Emails of interest from Birdingpals

[birding]

Some of you may be interested in this email to me from a Birdingpal in Illinois.
Trophy hunters can write off canned hunts and big game safaris at taxpayers'
expense - help end this cruelty loophole: http://go.care2.com/66836

[birding]

Knud

I came across the site whilst researching for a trip to Costa Rica. i have had a fantastic response from the birders I have contacted there which is why Ive registered myself. Its a superb idea and one I will definately be using regularly I hope.

Cheers
Alan Firth

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Dear Knud,

I would like to comment on the excellent assistance I received from a BirdingPal whom I contacted through your website. Dr. Liang Wei, of Hainan Normal University in Haikou, responded to my emails prior to visiting Hainan, answering my questions about birding on the island. He met me at the airport and made all arrangements for me, and accompanied me to Jiangfengling Nature Reserve in the south part of the island where he helped me to find target birds.

Dr. Wei has done extensive ornithological research in the area, particularly with the Hainan Leaf-Warbler, of which I saw several flocks. His knowledge and ability to communicate with me in English greatly enhanced my visit and observation of the birdlife on the island. I was also delighted to see the Hainan Blue-Flycatcher, Chestnut Bulbul, and Yellow-billed Nuthatch. The endemic race of the Chinese Bulbul was observed several times during my very brief visit.

BirdingPal has been a great tool for me, and I wish to thank Liang Wei publicly for his expert help.

Pearl S. Jordan

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Knud: I thoroughly enjoy being a Birdingpal. I always answer queries and all my info is up to date. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I guide all summer every summer for FREE (!), often introducing birders to new territories like Southeast Arizona, Texas, or Florida. I don't charge because I LOVE birding. I am a teacher and have my summers free, anyway, so rather than bird alone, I simply find birders who want a guide and show them the birds.

Michael McQuerrey
moderator, Kerncobirding rare bird alert
Bakersfield, California

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Please allow me to offer a word of praise for the Birding Pal program.

My wife and I recently visited Australia for the first time. With the aid of four Pals we were able to observe 282 species of birds from WTP to Kakadu NP, NT, most of them lifers for us, in about three weeks. I recorded about 5,000 digital TIFF images, 400 or so of which will be posted to www.worldbirder.com for everyone to enjoy.

I can't tell you how much our association with our Birding Pals enhanced our enjoyment of your glorious country; you are not only dedicated, knowledgeable birders but also very effective good-will ambassadors.

With gratitude,
Robert Hawkins
St. Petersburg, FL

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Hi Sally,
The BEST place for your few short hours, would be the HENDERSON BIRD VIEWING PONDS.
They are situated on the BOULDER HIGHWAY, about 7 miles east of the STRIP(ALSO AIRPORT)
I shall send you some follow up information.
Donn

----- Original Message -----
From: Sally Michaud
To: nvbirder@msn.com
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 3:36 PM
Subject: saw you on birdpal


Hi D. Blake, my name is Sally and I will be in Las Vegas next Monday. I only have a few short hours to bird on Monday morning, and was wondering if you had any suggestions for me. I am pretty much a brand new birder (life list 123) but the daughter of a very serious birder (life list 600+). She showed me the birdpal website and I just thought I would check with you. Any ideas would be appreciated...I think anything I see out there will be a new bird for me.

Sally Michaud
Ringgold, GA

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Dear Knud,
Thank you for the update. This is a wonderful service to birders, and I want to thank you for having made it possible. I have used the service severa times, both as a seeker and as a guide. I have met some very nice people that way. Thanks again.
Sincerely,
Ellery McClintock
Atlanta, GA, USA

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Thanks again for hooking me up with Bern, Archie & Dave during my stay in Coalville. I had a GREAT time with them and I will always remember how nice they all were. They each took great care to make sure that I saw whatever they saw and that nothing went unidentified. If I had been left to my own devices I wouldn't have seen half of the birds on the list below! Please pass along my thanks & gratitude! I also enjoyed seeing the beautiful countryside in that area - but of course that's one of the great things about birding - it usually takes you to beautiful places!

