Curl-crested Aracari, Chestnut-crowned Gnateater, Wing-banded Wren and many more.

15 Antpittas – and hopefully Banded Ground Cuckoo.

In December I have set up a program that runs from Tarapoto in Peru to Quito in Ecuador and is aiming to pick up 15 species of Antpitta on the way (actually there are 17 species, of Antpittas possible I don’t want to press my luck). We already have three bookings on this trip, which include well known bird book author Klaus Malling Olsen. This will be an epic trip, with lots of endemics. It is especially suitable for those that birded Ecuador in the 90s and want to fill in the gaps as more and more sites for then elusive species have emerged. It is a completely different Ecuador for birding today. Many places have Antpittas feeders – following the success of Angel Paz and his by now world famous Giant Antpitta Maria. The tour runs Nov 28 to Dec 17, with the option to add an eastern Amazonian lowland program of 3-4 days.

That is it. Well not really… because I am also spending a week in May with the family at the beach in Piura as well as a likely holiday somewhere abroad with the family in July or August to be determined.

If you can’t join me, but still want to be birding in Peru during 2010, I suggest you take a look at our tour Calendar, where there are loads of different bird tours scheduled that you can choose from.

by Gunnar Engblom December 15, 2009 3

Kolibri News Dec 15, 2009

Golden-backed Tanager - one of the star birds possible during Kolibri Epxeditions Give-Away of 15 birding tours during 2010.

Golden-backed Tanager - one of the star birds possible during Kolibri Expeditions Give-Away of 15 birding tours during 2010.

I decided to present the full version on the Kolibri News directly on the blog today. However, the give-away of free birding trips is only for the opt-in Newsletter. If you haven’t signed up yet, do so on the right of the blog.

In this issue:

Free birding trip in Peru
Upcoming trips – Fixed departures
Blog posts by Gunnar since the last newsletter
A. Birding in Peru
B. Fascination by Mega twitches, new species to science, re-discovered species and critically threatened species.
C. Social Media for birders
Recommended external links the last month from Gunnar’s Facebook stream

Free birding trip in Peru

Last Saturday, I pulled a PR stunt, giving away 14 birding trips to Manu and Carpish/Satipo road in Peru. The give-away is still active if you follow the directions on my blog. This is not just bold advertising for my company, but more than anything else an attempt to draw attention to birding areas that have communities that can be involved in the conservation of the same and initiate eco-tourism benefiting the same communities.

To be eligible for a free trip, you need to sign-up for our opt-in newsletter – if you have not done so already (there is a form on the blog), and you need to start sharing this link https://bit.ly/8s830C where ever you can (Facebook, Forums, Blog, Twitter, Listservers for birders, Flickr, etc.). The newsletter that will be sent out to you after you have signed up will contain all the additional information and rules that you need to participate.

Fixed departures-upcoming confirmed tours.

The Kolibri Expeditions Birding Tour Calendar for 2009 is beginning to take a more final shape. Our fixed departures have been placed here. There are still a couple of tours that need to be uploaded as fixed departures so do pop in later. I imagine by the end of the week it shall be complete. The give-away hosts will be announced on Christmas Day. The fixed departures shall have both a lower price and an expert leader designated well in advance. Some tours are promotional for new areas and some are an intention to get slightly larger groups so that we can give you a better price. If you don’t find a departure to your favorite destination for your preferred dates, we can still arrange a trip for you. Just let us know your preferences.

Here are a few examples:

