Field Guides Birding Tours

Recent Images
(click image for gallery)

Texas
Panama
Kenya
UAE/Oman
Peru
Tanzania
Oaxaca
Peru
Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Panama
Texas
Panama
Texas
Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Oaxaca



February 2014 e-mailing
Greetings, birders! One month into the year with 18 tours completed or under way, there's a lot going on, and plenty more on the docket. If you're getting a bit weary of winter (as we are, though we confess winter was definitely worth a few great Snowy Owls and various stories like this one), check out some April and May escape options below, from Charleston and Cape May to Arizona. Need a good read? Our guides have a couple of recommendations, also below, and check out our March-August open spaces and enjoy our February Recent Photos gallery (including Costa Rica, Oman/UAE, Panama, Texas, Oaxaca, Peru, and East Africa, with samples at left). And lots of cool new triplists as well as fresh itineraries below, too. Good birding!
U.S. spring birding: SC, NJ, AZ!
Dreaming of warmer weather and spring birding? (We're writing this in a heavy snowstorm, so we are!) Here are three tours to get you planning:
Jesse Fagan--First up, guide Jesse Fagan will be off to his favorite place in the East for Birding Plus Do the Charleston! Spring in South Carolina, Apr 27-May 4 (3 spaces open). Last year's group's faves: performances by Prothonotary Warbler, Barred Owl, and Sora -- but Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Bachman's Sparrow, and a whole slew of great eastern birds weren't shabby, either.

John Coons--We have just one last space available among our four springtime tours to the Southwest, this one for Arizona: Birding the Border I: May 9-18 with John Coons. It's always a hoot (ouch, sorry, bad pun, but 7 or 8 species of owls are a nice bonus!) with all kinds of great specialties from trogons to great hummers to Painted Redstarts and Red-faced Warblers.
Megan Crewe and Lena Senko
--For our third option, guides Megan Edwards Crewe and Lena Senko are heading to the premier migration hotspot for our new Spring in Cape May tour, May 18-24 (4 spaces open). Great sightings likely on the tour include shorebirds feasting on the famed spawning of Horseshoe Crabs in Delaware Bay, more than 20 species of warblers, plus a parade of other colorful eastern migrants in full spring regalia.
Our February newsletter is in the mail
newsletterOur latest issue is mailing as we write this. It features a lead article on birding on our Southern India tour with Terry Stevenson, some fun birding tips from Bret Whitney, five pages of recent tour photos in our attractive Fresh from the Field section, a teaser for guide Willy Perez's new Northern Ecuador: Andes, Cloudforest & Otavalo Market tour, Jesse Fagan's report on a great World Birding Rally experience, and info on our Peru guides. Watch for it in your mailbox, or have a look at the PDF version for an advance peek!
 
On the Field Guides bookshelf
We love bird books, and two of our own Field Guides have a couple of new titles to recommend this month. Catching Lena Senko's eye is one about to be released: Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology Since Darwin. The pre-release info notes that it "provides an authoritative history of modern ornithology, tracing how the study of birds has been shaped by a succession of visionary and often-controversial personalities, and by the unique social and scientific contexts in which these extraordinary individuals worked." Sounds like fun, and there's more at this link.
John Rowlett recommends the recent Birds and People by Mark Cocker (photos by David Tipling). "Organized around avian families, this is a book that will be picked up and enjoyed, again and again, as a new topic catches your eye." It covers the broad reach and long span of human interactions with birds and features lovely photographs as well as contributions of hundreds of individuals from around the globe. Definitely worth a look -- for more information, see it on Amazon.
 
January through June Field Guides
open tours
Here's a list of our March to August tours with one or more spaces still open. Contact our office to help you get planning! (In the image above: Red-crowned Crane)

