Long due newsletter! Happy New Year!

How are the New Year's Resolutions coming along? Are they birding related? 

Mine is birding related in a way. I shall become conversationally fluent in Japanese in 2024. In February it will be my 6th birding season in Japan, and I am still at beginner's level, but made a lot of progress since January 1st. The tools I am using are the Pimsleur course (I am on lesson 23 right now) and Duolingo (Section 2: Unit 4). I could finish the Pimsleur course by April to May (90 half hour lessons in total). One unit per week of Duolingo would have me through Section 3 by the end of the year. There would still be two more sections on DuoLingo left to complete the course, so one more year is allowed for perfection.

It has been a long time since the last newsletter. Sorry for the wait! I have been guiding in Brazil and Argentina most of September and October, and then a trip to California and Sweden in December for some personal pursuits (running a an amazing marathon and a working on my rock star image).

Also a lot of guiding in between. More below:

This is a rather long newsletter. Therefore, I have separated the topics in different headlines. Just scroll to what you are interested in. 

In this newsletter. 

1. Gunnar interviewed on Naturally Adventurous. 
2. Satipo road project update. Volunteers are signing up.
3. Japan in February
4. Australia - Tasmania and Australian Bird families in   March
5. Guran Guran Go Go Zone Tour
6. California International Marathon - Sacramento. New Master's PR and best Marathon since 1984!
7. More upcoming tours. Calendars of Kolibri Expeditions and 7 Wonders Birding. 
8. Donald Duck's Photographic Bird Expedition. Swedish Christmas Classic. 

Gunnar on Naturally Adventurous

I was interviewed twice by Charlie Hesse of the Naturally Adventurous Podcast. 

In the first episode there were tales from Peru from the early days in the country. Did I really escape the Shining Path by wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt? 
More tales from the trip in Peru with Noah Strycker on his Big Year described in his book Birding Without Borders. 

In the second episode we talked about how birding is changing from when we both started long ago, and where it may take us in the future. Also, that birders should not feel too guilty about traveling the world when eco-dollars is spent to promote both protecting standing forest as well as ensuring biodiversity and conservation of threatened species. 

Additionally, I got a chance to mention our Satipo Road Community Guesthouse project, which resulted in many requests by people wanting to become volunteers at the community guesthouse. 

You can listen to the podcast anywhere where you get your favorite podcasts or check out Ken Berens specific page over the NA episodes.

Season 4. Episode 08. Gunnar talks about birding adventurous and conservation efforts in Peru.  

Season 4. Episode 09. Gunnar and Charlie Hesse discuss the evolution of birding.

Satipo road project update. Volunteers are signing up.

During 2023 Kolibri Expeditions has been in charge to develop the community guest house at Apaya-Calabaza on the Satipo Road. In addition to the room separations made last year, we bought new mattresses and linen and built a bathroom with hot shower. 

It is still basic of course but there are constantly improvements as more birders have discovered this new resource. 

Since the podcast appearance several people have gotten in touch to volunteer at the Satipo Road project. There are still vacancies for 2024 if anyone is interested, 
 

First to volunteer was Rushi Tawadi. He stayed for 3 weeks in Nov-Dec. 

Rushi writes:
When I haven't been hiking and hitchhiking the Satipo road looking for birds, I've been going to the school that's right across from the lodge. Photographed here are Antony, Jac and Katiana, the entire school population here at Calabaza. At their request I've been teaching them some English about an hour every two days (and they've been teaching me just as much Spanish).

I have also been teaching them about some of the common birds found around Calabaza.Today we drew Oropendolas, tanagers and toucans, and I pointed out what they may want to look out for to ID different species in the field. Both Antony and Jac have joined me birding ( Katiana may be just a tad too young still), and I've been able to get them on a couple Dusky-green Oropendolas in my binoculars!

I've also helped Jac download Merlin and the Central Peru pack on his phone, and all three of them really love listening to what different birds sound like on the app. They're truly on track to shape up into some great birders real soon.

Volunteers may stay for free when taking care of feeders, keeping a list, helping the school with English lessons and meet up visitors. 
Let me know if you or someone you know want to volunteer. 
 

An older blogpost about the background of the project can be found here. 

Japan in February.

All of a sudden, I have cancellations on our Japan trips. No bookings for the first departure on Feb 11. This means there are in total 5 spots available. It is also possible to schedule a private departure for you and your friends during the period of Feb 7-Feb 25 as I shall be in Japan anyway. 

There is also one spot for a male in shared double room with me available between Feb 25-Mar 2. The Okinawa post tour Mar 4-6 is cancelled, but Okinawa is available Feb 19-21 followed by the Izumi Cranes,etc. 

Other options when I am in this part of the world are Cambodia or Taiwan.
 

