Discussing the Idea of Sister Birding Clubs with the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras

               Today, I had the very special opportunity to go birding on the Zamorano University campus with U.S. Ambassador James Nealon.  Luckily for me, and for birders throughout Honduras, the Ambassador has been a life-long birder.  For the past couple of years, he has been very instrumental in facilitating interest and infrastructure development to support avi-tourism in Honduras.  He also played an important role in securing support for the Honduras Birding for Conservation Tour from the President of Honduras. 

U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, James Nealon (right) is an avid, life-long birder.

He joined us for a great bird walk on the Zamorano University campus today.  Photo Credit:

Oliver Komar.

               Thanks to Oliver Komar of the Departmento de Ambiente y Desarrollo (Environment and Development) at Zamorano University, a group of ten birders had a great time walking 6km or so through the main part of campus and through some of the agricultural areas from 6am until about 11am.  In addition to the Ambassador, our group of birders included a few faculty members and a couple of their family members, two undergraduate students, and two research staff members from Zamorano University.  The University’s President, Jeffery Lansdale, joined us for a wonderful picnic breakfast provided by the University for the whole group of us at about 8am.  

Zamorano University provided us with a wonderful picnic breakfast midway

through our bird walk.  Photo Credit: Jody Enck.

               Our group of birders was quite diverse in term of birding experience and identification skill.  It was fun to be with several experts and some birding novices on the same bird walk.  I could learn about some of the birds from the experts while also lending a bit of help to some of the novices, too.  As it turns out, one of the undergrad students, Maria José Oviedo, will be traveling to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology this coming January where she will intern with the Education Program for about four months.  Our big world sometimes is very small.

Karla Maria Melgar Velis (right) and Maria José Oviedo, two undergrads at

Zamorano University, joined us on our bird walk on campus today.  Photo credit: Jody Enck.

  

Professor Eric van den Berghe and his daughter,

Crystal, check out some of the birds we saw on the

bird walk.  Photo credit: Jody Enck

             Altogether, our group reported 83 species in eBird for our walk.  Personal bird highlights for me included three new life birds: Gray-breasted Martin, Yellow-olive Flycatcher, and Tropical Mockingbird.  The Mockingbird was particularly interesting because it had leucistic tail feathers.  Some people refer to this as partial albinism (instead of being gray, its tail was stark white).  Leucistic feathers occur from genetic defects that prevent pigment (especially melanin) from occurring in some feathers. 

               We saw many other amazing birds, too.  For example, we found some newly arrived migrants like Western Kingbird (2), Ruby-throated Hummingbird (2), and Dickcissel (at least 250).  We also observed quite a few species of warblers that breed in North America – “our birds of summer” that are Hondurans’ “birds of winter.”  These are the birds that link birding clubs in Central and North America. 

Our somewhat eclectic group of birders enjoying the sights and sounds on our bird walk with

U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, James Nealon (fourth from right in the back) today on the Zamorano

University campus.  Photo credit: Jody Enck

               During our walk and over breakfast, I had a chance to share my dream of creating sister birding clubs between the U.S. and Honduras with Ambassador Nealon.  The Ambassador was very enthusiastic about this idea.  He immediately saw potential for sister birding clubs not only to raise awareness of Neotropical migratory birds and threats to their habitats, but also to contribute to enhancing the lives and livelihoods of local community residents.  Sustainable development, especially linked to nature and the environment, is an important joint priority for the U.S. and Honduran governments.  I was particularly excited when Ambassador Nealon said he thought his office can help facilitate the development of a network of sister birding clubs.

               When I came to Honduras 12 days ago, I had a very small dream to link some birding clubs on the breeding and wintering grounds for Neotropical migratory birds.  Nearly every day something wonderful happens that I could not possibly have imagined to help this dream start to become a reality.  Today was one of those days.  To potentially have support and some kind of assistance from the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras is something that I never imagined could happen.  The dream continues to grow.