January 2005

ARTISTIC WAY TO RAISE FUNDS!

Dine at 'Big Mike's Private Dining Club' www.culinaryadventurescostarica.com , and you certainly get more than excellent food!

Offering wonderful 'themed' evenings, from 'pirates' to 'who dun it's' the evenings are unique, imaginative and fun, with stunning cuisine in excellent company.

Proprietor Michael D. Forbes excels in the kitchen and if ever you are in Costa Rica, his evenings are a must.

So, we would like to thank Big Mike for his wonderful idea to help Amigos de las Aves raise funds. Mike has donated a beautiful oil painting of macaws to Amigos. Painted by wildlife Artist Deirdre Hyde this stunning painting has been reproduced especially for us in numbered limited editions and presented in a unique banana paper tube with certificates of authenticity and signed by the artist.

The painting has also been produced as a Tshirt. with logo's front and back.

If you are interested in obtaining your own print or a T shirt, then please contact either us at: richmar@racsa.co.cr or Big Mike at: calchef2002@yahoo.com

The limited edition prints come in two sizes: 11 x 8 and a large portrait size (available upon application).

OUR NEW EDUCATION CENTRE

Will also double as a Nursery/Office/Hospital/Food Prep. Area

At long last we have finally been able to build our new centre. It's taken so long, but we finally made it!

Our hope is to utilize and encourage schools and visitors to view our breeding aviaries from the viewing areas - thus not disturbing birds during the breeding season. (see our Kids & Education page)

To enjoy the artistry on the walls……

* To learn more about the plight of the Scarlet and Great Green Macaws in Costa Rica.
* To see how our Kids Education Program works
* To find out how our Release Program works
* How we hope to help conservation.
* What role does the refuge play - the effects of mishousing, misfeeding birds,
* Taking birds from the wild - pet trade

And hopefully much more…….
So we would like to thank the following people who made it possible!

Wildlife Volunteer Fund in Japan
Cari Bird Club in Cleveland
Janice Boyd
Jane Gutman

Also our builder and his team: Luis Herrara (506) 351 5122 cell. (506) 431 0274 home

February 2005

Amigos de las Aves WEB SITE

Our web site is nearing completion …. I keep saying it, so lets hope this is it!
With a lot of help from Alejandra Hong and Alberto Boschini all we can say is that we are so proud of this site and we hope you enjoy!!!

Explore the wallpapers section for stunning photographs!
Get a birds eye view of our Tiskita release site
Oh and aah at the babies
Be overwhelmed by beautiful plumage
And more……

www.hatchedtoflyfree.org

www.amigosdelasavescostarica.org

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Visitors

We have had several visitors recently:

Dr. Matthew Bond made a flying visit here. We are always delighted to see him, he offers us help and advice regarding all matters veterinary, and of course he is an old friend of Amigos.

Michelle Burt has kindly volunteered her time and her considerable skills as a Veterinary Technician from Oakland Zoo in the USA. (see her report in the report section)
Christine and Franck Dziubakwww.animode.net The celebrated French photographers visited us again this year, and of course the camera went into action. As you can see, Christine fell in love with baby "Twiggy" who will be released into the wild eventually.

Lindell Andrews returns to our program and uses her skills to help with the macaws in Tiskita again. She will be introducing another flock of birds into the Tiskita area for us and increasing the number of birds there. We should then have a viable flock of birds. In the meantime, she has spent some time in Curu with our birds and release program and her report can be found in our reports section.

The British Ambassador, Georgina Butler, visited Amigos with her family and spent time hearing all about our work and seeing the Breeding Centre, along with the next birds to be released. Georgina was delighted to lend her support to our project.

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Bugs, Beasts & Botanicals
Artists and Photographers Tour 2005

Amigos de las Aves was thrilled to welcome Mindy Lighthipe and her tour here again this year. Mindy comes to visit Costa Rica once a year, with a large group of budding photographers and artists, who come to us, amongst others in Costa Rica, for a whole day to sketch and photograph their hearts out! Albeit birds, bugs or botanicals!

The results of their days work are stunning - and one of Mindy's paintings, which she has kindly donated to us, can be seen on the back of our Tshirts. The most spectacular Great Green Macaw. Her website is a must. www.bugsbeastsbotanicals.com

We should like to thank the group for their continued interest in Amigos de las Aves and we hope they will continue to visit over the years.

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March 2005

Zoo Keepers volunteer with Amigos.
London Zoo, UK &
Healesville Sanctuary, Australia

We have recently had the pleasure of having several zoo keepers volunteer on our project. They have helped considerably in the field and have been working at our release site in Tiskita as well as at our Breeding Centre.

