"The enthusiasm, kindness, birding knowledge and patience of your guides is amazing to me. How they can stay organized and 'on' 24/7 is a true talent. I am looking forward to my next trip with Field Guides!" --C.B.
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| April 2015 e-mailing |
| Greetings, birding friends! It's spring fever time around here, and with all those great birds flooding northward around the hemisphere, we've got a very busy schedule kicking in! Check out fresh images from tours in our April Recent Photos gallery (samples at left, IDs at bottom). Also below: cool bird news, recently posted triplists, fresh itineraries, plus a listing of late May-Sep tours still open. Oh, and we have some fine photos of specialties and endemics from three participants on one of our recent Colombia tours that we popped into a separate gallery. Good birding! |
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Schedule updates: Cape May II, Roosevelt '16
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 Guide Megan Edwards Crewe's fall Cape May Megan's Way is always popular, and since her originally scheduled departure is fully booked, we've added a second departure, Oct 4-10, 2015 -- Cape May's a delightful place to experience the waves of birds heading southward!Guide Bret Whitney continues his annual visits to fabulous Pousada Rio Roosevelt in 2016 on Brazil's Rio Roosevelt: Birding the River of Doubt. To optimize the experience, Bret's moved the start date a couple of weeks later than originally planned, with the tour now running Jun 11-24, 2016. |
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Cool bird news: Snazzy males; redpolls
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| First up this month in cool bird news, a piece from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds website on fancy male birds -- you can run through a short quiz, watch some cool video on amazing birds-of-paradise, visit a sage-grouse lek (appropriate for us right now, since we have groups currently in the field at these leks on our Colorado Grouse tours!), and more; it's definitely worth a few minutes of educational and visually lovely fun. Up next? Ah, the mystery of redpolls -- one species or two? Check out this piece on some recently released research and scratch your head a bit about just what is a species...and what's on your life list! |
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Jesse & Chris's new Holiday Southern Peru
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| Guides Jesse Fagan and Chris Benesh are teaming up for a Peru birding extravaganza over this fall's Thanksgiving period. Join them to explore a new itinerary Jesse has developed, ranging through high-Andean birding from Cusco to Puno to Lake Titicaca and the Altiplano ("high plain") -- while also including exploration out of Lima and a trip to the famous Nazca Lines! Read all about it in Jesse's fresh blog post on our News page. Dates are Nov 21-Dec 5, 2015 with Jesse and Chris -- no turkey dinners in the Andes, but it'll be a bird-rich menu for sure! |
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Tom's got his sights set on Alaska...
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 Guide Tom Johnson's been traveling widely (to rave reviews, by the way!) on tour the past few months -- Cape May, Louisiana, Arizona, Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and currently Colorado -- with Texas and Arizona still to come in April and May. But he's already dreaming of Alaska, which he'll co-lead with Chris Benesh beginning May 29. Tom couldn't resist looking back through his pics from a past trip. We recommend you do, too -- the images are spectacular!! Contact our office to join Tom and Chris in Alaska this year -- still a few spaces available! And if Alaska I dates don't work for you, see about joining Megan and Pepe on Alaska II.
