BOS Field Trips and Events



Meeting - 2024's Rarity Roundup!

Date: 2/12/2025   (Wednesday)

Location: Buffalo Museum of Science (map)

Details: (click for more)

Meet at 7 pm in the Cummings Room.

Join Alec Humann as he presents a program highlighting the rare and unusual birds that were found throughout the BOS study area in 2024. Come and relive these high points of the past birding year with your friends!

Dr. Silu Wang will be presenting "On the Origin of Rainforest Birds"

Date: 3/12/2025   (Wednesday)

Location: Buffalo Museum of Science (map)

Details: (click for more)

Meet at 7 pm in the Cummings Room. Dr. Silu Wang, Assistant Professor, State University at Buffalo

The temperate and tropical rainforests harbor most of the terrestrial biodiversity globally, yet the origin of rainforest bird species remains elusive. Our work in the Forest Speciation Lab involves bushwhacking in the sword ferns and dancing with mist nets among the palm trees to disentangle the genomic and behavioral basis of species boundaries in temperate and tropical rainforests around of world. Please join me on this "evergreen" time travel. https://www.forestspeciation.online/

BOS Travel Trip - Costa Rica - Relaxed and Easy with Alec Humann

Date: 3/15/2025   (Saturday)

Location:

Details: (click for more)

UPDATE 7/15 - This trip is now full. Wait list has been started.

UPDATE 7/03 - There are two spaces remaining for this departure.

UPDATE 6/17 - at this time, this trip is tentatively full. I anticipate 1 or 2 cancellations so if you are interested, let me know asap!
UPDATE 6/5/2024
Four spaces have already been spoken for. If this trip interests you, please get in touch with me sooner than later!

I am having Patrick O'Donnell, a great friend and previous BOS member who currently resides in Costa Rica, plan a Relaxed and Easy Tour March 15-24, 2025. This trip will extend 10 days/9 nights and visit such birdy locales such as the Sarapiqui Region, Arenal Observatory Lodge and the Cano Negro Wetlands. Despite the tour being 'relaxed and easy', participants will still come away with hundreds of species of birds! This tour will offer plenty of photo ops as well! Target birds are many. We will make special effort to see both Scarlet and Great Green Macaws, Spectacled, Crested and Black-and-White Owls, Great Curassow, Emerald Toucanet, several Motmots, White Hawk, a slew of tanagers and hummingbirds and so much more! If you are interested, please reach out to Alec for the trip details and itinerary!
[email protected]


Photo is of Great Green Macaws from the Sarapiqui Region.

Field Trip - Dunkirk Harbor and Fredonia area with Devin Banning and Katelyn Davis

Date: 3/15/2025   (Saturday)

Location: Dunkirk City Pier, 8 Central Avenue, Dunkirk, NY 14048 (map)

Details: (click for more)

Meet at 9:00am on the Dunkirk Pier (parking available on the pier and by the shops right before the pier).


Leader: Devin Banning (716) 260-8889 [email protected]
Katelyn Davis (716) 216-3881

Our trip will begin at Dunkirk Harbor scoping for various waterbirds. With that in mind, please bring your spotting scope if you have one as it will greatly enrich your experience! Raptors, including Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon, are often in attendance with the plentiful food supply. We will also have a chance at migrant raptors, weather-permitting. Eared Grebe and Little Gull have been seen here in the past, and occasionally the harbor hosts Iceland and Glaucous Gulls! We should be able to see many species of waterfowl including Scaup (Greater and Lesser), Ruddy Duck, Redhead, Canvasback, Ring-necked Duck, and Northern Pintail.
After birding the harbor, we will explore a few other nearby hotspots offering different habitats; Berry Road Marsh, Van Buren Road Pond and the Dunkirk Airport.

Trip report from March 2024
https://ebird.org/tripreport/221228

Photo of courting Common Mergansers by Steph Foraker on March 16, 2024.

