WINGS E-mail Newsletter

Australia

The island continent has more than enough birds to keep us busy, but we always find time to seek out Australia's fascinating mammals, too, among them the ever-popular Koala. Photo: David Fisher.

Australia is a continent of contrasts and adventure, of isolation and stark beauty. The Outback (September 7-26) is a legendary land of grasswrens and gibberbirds, parrots and raptors. Our accommodation on this tour is as diverse as the birds, ranging from comfortable hotels and B & B’s to the unique opportunity to spend a couple of nights on a cattle ranch. Southeastern Australia (September 27 - October 8 ) features parrots on the highway verges and multicolored fairy-wrens and honeyeaters in the woods, while kangaroos graze in the paddocks and Koalas look down from giant eucalyptus trees. Tasmania holds many endemics, among them such fascinating birds as the flightless Tasmanian Native Hen. The notably wilder area around Deniliquin in southern New South Wales offers its own ornithological attractions, including the almost mythical Plains-wanderer. Central Australia (October 8-20) preserves vast tracts of desert wilderness. After a visit to the teeming hordes of shorebirds near St. Kilda, we’ll travel via the vineyards of the Barossa Valley to the mallee in search of the many birds restricted to this habitat, including the fascinating Malleefowl. We’ll also visit world-renowned Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). After three nights in Darwin, we travel south to Katherine in search of Red Goshawk and Gouldian Finch. Queensland and New South Wales (October 20-31) take up more than half the length of Australia’s east coast, fringed by the Great Barrier Reef. The tropical rainforests harbor a wealth of birds and mammals, and our days will be fully occupied with encounters with wonderful creatures. In southern Queensland we’ll visit the renowned O’Reilly’s Rainforest Guesthouse, where megapodes and bowerbirds come to the feeders and kangaroos, pigeons, and parrots cover the lawns. Three nights in Sydney will allow us to explore the best birding sites in the area and to take a pelagic trip rich in albatrosses, petrels, and shearwaters. David Fisher leads.

The play of international exchange rates has made it possible for us to offer our popular Australia tours at remarkably reasonable prices; if you've been waiting to visit "down under," this is your year! Read more about David Fisher's latest tours of this fascinating continent--and enjoy this startling video about the past weeks' incursion of waterbirds into Queensland.

Maine: Monhegan Island

The view over the rooftops of Monhegan to Manana Island is quintessential New England. Photo: John Murdock.

September 27 - October 4, 2009: Small, isolated, and quite far offshore, Monhegan concentrates landbird migrants, attracts off-course vagrants and provides some of the most pleasant birdwatching anywhere. There are very few motor vehicles, and footpaths lead out in many directions through spruce forests and small clearings to high rocky headlands and tiny coves. Late September/early October is probably the best birdwatching time at Monhegan, when nocturnal migrants drift offshore on northwest winds and find refuge on the island, sometimes in large numbers. Vagrants from the south and west have been frequent, and hawk flights--especially falcons--can be spectacular by island standards. The island itself, especially in this tranquil after-season, has a particular beauty: the last bloom of weedy wildflowers among stacked lobster traps, the ring of bell buoys on quiet afternoons, and low-angled sunlight on old buildings. We stay in Monhegan’s extremely comfortable Island Inn, but we’ll eat at least one dinner in each of the island’s three inns, each with its own character. Will Russell leads.

Bird-filled days and star-filled nights characterize Monhegan in fall, as Will's account of last year's tour demonstrates. Our tour ends close to the time when fall color is at its peak, and participants who have never seen a New England autumn are encouraged to stay on a few days to witness this natural spectacle.

Peru: Manu Biosphere Reserve and Machu Picchu

The Sunbittern is one of many scarce and spectacular birds to be encountered at Manu. Photo: Gary Rosenberg.

October 14 - November 1, 2009: The Manu Biosphere Reserve is without question one of the most exciting birding destinations in the world. We’ll visit protected habitats ranging from orchid-laden cloud forest, where Andean Cocks-of-the-rock display right along the road, to untouched Amazonian rainforest, where as many as ten species of monkey abound and Giant Otters patrol oxbow lakes. Few accessible Amazonian locations remain as wild and undisturbed as Manu, with its stunning vistas of intact forest, five species of macaws seen daily, Brazilian Tapirs wallowing in mud holes, and a birdlist of nearly 1,000 species. Very comfortable accommodations, great food, non-strenuous birding on flat trails, and easily accessible canopy platforms make a visit to Manu even more appealing. Another highlight of the trip will be a guided tour of the awe-inspiring Incan ruins of Machu Picchu. Gary Rosenberg leads.