MARCH to AUGUST
Belize: Apr 6-12 with Peter Burke & Lena Senko (1 space)
Brazil's Rio Roosevelt: 100th anniversary of the expedition: Apr 11-24 with Bret Whitney (1 space)
Birding Plus Do the Charleston! Spring in South Carolina: Apr 27-May 4 with Jesse Fagan (3 spaces)
China: Manchuria & the Tibetan Plateau: May 5-26 with Dave Stejskal & Jesper Hornskov (2 spaces)
Arizona: Birding the Border I: May 9-18 with John Coons (1 space)
Spring in Cape May: May 18-24 with Megan Edwards Crewe & Lena Senko (4 spaces)
Uganda: May 22-Jun 12 with Phil Gregory & Jesse Fagan (3 spaces)
Alaska (first tour) Part I May 30-Jun 7 with Chris Benesh & Pepe Rojas (1 space)
Northern Ecuador: Jun 5-15 with Willy Perez (4 spaces)
Alaska (second tour) Part I Jun 6-14, Part II Jun 13-23 with Megan Edwards Crewe & Lena Senko (3 spaces)
Borneo II: Jun 8-25 with Dave Stejskal (2 spaces)
Amazonian Ecuador: Sacha Lodge III: Jun 27-Jul 6 with Willy Perez (1 space)
Newfoundland & Nova Scotia: Jun 27-Jul 7 with Chris Benesh & Lena Senko
The Norwegian Arctic: Spitsbergen & Svalbard Archipelago: Jun 29-Jul 11 with John Coons (1 space)
Kenya Highlights: Jul 2-20 with Terry Stevenson
Machu Picchu & Abra Malaga, Peru I: Jul 4-13 with Dan Lane
Galapagos II: Jul 5-15 with Megan Edwards Crewe (4 spaces)
Mountains of Manu, Peru: Jul 12-27 with Dan Lane (2 spaces)
Arizona's Second Spring I: Jul 26-Aug 4 with John Coons
Peru's Magnetic North: Jul 31-Aug 11 with Dan Lane & Dave Stejskal
Arizona's Second Spring II: Aug 2-11 with Chris Benesh
Galapagos III: Aug 2-12 with Eric Hynes
Kenya Safari Spectacular: Aug 29-Sep 25 with Terry Stevenson
 

1-800-728-4953
Click to contact us by e-mail
View tours by: Date -- Guide -- Region

Till next time, from all of us at Field Guides, good birding!

Vist us on Facebook Visit us on Facebook

Recently posted itineraries for upcoming tours
Recently posted itineraries include Papua New Guinea (Jul 6-24 with Jay VanderGaast), Montane Ecuador (Jul 25-Aug 3 with Mitch Lysinger), Slice of California: Seabirds to Sierras (Aug 30-Sep 8 with Chris Benesh), New Caledonia, Fiji & Vanuatu (Sep 1-19 with Phil Gregory), Ecuador: Rainforest & Andes (Sep 7-21 with Rose Ann Rowlett & Lena Senko), Rio Negro Paradise: Manaus, Brazil (Sep 8-22 with Bret Whitney & Marcelo Padua), Cape May Megan's Way (Sep 28-Oct 4 with Megan Edwards Crewe), New Guinea & Australia (Oct 1-19 with Jay VanderGaast), Australia (in two parts: Oct 2-23 with Chris Benesh & Lena Senko, Oct 21-Nov 5 with John Coons & Eric Hynes; Tasmania Extension to Nov 10), Barrow, Alaska: Search for Ross's Gull (Oct 3-7 with Eric Hynes), Peruvian Rainforests of the Tambopata (Oct 4-17 with Pepe Rojas), Louisiana: Yellow Rails & Crawfish Tails (Oct 23-27 with Dan Lane & second guide), Sri Lanka (Oct 31-Nov 17 with Megan Edwards Crewe & local guide), New Zealand (Nov 9-27 with Dan Lane & local guide).

Recently posted triplists
Recently posted triplists are out for Rio Negro Paradise: Manaus, Brazil I with Bret Whitney & Pepe Rojas, Rio Negro Paradise: Manaus, Brazil II with Bret Whitney & Marcelo Padua, Safari Brazil: The Pantanal & More with Marcelo Padua (plus the Brazilian Merganser Extension list), Madagascar, Mauritius & Reunion with Phil Gregory & Jay VanderGaast, East Africa Highlights: Kenya & Tanzania with Terry Stevenson, Arizona Winter Specialties with Dave Stejskal, Ecuador's Shiripuno Lodge: Heartland of the Waorani with Mitch Lysinger & Willy Perez, Panama's Canopy Tower I with John Coons & Lena Senko.

Cheat sheet
All photos at left are from our February recent photos. Enjoy!