INSIDE Welcome New Tour Previews WINGS Is Delighted to Bring You Announcements of Our Upcom
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Spring 2010 INSIDE Welcome New Tour Previews WINGS is delighted to bring you announcements of our upcom - I ing new tours, along with brief reports from our most recent trips Kenya around the world. Our tours are the brainchildren of our leaders, I New Zealand whose passion for their favorite regions and favorite birds is I The Netherlands directly reflected by the depth and variety of our offerings. I Mexico WINGS leaders often spend months, even years, getting to know I their favored localities, with the result that our itineraries grow Tanzania out of a thorough familiarity with the destinations’ birds and with I Panama the cultural and natural settings that make them worth visiting. I Puerto Rico I Ghana In addition to our regularly scheduled tours around the world, I WINGS also offers private guiding services to individuals and Germany groups. If birding where and when you want, alone or in the I Alaska company of friends, appeals to you, please contact the WINGS I New York office. We’ll be happy to arrange a tour that suits your needs and I Maine circumstances. I Costa Rica Full details of all our tours can be found at our website, From Our Leaders wingsbirds.com. If you don’t have ready access to the internet, or if you have questions, please call or write the WINGS office. Profiles We’ll be happy to help you. WINGS Updates New Tour Previews WINGS David Tipling’s new photographic tour concentrates on putting the photographer in position to 1643 N. Alvernon Way take advantage of unforgettable scenes such as this one. Suite 109 Photo: David Tipling. Tucson, AZ 85712 Tel: 888-293-6443 (toll free in the U.S.) Kenya: The Great Migration 520-320-9868 Fax: 520-320-9373 in the Masai Mara wing [email protected] www.wingsbirds.com July 31 - August 13, 2010 For details on all WINGS tours, please visit our website at www.wingsbirds.com New Tour Previews Unlike a classic WINGS birding tour, this new photographic tour is intended to ensure avid photographers the best opportunities for capturing definitive images; the leader’s efforts will be devoted to placing participants in the best position and giving them all the time they need—plus offering invaluable tips and instruction from one of the world’s finest wildlife photographers. Kenya ranks high on any list of the world’s top destinations for wildlife photography. The country boasts the largest concentrations of wild ani - mals anywhere on the planet, and the special quality of light at these lati - tudes and a tourist infrastructure second to none combine to create the perfect circumstances for a fantastic photographic tour. Our tour with David Tipling caters to photographers at every level of ability and expe - rience. David will help you get the most out of your camera in every dif - ferent situation, getting you close to the action and ensuring that you have plenty of time to capture memorable images. Our days will typically start just before dawn, a magical time in Africa. Most days we’ll return to our lodge when the light gets too harsh; for those who want to keep on taking photos, most of the lodges have superb grounds full of wildlife, The green islands including lots of colorful birds. We’ll venture out again after lunch to of New Zealand make the most of mid-afternoon’s wonderful low light. are home to a fascinating avifauna, including tremendous concentrations of New Zealand: seabirds. Photo: Wikimedia. Island Endemics and Seabirds November 29 – December 19, 2010 New Zealand’s combination of land and sea birding with the superb organi - zation and local knowledge provided by our “Kiwi” leader—plus, of course, Dan Brown ’s experience—ensures a diverse and captivating adventure in some of the most breathtaking land - scapes anywhere. A birding tour to New Zealand is packed full of highlights: albatrosses so close you can count the droplets of water on their feathers, the deafening calls of New Zealand Bellbirds ringing through the forest at dawn, a confid - ing New Zealand Robin standing guard on a forest path, a Kiwi snuf - fling through the leaf litter. All of these classic images come to life on the remote Pacific islands of New Zealand. Bordered by the Tasman Sea on the west and the South Pacific on the east, New Zealand stretches page 2 … WINGS News Spring 2010 For details on all WINGS tours, visit www.wingsbirds.com New Tour Previews almost 1,000 miles north to south. Eons of isolation have given the three main islands and a multitude of smaller islands a unique avifauna, with four endemic families; in all, more than 15% of the islands’ species are endemic, many of them globally threatened. We’ll visit remarkable sanc - tuaries, breathtaking scenic parks, and old-growth forests in search of land birds, and sail the coastal waters looking for some of New