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Welcome to our November emailing!
Greetings, birding friends! Thanks for having a look at our latest e-newsletter. Winter is settling in around most of you reading this, and the festive holiday season is fast approaching. Soon we feast, and then it is a quick turnaround to the December holidays. But we aren't there yet...we still have quite a few tours departing before then, and scores of happy folks embarking on new adventures! As you read this, we have got groups in New Zealand, India, Chile, Uruguay, and Belize.
In this month's emailing you'll find a few ideas for travel in the new year, including a couple of Caribbean offerings. We also feature spring tours to Europe (read: before the summer crowds!), with a focus on our Hungary & Romania tour. We announce an added third departure to Galapagos––a true bucket list destination. There are also our regular sections, such as a roster of our upcoming tours with space, oodles and oodles of recent triplists (22) and fresh itineraries (23), plus a couple short videos from recent tours. There's a link to our Field Guides store (the holidays are just around the corner!), and we also have a link to our Recent Photos Gallery, with more than 100 images from tours spanning the globe. There is a short note about an important update to our health protocols. Lastly, we have a special contribution from guide John "Kingfisher" Coons, who recently got to meet and spend time with one of our newer guides, Tarry Butcher, who hails from southern Africa. You can read about the antics the boys got into below.
Our thanks to participant François Grenon for the feisty Pacific Wren above, apparently heard calling "Hear ye, hear ye!" for our upcoming late May/early June Alaska: The Great Land departures. And props, too, to participant Donna Pomeroy for the image below of an Arcitc Tern against a lovely background of Lupine from our Iceland tour this summer.
As always, we hope you'll spend some time reading through this emailing, and if a tour should catch your eye and you'd like to find out more, just contact our office and we'll help you get on your way.
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Are you looking for a tropical birding vacation in the new year? Have you thought about heading to a Caribbean island to soak up the sun, enjoy the breezes, and seek out a couple dozen island endemics? We have tours that are headed to both Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, each with its own suite of around 30 endemic species.
Jamaica is known for many things: unique cuisine, a distinct culture, and of course the birthplace of reggae. It is also home to 28 bird species found nowhere else. We have two departures to this wonderful island, where you'll be based out of a single resort. Cory Gregory guides the first one, and Megan Edwards Crewe leads the second. We'll bird at a leisurely pace, looking for Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo, Crested Quail-Dove, Orangequit, and Black-billed Streamertail, and there will be an opportunity to have a Jamaican Mango and a Red-billed Streamertail land on your finger to feed! Our itinerary is such that we have a fine chance at seeing all the birds that can only be found in Jamaica.
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Jamaica I, Feb 28-Mar 7 with Cory Gregory (1 space)
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Jamaica II, Mar 8-15 with Megan Edwards Crewe
The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern half of the island of Hispaniola, which is home to at least 30 endemic species. We'll spend our time in the foothills and rugged mountains in the central region of the island, where nearly all of the endemics occur. The birdlife here is diverse, and little is known about many of the species we'll seek. Jesse Fagan and Cory Gregory will lead the way as we search for the unusual and monotypic Palmchat and its massive colonial stick nests; Antillean Piculet, Flat-billed Vireo, and White-fronted Quail-Dove, too; and we'll make a trip to Los Haitises National Park for a chance at the rare and critically endangered Ridgway's Hawk.
For more information or to book a space, please contact our office.
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One of the best times to visit Europe is April and May, as the weather is pleasant and the full rush of summer crowds has yet to arrive. It is also a great time to be birding there, as the breeding species are in full throat. Our European tours are a mix of birding, culture, and unique experiences, such as the windswept moors of Great Britain, the rugged Pyrenees of France and Spain, the Danube Delta in Romania––Europe's largest delta—or a French chateau, as seen above. Two of these tours are also part of our Birds & Wine series. Below is a list of departures we're offering next spring in Europe, each with space available. Please contact our office if you have questions or would like to sign up.
One trip we are particularly keen about is Hungary & Romania: The Best of Eastern Europe, guided by Terry Stevenson. This itinerary visits some of Eastern Europe's most spectacular landscapes, including the Carpathian Mountains, Bicaz Gorge, Hortobagy, Kiskunsag, and the aforementioned fantastic Danube Delta. We'll be in the best part of Europe for Great Bustard, and we'll seek other birds including Black Stork, Imperial Eagle, Red-footed and Saker falcons, Eurasian Thick-knee, Black Woodpecker, and Bluethroat. Aside from the birds, we'll have cultural stops in the city of Dracula's Castle and the medieval city of Sighisoara, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The tour dates are Apr 19-May 5.