Meeting - Randi Minetor Presentation: The Complete Language of Birds

Date: 4/9/2025   (Wednesday)

Location: Buffalo Museum of Buffalo Museum of Science (map)

Details: (click for more)

Randi Minetor, President of the Rochester Birding Association is an author who will be giving a presentation on her book, The Complete Language of Birds

BOS April Bird Count

Date: 4/13/2025   (Sunday)

Location: Throughout the BOS Study Area

Details: (click for more)

Sunday, April 13, 2025

All BOS members will hopefully plan to participate. Please help us add to the decades of records that the BOS has collected reflecting population dynamics of the area birdlife. You can be part of a field team or simply count birds at your backyard feeder. All observations are important! If you don't know what section you live in, please contact Joel Strong ([email protected] ) who will put you into contact with the correct section compiler.

Please visit the April Count information page on the website at the address below. Thank you so much!

More About the April Count: Click here »

Photo of a male Pine Warbler taken by R. Stineman on April 16, 2024 at the Jamestown School Forest, Chautauqua County.

Field Trip - Batavia Wastewater Treatment Plant with Julia Garver and Sarah Balduf

Date: 4/20/2025   (Sunday)

Location: 5 Treadeasy Ave., Batavia, NY 14020 (map)

Details: (click for more)

Sunday, April 20th with a rain date of Monday, April 21st.

Leaders: Julia Garver
(716) 474-1366
email: [email protected]
and Sarah Balduf
(585) 356-2432
email: [email protected]

Meet at the operations center at 830 AM (this is the building you will see in front of you as you drive in through the chain link fence/gate). The facility is located at the end of Industrial Blvd, which is off Pearl St. (Rte 33) at the western edge of the city of Batavia.

Julia and Sarah will lead our group through the famous wastewater treatment plant. This complex of man-made ponds and marshes is a verifiable birding hotspot and has attracted such gems as Northern Wheatear, Harlequin Duck, Piping Plover, Neotropic Cormorant and American Avocet.
While the fall months host most birders at this regional hotspot, the spring migration months are definitely under-birded here. The Purple Martin houses should be filling up with adults returning from wintering grounds in the Amazon. The various settling ponds will likely be playing host to a variety of waterfowl, possibly including Common Loon and Horned Grebe.
If you own a spotting scope, this would be a great location to put it to good use! This will be a 1/2 day trip. Bathrooms are available in the administration building.

Photo of a Virginia Rail on April 28, 2014 by Sue Barth at the Batavia WWTP.

Field Trip - Audubon Community Nature Center with Devin Banning and Katelyn Davis

Date: 5/3/2025   (Saturday)

Location: 1600 Riverside Road, Jamestown, NY 14701 (map)

Details: (click for more)

Leaders: Devin Banning (716) 260-8889
[email protected]
Katelyn Davis (716) 216-3881

Meet at 8:00am in the main parking lot for the Audubon Community Nature Center. See Google Maps link above.

Please join Devin, Katelyn and members of the Chautauqua-Warren Birding Association for spring migrants on a 1/2 day trip on the trails at the Audubon Community Nature Center, Jamestown, NY. We all are familiar with the magic of May when so many possibilities exist! The south shore of Lake Erie can pile up birds as they arrive from tropical wintering grounds, especially if inclement weather is involved. Last year’s trip turned up a Snowy Egret! Here is the checklist link from last year’s outing…
Https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S173604710

Snowy Egret photographed by Nathan Stimson at ACNC on May 11, 2024.

Field Trip - Letchworth SP with Matt Nusstein

Date: 5/10/2025   (Saturday)

Location: 6773 Trailside Road, Castile, NY 14427 (map)

Details: (click for more)

Leader - Matt Nusstein ([email protected]; (716) 446-3376)

Location - Meet at 8am at the Humphrey Nature Center, 6773 Trailside Road, Castile, NY 14427 (see map link above).

