Guiding statistics

As a fun year-end post, I though I would write about what my year working as a bird guide entailed.

In 2007 I took 56 flights, visiting 24 different airports. I visited 10 countries (not counting layovers in Dubai and Addis Ababa) on 5 continents. June was the only month in which I didn't fly and the only month spent entirely in one country (South Africa). I saw 1464 species of birds. I guided 95 paying participants (including 57 in three weeks at the American Birding Association international conference in Ecuador) on a total of 139 days in five countries. Tips accounted for 13% of my total year's income and were received in three different currencies. Between 8 November and 19 December I drove 13,800km (or about 8550 miles, greater than the distance from New York to Los Angeles, back to NY, and back again to LA).

What will 2008 bring?

The Big Tree revisited

Another month, another tour. This one rocked South Africa. We saw 530 birds (and heard a few more) and saw 58 mammals.

Now I'm off to Namibia, Ethiopia (briefly), Thailand, Ethiopia (ditto), Namibia and South Africa before finally coming back to Cape Town at the beginning of February. I'll try to write a blog post in there somewhere.

Here are a couple non-bird photos from the latest tour when we visited the famous Big Tree. Famous both for being appropriately named and for its Mottled Spinetail roost. It came through on both counts. We had a charming local guide Simon who gave us the adult tour, showing off ALL of the images in the tree's knots and branches, featuring, among other things, a rhino, a penguin, both male and female genitalia and an ostrich foot. Some were more believable than others.

Compare the tree in summer in these photos with what it looked like in winter in this blog post from August. One of the best things about guiding is visiting sites multiple times, allowing me to see how they change over time. This area was at the end of a drought the last time I visited in August and entirely brown, so seeing it in summer so green was a very stark contrast.

These are the trip participants, Jonathan (left) and Michael.

A closer view of the tree and the group.

Pristine Madagascar

My Madagascar tour this year included a new extension to the northeast of the island, to an incredible national park called Marojejy. Marojejy, which apparently has several meanings, among them "many rocks" and "much water," is also the name of the 2100+ meter peak that dominates the park. With the exception of a few small logging concessions from the middle part of the 20th century, the park has been left virtually untouched by man. It is undoubtedly the most pristine forest I have visited in Madagascar, with huge trees, magnificent strangler figs and abundant animal life. Its signature animals are Helmet Vanga, an incredible and bizarre bird that we had great views of, and Silky Sifaka, and extremely rare lemur that I looked for, but didn't see.

The view from Mantella Camp

The park contains three camps, which consist of simple bungalows each with two beds. Each camp has a common area with a kitchen, if it can be called such, with a number of charcoal stoves for cooking. I only saw Mantella Camp (the first camp, named after a very colorful and poisonous genus of small frogs) and Camp Marojejia (the second camp, named after a genus of palm trees that can be found just above the camp and is, in turn, named after the park). Both camps have spectacular views (see photos).

The view from Camp Marojejia. Note the cabins in the bottom right.

The walk to the first camp is 7 km, the first three through rice paddies and countryside. You then enter the forest and have a gorgeous, hilly 4 km walk to the camp, most of it through primary forest. We had porters carry in our bags and food and a fabulous cook who kept us satiated through the journey. Our guides, Moises and Doris, showed great enthusiasm for the park and were a pleasure to be with.

Me with our sifaka tracker Doris and guide Moises (right) at the park entrance on our way out

We had to wait a while in Mandena, where the trail into the park starts, for our ride to pick us up. We had a great time playing with the group of children who gathered around us, taking pictures, playing birdsongs from my iPod, and looking at things through my scope.

Back from Western Cape tour

I'm just back to Cape Town after guiding a group of eight Japanese birders around the Western Cape. This was my second time guiding a Japanese group, and once again they were a lot of fun. I took them to sushi for dinner one night in Cape Town. I thought it was delicious; they weren't impressed. Nonetheless, the tour went great and the birding was very good (as it should be in spring!).

