LoraKim Joyner's Blog, page 8

Macaw Children Separated at the Border

Shopping in Pt. Lempira in May 2018 I came across a vender who recognized me for my work with the scarlet macaw project centered in Mabita, La Moskitia, Honduras. There we have a Rescue and Liberation Center where wild birds and chicks are cared for, and also where the authorities place birds confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade. Occasionally owners will relinquish their birds in hopes that they will fly free (and avoid fines).This vender told me that he had given his bird to the police so that they could take the bird to Mabita. "Paco is ten years old and plucked his feathers out. I wanted him to be free so I turned him in." I replied, "They pluck feathers due to stress so it is good you gave him up." He showed me a picture, and I told him, "I know your bird from the Center, and he will fly free one day!" Self-plucked birds at Rescue Center, MabitaThe man then admitted to buying two wild chicks three years ago from a trapper near Corinto, a village that we work with and that is on a major parrot trade route on the border of Nicaragua and Honduras. He said that he didn't want the birds to remain in captivity, so he cared for them, never clipping their wings. They now fly free and far, though they come back frequently to feed at the corrals where he milks his cows. I thanked him for his vision for the future of these birds. Video of macaw drinking milk at a cow ranch on the borderOur vision must also include liberating birds (and ourselves) but also avoiding the situation in the first place. Being forcibly removed from your family and fed milk is not the good life for a parrot, but we humans can move towards reconciliation by providing support for these birds to return to the wild, and even better, to have their nests and homes protected so they never have to go through family separation. Liberated bird at the Rescue CenterIf you'd like to keep parrot families intact, please consider supporting our parrot nest protection program in this area. We were not able to extend to Corinto this year, but with support we hope to next year. Thank you!

Parrots in Guatemala's Mangroves Few and Far Between

Project Coordinator in El Chico, Manuel GalindaParrots in Central America seek refuge from the relentless onslaught of the illegal wildlife trade and habitat loss in certain kinds of locations where it is harder to poach and traffic: islands, volcanic slopes, remote areas, private lands jealously guarded, dangerous areas, and mangroves. We have documented a remnant population of yellow-naped amazons in the mangroves on the Pacific Coast of Honduras, and a similar species of parrot, the yellow-headed parrot, in mangroves on the Atlantic coast of Guatemala (put in links). For this reason, we wanted to make see if there were any yellow-naped amazons left in the mangroves of Guatemala. Parking the COLORES project car before taking a launch to El Chico. Thanks to Manuel for letting us use his personal car! Map of the South Coast of Guatemala with our parrot counting sites. El Chico is the red marker to the left, and Hawaii to the right.Two patches of mangroves still exist that frame the country: El Manchon near the Mexican border and Hawaii near the El Salvador border. After numerous counts we have documented only 2 individuals in Hawaii. En El Manchon we went in 2016 for only two days and did not discover any individuals, though there were ample reports of poaching. Poached parrot nest in the mangroves in El ChicoOur guide and host, IsiasWe returned in March of 2018 continuing our quest. We traveled over land through the wastelands of Southern Guatemala, and after parking the car, took a launch to the small community of El Chico, where fishermen had told us there were still parrots. We were offered home hospitality and guided by Isias Mendez. Though we searched in all mangrove canals, we did not hear or see any yellow-napes, though there were white-fronted amazons and orange-fronted parakeets. The only birds we saw were in people's homes and in stories of nests poached earlier in the year. Homed yellow-naped amazon being fed tortillasBecause of the reports of birds and nests present, our project manager in the field, Manuel Galinda returned to work with Isias in May, 2018. This time they were able to identify a pair in two different locations with a possibility that it was the same pair seen on two different days. Mangrove canals that we often had to pull ourselves throughWe were glad to know that these parrots still exist on the coast, but frightened to know how few and how heavy is the poaching pressure. What does one do when the news is so dire? We dig in ever harder, for the reality of beauty lost but ever present cheers us on. Raising our arms with "Fly Free" yellow-naped amazon wrist bands