I hope that someday I can repay the favor, either directly to you or to someone else through Birding Pal. I can't say enough great things about the Birding Pal idea, it really worked for me. Be sure to get in touch if you or any of your pals pay a visit anywhere close to Maryland. I'd love to take you birding in some of my favorite places!

Here's the list of what I saw while I was in England this time. I saw all but #43 during my two days in Leicestershire! Thanks again!!

1. rook
2. cormorant
3. great crested grebe
4. goldeneye
5. tufted duck
6. teal
7. mistle thrush
8. pied wagtail
9. grey wagtail
10. peregrin
11. stock dove
12. long-tailed tit
13. chaffinch
14. grey heron
15. magpie
16. robin
17. treecreeper
18. blue tit
19. "jenny" wren
20. wood pigeon
21. jackdaw
22. dunnock
23. green finch
24. reed bunting
25. skylark
26. meadow pipit aka "mipit"
27. kestrel
28. common redshank
29. lapwing
30. blackbird
31. great tit
32. carrion crow
33. sand martin
34. greylag
35. mute swan
36. canada goose
37. coot
38. mallard
39. pochard
40. wigeon
41. ruddy duck
42. moorhen
43. common gull

Sarah
Cabin John, MD
BirdNerd3@aol.com
www.pbase.com/sarahbee

[birding]

Dear Knud
You are right! I have a good life. Good family, good friends(like you), beautiful country etc. I always thank God for all these blessings
I think you have a good life too. My father enjoys a lot from this small love. I think you have more opportunity than my (good) father to enjoy your life.
About birdwatching in Iran, as you know, Iran is one of the youngest countries in the world, with millions of young educated people and a four season and a diverse nature. Also it is a rich country. But against all these benefits, we have some problems for extending our birdwatching society.
The most important problem is that we dont have enough correct information about our attractions.
Now Im looking to the "Birdwatching year book of 2000" from England. They have updated Bird Atlas from every province of their country. Of course we have some field guides and if we refer to the book which is called Important Bird Areas of the Middle East by M.I.Evans, we can find some good information, but they are not enough and update.
I think at first we need to start a research. Also some people like Babak Musavi have lots of information, but its some times difficult to find them. We need to make an updated information bank.
I hope we can get some helps from our eco-tour department in our tourism office. They have tons of money and they are responsible for executing some of these projects. Of course if they dont do it, well start ourselves, but still they didnt refuse our request for these projects.
Also we have good experiences in amateur activities from our Amateur Astronomical Society. If you look at the best international magazines of amateur astronomy, like Sky&Telescope, Mercury and Astronomy youll certify that our two decades of activities in amateur astronomy was really successful. Ill send you a photo from our last Messier Marathon (the competition of the night sky observing) in Kavir national park. You see about 140 young boys and girls from more than 40 cities of Iran. Many of these boys and girls can also be good birdwatchers. They have good binoculars, cameras and a great love to the nature.
At last but not least, I believe that this crazy show about Middle East and our nuclear program will be finished during the next near years. If you come to Iran, Im sure youll find it much more different from our neighbors. We are not an Arabic country. The previous record of our civilization returns to more than 7000 years ago. We have about 5000 years recorded history. We are in the heart of the world, where connects east to west. We are very rich, both in financial and in the human resources.
I believe that the world must accept Iran as a local power and we must coordinate with the world. This is the only way beyond us.
Then Im sure Iran will be a good target for birwatchers, and it can extend our birdwatching society very fast.
Now we must extend our knowledge, work very hard, look at what other countries have done and use from their experiences and extend our connections with them and then we can invite birdwatchers from other countries to come to Iran and enjoy from the beauties of our land
With Best Wishes
Poorang

[birding]

This is an email I received a few days ago, and I would be very much interested in anyones opinion regarding this subject.
Birdingpal has been running for five years and I receive very few complains (maybe 10 a year) and I think this one is the strongest ever.
90% of complains I get, is from a Pal using her/his own car to take a visitor birding all day, and after a full day of driving around and maybe even supplying lunch, the guest barely say thank you and no offer to of share any expenses. I myself had one person like this a few years ago and I must admit I was a bit surprised (I even supplied a cool beer for our lunch).
As a professional guide trying to make a living, it is more serious when people are not dealing with them fairly and I can understand the frustration.
I am also posting this on the "Pro forum" and hope to get some replies from the professional guides.