Highlights of the tour included all of the possible bustards, three of which are endemic: Ludwig's (with a very small chick) and Denham's Bustards, and Karoo and Southern Black Korhaans; an amazing pelagic experience with a truly astounding number of birds, plus great looks at Soft-plumaged Petrel, Northern and Southern Giant Petrels, Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, and thousands of the beautiful Pintado Petrel; great looks at Cinnamon-breasted Warbler; the rare African Crowned Eagle; great looks at Cape Rockjumper; and of course much more. A few photos from the tour (click on them for larger images):

Cape Rockjumper is one of the most sought-after Cape endemics. This banded bird is an often-viewed individual, resident at Sir Lowery's Pass, just east of Cape Town.

Black-headed Canary is a nomadic Karoo endemic. It was
particularly numerous this trip in the Tankwa Karoo.

Ecuador ABA conference

I'm just back from Ecuador, a country very close to my heart, where I was guiding for the American Birding Association international conference that Tropical Birding hosted. The conference went incredibly well and everyone--hosts, ABA, guides and--most importantly--the participants left extremely happy. The total conference bird list ended up at 460+--not bad for six days of birding based out of Quito, Ecuador's high altitude capital.

My own trip began with a nearly three day journey from Tulear, Madagascar, to Sacha Lodge in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest. There I helped out on a trip led by my friend Olger Licuy.
I then returned to Quito, where I guided day trips at the conference; I was fortunate to guide to four different places in five days: Papallacta, Milpe, Antisana and Rio Silanche. The day trips were grueling--very early mornings, long days and ending with a social hour for all the participants and guides, but it was great meeting new people every day and getting back to sites that I was very familiar with from my time living and guiding in Ecuador. After the conference I co-guided an awesome trip to Sacha Lodge in the Ecuadorian Amazon with Marcelo Andy, where we recorded about 270 species, actually seeing almost 250 of them. I personally saw over 400 species in my nearly three weeks in the country. Here are a couple photos from the Sacha post-trip, with more to come.

Tody-flycatchers and tody-tyrants are among my favorite birds, and certainly favorite among the huge flycatcher family. This Yellow-browed Tody-Flycatcher was nesting in the giant kapok tree around which Sacha's wooden canopy tower is built.

White-lored Tyrannulet is a canopy species that is difficult to see from the ground. This photo was taken from Sacha's fabulous canopy walkway. From this photo it is clear the bird is very misnamed--its lores are entirely black! It would be better named White-browed Tyrannulet.


Pygmy Marmosets are among the world's smallest monkeys and are a highlight of every visit to Sacha.

This anole lizard was munching an aptly-named 88 butterfly while we were enjoying our own picnic lunch.

The Big Tree

Here are a few images from recent trips. The top photo is of myself (left) and Benji Schwartz, another Tropical Birding guide, in front of the Big Tree. That's what it's called. And it's accurate--apparently it is the biggest baobab tree in Africa. It is also a huge pain to get to, being in a remote part of northeastern South Africa in an area with few (and, for the most part, terrible) roads. We drove much too fast over 60km of corrugated dirt road to get there, somehow avoiding any flat tires. We decided to take a different route out and very nearly got lost, but we made it. The tree is a well-known roost for Mottled Spinetails, of which there were over 100 in the area.

If you look closely, I'm standing in front of the tree.

A pair of Brown-headed Parrots in Kruger National Park, taken on another recent trip.

New blog sort of!

You may notice some changes in my blog. For example, there will be regular posts. I also changed the name and will likely be changing it again.

Basically, this blog will now be about the life of a full time bird guide (or, perhaps, full time bird guides).

Let me start with links to my latest trip report. Benji Schwartz and I had a great trip to the northeast of South Africa. We both visited new places and familiar ones. We were surprised to build such a big bird list despite migrants not having arrived yet. As I emphasize in the trip report, birds weren't the only highlights. The two leopards were perhaps more exciting than any of the birds.

New trip report

Things have been busy here. I just got back from a fantastic trip to Namibia and have finished my trip report and posted it on Tropical Birding's website. If the hyperlink doesn't work, the URL is: http://www.tropicalbirding.com/tripReports/TR_Namibia_Jan07.htm

I'll be posting more photos and stories here over the next week before my next trip (three weeks all around South Africa) so please check back.

Enjoy!