Friday, April 18, 2008

March all wrapped up














Pretty much the same routine as February (and every other month, really). No Harpy sightings but we did see the Lovely Cotinga at Oro and Calera. Who says they're rare?? Caught a few more fun birds like the Crimson-Collared Tanager.













Hired two new techs so now the bird crew theoretically consists of 6 people if we were ever all in the same place, but that seems to be incredibly difficult to do for some reason. We did flyovers of the Bladen in a teeny little plane but more on that later. The savanna burned to a crisp. That was new for me. My mom and aunt came down for a visit to experience the jungle and what not but that also needs its very own posting. That seems sufficient for now...













So after looking through my pictures I found a few more birds of interest. A Pygmy Kingfisher. Super tiny, unband-able (-ible?) and lost in the jungle?


























A couple of male Black-throated Shrike Tanagers













Not sure why it took me so long, but I finally hiked upstream a bit at Oro and it is really quite stunning up there. I'm sure it gets even better if you keep going but I'll take what I can get.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Bladen Flyovers

We went out for one day to do flyovers of the Bladen. Conveniently, the previous day it had rained pretty much all day (so much for the so called "dry season") which made getting out just that much more exciting. Hence the rather muddy truck.








The plane was a little thing but some how you could squish 6 people in there including the pilot.



























The entrance road to BFREE with the throughly charred savanna.

































BFREE from above...













The Bladen from above. How you are supposed to find an eagle nest in all this mess I don't know but it was fun none the less.