They have come from each end of the world. London Zoo in England and Healesville Sanctuary in Melbourne, Australia.

	Paul Atkin comes from London. He works in London Zoo in the UK and has been there for the past 14 years, gaining a wealth of experience. He is based in the zoo’s stunning new building the Web of Life, on the project BUGS. This project is mainly concerned with ecological bio diversity and the evolution, growth and relationships of wildlife. His passion is butterflys, so he spent many hours behind a lens, photographing his favourite bugs. Paul enjoyed his time in Tiskita, despite the humidity, and he wrote about his experiences in the field. (see reports section)
	Byron Manning has been a senior keeper at Healesville for the past 20 years and has a huge amount of avian experience. We picked Byron’s brains a lot whilst he was with us and he helped an amazing amount with our stand at the British Embassy. (see Queens Birthday Party)
	Marie Whatmough, is also a senior keeper at the Zoological Society of London, working at London Zoo. She has many years of experience and kindly offered her help and experience in Tiskita.
	Lindell Andrews, originally from Healesville, but now a solid and perminant member of our team, returns for another four month stint with us. She is here specifically to work with the next release in Tiskita – scheduled for April – but will be offering her expertise at our other release site in Curu. She will be working towards producing new leaflets for each release site and also calling upon her experience with regard to the breeding and stud book side of our organization.
	Danny Knight is a volunteer at London Zoo and works with the primates. However, he volunteered with us too and turned his hand to tasks at our Breeding Centre, and even fixed the computer!

So to all of you zoo keepers, we would like to thank you for your skills, dedication, animal knowledge and husbandry and of course, your time – please come back.

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NEW RELEASE IN TISKITA

“Hatched to Fly Free”

Our sixth release in Tiskita began in February. Another 10 birds have been flown to Tiskita courtesy of Peter Aspinall. They were accompanied on their journey by Lindell Andrews who will supervise the release itself and London Zookeeper Paul Atkin.

The birds where released in April and May and will join the birds already there to establish a larger and viable breeding flock.

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April 2005

Stunning new paintings
kindly donated by talented artists.

Artwork adorns our new education centre.
We hope that you enjoy them as much as we do…..

A scarlet macaw by Emma Page

A great green macaw by Josue Carranza Campos (see our Kids and Education section)

A local scene by Amable Acosta

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The Queens Birthday Garden Party
In Costa Rica

We were delighted to be asked to attend the Queens Birthday Garden Party by the British Ambassador to Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Georgina Butler.
	It’s a “fun day” held every year to raise funds for a local education program “Costa Rican Schools in Need”, and Amigos de las Aves was thrilled to join in. The theme was pirates and parrots this year – and we provided the parrot!
Assisted by four biologists, our own Dale Forbes, Lindell Andrews, Byron Manning and Michelle Whiting, Amigos had an exhibition tent all to ourselves and we hope that we provided an informative, educational and fun exhibit.
With three displays – ‘amigos de las aves’ ‘education’ ‘release sites’ and the help of visual aids – we joined in the fun with “Spud” our Amazon Parrot leading the way.
Our stand was visited by the Foreign Affairs Minister Snr. Roberto Tovar of Costa Rica and we were able to tell him all about our program – he was most interested in our release site in Tiskita, and Dale could tell him about it first hand.

It was a great day out, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and so did all the visitors, as you can see ……………

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An exquisite and talented artist with her own show!

Miss. Emma Page
Volunteer

Emma Page comes from Kent, in the UK and she volunteered with us in February of this year. During her time with us, she mentioned that she was having to return to England to paint the last of her pictures before her art exhibition in Milan! Just a small and insignificant detail?!?!?!?

At just 25, Emma is a seriously talented artist as well as holding a degree in Zoology. Her affinity with animals is obvious, especially as her family background is a farming one, but also with her compassion and love of the birds here at Amigos. Emma has traveled extensively through, Botswana, New Zealand, and Norway, and to gain biological experience in the field with various organizations, mainly in Argentina and Belize. Emma has her own business, “Pet Portraits” and the exhibition in Milan testifys to her talent.

As you can see, Emma is a seriously talented young lady and we are thrilled that she has left us a lasting legacy of a Scarlet Macaw on the walls of our education centre.

If you would like to get in touch with Emma, then please contact her on Page_em@hotmail.com :

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May 2005

Is there no end to our volunteers talents?