Mourning Over Puerto Rico

El Yunque National ForestThe sun rose before me, shining on the tropical rainforest mountains of El Yunque behind me. With the Atlantic ocean frothing over my bare feet I looked out beyond the far horizon yearning to look anywhere but within. I’d had enough of that the past couple of years, having recently left war torn Guatemala where I had led an international parrot conservation project. The violence, danger, and loss of human and parrot life had left me with symptoms of post traumatic stress syndrome and a hopelessness that anything could be done ever to save the people and parrots of Latin America and the Caribbean.I yearned for some kind of breakthrough, and with that longing saw my presence on Puerto Rico as a parrot pilgrimage. Going back to the roots of violence in the Americas, perhaps I could detect a pattern and find a solution to go forward. The Caribbean islands were the first places in the Americas where parrots were extracted for the pet trade and first place they went extinct. They were also the first places where people worked who were extracted for the slave trade and the first place cultures went extinct, Before Columbus came there were an estimated 1 million birds here, and 600,000 Taino Native Americans. By 1973 there were only 13 parrots left on the whole island in the El Yunque National Forest and perhaps a little over 1000 people who identified as Native Americans (though 61% of Puerto Ricans have Amerindian DNA). Yes the violence of colonialism began here, but so did the hope of parrot conservation as the first comprehensive parrot conservation book was written here about the Puerto Rican parrot. The author, LoraKim Joyner, at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico near the Rio Bravo aviary and release siteI was here in the mid 1990's on a grant from the USFWS as veterinary consultant from the North Carolina State University, School of Veterinary Medicine. The USFWS had hired me to help improve the breeding output of the two aviaries and produce protocols to release the birds as part of the Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Project. My work was also to heal and see if I could continue working on front-line parrot conservation in the Americas. It was unclear if I ever could. But that first morning, giving it my best shot, I plunged into the sea and into the project, letting the work and the ocean vista wash away the nearly constant tears over the devastation of habitat loss and nearly 100% poaching in Guatemala, of which I was powerless to stop.What I learned about the people and parrots of Puerto Rico alleviated only a tad bit of that powerlessness. Though situated in paradise, the island was gridlocked with traffic, unemployment, debt, and the violence of gangs and the drug trade. and Most of the existing parrots were not free flying but were held in breeding cages, so that their young could repopulate the island. For so much money going into the project, it was not clear that the birds could ever recover. Those early years of parrot releases were not in Puerto Rico, but in the Dominican Republic. Here I found myself once again on a beach with a national forest behind me. The tears were still flowing and the sadness had not alleviated. It didn’t help to know that this was the island upon which Columbus first landed. Taking Hispaniolan parrots and native Taino people back with him to Europe, he was the first to embody colonialist extraction.The rise of the Spanish culture on Puerto Rico led to the demolishment of the culture of Taino and rapid diminishment of Puerto Rican parrot. The native peoples were wiped out due to disease, warfare, and slavery. Their demise was much quicker and complete than the parrot’s for by the beginning of the 20th century the Taino assimilation was complete, but still flocks of hundreds of parrots flew on the island despite habitat loss. The human society that replaced the Tainos was considered to have the strongest economies and cultures in the Caribbean where colonization had terminated other peoples and parrot species.Then came a second wave of colonialism when the USA got involved. In 1898 they invaded the island and wrestled ownership of it from Spain. They devalued the Puerto Rican currency, making it easy to purchase smaller coffee farms to turn them into sugar cane production. Sugar cane companies ended up owning 75% of the land. The people’s economic and mostly sustainable base was shattered, and what was left of the island’s patchwork forest was quickly deforested where now there is only 2% forest coverage remaining. The sugar economy collapsed after World War II leading to a max exodus of people from the rural areas to San Jose and then to the USA. Iguaca Aviary in 2008 where parrots are bred and trained for releaseThere was not much left to extract from Puerto Rico at this point, and a complex array of business policies and tax structures continued to impact the economic health of communities and lower their resilience to change. For instance the Jones Act restricted shipping making imported goods more expensive in Puerto Rico than in the USA, USA tax code Section 936 shifted taxes from stateside corporations to Puerto Rican domestic businesses, and very low Medicaid funding by the US federalgovernment strained the commonwealth's budget. In the meantime, after the parrot's low point in 1993 it started to make a comeback. A conservation consciousness