La Vallee (aka "The Valley Obscured By Clouds")

While The Godfather was making moviegoers an offer they couldn't refuse, La Vallée was wowing art-house crowds with its flower-powered search for paradise in the jungles of New Guinea. It's there that an adventurous diplomat's wife (Bulle Ogier), hoping to find the forbidden feathers of a rare exotic bird, embarks on a deeper, more personal quest when she encounters a makeshift family of hippies seeking an unmapped valley from which visitors are said never to return. Like the structurally similar cult films from its era (including Walkabout and Aguirre: The Wrath of God), La Vallée dazzled the post-'60s subculture with free-spirited adventure and enigmatic beauty, captured here through the peerless lens of cinematographer Néstor Almendros. The hippie vibe seems mildly dated but its sensual context is timeless, and a climactic encounter with the primitive Mapuga tribe retains an intense cross-cultural mystique. Pink Floyd's celebrated soundtrack is mostly heard as background ambience, but it effectively enhances the film's compelling atmosphere of mystery and expectation. --Jeff Shannon

Price: $19.95

Click here to buy from Amazon

The Hatchling (Guardians of Ga'hoole, Book 7)

Kludd is dead. Nyra, his mate, is determined that her hatchling, Nyroc, will fulfill his father's destiny: the vicious oppression of all the owl kingdoms. But Nyroc is a poor student of evil. A light grows in his heart, fed by scraps of forbidden legend and strange news of a place where goodness and nobility reign. He must summon all his courage to defy his destiny -- and the embodiment of evil that is his mother.

Price: $5.99

Click here to buy from Amazon

Blog Action Day 2009

Let's all fight global warming...
Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

Happy Holidays :)

Blessings for my dear birder friends!

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

Getting ready!

So, taxi will pick us up to go to the airport at 5:30am.

It is happening, we are moving to Cusco!

Besides the bunch of clothes and house stuff we managed to "pack" for the past week, we have a couple of things that were added to our super heavy bags, but that we couldn't miss.

One, the Field Guide of the Birds of Machu Picchu and the Cusco Region by Barry Walker, a guide we wanted to buy for a while and we finally got it!

Sorry about the bad pics, but they are as reference only. I love this plate, I wonder if I'll manage to see any of these hummingbirds soon!

The other thing is a present that my great friend Celeste, from Zöövenirs-Perú made for me.

Celeste, Andean Cock-of-the-rock and Mel

Isn't that Andean Cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruviana) handsome?? Celeste sewed this super cool key holder for me as a farewell gift. I just love it! Thank you Celeste for such a great present!

That lovely bird is our national bird and it is one of the ones to be found in Cusco! Until work issues are certain, I might be selling these little fellows over there, so, wish me luck!

I have to go now... last minute packing, there is always something else to sneak into the bags!

See you soon, the adventure begins :)

View the original article here

Vermilion Flycatchers and Life changes

If you've been following this blog for a while, then you will know that I've been posting off and on for months now.

I've been working on my thesis for quite a while, and I finally finished it! I have to defend my work in front of a "jury" of professors and other students by the end of this month in Buenos Aires. This blog was born in Buenos Aires, and I hope that the trip marks a new beginning for it, with more learning and sharing, more pics and birds, birds, birds!!

I plan to reinvent myself in the following months, a change of life for the better. I want to learn new things and visit new places.

It is a bit confusing still, as everything is "under construction" right now - plans, dreams, hopes, future!

And speaking of confusion... Something that has me a bit confused too are these Vermilion Flycatchers:


The male is usually bright red with black when adult, like the one above.

Lima has a sooty morth population of these birds, the dark brown ones like the one in the next photo (I love these cute "chocolate" ones!):

But, what I don't understand, is what exactly is the bird that follows...

Tommy found it in his walks in Parque El Olivar and it is a complete mystery to me: It has the brown body like the sooty morph and a red crown like a "regular" Vermilion, although the red is not as bright. (Thanks for the pics babe!)