There are few places on earth that produce such an incredible list of birds as Manu in so short a time while visiting so many pristine localities. Read Gary's report from last year's tour, chockfull of exciting experiences and fantastic birding.

Nepal

Striking, if perhaps not classically beautiful, a Lesser Adjutant patrols the marshy grasslands of Koshi Tappu. Photo: Hem Baral.

A land of stark contrasts, ancient legends, and superb landscapes, Nepal also has a rich and diverse culture--and fascinating and readily accessible wildlife. Paul Holt reports on our very successful return to this land rich in natural habitats: 

Returning to Nepal for the first time since 200, we had high expectations--all of them met. During our three days on the edge of the Kathmandu Valley in Phulchowki Mountain’s moss-encrusted oak-rhododendron and subtropical broad-leaved forests, we found Collared Owlet, several superbly obliging Speckled Piculets, Nepal Cutias on all three days, Scaly-breasted and Pygmy Wren Babblers, two species of tesia, several Fire-tailed Sunbirds, and more barwings, minlas, fulvettas, sibias, and yuhinas than we could shake a stick at—a great introduction to all the ornithological delights to follow....

Read Paul's full narrative of this exciting tour to a land of legend and dreams. His 2010 tour is scheduled for February 27 - March 14. 

New Mexico in Winter

Smallest of its sickle-billed tribe, Sage Thrasher is a subdued but beautiful denizen of the winter deserts. Photo: Gavin Bieber.

Riverine cottonwoods along the upper Rio Grande, expansive fields and ponds where countless waterfowl and cranes spend the winter, and snowcapped mountains swathed in conifer forest form the backdrop to our wintertime tour of New Mexico's central corridor. As Gavin Bieber reports, our latest tour to the region produced some real surprises: 

We were blessed with cool but clear weather the entire trip. Surely the highlight of this year's tour was finding New Mexico’s seventh record of Rufous-backed Robin. Other avian highlights were the Barnacle Goose at Maxwell NWR and all three species of rosy-finch presenting themselves for close study at the Sandia Crest House. The evening fly-in at Bosque Del Apache NWR included more than 20,000 Snow and Ross’s Geese and hundreds of Sandhill Cranes....

You can read Gavin's full account of this exciting tour on the WINGS website. Our 2010 trip is scheduled for January 16-23: who knows what surprises await?

Texas: Whooping Cranes and the Rio Grande Valley

We're welcomed to the Lower Rio Grande Valley by such stunning birds as the large and colorful Altamira Oriole. Photo: Michael O'Brien.

The mild winters of South Texas are the backdrop to an amazing abundance of birds. Most of the world’s wild Whooping Cranes winter along a small stretch of the coast. Farther south, we visit sites such as Brownsville , Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, and Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park in search of birds whose range barely enters the United States. Winter is also a time when rare vagrants from Mexico appear, as Gavin Bieber and his most recent tour discovered:

The winter of 2009 was a good time to bird the Lower Rio Grande Valley. We had good success with staked out-gems like Crimson-collared Grosbeak and Blue Bunting. Repeated views of Green Jays, Altamira Orioles, Plain Chachalacas, and a host of other birds restricted to this corner of the United States allowed the participants to really get to know these species. Several rarities for Texas livened up the birding as well, with standouts including Purple Sandpiper and Allen’s Hummingbird—surely a new combination of species for a single birding tour....

Texas in winter provides more than just an escape from the weather--it is also a truly wonderful chance to experience one of the most unique avifaunas in the United States. Read Gavin's complete tour report , and join him next year for another great winter escape. 

Venezuela

 

One of the most desired birds in the world, the mighty Harpy Eagle occurs reliably in eastern Venezuela's Imataca Forest. Photo: David Fisher.

March 3-13 and March 12-27, 2010:  Venezuela is a sophisticated, modern country, with a good road network, excellent hotels, and fine food--and an impressive cross-section of habitats from lowland Amazonian rainforest to barren, snow-capped Andean peaks. Between them, our Venezuela tours--to The Andes, Llanos, and Coast Range and to The Tepuis and Imataca Forest Reserve --visit the High Andes of western Venezuela, the vast marshes and grasslands of the flat llanos, the plateaus of the tepuis, vast tracts of lowland Guianan rainforest, and the lush forests of the northern coastal mountain range. Each zone has a very different avifauna, and the birdlists for these tours are impressive. There can be few birdwatchers whose pulses don’t quicken at the thought of Sunbitterns, Hoatzins, macaws, hummingbirds, cocks-of-the-rock, and multicolored tanagers. Regular travelers through Venezuela since 1986, David Fisher and Judy Davis lead.