Satipo road – short 7 day tour FIXED DEPARTURE Guide: Jose Antonio Padilla. Before: $1085 Now: $868 based on 5 group of five people.. Support the local community at Satipo road. Birding like Manu road and several yet undescribed species. Dec 26, 2009
North Peru 1: Tumbes and pelagic FIXED DEPARTURE: One extra day in Tumbes forest (surcharge 120 US$). With pelagic from Punta Sal. Only 2 vacancies. Jan 4, 2010.
North Peru 2. Piura to Tarapoto. Featuring White-winged Guan, Marvelous Spatuletail, Crescentchest, Royal Sunangel, etc. Departure: Jan 9. More North Peru trips will be scheduled for later in the year.
Amigos SE Peru. The best birding in SE Peru. A place where you have a single base for your birding during the entire stay. 7 or 14 days. At least one departure per month leaving always on a Thursday. Can be arrange also on demand. On Sep 2, 2010 we arrange a lowland amazonian birding workshop. Learn how to separate all the Furnarides, Antbirds, Flycatchers and Woodcreepers by voice. The trip ends with a BIG day for the clients and finally on the last day an attempt for the 24h world record. Everyone should get a personal best.
Guyana, Suriname and Roraima (Guyanan Tepui area in Venezuela) 3 weeks. Start on March 27. Price to be announced. It is possible to make a shorter one or two week trip. I am working on the details and the price for this tour the coming week.
Butterfly-watching. Trip in May in Central Peru is under production. Also a the trip to Manu Communities in December with Corey Finger will include a fair bit of butterflies.

Gunnar’s blog the last three weeks.

A. Birding in Peru.

Anyone seen the Great White Shark or Willy lately. About the uncontrolled Swim-with-the-Sealions activity in front of Palomino island. From the Nov 18 “Pelagic”.
Skua and Tern ID-nuts. From the Nov 18 “Pelagic”
The Pelagic that never happened. As a pelagic the trip on Nov 18 was a bit lame, but I nevertheless managed to get three blog posts out of it, so in that respect it was quite productive! This last one, show some of the additional birds we saw.
I found the world’s most accessible Oilbird cave. Basically, just park your vehicle, walk 50 m along the road to the bridge over the gorge and look down. The oilbirds can be seen during the day, and you don’t need to enter a moldy cave where you risk getting Histoplasmosis (Caused by bat guano fungus).

B. Critically endangered species.

Slender billed Curlew – Extinct birds don’t count. Link to a great series of two posts on 10000 birds and some thoughts on that birders and especially listers ought to do more for birds that are critically endangered.

C. Social Media and Blog Carnivals for Birders

Twitter updates Nov 29, 2009. A mistake auto-created by the Twitter Tools application for the WordPress platform. While this post is a bit boring, it struck me as it could be used for a weekly summary of the Twitter activity. I just had to edit the tweets into different categories (see below for the weekly updates.)
Facebook News Feed and Live Feed. What is the difference? Customize your own News Feed. This was a bit of a revelation to me. How could I hope to engage with over 2000 friends on Facebook. Well, you can’t! But what you can try to do is to follow more intensely the ones that have been kind enough to comment anything you have posted on your wall. I created a customized newsfeed and get this to open first when I open Facebook. This post shows you how.
How to read a blog carnival and leave comments to 23 posts in 59 minutes. I and the Bird #114. This slightly provocative article questioned the value of blog carnivals. It received one of the most interesting stream of comments of all the posts I have posted on my blog.
Weekly Twitter updates Dec 7, 2009. First try of weekly summaries (see above).
Science for Dummies. Scientia Pro Publica Blog Carnival. The best Natural History and Science blogs explained to ordinary people.
Carnival of the Blue. Blog Carnival about the oceans.
Weekly Twitter updates Dec 14, 2009. Second delivery. This definitely looks more and more like a good idea. It stimulates to share even more stuff on Twitter.

by Gunnar Engblom September 22, 2009 3

Interview with GrrlScientist. Official Manu community blogger 1.

GrrlScientist - Devorah Bennnu

It is a great pleasure to me to announce that Devorah Bennu – GrrlScientist will help out promoting the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, which essentially is a protected area in continuation to Manu National Park on the other side of the river. Last week I posted updates about our strategy inviting prominent bird and nature bloggers to promote community sustainable ecotourism and act as hosts for a series of special monthly blogger departures until the end of 2010. The first trip with Devorah is coming up very soon as it is scheduled for Dec 6 (new date) so the takers can join a Satipo road trip prior to the immersion in the Amazon lowland. Read the detailed Manu itinerary.

Some bio from her Grrl Scientist’s blog.

GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her “dream” research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands and published in SCIENCE (September 2009) and NATURE (August 2009. GrrlScientist has written a blog about science since 4 August 2004. That she has a profound interest in birds is shown by her frequent column called Birds in the News. Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) by GrrlScientist, is one of the most popular Natural History blocks on the net with several thousand hits daily.

The interview

Q. Who is GrrlScientst?

GrrlScientist is a lifelong student of nature and birds are my first, and best, teachers. For that reason, I’ve dedicated my life to learning everything I can learn about them. Birds inspire me to learn more about the world and for that reason, they motivate me to strive to be better than I am. Ever since I watched a large group of Waxwings perched on a fence on a cold and snowy January morning, carefully passing a bright red berry from one bird to the next, I’ve been fascinated by birds; their beauty, their behaviors and their ability to survive seemingly impossible circumstances.
Why do they do what they do?
How do they know where (and when) to go when they migrate?
Why are there different species in different parts of the world?
Do they perceive the world the same way that humans do?
How do birds communicate with each other?

Q. Tell me about your love of parrots?

Parrots have been my companions and my family for most of my life, so I have a strong emotional connection to them. But beyond that, I view parrots as ambassadors. They help people to understand birds, especially people who might never have looked at a bird as anything other than buffalo wings or an annoyance. Parrots — gaudy, outgoing and personable — are the one group of birds that people from all walks of life are most likely to recognize and are most often impressed by. As a result, parrots provide people with a window into the lives of birds and in doing so, they help sensitize people to all birds, they help us learn to appreciate the lives of birds and they teach us the value of protecting and preserving birds and their habitats so future generations can discover the same joys that we experience through them.

Q. What makes you a great host for the first blogger’s Manu community lodges?

I am a great host for the Manu community lodges birding expedition because of my enthusiasm, knowledge and desire to learn. I love new experiences, and birding provides that rare combination of connecting with a small group of my fellow explorers, learning more about the birdlife in a particular area of the world, and sharing the wonder and beauty of that with others through my words, photographs and other media. Because I have been writing the popular science blog, Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted), for more than 5 years, I have a well established platform where I can publish these articles, essays, photoessays and other media where the public can follow everyone’s adventures for free

Q: The communities have difficulties getting started with eco’tourism in spite of lodges be donated to them. How do you think this initiative with a birdwatching outfitter inviting bloggers can make a difference?

I really don’t know how to respond to this because I am not familiar with this situation. However, once I am there, I am certain I’ll learn more how the local communities can make eco-tourism work better for them and my blog can serve as a conduit for information exchange to this end between my readers and the local communities.

Devorah recently aspired an official blogging status for an Antarctica cruise by Quark Expeditions. The fact that she came in 3rd among 708 bloggers with over 2200 votes shows how extremely fortunate we are to have Devorah Bennu as our first official Manu blogger .

Once again, sign up NOW for a trip to the Manu area with Devorah Blennu and expert local guides from Kolibri Expeditions. Your participation will do a lot of good for the community and their efforts to conserve a piece of the Amazon and find a sustainable way of living that respects their mindset and traditions through true eco-tourism.

Oct 23

by Gunnar Engblom March 12, 2009 1

Go-to-Peru-and-get-High Tours. 5 ways to get wasted in Peru

Too much HASH!

All this talk about hashtags got Tim Ryan interested. I had posted on my Facebook the following:

Updated “Twitter for birder – rare bird alerts with hashtags and RSS. UK already have a system up! https://bit.ly/X7QG

Timothy Ryan at 3:40pm March 12

I don’t understand – you live in the land of coca leaves and yet your are always waxing poetic about hash. Do you chew it too? I am a novice at all these things but I really want to try ayahuasca. Will you ever be posting about Ayahuasca or are you loyal to hash?

I like birding with hash tags. It is a lot of fun. But how can you focus the binoculars?

Gunnar Engblom at 7:13pm March 12

Hahaha! Wanna come on a: Come-to-Peru-and-get-high-tour?
There are plenty of those around. We give you Jungle Gringo Shaman Johnny -an expat junkie gone wild – as your special local guide. Johnny has learnt all the ancestral secrets of a top native Shaman during the last 4 years and now has unique knowledge to prepare the “trip” of your life time.

You shall recieve the following high-lights.

