Hello Tweets,

I'll be taking a trip to Cali, Colombia in June-July primarily for educational purposes, but I'm expecting that there will be organized excursions to other parts of Colombia on which I can do some birding.

Could anyone recommend good bird and natural-history guidebooks for Colombia?

And also, I'd like to get a single travel lens for my Nikon D90 that I could use for birding (so need some zoom capability) as well as generic tourist photos. The two I'm considering, and the pros and cons that seem to emerge from a few minutes playing with them in the camera store, are:


* Nikon 18-200mm zoom (AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II)
* Pros: Nikon name, more solid "feel," seemingly smoother zoom
* Cons: Nikon price, less zoom capability, no special macro capability, heavier
* Tamron 18-250mm zoom (Tamron 18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 AF Di-II LD Aspherical (IF) Macro)
* Pros: More extended zoom, macro capability, lighter weight, lower price
* Cons: Feels less solid (more plastic vs metal?), off-brand name

If anyone has experience traveling with either of these - or has recommendations for other lenses -- I'd really appreciate your thoughts and perspectives. For instance, is one likely to be more durable and reliable than the other? And so on.

And for my favorite birding observation this week, here's a Pileated Woodpecker excavating its nest in Lincoln Park. S/he would hammer for a while down deep in the tree, then grab beakfuls of wood scraps and toss them out of the hole for a while, then go back down and hammer some more. It was interesting to me that s/he seemed to intentionally throw the debris in different directions. Every once in a while when a nearby eagle called, s/he'd stop throwing sawdust and look up towards the eagle. Photos at www.flickr.com/photos/trileigh/4546744926 et seq.

Thanks in advance for your photography advice,
Trileigh

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Trileigh Tucker
Lincoln Park, West Seattle