Venezuela: Hato Pinero New Year Dec 27, 2008—Jan 04, 2009
Posted by Jeri Langham
Jeri Langham
Jeri M. Langham has a Ph.D. in plant ecology from Washington State University, and after 38 years as a professor of biological sciences at California State University ...Related Trips
Regarded widely as Venezuela's premier birder and tour leader, David Ascanio is a wonderful individual who has led dozens of tours to Hato Piñero. I have known him for over a decade and hoped we could someday co-lead a tour to this wonderful 200,000-acre ranch that is a world-class example of how cattle ranching and conservation can go hand in hand. We finally got that opportunity during my 20th visit and again this year for my 22nd. It gave us a wonderful opportunity to share our favorite ranch roads and our best locations for finding some of the super rare species. Amazingly, we added seven new species to my cumulative ranch list, five being new records for Hato Piñero.
A good example of what awaits you on this marvelous ranch can be found in a few excerpts from the journal I write during every tour and later mail to all the participants:
"It was a great morning with at least three "Heaven/Hell" experiences as David's and my owl calls brought in dozens of new birds for us to identify and photograph. We picked up special birds like duetting White-bearded Flycatchers, Hooded Tanagers, Chestnut-vented Conebills, Scaled Piculet, Red-rumped Woodpecker, and Straight-billed Woodcreeper, but the definite highlight was a King Vulture perched 30 yards away that gave us super scope views of its multicolored head. The usual active Jabirú nest near the big, dirty-water pond had one juvenile this year, and the adults even mated in front of us. However, my favorite bird today was the mostly hidden, subadult Agami Heron spotted by Terry that then cooperated beautifully. David and I heaved a sigh of relief since this bird can be very difficult to find, and it is a ranch specialty. Amazing was the lack of Sunbitterns. We saw only one! Usually we see over a dozen every day, but the water level was so high this year that they have not yet been forced to concentrate in shallow pools near the roads. We did very well though, seeing Gray-necked Wood-Rail and impressive Yellow-knobbed Curassows. When we reached Caño San Jerónimo, I was dumbstruck. The water level was so high that we were not able to walk the two wonderful trails bordering this seasonal river. We did see some interesting birds from the bridge. Of particular note was a Black-collared Hawk nest…a first for me at Hato.
"As we were heading out after lunch and siesta break, David heard Chestnut-fronted Macaws and we eventually had scope views. In the grassy fields nearby were beautiful, singing Red-breasted Blackbirds (which are considered meadowlarks). We were to see all species of Hato "parrots" this afternoon, except for the common Orange-chinned, which we only heard. In the forest near the "T" intersection, we hit pay dirt with Golden-green Woodpecker, Gray-headed and Guira tanagers, a heard Summer Tanager (a new record for the ranch), Streaked Flycatcher, and a heard Streak-headed Woodcreeper. On the way out to La Canoa, we found our first resident race of Turkey Vulture (a "bank bird") that may be split off in the future. We enjoyed our cold fruit snacks, cookies, chips, and especially the garlic-flavored plantain chips as we watched the beautiful sunset. Once we started spotlighting, Band-tailed Nighthawk cooperated.
"At 8:15, we headed out to Laguna Grande to walk trails in the dry deciduous forest. Most of our sightings were of birds that not all of you had seen well before, so we were getting more of what I call 100% birds, which means that all of you have seen them well enough to count. Almost immediately, David called in a White-throated Spadebill and I brought in a male Lance-tailed Manakin. We also saw a Variegated Flycatcher, which is rare on the ranch. I gave several mini lectures this morning, and I caught an ant lion larva so you could look at it using your binocular as a hand lens and see the huge pincers it uses to capture the prey that roll down the sides of its conical dirt traps. The massive leafcutter ant (bachaco) colony mounds had only a few straggler ants carrying soil out of the colony to increase the size of underground chambers. After we heard the Ash-throated Rail, I also discussed Marsilea, a water fern whose leaves look like a four-leaf clover, and Salvinia, a water fern whose third leaf at each node looks like roots. We worked very hard for some of our birds, but many of you eventually saw most of them. We also added Forest and Greenish elaenias.
"We started the morning by driving at a good clip out to the Caño San Jerónimo Bridge, but kept getting stopped by good birds. Spot-breasted Woodpecker and Capped Heron were the prizes. I decided to try another boat trip because the high water had caused us to miss two species of kingfishers on our first boat trip. Not only did we get Green-and-rufous and American Pygmy kingfishers, but we also got photos of each. After the boat ride, we visited a forest patch where we found some army ants, were able to add Plain Brown Woodcreeper, and got more great looks at Red-billed Scythebill. On this stretch we also saw Lance-tailed Manakin, Barred Antshrike and, for some, Streaked Flycatcher.
"It is always difficult to select where to bird on our last afternoon and evening on this wonderful ranch because there are so many choices. David and I settled on racing out to Charco Azul and then on towards the Rio Cojedes, but instead of going to the Los Arenales ranch we had visited twice, we turned south to El Jobal Ranch that is also on the bank of the Rio Cojedes. This turned out to be a great choice for our last afternoon, as the open fields and wetlands produced Striped Cuckoo, Masked Yellowthroat, White-tailed Goldenthroat, Blue-black Grassquit, and another King Vulture. Just before reaching the ranch, we saw roosting Wood Storks high in a bare tree and then Nacunda Nighthawk, the largest of this family on the ranch."
For the last few years, the fate of this 200,000-acre ranch in the upper Llanos of Venezuela has been in limbo because Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has been taking over large ranches. Hundreds of letters written by former visitors have at least temporarily helped to save Hato Piñero. As an ecologist, I consider it a superb world-class example of how well cattle ranching and conservation can work together. If you have considered a visit to this birding paradise, move it to the top of your list. David and I will co-lead again this coming December. Please come join us!