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September 2014 e-mailing
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| Hello, birders! Summer's winding down, but we have more than 30 fall tours still to go. Open spaces for some of those are listed below, along with cool bird links, schedule updates (including two new Jamaica departures in the next few months), a New Year's tour with Jesse, and several upcoming guide events. Also here: lots of fresh images from recent tours in our September Recent Photos gallery (samples at left), and recently posted triplists (some great ones with lots of pics) and fresh itineraries linked below. Good birding!
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 We've reduced the limit of our Ecuador's Shiripuno Lodge: Heartland of the Waorani tour with guide Willy Perez, Sep 25-Oct 4, 2015, to 8; and check out Willy's fun piece on "a day birding at Shiripuno"! (At the bottom of the piece you'll also find a link to the lodge's trail camera videos...some fun clips.)
 Guide Peter Burke has completely revamped our Belize itinerary to visit Crooked Tree Lagoon and then head off the beaten path to some great birding in the southern Punta Gorda area. Read all about it on our Rarely Visited Belize tour page and in our itinerary for the tour, which runs Mar 28-Apr 5.
NEW TOUR  Guide Eric Hynes is bringing an exciting fresh Jamaica itinerary back into our schedule with two upcoming departures, Dec 2-7, 2014 and Mar 3-8, 2015, each limited to 8 participants. We expect these to be popular, so if you would like to hold a space, be sure to call or email our office. Have a look at Eric's new slideshow for the tour, too!
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 Guide Jesse Fagan (aka the "Motmot") notes that "When it's 12 degrees F outside, you don't want to hear 'Honey, we should have gone to Honduras for New Year's. Oh, and one of us needs to shovel the driveway...again.' Instead, you could be enjoying some fabulous tropical birding--good fun with long, warm days at a world-class lodge set inside a pristine forest. You will love The Lodge at Pico Bonito. We'll look for specialties (think Keel-billed Motmot, shown at right), beauties (Red-capped Manakin, Shining Honeycreeper...oooh), and the endemic Honduran Emerald. Night life? How about prowling for potoos and Black-and-white Owl? (And trail cameras reveal lots of Jaguars and Pumas--we might just get lucky!)" Come ring in 2015 with Jesse on his Holiday Honduras: The Lodge at Pico Bonito tour, Dec 29-Jan 3!
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If you're thinking about joining us for a holiday trip later this year, remember that the best fares for flights go to those who book earliest with the airlines (and flights fill up early around both Thanksgiving and the Christmas/New Year period), so now's the time to do your planning. In addition to the Pico Bonito tour mentioned above, we still have space on these three other holiday tours:
Holiday at San Isidro, Ecuador: Nov 22-Dec 1 with Mitch Lysinger (1 space)
Holiday in Peru: Iquitos Canopy Walkways & Ancient Forests: Dec 20-31 with Pepe Rojas & Dan Lane
Arizona Winter Specialties: Dec 27-Jan 2 with Dave Stejskal & Tom Johnson (3 spaces)
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Robotic raptors -- say what? Check out the amazing video in this Audubon article. (We're thinking of ordering some models of hard-to-see birds that our guides could release as needed...ha!)
And in the "wonderful birding experiences" department, we liked seeing this piece about a recent daily swallow movement -- the radar loop is pretty cool, and especially check out the second video clip.
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| Guide Megan Edwards Crewe will present a talk titled Galapagos: The Enchanted Islands for the Nature Center of Cape May on Sep 23 at 6 p.m. -- if you'll be in the area, come on by!
 Guide Peter Burke's art will be featured in an upcoming show titled The Wonder of Birds at the Westland Gallery in London, Ontario, including his work from the Birds of Chile and Birds of Peru field guides, a field guide in preparation (Birds of Northern Central America with Jesse Fagan), as well as some lovely dragonfly work. The show runs Sep 16-Oct 4; the opening reception is Sep 19 at 7:30 p.m.
In October, guide Dan Lane will be part of the LSU Big Day team trying to beat the one-day record of 331 species (!) set back in 1982 without any flights involved. It's bound to be a wild and crazy adventure -- follow all the fun on the LSU Big Day page or their Big Day Facebook page!
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Above, from Safari Brazil: Crimson-crested Woodpecker, White-wedged Piculet, Pale-crested Woodpecker, and Hyacinth Macaw, by guide Marcelo Padua.