Your first high is a bonus at no extra charge as you start from Plaza de Armas in Cusco at 3400m (+10000 ft) walking up the steep stairs to your hotel in the idyllic San Blas district 100m above overlooking the square. It is not the thin air that makes you dizzy, it is being close to Heaven.
In the evening, three strong Pisco Sours at the Cross Keys pub will get your head spinning .
If drinking Coca tea or chewing the leaves does not do it for you, Johnny will take you to Cusco’s back streets where there is no problem obtaining some in powdered form. Peru is proudly one of the worlds largest provider of the stuff. But the Peruvians themselves prefer the meek coca-tea or chewing the leaves. Tradition they say. They don’t get it.
Down in the Amazon, you shall strip naked and participate in a mind blowing Ayahuaska ritual getting you hallucinating encounters with your God or your Demons…or maybe both, and we promise you that if this stuff does not make you insane for the rest of your life you will get your money back.
Back in Lima you shall be prepared for a San Pedro Cactus ritual. Incredibly, this drug just grows there in the wild. And it is powerful, man! The Nazcans used it when they cracked their skulls to let out the evil spirits. If you get truly wasted, you may try some brain-cracking with Johnny.

Timothy Ryan at 7:59pm March 12

Fantastic – sign me up!

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

UPDATE: Some readers did not understand that this was a joke, so I better state a few serious opinions. In fact, I have taken a stand against selling Peru as a country where ethnic drugs are put totally out of context as a tourist attraction. Please see the post on Amarakaeri communal reserve and the project we have commenced to turn four community lodges to prime birdwatching lodges to see what I mean.

What I think that those Peruvians selling the Ayahuaska ritual don’t realize is that there is liability involved, that makes it very risky involving tourists as active participants in the rituals. Ironically, there are loads of “Jungle Gringo Johnnies” in Peru, selling themselves as the real thing! Do you think you could get away with organizing such a ritual in the US where the participants take hallucinogenic drugs? Would it be legal? Why should this be OK in Peru and when it is not OK in the US? Here is a National Geographic article that describes the strong effects and potential dangers of Ayawaska – read between the lines to understand what sort of liability a tour operator that set this up is in for.

Furthermore, Peru is a modern country in most aspects and drugs are generally not accepted. Cocaine is not a problem in Peru. The problem is the consumers elsewhere and that its production in Peru is related to terrorist organizations as the Shining Path and the Mexican drug cartels. Therefore there is a constant war against cocaine production and its trade. There are severe punishment against those involved in drug trade.

by Gunnar Engblom January 9, 2009 2

Birding Carpish and Unchog, Peru in 4 days overland. Day 2.

Birding Carpish Tunnel

Since we had such a late night the previous night, we opted to go to Carpish as it is one hour drive rather than going to Unchog which is 3 hours from Huanuco. It gave us some more sleep. Thus, start at 4.30. Certainly, still felt toooooo early. Most of us were birding with closed eyes on our way to Carpish, as it was still dark anyway.

Carpish was covered in mist and bristling rain, nevertheless we went up the track by the tunnel. And we started seeing birds: Taczanowski’s (Slaty) Brush-Finch (genetically isolated form), Grass-green Tanager, Amethyst-throated Sunangel, Violet-throated Starfrontlet, Plush-cap Finch, Black-and-White Becard, Tschudi’s Tapaculo (seen well after playback), Citrine Warbler, Blue-capped Tanager etc. Particularly the Becard was a nice, because it is not a bird I see often, I believe is my first record for Carpish.

Birdwatching along the Paty Trail.

Hopping into the van again, we drove down to km51, where Doña Inez and Don Cleto lives, just next to the start of the Paty Trail. While Julio was fixing breakfast, we found some birds in a flock moving through such as Pearled Treerunner, Lachrymose Mountain-Tanager, Capped Conebill, White-tailed Tyrannulet and Streaked Tuftedcheek. Additionally we heard a Green-and-Black Fruiteater.

