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THE FOCUS ON NATURE TOURS
ARCHIVES
Gallery 4:
With people, places,
birds and other nature during Focus On Nature Tours in: Argentina, Brazil, Dominica, Jamaica, Poland, Puerto Rico,
Spain, and during tours with solar eclipses in Bolivia, Costa Rica, & Turkey
Links:
To the Focus On Nature Tours Archives Gallery 1
In Gallery #1: some of our tours in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Iceland, Japan, Puerto Rico
To the Focus On Nature Tours Archives Gallery 2
In Gallery #2: some of our tours in Arizona, Brazil, Hungary (and Romania & Slovakia), Mexico, Sweden
To the Focus On Nature Tours Archives Gallery 3
In Gallery #3: some of our tours in Alaska, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominica,
Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Iceland, Japan, Texas, Venezuela
Other Links:
Highlights from Previous FONT tours, by year & location
Narratives & Photo Galleries from Previous FONT Tours
Upcoming FONT Birding
& Nature Tours:
by month in:
2012
2013 or:
by geographic
locations worldwide
The FONT
Tour in Brazil in May 2011:
Pictured above are
some of us, during the FONT May 2011 tour in Minas Gerais in Brazil,
prior to having lunch at a biological station in a remote forest that is one of
the very few places were Northern Muriquis live.
The endangered Northern Muriqui, pictured below, is the largest of the
100 species of New World Monkeys and allies that are known to occur in Brazil.
Actually, the Muriquis (the Northern & the Southern)
are the largest of the monkeys in the New World.
In the photo above, the young man at the right is Roberto, our local guide, who
has accompanied all of the FONT groups that have visited the forest to see the
Muriquis along with the interesting birds and butterflies to be found there.
One of the butterflies seen during our May 2011 Brazil Tour was the Malachite, including the one on a Poinsettia in the photograph below.
Links:
Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in Brazil
Mammals of Brazil, including the Monkeys & Allies
Top of page
FONT Tours with Solar & Lunar Eclipses:
Since 1990, there
have been 8 FONT birding & nature tours during which there were solar
eclipses.
Five of those, with Total Eclipses of the Sun, were the following:
in Costa Rica in July 1991
in Bolivia in November 1994
in Venezuela in February 1998
in Turkey in August 1999
in Japan in July 2009
During all of these, except one, the skies were clear. Only during the Japan
eclipse, when we were on Amami Island, was it cloudy.
With clear skies, there have also been Annular Solar Eclipses during 2
FONT tours:
in Iceland in May 2003
in Spain in October 2005.
Additionally, there was a partial solar eclipse during a FONT tour, in Guatemala
in April 2005.
And, during one FONT tour there was a Total Lunar Eclipse, in Chile
in November 2003.
In this first of a series of photos, we were in central
Turkey,
where there was a total solar eclipse, on August 11, 1999.
Earlier that day, when we were birding,
we saw a Kruper's Nuthatch, a Turkish bird specialty.
Above is a
photograph
of the July 1991 Total Solar Eclipse,
taken during a FONT birding tour in Costa
Rica.
The duration of totality was 6 minutes and 54 seconds.
This was the first of the 5 total solar eclipses
that have been seen during FONT birding & nature tours.
Above
& below are photographs
of
the November 1994 Total Solar Eclipse,
taken during a FONT birding tour in Bolivia.
The duration of totality was 4 minutes and 24 seconds.
This eclipse
was observed in the Andes of southern Bolivia,
at nearly 10,000 feet above
sea-level.
Photos below are of local people at the observation site.
Our group observed the total solar eclipse in Bolivia
during a FONT birding & nature tour that was
mostly in Argentina in November 1994.
Links:
Solar Eclipses & Other Celestial Nature during Focus On Nature Tours
Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours
Seatrips as part of
FONT tours in Dominica in the Caribbean:
Off the coast of Dominica,
during our birding & nature tours in the Lesser Antilles, sea-trips
have always been interesting for us.
An account of sightings during two of those boat-trips, follows below. Both
trips were in March, in 2000 and in 2002.
As indicated, some notable whales, dolphins, and seabirds
were seen. The most notable of the marine mammals were Frazer's Dolphins,
a species, as noted below, that was not seen alive anywhere in the world until
the 1970s.
