Guiding Statistics 2008

Like 2007, I kept track of what went on in my life over the course of 2008. I saw some amazing places, incredible birds and (of course) had a wide variety of excellent adventures. Here is 2008 by number:

1465: Species of birds seen (incredibly close to last year's total of 1474, despite going to completely different places)

147: Days of guiding

112: Different beds slept in

65: clients that I guided (ranging in age from 7 to 79, from 5 different countries, in two languages)

57/28: flights taken/airports visited

14/6: countries visited/countries in which I guided (favorite guided trip: South Africa; favorite solo trip: Sichuan, China)

24: percent of income that came from tips (in four different currencies)

Only two months were spent entirely in a single country. February was spent in South Africa (but I visited three countries in the first two days of March--South Africa, India and Bhutan), and October was spent in Madagascar (but, again, I visited three different countries in the first two days of November--Madagascar, South Africa and Namibia). I spent less than one full day in three countries--Singapore, England and Germany--but I managed to get in some birding and/or sightseeing in all three.

Among my favorite places that I visited this year were the Tibetan Plateau in China, Madagascar's Masoala Peninsula, Bhutan's high Himalayan passes, Dzalanyama Forest in Malawi, the Erongo Mountains of Namibia and Yosemite National Park. Birding highlights are virtually impossible to narrow down, so here are a few that spring to mind: Ground Tit in China, Satyr Tragopan and Slender-billed Scimitar-Babbler in Bhutan, the great variety of rosefinches in China and Bhutan, Great Knot in Namibia, Boulder Chat in Malawi and Helmet Vanga in Madagascar. Mammal highlights were also many: Himalayan black bear in Bhutan, blue goat in China, red ruffed lemur in Madagascar, sperm whale in South Africa, leopards in Namibia and South Africa and tracking black rhino on foot in Namibia. And I can never see enough elephants.

I stayed in an incredible variety of hotels during the year. The best overall were Jardin du Roy in Isalo, Madagscar, Mvuu Wilderness Lodge in Liwonde National Park, Malawi and Erongo Wilderness Lodge in Namibia (all three are in incredible locations, have great birding, delicious food, spectacular rooms and outstanding service). The best in terms of location was Chez Arol on Madagascar's remote Masoala Peninsula, nestled between primary lowland rainforest and a deserted beach. Sichuan, China had the best and most interesting food, although breakfasts in Namibia and South Africa are second to none. Madagascar is far ahead in the worst service category (though the food is good), while the food was particularly unmemorable in Bhutan (though the service is excellent).

The best airport (in a class entirely of its own) was Singapore (free Playstation, movies and Internet, as well as comfortable places to rest). Singapore Airlines was the most impressive I flew this year. The worst airplane food was on Air Madagascar, showing absolutely no improvement from previous years. Apart from seafood, I count 16 different animals that I ate (though it was the various parts of the animals that I ate in China that were most interesting).

There are loads of good stories from the year--from crashing a car into a kudu in Namibia in January to going to a nightclub in Chengdu, China for my birthday in March to climbing a mountain in search of Boulder Chat in December in Malawi. But those I'll save for when I see you next.

Marvelous Masoala

I was lucky this year to end my two months in Madagascar with a trip to the Masoala Peninsula, probably my favorite place on the island. There are few places in the world where the trailhead for hiking in primary rainforest is a deserted beach (or, alternatively, you could start straight from the lodge!), but this is one of them. It is one of the most pristine areas of Madagascar, a huge island where over 80% of the native forests have been destroyed by humans. It was wonderful to see the huge trees, abundant frogs, and incredible bird and mammal life of Masoala.

Masoala, where the forest meets the beach.

Our lodge, Chez Arol, was nestled between a small village, primary rainforest of Masoala National Park, and a beautiful beach on the Bay of Antongil. We went snorkeling one day in a marine reserve three kilometers from the lodge, but sadly most of the coral was dead.

Our lodge, Chez Arol. They are beginning to grow pineapples, sugar cane, coconuts and bananas.

The village of Ambanizana was next to the lodge.

Without a doubt the birding highlight was watching a pair of Helmet Vangas (male, below) busily building a nest in a the fork of tree directly over a small river. This is undoubtedly one of the world's most remarkable looking birds, so having several hours to watch them at close range was certainly a treat.


My trip report with many more photos can be found in the tour reports section of Tropical Birding's website. Click on October 2008: Madagascar.

