India: The Taj Mahal, Wondrous Wetlands & Tiger Country

9 - 21 Feb, 2024
eBird Trip Report
Guided by George Armistead

Visiting Madhya Pradesh, the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, we sought Earth’s biggest cat, the Bengal Tiger. India hosts 80% of the world’s total population, and there are more in Madhya Pradesh than anywhere else. We saw 9 tigers over our 6 days on safari and also 3 leopards, 2 Sloth bears, and many other mammals. Then we headed for the Chambal River which featured Gharial, Mugger Crocodiles, Ganges River Dolphin and critically endangered Black-bellied Tern. We finished off with wetland birding at Bharatpur and then the Taj Mahal.

Colombia: High Times in the Cordillera Central

9 - 15 Feb, 2024
eBird Trip Report
Guided by Mollee Brown & Yessenia Tapasco

Colombia’s famous “Coffee Triangle” is featured on this route that Mollee Brown and Yessenia Tapasco guided. Visiting some of the nation’s best birding sites such as Rio Blanco, the Tinamú Birding Reserve, and the National Natural Park of Los Nevados, we enjoyed a fantastic array of hummingbirds, some snazzy antpittas, along with birds like Gray-breasted and Black-billed Mountain-Toucan, Parker's Antbird, Black-backed Bush Tanager and more.

Colombia’s Santa Martas: The Caribbean Coast & Megadiverse Mountains

3 - 10 Feb 2024
eBird Trip Report
Guided by Joshua Covill

Josh Covill guided a group of fantastic Hillstar friends around, arguably, the greatest biodiversity hotspots on Earth. Despite some at times challenging weather, they still enjoyed a great round-up of endemic birds including documenting a large antpitta (similar to an Undulated) that appears to be an undescribed species! Prior to its rediscovery last month, apparently it had not been seen since 2015. Even apart from this dramatic occurrence, our group enjoyed a great bunch of birds.

India: Jewels of Gujarat

1 - 8 Feb 2024
eBird Trip Report
Guided by George Armistead

Visiting extreme western India, George Armistead and Manisha Rajput guided a group of Hillstar Friends around the Saurashtra of Gujarat, India hitting well known wildlife spots such as Gir National Park, Velavadar, Nalsarovar and the Little Rann of Kutch. Dual focus on birds and mammals, with copious amounts of Masala Chai ingested along with lots of sweets, including Adadiya.

Winter Pelagic: Hillstar Nature in MD Waters - December 29th, 2023

As winter pelagics go, this trip off Ocean City, MD was bordering on colossal. 

From 730am til 330pm we were constantly in the presence of Dovekie. We totaled 5156 on the day, which at least in eBird appears a new state high count. It was extraordinary. In addition to this spectacle, we enjoyed 246 Red Phalarope, 22 Atlantic Puffins, 84 Razorbills, 1 Little Gull, 21 Black-legged Kittiwakes, and 8 Manx Shearwaters, including one that followed the boat for almost 2 hours & landed around us, extremely close, feeding on our chum. 

To top it off we also had what appears to be the first winter record of a Black-capped Petrel in Maryland. And as if that wasn’t shocking enough, soon after that Cory Husic spotted a whale that as we got closer, we began to realize was a good candidate for a Northern Right Whale. This is one of the rarest animals on the planet with only about a 360 in existence. Photos confirm what we saw in the field. 

All in all it was an incredible day and we’re so thankful to everybody who was there and helped make it happen. 
Thanks!

View eBird trip report

Overnight NJ Pelagic Sept 6th & 7th, 2023

Leaders: George Armistead, Zach Baer, Emma Price & Scott Barnes

Aboard: The Gambler

Out of: Point Pleasant Beach

Image credits:

Bridled Terns by Emma Price

Cory’s (Scopoli’s) Shearwater by Brian Zylich

Cuvier’s Beaked Whale by Jessica Coss 

Sunrise aboard The Gambler atop 8000 feet of Atlantic Ocean water, about 100 miles offshore from Pt. Pleasant Beach, New Jersey.