was brewing and extreme efforts were made to save the parrot from extinction. Many people did and continue to do amazing work to bring back the splendor of the biodiversity of the island. Aviary production improved in the 1990s and multiple releases of parrots led to 3 populations of parrots on the island when there had only been one – and the bird now numbered over 600 in 2017.It had been a long road of recovery for the parrot, and the dream of free flying stable populations of Puerto Rican parrots on the island seemed feasible. I too had been on a journey and had mostly recovered from the losses of Guatemala. I was now working in several countries in Latin America. The heart ache, though ever present, was manageable. I could almost dream of massive and wide scale and parrot and people recovery, though he parrot populations and human communities remained fragile throughout the Latin America because of centuries of colonization and extraction.Rio Bravo aviary after Hurricane Irma 2017Puerto Rico suffered a direct hit of Hurricane Maria in September 2018. El Yunque was leveledand only 2 of the 60 birds that had been there are still alive, with 74-86 of the 134-160 free flying birds in Rio Bravo surviving. The breeding pairs in captivity are still viable and reproducing well, though the aviaries had to be rebuilt. Much of the human infrastructure of the island also had to be rebuilt in a context of what many saw asracism in the way the US government provided aid. More than 1000 people lost their lives. Rio Bravo Aviary after Hurricane Maria 2018The suffering of parrots and people will continue on Puerto Rico, and from the same causes. Climate change will mean more and stronger hurricanes and more flooding and loss on the island, and the fractured economy and culture over the centuries continues to strain families, communities, and habitats. What befell the parrots toppled the people as well. The core oppression of domination, which leads to inequality, patriarchy, and white supremacy, gave birth to colonialism, racism, and the speciesism that scars the island with environmental injustice. In an interview, Lisa Paravisini-Gebert , author of forthcoming book, The Amazon Parrots of the Caribbean: An Environmental Biography said, "We are suffering the consequences of Modernity. Any prosperity we had was not build upon anything we real. We are now bankrupt and our living standards are worse than the 1905's. Colonialism, racism, extraction is the history of Puerto Rico. She added that colonialism collapses communities, including the parrot native community. "They have lost their culture."I write this not to assign guilt or shame to those born of privilege, but so that we can mourn how a society and economy built upon extraction economies and domination has hurt us all, and will continue to do so. By mourning and embracing the reality of our shared losses, we can move from being overwhelmed to community solidarity with people and parrots everywhere. There is strength and resilience even in the most fragile heart, community, and population. The recovery of the Puerto Rican parrot and my life is testament to this. Let us not accept a life built upon domination, for anyone, anywhere. Instead we will resist and love the remnant, even though more storms are brewing over the horizon. Paravisini-Gerbert ended her interview with, "We need an economic pattern that doesn't work on continual extraction which is not good for people or birds. The nation will renew itself." From one of her lectures: “Caribbean societies’ resistance to the loss of the remaining parrots is an act of defiance, an effort to preserve what remains of the sacred in their natural habitats, in their contributions to biodiversity, their specific roles in island ecologies, their quirks and idiosyncrasies, their particular beauty and their capacity to make us marvel.” Paravisini-Gebert concluded, “Caribbean societies’ resistance to the loss of the remaining parrots is an act of defiance, an effort to preserve what remains of the sacred in their natural habitats, in their contributions to biodiversity, their specific roles in island ecologies, their quirks and idiosyncrasies, their particular beauty and their capacity to make us marvel.”Saving the Puerto Rican parrot is not just an act of desperation, but also courage and vision that unites in a unique fashion, such as in Jafet Veléz-Valentín, a wildlife biology/aviculturalist for the Iguaca Aviary, formerly the Luquillo Aviary in Puerto Rico. I worked with Jafet during the bleaker 1990's when a project veterinarian remarked as he looked in the eyes of the last chick in the last wild nest, "I am staring at extinction." I recently asked Jafet what he thought of the USA destruction of Puerto Rico, "It's water under the bridge. I won't focus on what happened 100 years ago. I need to be part of the people that will work for the progress of this island."Jafet Veléz-Valentín of the Puerto Rican Parrot Recover ProjectConservation then begins with mourning because the past is riddled with human domination and violence. We have to hold that in our hearts while we also hold the future of a species in our hands. Let us join with Jafet and the many others of these lands to be part of the solution for the earth that will renew itself.To be part of One Earth Conservation's efforts to be solidarity with the people and parrots of the Americas, learn more about our upcoming Freedom Project.