Hi Knud:
Thank you for your mail. How is the weather in Ontario? Here very soon we will have spring but there are no green grass until october.
In relation with the theme guides - birder, I belive that it?s neccesary a
critic review. Many persons ask me for services, routes, hotels, cars and
certainly, for birds. Some said that they are "professional birders". I
don?t know for what they need the adjetive professional. Maybe for better
services or for more high services costs?. For me, of course its a pleasure
to give this information for free, but when this birder ask for to take the
day for to guide him I need to charge for the day that I don?t work in my
regular work. Certain persons says "In the next day ... of the month ... I
will require your services". OK. I arrange with my agenda waiting for this
person and suspending my own works or the time that other birder also like together. But the last day this person say: I?m sorry, I cannot go. Or
eventually say nothing and I?m waiting in the airport to nobody.
Really, Knud, it?s frustating and a lottery. And when you ask for a deposit
for to confirm its reservations, no one like this.
For the other side I feeled a real pleasure to guide birders because it?s a
test, not only of birds, if not of the own life when you are contacting two
or more cultures togethers asking and answering of our moods for to live.
Certainly I can go to Internet and with minor effort and compromise had the same. But not really the same because I have the interlocutor inside the same car, breathing in my face.
I think that this theme is more long and for both sides we need a ethic
code. But where is the person that throw away the first stone?
Un abrazo de tu amigo
JC

[birding]

Hi Knud,
At this time of the year we have the Harmattan, a dry, dust and smoke laden wind from the Sahara and there are not too many birds evident. The camp where I live has good vegetation and some permanent water so we do attract more birds than elsewhere locally. The Palaearctic migrants are also beginning to appear here, but overall its quieter than during the wet season. I have been away the last two months in Thailand and Australia (my original home) and I had some excellent birdwatching in both countries.
I lived in northern Australia for many years and used to regularly backpack and sail through the Indonesian Archipelago, which is where I learnt basic Indonesian, and then in the late 1990s I worked in Java for almost 2 years where my Indonesian got a lot better. However, if you do not use a language you get rusty pretty quickly as I discovered earlier this year when I worked for FAO in Aceh, Sumatra for a few months.
Regards
Russell Hanley
Abuja, Nigeria
russell@fleck-hanley.com

Birdwatching these days is quite exciting, lots of migratory birds and of course our local favorites, like Pink-Headed Warbler or Cabanis Tanager, for example. In about two weeks Ill take a more challenging trip, as I will go to spot the Horned Guan, quite a rarity and very abundant on a few of our volcanoes. If you know of someone interested, let me know, Ill be so glad to share this wonderful bird with anybody who might be interested.
Saludos.
Adolfo Cruz
La Antigua, Sacatepquez, Guatemala
paredon@itelgua.com

Hi Knud,
Birding is very good this year and few rare species appear so thats good
for even us the local birders.
Max Jammeh
Banjul, Kombo Div, Gambia
max6675@hotmail.com

Hi Knud,
Would you mind making an amendment to our listing as birdingpals? I couldn't find a place where I could edit my listing on the website. My husband, James Hall, and I are listed separately as birdingpals. When I registered us a few years ago, I put us down as located in Brisbane, but now that there are more birdingpals available, I would like to change the location for us to Sunshine Coast, Queensland. It is about an hour to the north of Brisbane.
In response to your recent request, would you also add to my listing that I
speak German and French? James does not speak any other languages.
We have just spent two months overseas and have enjoyed the wonderful
company of birdingpals in Hong Kong, Zurich and Boston. It was great. Long live birdingpal.
Cheers,
Jill