This year’s trip overlaps with World Migratory Bird Day! Scenic Letchworth State Park, embracing the Genesee River, boasts incredible numbers of migratory birds in May and June. In addition, more than twenty species of warblers nest in the park annually making for an exciting birding destination. This list includes the local Louisiana Waterthrush as well as gems like Hooded, Blue-winged and Mourning Warblers. Acadian Flycatcher is another local species we hope to cross paths with during our outing. We will be birding along the gorge making various stops with short hikes as we go. The trip could last 5-6 hours and we will have lunch overlooking the river. Carpooling is suggested. Bring a lunch, snacks and beverages.

Black-billed Cuckoo photographed by Scott Diedrich on June 29, 2019 at Letchworth SP.

Field Trip - Point Gratiot with Devin Banning and Katelyn Davis

Date: 5/10/2025   (Saturday)

Location: Brooks Pavilion (Main Pavilion), Point Gratiot Park (map)

Details: (click for more)

Leader: Devin Banning (716) 260-8889
[email protected]
Katelyn Davis (716) 216-3881

Meet at 8am at the Brooks Pavilion at Point Gratiot Park. See map link above for exact location. The Brooks Pavilion is the main pavilion inside the park.

Join Devin Banning and Katelyn Davis for a walk through Point Gratiot Park in Dunkirk. The Point serves as a migrant trap and funnels northbound birds into the DEC woodlot, the crown jewel of the park, which offers superb habitat for migratory songbirds. The sandy and rocky shoreline can host migrant shorebirds.
We should see the local Bald Eagles that frequent the lakeshore and we might catch a glimpse of the Peregrine Falcons that nest on the old NRG power plant. The resident Red-headed Woodpeckers are always a treat to see and the Purple Martin houses will be very active. Point Gratiot has hosted some fantastic rarities over the years including Harris’s Sparrow, Worm-eating and Kentucky Warblers, and Summer Tanager.
Birding destinations targeted after we wrap up at Pt. Gratiot will be determined based upon weather and migration patterns on the days leading up to our trip. A stop at the Dunkirk Airport should add a few grassland species to our day’s list including Eastern Meadowlark, Bobolink, American Kestrel and locally-nesting Grasshopper Sparrow.

Last year’s eBird trip list:
https://ebird.org/tripreport/234333

Harris’s Sparrow photographed by John Etter at Point Gratiot on May 19, 2021 (found by Gale VerHague).

Field Trip - Joseph Davis State Park with Dave Spiering

Date: 5/11/2025   (Sunday)

Location: 4143 Lower River Road, Youngstown, NY 14174 (map)

Details: (click for more)

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Leader is Dave Spiering (716) 548-6846
email: [email protected]

This will be a 1/2 day trip starting at 8:00am. Meet at the central parking lot in the middle of the park - see google map link above.

Joseph Davis State Park includes the Joseph Davis Bird Conservation Area (BCA). The BCA is over 200-acres of successional shrubland, mature second growth forests, old fields, wetlands, and ponds managed for bird habitat, primarily birds that prefer open and early successional habitats. In the past, Parks and other partners (USFWS, Audubon) have managed the BCA to maintain open and early successional habitats and Parks will be doing similar work at Joseph Davis in the coming years. We will bird the eastern side of the park in the BCA looking for spring migrants and species that will stay to nest. Parks asks for your assistance to make an eBird list while birding at Joe Davis to help us monitor and manage the BCA for the best bird habitat possible. JDSP has recently seen improvements to the parking areas, access roads and trails.
Based on eBird checklist entries, this park is very much under-birded. Part of the motivation behind David leading this trip is to spark more interest in future bird outings to this state park! There are many gaps in the eBird data for this location so your participation in this event, besides enjoying a May morning of birding out with your friends, has legit scientific value!

Photo of an Eastern Kingbird from Joseph Davis SP on June 2, 2024 by Fototaker Tony.

Meeting - Topic TBD

Date: 5/14/2025   (Wednesday)

Location: Buffalo Museum of Science (map)

Details: (click for more)

Meet at 7 pm in the Cummings Room.

