One of the reasons I make quilts of birding trips I take with VENT is my need to further express and remember how much I enjoyed my trips. There were so many fond memories:

• Being in such a spectacular wilderness area in the State of Chiapas, Mexico.

• Hearing the morning and evening choruses at El Triunfo which included Brown-backed Solitaires.

• Hiking in a light sprinkle to watch two Horned Guans sitting in a tree above us, while a male Mountain Trogon called from the same arena of forested stream.

• Seeing tapir tracks on one of the trails.

• A prehensile-tailed porcupine found in a tree along the trail into El Triunfo.

• The day I learned that the race of male Resplendent Quetzals found in Chiapas has tail feathers nearly a foot longer than its more southern cousin in Costa Rica; though several male quetzals were seen on the trip, it was the male that only a few of us saw the last evening, sitting on a branch in a little alcove of tropical forest highlighted with gold afternoon light turning his feathers to iridescent rubies and emeralds, with those unbelievably long tail feathers slowly and independently drifting up and down on misted air currents, that nearly took my breath away.

• The toledo calls of Long-tailed Manakins ringing the mountains on the hike out.

• Seeing the beautiful Spotted Nightingale-Thrush, Azure-rumped Tanager, Prevost's Ground-Sparrow, and three species of motmots (including Blue-throated).

• Having good birding companions and enjoying the gracious hospitality of the local people in Chiapas.

All rich memories.