Well. Well. What a day! We birded Peace River Valley first this morning then drove to Hawk Mountain west of Allentown, PA. It was a gorgeous day! And the hawks were flying. Highlights included 3 Northern Goshawks and 2 Golden Eagles!   We ate an early dinner and drove to a banding station west…

  Today is the first day of the 10th of 11 one-week tours I am doing with Wildside Nature Tours. We picked up folks at the Philadelphia Airport today and we birded our way along the Delaware River (and yes, we passed the place where George Washington crossed it). I do not have much to…

  Storms today continued to make conditions difficult for birding. The combination of wind and rain is tough to find birds. The remnants of typhoon Songda have not yet reached the Washington Coast.     Although some of the driving was dreary, soggy, and gray, a few streets were lined with trees in full autumn…

  Pacific Coast – Day 5 was rainy…all day long. Optimism is usually not so very high with tough conditions. But Steve Ritt and Chris Brown rose to the occasion. In fact today had the HIGHEST species count of any day on our tour so far–74 species! And that’s not all! Not only did we…

  Day 3 was full of spectacular views on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. New birds for the year include Varied Thrush and American Dipper. Total is 518. And today we had some new mammals for the trip–mountain goats!   We finished the day with a long drive to Ocean Shores, WA. More tomorrow…  

  Day 3 in a word was “AWESOME”. We added 4 new species, saw stunning scenery, and had near perfect weather. Are we really on the Olympic Peninsula? The State of Washington continues to dazzle. The crystal blue skies were just unbelievable. And the deep blue waters looked so crisp and inviting. The trees are…

  Seeing the evening glow on Mt. Rainier in the far distance was really special this evening! What a treat! And a bit of a rarity considering it was a CLEAR evening near Seattle! We visited Gog-Le-Hi-Te Mitigated Wetlands this morning, then the 11th St bridge, then back again. We got both Lapland Longspur and…

  Everyone arrived in Seattle by mid-afternoon. Most of the group got to bird at Kent Ponds before the last participants arrived. Birding there was a little slow but we still added one new bird for the year–a calling Fox Sparrow. And, of course, it’s always fun for an Ohio birder like me to see…

  We started the morning in Pinnacles National Park. Actually, no. Our drive from Hollister, CA to Pinnacles was interrupted by Yellow-billed Magpies. Pinnacles was very birdy this morning. Our first stop had a number of good birds from the parking lot. Flocks of Lawrence’s Goldfinches flitting about, a few Western Bluebirds nearby, a flyover…

  We made it! Over 500 species for my Big Year tours with Wildside Nature Tours. This is trip #8 out of 11 one-week trips designed to see 500 or more species in the Lower 48 States in one calendar year…with tour participants. We have already reached our mark and we have 3 more trips…

  Sooooooo close! We added two more species to the year list bringing the year total to 499 species. Today we added Black-vented Shearwater and California Condor.   The drive started out in beautiful Big Sur. But as we headed south we could see the smoke from the forest fires in the area. All the…

  Did we make it to 500 yet? Nope. Not yet. Unofficially we added 1 new species today (Tricolored Blackbird). Unofficially? Yes. Everyone else has gone to bed. So I did the checklist myself. I may have missed a bird or two. We’ll have an official update tomorrow. So we are now at 497. We…