Do you know what could be happening?? The bird has been seen on many occasions for a few months now and no molting has been observed. Please, feel free to leave your ideas on what you think or share what you KNOW.

... I wonder if the new Mel will end up like this bird, a mixture of the old Mel but with brighter, happier, unique feathers ;)

View the original article here

New birders!

A friend from school, Marisol, moved to Cusco with her kid some time ago.

Last Sunday she asked us if we wanted to take a walk with her, her boy and the dog. Of course we accepted and met early for breakfast together before climbing up to get around Sacsayhuaman.

It took us around an hour and it was worth it!

Rufous-collared Sparrow

On the way up we found new birds, a couple of them with pending id and sadly with no pic to help us (guess we have to go back some time soon hehe)

We didn't get into Sacsayhuaman, an important Incan Fortress, but walked around before heading to Q'enqo chico, a small set of ruins in a spot that gives you an amazing view of the city.

Mel-bird(er) at Q'enqo chico ruins

It was hot and sunny, they were tons of Rufous-collared Sparrows singing and the idea of not doing anything but stare at the blue sky, green mountains and pretty birds was so great!

Rufous-collared Sparrow

One of the highlights of the walk was the fact that we gained a couple of new birders to the cause! hahaha... both my friend and her 8 year old Santiago were amazed about how close they could see the birds with the binoculars (the four of us took turns to see) and the boy was so excited he kept asking about the birds and asking for the binoculars over and over again. Santiago and the party's binoculars

It was so great to spend a nice day with friends and to have been able to share a bit of our love for nature and birds with them. By the way, can anyone recommend binoculars for kids that can be found on this side of the world?? Can't let Santiago escape!!



We saw:
Great Thrush (lifer!)
Great Sapphirewing (lifer!)
Band-tailed Seedeater (lifer!)
Black-hooded Siskins
Rufous-collared Sparrows (way too many of them)
A hummingbird that we were not able to id or photograph
A hawk waaay too far to id
Some sort of wren that was too fast

Might sound like a little list, but it was our first Sunday in the city, and we went out with a kid and a dog, not very bird-friendly ;)

I hope that soon we'll be able to go back there again and learn more about the birds on the area, it is fun to be out!

View the original article here

New birders!

A friend from school, Marisol, moved to Cusco with her kid some time ago.

Last Sunday she asked us if we wanted to take a walk with her, her boy and the dog. Of course we accepted and met early for breakfast together before climbing up to get around Sacsayhuaman.

It took us around an hour and it was worth it!

Rufous-collared Sparrow

On the way up we found new birds, a couple of them with pending id and sadly with no pic to help us (guess we have to go back some time soon hehe)

We didn't get into Sacsayhuaman, an important Incan Fortress, but walked around before heading to Q'enqo chico, a small set of ruins in a spot that gives you an amazing view of the city.

Mel-bird(er) at Q'enqo chico ruins

It was hot and sunny, they were tons of Rufous-collared Sparrows singing and the idea of not doing anything but stare at the blue sky, green mountains and pretty birds was so great!

Rufous-collared Sparrow

One of the highlights of the walk was the fact that we gained a couple of new birders to the cause! hahaha... both my friend and her 8 year old Santiago were amazed about how close they could see the birds with the binoculars (the four of us took turns to see) and the boy was so excited he kept asking about the birds and asking for the binoculars over and over again. Santiago and the party's binoculars

It was so great to spend a nice day with friends and to have been able to share a bit of our love for nature and birds with them. By the way, can anyone recommend binoculars for kids that can be found on this side of the world?? Can't let Santiago escape!!



We saw:
Great Thrush (lifer!)
Great Sapphirewing (lifer!)
Band-tailed Seedeater (lifer!)
Black-hooded Siskins
Rufous-collared Sparrows (way too many of them)
A hummingbird that we were not able to id or photograph
A hawk waaay too far to id
Some sort of wren that was too fast

Might sound like a little list, but it was our first Sunday in the city, and we went out with a kid and a dog, not very bird-friendly ;)

I hope that soon we'll be able to go back there again and learn more about the birds on the area, it is fun to be out!