All the way from South Africa comes Antonio - his talent is making mosaic – and you can see why……..

Antonio kindly donated this wonderful Hyacinth Macaw to Amigos de las Aves, and if you would like to contact Antonio to order your own mosaic, then his web page is www.home.telkomsa.net/solysombra

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School Visits

We were very pleased indeed to be able to support two school visits this month.

The Country Day School in Escazu, Costa Rica, www.cds.ed.cr returned to us at the end of this month with several students who have been specifically studying birds during their school curriculum this year.

They were led by teacher Jenny Stands Wilson and arrived, not only to visit, but also to lend a hand. They spent several hours being shown around our facility, enjoying the birds and learning all about our program and macaws in general.

Finally at the end of an exhausting morning – the children sat down and helped to make some toys for the birds. Enjoying the company of some of the refuge birds as they worked. (see following report)

Also visiting this month were children from the Centro Educativo San Diego School in Desamparados Costa Rica.

The children delighted in their visit and spent time learning to handle birds and see the macaws at close quarters.

Franck Dziubak visits Tiskita

We were delighted that Franck asked to visit Tiskita and more than thrilled with the results of his stunning photography. What more can we say about his wonderful pictures, except to share them with you!

June 2005

Our new Education Package for children and schools
is near completion

The package is exciting and will consist of a treasure hunt, a tour of the breeding facilities and refuge, a new coloring and learning book and various games and activities at the new centre for the children.

We hope to encourage school tours and visits to take advantage of our educational package – which may help the teachers to incorporate ‘environmental education’ into their curriculum.

We would like to thank everyone for their input, but most especially Michelle Whiting for her artistic talent.

A New Poster and New Tshirts

For Amigos de las Aves

Click here to visit our Merchandise section

 

New Guard House

Security at Amigos de las Aves is a very big priority. Additions have been made this year including the construction and completion of the new guard house.

Amigos de las Aves
goes to school.
San Fernando Escuela in La Giralda.

One of our volunteers, Austin Beahm, came into his own when we visited San Fernando Escuela this month.

He practiced his Spanish and enthralled the younger children, telling them all about the Scarlet Macaws in Costa Rica and the work that Amigos de las Aves with their re-introduction program.

We took along “Spud” our tame Yellow Naped Amazon and he added to the fun. Feathers abound, and a coloring competition under way. The children and teachers had a great time, and so did we.

July 2005

News from Tiskita

News from the field has told us something very exciting! One of the macaws released in April has found its way down to the coast and has, on a number of occasions, been seen flying to a royal palm, collecting a fruit from the tree and eating it. The royal palm fruit would be a great source of nutrition of the macaws and this is the first record of our macaws eating them from the tree. The macaws of Carara eat the nuts but the ability to collect the nut from the tree appears to be learnt from the parent. What a clever bird! Hopefully, he'll now go on to teach the others.

TV Stars again…

Amigos de las Aves has hit the screens again with a short documentary being filmed by Channel 6. This program went out to the public in July 2005 and has created further interest in our work.

It featured Margot Frisius talking about the project and introducing a few of the refuge birds, as well as the Amigos de las Aves program and the juvenile flight.

More artwork from our volunteers:

Illona Thewisson one of our field interns has painted a wonderful picture on the education centre wall. There seems to be no end to our volunteers talents and we would like to thank Illona for her clever drawing.

Continual Support from Oakland Zoo:

Michelle Burt made a very welcome return visit again this mid year, and made sure that our fecals etc were kept up to date. We are delighted that she visits regularly and we hope she will continue to support us in Costa Rica (see Field and General reports)

Education begins at home

Dale Forbes our biologist in Tiskita takes an interesting point of view with regard to conservation and education within his working environment. (see our Field & General Reports section)

It's in Spanish! and…

Our webmistress, Sabina has come up with the brilliant idea of translating the whole of our new website into Spanish, Italian, French and German - a formidable task! But one she has taken on board with stunning enthusiasm

Keep an eye out, the site should be up and running soon.

New educational games for kids at a touch of a button…

Sabina's new and exciting interacting games should also be available for you to enjoy, just press the buttons in the website as directed and you can check out all you know about birds.

It can be done! Even with only one wing!

We are so proud, Mrs. No Wing has produced babies!

Mrs. No Wing is a great success story. She came to us with a badly damaged wing that she could not control the movement of and to all intents and purpose was useless. After much discussion and consideration, we decided to have the wing amputated, and this was duly done by Dr. Mauricio Jimenez and proved to be completely successful.