Future Parrot Conservationists of Guyana

Wall mural at the Centre for the Study of Biological Diversity, University of Georgetown, GuyanaThere is just too much fun to be had at the University of Georgetown, Guyana. We went to Guyana (Danika Oriol-Moray of Foster Parrots and LoraKim Joyner of One Earth Conservation) in March 2018 to grow our relationships and conservation plans, and began with a workshop at the University led in conjunction with the Centre for the Study of Biological Diversity (thanks to Dr. Gyanpriya Maharaj, Director). Danika showing the Guyanese parrot species in the Foster Parrots sanctuaryThough we began early and ended in the late hot afternoon, the participants staid engaged the whole time, seriously focused on the status of their parrots and what they could do to preserve and cherish them. We began by telling them why we were there in Guyana. I explained because we in North America had lost our only parrot species, the Carolina Parakeet, and that I didn't want that to happen in Guyana. Danika explained that at her parrot sanctuary in Rhode Island, that there are several species from Guyana and because of this connection, she wishes to address the problem of parrot suffering at the beginning of the chain of the wildlife trade. Each attendee introduced themselves and told us of parrots in their lives. Some of them had them in their homes and others knew a bit about them because of the many flying over GeorgetownWe then had presentations: Parrot Conservation in the Americas, Status of Parrots in Guyana, Methodology in Parrot Population Studies, Parrot Welfare and Management, Avian Medicine and Conservation, Methodology in Rescue and Liberation, the Human Dimensions of Conservation, and an Overview of Wildlife Regulations in Guyana. After several great snacks and a lunch provided by the Wildlife Commission we broke into small groups to plan next steps. Many of the suggestions had to do with institutional building and a need for consultants, training, funding, and time.Dr. Gyanpriya Maharaj summing up our next steps and needsWe finished the day with sharing our gratitude, and a graduation ceremony giving out gifts, wrist bands in the endangered sun parakeet colors that say in Mukushi and English, "Sun Parakeet Fly Free," and a Certificate of Completion. Certificate with "Sun Parakeet Fly Free" wrist bandWe did a great job together, for this is the first of any parrot conservation workshop in Guyana, and will not be the last.The first graduating class of future parrot conservationists!