Fraser's Dolphins, off
Dominica, in March 2000,
during the FONT Lesser Antilles Tour
Although found as a beached
carcass back in 1895, this species was not
scientifically described until 1956, and it was not seen alive until the early
1970s.
Cetaceans
and other Marine Life
during FONT pelagic trips
off Dominica,
March 25, 2000 & March 9, 2002
Compiled by the tour leader, Armas Hill
March 25, 2000:
Great Sperm Whale, or Cachalot (Physeter macrocephalus) - 2 young
Dwarf Sperm Whale (Kogia simus) - 2 seen well in calm water close to the boat (Photo in Marine-Life Photo Gallery)
Fraser's Dolphin (Lagenodelphis hosei) - a pod of 200 to 300 seen, a few times, swimming in a tight group. This creature was not scientifically described until 1956, and not seen alive until the early 1970's. There are populations in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. (Photo in Marine-Life Photo Gallery)
Pantropical Spotted Dolphin (Stenella
attenuata) - 10 to 20, some close to the boat.
This species shows a tremendous variation in color and the extent of spotting.
Those seen off Dominica did not have notable spotting. This species can be
difficult to distinguish from the Atlantic Spotted Dolphin (Stenella
frontalis).
Green Sea Turtle
flying fish (sp.)
Birds seen at sea that
day included:
7 to 9 Pomarine Jaegers
Brown Booby
White-tailed Tropicbird.
March 9, 2002:
Fraser's Dolphin (Lagenodelphis
hosei) About 50 seen in a "tight group".
Pantropical Spotted Dolphin (Stenella attenuata) From 50 to
100 seen closer to the boat than the Fraser's.
Birds seen at sea that
day included:
about 25 Pomarine Jaegers
a Great Skua
a White-tailed Tropicbird
both Brown and Red-footed Boobies (about 10 of the latter).
Closer to shore, there were:
2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
2 Laughing Gulls
(the only gulls seen during our tour in Dominica)
Royal Terns, Brown Pelicans, and Magnificent Frigatebirds were
common.
Where schools of small tuna were in the
water: jaegers were feeding at the surface, boobies were diving
into the water, and frigatebirds were soaring overhead and sometimes
skimming fish from the sea.
Links:
Other Marine Life of the Caribbean
Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature in the Caribbean
During FONT Tours at Various Places:
In the first of the photos below,
the FONT group in Poland in April 1994:
Next, in the following photo, some of the FONT tour participants during a FONT
tour in Puerto Rico in February 1999:
And, in the following photo, one of our FONT
tour groups in Jamaica:
Below: In a very different part of the world, some of the participants during a FONT Argentina Tour on a boat in the Beagle Channel, with Tierra del Fuego in the background:
Over the years, there have been 25 FONT birding & nature tours in Spain. Pictured below is one of our Spain groups in the Pyrenees:
The following three photographs are from FONT
tours in Japan.
Below: Alan Brady (left) and Armas Hill having some Japanese green tea,
at the Japanese-style hotel where our group stayed during a FONT Japan Winter
Birding Tour
Below: some of us in one of our groups "going through some logistics"
in Hokkaido, Japan
Below: and a couple of our Japanese friends displaying the t-shirts, with bird
illustrations, that we had just given them as gifts. The shirts were from a
"hawk watch" in Pennsylvania.
Links:
Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in Brazil
Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in Europe, including Iceland
Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in the Caribbean
Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in Japan
A Photo Gallery of Culture & Scenery during a FONT Japan Tour
Some Drawings from FONT Tours:
A person who traveled with us a number of times to a number of places, always
with his wife, and sometimes with his sons, would draw illustrations when he was
with us.
Now deceased, he was Charles Gambill, from Ohio. 3 of this drawings, that he
gave us as gifts, follow here.
Below: At the Mayan archeological site of Tikal in Guatemala. In the
drawing are the Ocellated Turkey and Orange-breasted Falcons that we saw.
Below: Whooping Cranes at the Aransas Refuge in Texas
Below: male Rock Ptarmigans near Nome in Alaska
Links:
Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in Central America, including Guatemala
Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in North America