A visiting birder, here recently with his family for a week of diving and snorkeling, was also here for Bonaire's excellent birding.  His life list was well over 2000 species, many of which he had seen on special trips to far-flung continents, led by expert bird guides and attended by what we in the birding community, call hard-core.  During his stay, we birded as often as our schedules allowed and he left the island with an additional 15 species added to his life list.

One interesting species the visiting birder added to his list that seems to be increasing on our island, but rarely seen except by sharp-eyed nature enthusiasts, is the Caribbean Grackle.  The male is glossy black all over with its iris yellowish-white, and the female is dusky-brown with a paler colored iris.  The males fly with their tails held in a peculiar V shape. They fly in flocks of 3 to 25 individuals and are the most recently confirmed nesting bird on Bonaire.  They have been seen nesting near Plaza Resort.  In the definitive book, Birds of The Netherlands Antilles, by Prof Dr. K. H. Voous, published in English in 1983; the author lists only one record for Bonaire for 7 March, 1980.  It is definitely increasing in abundance on Bonaire and can be seen on most drives through the northern sections of the island on the way to Loc Cai.  Some local nature observers think that when they see this all black bird that they are either seeing Groove-billed Ani, (in Papiamentu, Chuchubi pretu) or the Glossy Cowbird which is seen in Venezuela, and appears to be spreading its range, but not reported here.  We hope the cowbird does not find its way here because, like all cowbirds everywhere, they lay their eggs in other bird’s nests depending on the foster parents to raise their young.  The birds on this island would have a tough time making it if cowbirds occurred here because they have been isolated from these social parasites and, therefore lack any defenses that some birds are able to develop where they have lived with the cowbird for long periods of time.

• Martinair Mobile

April is the anniversary month of Flamingo Represenatives, TCB’s bureau for South America. The team, headed up by Yasmin Perez, is celebrating by creating new promotional programs for Bonaire in order to increase the number of visitors arriving to the island.

During the months before school holiday season, workshops and seminars for the travel agents will be held in Caracas, Maracay, Valencia and Maracaibo… Fam trips for travel agents, press trips by representatives from Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina will also be arranged. We will also sonsor trips for local dive operators to introduce them to the wonders of Bonaire.   Contacts are being made with the major corporate firms though the varous travel agencie, promoting our servides.  We are also kicking off our advertising campaign in the press (hard shell) in cooperation with participating hotels and othere partners in the travel industry.

We are going through very difficult times in South America and the number of visitors to the island has not been increasing steadily, a situation we are working hard to reverse. After evaluating our job during these past three years, we feel we had advanced a lot. Bonaire today has a presence in the major newspapers form Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina. The island has become well known by tour operators, travel agents and the consumers. They constantly get in touch with our office for more information about the different activities offered by the island and general features.

This anniversary renews our optimism and the determination to keep on working with the same energy so Bonaire will always be in the forefront with its South America neighbors as visitors.

 Apart from the regular flights of Air Alm, there was a charter from Aerotuy (Dash 48 seats), 6 flights from Avior (Beechcrafts 19 seats) and private operations from Harbour Village.

 Vacation Planner:

The travel agencies that handle the accounts of important corporate firms really liked this brochure. During the months of April and May, the brochure from QUO VADIS (ISO 9002), a rather solid agency in Venezuela, will include about 500 vacation planners, for the presidents and directors of the top 100 enterprises in the country.