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Tenatively scheduled for August 23 - Sept 15 2001 (25 days). The itinerary shall include São Gabriel, on the upper Rio Negro: 5 full days; Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso: 5 full days; Amazonia National Park: 4 full days; and Manaus and Anavilhanas areas: 4-5 days. A Brazilian visa is required and must be applied for well in advance. Details for pricing are forthcoming from the ground agent. A cost and final dates for this trip should be available in mid-January. Should you wish to be placed on a mailing list for information on this trip, please write, call or preferably e-mail me in the next few weeks. I can then send you details about the trip as soon as they become available. To secure a spot on the trip, send Mike Flieg a $50 deposit (refundable if you drop out at least a month before the trip). Guy Kirwan, 55 West End Street, Norwich NR2 4DP. Tel: +44 (0) 1603 219701. E-mail: GMKirwan@aol.com. The trip will last 19 days from 23 August (this is designed to coincide with a better period for birding and lower season international airfares, at least from Britain, hence the date change). A full itinerary is posted as an adjunct to this message. The trip has been co-arranged by myself and Andy Whittaker, the Brazilian representative of the Neotropical Bird Club who has lived in Manaus for many years and leads tours for VENT. In addition, he operates his own travel company, Birding Brazil. This expertise has proved invaluable in setting up the itinerary which is designed to provide a broad sampling of the Amazonian Brazil avifauna. We will be concentrating on endemics, near-endemics and hard-to-see species. As with all Ornifolks trips, it will be hardcore dawn-to-dusk birding. Nonetheless, potential participants need not worry about going into training for this trip. There are no long climbs up mountains and as some of you know, the food in Brazil is usually excellent and plentiful! A brief introduction to the species to be expected on this trip can be found in one of the recent Ornifolks' newsletters. Additional species lists can be found, for most areas, in Wheatley (Where to watch birds in South America), and in three long papers in the recent Studies in Neotropical Ornithology Honoring Ted Parker. The cost will be about $3,300 per person. This includes: all hotels/lodges. Full board at Kings Lodge and Alta Floresta only (three soft drinks are provided per day free). Amazonia National park services = van for five days, cook, English guide, all food and mineral water, accomodation and entrance fee and local woodsman for five days who knows the trails. All food, ice and a large ice chest will be brought with us. All other ground transport and taxi transfers, including 1-day boat for river islands at Manaus. All lodge transport by water at Cristalino and two boat expeditions return per day from Kings Lodge. Local guides at each site fluent in English and with excellent knowlege of the following areas: Manaus, Kings Lodge, Itaituba and Alta Floresta. Flight Manaus/Sao Gabriel/Manaus. Meals in Manaus and Santarem as well as packed lunches where required. INPA tower two trips and Reserva Ducke permissions and entrance fee.International flights and the Varig airpass will be paid by the participants. Please note that in order to take advantage of the airpass you need to fly on Varig into Brazil. NOTE: August is holiday time in Brazil (it's also a superb time to bird this region). This means that if you are serious about doing this trip you need to make a decision as quickly as possible and to hold flights in and out of Manaus. We need 5 people to make the trip run and can take a maximum of 10. Unfortunately, because of these restrictions and time considerations, I must ask for a deposit of $500 immediately on this trip. This is payable to either myself of Mike Flieg and is non-refundable, unless the trip does not run at all or sufficient replacement participants are found. A second payment, of $1000 will be due by May 25 and the final payment of $1685 on July 1. Whilst the cost of this trip may seem comparatively high, this is due to the fact that we stay almost entirely in high quality accommodations situated close to or within pristine forest. The flight alone from Manaus to Sao Gabriel, which is included in the cost of the trip, is US$350. We also have some of the very best guides for the area at our disposal. With the current weakness of the Brazilian Real, this may in fact be one of the best times to take this trip (from a financial perspective). There is an option to add on an additional 7-day trip to the Pantanal at the end of the trip. Those interested in doing this should contact me as soon as possible. Queries should be directed to myself or Mike Flieg. GMK There will be the option to add on additional side-trips eg. the Pantanal and interior cerrados; Ceará and the north-east for the new Antilophia manakin and other endemics; or even Atlantic forests of se Brazil again. São Gabriel, on the upper Rio Negro. 5 full days. Highlight species: Gray-bellied Antbird, Yellow-throated Antwren, Chestnut-crested Antbird, Rufous-winged Bare-eye, Amazonia Antbird, Brown-banded Puffbird, Pelzeln's Tody-tyrant, Brown-headed Greenlet, Rufous-winged Ground-cuckoo, White-naped Seedeater, Tawny-tufted Toucanet, Pavonine Quetzal, Guianan Gnatcatcher and Cinnamon Tyrant-manakin etc. Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso. 5 full days. Tapajós endemics. Highlight species: Bare-eyed Antbird, Yellow-shouldered Grosbeak, Black-girdled Barbet, Tooth-billed Wren, Natterer's Slaty-antshrike, Zimmer's Tody-tyrant, Dark-winged Trumpeter, Snow-capped Manakin, Kawall's Parrot, Rufous-necked Puffbird, Red-necked Aracari, Cherry-throated Spinetail, Peruvian Recurvebill, Dusky-tailed Flatbill, Flame-crowned Manakin, Red-throated Piping-guan, Brown-banded Puffird, Emili's Antwren etc. Amazonia National Park. 4 full days. Tapajós-Madeira endemics. Highlight species: Harlequin Antbird, Pale-faced Bare-eye, Golden Parakeet, Brown-chested Barbet, Snow-capped Manakin, Fiery-tailed Awlbill, Black-bellied Gnateater, Hoffman's Woodcreeper, White-tailed Cotinga, Vulturine Parrot, Rufous-necked Puffbird, Dark-winged Trumpeter, Red-throated Piping-guan, White-crested Guan etc. Manaus and Anavilhanas areas. 4-5 days. Highlight species: Crimson Fruitcrow, White-winged Potoo, Rufous Potoo, Caica Parrot, Guianan Toucanet, Guianan Red-cotinga, Blackish-gray Antshrike, Ferruginous Antbird, Spot-backed Antwren, Leaden Antwren, Black-headed Antbird, Zimmer's Woodcreeper, Scaled Spinetail and Klage's Antwren. Longer species lists for some of these areas are presented in Wheatley (1994). No British company provides any options to explore the bird-rich Brazilian Amazon. In the US only Field Guides Inc. provides a comprehensive series of itineraries covering this region. However, only this trip will allow a single comprehensive sampling of the different avifaunas of this region. Thanks, Guy
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