In late May we took what was likely our last guided birding trip ever, in the form of a three-day outing around the Valencia and Alicante regions of Spain. Why “last”? Well, my life list now stands at 5,044 species, and while I welcome the idea of adding more to it, it is hardly a … More Winged Beauties in Spain and Rome
I used to think that travel to the tropics during rainy season would be a waste of time and money, and so for many years we timed our trips so as to miss the wettest months. But while we were living in Thailand for all of 2018, we realized that some of the best birding … More Gambling on Rainy Season in Tanzania and Uganda
The first time I put a bird on a list, it was the spring of 1993, and the entry was Northern Flicker. A common bird in a city park, an unlikely spark of obsession. Thirty years later, to the month, more or less, I ticked lifer number 5,000, under singular circumstances and with a singular … More How I Got to Five Thousand Species
After finishing up in Argentina, we wanted to break up the trip back north to the US. Colombia is perfectly positioned for this: with Bogatá being only about six hours from Buenos Aires and under four hours from Miami. We had done three trips previously in the country, but had not yet visited Calí or … More Birding in Valle del Cauca, Colombia
After our trip to Tierra del Fuego and cruise to Antarctica, we flew from Ushuaia to Córdoba, Argentina to start a nine-day trek from the north-central region all the way north to the Bolivia border. We did this trip with Martín Toledo from Beagle Birding, a birding company based in Córdoba. Martín is a fantastic … More Birding in Spectacular Northwest Argentina
We had first visited Argentina in 2016, with a week or so based out of Buneos Aires. There is plenty of great birding within a few hours of the capital, but after finishing that trip we wanted to return and find the austral specialties of the southern cone. Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia were names … More Birding at the End of the World: Tierra del Fuego
After a few days of birding in Tierra del Fuego, we took a nine-day cruise from Ushuaia, Argentina, to the South Shetland Islands and Antarctica. The trip was organized by Albatros Expeditions and the ship was the Ocean Victory, a mid-sized vessel that carried about 160 passengers and 80 crew for our particular voyage, starting … More Birding the Drake Passage and the Antarctic Peninsula
This was our Return To Peru Trip: to finish an adventure that the March 2020 COVID-19 lockdown had wiped out. In March of 2020, we flew to Peru with the intention of doing a long, two-part birding tour: the first half based out of Iquitos, in the Amazon region, and the second starting in Tarapoto … More Back To Peru
The cost, in New Zealand currency, was $75 each. For my wife Claire and I, that would make it just over $100 in terms of US dollars. A fair price for a top life bird, if we could get it. Especially one as unique and rare as the Okarito Kiwi. It was January of 2019, … More Okarito Kiwi: A Most Unorthodox Birding Strategy
After completing the São Paulo leg, we arrived in Fortaleza at 2:30 AM. We started mid-day on the following day with ornithologist Ciro Albano. We are getting quite spoiled with these outstanding guides from Brazil Birding Experts. We’ve had great guides here and there around the world, but not three like this on the same … More Pandemic Birding in Brazil, Part III: The Breathtaking Northeast
During the first leg of the trip, while we were still in Manuas, birding with Gabriel, we got a message from our São Paulo guide, Caio Brito; it turns out there would be a COVID-related impact to the trip after all. The state of São Paulo had just decided to shut down Intervales State Park, … More Pandemic Birding in Brazil, Part II: São Paulo
Claire and I started our 14-day home self-quarantine yesterday, after a month in Brazil. I hope that will be enough time to finish parsing the 1,500 photos and several hundred audio recordings that we brought back. This was our single most-productive birding trip: 672 species and 284 lifers over the course of 25 days in … More Pandemic Birding in Brazil, Part I: Abundance in Amazonas
Sun Country airlines, based out of our home city of Minneapolis, was recently offering $300 round-trip, direct flights to Cancún, Mexico (some of their domestic direct flights have been as low as $8 one way). It was too hard to pass up a cost-effective chance to go on a Mopping-Up Mission for a few of … More Quintana Roo & Yucatán, September 2020
One might think that after our Peruvian debacle, we’d have zero interest in travel for birding. One would be wrong. We have all kinds of interest, since flights are so crazy cheap right now. This was the perfect opportunity to go mop-up in the southwest USA and nail some recalcitrant North American lifers. With sixteen … More Pandemic Birding in Arizona and California, April/May 2020
We escaped Peru on April 5, just in time, apparently: Iquitos is going into full lockdown mode now, with grocery store runs permitted for just one family member, mornings until 9AM only, for a couple of days. Then, from April 9 to April 13, no leaving your house or hotel. Period. Not sure what happens … More Goodbye Peru… For Now
A good friend of mine, trying to help us keep our sanity during this little adventure, suggested I read about the [James] Stockdale Paradox. From Wikipedia: The Stockdale Paradox In a business book by James C. Collins called Good to Great, Collins writes about a conversation he had with Stockdale regarding his coping strategy during his period in … More Stuck in Peru – Day 23
Our forty or so friends from Germany left yesterday morning; their government swooped in to pick them up after a two-day stay at our hotel. Meanwhile, we begin day eleven here. The WiFi bandwidth is better now but… the restaurant is out of beer. Das ist nicht gut. I can at least upload some photos … More Stuck in Peru – Day 22
Every day I think it cannot get any weirder here, but it does. Yesterday a new rule was handed down: Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra recently announced additional quarantine measures, including a gender-based limitation on visits to grocery stores and banks, and other routine business. Men will be allowed to leave their homes only on Monday, … More Stuck in Peru – Day 21
No photos today…. cannot upload them. A group of 40 Europeans arrived yesterday from off the Amazon and have joined us here in this small hotel. Our bandwidth is getting attenuated. Email from the State Department today! Emphasis mine… Event: IMPORTANT: The last repatriation flight from Cusco is tomorrow, April 3. We expect the last regularly scheduled charter … More Stuck in Peru – Day 20
eBird tells me that eight swift species are possible here in Iquitos. We need one of them, the Pale-rumped. We had some swifts zip by our window a few times yesterday. What were they? LOL. When we lived in Asia in 2018, we learned to lament the lack of a book to help with identification … More Stuck in Peru – Day 19
