Take a break with us… (March and April posts)

Click here to see our posts from May 2020 and later.

4/29—Neotropical migrants bring a big smile to the Barbet’s (Dan’s) face in Baton Rouge

Guide Dan Lane (Barbet) shares a migrant-filled day as he tallies 70 species from his Louisiana yard.

4/27—Godfried invites us in to check out his Spanish garden

Guide Godfried Schreur shares some birds and plants from his lovely garden in Spain. Can you imagine seeing both Spanish Imperial Eagle and a castle from your doorstep?

4/24—Chris (Solitaire) gives us a birding tour of his Tucson neigborhood

Guide Chris Benesh takes a walk through the rich desert in his Tucson, Arizona neighborhood, finding a nesting Cooper’s Hawk along the way.

4/22—Micah (Bare-eye) hunts for arriving Gray Vireos in Arizona

Guide Micah Riegner (Bare-eye) takes us on a visit to chaparral near his home in Arizona to admire Black-chinned Sparrows and Gray Vireos.

4/20—Doug seeks April migrants in Brooklyn, with a side of Northern Gannet

Guide Doug Gochfeld goes to Coney Island Creek Park this time, and discovers a surprise or two. (Be sure to enjoy the final feature starting a little more than 5 minutes in!)

4/17—Eric (Eagle) goes owling and porcupining in Colorado

Guide Eric Hynes heads out to the woods of southwestern Colorado to look for nocturnal critters.

4/17—Jesse (the Motmot) checks in from Lima, Peru

Guide Jesse Fagan (Motmot) lives in Lima, Peru, where the population is under a fairly strict quarantine policy. Mot doesn’t let that stop him from sharing his backyard birds with us.

4/15—A visit to Karen’s yard in Austin (with Kite and Ruth)

Office Manager Karen Turner shares some of her animals with Bret Whitney (Kite) and Tour Manager Ruth Kuhl during a socially distanced Austin yard visit.

4/13—An Expedition to the Barbet’s (Dan Lane’s) Baton Rouge Backyard

Field Guides leader Dan Lane (our Barbet) takes us exploring around his backyard in Baton Rouge, Louisiana — some pretty interesting creatures to see there!

4/10—Micah (Bare-eye) sketches and paints birds in Arizona

In conjunction with his birding and leadership skills, Micah Riegner (Bare-eye) is a talented artist. Here, he takes us on an exploration of his process and some of his completed works.

4/8—Tom records the return of Louisiana Waterthrushes to Cape May

Tom Johnson (the Albatross) spends some time watching and sound-recording recently arrived Louisiana Waterthrushes in the wilds of southern New Jersey.

NOTE: After this video was made, New Jersey closed its state parks and state forests, so Belleplain State Forest is not currently accessible to the public. When birding and while social distancing, remember to check access situations for your local birding spots because circumstances often change abruptly. Be safe out there!

4/6—Eric Hynes (Eagle) explores the Colorado mountains

Field Guides leader Eric Hynes is joined by his research assistants (aka his wonderful daughters Rita and Molly) on a birding adventure in his spectacular neighborhood in the mountains of southwestern Colorado.

4/3—Micah (Bare-eye) and John (Kingfisher) search for woodpeckers in Arizona

Join Field Guides leaders Micah Riegner and John Coons on a search for American Three-toed Woodpeckers near Williams, Arizona.

4/2—Doug goes storm birding in Brooklyn, NYC

Guide Doug Gochfeld visits one of his favorite Brooklyn birding patches when there’s no one else around on a recent stormy day. It was a little wild and wooly out there, but there was some cool stuff to see nevertheless. And there’s nothing better than an excuse to get out birding, right?

4/1—Why we bird (wisdom from the wilds of Brazil)

Group members on Bret Whitney & Marcelo B’s Brazil’s Rio Roosevelt: Birding the River of Doubt tour take a few minutes during an early afternoon birding lull to riff on what draws them to watching birds…

3/29—Bret Whitney’s screech-owl

Guide Bret Whitney (whom we and many of you know as Kite) takes us on an 8-minute tour of his yard in downtown Austin, Texas, with some fun discoveries along the way. It’s classic Kite, enjoy!

Note: After we posted this video, we heard from longtime friend Cliff Shackleford, who was delighted to see that the original screech-owl box he’d built for Bret was still going strong! Cliff has a website where you can get your own professionally designed screech-owl box if you’re interested, owlshack.com – check it out!

3/26—The Bird Song Opera: Listen and watch!

If you want to have a little fun, both in terms of the audio component as well as testing your global ID skills a little, check out this Bird Song Opera by clicking on the image below. Recent participant Roslyn Chernesky (thanks!) sent us the link to this creative piece put together by composer Volker Pannes/ShakeUp Music. A joy to watch.

3/24—Guide Tom Johnson at Jakes Landing, Cape May County

Tom takes us along on a short video as he heads out solo to check one of his favorite local patches on a chilly March morn.

3/24—Springlike thoughts

Participant Doug Clarke returned from one of our recent tours to Oaxaca, Mexico, with some lovely pics he shared. Wherever you live, but especially if you’re in a northern clime, these colors can’t help but make you think about spring and the birds soon pushing northward. Thanks, Doug!

We’ve been communicating with a lot of tour participants recently (if you’re booked on a tour in the next few months and haven’t yet heard from us, you will soon, hang on), and we’ve had some wonderful messages from folks. Here’s one of our faves:

“Hang in there, and thanks for the hard work. I have other trips cancelling with other tour companies. They all behave like regular businesses. You guys feel like family–and yes, I know you’re a business. Just saying, it’s a pleasure to work with you.“

And it’s a pleasure for us to work closely with such a wonderful and supportive group of folks who travel with us…thank you!