Wonder why there have been no posts during this exciting phase of our touring?  Well, posting requires a means of communication, and we have had little over the past days, and while there has been occasional Internet, it has been very, very slow.  It is slow here, but should work for this message.  A second reason for the silence is that bird touring can be very intense, and our was a serious tour in one of the most difficult places in the world to bird.  And so, when we were not birding or eating, we were resting.  On most days we birdied for some 12 hours, rising at 5 a.m. and wrapping up searches for nightjars and owls at about 9 p.m.  On one evening one of our participants broke into tears, she was so tired even if so happy at what she had seen that day.

We did find birds.  The expert guides know the birds, where to find them, and how to lure them in for sightings.  As a result we saw hundreds of species.  A fellow participant, a senior lad from Manchester, England, said he could have arranged his own visit and he would have found two birds.  That is an exaggeration, but his point is correct.  Once in a while a bird may shriek, and you may look up to see it sitting on a branch, but mostly they are hidden in a bush.  Birds do not wish to end up in a pot or part of a “wig” headdress.  Th doves and parrots have lovely colors, but mostly they are green and browse quietly for fruit among green leaves on the tops of high branches, and being uncomfortable around people they fly far off at their close approach.  We had to earn our birds.