BOS May Bird Count

Date: 5/18/2025   (Sunday)

Location: Throughout the BOS Study Area

Details: (click for more)

Sunday, May 18, 2025

All BOS members will hopefully participate in the 86th annual May Bird Count.

BOS members are encouraged to participate. Please help us add to the decades of records that the BOS has collected reflecting population dynamics of the area birdlife. You can be part of a field team or simply count birds at your backyard feeder. All observations are important! If you don't know what section you live in, please contact Bob DeLeon who will put you into contact with the correct section compiler. Please visit the May Count information page on the website at the address below. Thank you so much!

More about the May Count: more info »

Photo of a male Cerulean Warbler singing his heart out for the ladies at Swallow Hollow Trail, INWR on May 11, 2024 by Rob Sielaff.

BOS Travel Trip - Majesty of Montana with Alec Humann

Date: 6/7/2025   (Saturday)

Location:

Details: (click for more)

UPDATE 1/03/25 - There is only one space remaining for this tour.

UPDATE 12/05/2024 - this departure has two spaces remaining!
The second departure in June/July 2026 is full - tour date not set yet.

June 7-15, 2025
This trip is limited to 6 participants. Our group will travel together by 12-passenger van.

Target birds are MANY, but Montana is a large state! Our tour will cover a wide range of habitats in western MT including spruce forests of the Bitterroot Range, high sagebrush valleys, short grass prairie and pothole wetlands. Yes, Great Gray Owls nest in Montana and that will definitely be a target species - why freeze your tuchus off at Zax-Sim Bog in February?!

Our group will fly in/out of Missoula where we will spend our first three nights. After that we hop around between Dillon, Helena, Harlowton, and Great Falls.

Other birds of interest include but limited to...Dusky Grouse, Black Swift, Long-billed Curlew, Goshawk, Ferruginous Hawk, Williamson's Sapsucker, Lewis's and Three-toed Woodpeckers, Prairie Falcon, Pinyon Jay, Dipper, Sprague's Pipit, several finches, 2 longspurs, Brewer's, Baird’s and Sagebrush Sparrows, MacGillivray's and Townsend's Warblers, Lazuli Bunting and more! Yes, we will also try for Great Gray and Flammulated Owls.

Photo of a Great Gray Owl, Powell, Montana.

Meeting - Picnic and a walk through Tifft Nature Preserve

Date: 6/11/2025   (Wednesday)

Location: Tifft Nature Preserve (map)

Details: (click for more)

The annual BOS picnic meeting will be held at Tifft Nature Preserve on Wednesday, June 12, at 6 PM.

Weather permitting, bring your meal, a folding chair if you like, and meet at the picnic tables outside the Visitor Center.

The gates will be open to drive back to the staff parking area outside the building. Also, the restrooms will be open 6:00 to 6:30.

After our meals, we will hike the preserve until sunset.

Field Trip - Darien Lake SP with Matt Nusstein

Date: 6/14/2025   (Saturday)

Location: Gravel lot off Alleghany Road (Route77) across from 10271 Alleghany Road. (map)

Details: (click for more)

Meeting time is 8:00am in the gravel lot off Alleghany Road (Route 77) across from 10271 Alleghany Road.

Leader is Matthew Nusstein - (716) 446 3376; [email protected]

Matt will be leading our group in search of grassland breeding birds at Darien Lake SP in Genesee County. In the fields at this location, we will be looking for Bobolink, Eastern Meadowlark, Eastern Towhee, Field Sparrow and Savannah Sparrow. Eastern Bluebird and Purple Martins also nest within this park. This trip will last approximately 3 hours.

Photo of an Eastern Towhee by Brad Imhoff 4/2021.

BOS Travel Trip - Adirondacks with Joan Collins and Alec Humann

Date: 6/29/2025   (Sunday)

Location: Adirondack Hotel - Long Lake, NY (map)

Details: (click for more)

UPDATE 7/17/24 - This trip is now full. A wait list has been started.