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Recent triplists from Jamaica to SE Brazil
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Below are some fresh, illustrated post-tour triplists with wonderful photos and some video clips from both guides and participants (at right is an endangered Yellow-eared Parrot from Colombia by participant Greg Griffith).Jamaica with Eric Hynes, Amazonian Ecuador: Sacha Lodge II (we think you might enjoy guide Dan Lane's one-paragraph habitat synopsis of why there's so much diversity in Amazonia -- plus the great photos, of course!), Thailand with Dave Stejskal (plus its extension), South Texas Rarities I with Chris Benesh, Nowhere but Northeast Brazil with Bret Whitney & Marcelo Padua, South Texas Rarities II with Chris Benesh, Colombia: Bogota, Magdalena Valley & Santa Marta with Jesse Fagan & Trevor Ellery, Safari Brazil: The Pantanal & More (birds and big cats!) with Marcelo Padua, Spring in South Texas with Chris Benesh, Colombia: The Cauca Valley, Western & Central Andes with Richard Webster, Holiday Costa Rica II with Chris Benesh, Trinidad & Tobago with Eric Hynes & Tom Johnson, Spectacular Southeast Brazil (Parts I & II) with Bret Whitney. |
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We appreciate hearing your post-tour comments on our evaluation form...they help us ensure that we continue to offer the best possible tour experience and service, in the field and in our Austin office. Here's one from our recent Chile & Argentina tour with Marcelo Padua and John Coons:
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 Above: Images from our Mountains of Manu tour by participant Steve Wakeham -- Andean Cock-of-the-rock, Rufous-crested Coquette, Gould's Jewelfront, Masked Crimson Tanager, and White-collared Jay -- this September tour's a parade of fabulous birds! Below are remaining late-May to September spaces: Alaska (first tour): Part I - May 29-Jun 6; Part II - Jun 5-15 with Chris Benesh & Tom Johnson Northern Ecuador: Andes & Otavalo Market: Jun 4-14 with Willy Perez Borneo II: Jun 4-21 with Dave Stejskal (3 spaces) Alaska (second tour): Part I - Jun 5-13; Part II - Jun 12-22 with Megan Edwards Crewe & Pepe Rojas Galapagos I: Jun 13-23 with Willy Perez (2 spaces) Alta Floresta & the Northern Pantanal: Jun 13-29 with Marcelo Padua (1 space) Newfoundland & Nova Scotia: Jun 25-Jul 5 with Chris Benesh (2 spaces) Amazonian Ecuador: Sacha Lodge III: Jun 26-Jul 5 with Willy Perez (1 space) Kenya Highlights: Jul 1-19 with Terry Stevenson (1 space) Galapagos II: Jul 11-21 with Jesse Fagan Iquitos, Peru: Canopy Walkways & Ancient Forests: Aug 1-12 with Pepe Rojas (4 spaces) Jaguar Spotting II (Brazil): Aug 25-Sep 5 with Marcelo Padua Kenya Safari Spectacular: Aug 28-Sep 24 with Terry Stevenson (3 spaces) France: Camargue & Pyrenees: Aug 29-Sep 8 with Megan Edwards Crewe & Willy Perez (1 space) New Caledonia, Fiji & Vanuatu: Aug 31-Sep 18 with Phil Gregory (3 spaces) Mountains of Manu: Sep 19-Oct 4 with Pepe Rojas Ecuador's Shiripuno Lodge: Sep 25-Oct 4 with Willy Perez (2 spaces) |
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1-800-728-4953 Till next time, from all of us at Field Guides, good birding! Visit us on
Facebook Recently posted itineraries for upcoming tours
Recently posted itineraries include Safari Brazil: The Pantanal & More (Oct 10-25, 2015 with Marcelo Padua; Canastra/Brazilian Merganser Extension to Oct 29), Chile (Oct 25-Nov 14, 2015 with Peter Burke & Willy Perez), Colombia: The Llanos & More (Oct 31-Nov 10, 2015 with Jesse Fagan), Northern Peru: Endemics Galore (Nov 1-21, 2015 with Richard Webster), China: Yunnan Province (Nov 6-28, 2015 with Dave Stejskal & Jesper Hornskov; Beijing Pre-tour Extension from Nov 2), Spectacular Southeast Brazil (Nov 14-29, 2015 with Bret Whitney; Iguassu Falls Extension to Dec 5), Holiday at San Isidro, Ecuador (Nov 21-30, 2015 with Mitch Lysinger), Mexico: Yucatan & Cozumel (Nov 21-30, 2015 with Megan Edwards Crewe), Holiday Costa Rica: Rancho Naturalista (two departures: Dec 19-27, 2015 with Dave Stejskal and Dec 27, 2015-Jan 4, 2016 with Jesse Fagan), Arizona Winter Specialties (Dec 27, 2015-Jan 2, 2016 with Chris Benesh), Panama's Canopy Lodge: El Valle de Anton (Dec 27, 2015-Jan 3, 2016 with John Coons), Colombia: Santa Marta Escape (Dec 29, 2015-Jan 6, 2016 with Richard Webster), South Texas Rarities (two departures: Jan 16-22, 2016 and Jan 23-29, 2016, both with Chris Benesh). Cheat sheet
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