Rosefinches galore

Perhaps my favorite birds from my recent Asia trips have been rosefinches. They are beautiful, cooperative, diverse and are often a challenge to identify. There are probably more species than currently recognized--for example the The Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide (Rasmussen and Anderton 2005, Smithsonian and Lynx Edicions) splits the Himalayan and Chinese forms of both White-browed and Beautiful Rosefinches. The respective forms of both species were the most commonly seen rosefinches on my Bhutan and Sichuan trips this spring.

Below are a number of rosefinch photos from Sichuan; click on the photo to see a larger image. All photos were digiscoped with a Canon Powershot S-80 through a Swarovski AT-80 scope.

This strange rosefinch was photographed in the scrub above the town at the entrance to Jiuzhaigou National Park, at an elevation of about 2000m. It was about the size of a White-browed Rosefinch (see my photo of White-browed here) and had white outer tail feathers.

Male Chinese Beautiful Rosefinch at Zhegu Mountain, near Hongyuan. It was part of a flock of about 30 rosefinches (including the Streaked Rosefinches below) feeding on the road after the snow began to melt.

Three photos of Streaked Rosefinches (males above, female on the right), taken in the same flock as the Beautiful Rosefinch above. Note the female White-browed Rosefinch in the background of the photo on the right.

Three-banded Rosefinches (male on left, female on right) at Zhegu Mountain. A brief video of the male can be seen here.


This female Vinaceous Rosefinch was at the base of Emei Shan at 760m, the lowest elevation I saw any rosefinch. It was part of a flock of three, one male and two females.

Jacobsbaai Arctic Tern

Ken Behrens and I spent an excellent afternoon today birding in Jacobsbaai, along the Atlantic coast about 100km north of Cape Town. We went to have a look at the fantastic tern roost at this spot. We were not disappointed; there were hundreds of Antarctic Terns, with a handful of Swift Terns, at least one Common Tern, and the Arctic Tern in the photos below. Antarctic Tern is the site's big draw--it breeds in Antarctica and only makes its way to South Africa for the winter. We also added an out-of-place Damara Tern along the coast while we were seawatching. Click on the images to see them bigger.

Here the Arctic Tern is on the right of the large rock, dwarfed by the adult Antarctic Tern next to it.

Here's a flight shot by Ken.

A day in Frankfurt

One of the nice things about traveling such long distances is that I occasionally get long enough layovers that I can spend a day in a random location. In the last year I have had a day in Amsterdam, a morning in Singapore, three days in Ethiopia, a few hours in London, and, yesterday, a day in Frankfurt, all on layovers. I did a small bit of research on the internet before leaving for Frankfurt to figure out how to get to the city center from the airport.

I arrived with 15 Euros burning a hole in my pocket and departed with not a (Euro) cent to my name. It lasted me for train rides to and from the city, a bottle of water, a big soft pretzel and a big soft delicious bratwurst. I even got some birding in at the end of my stay in a lovely bit of forest adjacent to the stadium train station, the first stop from the airport. I saw two lifers--Blackcap and Pied Flycatcher, as a I slowly continue to rack up common European birds. I also particularly enjoyed watching a Winter Wren sing it's heart out from atop a dead snag.

This forest is very close to the airport and held plenty of birds, even in the midday heat when I was there. I saw things like European Robin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, European Nuthatch and Eurasian Jay.

This is a square in downtown Frankfurt. I conveniently lined up the photo so that the skyscaper behind in entirely blocked by the building you see.

Have just come from my hometown of Chicago, I couldn't resist this photo.

Blogging Bhutan

I was lucky enough to spend nearly three weeks of April in the kingdom of Bhutan, a tiny, rugged country nestled between Tibet, China and Assam, India in the eastern Himalayas. It is sparsely populated, heavily forested, peaceful and religious, and has wonderful birding. I was there for a recce--checking out the place so that we can run tours there in the future. April is a great time to go, since spring migrants are passing through on their way north and breeding birds are arriving in high mountains, plus the huge flowering rhododendron trees are at their spectacular peak. Admittedly, I say this about every place I go, but I am dying to get back to Bhutan.

I actually missed the first two days of the tour because of difficulties obtaining a visa to get me through India (there are few ways to get into Bhutan, the easiest for me coming from South Africa is to fly from Delhi). I was told they thought I might be a journalist trying to sneak into Tibet via India, and it took a visit to the vice consul of the Indian consulate in Johannesburg to sort it out. I was incredibly lucky to be able to change all of my flights (Cape Town to Joburg, Joburg to Mumbai, Mumbai to Delhi, Delhi to Paro, Bhutan via Kathmandu), so once I got the visa sorted I was able to be on my way.