Mrs. No. Wing took some time to recover and regain her balance, but this was achieved over time. She was in the Scarlet flight when she found a mate and we placed her into a breeding aviary early last year. There were no eggs in 2004, but this year she has produced 3 eggs, all fertile, and the hatching has begun…

September 2005

Visit by CITES Committee

Amigos de las Aves was visited by the Costa Rican CITES commission this month. They were accompanied by our regente, Sheirys Jimenez, the representative from the Colegio de Biologos de Costa Rica - Naomi Canet, and the famed ornithologist Julio Sanchez.

Amigos was one amongst several zoos and bird parks being visited by the commission as part of a study for the requisits of information that CITES will be requiring from all bird owners in Costa Rica.

We were delighted to be able to show them our facilities and explain our re-introduction program in detail.

Again and again…

Returning volunteer Davina Hill joins us again in Tiskita for 6 weeks before leaving to continue her studies for a PhD on Sexual Conflict and Division of Labour in Incubation Effort in Zebra Finches, at Glasgow University in the UK. Apart from her studies, Davina has been really busy since she was last here. She spent some of her time in Greece helping to protect Europe's last remaining population of the African chameleon (which is also highly endangered in Africa).

Its always good to welcome someone back!!!

"Valueing what is around you"

Published in "Psittascene" the magazine of The World Parrot Trust, this article by Dale Forbes our Biologist shows a very unorthodox view of things.

We were delighted the article was printed in Pssitascene, no: 3. Volume 17 in August 2005 and we think it shows that there is always a different way of looking at things, and shows insight into how we see things. (see our Field Reports section)

From Mexico

Also joining us for a short time were veterinary students, Karla and Maria Fernanda, both students from University in Mexico City. Both girls were spending several months working at placements in and around Costa Rica via the National University of Costa Rica's Veterinary School in Heredia as part of their final years practice.

Luckily for us both girls spent some time at Amigos and assisted in fecals and some surgery carried out at the Veterinary School.

Presentation in Australia

The Yarra Valley Bird Observers Club in Victoria, Australia were given a powerpoint presentation about Amigos de las Aves and our work here in Costa Rica, by Lindell Andrews, entitled "The Re-introduction of the Scarlet Macaw in Costa Rica".

The presentation was both informative and colourful, with photographs taken personally by Lindell and of course Lindells own personal experiences here at Amigos and primarily about the latest release in Tiskita.

The response was very good and people were highly interested in our work, and Lindell enjoyed her time answering all the questions.

October 2005

Zookeepers Prevail

Joining us from Chessington Zoo in the UK, Rachel Thirlwall joined our team of volunteers for two months. She was mainly interested in the Breeding Centre as she is Head of Bird Section at Chessington, and she wanted to gain experience with the breeding and hand rearing side of things.

Since working with us, Rachel has now joined the team at London Zoo, another step up the career ladder …..

Rachel worked really hard for us, proving yet again, that zookeepers really do earn their keep!

November 2005

IX Congreso de las Sociedad Mesoamericana
Para la Biología y la Conservacion
Honduras

The 9th Anniversary of Congreso de la Sociedad Mesoamerican para la Biologia y Conservacion. 22-23 November 2005. was held in La Ceiba, Honduras this year and we were extremely proud to be able to present a paper amongst some distinguished company.

Our paper was formed and presented by Dale Forbes, BSc, MSc, entitiled "Reintroducción exitosa de la lapa roja (Ara macao) en los bosques secos y húmedos de Costa Rica: Su supervivencia, movimientos y dieta."

The acts of the simposium are in their final stages of preparation so it will not be too long before a hard copy is available.

Fiona Dear was also in Honduras with Chris Vaughn presenting a paper on environmental education for LAPA.

The congress is extremely important throughout central and southern America, especially as it gives all of us working under the conservation umbrella a chance to listen, learn and see how other programs are developing and how conservation in these areas are being managed and how species survival is being brought to the fore.

Dale found the congress to be highly informative and we were delighted to be able to present our own work.

  

December 2005

Security Issues…

Security was tightened again this Christmas at Amigos, as during this time, we are always vulnerable to robberies. Unfortunately, birds are a prime Xmas present in Costa Rica, and usually the robbers stop at nothing to get what they come for.

So this year, a full time guard has been deployed and we were able to stop several attempts during this time.

Amigos de las Aves and the official Release Programs of Amigos de las Aves in Costa Rica, www.amigosdelasavescostarica.org and www.hatchedtoflyfree.org are not affiliated or associated with any other company, organisation or association, by name or in any other country.