Guiding Statistics 2009

Unfortunately birding tours--believe it or not--are not always considered one of life's necessities. Thus my work, like that of many other people, was down in 2009 from what it had been over the previous three years. I guided fewer tours, traveled less, and saw fewer birds in 2009 than my previous years based in South Africa. On the other hand, with more spare time I got to participate in a Field Museum expedition to Malawi, something that I have always dreamed of doing. I also got to spend more time at home in Chicago as well as guiding extensively in the United States. For my 2007 statistics, click here, and for 2008, click here.

I guided only 99 days this year, down about 1/3 from 2007 and 2008. However, when you add in my 47-day Field Museum expedition to Malawi, it evens out. I saw 1113 species of birds of which 65 I had never seen before. I took 28 flights and visited 17 airports, both well down from previous years. I visited 10 countries, but of those only five (four in Africa plus the US) were for guiding. I guided in five countries (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and the US) and three American states (Texas, Ohio, and California). I slept in 74 different beds. I spent several entire months this year in a single country--all the US (and only in June didn't I fly)--but in December alone I visited six different countries (on three continents). Over 26% of my guiding income came from tips (thanks!). After spending 6 months between 2006-2008 in Madagascar, I didn't visit it in 2009, largely due to its recent (and ongoing) political instability.

As usual, I went to some amazing places. Among new places I visited, the Nyika Plateau in northern Malawi was particularly spectacular. I enjoyed seeing Victoria Falls both at its peak in March and at its lowest in early December. Spending most of May at Magee Marsh in Ohio was eye-opening; warbler migration there was beyond anything I had expected or experienced. I also had a full day layover in Qatar, where I rented a car and had a thoroughly enjoyable and productive day of birding in the desert. My favorite hotel (that I hadn't stayed in before) was Matetsi Water Lodge on the south bank of the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe. Grootberg Lodge in northwest Namibia was also amazing and has one of the best settings of any hotel I've even stayed in; Nxamaseri Lodge on an island in the Okavango River in Botswana also deserves mention.

Bird highlights were, of course, many. A few standouts: Scarlet-tufted Malachite Sunbird in Nyika, on my last day there, after spending a month searching; two much-anticipated LBJ lifers in South Africa--Bushveld Pipit in Nylsvlei Reserve in March and Monotonous Lark in the Free State in December; African Pitta (twice!) in Malawi and Zambia; a migration of Openbill Storks and other birds in Zambia; Hoopoe Lark in Qatar; Black-whiskered Vireo in Texas; Great Gray Owl in Yosemite. Black-lored Cisticola was pretty awesome, for a cisticola.

Likewise, I saw lots of great mammals over the course of the year. These included an up-close encounter with a leopard while walking in Malawi; humpback whales next to the boat in Monterey Bay; elephants wandering through the park office's yard in Vwaza Marsh, Malawi; finally seeing desert black rhino after an adventure-filled day in the Namib Desert; two different lion-killed giraffes, with the lions still in attendance--one in Kruger, South Africa and the other in Etosha, Namibia; and the many small mammals trapped during field work in Malawi.

I heart Namibia

I just got back from a truly awesome tour. It reaffirmed why Namibia is my favorite place to guide. We saw tons of great birds and mammals, stayed at a wide variety of very cool lodges, ate many, many different animals, saw two of Africa's mightiest rivers, swam with a pet otter, kayaked with fur seals, and bungee jumped off the Victoria Falls bridge. All-in-all, a good time.

The trip started in Namibia's capital, Windhoek, then went down the mountains and through the desert to the coast at Walvis Bay, then through the Erongo Mountains to Damaraland, across Etosha National Park, through the Kavango region into Bostwana, back into Namibia and across the Caprivi Strip, and ultimately into Zambia, where the trip ended at Victoria Falls.

Even though the trip report is posted and includes lots of awesome photos, mostly by Larry Kay, (click here, it's a pdf), I took lots of cool photos that are more appropriate for this forum. Some of them are below.

Thanks to a tip from my colleague Ken Behrens, we were able to see lions at a giraffe kill in Etosha. It was pretty awesome, and sort of gross, and a little bit sad. It was a huge adult bull giraffe, not an easy thing for lions to take down. If you look closely (or, better yet, click on the image to blow it up), you will see two lions in the background, their bellies completely stuffed with giraffe meat.