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Spain: La Mancha, Coto Doñana & Extremadura, Apr 19-May 1 with Godfried Schreur & Willy Perez— only one space left
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Birds of Britain, May 3-12 with Megan Edwards Crewe & Willy Perez — only one space left
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Beyond the Ports of Portugal: A Birds & Wine Tour, May 4-15 with Marcelo Padua & local guide
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Finland in Spring: Forests, Fowl, and Fur, May 14-27 with Jay VanderGaast & local guide
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France's Loire Valley: Birds, Chateaux & Wine, Jun 1-11 with Marcelo Padua
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Iceland, Jun 15-24 with Cory Gregory
For more information or to book a space, please contact our office.
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Added 2025 departure: Galapagos | |
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We've added a third departure for our fantastic Galapagos tour for August 9-19 with guide Willy Perez. Perhaps the most famed bucket-list destination for birders and naturalists, the Galapagos Islands are a true gem in the natural world. Our tour is designed to find as many endemic birds as possible, as well as many of the other creatures that call these islands home. Our small group will be aboard a comfortable vessel with excellent food, naturalists, and crew. Join us for what will surely be an unforgettable adventure!
Our Galapagos departure guides have each led tours to these islands multiple times. American Mitch Lysinger resides in Ecuador, living with his wife and children at their reserve and lodge at San Isidro. Willy Perez was born and raised in Ecuador and has been guiding in Ecuador (and beyond!) for well over fifteen years.
Galapagos: An Intimate Look at Darwin's Islands
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June 14-24, with Mitch Lysinger
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July 12-22, with Willy Perez — only one space left
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August 9-19, with Willy Perez
For more information or to book a space, please contact our office.
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Short videos from recent tours | |
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Many of our triplists contain highlight videos from the tour that might showcase the birds, the scenery, the culture, other wildlife, or any combination thereof.
Our first video is from one of this past September's Safari Brazil: The Pantanal & More departures, guided by Marcelo Padua & Micah Riegner (and recorded by Micah). The video is a wonderful snapshot of the tour, with some fantastic footage of great birds. Click here or on the Hyacinth Macaw below to watch the video.
The second video is full of fresh ocean air and seabirds courtesy of guide Doug Gochfeld, who guided last spring's Atlantic Odyssey: South Georgia to Tristan da Cunha and St. Helena cruise. This adventure takes you aboard a repositioning cruise, with more than three weeks at sea and all the seabirds you can imagine. You can view this video by clicking here or on the Blue Petrel below.
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Update to our health protocols | |
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Effective December 31, 2024 we are ending our COVID vaccination requirement. We will no longer require clients to provide Field Guides with confirmation of vaccination for COVID-19 prior to a tour.
We strongly recommend getting a current flu shot at least two weeks prior to your trip, as well as keeping up with COVID boosters and all other vaccinations as recommended by the CDC or your doctor.
You can read our full health protocols by clicking here.
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Hey folks, John Coons here.
The Field Guides family met for our annual business meeting in mid-August at Cave Creek Ranch in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeast Arizona. This year Tarry Butcher—who recently joined us as a full-time tour leader after co-leading a number of Field Guides trips over the years—was able to attend.
Tarry was born and raised in Namibia and now lives in South Africa, where he is guiding several of our southern Africa offerings—as well as leading tours to Ghana in West Africa. Not only was this Tarry’s first time at our meeting, it was his very first visit to the New World. Needless to say he was keen to see a bunch of new birds and new families of birds (and of course to meet his Field Guides colleagues!).
After touching down in Tucson, Tarry, alongside guides Cory Gregory and Sam Wilson, set off for Portal, hitting some iconic Arizona birding spots along the way. They made stops at Box Canyon, Patagonia, and Willcox before arriving in the Chiricahuas. When I first had the pleasure to meet Tarry at Cave Creek Ranch, he had seen 55 new birds that day—including such specialties as the range-restricted Five-striped Sparrow, Rose-throated Becard, Zone-tailed Hawk, and Varied Bunting—and he'd had his first experience with hummingbirds. Most of the rest of our group were also meeting Tarry in person for the first time, and his demeanor, humor, and enthusiasm quickly had him fitting right in with the Field Guides family. During the meeting we of course made time for birding, during which Tarry got to observe such wonderful birds as Elegant Trogon, Montezuma Quail, Red-faced Warbler, Mexican Chickadee, and Berylline Hummingbird, along with having his first encounters with more humble species such as Hairy Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers, and Yellow-rumped Warblers.