Zealand’s incredible concentrations of seabirds and sea mammals. Dan Brown and Brent Stephenson lead. The Netherlands in Winter January 26-30 and February 2-6, 2011 As northern Europe and Siberia slumber under blankets of snow, the polders of The Netherlands are awash with wintering wildfowl. Our short and incredibly bird-rich tour begins and ends in Amsterdam, leaving participants the opportunity to combine their birding experience with visits to other European destinations. Large flocks of winter - ing passerines, and the world’s best apple pie and hot chocolate: it’s easy to see why winter - time birding in The Netherlands is so impressive. Geese are the main attraction, with all the European wintering species possi - ble; we stand a great chance of seeing both Red-breasted and Lesser White-fronted Geese among the teeming thousands of Eurasian White-fronted, Tundra The sturdy and Bean, and Barnacle Geese. The open polders are also great for wintering attractive Fieldfare winters raptors, and we should encounter White-tailed Eagle, Rough-legged in large numbers Hawk, and Hen Harrier, among other species. Add to the list Smew, in The Eurasian Bittern, and Lesser Spotted and Black Woodpeckers, not to Netherlands. mention the possibility of a surprise or two, and everything is in place for Photo: James Lidster. the ideal short winter tour. James Lidster leads. Mexico: The Lacandon Rainforest and Maya Ruins February 12-20, 2011 Not so many years ago, a visit to Mexico’s Lacandon rainforest and the Maya ruins of Bonampak and Yaxchilan was a major undertaking. Today, with For details on all WINGS tours, visit www.wingsbirds.com page 3 … WINGS News Spring 2010 New Tour Previews new paved roads and new lodges, the Lacandon is surprisingly easy to visit— and full of tropical specialties. The Lacandon rainforest lies in the watershed of the Usumacinta (“sacred monkey”) River. Scarlet Macaws, Great Curassows, howler monkeys, hawk-eagles, and perhaps even a tapir or jaguar can be seen amid spectacular rain forest, home to the lowland Maya civ- ilization. Important sites such as Yaxchilan lie along the Usumacinta itself, while Bonampak—unknown to west- erners until 1946—is on the Lacanja River, a tributary of the Usumacinta. The forests in this region are home to the northernmost The incandescent Green extension of truly Amazonian fauna: puffbirds, toucans, jacamars, Honeycreeper is antbirds, leaftossers, manakins, cotingas, and woodcreepers all occur one of the tropical here—but in manageable doses. One local community is working to pro - residents of the Lacandon tect the endangered Scarlet Macaw, and from their comfortable lodge rainforest. we’ll take a boat trip up beautiful limestone tributaries into the Montes Photo: Steve Howell. Azules Biosphere Reserve. Join Steve Howell and Rich Hoyer in this exciting exploration of Mexico’s tropical rainforest. Tanzania: Lilac-breasted Rollers are among the Kilimanjaro to the Serengeti colorful African specialties of March 5-18, 2011 Tarangire National Park. This latest addition to our Africa tours is designed as an ideal introduction to Photo: Brian Finch. the birds and mammals of the continent’s East. We have intentionally planned a relaxed pace, leaving time to truly savor all that this wonderful country has to offer. Tanzania long ago recognized the importance of its natural resources, and has done much over the years to protect them. Today, some 25% of this beautiful country is given over to national parks and reserves, and our new tour features the most famous of them all. Starting on the densely wooded slopes of Mount Meru, in the shadow of Kilimanjaro, we’ll wander among the giant baobab trees of Tarangire National page 4 … WINGS News Spring 2010 For details on all WINGS tours, visit www.wingsbirds.com New Tour Previews Park and travel to the very edge of the Rift Valley at Lake Manyara before visiting two of the world’s most dazzling wildlife locations—Ngorongoro and the vast Serengeti. Steve Rooke and James Wolstencroft lead. Panama: Spring at the Canopy Tower March 12-19, 2011 (with Foothills Extension to March 23) As one moves across Panama from the Costa Rican border east toward the Colombian border, Central American birds drop out and such truly Neotropical groups as antbirds, woodcreepers, tyrant flycatchers, humming - birds, and tanagers begin to dominate. It all makes for an exceedingly rich birding experience. Our newest Panama tour is timed to take advantage of the beginning of spring migration, when resident breeding birds are joined by win- tering migrants and transients from North America. This influx of migrants makes for a very diverse avian assemblage. The acclaimed Canopy Tower serves as a delightful home base as we explore several remarkable bird- ing areas, including Pipeline Road, which offers arguably the best birding in Central America, with over 400 species recorded from this single locale.