Part of the thrill of a pelagic trip is that you just never know what you’re going to see. It can be slow at times out on the water, but typically there is always something you see that makes it rewarding. And occasionally you get to see really spectacular things. The Sept 6-7 Overnight pelagic out of point Pleasant, New Jersey, was notable more for the wildlife than for the bird sightings, but we did have some great birds, too. 

Tropical Terns: Most notable was we had two groups of tropical terns, which are hard to come by in New Jersey waters. One pair of terns flew by keeping some distance from us. At the time we strongly suspected Bridled Tern would be the species involved, but inspection of photos by leader Emma Price show a juvenile and an adult Sooty Tern. This species is hardly seen in New Jersey when not associated with a tropical storm, so this was quite a surprise and one of only 4-5 sightings in the past decade. Later we located 3 Bridled Terns resting on flotsam amid some sargassum weed. A juvenile with two adults, these birds probably have ventured north from the nearest breeding grounds in the Bahamas or perhaps further south in the Caribbean. These are the first sightings documented in New Jersey waters in over a decade.

But it was really the cetaceans and other wildlife that stole the show. Leaving the dock at Manasquan Inlet at 9PM, by 4AM we reached our starting point. We stopped the engines, put out some chum and began to drift, and to look and listen to the waters around us . With just light winds out of the south it was a beautiful night, and we could see Saturn glowing orangish on the horizon. A couple of warblers briefly approached the boat, and then kept moving. The water temperature here was about 75° and the ocean floor was close to 8000 feet below us. We had made it out to “the deep”.

Soon after we settled into our drift, the lights of the boat began to attract some wildlife. There were dozens of Webbed Flying Squid all around the boat. We managed to bring some onboard into a bucket to observe them, and we watched them ink the waters, and change color as their body pulsated. Schools of them darted around and below the boat. Our photos of these animals mark one record of less than 10 ever in iNaturalist.

While we waited for it to get light we watched moon jellyfish push past us in the water, and several Wilson’s storm Petrels came into the boat, landing on it. We had wonderful studies of these remarkable seabirds, one of the most widespread animals on the planet, yet one hardly ever seen so well as this. As the sun rose, a blue shark began circling our boat, attracted to the chum, and more and more birds began to appear. Then a distant pod of striped dolphins emerged, and they hustled along, and soon after that we had a distant sighting of a sperm whale. Cory’s, Great, and Audubon Shearwaters came in providing close views, and photos show that at least one of the Cory’s we saw was of the Scopoli’s (Calonectris diomedea diomedea) subspecies (image above), a taxon elevated to species by most taxonomists (though not by eBird/Clements). The Great Shearwaters came in and landed right next to the boat. At times, we could hear the Wilson Storm-Petrels, and the Great Shearwaters as they vocalized to one another. We tried in vain to record Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, for which there are only a total of 10 audio recordings in eBird.

As the sun rose, the sea revealed more amazing animals. We began to see large groups of Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins, which average 15% larger than and differ genetically from the well-known inshore ones we see along our beaches. Mixed among the Offshore Bottlenose were pods of Short-finned Pilot Whales, including one hulking bull male. Later we began to encounter Cuvier’s Beaked Whales. While this is the most widespread member of the beaked whale family (Ziphiidae), it is still quite a rare thing to see, and a really rare thing to see well. We encountered three separate pods, including a pair that we watched rising repeatedly and rapidly before diving and leaping out of the water right next to our starboard! It was a spectacular thrill to see these animals so close and thanks are due to the many photographers onboard who snagged shots that allowed us to identify these animals.

All in all it was a darn nice haul!