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 | | Taking advantage of his first trip to the U.S., Tarry stayed for another week after the meeting concluded, with the goal of hitting other birding sites as well as seeing the Grand Canyon. He came up to Flagstaff to spend a few days with me and my partner, Lynn. Field Guides's Dave Stejskal was also in town, and the three of us headed into the San Francisco Peaks in search of more new birds for Tarry. We found Mountain Bluebirds, Clark’s Nutcrackers, Green-tailed Towhees, Lewis’s and American Three-toed woodpeckers, and Virginia’s and MacGillivray’s warblers in their breeding habitats. Then Tarry and I drove up to the Grand Canyon the next day, seeing a wonderful flock of Pinyon Jays along the roadside (Tarry noted that the habitat appeared very similar to the Damaraland region of his native Namibia). We reached the Grand Canyon before most of the summer tourists had arrived for the day. It's one of the most scenic spots in the world, but we of course also had California Condors on the brain. We wandered the Rim Trail for a spell, scanning the sky and canyon ledges before Tarry impressively spotted two distant condors perched on the rocks across the side canyon at the head of the Bright Angel Trail. After we walked down the trail a few hundred meters, one of these magnificent birds flew closer to us. We waited for a mule train to pass, then set up the the scope and had great views—and we ended up having about 25 other hikers stop to look through our scope at the condor. All were greatly impressed! I even had to lower the scope to about thigh level so a very enthusiastic five-year-old boy could see it. His huge smile and query if Tarry and I were Forest Rangers made my day.
Leaving the Canyon we made a stop at a small sewage treatment plant. I learned that snipe are one of Tarry’s favorite birds when he jubilantly spotted a camouflaged Wilson’s Snipe at the back of the pond. Heading home, Tarry mentioned that he was keen to see Horned Larks, so we turned into a small cattle pond where we found five of these on the ground. Tarry slowly approached using the car as a blind—an experienced guide, he had done this hundreds of times with 30 African species of larks in a quite similar looking habitat. When we got back to the house, Tarry’s lifer list was at 198. After this long day and dinner, I asked Tarry if he might be up for looking for a Western Screech-Owl. He responded with an enthusiastic, “I’m not going to say no!” Thirty minutes later we were looking at the owl. Tarry headed back to Tucson to fly back to Africa and meet guide Marcelo Padua to lead our South Africa: Birds, Wine & Wildflowers tour. After twelve delightful days I felt like I had known Tarry for ages, and I can’t wait to get together with him again. I’m sure he will be a fixture at Field Guides for many years to come!
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Field Guides swag is available! We've got shirts, hats, hoodies, mugs, stickers, tote bags, even pajama pants—all a click away at our Field Guides Store. Fashionable and functional—sure to keep you comfortable and looking spiffy—check it all out at the store. | |
Triplists from recent tours | |
We have triplists from past tours linked below, each with some lovely images and some with video clips, and all with great annotations by our guides. Enjoy! | |
Comments from participants | |
We carefully read each post-tour evaluation we receive from our participants, so that we can continue to offer the best possible birding experiences and service on Field Guides birding tours. Here are two representative recent comments. From all of us at Field Guides, our thanks for all your valuable feedback. | |
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“We have two friends who go on a couple of FG tours a year and they've been trying to get us to join them on one for several years. My wife and I had only done one such trip before…we weren't sure how this tour—with a lot more movement, a lot more birds, and a lot more strangers—would work, but it was absolutely great. Our guide Marcelo Barreiros was fantastic; he has an exceptional knowledge of the birds and how to find them and how to get us on them. He also helped us understand some of the natural history of the areas we visited. He did a great job of managing expectations and managing the days. He also agreed to do an extra nightjar trip the last night of tour to a place he'd never tried before, which we very much appreciated. We would absolutely travel with Marcelo again and hope we can make that happen.” J.S., Rainforest & Savanna: Alta Floresta & the Northern Pantanal, Brazil, 2024
“I chose this tour because I have plenty of experience with tours with Field Guides! Previous visits to Maine on our own led us to want to see its birds in the presence of a capable guide. My overall experience was wonderful! Sam Wilson is an excellent guide and the overall situation benefited from the fact that there were only three of us on the tour. Sam is an excellent birder, and we wished that we could hear and see some of the migrating warblers as quickly and clearly as his young eyes and ears did. The pelagic trip out of Bar Harbor was the best!!! The smaller trip out of Eastport was almost as exciting. Three days on Monhegan was just about the right amount of time for that small island. We were fortunate that the migrating birds cooperated to the extent that there seemed to be a new wave each day. Ruth Kuhl was our tour manager, and she was a great help, particularly when Sam had to arrange for a different vehicle after the flat tire. Field Guides is the best birding tour company, far and away.” S.B., Maine in Fall: Seabirds & Coastal Migrants, 2024
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Tours with openings through May | |
Each month we list in this section the Field Guides departures over the next six months that still have at least two spaces available (unless otherwise noted). | |
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Our Florida: Mangroves & Migrants tour is a great way to round up a bunch of specialty birds that cannot be reliably found elsewhere in the continental U.S., but are typically much more accommodating in Florida. Guides Doug Gochfeld and Sam Wilson will lead the way from Central Florida to the Keys and on to the Dry Tortugas. Avian denizens of the sunshine state include White-crowned Pigeon, Snail Kite, Antillean Nighthawk, Black-whiskered Vireo, and Mangrove Cuckoo, to name a few. And when we get to the Dry Tortugas, mayhem awaits. The spectacle of tens of thousands of birds—most of them Brown Noddies and Sooty Terns—is not soon forgotten. And we'll inspect the throng carefully, hoping to pull out a Black Noddy or Bridled Tern, as pictured above (courtesy of participant Stan Lilley). There is so much more, too. Other goodies include Wilson's and Snowy Plover, Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Limpkin, and the endemic Florida Scrub-Jay. Tempted? The tour runs Apr 26-May 5.