After our freshly brewed coffee and Julio’s special hot sandwiches with cheese and ham, we headed down the Paty trail. Just as we commenced, Aratinga-like calls were heard. I recognized that rolling drawn-out call of Golden-plumed Parakeet. A group of five. A lifer for all in our party and a very rare parrot. Luckily we got some more observations later furhter down the trail.

The mist was too dense to be able to do any digiscoping, so I have no bird ph in pootos to show you. Here are a few shots from the trail and some flowers in bloom.
More birds were added: Crimson-backed Woodpecker, Montane Woodcreeper, Long-tailed Antbird, Citrine Warbler, Russet-crowned Warbler, Gray-breasted Wood-Wren, Rufous Spinetail, Sulphur-bellied Tyrannulet, Ochraceous-breasted Flycatcher and Flame-faced Tanager. There were also Plum-crowned (Speckle-faced) Parrots and Scaly-naped Parrots flying over, but they were hard to get looks at in the mist.
Per and Lena were happy to have spotted Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan. In fact it was Piero, Julio’s son that discovered it. Scott had a fleeting glimpse of a Masked Saltator in the bamboo on the lower part of the trail.

The Paty trail is somewhat legendary to birders in Peru. This trail was birded by Ted Parker, and he wrote an article together with John O’Neill about the birds along the trail and elsewhere in the region, that was published in Birding in 1976 (Birding (3), pp 205-216.) and the trail is still excellent. It goes from 2500m down to 1700m, but usually we just bird untill 2200m.

Community based Conservation and eco-tourism.

At the bottom is the community Ñaupamarca. Across from the village school there is a good lek of Cock-of-the-Rock and at night the Lyre-tailed Nightjars display overhead. Rarely seen Tanagers such as Blue-browed Tanager, Golden-collared Honeycreeper and Deep-blue Flowerpiercer are also frequently seen here, so it is a shame that relatively few groups do all the way. It is my hope that in a near future it shall be possible to make programs that combine Paty trail with a trail that goes from Ñaupamarca to up to Unchog (stay tuned for tomorrow’s account). If the community claims the Carpish area as a communal reserve, they can then solicit international funding to implement a eco-trekking route and construction of some accomodation at Ñaupamarca. It would certainly become an asset for our birding trips.

New School project. Photo: Gunnar Engblom

The school being built at the start of the Paty Trail will have a an area where tourist can stay, and hopefully in a near future there will also be some sort of lodging at Unchog itself. They mayor of Carpish, Juan Figueredo, recently joined Kolibri Expeditions on a trip to Mindo, Ecuador, together with 2 other farmers from Carpish, in order to see how cloud forests can become a important source for eco-tourism. Originally, we meant only to bring people from Satipo road, but in the end, after meeting with the mayor and him being so enthusiastic regarding conservation, we figured we ought to bring some people from Carpish as well. You can read about this project here, but I will also soon present a updated blog, regarding the trip. That the mayor is committed is certain. Read his opening speech (in Spanish) at the Peruvian Congress of Ornithology, which was held just as the trip to Mindo finished.

After lunch, we walked up the road and added Andean Guan and Hooded Mountain-Tanager. Both Chestnut and Bay Antpitta were heard, but could not be lured into view.
Julio picked us up, and we drove to the dry side of the tunnel towards Huanuco to search for good Brown-flanked Tanager habitat. The bird was located in some 10 minutes after the stop and we got decent views. Also the small hummingbird Mountain Velvetbreast here.

Birding the dry slope of Carpish mountains.

Continuing to Huanoco we made a short stop along the road in dry habitat adding Peruvian Pygmy-Owl, Peruvian Meadowlark, White-bellied Hummingbird and Fasciated Wren, but alas not Chestnut-backed Inca-Finch, which was one of the birds that Scott really wanted to see, since he is setting up a project together with one of his students to study the Inca-Finches of Peru.
Back in Huanuco, I managed to squeeze in a run before dinner.

A confirmed trip to Satipo road and Carpish is set for May 19. There is also a short trip to Carpish that we run on request.

Controversial topic being discussed. Scientific Collecting of birds.