Birds Seen Offshore:

Laughing Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Sooty Tern (2)
Bridled Tern (3)
Black Tern (2)
Common Tern
Royal Tern
Wilson's Storm-Petrel (626)
Leach's Storm-Petrel (4)
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel (3)
Cory's Shearwater (45; >1 Scopoli’s)
Great Shearwater (30)
Audubon's Shearwater (4)

Non-Avian Taxa

Cetaceans
Striped Dolphin 45
Bottlenose Dolphins 60
Risso’s Dolphin 9
Sperm Whale 2
Short-finned Pilot Whales 45
Cuvier’s Beaked Whales 9

Sea-Turtles

Sea Turtle sp. 1 (small, Ridley-type or Green)

Loggerhead 16

Fish

Blue Shark

Scalloped Hammerhead Shark

Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola)

Flying fish sp.

Mahi mahi

Needle/gar type 

Cephalopods

Webbed Flying Squid (Ommastrephes caroli)

Montana: Glacier to Grasslands

9 - 15 July 2023

eBird Trip Report 

Guided by Joshua Covill

Tour leader Joshua Covill and participants Kathy Calvert, Debbie Samac, Colleen Crank, Linda Mack, Yvonne Lenter, and Paul & Maureen Wolter.

I am so grateful to have led such an amazing group for Hillstar’s first tour in Glacier NP and this part of Montana. I have been dreaming of this route for years, and finally making it happen was so exciting! More importantly, it was a smashing success! Everyone had a great time exploring some of the most spectacular landscapes in the country and enjoying some of the best wildlife in the West!

In addition to the 177 species of birds, we encountered 20 species of mammals with highlights being Black Bear, Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Goat, Moose, Pronghorn, Coyote, Black-tailed Prairie Dog, Snowshoe Hare, and Yellow-bellied Marmot.

View full trip report PDF.

Colorado 2023: Best of Summer Birding

11–16 Jun 2023

eBird Trip Report

Guided by Carl Bendorf & George Armistead

A vibrant exploration of Rocky Mountain National Park, Pawnee Grasslands, and the Pinyon-Juniper of central Colorado, we enjoyed highlights including White-tailed Ptarmigan, Lewis’s Woodpecker, Thick-billed and Chestnut-collared Longspur, Pinyon Jay and more.

Join us next year!

Hillstar Nature - Prairies 2023

2–9 Jun 2023

eBird Trip Report

Guided by Josh Covill & George Armistead

183 species over 7 days of birding tallgrass, mixed and shortgrass prairies with a little forest and riparian birding around Yellowstone thrown in at the end. Highlights included multiple Baird’s Sparrows, great experiences with both the prairie longspur species, Sprague’s Pipits, Ferruginous Hawks, and Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Wilson’s Phalaropes and so much more.

Join us next time!

Tanzania 2023

18–30 Mar 2023

eBird Trip Report

Guided by George Armistead & Kennedy Elly

March is a little "off-the-beaten path" in terms of travel to Tanzania. The bulk of visitors come in the dry season in June-August. But the birds don't know this and don't care. The animals are certainly aware of how much rainfall there is, as it affects almost every aspect of their lives. But the fact that March/April is often a time of significant rain in Tanzania works to our advantage. Birds like weavers, estrildid finches, and the many wading and water birds we encounter are here at this time in no small part because of the rains. Also it is a time of migration for many birds. Various cuckoos, European Rollers, European Bee-eaters, shorebirds, Common Buzzards, Lesser Kesterls, and many others birds are on the move and in evidence. For birding, it is one of the best times of the year. But of course the birds are only half the story, or less. A birder's visit to Tanzania is as much about the food, the animals, and the people who live here too. With the help of our good friends, Humphrey Mrosso and Joel Amon, we saw a fair piece of northern Tanzania, including about 400 species of birds and over 40 species of mammals.

Join us next time!

Life List Colombia 2023 Tour

10–19 Feb 2023

eBird Trip Report

Guided by Mollee Brown & George Armistead

In February 2023, our group of intrepid travelers and loyal listeners embarked on our first Life List Podcast tour in the magical Central Andes. We ventured around Caldas, Colombia in search of an array of the region's - and the world's - most colorful, unique, skulky, and spectacular birds. After several nights around Manizales and into the Páramo, we traveled to Cali to enjoy the field trips, presentations, and social activities of the Colombia Birdfair. Throughout the trip, we met many birders from all over and individuals who are each working to support conservation through ecotourism in Colombia. Among the 383 species were many highlights including Horned Screamer, Chestnut Wood-Quail, White-throated Daggerbill, Crestcent-faced Antpitta and Lyre-tailed Nightjar.