For Cambodia we already have an itinerary worked out with our local partner, and Taiwan which I visited twice can be done with less than a week and still cover almost all the endemics, including two pheasant species.  

Australia endemic bird families and Tasmania.

After Japan, I will spend two weeks with Tropical Birding founder Iain Campbell, birding and camping in the Australian Outback. I figured it is sort of on my way back to Lima anyway. 

Since I will already be in Australia I figured I might as well offer our two short 6- day Australia trips. They are run back to back. The order can be reversed if you are only interested in one of them. 
 

• Australian Bird Families March 16-21
• Iconic Australian Mammals with Tasmania March 21-26.
   

I should mention that there is a confirmed slightly longer version of the Australia Iconic Mammals tour on Feb 15-22, and it may be possible to arrange for two more people if you are interested in this one. Guides are Ramit Singal and Steve Davidson.  Reply to this email if interested and we shall investigate to see if there is available lodging all nights. 

Guran Guran Go Go Zone Tour in Sweden.

Intrigued about my personal RocknRoll Quest? I did 19 cities in 10 days in December. Singing Guran Guran karaoke on buses, trams, subway and commuter trains while live streaming on TikTok! It wasn't with the whole band unfortunately, but alone with the music on the phone linked to a powerful bluetooth loudspeaker while singing Karaoke style. 

There was a preference to perform in the suburbs, many of them qualifying for the derogatory No Go Zones term by the police.  I could only feel warmth and love. Therefore, I named the tour: the Go Go Zone tour. 

Pretty crazy idea, that I don't think anyone had done before, but it was much appreciated. I was consumed by this idea since last summer, so when the planned month in Colombia fell through I all of a sudden had an unexpected window before Christmas to visit Sweden. It was a "now or never" decision! 

I am very happy I did it. I was very fortunate to find lodging for almost the whole tour with friends and birding clients. A big hug and thank you, to all of you. 

Guran Guran's TikTok account gained over 2000 new followers. Also many more plays on Spotify during December. 


On December 8, Guran Guran also released a new single "Dansa för dig" on the digital platforms. Check it out and set on repeat. 
 

What is next for Guran Guran? We have selected yet another 5 songs to record hopefully in 2024. Two are old originals that I wrote in 1981 and 1989. One is a re-recording and two are covers we want to modernize. 

We also would like to make a vinyl LP. I have set as goal to first get 1000 followers on Spotify in order to have a considerable audience to make it worthwhile., Right now we have only 456. Please subbscribe!

Perhaps a tour with the band together with some Live TikTok performances could do the trick. Perhaps this coming summer. It is also high time to do a new YouTube video from one of the songs we released digitally in 2022 and 2023. 
Stay tuned!

California International Marathon - Sacramento.

I am still dreaming of running the Marathon in less than 3 hours. I have a long way to go, but I am getting closer, in spite of my 63 years. 

I managed to beat my own time of 3:14 from New York in 2014 (9 years ago) with one minute. I ran in 3h 13 min 08 sec. Best since 1984, not counting an extreme downhill Marathon race in North Carolina in 2016 (3:04).

Big thanks for Glenn Sibbald who took me birding and fed me the day before the race. 

Next Marathon coming up is right before my Japan tour. Also in California. Surf City Marathon, Huntington Beach. Three weeks to go.  I am doing a 10K tomorrow on rather tired legs from a 40K training run two days ago. 
It will show the potential right now. 
I am guessing sub 3:10, but still a long way from my goal. 

I don't know yet what other options I will have for a sub 3 this year. I will be guiding a fair bit, so there is not much time for training. 
Perhaps I need to take 5-6 months off from birding in 2025 to pursue my goal. 

Birding Calendars for 2024. 

The last week there dozens of request for new tours, and I have tried to fit in all of them in to the calendars of Kolibri Expeditions and 7 Wonders Birding. 
Please check these calendars regularly for new confirmed tours. 
Also connect with me if you plan a birding tour for 2024. It may well be that there are things in the pipeline for your preferred dates. 

Donald Duck's Bird Lovers Photographic Expedition

Every Christmas Eve at 3PM, there is a tradition to watch a Disney Christmas Special in Sweden on the Television. It has been shown by state television since 1959. It is a Holy Cow. Everybody watch it. 
The follows the classical Swedish Christmas Smörgåsbord (Julbord) and after this arrives Santa (Jultomten) to deliver Christmas presents. 

One particular clip from the Disney show contains birding. Please enjoy Donald Duck's Bird Lovers Photographic Expeditions - Clown of the Jungle from 1947!

More about the bizarre Swedish Christmas tradition in this article. 
 

That's all folks!

Saludos

Gunnar

PS: Not in the calendar yet, but I am keen to guide another trip to Brazil in the second half of 2024. Let me know if there is interest in a Pantanal trip or SE Brazil.