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Catch up on the latest news from Victor Emanuel Nature Tours by reading the latest VENTFLASH.
Namibia, Botswana and Zambia
Geoff Lockwood: August 31, 2010
This year's tour to Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia proved to be one of the most rewarding ever, with the list of birds and animals recorded reflecting much of what these special countries have to offer. Highlights were many, but three in particular will stand out in the minds of everyone in our group!Etosha's waterholes are justifiably famous for the incredible wildlife spectacles that they offer, and our visit to Goas waterhole near Halali shows just how good it can get! Goas is an ar...
Avian Jewels of Arizona
Brennan Mulrooney: August 30, 2010
Generally speaking, at the end of most VENT tours the leader asks the group to share their three favorite birds of the trip. It's a great way to remember some of the highlights of the trip, and also to see how different birds made impressions on different people. Usually there are some clear standouts that garner the majority of the votes, but this year, on our Jewels of Arizona tour, a group of only six people nominated 17 different species—with none getting more than three votes. ...
Colombia: Bogota, The Magdalena Valley and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
Steve Hilty: August 30, 2010
About a year and a half ago we operated our inaugural trip to Colombia—the first in 23 years. Since then we have operated seven more tours to Colombia, six of them involving this itinerary and two to the Central Andes. Security has been a non-issue in the areas we visit, and the birds fantastic. Colombia has undergone considerable change in the past 20–25 years—more construction, agriculture, mining, business everywhere—in short, an economy affected in relatively small...
Big Bend Summer
Barry Zimmer: August 18, 2010
Once again, this year's Big Bend Summer tour was a smashing success. We tallied all the regional targets and had superb views of virtually all the birds we saw. There are five species that I would consider "must-see" birds when visiting this part of the Trans-Pecos: Colima Warbler, Gray Vireo, Lucifer Hummingbird, Common Black-Hawk, and Montezuma Quail. We nailed all of these birds in spectacular fashion.The Colima Warbler is, of course, THE most important bird of the tour....
Classic China: Beijing & Sichuan
Dion Hobcroft: August 10, 2010
This was an outstandingly successful tour, as we birded some of the most spectacular and species-rich forests in central China in unparalleled comfort. New hotels, highways, and the ever-helpful and friendly local people ensured a smooth tour. We also experienced some rustic hotels, hiked up into the mountains into bamboo and rhododendron forests, and explored the Tibetan plateau with its thousands of yaks and Tibetan cowboys. The modernization taking place in China proceeds at an unbelievabl...
Camp Chiricahua
Rob Day: August 09, 2010
It is the 12th of July, 2010: Tucson once again. Seen on the inbound flight it has become as hazy as any city in Southern California; the faded landscape of bleached-out colors, blurred mountains, and dun-colored sky increasingly characteristic of the southwest in the new regime of drought and urbanization. But then I remember…A hike I took with my boys (now 15 and 17) years ago in sage scrub-covered hillsides near our home in Southern California. It was mid-May. Winter rains that year...
Galapagos Islands Cruise Aboard the M/V Evolution
Michael O'Brien: August 07, 2010
There are very few destinations where one can have as rich and complete a natural history experience as the Galápagos Islands. The rugged beauty of these volcanic islands is breathtaking, and the sheer abundance of wildlife is simply staggering, and ripe with photographic opportunity. But there is so much more to the Galápagos. Just the thought of walking in the footsteps of Darwin, on the very islands that shaped his theory of natural selection and had such a profound influence...
The Pacific Northwest: An Introductory Birding Tour
Bob Sundstrom: August 04, 2010
Mid-July is a great time to take in the natural beauty of Washington's tremendously scenic Olympic Peninsula. The high meadows of the snow-capped Olympic Mountains are carpeted in wildflowers, and are set off by deep-blue saltwater bays and dark-green conifer forests. It's also an excellent time to search out the region's diverse birdlife: from puffins and oystercatchers to grouse, dippers, warblers, and endangered murrelets—definitely an eye-catching array of birds to brigh...
Alaska: Barrow Extension
Kevin Zimmer: July 27, 2010
Once again, Barrow provided a fitting exclamation point to our Alaska tour season. The weather was about average, with daily temperatures ranging from 34–40° F, light winds, and only occasional light precipitation. Persistent fog did limit horizontal visibility, rendering sea-watching impossible, and making it hard to pick out any rarities amongst the common shorebirds on distant mudflats. The shore ice was still in when we went to bed the first (late) evening, but with a shift in w...
Grand Alaska Part II: Anchorage, Denali Highway & Kenai Peninsula
Kevin Zimmer: July 27, 2010
Part II of our Grand Alaska tour began in the Denali region. Our drive up the Glenn Highway was scenic, with numerous opportunistic stops for birds, ranging from "Harlan's" Hawks, Merlins, and Gray Jays teed-up atop the countless spruce trees, to handsome male Barrow's Goldeneyes and Surf Scoters on glassy lakes, and responsive Arctic Warblers hammering out their buzzy trills from the alder thickets. Our lunch stop even produced eye-popping views of Northern Flicker and the ...
