ABC FEBRUARY 2016 MEETING REPORT:
LIFE NET NATURE/Ecuador:
On February 16, 2016, ABC’ers were entertained and educated by three of our own, Mike Walker, Jerry Broadus, and Clarice Clark, on their experiences banding and otherwise counting birds at the Life Net Nature site in Ecuador at the Las Tangaras (Tanagers) Reserve in the tropical Andes. The group was so thrilled that we practically had to be kicked out of our room at the library or we would have been there all night.
The history of this reserve, one of several throughout the world administered by Life Net, is another example of one person making a huge difference in the knowledge deficit surrounding tropical birds, this person being the founder of the reserve, Dr. Dusti Becker. Just a few days of observing and banding in this reserve almost always turns up something previously unknown to science.
Mike started out with this history, which he knows well, having done 5 volunteer stints there by now. He was definitely recruiting for the next December period. This last time there were 7 volunteers besides the staff, and his map showed the ABC Team (3) plus 2 from Utah and 2 from the east, so only 7 people. Mike made it sound like Paradise, which perhaps it is, with great food, luggage carriers (burros), and a swimming waterhole. The lodge must be hiked into, so not a lot of riffraff. The swinging bridge wasn’t loved by all (Clarice!), and the barracks sleeping quarters weren’t like the Hilton, but running water, occasional electricity, clean air, and the music of the jungle. Volunteers pay $1650 from Quito for 2 weeks all inclusive, part of which is fundraising, but anyone who’s priced birding in this area will recognize this as a darn good deal.
The forest was so dense that it was hard to see birds, but the huge network of mist nets turned up amazing finds that would never have been seen just with binoculars. The photos were great and were taken by our team, either at Las Tangaras or nearby afterwards.
A crowd pleaser was the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, which the team got very acquainted with via photos and videos of lekking males. Wow! Not a really melodic dawn chorus, though!
Jerry led us through the banding process including the amazing Club-Winged Manakins, which they were able to both examine in the hand while banding plus get video of that amazing wing-slap sound!
Clarice ended the presentation with the dessert — Hummingbirds! There are so many species (30+) that in short daily counts watching 3 feeders, the team relied on cheat sheets. Some were caught for banding in the mist nets, but most of the banded hummers were caught with a feeder trap. One of the miniscule bands was passed around for the group to see the size. Attaching these to the tarsi of tiny birds was a painstaking and even scary process.
The website for the organization is currently not working well, although if you persevere and scroll to the bottom you can find most of the meat about the projects and how to volunteer:
http://lifenetnature.org/index.php/volunteer/andes-mountains-south-america/
Also: https://lastangaras.wordpress.com/who-are-we/
