There is not much to do around Lima Peru in the few hours I have while I wait for my flight out tonight. So I will take some of this time to offer a “teaser” for my upcoming trip report series from our 15-day Peru adventure!From the Cock-of-the-Rock to Lyre-tailed Nightjars on the mid-level cloud…

The Internet has reached the jungles of southeastern Peru, headwaters of the mighty Amazon River. Hundreds of miles from nowhere… almost. The nearest town is an 8 hour boat ride up river. The Internet connection speed here is a snail’s pace, but at least I have a connection. Well, at least part of the day…

Orange-breasted Sunbird (Africa) © Adrian Binns Getting ready for a trip is not all that difficult after so many years of leading tours. However, getting all the office work completed before departure is often stressful, hence the reason there has been few blog posts recently! Brochures to print, letters to send bank transfers to make,…

Day two started with rain… however, by the time we finished breakfast the sun was making an effort to appear. We arrived at the Cape May Point Hawk Watch and were immediately greeted with a Peregrine Falcon overhead as well as many, many accipiters zipping passed! Assignment #1 for the kids — learn the raptor…

Kids and nature are always a great combination! I have been going crazy with workshops, presentations, marketing and trip preparations so when my friend Paula requested my assistance with her students on an overnight trip to Cape May I accepted immediately. The days before the Souderton Charter School overnight were rather uneventful migration-wise. The winds…

Continental Divide from Lozier Pass in the Wind River Range My post about Lee Mercer had me looking through some of my old film images that had been transferred on Kodak PhotoCDs — a format no longer supported by anyone. Fortunately GraphicConverter was able to turn the specially scanned images into Photoshop (PSD) format! In…

Lee Mercer 1958 – 2002 Since returning from Montana in July–my first visit to the Rockies in a few years–my mind has often wandered to my many wilderness exploits with good friend and mentor, Lee Mercer. Lee is no longer with us… he passed away seven years ago, on July 4, 2002 at the way-to-young…

The PA YOUNG BIRDERS CLUB participated in a special event on Saturday September 19 — the 9th annual Cradle of Birding Festival in Philadelphia.  The festival attracted nearly 1,200 people mostly from the local area, to enjoy myriad festivities at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, in Philadelphia. Kevin Loughlin, Adrian Binns and Debbie…

The final installment of our Galapagos Family Adventure for 2009 finds us high in the Andes of central Ecuador. Hummingbird diversity is greatest at these mid-higher altitudes and we actually saw about 15 species of hummers (and had a great lunch of baked trout) in the few hours we had to enjoy at Guango Lodge.…

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks (with a few more busy weeks ahead), but I am finally back to the blog and ready to complete the final posts of our 2009 Galapagos Family Adventure… Santa Fe was the final island on our list before motoring back to our starting point of San Cristobal.…

A stop along the mangrove lined road to the Upper Keys produced a very cooperative Cuban Yellow Warbler (above), the resident race of Yellow Warbler that resides in these mangrove islands. Our search for Mangrove Cuckoo continued to prove fruitless. My good friend Larry Manfredi invited us to his house for a trio of cowbirds,…

Late April is often a good time for Caribbean species to stray into Florida. In the preceding week Loggerhead Kingbird, Yellow-faced Grassquit and Western Spindalis had been found at Zachary Taylor State Park (above) in Key West. The kingbird hadn’t been sighted since; we had a better chance for another spindalis at Indigenous Park; and…