Flash! Bang! Montana Big Year tour starts off with bravado! We had everyone picked up from the airport and hotel before noon. So we went birding with the remainder of the day. The weather was sunny and warm and the mountain scenery surrounding us was breathtaking. Ahhh! Montana. It isn’t called Big Sky country…

  Woo-hoo! Tour #6 of 11 one-week trips for my Big Year Tours with Wildside Nature Tours starts today! I love the view from town above! We will start counting birds as soon as we pick up participants. Our total species for the year stands at 391. Our goal is 500 for the year. We…

  Yup. Yesterday I wrote the blog initially thinking it was day 6. It was only day 5. So today is the real day 6. Got it. Not all cylinders are firing. It’s good we’re rounding the bend on this trip. Wow! What a day! We had an EPIC trip out on the water today.…

  BRRRRR! What a chilly start! Blustery winds were blowing down over the Hudson Bay and brought frigid air into northern Maine. It made birding for boreal species very tough. We got just over 30 species on the day and we were all chilled to the bone. But it was still a rewarding time. Rewarding?…

  Tonight we are in northern New Hampshire. Yes, it’s called a Maine trip. But we drove through the beautiful White Mountains today. We tallied 64 species of birds bringing our trip total to 113 and the year total to 381. Best highlight for me was seeing 2 Roseate Terns flying along the beach at…

  Maine. Tour 5 of 11 one-week tours with Wildside Nature Tours in a Big Year Series attempting to see 500 species of birds in the Lower 48 States in one calendar year with participants. Don’t forget the ABA Young Birders! We have raised nearly $1500 now through the Big Year Series for ABA Young…

  Maine Day 2 began with wind and rain. We had breakfast at Helen’s Restaurant in Machias, Maine–home of legendary pies. Really. You should try them yourself! We drove to the Columbia Blueberry barrens. These are large areas of cultivated blueberries. The bushes are quite short and leave the viewer with impression of a thick…

Today starts the 5th of 11 Big Year Tours for 2016 with Wildside Nature Tours. Look at our upcoming tours at bigyeartours.com Folks arrived today from around the country in Bangor, ME airport. While waiting for other participants, a few of us got to see Stephen King’s house. Cool. We had lunch at Nicky’s Diner,…

  This is trip #4 of 11 Big Year Tours for Wildside Nature Tours. We birded in West Virginia and Ohio looking for spring migrants. This tour is especially good for Eastern Wood Warblers. There are 38 species of warblers possible on this itinerary, but not all are likely. So far, we have seen 32…

We finally made it back to Disneyland for Birders–Northwest Ohio in May. Warblerpalooza. And we visited Magee Marsh WMA, Maumee Bay State Park, and Pearson Metropark.   It was downright cold today with temperatures barely reaching 50 F with a brisk wind. Birds were few, but variety was decent. We tallied 83 species on the…

Today was fairly cool with a chilly north wind. We drove from Portsmouth, Ohio to Upper Sandusky, Ohio with pit stops at Glacier Ridge Metro Park in Dublin, Ohio and Lawrence Woods State Nature Preserve near Kenton, Ohio. We had no time left to bird Killdeer Plains WMA. But we did squeeze in a late…

Hello from Southern Ohio right down on the Ohio River! What a day this was! We had rain overnight and NEXRAD radar looked great for Southern Ohio this morning. I was optimistic. Our first stop in Shawnee State Forest was decent, but not outstanding. Second stop was better. Time after time we added new species…