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Sunday, November 8, 2009

Ollantaytambo to Cusco, Peru '09 - Post 11

The village of Ollantaytambo is up at about 8000 feet above sea level. As a result, the birds are unique. It is also the jumping off point for an incredible highway that crosses the Andes east to the Amazon basin.

Most tourists arrive via train, but we were really lucky to have a van. We saw some incredible scenery.

The road literally "snakes" through the mountains. If you want to see something incredible, go to Google map and put in Ollantaytambo, and then look at the road going east over the Andes.

All along the way are old rock walls and other ruins. That people lived (and live) at these altitudes is almost beyond comprehension.

Some of the birds in these mountains:

Rufous-Breasted Chat-Tyrant (about 5 inches).

Plumbeous Sierra-Finch (about 6 inches).

Andean Lapwing, (about 14 inches) related generally to Oystercatchers, Jacanas etc.

The Andean Lapwing is particularly beautiful in flight.

This is the Black Faced Ibis, from another family more commonly identified with shores than mountains. About 29 inches, this bird is also really fun to watch fly.

At one point we stopped on the highway at a spot where the road itself was over 14,000 feet. From there we hiked up another thousand feet or so looking for the "Royal Cinclodes". We found it's cousin, the Bar-Winged Cinclodes right off.

Bar-Winged Cinclodes (About 7 inches).

The terrain had very sparse vegetation with a thick moss on the ground that almost seemed like a far north tundra.

Not long after we arrived, we saw some Llama's grazing and thought they must be wild.

A few minutes later however these two little boys (12 and 5) came running up. We thought they were carrying school books, but it turned out they were there to collect the fee for hunting on the family property for birds. The story is that the very rare Royal Cinclodes (we never did see it) is only found in this one location. It's habitat is a scrub brush that was being cut by the native population, and so some smart birders made a deal with the locals back in the 60's that they would pay a little (it was like a buck each for us) in return for them not cutting the "forest". It has worked and the bird lives on (though awfully hard to find). Here the little guys are having Terry fill out the record book.

These little guys literally run up and down these mountains. From up on top we could see their home.

Really an interesting place.

One last bird for the day. Lately a Northern Flicker has been driving me crazy by coming in at night and roosting in the rafters of our new deck. He is making a mess, but I have to admit he is beautiful. Here is the Andean Flicker, about 12 inches.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Peru 09, Post 10 The Lost Files

I left Peru with about 2500 photo's from the Amazon to the Andes to the waters offshore near Lima. I have posted some of them in the first 9 Posts, but alas they are gone. Let this be a lesson to all using the very inexpensive usb drives to back up their photos. I have 4 of these very high capacity drives, but one went gunny sack, and it turns out to be completely unrecoverable. I still can't believe it, and am in serious mourning, but I have learned a valuable lesson. DON'T TRUST A MECHANICAL DRIVE!

My friend Terry has graciously allowed me to use his photo's to finish my post's regarding the Peru trip we took this summer. This is the 10th in that series.

At the base of the mountain on which is Macchu Picchu is Aguas Caliente. It is accessible only by train, and sits along a river. On our last morning there, the 16th of June, we visited a private garden located on the grounds of an exclusive hotel and saw many different species of Tanagers. These colorful birds feed on nuts, bugs and interestingly, bananas!

You have the Blue_Gray Tanager, about 7 inches.

Then there is the Golden-Naped Tanager at a mere 5 inches.

And in this picture the Golden-Naped is joined by the Blue-Necked, and on the far right, the Saffron-Crowned Tanager's, both also about 5 inches.

Other really colorful birds here included the Blue-Naped Chlorophonia, and the Orange-Crowned Euphonia. Both of these are little 4 inch birds really stand out in the understory.

A really loud addition to the mix was the Dusky Green Oropendola, a large blackbird like species that flock together and build giant pendulum like nests. About 17 inches.

By far the craziest and most interesting bird of them all however is the Cock of the Rock (yeah that is the real name. Found only along the eastern slope of the Andes, up fairly high, this is the Peruvian National Bird.

