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| The Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth is pleased to announce an expanded selection of travel, tours, workshops, and other outings. We look forward to additional offerings in the near future. As soon as trips and programs are scheduled, they will be added here. And don't forget to join us for a free local birdwalk every Saturday at 8:00am. |
| California and Arizona: Deserts in Winter with WINGS January 30 to February 8, 2009 Join Derek and Paul Lehman for this WINGS adventure. Take a break from the long, dark Maine winter, and a tremendous birdlist awaits! “Mid- to late January is a wonderful time to visit the low deserts of the Southwest. Although nights and early mornings can be cold, days are pleasantly mild and wintering birds are everywhere. Our short tour will begin in the coastal habitats around San Diego, and then move over the Laguna Mountains to the Salton Sea and Imperial Valley. Crossing into Arizona we’ll explore the Yuma and Phoenix areas and then travel south to the Lower Sonoran Desert and mountain canyons near Tucson. We’ll conclude by visiting a corner of the Chihuahuan Desert just west of the Chiricahua Mountains before returning to Tucson. The great variety of habitats visited will produce an extensive list of birds—over 240 species are usually recorded.” Some of the highlights will include Black-vented Shearwaters, California Gnatcatchers and other coastal scrub specialists, Tricolored Blackbirds in coastal California, masses of waterfowl and the Yellow-footed Gull in the Salton Sea, desert specialties such as Crissal Thrasher, Broad-billed Hummingbirds, and Rufous-winged Sparrows, Mountain Plovers, and finishing in the fabled Southeast Arizona canyons, streambeds, and grasslands featuring treats such as Mexican Jays and Painted Redstarts – and much, much, more. For more information, such as a detailed itinerary and a bird list, or to sign up for this trip, visit http://wingsbirds.com/tours/view/97 Other links: 2008 Tour Narrative And that remarkable Bird List! |
| Eastern Promenade Seasonal Birdwalk - Winter Edition Sunday, February 22. 8:00 to 11:00am. Cost - Free! Join Derek and the Friends of the Eastern Promenade for the fourth and final in our series of free Sunday morning seasonal birdwalks. We'll meet at the Gazebo at Fort Allen Park, and set out for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours, searching for, and learning to identify, the birdlife of this urban oasis. We'll also be looking at the plant life here - especially the invasive plants, and the management of the park, and the effects that those issues have on the birds here. Then, we'll return to the gazebo for some discussion and scrumptious treats provided by local businesses. Wintering waterfowl and overwintering passerines will be the focus of this outing. Dress warm! |
| ECUADOR and the GALAPAGOS! Two parts: July 23 - August 8, 2009. Ya know what they say, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! Therefore, we are very excited to announce that we will indeed be “trying again” to get enough people to run a trip to the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador in the summer of 2009! Join Jeannette and Derek Lovitch of the Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth for our first International Birding Adventure in Ecuador. We’ve teamed up with industry leader, Tropical Birding, to provide this amazing opportunity. We’ll use local guides, supplied by Tropical Birding, to find birds, with Derek and Jeannette assisting participants with “getting on the birds,” logistics, and customer service. Essentially, participants will be receiving three (or more!) guides for the price of one! This will be a magical experience, and we hope to share it with you. The trip is organized into 2 parts – you can sign up for one, or both. We will take between 8 and 15 people for each half of the tour, to limit group size and maintain at the very least a 5:1 client to guide ratio! Part I: The Galapagos: Endemics Cruise. July 23 – August 1, 2008. $4500 from Quito. The Galapagos – do we really need to introduce this place? “Darwin’s” Finches, Giant Tortoises, Flightless Cormorants, Marine Iguanas, breeding albatross, boobies and frigatebirds, Galapagos Penguins, Swallow-tailed Gull, and many, many more (including 26 endemics!) – birds and animals that can be seen no where else on Earth! Birding by boat (a 16-passenger yacht, our home for the week) and on land, we’ll experience many of the islands and the natural wonders of this amazing place that really defy description and superlatives! A detailed itinerary can be found on the Tropical Birding website. Part II: The Andes Introtour. August 1 – 8, 2008. $1520 from Quito. After one night in Quito, we’ll be based at the world-famous Tandayapa Bird Lodge (its feeders host up to 20 species of hummingbirds an hour!!!) for the week. From there, expert, local guides will introduce us to the avian wonders of Ecuador and the Neotropics as we sample a diverse array of habitats from the 11,100 foot Pichincha Volcano’s temperate forests (including a search for the glorious Andean Cock-of-the-Rock) to lower elevation foothill forest. Then, from tropical rainforest to dry mountain scrub, we’ll see an astounding diversity of birds. A detailed itinerary can be found on the Tropical Birding Website. All arrangements will be made through Tropical Birding, who can be reached at info@tropcialbirding.com, by visiting www.tropicalbirding.com, or by calling – toll-free – 800-348-5941. Just tell them that you are with the “Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth group with Derek and Jeannette Lovitch.” Catalogs with more details are available at the Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth. |
