TIME TO ARREST DEVELOPMENT IN THE ANDES

Here at PIB we have come up with a way for you to save money on your next trip by making a tax deductible donation. Your $100 donation goes to Rainforest Trust. They will then use it to save a rapidly developing section of Peru’s highlands. And they have matching grants that will quadruple your gift. You get the tax deduction and we will give you $100 off any trip you take with us in the next 2 years. This is described as a win-win-win, we believe.

Here’s a map of the area we’re helping to preserve: The Peruvian government has pledged to turn the land into two national reserves once enough land is taken out of timber and agricultural use. The area is known as Sierra del Divisor.

Click here to find out how the donation and discount work together for you and the Peruvian rainforest. By the way, your $100 will actually lead to saving 800 acres from despoliation and exploitation.

Click here to read more about Sierra del Divisor and its species diversity. This is a Goeldis’s Monkey, a threatened species, and one of sixteen primate species found in Sierra del Divisor.

Lelis Navarette, one of the superb regional guides we work with, took this picture of a Versicolored Barbet. It is one of over 550 bird species found in the highlands of Sierra del Divisor.

We’re talking wondrous species diversity: 38 medium and large-sized mammals (20 of them threatened) including giant armadillo; 10 endemic plant species with likely many more to be discovered among the 3500 species thought to survive in the area; at least 3 known endemic bird species with much exploration still undone; 300 fish species and over 100 reptiles and amphibians. All these beings depend on human intervention on their behalf for survival.

If you decided to help, PIB will give you our gratitude and our discount.

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ FOR NEXT SEPTEMBER

I will be leading a trip along the California Coast next September. It will be at the height of shorebird migration: Black Turnstone, Wandering Tattler, Red-necked Phalarope, Surfbird, Marbled Godwit, various sandpipers and plovers. Click here for itinerary.
Of course, we will cruise along Big Sur, a magnificent coastal highway, in search of North America’s largest bird (by wingspan).

These Condor pictures were taken on the same route a couple years ago. There are now more condors flying free than are in captivity. A remarkable story of saving an endangered species that once got down to less than 20 individuals.

Click here to see what’s up on the Ventana Wilderness Society’s CONDOR CAM.

The trip will also take us in pursuit of California’s two endemic Corvids (no other American state has even a single endemic): Island Scrub-Jay and Yellow-billed Magpie. Other hard-to-find birds we will seek: California Gnatcatcher, Oak Titmouse, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, California Thrasher, Hermit Warbler, Hutton’s Vireo, Heermann’s Gull and Cassin’s Auklet. Come enjoy some California sun and birding.