New rules will go into effect January 1, 2012, governing inter-island travel in the Galápagos.

Starting in January 2012, no vessel will be permitted to visit the same site more than once every 14 days. The brilliant week-long itineraries now in effect will no longer be possible; by visiting the best sites, those itineraries make them unavailable for the next week’s cruise. It seems certain that all cruise companies will now divide up the best islands so that each week’s cruise visits some–but of necessity not all.

The upshot for birders? If you want the best of the Galápagos in just a week’s time, plan to go this year or in 2011.  Rich Hoyer‘s next cruise is scheduled for November 12-21, 2010, followed by another convenient, but different, itinerary in November 2012.

What is the easternmost county with an accepted record of Varied Thrush?

Leave your answer here as a comment.  As always the first correct answer, and the best incorrect answer, will win a prize!

Last month’s winners were Roger Craik and Austin Saupe; the correct answer was British Columbia, the province that has held CBC records for high counts of many species, among them Golden-crowned Kinglet and Dusky Thrush.

The NYT has a good-looking and very timely slide show from “The Valley” on line. If you’ve never been, this should whet your appetite–along with the most recent reports from Gavin Bieber‘s spring and winter tours to one of the great meccas of American birding.

Among the brilliant beauties lurking in the Rio Grande’s narrow band of thornscrub are Altamira Orioles. And who knows, perhaps your visit will be graced by something as surprising as the Black-vented Oriole photographed on South Padre Island two days ago.

PHoto: New York Times.

The rediscovery of the Santa Marta Sabrewing holds out hope for the many other “Santa Marta endemics” of Colombia.

You can read all about it in today’s NYT.

As WINGS clients know, Oregon offers some of the most exciting birding on the continent.

Now there’s an outstanding online guide to Oregon and its birds–just the sort of thing to whet your appetite for Rich Hoyer’s next tour!

Serendib Scops Owl. Photo: Uditha Hettidge.

Deepal Warakagoda, the leader of our tours to Sri Lanka, has done it again. Already well known for his discovery of the Serendib Scops Owl, Deepal recently found a population of Marshall’s Ioras breeding on the “tear of India,” as the magical Island of Sri Lanka is sometimes known.

Marshall's Iora. Wikimedia Commons: Arpit Deomurari.

The colorful Marshall’s Iora had been thought to be restricted to the Indian mainland, making Deepal’s discover a significant one. And we have a good chance of seeing this newest addition to the Sri Lankan avifauna on our next tour, in the area of Tissa.