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Tanager Tours Newsletter
Bird-related creative writing, recent trip highlights, a bit of shameless |
Tour Operator Wim ten Have Guides David Geale, Miguel Lezama Newsletter Text David Geale |
Great Birding Moments - An Encounter at Capiri
I step away from the light gap, where the birding is easy, and into the dense montane forest. The whole area seems to be on the edge of pristine: we're camped out at the "Ultimo Campamento" of the local loggers, and they've taken down most of the big trees within a hundred metres. But beyond that, their ominous trails wind through dense, mossy undergrowth from one impressive doomed tree to another. Had our visit been next year, our hike in to this beautiful habitat would have taken an hour longer. Great Birding Moments have abounded at Capiri: the mystery of an unknown owl calling each night; a nose-to-bill encounter with a playful Ochre-faced Tody-Flycatcher; endless entertainment from the afore-mentioned mixed flock; a friendly Unadorned Flycatcher completely unaware of my adoration; White-collared Jays and Mountain Caciques squawking annoyance at my strange presence. I suppose it's hope that the day might bring a Great Birding Moment that keeps me going - gets me out of the house at every opportunity, and out of the tent before first light every morning. In fact, it's more than hope, it's faith - get out there, and Moments happen. This faith does more than motivate me to get into the field. It gives me patience - to sit still until that Microcerculus wren appears; to wait for those twisting, turning, diving Cypseloides swifts to show a field mark. It gives me recklessness - to belly crawl through a thicket I know is full of chiggers because there's a strange, possibly avian noise in there; to scale a near-vertical rock face to reach that interesting-looking patch of Polylepis forest. It gives me, above all, curiosity - what is that long, thin, dry, trill? (Black-throated Brilliant) - what birds live in this strange, quiet, stunted ridge-top forest? (Bar-winged Wood-Wrens, Long-whiskered Owlets) - what might eat these small, colourful, fruits? (Yellow-throated Tanagers and a Deep-blue Flowerpiercer)
What makes a Great Birding Moment surely varies from birder to birder - after all, we don't all have an unjustifiable infatuation with Unadorned Flycatchers! For my three-year old daughter, a Black-capped Chickadee landing on her hand obviously brought unexpected joy; for a Dutch photographer on a trip I led in Venezuela, a White-necked Thrush being admired disproportionately - due to its amazing tameness - by four birders who normally wouldn't give the species a second glance, was the best moment of the trip. For the rest of us, it was a small flock of enigmatic and beautiful Red Siskins - in my case enhanced by a simultaneous encounter with a pair of Streak-capped Spinetails, to which the others paid little notice. For some, it takes a five minute, frame-filling view of a Harpy Eagle in a telescope. For others, the briefest glimpse of a Russet-bellied Spinetail or Ochre-fronted Antpitta is far preferable. Now, on that ridge on the edge of pristine above Capiri, my Great Birding Moment takes on a completely different form. Over the past seven years, I've spend countless hours scouring the "cloud forests" of Peru's Andes, looking for birds and finding other bits of fascination along the way. But until now, this velvety black denizen has evaded me. Its buff-spectacled eyes lock with mine for less than half a second before it decides it can't trust me, and it bolts off into the undergrowth, noisily crashing down the slope. This time, my Great Birding Moment wasn't even a bird: it was a Spectacled Bear. Recent Trip Highlights
In May 2010, David Geale and Miguel Lezama did some scouting near Iquitos, where David then led a very successful private trip with Frank Bills, Sharon Bostick, Ron Hoff, and Dollyann Myers in June. We visited Otorongo and Muyuna Lodges, and the Allpahuayo-Mishana reserve. Some highlights included Black-banded Crake, Point-tailed Palmcreeper, Black-tailed and Allpahuayo Antbirds and Iquitos Gnatcatcher, but the majority chose the extremely rare Wattled Curassow (a poor photo David took during the tour below) as bird of the trip. A quick visit to ACTS afterwards produced Nocturnal Curassow, Grey-winged Trumpeter, and others. See a complete trip report here. We're now creating the ideal Iquitos itinerary to be offered for private groups and as a fixed departure next year! You'll find the itinerary soon on our Bird Tours Peru page.
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Upcoming Trips2010 is a busy year for us; we are booked virtually solid from July through to November. We are especially looking for additional participants for the following trips for late 2010 (tours marked [PQD] qualify for Photo Quiz Discount - see below) : Rio Las Piedras / Oct 30-Nov 07 North Peru Circuit+Tumbes / Nov 20-Dec 12 Targeted North Peru / Dec 26-Jan 07 In 2011 we will be offering several fixed departures, all guided by David Geale: Manu Road & foothills / May 07-21 Iquitos / Sep 18-30 North Peru Like Never Before More information on these trips and others on our website: http://www.tanagertours.com/ Photo QuizThe first person to correctly identify these three birds and send their answers to info@tanagertours.com will get a 15% discount when they join any of the tours above marked [PQD]. If you bring a friend, you get an additional 5% off! All photos taken in Peru; no other clues!
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An always-unexpected series of sharp hiccup-hoots lets me know that yet another White-throated Antpitta has seen me without me seeing it. In the past few days, I've seen more that my share anyway, and its ventriloquial calling doesn't frustrate me the way it would have in the past, when that species was a dreaded "heard only" for me. For a while I'm distracted by a mixed-species flock that I've worked over several times during our stay on the ridge above Capiri in the Araza Valley in southern Peru: an Ash-browed Spinetail's descending chips; Inca Flycatchers flitting; a pair of Grey-mantled Wrens creeping and inspecting; the green flash of a Masked Fruiteater (photo right) landing, suddenly motionless; Saffron-crowned, Beryl-spangled, Flame-faced, and Blue-and-black Tanagers flitting nervously, as if aware that their gaudiness must make them relatively conspicuous to some unseen Accipiter lurking nearby.
And a special case - what's around the next bend? This last question is on my mind as I leave the hooting antpitta behind and the whirlwind flock swirls on up the slope. At first, the forest interior is quiet but for the distant, almost painful croaking of Blue-banded Toucanets and a sudden unseen flickering of White-eared Solitaire wings. A few minutes later, a Grey-breasted Wood-Wren starts scolding somewhere ahead, and is immediately joined by an upset Speckled Hummingbird (photo left). Remembering an intimate daytime encounter with a pair of Rufescent Screech-Owls two weeks ago, I move slowly toward the noisily mobbing but still invisible birds. Around the bend, this time, is the object of my next Great Birding Moment - and then it's in view: large and mostly velvety black, with buffy markings around its eyes.
2010 got off to an exciting start for David Geale, as he guided a 27-day 