View the original article here

Birds on hats

It's been quite a while since my last post. It's been a month and a half since dad died and I'm still getting used to the idea, and to this new city. I've been working and haven't been able to go birding, but I wanted to share with you a bit of the birds I actually saw.

June is a month of celebration in this city, starts with Corpus Christi and goes on and on until Inti Raymi (Festivital of the Sun) arrives.

This is a curious city, it mixes Christian/Catholic rites with Incan Festivities. It's a wild time with lots of people on the streets and groups of dancers performing for the crowd, the saints, the sun and God.

I loved these guys:

With white masks and whips (personifying the Spaniards that came to "colonize" centuries ago), but dressed up with all sorts of symbols from the Andean world (rainbow colours, nature representations embroderied on their hats called "monteras", Andean camelids, etc.)

They "fight", although it is more like a duel to show who's best with the whip.

They look proud and beautiful.

The Ukukus are also great. Ukuku means "bear" in Quechua, the language of the Incas. These Ukukus wear black masks and usually tease the dancers and the audiences, they are funny and get lot of cheering from the crowds. These ones were pulling a small truck while dancing freely on the streets.

Andean people respect nature, they represent it in many ways...

... like in these "montera", mountains, dolphins, sun...

... or this butterfly...

... others prefer birds...

... which helped with my need for birds!

Colourful parrots and patterns brightening up my day!!!

And even a Cock-of-the-rock to cheer me up :)

This is a new city (to me!), with traditions that I used to read about but never experienced myself...

... new experiences that make me smile (like these birdies here, or is it just me??)

I'm getting used to this city, letting the excitement and the colour invade my soul (at least until I can go birding for real birds!)

It's not easy, but it helps.

I plan to go birding this Sunday, wish me good luck!

View the original article here

Health

Hello my friends.

These past few weeks have been hard on the family. My dad has been hospitalized again and he's facing surgery tomorrow morning once more (if the doctors finally agree on that) A few dozens of tumours need to be removed from the abdominal area. He's 58 years old but his actual health condition is not great, so it has become a life threatening surgery at this point. But it is needed.

To those of you who pray, I ask for a prayer tomorrow morning to guide the doctors hands and hearts. To those of you who don't, I ask to send positive thoughts for the very same reason. The past 10 proved that every little positive thought and healing wish or prayer counts.

I have to go now, hope to be posting soon, and more cheerful and bird-full too.

Hugs to you all. THANK YOU!

View the original article here

Lifer!!!

New lifer yesterday! And not just any lifer.

I met my first blogger/birder friend!

Paul, The Wandering Tattler, and the lovely Sonja were visiting Peru for a few weeks. I'm waiting for their photo of our lunch together to post it here. (UPDATE: Paul sent me the pic the waiter took of us, here it is!)

It was sooo much fun to meet them. Too bad that I had to go back to work after a few hours and that we couldn't go birding together.

They were in Lima only for a day, after a trip that covered places such as Cusco, Arequipa, Madre de Dios, Ica...

They were just a few birds away from hitting the 200 birds mark for the trip (I hope they managed to find a few or id the ones they couldn't yet!)

We spent a few hours together, but it was so nice! It must be because birders rock ;)

I wish that we could meet again soon, and I'll wait for Paul's posts on my country. This place is full of contrasts, and I'm sure there are plenty of stories to come (Stop by and read!)

Thank you Paul and Sonja for a wonderful time, hope to see you soon!

View the original article here

Some history about our new home

If you've been following this blog, then you know that Tommy and I decided to move to Cusco. We took these pics from the plane when we were not far from our destination.

Cusco is a city in Southeastern Peru with an altitude of around 3,400 m (11,200 ft). It can be hard on some people due to altitude sickness, but with the proper rest and precautions everything is fine.

Cusco is the historic capital of the Inca Empire and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1983 by UNESCO.