Jill Dening
Beerwah, Sunshine Coast, Australia

Hola Knud
Really, now are starting the best days, the best season, as we are ending
spring and coming to a very warm summer.
For eg. 20 days ago arrived home a yearly visitor, a beloved bird for my
family a couple of Vermillion Flycatcher, pryocephalus rubinus (for us churrinche), who will nest, reproduce and end of march will migrate north to find better climate.
best regards,
Gustavo Dellacanonica
Cipolletti, Rio Negro, Argentina
gustavod@symbolic.com.ar

Hola Knud,
It is getting better and better. We are building lodges for the Red-fronted Macaw and the Wattled Curassow and developing infrasturcture for birding routes. On my web page is a guide to 65 birdwatching sites now. There are also two field guides in the works, which we hope to see in the next few years.
All the best
Bennett
A. Bennett Hennessey
Director Ejecutivo
Armonia/ BirdLife International
Lomas de Arena 400
Casilla 3566
Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Bolivia
Telf: Of. 591-3-3568808
Telf: Direct 591-3-3563636
abhennessey@armonia-bo.org
http://www.birdbolivia.com
http://www.armonia-bo.org

Hi Knud,
Thank you for you kind response. Birding back here is getting good everyday and with the country being at the moment stable we are getting few birders and recently there is an organization that is trying to get some fundings from European Union to see if they can market Kenya as an alternative and top birding areas in Africa as it has diversed habitats with differents birds and each at quit a distance between them.
Have a good day as well happy birding over the X-mas
Wishing you my early X-mas holiday and happy and prosperous NEW YEAR 2007!!!
Regards
Joseph Mwangi
ornithologicalexpenditions@yahoo.co.uk

Hi Knud,
We offer birding all over Ghana,We are a group of young people who from our passion of birds and sightseeing decided to establish a company that caters for the modern day travellers needs.We undertake tour to nations pride parks like Shai Hills forest reserve, Bobiri Bird Sanctuary, SogakofeBird sanctuary,Kakum National Park, Atewa Forest reserve, Mole national park and many more. I offer these tours throughout the week and the birders that would contact must be interested in an extensive day of birding!!
My prices/fees are $100 and above (negotiable depending on length of stay)and i can arrange for Quality housing(Hotels/resorts/apartments/Lodges)Prices for accomodation depend solely on the needs of the GUEST.
We can also arrange for 4 x 4 trucks/jeeps for a reasonable fee!
Those who might want more of a family feel can also live with my family, but with certain regulations and limits that any decent family may have. But of course a certain amount must be negotiated.
OFFER: After staying with us for over a week, you are entitled to a complimentary 50mins swedish massage.
ps: i learnt how to speak Norwegian when i stayed in Norway for four years. warm regards
Elike Amedeker
elike1@hotmail.com

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Hi Birders,
Ray Sischo and I did it again......up at 3:45 A.M. Another full day of birding.....this time we picked up a birder from Australia at the Marquette visitor center on the south of Marquette.....he had contacted Ray through Birdingpal (I will give you the website later) and we helped add two more life birds to his world list which now is only 4466...the Sharp-tailed Grouse and Clay-colored Sparrow. We birded the Limestone Sharp-tailed Grouse lek, the Chatham Sewage ponds (had a Wilson's Pphalarope there), the Sand Plains area and got the Clay-colored Sparrow there, Republic Burn area, Wolf Lake Road area and Forestville location. As usual, not too warm, our count was only 47 species, however, birding with Phil Hansbro was a pleasure.
Good Birding!
Louie
P.S. The website for the Birding Pal is: http://www.birdingpal.org/
Perhaps some birders may find this very interesting as it enables you to make contacts throughout the world.

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You may appreciate this story, Knud. I was just up in the Pribiloffs two weeks ago. I went up there to ensure I would reach a long held goal to get to 600 ABA birds. I was at 591 when I went up there. After my Boreal owl in Anchorage near my B&B (!!!), I was at 592. I had been to Gambell and Nome the year before, so I never expected 8 new birds in the Pribs - I was hoping for 3 to 5 as well as the opportunity to photograph and commune with the puffins and auklets, et al.... (which, by the way, was worth the trip on its own!!! Amazing!) Then I would hit 600 on our upcoming California family holiday...