We had interesting discussions about collecting. A couple of weeks ago, there was a post on the Peruvian listserver Incaspiza that I manage about a student that studies birds present in tombs from the Sican culture at Tucume, Batan Grande and Sican. He wanted to set up a bird collection for reference to archeology research. I won’t get into details, as it became a debate that was somewhat heated. If you ever seen any such debate in the past, you know what I mean. However, as pro-collecting advocate in general (as long as the ethics follows rigurous protocoll), I was very surprised to learn that:

a: How come this field (archeology and birds) has not been developed yet by Museo de Historia Natural de Javier Prado, Universidad de San Marcos, that has the largest collection of birds in Peru.
b: There is no bone/skeleton collection in Peru as yet!

This was the background to the conversation and discussions the birding party from Florida University of Gainesville and University of Lund, Sweden. All in this party see the value of continued collecting to learn more about various aspects of ornithology. As the discussion went on we all agreed that not always do scientific collecting follow high standards of ethics discussed in a series excellent papers.

These are essential starting points to understand the pros about collecting and to kill some myths.

“The importance of continued collecting of bird specimens to ornithology and birds conservation” J. V. Remsen, JR Bird Conservation Internacional 5(1995):145-180.

“The importance of avian collections and the need for continued collecting” Winker, Kevin et al. The Loon 63(1991): 283-264

“Opinion. Collecting and Conservation: cause and effect.” Collar, N. J. Bird Conserv. Internatn: 10 (2000): 1-15

However, it is necessary to minimize the clashes with the birdwatching community, if museums want to count on some understanding from the same. The argument that the collecting is not hurting the overall population will only become valid when there is no conflict of interest. Scientific collecting can not count on support if insisting in collecting in the same areas as the birdwatchers frequent or if they take specimens of critically threatened or endangered birds, when it isn’t necessary. Birdwatchers will not understand any reasoning behind taking a series 15 threatened petrels of the same species off the North American coast or the reasoning behind having to have voucher specimens for every species in Peru, especially if it is a threatened species, when a photograph or a recording suffice for a publication.

A sound starting point for collecting ethics would be the following guidelines.

Every bird colleted is a sacrifice for a better understanding of the birds. The question should always be asked if it is necessary to collect in all situations. Are there alternative methods that can answer the questions raised? It is important that when a bird is sacrificed that all aspects of collecting are covered.
The whole bird should be used not only the specimen skin. Thus stomach content, tissue, skeleton, etc should be colleted. If the collecting expeditions are too centered on getting skins, it will soon be numbers rather than quality that matters.
Avoid collecting threatened species.
Avoid collecting near the same trails as birders frequent.

Feel free to comment. Starting point. How to build bridges between birdwatchers and professional ornithologists?

Gunnar Engblom
Kolibri Expedition

by Gunnar Engblom December 22, 2008 8

Birdwatching in communal reserve next to Manu

This blog was originally posted on Bird Forum, Wednesday 6th August 2008, but I thought I lift it in to this blog as well and make some updates. I am still working on my next orignal blogpost.

Amaraka…. Que? – You know, the communal reserve next to Manu in Peru!

This year Kolibri Expeditions started working with the communities of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve lying just next door to Manu. Going down the Alto Madre de Dios river Manu is to the left and Amarakaeri reserve to the right.
The birding has been just fantastic with birds like Black-faced Cotinga, Rufous-headed Woodpecker and Peruvian Recurvebill as regulars. They have four quite good lodges along the regular Manu route donated by the world bank and USAID and in spite of mostly having shared bath, they are very well built and have all the potential in world to become included in the standard route for birders in the future. BUT they need a partner and this is where Kolibri Expeditions comes in. In 2007 they had only 20 clients visiting the lodges – so they also understand that they need to find a new strategy to get more visitors to their lodges.. Still in 2008 their lodges have mainly remained empty. There are good reasons why birding may be the best way to market this new eco-destination.

1. It should be relatively easy to get volunteers to make complete birdlists and help get the communities focused on providing the essentials for birders, which comes down more to good trails than shower curtains. Volunteer’s please write me (kolibriexp@gmail.com).

2. Birders are less likely to make a fuss about small organizational screw-ups as long as the birds are seen. You can probably appreciate the difficulties in running a lodge set-up where there are no roads, no telephone and no internet! Hard core birders would give the communities more time to sort out the operation without being classified as inferior service and loose out on the market even before they have gotten seriously started. As long as the birders see the birds, they will be mostly happy.