Join us next year!

Hillstar Nature - Santa Martas 2023

27 Jan–4 Feb 2023

eBird Trip Report

Guided by George Armistead

292 species with highlights including Black-and-chestnut Eagle, a big flock of American Flamingos, Santa Marta Blossomcrown, and other endemics like Chestnut Piculet, Stripe-cheeked Spinetail, Tocuyo Sparrow & more.

Join us next year!

2023 Colombia: Santa Marta Mountains - Wyncote Audubon

20–27 Jan 2023

eBird Trip Report

Guided by George Armistead

A long time coming but well worth the wait! An intrepid Wyncote Audubon group spend the week enjoying birds, great seafood, and the wonders of the Santa Martas together.

Join us next year!

PSO: Eastern Shore of VA

6–9 Oct 2022

eBird Trip Report

Guided by George Armistead

Pennsylvania Society of Ornithology teamed with Hillstar Nature for parts of four days birding around Cape Charles, Virginia, including a morning at Chincoteague NWR. Guided by George Armistead, with help from Brian Byrnes, Todd Day, Andrew Rapp & Kristin Klein.

Colombia 2022: High Times in the Cordillera Central

24 Jul–2 Aug 2022

eBird Trip Report

Guided by George Armistead

A week away from the heat in the heart of coffee country did us just right. Many were the birds, but chief among our targets was the Indigo-winged (Fuertes's) Parrot. With only about 250 individual remaining it is among the world’s rarest birds. Thought extinct for 90 years, it was rediscovered only just in 2002 & its known range comprises less than 145 sq miles. It took us some waiting around at one particular vista, but after a Dusky Piha and a Crimson-mantled Woodpecker entertained us, finally a flock of no less than 15 parrots settled into a tree nearby. Over the course of the next 30 minutes we watched them forage, obtaining super views and getting to hear them call a fair bit too.

Next we headed up high to the paramo and cloud forest around Los Nevados National Natural Park, and more specifically up Nevado de Ruiz, a volcano that has been eruptive for the last 150,000 years. Based at a resort amid the thermal hot springs there, we watched the towering ridges and peaks, admiring the constantly changing weather. Our first morning we encountered Black-backed Bush Tanager right away, enjoyed our first of many encounters with the flocks of Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanagers ("Clarineros"), saw Black-chested Mountain-Tanager, and heard Ocellated Tapaculo calling extremely close. From our lodge we headed up higher into the clouds and the paramo, reaching elevations above 13,000 feet, where we experienced a beautiful encounter with a Buffy Helmetcrest, another highly range-restricted endemic. Later we crossed paths with Many-striped Canastero and Viridian Metaltail.

We spent the whole of the following day at one of Colombia's most famous birding sites, Rio Blanco Ecological Reserve. Here the hummingbird show was almost as impressive as the day prior, but the Antpitta show was far far better. Right away we had a Bicolored come in, and then the famous "Compra-pan", the Chestnut-crowned Antpitta skipped in close, along with a Green-and-Black Fruiteater. Then we topped off the morning with good views of the endemic Brown-banded Antpitta as well.

Leaving Manizales, we headed down into the lower foothills for the Tinamu Birding Reserve. A hotspot almost as prolific as Rio Blanco in terms of species diversity, it offered us an array of different birds including Parker's and Blue-lored Antbird, several Hermits, and many other more widespread lowland species with highlights that included a day-roosting Common Potoo, a nesting Common Tody-Flycatcher right at the entrance of the hotel, a nesting pair of Plain-brown Woodcreepers, and best of all a stunning Scaled Antpitta who obliged us with superb views, after a bit of a wait.

