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Catch up on the latest news from Victor Emanuel Nature Tours by reading the latest VENTFLASH.
Grand Australia: Tasmania Extension
Dion Hobcroft: Nov 18, 08
Our 2008 Tasmania tour was successful beyond my already great expectations. Everybody saw all of the endemic birds of Tasmania, and we had outstanding encounters with special mammals and superb wildflowers. We enjoyed fine food, good wine, and a relaxed itinerary.After a short morning flight from Melbourne, we loaded up into our van only to enjoy fine views of Musk Lorikeet in the airport car park. A quick exploration of Orielton Lagoon turned up great views of Great Crested Grebe. After sett...
Grand Australia Part II
Dion Hobcroft: Nov 18, 08
Tick, tick, tickaroo became the chorus of our group as the fabulous, colorful, and rare birds of Australia focused sharply in our binoculars. Beyond the birds, we enjoyed great mammals, reptiles, amphibians, wildflowers, and camaraderie.We commenced our tour in sunny Queensland. At our first stop, just south of Brisbane, we were lucky enough to enjoy fantastic views of the rare Square-tailed Kite at the nest, a dozing koala, and a Tawny Frogmouth on the nest. We spent the next two days explor...
Grand Australia Part I
Dion Hobcroft: Nov 18, 08
Our 2008 series of Grand Australia tours accumulated an astonishing 493 species of birds—with just one "heard only"! It was my pleasure to lead the entire program with a great bunch of folks. We enjoyed plenty of two- and three-night stays in a range of very comfortable hotels. A coaster bus accommodated our group of 10, and we sought out the best cuisine on offer in my home country. We made time for shopping and cultural visits, and even visited such icons as Uluru in the Red...
Fall Hawaii
Bob Sundstrom: Nov 14, 08
Our three-island Fall Hawaii tour began on the island of Oahu. From our hotel in Waikiki, it was but a short stroll to terrific views of angelic White Terns, perched and flying close overhead. During breakfast on the hotel lanai overlooking Waikiki beach, a Brown Booby flew over surfers and swimmers near the shoreline. Driving after breakfast to a nearby wooded valley, we found the Oahu form of the Elepaio, Hawaii's endemic Old World flycatcher. In the same valley we watched a Melodious L...
South Africa
Geoff Lockwood: Nov 08, 08
This year's South Africa tour took place in a context of climatic contrasts. The Cape was coming off its wettest winter in over 50 years, and water was everywhere—including lapping against the road in the Karoo (usually an arid, semi-desert area). The rest of the country was hot, dry, and dusty, and anxiously awaiting the start of the summer rainy season.In spite of the goods rains, or possibly because of them, spring appeared late in the Cape and many of the migrants that have typi...
Fall at Panama's Canopy Tower
Barry Zimmer: Nov 05, 08
Every trip to the famed Canopy Tower is different, but each offers its share of excitement and wonderful tropical birding highlights. Our October trip this fall was certainly one of the best ever. We saw just over 300 species of birds and covered a wide variety of habitats, from the foothills of Cerro Azul to the Caribbean lowland forests of Achiote, to world-famous Pipeline Road.Our morning on Cerro Azul was probably my favorite of the trip. At nearly 3,000 feet elevation, a number of foothi...
Cape May, Hawk Mountain & Bombay Hook
Louise Zemaitis: Nov 03, 08
Coastal migration is all about the weather. During most of September there had been an unusual amount of easterly winds creating conditions for below average numbers of migrant birds. All we needed was one cold front to shake things up. On our first evening in Philadelphia, the tour began with a rainstorm, the bellwether of the passage of a good cold front. The next morning we got up early and headed straight to Cape May.Cape May greeted us with all of its splendor. We went to the end of Suns...
Southern Britain: Birds and History
Peter Roberts: Oct 30, 08
This was our 11th year of running this special tour in a place that you might think isn't the most obvious venue for a VENT tour. The proximity to continental Europe is the key—for both the great birding and the rich history. For the birds, it is a natural migration route, and many species reach their most northerly limits here. For the history, it is a pivotal and strategic area for over 2,000 years of invasions, attempted invasions, repelling invasions, colonizations, and conversi...
Mexico: Barranca del Cobre
Brian Gibbons: Oct 22, 08
We began our 2008 Copper Canyon tour in Parque Sinaloa, a serene oasis in the middle of bustling Los Mochis. Immediately we were greeted with our first tropical birds: Red-billed Pigeon, Mexican Parrotlet, Broad-billed and Violet-crowned hummingbirds, Grayish Saltator, and the amazing Black-throated Magpie-Jay. Mingling with these birds were some common North American migrants; Wilson's Warbler, Bell's Vireo, and Western Kingbird were all common in the park.As the morning warmed up, w...
Washington: September Migration, the Pacific Northwest
Bob Sundstrom: Oct 03, 08
Our September Pacific Northwest tour takes advantage of nature's timing, as early September concentrates bird migrants along the Northwest's forest edges, bays, coastal shorelines, and over the ocean itself. During our 2008 tour we enjoyed superb weather and an admirable list of birds, plus great food and a memorable journey through the scenic Northwest, as we birded the region from Willapa Bay in southwest Washington to Boundary Bay in southeast British Columbia.The first morning was...