3. Many birders (but certainly not all) would like to spend less money birding in Manu, which has become very expensive in recent years – and thus the community budget alternative is an option. In light of the present economic crises, an inexpensive alternative is always welcome.

4. In spite of this, the community make more money on birders than on back-packers. The back-packers will choose other more streamlined budget operators most of the time, and the only way the community can compete in trying to catch the backpacker group is to lower the prices. The price are low and in the end there are not many backpackers that will chose an alternative that has not all the experience. Birders pay more.

5. Birders are very good at sharing good (and cheap) birding experiences with their friends and on-line. Thus, very soon could the community alternative in Manu become a winner.

Black-faced Cotinga – not uncommon at Blanco Lodge next to Manu Wildlife Center!! Photo: Gunnar Engblom

It is called Amarakaeri Communal reserve, but it is just nextdoor to Manu Wildlife Center and Blanquillo Lodges.

I know! Who shall remember the name of the reserve? Amara….what…

Amarakaeri ….if the indians would have known about marketing they should have called it Manu Community Reserve. Then people would understand that visiting Amara…whatever it is called …what?…yes Amarakaeri Communal Reserve is basically the same as visiting Manu.

It is the same route going down the Manu road and one ends up in Puerto Maldonado (or turn around back to Cusco – or fly from Boca Manu).

During 2008 Kolibri Expeditions made three trips to using all of the four lodges. In spite of the “expected” logistical problems, the birding result was brilliant. We are looking at ways to minimize logistical problems for 2009.

A short summery of the lodges in the Manu drainage.

Shintuya Lodge at the end of the road is just across from Pantiacolla Lodge. Birding along the road is very good passing very stands of Bamboo that has Ornate and Dot-winged Antwren, Yellow-billed Nunbird and hill forest with Red-billed Tyrannulet, Fine-barred Piculet, Military and Blue-headed Macaw, Black-backed Tody-Flycatcher and Cabani´s Spinetail.

Centro de Medicina Tradicional has prime floodplain forest just behind the lodge and good flooded bambo/cane forest on the island in front. There is a mammal-lick, but it is not very well developed for visitors as yet, but may become a resource in the future. Medicine Man/Curandero Matero Iglesias lives here. He performs cleaning rituals for his neighbours and occasional tourists. This is an interesting concept that should be developed as tourism attraction, especially for people staying for longer periods and want to have an insight in traditional medicine. At this point however, it is not very impressive, as the interaction with tourists is mainly an Ayawaska ceremony out of context. It is not really the thing we ought to promote.
“WTF, Go-to-Peru-and-get-High-Tours. Awesome!”

Birdwise some interesting birds have been found in 2008 such as a nest of Ornate-Hawk-Eagle Black-faced cotinga, Rufous-headed Woodpecker, Ocellated Poorwill, Dusky-cheecked Foliage-gleaner and Semi-collared Puffbird.

Charro Lodge is located on a seasonally flooded island halfway down from the airstrip at Boca Manu and the famous Macaw lick at Blanquillo. This is the best Varzea habitat I have seen in the Manu area. Hopefully, it the future we shall be able to have some sort of kayaking programs here in the boreal winter when the waterlevels are high. Birding is very rewarding with key species such as Striolated Puffbird, Peruvian Recurvebill, Long-billed and Amazonian form of Strong-billed Woodcreeper, Red-billied Scythbill, Amzonian and Elusive Antpittas, Rufous-fronted Antthrush, White-cheecked Tody-tyrant and more. Furthermore, the varzea specialties such as Varzea Mourner and Plumbeous Antbird are quite common here.

The last Lodge on the route is Blanco Lodge, which is situated between Manu WildLifeCenter and the Blanquillo Macaw lick. It is thus strategically located for visits to Tapir lick, Otter lake and Macaw lick.
The lodge is the most comfortable of the four lodges as it has private bathrooms with showers,

The birds found here and the nearby bamboo trail with a good stable steel tower include Black-faced Cotinga, Sharpbill, Rufous-headed Woodpecker, White-cheecked Tody-Tyrant, Ash-throated Gnateater and Long-billed Woodcreeper.

Bottomline, the birds are there. There are still many logistical implementations that need to be done, but in the meantime the lodges are open for birders that wanting to save some bucks and still have the best birding of their lives. Long-time staying birders can work out volunteer status deals.

Budget Manu birding tour supporting local communities

For more information write me at kolibriexp@mail.com or check Kolibri Expeditions bird tour page for a budget Manu birding holiday. This trip has a mixture of community lodges and more established lodges, in order not to miss out on any speciality of the area. In spite that the birding tour is 15 days, I would recommend to add a few more days for the cloud forest which deserves more time as well as Amigos Research Center at the end, which is a truly spectacular place.

You heard of Amarakaeri here…..don’t you forget that now!

Gunnar Engblom

www.kolibriexpeditions.com
kolibriexp@gmail.com

by Gunnar Engblom December 14, 2008 1

Blogging by email – birding today with former Vice Minister of Tourism

Blogging by email and networking.

I just set up a super secret email account from which I shall be able to send posts directly to my new WordPress blog on Kolibri Expeditions web-site. I guess this is part of the web 2.0 revolution…even if I got on this train late. Part of this strategy is to use networking as way to get to both potentially new clients as well as keeping in touch with and in the mind of clients in the past. Facebook is one of the best way to do this. My Facebook account is here, if you want to become my “friend” on facebook. In fact, it is not that necessary that we actually know each other. Facebook is a bit of voyeurism, but oneself decides really how much privacy is suitable to post. Some people use facebook strictly privately, while others use it, as I do, to create a new network with people with similar interest. In my case it is birding and specifically birding in Peru and South America. On facebook I have a bit over 200 “friends”. I think the order of some 400-500 “friends” would create a nice network

Twitter

A few months ago I set up a twitter account and made my 200th posting today and have around 150 people following me. You can follow me too at www.twitter.com/kolibrix. Twitter could be considered micro-blogging. You tell the world what you are doing in 140 characters. Though many will just but daily activities such as “I am drinking coffee”, there are many people who use twitter as a fast means of telling their followers about a new blog post or sharing something interesting they have read.

Gunnar’s previous blogs

A couple of days ago I set up this blog. I have blogged before but usually far between. See some examples here:
https://www.birdingperu.blogspot.com/ (English)
https://www.limasafaris.blogspot.com (Spanish)
https://www.birdingperu.com/blogs/

The present blog

This is however the first blog I do on the company page of Kolibri Expeditions https://www.kolibriexpeditions.com. Rather than having my web-master creating a new blogging tool specifically for my web-page, I decided to use one of the free ones available from www.wordpress.com and house it on our server. The people at the support section of my server provider kindly helped to upload the program. It is very convenient and there are already a lot functions and plug-ins available, The main idea is that the blog will:
1. Direct clients to our main part of the web-page. This way, we’d get more business.
2. Get more traffic period and thus better search engine position. With more traffic google ranks the web-site higher
3. Create new material which also helps to get more traffic as there will be more search engine keywords produced.
4. If I get a lot of readers, some online adds, can actually give some revenues at least to partly pay for the housing costs.

Today’s birding at Pantanos de Villa

Anyway, this blog was actually meant to tell you by sending an email that I have been birding with Eduardo Arrarte -the former Vice Minister of Tourism and his lovely wife Lieser today at Pantanos de Villa in an activity that I arranged open to the public. There were also two cultural tour guides that are learning about birding, and two other guys – one of them only 15 years old – that also ae new to birding. Great to be able to inspire new birders. This should be part of the mission of every birder. Share your knowledge.

Birds seen today included:
Peruvian Thickknee
Peruvian Meadowlark
Black-necked Stilt
Osprey
Great Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
American Oystercatcher
Franklin’s Gull
Band-tailed Gull
Burrowing Owl
and many more.

Gunnar Engblom.

PS: I hope this works!!
PPS: Well, it didn’t. I had to post it the normal way. I wonder if it was because my secret account was an gmail account?