Field Guides Birding Tours: February 2012 E-mailing

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February 2012 E-mailing Our 2012 schedule is off to a great start, our scheduling folks have been very busy (read about our five new 2013 tours below), and our spring and summer are shaping up nicely (seems they'll be here in a blink). Below we have tour updates through July (you can still escape on a March tour!), newly posted 2012 itineraries and recent trip reports, and great pics from the field in our February recent photos gallery (samples to guess at left from Oman/UAE, New Zealand, Panama, Costa Rica, Chile, and Brazil) -- our cheat sheet is below. Enjoy!

_2012 tours (and guides) are off and running!

The great group of Field Guides leaders above got our year off to a busy start in January! Left to right: guide Willy Perez soloed our first Sacha Lodge (Ecuador) trip of four departures this year, then joined Rose Ann Rowlett to co-lead Jewels of Ecuador I. Megan Crewe jetted to Mexico for Colima & Jalisco, then was met by Chris Benesh to co-lead Oaxaca. Bret Whitney & Marcelo Padua headed to Northeast Brazil for a large haul of endemics, while up stateside Terry McEneaney teamed up with his wife, Karen, a longtime YNP park ranger, to guide our group to fantastic Yellowstone in Winter. Jesse Fagan and Richard Webster each took the helm of one of our two Colombia departures, while Dave Stejskal whisked off to Thailand and Peter Burke was off to Chile. Whew! And we're hearing great things from you...thanks!

"An A+ overall experience. I am making plans for another tour with guide Jesse Fagan. As always, your office staff were helpful and pleasant." P. T., Costa Rica: Rancho Naturalista
"This was a great experience. I really liked Willy Perez and his guiding style. After two Field Guides tours with two superior guides, my problem now is deciding which of their tours to take next!" P. R., Sacha Lodge, Ecuador
"Field Guides is always our first choice of companies because of the skilled and caring guides. I'd absolutely travel with Chris Benesh again. The overall experience on this tour was great! Thanks for everything. Field Guides is a class act." S.K., Panama's Canopy Lodge

_Pssst...sneak 2013 preview: five new tours!

Our hard-working scheduling committee (Peggy Watson, Dave Stejskal, Maggie Burnett, and Megan Crewe) has been busily consulting with our leaders on the final 2013 Field Guides schedule (you can see the online schedule now, and full guide assignments will go live on our website the first week of March). In the works for next year, in addition to our long list of standards, are the following five new itineraries which we are sure will appeal to many of you. (We still have to post full descriptions for three of them, but contact our office to save space on any trip.)
Tour pages for these two are up:

South Texas Rarities, Jan 18-24, 2013 with Chris Benesh -- No more winter birding doldrums! Winters in the Rio Grande Valley have been great for ABA rarities in recent years. This winter the Valley hosted a couple of Golden-crowned Warblers, Blue Buntings, Crimson-collared Grosbeaks, and a Black-vented Oriole. What might show up in 2013 for our week-long holiday?

Northern Arizona's Canyons & Condor, Jun 1-6, 2013 with John Coons, who'll be guiding you right from his Flagstaff base to some great birds amidst fantastic scenery. John's image here sets the majestic scene for us.
Our tour pages for these three will be completed soon!
Birds and Wines of Chile & Argentina, Mar 23- Apr 6, 2013 with Marcelo Padua -- two weeks of birding, wining, and dining from central Chile across to the prime wine country of Argentina.
Philadelphia: Cradle of American Birding, Sep 26-29, 2013 with George Armistead -- a short, sweet excursion to the cradle of American ornithology to learn about the evolution of bird study in America, see some mid-Atlantic migrants, and take in some fantastic food!
Barrow: Search for Ross's Gull, Oct 4-8, 2013 with George Armistead -- a short sojourn to 71 degrees north, the US's northernmost point, for the legendary Ross's Gull, loons, eiders, and possibly Polar Bear, Ivory Gull.

_Recent blog posts

We have some new posts since our January e-mailing:

--Northern Peru: Endemics Galore Birding Wrap-up
Plus three articles from our recent newsletter:
--Birding Asia by guide Dave Stejskal
--The Colorful Canasteros...Huh? by guide Jesse Fagan
--Peru's Magnetic North: The Long and Short of It by guide John Rowlett

Of our 25 March-April tours coming up, the following 7 still have one or a few spaces open:

Birding Plus Egypt: Mar 3-20 with Terry Stevenson (3 spaces)
Costa Rica: Mar 17-Apr 1 with Megan Crewe (2 spaces)
Bahamas: Birds & Butterflies: Mar 31-Apr 5 with Jesse Fagan (3 spaces)
Hawaii: Apr 1-10 with George Armistead (4 spaces)
Colorado Grouse I: Apr 4-14 with Chris Benesh (4 spaces)

Texas Coast Migration Spectacle I: Apr 21-27 with John Coons (1 space)
Texas's Big Bend & Hill Country: Apr 21-30 with Chris Benesh
Dominican Republic II: Apr 28-May 5 with Jesse Fagan

May through July tours with space Uganda: May 17-Jun 7 with Phil Gregory (2 spaces)
Arizona II: May 18-27 with Dave Stejskal
Virginias' Warblers: May 30-Jun 3 with John Rowlett & John Coons (2 spaces)
Alaska I (Part I): May 30-Jun 7 with Chris Benesh & Jesse Fagan (4 spaces)
Central Peruvian Endemics: Jun 1-17 with Dan Lane & Willy Perez
Alaska II (Part I): Jun 6-14 with George Armistead & Megan Crewe (2 spaces)
Montane Ecuador I: Jun 8-17 with Mitch Lysinger
Spitsbergen cruise: Jun 23-Jul 5 with John Coons
New Guinea I: Jun 27-Jul 15 with Phil Gregory (1 space)
Sacha Lodge, Ecuador III: Jun 29-Jul 8 with Mitch Lysinger (4 spaces)
Newfoundland & Nova Scotia: Jun 29-Jul 9 with Chris Benesh
Peru's Magnetic North: Jun 30-Jul 10 with John Rowlett & Pepe Rojas
Manu Wildlife Center, Peru I: Jul 2-14 with Dan Lane
Kenya Highlights: Jul 4-22 with Terry Stevenson (2 spaces)
Jaguar Spotting: Pantanal & Garden of the Amazon: Jul 7-18 with Marcelo Padua (Marcelo's July 23 departure is full)
Machu Picchu & Abra Malaga I: Jul 13-22 with Jesse Fagan (2 spaces)
Montane Ecuador II: Jul 19-28 with Willy Perez
Mountains of Manu, Peru: Jul 21-Aug 5 with Dan Lane
Sacha Lodge, Ecuador IV: Jul 27-Aug 5 with Willy Perez
Arizona's Second Spring I: Jul 28-Aug 6 with John Coons