For more on the experience of birding a region still visited by relatively few outsiders, enjoy the full reports from David and Judy's latest tours to the tepuis and to the Andes and llanos.

Nebraska: Cranes, Waterfowl, and Prairie-Chickens

A small group of Sandhill Cranes flies to roost on Nebraska's Platte River. Photo: Beth Russell.

March 20-25, 2010: Each spring, central Nebraska's Platte River hosts one of the greatest wildlife spectacles in North America, with several million birds stopping over on their northbound migration. Some 600,000 Sandhill Cranes—80 percent of the world’s population—gather along the river, returning every evening from feeding in grain fields and wet meadows to roost on the river’s broad channels and sandbars. The nearby Rainwater Basin may host up to a million waterfowl, including hundreds of thousands of Snow Geese and some 90 percent of the midcontinental population of Greater White-fronted Goose, 50 percent of the Mallards, and 30 percent of the Northern Pintails. Raptors are numerous, and Greater Prairie-Chickens and possibly Sharp-tailed Grouse will have begun their dancing displays. Paul Lehman leads.

Paul's tour is timed to coincide with the peak counts of cranes, near-peak numbers of waterfowl, and the beginning of the prairie-chicken display season. For a glimpse into the results of that careful planning, read his narrative from our latest tour.

Colorado: Lekking Grouse

The sound of a Greater Prairie-Chicken in full display is one of the weirdest and most wonderful in nature. Photo: Chris Wood.

April 15-25, 2010: Early spring in Colorado features stunningly beautiful snow-capped peaks and the first blush of green on the river-edge cottonwoods. It’s also the time when the five lekking grouse—Sharp-tailed Grouse, Greater and Gunnison Sage-Grouse, and Lesser and Greater Prairie-Chickens—are engaged in their amazing foot-stomping, cackling, hooting, moaning displays. We travel along the Colorado River enshrouded by mesas, up the magnificent Black Canyon of the Gunnison, through beautiful spruce-fir forests, expansive sagebrush flats and grasslands, and past more than a dozen 14,000-foot mountain peaks. We’ll look for a variety of birds including White-tailed Ptarmigan and Blue Grouse. Chris Wood leads.

Mammals are also unusually well represented on this tour: we may see Bighorn Sheep, Pronghorn, Elk, Mule and White-tailed Deer, Moose, Coyote, Red Fox, and, with great luck, Bobcat or even Mountain Lion. You can read about Chris's 2009 tour on the WINGS website, which also includes an enticing photo gallery. 

Bolivia: The Peak of Diversity

An endemic furnariid, the Bolivian Earthcreeper inhabits even the thorniest of high-elevation scrub. Photo: Rich Hoyer.

August 29 - September 5, 2010: With high mountains and plains in the west, Amazonian basin in the north, Pantanal in the far east, and Chaco in the south, Bolivia contains more diverse biomes than any other country on the bird continent. A native woodland type and unique interior dry valleys add to the diversity, harboring endemics and many other species not seen so easily anywhere else. Bolivia is still low on most birders’ radar, but those who have been there rave about this large country’s unparalleled biological diversity, long list of exciting birds, relative ease of travel, and friendly people. With a low population density, Bolivia offers roadside birding as good as it gets.  Rich Hoyer leads.

Our other recent tours to Bolivia have amassed a total of more than 900 species. This tour will visit a rich variety of habitats, taking in many of the country's most famous sites along the way. 

WINGS Aloft

Our Summer 2009 print newsletter will be appearing soon, with the full calendar of 2010 tours. If you're not on our mailing list, please contact the WINGS office to be added.

The June issue of the American Birding Association's Winging It publishes articles on birding in Mexico by Gavin Bieber and Rick Wright.

PHOTOGRAPHERS! WINGS has created a new Flickr group for participants to share their images of birds, groups, food, landscapes--anything they found memorable on their WINGS tour. Please "tag" your images with the tour name or destination so that your fellow participants can find the photos easily. If you have any trouble joining the group, sensibly titled WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, please get in touch with us here at the office.

Read more about the activities of all your favorite WINGS leaders at The Wingbeat, the WINGS Birding Blog.

This year's Rio Grande Birding Festival will feature field trips conducted by Gavin Bieber, Jon Dunn, and Chris Wood. Gavin Bieber will also be a guest leader on the October 10-12 deepwater pelagic trip off San Diego.

Just for Fun

A coat that smells like lemons? A fascinating look at the role played by birds in the native culture of Alaska's Gambell.