Some historians say that the name Cusco is derived from the Quechua phrase, qusqu wanka, meaning "rock of the owl". Isn't that awesome? More bird related stuff about our new hometown!

I got a new job and will start next week, and Tommy has a few projects that I believe will work out just fine.

We are meeting new people every day, and so far they have been great! They helped us so much these past few weeks. We are also finding information about nearby birding spots and saw a couple of new birds within the city, a hummingbird and what we believe is some kind of thrush (id pending)

It won't be easy, but it won't be boring either.

View the original article here

We are moving!

Yes, we are!

We are moving to Cusco! Capital of the Inca Empire and our dream for a while. We are crazy.
We decided it last year, and of course, after I quit my job (ending on February 28) nature decided to make it extra harder and rained and rained until it flooded and thousands were left with nothing but what they were wearing.

We will go seeking for jobs in a place where devastation hit with fury. Businesses are closing and people are losing houses, crops and animals.

But we'll still go. It will be a challenge, and also an opportunity to help out some people. Our hearts waited too long for this. We want to start over from scratch - new life, new jobs, new problems but also new opportunities. We are confident that we could do good, meet new people and also enjoy the nature around the area (one of the main reasons to choose that location) and the travel possibilities from there to the South or to the jungle.

We can't say we are not worried about it. We have no house or full time job yet, and we move in a few weeks, but we are confident and excited!

It will be a pleasure to finally post about nature and new and exciting birds!!! Will you share this new adventure with us???

View the original article here

Lifer!!!

New lifer yesterday! And not just any lifer.

I met my first blogger/birder friend!

Paul, The Wandering Tattler, and the lovely Sonja were visiting Peru for a few weeks. I'm waiting for their photo of our lunch together to post it here. (UPDATE: Paul sent me the pic the waiter took of us, here it is!)

It was sooo much fun to meet them. Too bad that I had to go back to work after a few hours and that we couldn't go birding together.

They were in Lima only for a day, after a trip that covered places such as Cusco, Arequipa, Madre de Dios, Ica...

They were just a few birds away from hitting the 200 birds mark for the trip (I hope they managed to find a few or id the ones they couldn't yet!)

We spent a few hours together, but it was so nice! It must be because birders rock ;)

I wish that we could meet again soon, and I'll wait for Paul's posts on my country. This place is full of contrasts, and I'm sure there are plenty of stories to come (Stop by and read!)

Thank you Paul and Sonja for a wonderful time, hope to see you soon!

View the original article here

Happy Holidays :)

Blessings for my dear birder friends!

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

Huacarpay

I've been meaning to post for a while.

Dad has been extremely bad, I had to fly back for a week as it seemed like he was not going to make it. Being away makes me very nervous. It is frustrating not to be able to help, all I can do for now is wait and keep up the hope. I send letters to mom and she reads them to him when she manages to sneak into the Intensive Care Unit at the Hospital.

A couple of Sundays ago, Tommy and I decided to find out how to get to Huacarpay, a birding spot that we were told we couldn't miss. It was way too late for proper birding, but we decided to go anyway, just to find out exactly how to get there on our own.

Huacarpay was recently hit by nature, heavy rains and floodings left a lot of people homeless, and the town is slowly recovering.

It felt strange to know that and see large patches of soil like this:

The Andean marshes of Huacarpay were beautiful, we didn't manage to spend a lot of time there, but the time we were there was worth it! We couldn't find the endemic hummingbird of the area, the Bearded Mountaineer or the Giant Hummingbird (I wished so much to find it that maybe I scared it away with my obsessive thoughts! hehe)

The next pic doesn't really show what we saw, can you see the horizontal rainbow in front of the mountain? It was a first for me, and it was espectacular!

After a while we found some sort of observation cabin, too bad that we were so far away of most birds, even with the binoculars it wasn't easy, it was raining earlier and at first it seemed that we were not going to find much.

But after a while, all sorts of beauties started to appear. We managed to photograph only the ones that were closer to us.