Texas: Cibolo Creek Workshop
Barry Zimmer: Sep 25, 08
Our second Cibolo Creek tour was a huge success, even topping the inaugural trip of last year. We started out with some difficulties, as unprecedented flooding in the vicinity of Presidio had caused the creek to rise enough so that access to the ranch was temporarily prohibited. A one-night stay in a historic hotel in Marfa solved that problem and put us in closer proximity to the Davis Mountains for our day of birding there. We tallied an impressive number of migrants during the trip, as wel...
Grand California
Jeri Langham: Sep 25, 08
Whenever someone asks if I get tired of leading our Grand California tour, I laugh and say, "Picture San Francisco, Point Reyes, Bodega Bay, the Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe, Mono Lake, the White Mountains, Yosemite National Park, Monterey, and the Big Sur coastline. Now tell me you could ever get tired of the scenery, not to mention the array of possible birds, plants, and other animals." Our endemic Yellow-billed Magpie is much more difficult to see due to decimation by the West Nile...
Summer at El Valle's Canopy Lodge
Michael O'Brien: Sep 22, 08
Nestled in the crater of an extinct volcano and at an elevation of nearly 2,000 feet, El Valle is both picturesque and refreshingly cooler than the lowlands of Panama. It also has a great diversity of birds, including many species not found around the Canopy Tower. Run by the same owner as Canopy Tower, the food here is just as exquisite and the accommodations are very comfortable.At the conclusion of our Canopy Tower tour, those of us continuing on to El Valle enjoyed a final delightful morn...
Summer at Panama's Canopy Tower
Michael O'Brien: Sep 22, 08
Summer in Panama is a time of incredible abundance and a frenzy of activity. Due to daily rains, the vegetation is lush, the flowers are blooming, and the birds are either nesting or feeding their recently fledged young. Abundance of resident birds reaches its peak at this season. Although the "green season" produces daily rain showers, they come in a predictable pattern, usually for an hour or two in the afternoon (during siesta time!). The result is cooler temperatures and increas...
Southwest Colorado: Birds & Butterflies
Michael O'Brien: Sep 17, 08
By Michael O’Brien and Louise ZemaitisIn Colorado one can witness some of the most breathtaking scenery in North America. During our Southwest Colorado Birds & Butterflies tour we saw much of that scenery—enhanced by a dizzying array of birds, butterflies, and wildflowers. This year's late spring with much snow caused a slight shift in the seasons, particularly at high elevation. We noticed that shift in the brood timing in the birds and butterflies. There were also specta...
Autumn Grand Manan
Barry Zimmer: Sep 15, 08
The Bay of Fundy off Grand Manan Island offers what is hands down some of the best pelagic birding anywhere in the country. With both superb quality of species and sheer quantity of birds, every boat trip is a nonstop thrill ride. This was proven once again on our recent Autumn Grand Manan tour. On our full-day boat trip, we tallied a staggering 8,000 Wilson's Storm-Petrels, 2,000 Red Phalarope, 1,500 Red-necked Phalarope, 400 Greater Shearwaters, 200 Atlantic Puffins, 150 Sooty Shearwate...
Western Turkey: Birds and History
Peter Roberts: Sep 12, 08
This was our sixth Birds & History tour in Western Turkey. Our tour was co-led by my good friend, knowledgeable historian, and great raconteur, Umit Ozaydin. The weather started out hot, but cooled down to something quite pleasant. I was glad to see good water levels at our various wetland birding sites, making for some excellent short excursions full of shorebirds and other waterbirds.We found most of the more special and hoped-for species from the start, with Syrian Woodpeckers in ...
Best of Brazil and Iguacu Falls Extension
Kevin Zimmer: Sep 12, 08
Our 2008 Best of Brazil tour got off to a rousing start, beginning with our drive from Cuiabá to Poconé, and on to the Transpantaneira, a gravel road that provides a fabulous north-south transect of the northern Pantanal. Birds were everywhere, as they typically are, and we rubbernecked from giant Jabirus and Greater Rheas to smaller, but no less interesting cacholotes and woodcreepers. At one of our first real stops, we were treated to perched and flying Hyacinth Macaws, the la...
Mato Grosso, Brazil
Andrew Whittaker: Sep 10, 08
Once again, the Pantanal offered a nonstop series of highlights and lived up to its well-deserved reputation as one of the premier wildlife spectacles in the world! The Pantanal covers a staggering 140,000 sq km of seasonally flooded savannas and subtropical forest, making it the planet's largest wetland. Each year it's a great privilege for me to share the region's astonishing biodiversity, where daily bird lists often exceed 150 species, and where mammals and crocodilians occur ...
Namibia, Botswana and Zambia
Geoff Lockwood: Sep 09, 08
Etosha's waterholes are justifiably world-famous for the incredible game viewing they offer. Every day is different and the scene changes constantly, with animals and birds arriving and departing in an endless procession throughout each 24-hour cycle.The floodlit waterhole at Okaukeujo, Etosha's westernmost camp, is always a fantastic introduction to Africa's wildlife, and so it proved again this year. We arrived in camp late in the afternoon and, after settling everyone into thei...