The Girl Who Touches Dangerous Things, and Hearts

Dayana Serrano treating a red-lored amazon in 2016Sitting down next to Dayana Serrano on a hot day in 2016 waiting for our parrot climb team to return, we were trying to pass the time. It seemed that Dayana had no trouble because, as usual, she was looking down to see what life could be hidden closer to the ground. Casually, she reached for something in the sandy gravely soil between us and showed me what was in her hand - a scorpion! I was amazed that she could pick up the arachnid with such finesse and calm. Without a word she got up and deposited the scorpion a safe distance from us - safe for us and safe for the little one.Dayana, a veterinary student at UNA (Universidad Nacional de Agricultura) was spending three weeks at our scarlet macaw project site in La Moskitia, Honduras. This meant a lot of time outdoors where all kinds of beings delighted her. One day we were observing some of the villagers clearing some land for a plant nursery when someone startled and then pointed to a young rattlesnake. Again, in went Dayana with quiet and subtle movements and picked up the snake so she could move it to a safe distance.She also reveled in carnivorous plants, mostly found at river and creek sides that we often had to cross to get to nest trees. Gently touching them, she would describe the plants and their biology. Her ability to look down when so many of us were looking up at parrots added a new dimension to our conservation work, as did her volunteer work for the health of the birds both in the rescue center and in the wild. (photo by Dayana Serrano)Dayana returned this year to help once again, this time fully managing the rescue center birds and getting them ready for liberation. She is a tireless volunteer, giving her heart not just to the parrots in the area, but also to the people. The people and the parrots alike flock to her, such as above where she is feeding a rescued wild scarlet macaw chick with the children of the village, while a liberated, free flying parrot comes to investigate. Dayana reading an "anti-poaching" comic book to the village childrenI am so glad to know Dayana and to see her growing into a veterinarian of immense capacity. This still includes her ability to pick up slightly dangerous beings and moving them to safety, such as she did one night in May with this tarantula (below) that was in our path.Dayana has a bright path forward in Honduras, where touching hearts and healing wounds and injustices is a risky endeavor. I have no doubt that she will pick up this burden and move us all a bit more towards safety.Thank you Dayana!

US Fish & Wildlife Service Shoots a Film of Our Honduras Project!

LoraKim Joyner being filmed by a videographer hired by the the US Fish and Wildlife Service as she checks over a wild macaw chick in HondurasDemand for macaws as pets, and scarlet macaws in particular, from the international pet trade has threatened wild populations in Latin America with extinction. One Earth Conservation has been working with partners in Honduras for many years to ensure the survival of these magnificent parrots.In 2017, One Earth Conservation assisted one of our partner organizations in Honduras, INCEBIO, with applying for a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to provide funds to aid them in rescuing their threatened national bird, the scarlet macaw, as well as the green macaw…and they got it! The grant totals about $50,000 per year for two years and, is helping us to extend the project into a much larger area of the La Moskitia region of Honduras. We are so grateful for this, and other, support that INCEBIO and One Earth Conservation have recently received for the project. We are pleased to report that this project, which began a few years ago on a shoestring budget, is currently the largest wild parrot conservation area in Latin America that is protected by community patrols!Wild scarlet macaw chickWe are delighted to report that the US Fish & Wildlife Service has chosen our project as a model one to demonstrate to others how to successfully combat the poaching of birds in Latin America. Therefore, the agency arranged for a small film crew to come down to Honduras this spring to shoot footage for a five-minute documentary. (When the film is completed by fall 2018, we will post it on the One Earth Conservation website and will publish a link at that time.)What makes the project unique is our proven and highly effective strategy that includes community-driven interventions and features very “charismatic” species that are native in the Western Hemisphere – large and beautiful scarlet and green macaws. The precarious status of these amazing birds in their native country illustrates the challenges and complexities posed by wildlife trafficking in the Americas. Our project demonstrates a conservation solution that benefits both wildlife and people. The people are taking real personal risks to protect species that are tied to their cultural identity and heritage.One Earth Conservation partners with, trains and empowers local leaders of the indigenous people in Mabita, Honduras, as well as other nearby villages, to motivate and teach others to become conservationists. In fact, a number of the people involved in the project were once poachers themselves and now are passionately committing to saving their beautiful birds. Over a number of years, a relatively small amount of money has had a large impact on parrot conservation work in La Moskitia – initially, 100% of parrot chicks were poached from their nests, but in each of the last two years 0% have been poached, and this year, so far, 0% have been poached.One Earth Conservation Honduras Project Director, and Board member, Hector Orlando Portillo Reyes being interviewed for the documentary What is also important is that saving macaws has a ripple effect, not only on other wildlife and plants, but also on the people in the project’s communities. They are now supporting themselves and their families by saving their own wildlife, they are teaching their children the importance of conservation and they are working together with local law enforcement and government agencies to make all this happen. This is truly “bottom up” conservation and it is working!