Speckled Teal / Yellow-billed Teal

It was one of those totally unplanned trips, and we found so many new birds! We expected to see a couple of new birds, as we did not prepare in advance (remember we just wanted to figure out how to get there and get familiar with the area) Andean Gull

We went back home when it started to get dark, with new birds to talk and learn about, super tired and hungry (we never had lunch!) but sooo excited about our unexpected adventure.

This is the list of what we managed to id so far, I guess that following trips will help us id a couple of birds that were too elusive even to let us take a few notes:

Yellow-billed Pintail
Hooded Siskin
Yellow-winged Blackbird
Rufous-collared Sparrow
Blue-and-yellow Tanager (lifer!)
Cinereous Ground Tyrant (lifer!)
Western Great Egret (lifer!)
Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle (lifer!)
Plumbeous Rail (lifer!)
Cinnamon Teal (lifer!)
Andean Coot (lifer!)
Sparkling Violet-ear (lifer!)
Band-tailed Seedeater
Andean Gull (lifer!)
Puna Yellow Finch (lifer!)
Puna Teal (lifer!)
Plumbeous Pigeon (lifer!)
Puna Ibis (lifer!)
Speckled Teal / Yellow-billed Teal (lifer!)

View the original article here

Huacarpay

I've been meaning to post for a while.

Dad has been extremely bad, I had to fly back for a week as it seemed like he was not going to make it. Being away makes me very nervous. It is frustrating not to be able to help, all I can do for now is wait and keep up the hope. I send letters to mom and she reads them to him when she manages to sneak into the Intensive Care Unit at the Hospital.

A couple of Sundays ago, Tommy and I decided to find out how to get to Huacarpay, a birding spot that we were told we couldn't miss. It was way too late for proper birding, but we decided to go anyway, just to find out exactly how to get there on our own.

Huacarpay was recently hit by nature, heavy rains and floodings left a lot of people homeless, and the town is slowly recovering.

It felt strange to know that and see large patches of soil like this:

The Andean marshes of Huacarpay were beautiful, we didn't manage to spend a lot of time there, but the time we were there was worth it! We couldn't find the endemic hummingbird of the area, the Bearded Mountaineer or the Giant Hummingbird (I wished so much to find it that maybe I scared it away with my obsessive thoughts! hehe)

The next pic doesn't really show what we saw, can you see the horizontal rainbow in front of the mountain? It was a first for me, and it was espectacular!

After a while we found some sort of observation cabin, too bad that we were so far away of most birds, even with the binoculars it wasn't easy, it was raining earlier and at first it seemed that we were not going to find much.

But after a while, all sorts of beauties started to appear. We managed to photograph only the ones that were closer to us.

Speckled Teal / Yellow-billed Teal

It was one of those totally unplanned trips, and we found so many new birds! We expected to see a couple of new birds, as we did not prepare in advance (remember we just wanted to figure out how to get there and get familiar with the area) Andean Gull

We went back home when it started to get dark, with new birds to talk and learn about, super tired and hungry (we never had lunch!) but sooo excited about our unexpected adventure.

This is the list of what we managed to id so far, I guess that following trips will help us id a couple of birds that were too elusive even to let us take a few notes:

Yellow-billed Pintail
Hooded Siskin
Yellow-winged Blackbird
Rufous-collared Sparrow
Blue-and-yellow Tanager (lifer!)
Cinereous Ground Tyrant (lifer!)
Western Great Egret (lifer!)
Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle (lifer!)
Plumbeous Rail (lifer!)
Cinnamon Teal (lifer!)
Andean Coot (lifer!)
Sparkling Violet-ear (lifer!)
Band-tailed Seedeater
Andean Gull (lifer!)
Puna Yellow Finch (lifer!)
Puna Teal (lifer!)
Plumbeous Pigeon (lifer!)
Puna Ibis (lifer!)
Speckled Teal / Yellow-billed Teal (lifer!)

View the original article here