The male is really striking, and likes to do a mating dance that is quiet remarkable. At about 13 inches, they aren't all that big, but look huge when you see them among the green in the jungle.

From Aguas Caliente we travelled by train about 2 hours to Ollyantambo. The scenery was incredible.

Even the train had it's own entertainment in the form of a guy wringing the neck of some poor stuffed llama to try and sell us clothing. This guy was a real gem.

It wasn't all that impressive however, or maybe I was just tired?

A Rainy Saturday and Grandpa DeLand

Today was one of those days. We stayed up late last night celebrating Tucker's Birthday.

Then we got up, and while Alicia, Tucker and his family rescued their new sailboat (you should ask them about this adventure), Paula and I just chilled. Sun, rain, wind, hail and then sun again made for a fun day in a warm house. Aside from filling the birdfeeders, I didn't get outside until it was time for the Adult Session of Stake Conference.

So I got busy and finally finished the Grandpa DeLand wall at Rainbow.

The shadow box with some of his Pattern Maker tools has been up for a few months, but I put up today a couple more pictures and a little statement about Grandpa. I also hung a wooden clamp which although may not be the actual one shown in the picture of him at the Northrup shop, it is certainly the same model.

This is the text of the statement:

1 Feb 1904 - George Leroy DeLand - 1-Feb 1904 -- 10 Jul 1998

My Grandpa George was born to Royal DeLand and Ruby Worthen in Hunter, Utah. Living for a time in “Ragtown”, a collection of tar paper covered shacks at the base of the mountain near the copper mines west of Salt Lake City, by the time he was 15 years old, he was employed full time for the Bingham Copper Company. Soon he secured an apprenticeship as a woodworker/pattern maker, and that became his life’s vocation.

Grandpa married Dora (Simpson) in January of 1926, only to lose her less than two years later, leaving him with a one day old son Gail and a year old son Ron. On July 28, 1928 he married Lillian Griffith (grandma). They lived in Southern California until retiring to Oregon in the mid 1960’s. Grandpa outlived my mom Arlene, who died in 1987.

Grandpa’s skill as a pattern maker was well recognized in the industry. Pattern Making is the art of fashioning something out of one material, packing sand around it and creating a mold so it can be replicated over and over. A pattern that has incorrect draft on vertical surfaces, badly finished corner fillets, or a pattern that has not been finished to an ultra smooth finish may not shed sand, or otherwise work properly. While most patterns are made of plastic today, in Grandpa’s time they were beautiful works of art.

While in So. Cal., Grandpa’s skill was important in the budding aircraft industry. Working for such companies as North American, Northrup Grumman and Boeing, he worked on teams which were responsible for many of the most important aircraft in winning the Second World War. One of the most interesting stories is his work on the P-51 Mustang. While much of his time was spent on engine parts and other high tolerance portions of several airplanes, in the pictures above he is shown working in the shop in California and in the wind tunnels of Boeing in Seattle on the wing of the P-51, which had to be redesigned to provide better safety and function for the pilots serving in the European theatre toward the end of the war.

In the shadow box are several tools that I was fortunate to inherit from Grandpa. My brothers and I all got a number of tools, and many of the ones I got were used for measuring. You can see here such things as calipers, scribing tools and rulers.

One of the most interesting of them is the "Pattern Makers Rule". (There are two in this box.) The graduations are marked as: 1/30-1/40-1/60-1/80, etc. The graduations represent the amount of shrinkage allowance for different types of metals. For example, the 1/30 scale measurement typically gives the correct result with patterns used for cast aluminum items.

I have great pride in Grandpa’s skill, but my memories are of all the toys he made. The blocks, puzzles, paint boards and in general the smell of freshly cut wood and piles of sawdust remain the impressions of childhood. I am grateful for a heritage that includes many men and women like Grandpa who found joy and worthy contributions to their communities and families through the use of their hands. Rich Vial, November 2009

Here are the pictures: