Wot's New!

January 2008

Bird enthusiast returns

Jeff Wegner, one of our most enthusiastic volunteers, returns with his wife Terry to join us in Tiskita again this year.

Jeff volunteered with us two years ago, and did some wonderfully observant work, in fact, it was hard to get him to stop!

We have now added two more releases to the flock since his last visit, and so at the beginning of this breeding season, one of Jeff's many tasks, is to head out into the bush to locate any nesting sites. We hope he will be lucky this year.

Amigos mention in Rosemary Low's latest book.

"A Century of Parrots " was published by Insignis Publications in 2006, and we were delighted to see that Amigos has a mention.

The book is so very interesting and tells the history of the decline of bird species through the last century, it is hard to believe that some of these horrible practices still exist, but unfortunately, pet birds, poaching, deforestation etc has caused the decline of our species by approximately one in four.

(see Publications section)

Andy Gingold

It is with saddness that we tell you one of our board members has passed away. Andy Gingold has been on the board to Amigos since its initiation as part of our team. After a long struggle with illness, Andy lost his fight.

Our thoughts are with his family, and we shall miss his presence amongst us.

Amigos hits the Front Page

On January 5th, Amigos de las Aves, hit the front pages of the Costa Rican National Newspaper, La Nacion.

We were thrilled with the article and also some of the photos taken.

February 2008

Amanda's Coloring Competition

The Progressive School of Long Island sent us lots of entrants for Amanda's competition.

As you can see, Margot and her daughter Carol had a really difficult time in choosing the winners.

In second grade - Charlotte and Hanna came first and second.

In first grade - Michael and Sydnee came first and second with Michelle taking the runners up prize.

(see our Education Section)

The BBC & Reuters

Both mighty establishments have visited Amigos de las Aves early this year.

In preparation for articles and presentations on television, the British Broadcasting Corporation and Reuters sent representatives to, photograph, interview and document, Richard and Margot and Amigos de las Aves.

We have yet to be advised of airtime and publication, but will let you know as soon as we know.

March 2008

Michelle Eglinton

It is with great sadness that we see Michelle leave to return to New Zealand.

Michelle only came to volunteer for a few months, and so the extra time she spent with us (one year) was only to our advantage.

She really turned out to be a major part of the team and completely invaluable! She single handedly took over the nursery - and some of the babies have only got her to blame?

We shall miss her greatly and can hope she may return one day. We wish her well back at home and will miss her loads.

News from Tiskita

(see our reports section)

Still with a 93% success rate this year, we are delighted with the way our main release site is fast becoming seriously important to our data collection and analysis, and of course to the birds themselves.

With the breeding season now nearly over, we are thrilled that several more serious attempts to nest have been made by birds of 8 to 10 years.

Ilona Thewissen BSc.

Ilona leaves Amigos de las Aves this month, after working for us as our biologist for the past two years.

She has been based in Tiskita and has become extreemly knowledgable about our birds and their behaviour.

We shall miss her being part of our team and wish her luck with her career.

April 2008

A New biologist joins our team

Fleur Daugey MSc, BSc (Hons)

We welcome Fleur as our new biologist, all the way from France. She comes to us with a wealth of experience and will be based in Tiskita initially.

An MSc (hons) was attained in Applied Animal Behaviour specialising in conservation biology from the University of Paris.

A BSc (hons) was attained in Psychology, specialising in Animal Behaviour from the University of Toulouse.

Thesis include: Social influence in male canaries and The effect of human disturbance on the foraging behaviour of wintering dunlins.

Fleur has worked with the Griffon Vultures in Israel, Caugek Terns in France, Great Apes in the Cameroon, the Ornithological Station in France and the Chimpanzees Conservation in Guinea.

Fleur enjoys writing for scientific journals, and she also writes poetry and short stories.

Lena Grinstead
another talented volunteer

Lena has kindly produced a new poster for us to use: we do hope you like it.

New Release Sites

A lot of our time, over the past three months or so, have been spent investigating the possibility of new release sites for the Scarlet Macaw.

This is an ongoing task, and we are always pleased to go and talk to potential sites and their owners.

If you feel you may have "just the right spot" then do let us know.

We are very fussy, and ask a lot of questions, and we have a lot of requirements to fill.

So do get in touch.

Amigos de las Aves Presentation

We have a new CD presentation in Microsoft Powerpoint on our birds and our work. If you would like a copy please let us know and we will happily send it to you. Please just call or email us with your details.

New Phone Numbers in Costa Rica

The telephone network here has expanded, so if you want to telephone us, then please add a 2 before our old number

(506) 2441 2658

Escuela Central de Tres Rios
Competition winners announced

We are delighted to announce the winners of our drawing competition.

They are:

We hope you like the winners contributions !

(see our Kids and Education section)

Help and Support from a local hotel.
The Orchideas Inn

We should like to thank the Orchideas Inn and their staff, who decended upon us for the second time in a year - armed with gardening gloves, machettes, strimmers and the like, and have worked on Flor de Mayo gardens and also Amigos paddocks.

Their help has been invaluable with ground preparation and identification of some tree species.

Return of...

Michelle Burt returned this month for a very fleeting visit and helped with some blood sampling

Exotic Bird Hospital

Our thanks goes to Rhoda Stevenson and her team, who kindly sent much needed supplies from Florida.

One of the girls from the hospital spent a morning at Flor de Mayo on her holidays and kindly carried several bags of 'goodies'.

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.