NOTE: The first version of this email was poorly transmitted and difficult to read. Hopefully this version is easier on your eyes! ************************** Hello birders, Hope you?re doing well! I?m a medical student and avid birder in Nashville who has posted to this forum from time to time. In preparation for my senior year of school before the long hours of residency, I planned a solo expedition to South America in July 2007. It all started simply enough, the typical birder?s dream of visiting the Neotropics. I have birded all over the US but one short trip to Costa Rica was all the experience I had in the area ? I would need lots of study before attempting a combined trip to Venezuela and Ecuador. I could not afford a tour and prepared to travel alone. The trip went off the cliff edge from fun to insane while reading Nigel Wheatley?s ?Where to Watch Birds in South America.? In lauding the birding riches of the continent, Nigel commented on the amazing species lists possible in the Neotropics. He also noted that the longest trip lists in the world included 797 on a 25-day tour to Kenya led by Brian Finch but that the ?World Bird Tour Record? belonged to the Danish Ornithological Society tour to Ecuador in 1992 led by Niels Krabbe and Kerik Molgaard. They recorded a mind-blowing 844 species in a month. I thought, ?How amazing is that?! I have the month of July off for the last time before retirement - I wonder how many I can find in northern South America?? The Amazing Race was on! So just after my last class of the year, I boarded a plane to Caracas, Venezuela. I'll spare you the details, but despite the fact that I got five flat tires in two days (total of 10 flats), suffered several other car malfunctions way out in the jungle, almost got stuck in Colombia, was illegally waylaid at a gold and diamond mine in Guyana trying to find a bike pump without being caught by the VZ military (Chavez and Co. just love Americans these days) and almost got lost in the Amazon basin of Ecuador, I made it! It was a tough itinerary - driving at night between locations and chasing birds from dawn till after dusk along the coast, in the rainforest, up to the cloudforest, and above treeline in the Andes. All in all, it was a photofinish - despite all this effort it was only in the last 24 hrs of this crazy month that I passed the record . . . ending with a final tally of 863 (+ 6 recognized by Howell and Ridgley but not Clements). This included 71 hummingbirds, 80 beautiful tanagers, and a mind-numbing 123 different flycatchers. Other highlights included my first flamingos, Hoatzin, Andean Cock-of-the Rock, boa constrictor and anaconda, Harpy Eagle, Waved Albatross on Isla de la Plata, a fledgling Helmeted Currasow, Sword-billed Hummingbird and Booted Racket-tail, Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan. I met lots of neat people along the way, including a nice group from Tucson and a Belgian birder about my age who helped me find a Common Potoo and Lyre-tailed Nightjar. My Spanish and Macgyver skills definitely improved and I got some great stories for the grandkids some day. I almost ran out of cash several times and mostly just slept in my car in the jungle, but I think I found a bed on days 7 and 10, with showers a bit more frequent at days 7, 10, and 29. And my poor mom thought I was crazy before. I wanted to share this exciting news and publicly thank Chris Sloan for lending me some books and recordings that proved invaluable for this expedition. I have attached a trip list and a couple graphs illustrating what a ?race? it really was ? into the last day I was wondering if I would barely miss the record, miss my flight, or both. I also wanted to make myself available to anyone interested in planning a trip to the area. Good birding, Jason Mann Nashville, TN ************************************* Jason R. Mann, Ph.D. Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Phone: (615) 491-8863 Pager: (615) 317-0252 Email: J.Mann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. 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