Where Will You Be in One Year?
By Corey • December 3, 2009 • 9 commentsI can see it now. A lush, green, rainforest. Myriad birdcalls and songs echoing from the trees while multihued butterflies flutter from flower to flower. The steam from a recent rain rising into the air and the sweat running off my brow as I enjoy the first day of an eight-day trip through lowland tropical rain forest in Peru. That’s what I’ll be doing in one year: would you like to join me?
Gunnar Engblom of Kolibri Expeditions has graciously invited me to join him in Peru for eight days of non-stop birding (well, non-stop except when we are looking at butterflies and mammals and reptiles and plants) in December of 2010 as part of a bird blogging promotion that has a different bird blogger in Peru each month from this December until next. The price if you are a blogger or on Facebook and tell the world about the community-based birding lodges project that we’ll be visiting is merely $1,580 US ($1,680 otherwise), a pretty great deal for eight days of lodging, meals, transportation, and guiding. A round-trip flight between Lima and New York City prices out at about $600 (though one can’t buy tickets this far in advance so I making this estimate based on October 2010). If you add incidentals and airport tax it looks like for around $2,500 you can have a great eight-day trip to Peru loaded with birds!
What will we be seeing? Well, some of the possible highlights include Fiery-capped Manakin, the hopefully-not-too-elusive Elusive Antpitta, Ocellated Poorwill, many species of monkey, Giant Otter, a clay lick that attracts hundreds of parrots, macaws, parrotlets, and parakeets, and much, much more!
And, as it says on the Kolibri Expeditions Birding Tours website:
Now you can help the communities of Amarakaeri communal reserve next to Manu National Park to get in to eco-tourism as a sustainable alternative to logging, mining and oil exploitation. Realistically, tourism will not be able to generate as big income as exploiting the natural resources, but if there is an alternative 100% sustainable industry present as well,such as this eco-tourism project, it wil put very desirable pressure on those industries to become cleaner and more sustainable. Many eyes will be watching! And the bloggers will help spreading the word.
Specifics about the trip can be found here and the exact dates are 3-10 December 2010. Extensions are available if you want to explore other ecosystems. I can’t wait to go see some great birds in Peru and I hope you decide to join me! Feel free to ask any questions you might have in the comments.
Braggart!!!!
What’s happening in the bloggosphere, Patrick constantly reminding everyone he’s seen his SECOND Ivory Gull, you mentioning you’ve seen 3 of the 5 recent NYC rarities, now you tell us you’ll be in Peru next year…
Aaaaaargh!!! I’ll be in friggin’ blinkin’ boring Leimen all the while!
Yes, that’s where I’ll be.
But I’ll tell you something: Smew?
Bah, who needs it?
Smew are so common, so incredibly common and I’ve seen so many of them that they are BORING to me, hear me, BORING!
Can you spell T-R-A-S-H-B-I-R-D?
* Sob *
I just lied about the Smew being boring.
Please, can’t you blog about a birding trip where all you saw is House Sparrows?
It would ease the pain.
Thankyou.
Er, basically I meant to say “congrats”.
Could be worse, Jochen. What if Smew were brown?
Come to think of it, what if you could get Smew to eat those little shrimp with all the carotenoids in them? Then you’d have pink Smew. That wouldn’t be boring. Confusing, yes. Boring, no.
Back on topic - well, in one year, I’m planning to be neck-deep in student debt. But if by some miracle and/or disaster that does not occur…
I mean the male Smew here, of course. Don’t mean to be androcentric.
@Carrie: Ha!
A pink Smew would be truly confusing, but I suppose it would look too girly to do the species’ popularity much good! In case we ever find a pink one, I’ll propose to name the form “Manga Smew”.
And in one year, you’ll have to spend some money travelling to Peru for tax reasons, with all the profit you made publishing a novel … or two? Always “or two”!
Thank you for a wonderful summary! Interesting to note that the minimum volunteer time has changed - I’ve worked with macaws in the tropics at other places and always wanted to go to Tambopata… but the minimum used to be two months, a bit long for a working type! Will check into it and hopefully volunteer within the next year or two. Best wishes!
@Sher: I think maybe you meant to comment here?
[...] Corey Finger from 10000 birds is cordially invited to host the trip in December, 2010 to Manu. Here is his blog posts about his expectations of the Manu trip. [...]
A Smew?, wow… it would be a life bird for me!