To cap off our trip we headed back up into the highlands for a stay on the other side of Nevado del Ruiz. While it was chilly indeed, the birds warmed our souls. Black-billed Mountain-Toucans were hopping about all around us, and Hooded Mountain-Tanagers posed absurdly well for us too. Here again, antpittas showed nicely for us and both Bicolored and Slate-crowned came in for stunning views and photo opps. Perhaps most cherished for some of us was the pair of Ocellated Tapaculos we finally connected with us, which ended up hopping around almost right at our feet!

 Join us next year!

Alaska: Nome & Denali

25 Jun–5 Jul 2022

eBird Trip Report

Guided by George Armistead

Famous as a gold rush town and as the finish line for the Iditarod, Nome is best known among birders for its many great birds, several of which are hardly seen elsewhere in North America. And few places can compare in terms of the scenery too. Our first night there we saw several Pacific Golden-Plovers, as Red-necked Phalaropes spun away on the various roadside ponds, Parasitic and Long-tailed Jaegers glided by and we even scored a gorgeous male Spectacled Eider! An auspicious start, if a rather late night on our first day in Nome. The next day was perhaps the best of the whole trip, as we headed way out the magnificent Kougarok Road. Our big target was the near threatened (IUCN) Bristle-thighed Curlew, which after a moderately challenging hike we did indeed see and hear well, but the day was also punctuated by a Gyrfalcon feeding young, nesting Rough-legged Hawks, Northern Wheatears, a family of Willow Ptarmigan, many Golden-crowned Sparrows, and a fleeting Bluethroat for a couple of us. Our last full day in Nome we drove out the uber-scenic Teller Road, and resolved to make it all the way to the town of Teller itself. Other highlights included White Wagtail, Slaty-backed Gull, a stunning Yellow-billed Loon, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Rock Ptarmigan, and fuzzy chicks of Red-necked Phalarope and Whimbrel (both impossibly adorable with an extremely high cuteness factor). A stop to change a flat tire even provided a group of >28 Long-tailed Jaegers circling overhead. After a final blitz out the Council Road our final morning in Nome, we scored a flyby Aleutian Tern, a Red-necked Stint, and a nice Bar-tailed Godwit it was time for us to fly back to Anchorage and head for Denali. There we enjoyed excellent views of the magnificent mountain pretty much every day we wanted to. The day we headed to the park we stopped for a bit of birding in route scoring nice Sandhill Cranes, breeding Red-necked Grebes, a couple Hudsonian Godwits in beautiful breeding plumage, a Beluga swimming up Cook Inlet, and then later nice views of Boreal Chickadees and more. Our full day at Denali we took a shuttle as far in as we could and then hiked around the Polychome and the East Fork of the Toklat River where Golden Eagles of several age classes put on a show, and we saw several Moose, and had a close encounter with a Caribou. We enjoyed a couple of really nice meals in the Denali area, before heading on across the Denali Highway all the way out to Alpine Creek Lodge. A remote outpost, run by a fascinating and hospitable bunch, we really felt out in the wilderness here, and the scenery was as magnificent as could be. We saw 3 Porcupine, and also saw Moose with a calf, plenty of Arctic Ground Squirrels, found a Dipper nest, and had dozens of Gray-cheeked Thrushes, Common Redpolls, Wilson's Warblers, Arctic Warblers, Blackpoll Warblers, and a Solitary Sandpiper with a couple chicks too.

Join us next year!

Colorado: Best of Summer Birding

11–15 Jun 2022

eBird Trip Report

Guided by Carl Bendorf & George Armistead

Colorado Birding Adventures & Hillstar Nature teamed up with friends, and over 5 days covered 7 counties & a good chunk of the state and its summer birds. Highlights included amazing scenery and mammals such as Pronghorn, Mule Deer, Bighorn Sheep, a variety of charming rodents, plus birds like White-tailed Ptarmigan, Lewis’s Woodpecker, Thick-billed and Chestnut-collared Longspur, Pinyon Jay and more.

Join us next year!