Well, I got 5 new birds my first day! Nothing the second - I thought that would be it. Then I got two more on the last full day. I went to bed at 599! We had all wondered over dinner what my 600 in California would be... (probably Island scrub jay, as I am booked for a boat trip to Santa Cruz on June 28...) Then came the banging on the doors after we'd all gone to bed. "If you want to see a "new-for-the ABA-area" bird, get up and get dressed!!!" Turns out it was a Rufous-tailed robin, blown off course from China or SE Russia. We all got good views and our guides got excellent photos! They are sure (and so am I - I saw the pictures!) it will be accepted. There is a prior record from Attu, but the photos were poor and it was never accepted. So the robin is #600! How lucky is that! I'm still a little stunned! I'm under oath to my guides to write in to the Milestones section of the ABA's Winging It publication. And I will.

My new goal is 2000 for the world. Time to go International again. Look out world! I'm at about 1670... I need to clean up that list...

Happy Birding! Happy Summer! Take care, Deanna

[birding]

Dear Knud,
I am pleased to inform you that I had very nice birding experiences in Israel thanks to the Birdingpal site via Dani Goldblum.
Best regards from Jerusalem (my base till March next year)
Erik Boven
The Netherlands

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Dear Knud,
I just returned from a week in Qu?bec city and Montr?al, work-related, but I had two nice Birdingpal experiences i wanted to share with you. It's been the third time I visited this corner of the world, always in the same period unfortunately (Feb./March), but still I got some great birds out of it, including seven lifers!
In Quebec city a young but very knowledgeable guy named Oliver Barden showed me a very accessible Great Horned Owl, then took me to Cap Tourmente where we got great sights of a Pileated Woodpecker and quite a few finches including Purple Finches, next to La Malbaie where Barrow's Goldeneye was a lifer for me, while Glaucous Gulls and Black Guillemots were nice additions.
In Montr?al I teamed up with archaeologist Virgina Elliott who showed me lots of places in the southwest part of town. She succeeded in showing me a sleeping Eastern Screech Owl, in Parc George O'Reilly we found a singing Song Sparrow and a Hooded Merganser, and in some suburb a Bald Eagle flew past! What was also very instructive was a Downy and a Hairy Woodpecker together in one view.
So, again, the Birdingpal system has been successful...
Thanks!
Martijn
A long time Dutch Birdingpal

[birding]

Hello Birders,
Got this from Peter and am sure he would not mind my sharing
it with y'all. Some of you may even be in this competition, but the
others may enjoy. Our migrants have headed back north for the
most part. But we still have a lot of birds to enjoy. Our National
Bird of Costa Rica visits my feeder every day. If you don't know,
it is the Clay Colored Robin or now Thrush. I first saw it along the
Rio Grande in Texas. It is a sorta dull brown bird and folks often
wonder why it was chosen to be the National Bird of Costa Rica.
When I moved to Costa Rica in 2000 and saw it again and was
told about it being so honored, I too, ask why? Never was bashful!
The story I got was this. When Costa Rica's Legislative
Assembly got around to choosing a National Bird, many of the more
beautiful birds were put into nomination. But back in those days the
farmers were in control of the Assembly and insisted on choosing
the Yiguirro. Because the Clay-colored Robin from March through
June, tirelessly whistles melodic phrases. This is at the change
from the dry season to the wet season in Costa Rica. So the
farmers argued that this wonderful bird calls the rains back to
Cost Rica at a time when the coffee trees and other crops need rain.
Who could argue with that rational. Not me, since I am now farming
a 6 hector {15 acres} finca de cafe. {Coffee farm}.
In the 10 years I have lived in Costa Rica, my life list has really
grown.

A Birdingpal,
Fred Holt
Navarro, Cartago
Costa Rica

https://secure3.birds.cornell.edu:443/N ... id=2906914