Elephant in front of the setting sun in Etosha.

A favorite tour activity: photographing roadkill. In this case, a scrub hare.

Me and a big termite mound near Outjo.

Sarah photographing an elephant in Etosha.

The Kay family in front of Shamvura's massive Carmine Bee-eater colony along the Okavango River in Namibia. If I had turned around, I would have entered into a staring contest with a group of hippos.

Perhaps a photo that only a birder can appreciate: these are Dune Lark tracks in the Namib Desert sand (and yes, we saw the bird too!).

Back to Africa

I arrived back in Cape Town a few days ago from a wonderful summer in the States. I found that, in the time I was gone, my refrigerator had broken and been discarded (and not been replaced); among the items stolen in our house robbery was my beloved (now dearly departed) Leatherman; and summer has not yet arrived to the bottom of the continent, so I huddle in my sleeping bag at night because, along with the knife and fridge, my sheets also vanished during my absence.

Table Mountain and the beach near my house, thankfully, are both still here.

And the sun still sets over the Atlantic.

Cinematic birding

I made my first foray into video-making last weekend, with the able assistance (she might claim direction) of my sister Rebecca. We headed down to Montrose harbor and environs and filmed some clips of me, birds, and me talking about birds, and put it all together into a single, semi-coherant video. Enjoy!

Working the migrant traps

Not my usual destinations, I realize, but I had a great time working this spring at some of the world's best migrant traps, High Island, Texas, and Magee Marsh, Ohio. These two spots are world renowned birding spots during spring migration (especially High Island), and deservedly so. While I missed the peak of spring migration at High Island, it was still a good time (I even saw a new bird: Black-whiskered Vireo).

Magee Marsh, if anything, is underrated. Simply put, it rocked my world. The birds, the crowds, and the general atmosphere were unlike anything I've ever encountered in the birding world. The birds are amazing and the crowds of birders don't detract from the ambience. Indeed, the combination of thousands of warblers and thousands of birders creates a completely unique experience that must be seen to be believed. As Iain Campbell said, if you're anywhere else on the planet during May, you're in the wrong place.

Seeing as how (roughly) billions of bird photos are taken over the course of May at Magee Marsh (for some good ones, look at Sam Woods' many posts from Magee here), I'm posting more interesting photos: the crowds. One of the great things about Magee is that when something particularly interesting is found, you hear about it. Then again, so does everybody else, but if all goes well (as it did in all the cases below), everyone gets to see the bird.

The biggest crowds of the spring were for the Mothers' Day Golden-winged Warbler. Suffice it to say, a lot of people saw that bird. In the green hat and gray jacket in the bottom-middle of the picture is my colleage Sam Woods, who also saw the one Golden-winged Warbler in history that was seen by more people--the only one ever seen in England.

Yes, they are looking at a bird. A Kentucky Warbler, no less. There is about two feet of land between the boardwalk, where everyone is standing, and a pond, and the warbler was walking around on the ground on that narrow strip of dirt and willows.

A popular bird later in the season was a female Cerulean Warbler that proved faithful to one particular area of the boardwalk (you'd never know it, but this is the same spot in the Kentucky Warbler-watching picture above).

I hope to see you out there next spring!

Back again: Victoria Falls and eastern South Africa

I just finished up guiding a two week tour that started with three nights on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls, then flew to Johannesburg and spent the rest of the time traveling around eastern South Africa before spending a final night in Swaziland.

This time of year is late in the rainy season, so most areas were extremely lush. The grass was long, the foliage was green and the bush was thick. Roads were also very muddy; we were lucky to be helped out of some soft mud by a couple of friendly South Africans while in Nylsvlei Reserve north of Johannesburg.

Victoria Falls was certainly impressive this time of year. The amount of water going over the falls was incredible, and it certainly lived up to its local name--Mosi-oa-Tunya, The Smoke that Thunders. At times you could scarcely see the falls because of the mist created from the falling water. It was incredible walking along the paths just opposite the falls. Despite the blue sky overhead, at times you thought you were walking through a huge storm so much water was raining back down.

This is the gorge below Zambezi River's gorge below Victoria Falls, with a very small section of the falls mostly obscured by mist in the background. With all of the water particles in the air, it's a rainbow-laden place.