Here are a few photos from the trip, taken by my boss Christian Boix.

This is the group birding along the road to Shemgang, in the central part of the country. That's me on the far left.

The man is selling fiddleheads, new growth of fiddlehead ferns that he has picked in the forest. It's a common food in Bhutan that we regularly ate and is pretty tasty.

All the major towns in Bhutan have a dzong, which usually is translated as fortress-monastery. The are built in strategic places to protect the towns, but now they serve as both monasteries and administrative centers. They are built without building plans (except in the architect's head) and, traditionally, entirely without nails (though they use nails in renovations we noticed).

It snowed on us a couple times at high elevations. This is at Chele La (Pass), near the capital of Thimphu. Unfortunately this was one of the days I missed.

Sichuan birds

I had a great time on my recent Sichuan (southwest China) trip. March was a really interesting time to be birding there, in large part because I could find no information on the Net about birding there at that time of year. Some wintering birds were still present, including a variety of waterfowl, a few raptors and some high-altitude species that were still at their lower wintering elevations.

I have posted a trip report on Surfbirds that can be found by clicking here or copy and paste this address: http://www.surfbirds.com/trip_report.php?id=1341

White-browed Rosefinch (male) was the most widespread rosefinch during the trip.

Hwamei, a kind of laughingthrush that is a very popular cagebird in China. This was the only one I saw, at Emei Shan

Kessler's Thrush in Hongyuan

The strange Ground Tit, one of the highlights of my trip, was fairly common on the Tibetan Plateau.

Sichuan, China

Speaking of rioting (Benji made it safely out of Cameroon after being stuck for over a week), I got back last week from Sichuan, China, where troops have recently moved in to squash any new protests that might arise in the Tibetan areas of the province. Incidentally, these areas were my favorite from my recent trip, an area of striking natural beauty and wonderful culture. The houses are all made of stone and prayer flags are abundant.

Apart from the birds, the food was the most interesting part of the trip. With the exception of a few breakfasts in Chengdu, all of the food was Sichuanese--delicious, spicy and, occasionally, rather strange to my western tastes. A few of the more interesting foods that I ate were duck tongue, duck stomach kebab, yak, yak entrails, pig's throat, chicket feet, frog, rabbit....

Here are a few photos from the trip. I'll post some bird photo soon.

Eating hotpot in Chengdu. In the center of the table is a pot of boiling liquid, split in two, half with a very spicy combination of oil, water and huge block of chili paste (the longer it boils the more of the chili gets mixed in and the spicier it gets) and the other half is a soup. You take the meat and vegetables and dump then in the liquid to cook them. On the left is my guide Ginseng, on the right is my driver Mr. He and my other guide Maggie.

Me eating a duck's tongue at hotpot.

A statue of someone riding a yak on a snowy morning in Hongyuan on the Tibetan Plateau.

And someone actually riding a yak.

Digging out of the snow.

A couple of Tibetan guys stopped to see what we were looking at.

Problems in Cameroon (or: A Guide's Worst Fear Realized)

I just got off the phone with my good friend and Tropical Birding colleague Benji Schwartz, who is currently in a (well-secured) hotel in Kumba, Cameroon, watching buildings burn and listening to the pop pop pop of gunfire. It appears that the problems that have been rocking Cameroon since the weekend have not made the international press, being just more of the same out of Africa. What appears to have spurred the protests and violence was a simultaneous rise in petrol prices and the country's long time president deciding that he wants to change the constitution to allow himself to run for another term in 2011, by which time he will have been president of one of the world's poorest (and most corrupt) countries for 28 years.

When I talked to Benji yesterday, he had bribed his way through a roadblock in order to make it to Kumba from Korup National Park. He arrived in town on foot after another roadblock wouldn't let his vehicle through. Violence broke out maybe yesterday afternoon (I'm not sure exactly when) in Kumba, and from reports online it seems like there has been violence in Douala, the country's economic center and opposition stronghold, since the weekend. Transportation has been shut down around the country, including the in the administrative capital, Yaounde. Police have violently broken up protests in Douala, ostensibly because holding demonstrations is banned.

Here is an interesting link with information and photos about the last couple of days in Cameroon:

http://www.postnewsline.com/2008/02/cameroonians-go.html#more