On The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #35 I talk with Dr. Ursula Valdez about her birding story and about her decade plus of work in the Peruvian Amazon. We cover a lot of issues, and in this post I hope to add details and clarification to some of the topics we discussed. Her doctoral work was studying forest falcons in the Southeastern Peru Amazon. Here is a list of some of her publications related to that work listed on the Peregrine Fund page on a global raptors site. Here is the article on my birding club’s site after she made her presentation to us at a club meeting.

This is a photo of her slide at that presentation of the five species of forest falcons she studied in her doctoral work.
More recently Dr. Valdez has been working with a local landowner, other researchers, local youth, and visiting volunteers at él Centro de Educacíon, Ciencia y Conservacíon, in the Madre de Díos, a great name translated the Mother of Gods, in the Tambopata Province of Peru, near the town of Puerto Maldonado. This is one of the most species diverse areas of the world, and in an area being ravished by land clearing, slash burning and gold mining. We talk about the gold mining, much of which is done illegally, in areas where it is not legally allowed. The gold there is disbursed in the runoff sediment from the river, and huge areas of the river itself and surrounding forest are cleared, dug up, the gold extracted in a process using mercury, and left ravished. The ecological and health consequences are devastating to the community and of course to the wildlife of the area. Here is an article about this issue on the USAID website. The article addresses the social, ecological and community issues related to the illegal alluvial gold mining in the Madre de Díos region.
Dr. Valdez also talks about her local work at the Bothel Campus of the University of Washington, where she teaches, does local conservation work, and continues her research activities.
The facebook page @CECCOT is a great way to keep touch with their great organization and to hear about volunteer opportunities there. Be sure to like and follow their page, and support their work in any way that you are able
Until next time, good birding. Good day!