All tours below have two or more spaces available, unless noted otherwise. For more information or to book a space, please contact our office.
SOUTH AMERICA
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Trinidad & Tobago, Dec 5-14 with Marcelo Barreiros
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Amazonian Ecuador: Sacha Lodge I, Jan 7-16 with Jesse Fagan
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Nowhere but Northeast Brazil!, Jan 18-Feb 4 with Bret Whitney & Micah Riegner
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Birds & Wine of Chile and Argentina, Feb 1-15 with Marcelo Padua (1 space)
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Brazil: Bahia Birding Bonanza, Feb 2-16 with Marcelo Barreiros
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Southeast Ecuador: Orange-throated Tanager & Foothill Specialties, Feb 13-22 with Willy Perez
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Southwestern Ecuador Specialties: Jocotoco Foundation Reserves, Feb 22-Mar 6 with Willy Perez
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Brazil Nutshell: Intervales, Iguazu Falls & the Pantanal, Mar 8-22 with Marcelo Padua (1 space)
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Guyana: Wilderness Paradise II, Mar 13-25 with Marcelo Barreiros & Doug Gochfeld
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Brazil: Minas Gerais & Tocantins: Blue-eyed Ground Dove and Beyond, May 10-27 with Marcelo Barreiros & Bret Whitney
NORTH AMERICA
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Arizona Winter Specialties, Dec 28-Jan 3 with Cory Gregory (1 space)
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New Mexico: Birding the Land of Enchantment, Feb 1-8 with Owen Hilchey
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Owlberta: Alberta's Owls & More, Feb 15-21 with Jay VanderGaast & Dan Arndt
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Colorado Grouse, April 11-22 with Micah Riegner & Alex Sundvall
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Texas Coast Migration Spectacle II, April 19-25 with John Coons
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Florida: Mangroves & Migrants, April 26-May 5 with Doug Gochfeld & Sam Wilson
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Arizona: Birding the Border I, May 7-16 with Chris Benesh
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Spring in Cape May, May 11-17 with Doug Gochfeld
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Arizona: Birding the Border II, May 16-25 with Micah Riegner
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Northern Arizona's Canyons & Condor, May 17-23 with John Coons (1 space)
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Alaska: The Great Land I, May 31-Jun 16 with Micah Riegner & Sam Wilson
MIDDLE AMERICA & WEST INDIES
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Gulf of California: Mexico's Rich Desert Coast, Dec 2-7 with Micah Riegner
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Mexico: Oaxaca Valley, Dec 21-28 with Jesse Fagan & Alex Sundvall
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Costa Rica: Birding the Edges (Part One), Jan 23-Feb 1 with Megan Edwards Crewe & local guide
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Costa Rica: Birding the Edges (Part Two), Jan 31-Feb 9 with Megan Edwards Crewe & local guide
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Belize: Tropical Birding, Short and Sweet I, Feb 7-15 with Chris Benesh & local guide
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Jamaica I, Feb 28-Mar 7 with Cory Gregory (1 space)
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Jamaica II, Mar 8-15 with Megan Edwards Crewe
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Mexico: Oaxaca's Atlantic & Pacific Slopes, Mar 8-19 with Dan Lane & Chris Benesh
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Panama's Canopy Tower & Lodge II, Mar 9-16 with John Coons (1 space)
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Western Panama: Chiriqui & Bocas del Toro, Mar 11-20 with Jesse Fagan & local guide
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Dominican Republic, April 5-13 with Jesse Fagan & Cory Gregory
AFRICA
EUROPE
ASIA & AUSTRALASIA
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Bhutan, Mar 29-Apr 17 with Megan Edwards Crewe & local guide
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Taiwan, Apr 29-May 10 with Phil Gregory & local guide
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Japan in Spring, May 10-27 with Phil Gregory & local guide
To learn more about any of these tours or to hold a space, please contact our office.
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Recently posted upcoming itineraries | |
Click on any image or link below to see the detailed itinerary for the following tours. All of these itineraries are packed with information (and have a few nice photos as well). | |
Field Guides Incorporated, 4425 South Mopac Expy, Bldg 3-Ste 505, Austin, TX 78735
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