We experiences a lot of wet mornings on this trip, but this guy was truly soaked after walking through the high, dew-soaked grass. This is a Slender Mongoose that paused on the road to check us out at Nylsvlei Reserve in South Africa.

On our final morning in Kruger, we came across a group of Spotted Hyenas. A few of them were in a culvert next to the road eating a freshly-killed warthog.

Just back from Namibia and Botswana

Namibia is my favorite country in which I guide. High on my list of reasons why I like Namibia so much is the fact that it is the second least densely populated country in the world (right there after Mongolia) with a mere 2.5 people per sq. km (fewer than 7 people per square mile). It has an excellent system of paved and dirt roads which have virtually no traffic. I've driven hundreds of kilometers without seeing a single other vehicle. This is not to mention the great birding and fantastic mammals, good food and wide variety of accommodations, including many places it would be fair to call unique, in a way that only a Namibian hotel can be. On this trip we spent five nights in Botswana--more than our usual two--so I got to see more of that country than I had previously seen.

On my most recent trip, which ended earlier this month, I got to take the company camera, a proper SLR, to play around with. Here are a few photos from the trip.

This is a Rueppell's Korhaan, a species only found in the deserts of Namibia and southwest Angola. I particularly like this photo because it really encapsulates the region this species which it lives: an endemic bird, dry grass, mountains constantly in the backdrop, blue skies and the region's most iconic plant in the foreground, Welwitschia mirabilis.


One of my personal highlights of the trip was seeing my first Cape fox. We found a female at a den on an afternoon drive in Etosha National Park, then the next morning found two cubs (one pictured here) playing at the entrence of the den. We then watched the female emerge from the den, run off about 100 meters, catch a large rodent and bring it back to be devoured in one piece by one of the cubs. It was an extraordinary event to witness.


The mousebird family (Coliidae) is found only in Africa. White-backed Mousebird is a common inhabitant of dry scrub in western South Africa and Namibia. This one was photographed on an afternoon outing to Windhoek's sewage treatment plant (maybe I'll make a separate post about birding sewage treatment plants of the world).


African Jacana is a very common resident of wetlands throughout Africa, including the Okavango Delta, where this one was photographed in a channel near Nxamaseri Island Lodge. They are colloquially known as lilytrotters for their habit of walking on lily pads, as this one is doing.



I like this bird, Fan-tailed Widowbird, in part because it reminds of a Red-winged Blackbird. It's sitting on a stalk of papyrus, with a piece of papyrus in its beak that it will use as nesting material. The photo was also taken near Nxamaseri.

Geckos alive

Among my favorite animals are geckos, those funny pad-toed, round-headed and often very vocal lizards. They are frequent inside buildings in warm climes, and more often then not my hotel room will have a resident gecko or two. One room I stayed in in Namibia (at Erongo Wilderness Lodge) had 11 geckos at one time--six in the bathroom alone. Fortunately, they eat lots of bugs so they're a good addition to the furniture. They tend to go after bugs which have been attracted to lights. (An aside: birds also tend to be attracted to such bugs, and in turn, birders. I have spent many early morning hours, particularly in Ecuador, watching birds munching on bugs that had been attracted to lights left on all night.) In Madagascar one time I noticed a bug stuck behind a curtain of a dining room window. I watched as a gecko came from the other side of the room, fifteen feet away, walking in spurts towards the bug, before dashing behind the curtain and having itself a nice snack.

Nonetheless, I was surprised when I walked into my bedroom in Cape Town last night to find a very tiny gecko adorning the wall (in the photos below). I hope he likes eating cockroaches.


Madagascar has an incredible diversity of geckos. One very common endemic genus is the day geckos--genus Phelsuma. This is a very common one, Phelsuma lineata, on an endemic Pandanus (sometimes in English called screwpine) in the rainforests of Madagascar.



However, there is no question as to the world's most remarkable geckos. That title belongs to another genus endemic to Madagascar, the Uroplatus leaf-tailed geckos. They are nocturnal, ultra-camouflaged rainforest reptiles, who pass the day looking exactly like whatever it is they are resting on. The photo below is of the largest species, Uroplatus fimbriatus, giant leaf-tailed gecko. I took the photo on the island of Nosy Mangabe (Nosy meaning 'island' in Malagasy). They are virtually impossible to find without the assistance of a local guide.

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.