2023 Colombia: Santa Marta Mountains - Wyncote Audubon
20 - 27 Jan, 2023
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!
20–27 Jan 2023
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
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.
6–9 Oct 2022
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
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.
24 Jul–2 Aug 2022
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
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!
25 Jun–5 Jul 2022
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
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!
11–15 Jun 2022
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!