It has been a long winter. I love winter and the snow, cold weather, and winter birding that goes along with it, but I haven't been traveling any. Instead, I have been working several jobs through the winter to save up for this year's adventures, and I have some fun things planned!! One of my jobs has been working for a local photographer/author/publisher. My first trip this year is going to be with him. He is leading a bird photography workshop this weekend at Goose Pond in Indiana, and I will be going along to help out and be the bird guide during that event! I am really excited because I have a decent chance of seeing a new life bird: Whooping Cranes!
Less than a week after I return from guiding in Indiana, I will be heading south to Guatemala for 20 days of birding with my friend, John Cahill, who is doing a Guatemala Big Year to raise money for cloud forest conservation! During his last big year, in 2012, he was able to find 591 species; this year he is hoping for over 600 and he is well on his way with already over 500 species at the end of February! While I am there, we will be visiting some areas on the eastern side of Guatemala, including Punta de Manabique which is a peninsula in the Caribbean Sea! Be sure to check back for photos and stories from my trip! You can follow John's exciting year on his blog:
http://bigyear.cloudforestconservation.org/johncahill
As you may know, in March of 2013 I was also in Guatemala, and while I was there for a very different reason, I fell in love with the country and I'm very excited to be going back! Check out these photos from last year's trip...
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| Homes in the Guatemala City dump |
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| Me with a boy who lives in the city dump community |
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| Black Vultures flying over the dump behind the cemetery |
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| La Limonada; the highly populated ghetto in Guatemala City |
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| Turkey Vulture soaring above Lake Atitlan in Panajachel, Guatemala |
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| Black-handed Spider Monkey hanging out while I was hiking at Reserva Natural Atitlan |
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| Bushy-crested Jays in Guatemala, one of my favorite corvids |
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| Delicious Guatemalan bananas! |
After I return from Guatemala on April 2nd, I will be moving to northern Indiana to start working on a sustainable farm!! With a 40 acre restored tall grass prairie on the property, I assume I will be seeing quite a few grassland birds without even leaving the farm! Doing a little research on eBird, I was able to find out that I will also be about 8 miles from the top eBird hotspot in the county as well!
Keep checking back to hear the details of the birds I'm seeing and the fun along the way!
