This blog exists because one of my tech-savvy daughters set it up for me as a Father’s Day gift. I am a 76 year old born and bred Iowan and for the past 10 years, as family and work responsibilities have declined, I have increasingly indulged my passion for birding. I keep track of the birds and mammals I have seen in my yard, in Iowa, in North America and worldwide. I have often composed reports of my trips or observations and disseminated the reports to my family. From now on, I will post my reports on this blog. I may also update some of my prior trip reports and publish them here. I will be happy to respond to comments.
Empty Nest Birder
Birding Stories of an Empty Nester
Hey there Don and Barbara —
What a marvelous website! The picture, o Ms. Photo Genius, are fantastic. I have sent the link to Paul who is in Columbia til next Monday. We had a great time birding, hiking, zip lining in the cloud forest near Mindo. The husband of our hostess was a pretty great guide.
Barbara, how was the ride right after you got back? Oops, maybe you are on it now!
If you are willing, pls share your email address. Your call of course, no worries.
Hi Don,
Thank you for staying at our Ecolodge. It was a real pleasure to have met you. I hope you and Adam had a good time here. Please, see below a little about our Ecolodge Itororo. Please, remember that my English is not very good.
History about the Ecolodge Itororó
In the beginning of the sixties Dr. Fritz Dungs and his wife bought the land (around 28 Hectars) and named it Itororó. One of the meanings of Itororó in Tupy Guarany (the main language from the Brazilian Indians) is the whispering of the waters. Here our father started his research and studies about the Brazilian Orchids . In the course of his pioneer work, he published two volumes of “Orchidaceae Brasilienses”,together with G.F. Pabst, regarded as a fundamental work about the Brazilian orchids.
The region and surroundings of the Eco-Lodge Itororó were their central researching field and a starting point to numerous study tours and expeditions, turning the Atlantic Rainforest into Dr. Fritz Dungs’ second home. That is where our consciousness about the endangerment of this sensitive biosphere emerge.
When they bought the land there was no house or any infrastructure here. Our father then built the small cabin which is now our small restaurant. At that time there was no electricity and we used kerosene lamps and candles at night. For many years it was also the family’s holiday place. We would come from Rio to spend 2 months here. For the four children it was paradise.
In 1977 our father passed away and we had no money to keep Itororo properly, but our mother was able to hold on to it. In 1998 I decided to make a lodge out of it and started with building 2 rooms and slowly receiving guests. At that time I also started the environmental project of recuperation of the Atlantic Rainforest. Some parts of our land had monoculture plantations of pine trees and eucalyptus. We started taking all the none-native trees out and letting the Atlantic Rainforest come back. We now are in the 21st year of our project and Lodge and we see an amazing amount of flora and fauna coming back. Even a small creek started to flow again! We have now a large number of birds on our grounds and over the last 5 years we became known as a good spot in Brazil for Birdwatchers. We receive guests from all over the world, who come to study nature, botanists, hikers and birdwatchers and are very happy the way things are developing. We need more guests to be able to be financially sustainable but many guests are helping us to spread the word about us in the social medias and word of mouth.
manuscripts held onto
multiplies (see also article
reproduced by hand, in contrast
scroll. Go to Code Form
Hi Don,
Wonderful to read your birding posts. Have you ever seen the shoebill? I thought of you when I saw this 1 minute short featuring a shoebill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pw10Tfab4E
The ISU alumni trip to China and Tibet with you and Barbara remains a wonderful memory. We are glad to have done a lot of traveling before covid. Now we are content with the large variety of birds and boats we see on Sarasota Bay.
Wishing you all the best, Elaine and Bill
Thanks Elaine and so good to hear from you and Bill. No, I have never seen a Shoebill. But the link was really cute. Now I want to see one, but Uganda is probably not a likely destination for me. I have been concentrating (before Covid) on destinations that allow me to see at least one species within every Family of birds. I have seen 225 of the 248.. The Shoebill is one of the Families that I lack. The Shoebill is the only species within the Family. There are several other Families that have only one species (a Monotypic Family), but many more with lots (a few with over 300 species).. Don