The Pacific Northwest is a paradise for birds and mammals in the fall. This tour visiting both the state of Washington and the province of British Columbia is segmented into two parts, and those with enough time will want to do both.

The first segment of the tour is a five-day excursion that concentrates on Northwest Washington and includes: Puget Sound, Skagit Valley, the San Juan Islands, and the Olympic Peninsula. The second segment is also five days and equally exciting, for it encompasses the southwest corner of British Columbia, namely the Straights of Georgia and the nooks and crannies of southern Vancouver Island.

In Northwest Washington we'll concentrate on wintering raptors, seabirds, waterfowl, and some passerines. Targets include: Gyrfalcon, Merlin, Rough-legged Hawk, Pacific and Red-throated loons, Brandt's and Pelagic cormorants, Rhinoceros Auklet, Trumpeter and Tundra swans, Snow Goose, Brant (dark-bellied form), Greater Scaup, Eurasian Wigeon, Dunlin, Western Sandpiper, Northwestern Crow, and perhaps, if we are lucky, Barn Owl.

On the SW British Columbia portion of the tour our goal is similar but we'll seek out either special local species such as Sky Lark or huge concentrations of wintering seabirds and gulls such as Harlequin Duck, Barrow's Goldeneye, Ancient and Marbled murrelets, Common Murre, Surf, White-winged, and Black scoters, Mew and Glaucous-winged gulls, and maybe even a Thayer's Gull or a Yellow-billed Loon.

We anticipate seeing approximately 100 species of birds on each part and a minimum of 10 species of land and marine mammals. Join Terry McEneaney as he guides you to some extraordinarily out of the way yet beautiful and intriguing places.

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