Some
Previous FONT Birding Tour HighlightS
IN 2000
with narratives
of the tours, some photos, and comments by participants
The following summaries
are with the most-recent tours first. Click link to tours that you find of
interest.
In the summaries, there are further links to UPCOMING TOUR ITINERARIES,
BIRD-LISTS, and PHOTO GALLERIES
New
Zealand - November-December 2000
Chile - November 2000
Pacific Coast USA & Canada - September 2000
New
Zealand Birding Tour
November-December 2000
The FONT New Zealand birding
tour in 2000 was a great success and the local leaders (Caren Shrubshall &
Mark Hanger) were excellent.
Almost the entire bird-list
(of a total of 124 species seen) consisted of 'star' species.
There were three species of penguins (two of them rare endemics).
There were some excellent pelagic trips which
produced five species of albatross and a host of other exciting seabirds.
The rare, unique Blue Duck was seen on a mountain stream in the
spectacular scenery of Fjordland.
There was a fine assortment of shorebirds (or waders), including
good numbers of the delightful endemic Wrybill and the endangered Black
Stilt.
There were wonderfully entertaining and superbly confiding Kea parrots,
and a host of very special passerines (like the endemic Rifleman and
the Tui).
The following account written by the FONT tour leader, John Janowski:
2000 was our 10th year for this tour, during a prime time for bird migration along the West Coast. Over the years, an avian rarity or two has been present at the time of the tour along with the more regular migrants.
At the beginning of our Sept 2000 tour, in Washington State, we viewed, at close range, 3 Bar-tailed Godwits among a large flock of Marbled Godwits. The full-day pelagic trip from Westport, Washington has always been productive for us, and was again this time. This is one of the most reliable of trips for the Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel. In addition to numerous seabirds, and some marine mammals, if the weather's clear, there's a fine natural setting of the distant mountains of the Olympic Peninsula as we're returning to shore.
There's yet more beautiful scenery, and even more good birds, during this tour, in the area of the Puget Sound. Our trip to Vancouver Island, Canada, by ferry, through the San Juan Islands provided fine views of seabirds and marine mammals. Among the seabirds, the Marbled Murrelet. On land, we saw 5 Skylarks on Vancouver Island. In the city of Vancouver, we saw another bird species introduced into North America years ago (and one that has been declining recently), the Crested Myna. Along the coast, in that area, we saw a Eurasian shorebird, the Ruff.
In the Cascade Mountains of Washington, we enjoyed a family of Gray Jays and 5 Varied Thrushes, on the wetter western slope. On the drier eastern slope, we enjoyed (as much, maybe more) a Ruffed Grouse and 5 Blue Grouse. This was our best PC tour for grouse. Red-naped Sapsuckers were again, as during other years, nice to see. A sighting rather unusual for us was a close view of a Porcupine sleeping in a tree.
During the second portion of the tour, in California, we had an excellent look at a pair of Golden Eagles. And we saw both Clark's and Western Grebes at one place, and all 3 of the North American goldfinches. There was a total of 7 White-tailed Kites, with two of them in an aerial display. An Ash-throated Flycatcher was seen in a river valley. In all, 207 species of birds were found during our September 2000 Pacific Coast tour, bringing the cumulative bird-list for the tour, over 10 years, to 320 species.
The cumulative
list of birds and mammals is in this web-site, along with the itinerary
for the Pacific Coast tour in September 2001.
John Janowski, who has led this tour the last few years, and will again in 2001.
In the past, Mr. BJ Rose has also done a fine job of leading this tour. Armas Hill led the first PC birding tour in 1991. Rare birds that have been seen during this tour, over the years, have included: Red-tailed Tropicbird (once, during the pelagic trip we do annually out of Monterey, California), Mongolian Plover (now called Lesser Sandplover), Little Curlew, Long-toed Stint, and White-winged Tern. In 1998, we saw the Xantu's Hummingbird that was visiting a feeder in British Columbia. That same year we saw Xantu's Murrelet out of Monterey - making it a 2-Xantus Tour! Visit our Photo Gallery of North American birds.