Extremadura, April 2015.

Roller Coracius garrulus

 I've just finished co-leading a birding tour for Limosa to Extremadura and the Coto Donana in Spain with Fernando Enrique.
It was a superb week's birding with many highlights. Extremadura was full of raptors including Bonelli's, Golden, Spanish Imperial, Short-toed and Booted Eagles, many Montagu's Harriers and vultures galore (including Black and Egyptian).
Bustards are of course a major attraction in Extremadura and we saw many Little Bustards as well as some large (20+) gatherings of Greats.
A marvellous morning was spent watching raptors in Monfrague NP with vultures leaving their roost, Black Wheatear, Spanish Imperial Eagle on the nest and much more.

Eurasian Griffon Gyps fulvus

Eurasian Griffons (centre) between Black Vultures Aegypius monachus 

Black Stork Ciconia ciconia nesting.

Rock Bunting Emberiza cia

Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius

Eurasian Griffons leaving the rock viewed from Salto de Gitano in Monfrague NP.

PERU

Peru's iconic Incan ruins at Machu Picchu.

 My first birding tour leading job was in Peru. It was the mid-nineties and I threw myself in the 'deep end' in Manu - a region with around a thousand species. Over the next fifteen years or so I led more than thirty tours to Peru, mostly to Manu but managed to branch out to the Maranon Valley in the north, Iquitos in the Amazon, the Central Highway and the southern Puna zones.

I have to admit to being a little shocked when I noticed that my last trip to Peru was in 2009, after being a more than frequent visitor there.

Most tours started with a day or two on the Pacific Coast near Lima or an excursion into the Andes. Manu tours would start in Cusco, maybe with a day at Machu Picchu before heading down the Manu Road into the cloud forests and then by boat to the lowland rainforests.

Torrent Duck (female) Merganetta armata.

The 'Cock-of-the-Rock blind' on the Manu Road near San Pedro.

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (male) Rupicola peruviana.

Fasciated Tiger-Heron Tigrisoma fasciatum, a retiring species of fast-flowing mountain stream and foothill rivers.

Birding on oxbow lakes in the lowlands.

Hoatzin Opsithocomus hoazin.

Horned Screamers Anhima cornuta.

Long-tailed Potoo Nyctibius aethereus.

Tawny-bellied Screech-Owl Megascops watsonii.

Board walk to the macaw-lick hide on the Madre de Dios.

Blue-headed Pionus menstruus, MealyAmazona farinosa and Orange-cheeked Pionopsitta barrabandi Parrots 

Mealy Parrots.

Red-and-Green Macaws Ara chloropterus at the lick. 

Blue-and-Yellow Macaw Ara ararauna.

Blue-throated Piping-Guan Pipile cumanensis.

Collared Puffbird Bucco capensis.

Peruvian Pelicans Pelecanus thagus on the coast near Lima.

Peruvian Thick-Knee Burhinus superciliaris.

Inca Tern Larosterna inca.

Diademed Sandpiper-Plover Phegornis mitchellii on Andean bogs along the Central Highway above Lima.

The Pantanal, Brazil September 2012.

I first visited Brazil in the 90's. It was just a trip with a couple of birders, starting and ending in Rio de Janeiro and birding mainly Atlantic Forest sites. Ten years on and I'd visited many South American countries, but Brazil remained a great favourite.
After a few more Atlantic Forest trips I made it to the Pantanal. Famous for its vast numbers of water birds and of course Hyacinth Macaws the Pantanal offers a nice variety of birding from open savannah, arid forests, scrub and the famous vast wetlands.

A trip to Brazil visiting the Atlantic Forests and the Pantanal soon became my favourite Neotropical 'Combo'; the open-country birding being some relief from the sometimes tricky forest birding.

Most folks will enter the Pantanal via the city of Cuiaba. Driving into the Pantanal should yield a hundred species or so before arriving at the lodge for the first night. Before venturing out into the field the lodge grounds are always worthy of investigation and apart from the first, all the photos below were taken from the yard.

All pictures are from my last tour there - Ornitholidays in September 2012 and we stayed at the Pouso Alegre Lodge and at the Best Western Mato Grosso on the banks of the Rio Pixaim before heading to Porto Jofre for Jaguars and Giant Otters. I'm saving those for another post!

A warm welcome from a Rufous Hornero Furnarius rufus.

Hyacinth Macaw Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus.

The Pantanal's flagship species can often be found nesting in the lodge gardens.

Greater Rhea Rhea americana.

Toco Toucan Ramphastos toco.

Chestnut-bellied Guan Penelope ochrogaster (endemic to Brazil).

Bare-faced Curassow Crax fasciolata (male).

Bare-faced Curassow (female).

Great Rufous Woodcreeper Xiphocolaptes major.

Orange-backed Troupial Icterus croconotus.

Chestnut-eared Aracari Pteroglossus castanotis.

Greater Thornbird Phacellodomus ruber.

Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus.

Western Mexico, January 2014.

I've been fortunate enough to lead birding tours to many countries in Latin America over the last twenty years or so.

I started with Peru, then Brazil and Bolivia and so on, but recently Mexico has become one of my favourite destinations.

I've now visited Western Mexico on several occasions, birding the Pacific Coast from Sinaloa, Jalisco and Nayarit.

The most recent tours I led for Ornitholidays concentrated on the fabulous birding mecca of the San Blas area with access to the mangrove coast, lagoons, foothills and tropical arid forests.

Birds were of course the main focus but when my ground agent happened to mention that he ran 'whale tours' off the coast of his home town of Puerto Vallarta, it merited further investigation to say the least.

It wasn't long before we saw the first 'blows' way out in the bay and as Karel of EcoTours had promised, we were going to see our first Humpback Whales!

Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae, 18/1/14 Puerto Vallarta (Jalisco) W. Mexico.

We were already delighted with our first Humpback sightings, but a full breach would be great wouldn't it?

Banderas Bay is a fantastic place to see Humpback Whales in the winter when breeding groups frequent the warm tropical waters where they breed, returning to the coast of Canada to feed in the summer.

Researchers keep an eye on these marvellous creatures as well as the many tourists visiting Puerto Vallarta to see them.

For more information see the ECOTOURS website.