Between June 2^nd - 8^th the 2003 Convention of the ABA (American Birding Association) was carried out in Eugene, Oregon. I was invited by Birder’s Exchange (a branch of the ABA that coordinates the donation of new and second hand optical equipment, books, etc for organisations and people working on South America), to give a talk about the birds of our country. The name of this talk was “Chilean Patagonia: a bird sanctuary”, this one hour talk, was focused in the region of Magellan and with about 200 slides I did show a resume of species and environment of our region.

I guess was welcome among the approximately 100 participants and some did even take the decision to come and visit us next season. During the days we stood in USA we did observe about 90 bird species, from which more than 60 were completely new for me. Through this letter, I would like to sincerely thank Betty Petersen for her kind invitation to this convention for the coordination of an important contribution, such as the Swarovsky TL80 telescope, which will be of great use in the field work we carry out here in Magallanes. Also thanks to Ken Hollinga for coordinating all matters regarding our stay and participation in this convention, to Rob Fancher from Swarovsky (USA) for the important donation of a pair of 10x42 binoculars, and to all our friends and people we met then, who did our days in the US a great experience.

Ricardo

Sunset in Lopez Island, Washington State
Photo: R. Matus