New Guinea & Australia: Oct 1-19 with Jay VanderGaast ( 1 space)
Peruvian Rainforests of the Tambopata: Oct 4-17 with Pepe Rojas ( 4 spaces)
South Africa: Oct 9-Nov 1 with Terry Stevenson & Joe Grosel ( 1 space)
Safari Brazil: The Pantanal & More: Oct 11-26 with Marcelo Padua ( 3 spaces)
Australia (Part Two): Oct 21-Nov 5 with John Coons ( 1 space)
Chile: Oct 26-Nov 15 with Peter Burke & Ricardo Matus ( 1 space)
Spectacular Southeast Brazil (Part One): Oct 31-Nov 16 with Bret Whitney & Jay VanderGaast
Sri Lanka: Oct 31-Nov 17 with Megan Edwards Crewe & local guide
Ireland in Fall: Nov 6-16 with Terry & Karen McEneaney
Madagascar, Mauritius & Reunion: Nov 8-Dec 4 with Phil Gregory ( 1 space)
New Zealand: Nov 9-27 with Dan Lane & local guide ( 1 space)
Spectacular Southeastern Brazil (Part Two): Nov 14-30 with Bret Whitney & Marcelo Padua
Holiday at San Isidro, Ecuador: Nov 22-Dec 1 with Mitch Lysinger ( 1 space)
Holiday in Peru: Iquitos Canopy Walkways & Ancient Forests: Dec 20-31 with Pepe Rojas & Dan Lane
Arizona Winter Specialties: Dec 27-Jan 2 with Dave Stejskal & Tom Johnson ( 3 spaces)
Holiday in Honduras: The Lodge at Pico Bonito: Dec 29-Jan 3 with Jesse Fagan
Yellowstone in Winter: Jan 3-11 with Terry & Karen McEneaney
Costa Rica: Birding the Edges (Part I): Jan 5-14 with Jay VanderGaast & Tom Johnson ( 4 spaces)
Amazonian Ecuador: Sacha Lodge I: Jan 9-18 with Willy Perez ( 4 spaces)
Winter Japan: Dancing Cranes & Spectacular Sea-Eagles: Jan 9-24 with Phil Gregory ( 1 space)
Costa Rica: Birding the Edges (Part II): Jan 13-22 with Jay VanderGaast & Tom Johnson ( 2 spaces)
South Texas Rarities I: Jan 17-23 with Chris Benesh ( 3 spaces)
Thailand: Jan 17-Feb 7 (ext. to Feb 13) with Dave Stejskal & Uthai Treesucon
Panama's Canopy Tower I: Jan 19-25 with John Coons
South Texas Rarities I: Jan 24-30 with Chris Benesh ( 3 spaces)
Oaxaca II: Jan 24-31 with Pepe Rojas & second guide
Panama's Canopy Camp: Jan 24-Feb 1 with John Coons
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Recently posted itineraries for upcoming tours
Recently posted itineraries include
Winter Japan: Dancing Cranes & Spectacular Sea-Eagles (Jan 9-24 with Phil Gregory),
Guyana: Wilderness Paradise (Jan 31-Feb 11 with Megan Edwards Crewe),
Philippines (Feb 28-Mar 23 with Dave Stejskal; Visayan/Mindoro Extension to Mar 30),
Ethiopia: Endemic Birds & Ethiopian Wolf (Mar 6-26 with Richard Webster; Lalibela ext. to Mar 29),
Puerto Rico (Mar 21-27 with Eric Hynes & Tom Johnson),
Rarely Visited Belize: Punta Gorda (Mar 28-Apr 5 with Peter Burke),
Colorado Grouse (two departures: Apr 1-11 with Chris Benesh & Tom Johnson or Apr 12-22 with Eric Hynes & second guide),
Hungary & Romania: The Best of Eastern Europe (Apr 25-May 11 with Terry Stevenson & Lajos Nemeth-Boka),
Birding Plus Do the Charleston! Spring in South Carolina (Apr 26-May 2 with Jesse Fagan),
Spain: La Mancha, Coto Donana & Extremadura (May 2-14 with Chris Benesh & Willy Perez),
Arizona: Birding the Border (two departures: May 8-17 with John Coons or May 15-24 with Dave Stejskal),
Spring in Cape May (May 17-23 with Megan Edwards Crewe & Tom Johnson),
Northern Arizona's Canyons & Condor (May 30-Jun 4 with John Coons),
Borneo II (Jun 4-21 with Dave Stejskal).
Cheat sheet
All photos at left
are from our September recent photos. Enjoy!
- White-capped Dipper, Peru, by Dan Lane
- Bearded Helmetcrest, Peru, by Jesse Fagan
- Spectacled Eider, Alaska, by Merl Arnot
- Moustached Flowerpiercer, Peru, by Dan Lane
- Long-whiskered Owlet, N. Peru, by Becky Hansen
- Red-footed Booby, Galapagos, by Megan Edwards Crewe
- White-bellied Woodstar, N. Peru, by Becky Hansen
- Blue-naped Chlorophonia, Peru, by Dan Lane
- Tayra, N. Peru, by Becky Hansen
- Yellow-billed Teal, Peru, by Jesse Fagan
- Gould's Jewelfront, N. Peru, by Steve Wakeham
- Southern Crowned-Pigeon, Papua New Guinea, by Peter Gasson
- Johnson's Tody-Flycatcher, N. Peru, by Dan Lane
- Plumed Whistling-Duck, Papua New Guinea, by Peter Gasson
- Blyth's Hornbill, Papua New Guinea, by Peter Gasson
- Sally Lightfoot Crab, Galapagos, by Rick Woodruff
- Montezuma Quail, Arizona, by Tom Johnson
- Red-faced Warbler, Arizona, by Tom Johnson
- King Eider, Alaska, by Merl Arnot
- Red Phalarope, Alaska, by Merl Arnot
- Broad-billed Hummingbird, Arizona, by Ginny & Brian Murphy
- Five-striped Sparrow, Arizona, by Dave Boltz
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