Just Another Parrot Conservation Day in Honduras

Here are some photos from a “day in the life” of LoraKim Joyner and her colleagues who together are rescuing threatened and endangered parrots in Honduras as I type this. There’s time for this important work, time for chores and even some time for fun.Below: plans for the day include report poachers to the police, set up camera traps near nests, band chicks, hire poachers as conservationists and then love them into submission.Below: LoraKim dancing across a makeshift bridge. The nest on the other side was active with a gorgeous female sitting on her eggs so they didn't climb it. Right now there are nests with chicks ranging in age from eggs to 8 weeks of age.Below: kids at One Earth Conservation's annual football field parrot count. More came later and then refreshments were served that included milk, rice and sugar.Below: on the way back from climbing nest trees, some of the guys pick up resin-rich, downed wood for their kitchen fires. Below: traditional dance in everyone's conservation patrol uniforms.

Nature’s Message is Loud and Clear

Wild yellow-naped parrots flying overhead during a transect survey in NicaraguaLast week’s blog discussed how parrots are important indicators of both environmental health and the impact of climate change. I mentioned how the science of this needs more study, particularly as it applies to parrots. A few days after the blog was published, an article appeared in the New York Times written by Dr. John W. Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, and Nathan R. Senner, a scientist who studies migratory shorebirds. The article’s headline is, “Shorebirds, the World’s Greatest Travelers, Face Extinction.” Not surprisingly, it seems that many bird species other than parrots are showing the strain of environmental degradation and our changing climate.Collecting the data to demonstrate the impact of our troubled environment on parrot species in Latin America is not easy to do. One Earth staff and volunteers are often distracted by the urgent need to protect wild parrots’ nests from poachers and rescue, rehabilitate and liberate individual parrots that have been confiscated from and/or injured by poachers. There often is not time to do the deliberate data collection, such as weighing chicks and measuring them over time, that is necessary to track trends in the size of the babies as compared to the local climate in a given nesting season. We also want to disturb nests as little as possible, so parent birds will raise healthy chicks and the number of endangered and threatened parrots living in the wild will increase.One type of data One Earth does collect is the population size of parrots living in the wild in each of our conservation project areas. To do this, One Earth uses transect surveys, during which people are positioned in four different sections of a specific area and count the number of parrots flying overhead, while noting the time and direction in which they are flying. We then compare the counts from each quarter of the area and duplicate counts are deleted. One Earth trains local people to do such bird counts as often as possible. They also climb trees to check on known nest sites, which are registered and tracked. The people do this to monitor the rate at which baby parrots survive to leave the nest (known as fledging) and to discourage poaching of the registered nests. These techniques together provide information about the status of parrot populations over time.The disappearance of various species, whether they are parrots, shorebirds or other types of birds, is certainly a harbinger of trouble brewing (not to mention other disappearing animals, such as insects and amphibians). It’s time to listen to what nature is telling us and change our ways, the sooner the better.

