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A long-awaited visit to the clay licks …
I first read about the hundreds of macaws and other parrots that gathered at clay licks in the Peruvian Amazon in the January 1994 issue of National Geographic. Scientists were just beginning to locate these clay licks and speculate about why these birds gathered here to ingest clay when they normally eat fruit and other…
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The Floating Islands of Uros
Machu Picchu had been on my bucket list for a very long time, as was viewing the macaw clay licks in the Peruvian Amazon basin, but I knew little about the floating islands of Uros. Luckily, Lisa, my travel consultant at Holbrook Travel, suggested a few days in the Lake Titicaca area and the floating…
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Refugio Paz de las Aves
Many years before I visited Ecuador, I had heard about Refugio Paz de Las Aves, and its owner, Angel Paz, the “Antpitta whisperer”. You are probably wondering “And what exactly is an ant pitta?” Antpittas are forest birds that feed on ants and other insects on or near the ground. They are dull-colored birds with…
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Boxed in by Landslides
Here’s the landslide at our lodge! Luckily no one was injured, and there were generators in the dining area so we were able to have normal meals. The lack of electricity in our rooms wasn’t too much of an issue since we were basically only there to sleep. Another landslide in the other direction down…
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Dodging Landslides
To find more of the Choco endemics, we left our lodge very early one morning for a two-hour drive to the Mashpi-Amagusa Reserve. The specific location of this forest makes it special since this area is the last foothill-forest that directly connects to the lower subtropical western forest of Ecuador, and the change in altitude…
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Ecuador Birding Bonus
Once I decided on a trip to the Galapagos, I knew I also wanted to add at least a few days to bird and photograph on the mainland of Ecuador. I had heard about great birding in the cloud forests not too far from Quito, and after just little bit of research, I decided that…
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Learning about Boobies – Blue-footed, that is…
I must admit that the one bird I was most eager to see in the Galapagos was the Blue-Footed Booby (Sula nebouxii). It’s brightly colored blue feet, to say nothing of its name, have made it an iconic symbol of the islands, but unlike many other species found here, it is not endemic. Blue-footed boobies…