Grand Alaska Part I: Nome & the Pribilofs
Kevin Zimmer: July 27, 2010
Our 2010 Grand Alaska adventure began, as it always does, with a fast start out of the gate in Nome. Our first afternoon on the Teller Road yielded a Northern Shrike before we were even out of town. The bird crossed the road right in front of the lead van, carrying a prey item that looked to be as big as the bird itself! Clearly struggling, it landed for what I hoped would be enough time for the trailing van to catch up, but the "landing" was more of a touch-and-go, and this time th...
Grand Alaska: Gambell/Nome Pre-trip
Kevin Zimmer: July 27, 2010
Our Gambell/Nome trip commenced with a late morning flight to Nome, and with relatively little delay (during which, Jonathan found a Northern Shrike hanging around the Bering Air terminal, that we were all able to see!), we were soon winging our way toward St. Lawrence Island. By mid-afternoon our Bering Air flight was touching down on the airstrip at Gambell. The short hike from the airstrip to the lodge produced the usual Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings in the near boneyard, and then it...
Colombia: The Central Andes
Steve Hilty: July 26, 2010
Trips to Colombia during northern summer months (e.g. June, July, and August) offer birders and naturalists a different experience from those traditionally operated during northern winter months. There are no northern migrants here at this time of year, but nesting activity is more obvious. Also, Colombia generally receives more rain at this time of year (although variation in pattern is considerable) and the countryside is stunningly beautiful—emerald everywhere. We encountered more ra...
Alaska Mainland
Barry Zimmer: July 14, 2010
"Spruce Grouse!" I yelled, as I simultaneously hit the brakes and steered to the shoulder. This was the one species that had eluded us on our wildly successful 2010 Alaska Mainland tour, and this was the last afternoon of the trip. We were headed back from Denali to Anchorage and were still basking in the afterglow of having just spent 20 minutes with a group of 3 Bohemian Waxwings as close as 40 feet away. The birding was essentially over, and some were dozing off, when I noticed t...
Churchill
Jeri Langham: July 14, 2010
After 25 years of leading this tour, I should be fully aware that the weather is completely unpredictable and can change from freezing to hot in less than an hour. When the northerly winds blow over the frozen Hudson Bay, my down jacket is often not enough to keep me warm as I scope from the point at Cape Merry while standing on ancient, lichen-covered rocks of the Precambrian Shield. The wind pushes the ice floes back to land, and with the incoming tide they flow through the wide mouth of th...
Southern Manitoba
Jeri Langham: July 14, 2010
I have led this tour for 24 years, but never imagined the weather that would confront us this year. In early June, one expects to receive a thunderstorm once or twice during the tour and maybe even one full day of rain some years. Maybe "global warming," better called "climate change," played a role this year. Whatever the cause, it was colder this year than on any of the previous years, and we faced drizzle, rain, and/or fog on every day except the last one. It was good t...
Minnesota and North Dakota
Kim Eckert: July 13, 2010
Of the 20 or so species of warblers we see during this tour, the Connecticut is easily the most highly sought. Though this tour has never missed it (dating back to 1982!), I was mildly concerned this time around since several birders recently reported difficulty finding any in the Sax-Zim Bog. (Sax and Zim may be little more than uninhabited railroad sidings near Duluth, but the surrounding bogs and other habitats have become well-known to birders over the years.) But, undeterred by recent re...
Mongolia
Susan Myers: July 06, 2010
Mongolia is a country that sparks the imagination. The exploits of Chinggis (Genghis) Khan are renowned throughout the world, yet his homeland remains something of a mystery to this day. Our image of Mongolia is one of wide open spaces, rolling grasslands, harsh deserts, horsemen, and nomadic herders. This was VENT's first tour to Mongolia, and while we probably all had these pictures in our minds' eyes, none of us really knew what to expect. Our first port of call was, of course, the...
Puerto Rico Extension
David Ascanio: June 30, 2010
We began this short but productive trip in the Maricao Highlands where we enjoyed Elfin-woods Warbler during the first hours of the morning. This little passerine was not described until 1972! Other species observed in the area were the Puerto Rican Spindalis and the Puerto Rican Screech-Owl (Megascops nidipes) which was seen up-close twice on two consecutive nights.Following Maricao we visited Susua and Guánica state forests, as well as La Parguera, where we had nice studies of the en...
The Dominican Republic
David Ascanio: June 30, 2010
There are few trips that I look forward to as much as our Dominican Republic tour, which offers a wonderful combination of endemic bird species and good birding conditions.Despite its size (about 18,000 sq. miles), the Dominican Republic is comprised of an incredible mix of habitats, from coastal mangrove to grasslands and three forest types: moist, cloud, and pine. Although we spent most of the tour in the forest, we also visited gardens, grasslands, and desert scrub in the southern section ...