Parrots are So Much More Than Beautiful

Golden ConuresParrots are so beautiful to look at, but many people don’t realize that they are also extremely important for keeping ecosystems healthy, maintaining biodiversity in the places in which they live and serving as indicators of habitat and climate change. It has been documented that parrots, in a way that is similar to monkeys, are critical for dispersing large seeds due to their enormous flight range. In addition to the distances they can cover in flight, they are able to crack hard nuts with their large, strong bills and are messy eaters who will carry fruits and nuts miles away and then just drop them. What parrots do when they drop fruits and nuts is engender entire ecosystems below the trees, not to mention grow the diversity of life in a given habitat.Wild parrots are also important indicators of forest health, moving towards food sources and away from threats. We need them not just to help maintain biodiversity, but also to help maintain forest health, which translates into health for all species involved. To put it more succinctly: healthy parrots = healthy ecosystems!Scarlet Macaw Photo by CultivArte & COLABORATIONation, PhotosForWork.comProtecting parrots does much more than keep ecosystems healthy, however, as they may also serve as indicators of the impact of climate change. The science of this needs more study, but it seems that parrot chicks grow at different rates depending on the amount of rain in their habitat, which is greatly influenced by climate change. If chick growth patterns are varying a great deal (for example, growing earlier or later, losing or gaining weight, etc.), these patterns may be early indicators of forest change due to climate change.The bottom line is that people, and the rest of life, need parrots to maintain beauty in the world, help us to stay well and keep life in balance. We must do our utmost to protect and cherish these wonderful beings.

Motto for Conserving the Endangered Sun Parakeet in Guyana

Neither low rivers, nor lack of roads, nor heat, nor gloom of poaching stays these conservationists from the long haul completion of the appointed protection of sun parakeets. The elusive sun parakeets on the riverIn March One Earth Conservation joined up with Foster Parrots to work a week at Karasabai village bordering the savannahs of Guyana and the mountains of Brazil. We had been there 5 months earlier and knew we had to return due to this situation of this endangered bird. We went there to be in solidarity with the village that is committing to protecting the endangered sun parakeet. Our survey team on the river (Fernando Li for Yupukari, Andrew Albert from Karasabai, and Davis and Rudy Edwards from Rewa)Part of our work there was to survey as much as the terrain as possible to determine the number of parakeets there. Reports from various people indicate maybe as many as 2500 left in Brazil and Guyana, and perhaps as few as 300. This species needs an accurate survey to see how many are left and to determine the trapping pressure and measures to combat it. The Ireng River was so low we had to get out of the boat and walk up the rapids so the boat wouldn't bottom out. We had to do this several times on the way up. It would have been worse upriver so we couldn't survey all the birds this time. We surveyed from sunrise.... ....until sunset... We were at our count spots even after dark fell (Andrew Albert pictured, lead conservationist in Karasabai) And those long days starting at 3:30 a.m. begin to add up (Danika Oriol-Morway) Our hammock camp along the riverWe surveyed the Ireng River and the area around it placing several transects by boat, truck, and motorcycles on foot trails. We were unable to survey the entire area due to time and the low river. Our range of birds was 109-151 distinct individuals. We need to return to do an extensive survey, ideally two times a year (during high river in July and also when they are nesting in January). We are currently fund raising so we can help them do this survey. Always have to get a rock to anchor the boat in the middle of the river for one transect point on the river Other transect points were on the riversideWhile there we talked with the villagers that had been poaching the birds, and unfortunately, found out that some still are. Also, the reports indicate that the poaching is even more extreme on the Brazil side. These birds are in a very dangerous situation because of their low numbers and the ongoing trapping, which has to stop now. Other transects were inland. For this we relied heavily on Fernando's truck to get us where we needed, and to help us look good Like all field trucks on surveys, it doesn't count as conservation work if you don't get at least one flat tireThe villagers realize that their bird is in trouble, and have made plans. They are completing their sun parakeet ecolodge to support their efforts and also hope to train and mount ranger patrols this coming breeding season. They will continue to work with neighbors to discourage trapping as they have done in the past. Any conservation effort is a 25 year project, often with setbacks. We will be with them during this process cheering them on, and providing resources, expertise, and passion for them and their parrots. The interior of their new lodge Their lodgePlease consider helping us return in the fall of 2018 as One Earth didn't budget to go to Guyana twice. Given the urgency of the situation we feel we have to go, so the parakeets will not go.Thanks for your help! Parakeet Patrol of Karasabai This was one of the easiest stretches on the foot trail to our survey transect along the river. I'm out of the picture wondering how this is going to go in the dark of the night when we head back...