This trip is still in its fledgling stage of planning. The date span for Joan to guide us is set, which will be Monday, June 30 - Wednesday, July 2, 2025 - which means you would plan on arriving at the ADK Hotel on Sunday afternoon/evening for 4 nights, departing Thursday morning for home. This will give us two days of guided birding with Joan and a built in rain day. If we don't need a rain day, then those who want to check out on Wednesday may do so. As soon as the itinerary and cost become available, I will email it out to the membership.

In the meantime, if you are interested in joining this trip, reach out asap as space will be limited!

I will be hiring Joan Collins as our local guide. Joan is a resident of Long Lake and has THE MOST incredible hearing! Joan is THE GUIDE TO GET for catching up to the 'Holy Trinity' of Adirondack birds - Canada Jay, Black-backed Woodpecker and Boreal Chickadee. In the past she has also tossed birds like Spruce Grouse, White-winged Crossbill and Bicknell's Thrush into the ring! We will certainly make a concerted effort to catch up with all of these specialties and more!

Tour participants will be in charge of driving themselves to the Adirondack Hotel which will be our base of operations, it is about a 5-hour drive from Buffalo. Expect early mornings - especially when we go for Bicknell's Thrush on Whiteface Mountain. We can carpool the days we are birding from the hotel since we will all be staying in the same place. Alec will reserve a block of rooms for the group.

BOS Travel Trip - Falsterbo, Sweden (2nd departure) with Alec Humann

Date: 8/31/2025   (Sunday)

Location: Vellinge, Sweden

Details: (click for more)

UPDATE 11/26/24 - This departure is full. A wait list has been started.

This trip will be limited to 7 participants, plus myself, and will span 6 full days of birding plus 3 travel days (due to overnight flight and 6-hour time zone difference). We will depart on Sunday, August 31 on an overnight flight to Copenhagen, Denmark; arriving midday Monday, Sept 1. We then fly home on Monday, September 8, 2025. Flights for western Europe depart in the afternoon from the eastern US, fly overnight and arrive at destination the following morning/afternoon.
Our British guide, Stephen, will pick us up from the airport and drive 45 minutes across the Oresund Bridge to the southwestern town of Vellinge, Sweden where we will stay at a free-range, organic farm for our tour.
Falsterbo has a bird observatory where point counts and banding are conducted and our tour will be based nearby. Daily itinerary will be dictated by the weather as this is a migration bottleneck, like legendary Cape May, NJ or Point Pelee, Ontario. This tour will coincide with a wide variety of migrants, and if migration isn't especially active we will head inland to search out forest species such as Black Woodpecker! Target birds will be many including…Eurasian Hobby, Bearded Reedling, Eurasian Curlew and Oystercatcher, Pied Avocet and Lapwing, two species of Harrier, Wagtails, Pipits, Green Woodpecker and so forth and so on! Stay tuned for updates! If you are interested, let me know so that I can add your name to the wait list - [email protected]

Here is the link to the trip report from the September 2024 tour…

https://ebird.org/tripreport/273583


Photo is of the iconic White Stork.

Meeting - Member's Night

Date: 9/10/2025   (Wednesday)

Location: Buffalo Museum of Science (map)

Details: (click for more)

Meet at 7 pm in the Cummings Room.

Our first meeting back after summer break. Members...please bring photos from your summer travels to share with the rest of us. Load your photos onto a thumb drive and bring with you.

Also looking to sign members up for the October bird count; whether as compilers or volunteers within the sections. Please help us improve our coverage from last year.

Meeting - Topic TBD

Date: 10/8/2025   (Wednesday)

Location: Buffalo Museum of Science (map)

Details: (click for more)

Meet at 7 pm in the Cummings Room.

BOS October Bird Count

Date: 10/11/2025   (Saturday)

Location: Throughout the BOS Study Area

Details: (click for more)

Saturday, October 11th, 2025

BOS members are encouraged to participate. Please help us add to the decades of records that the BOS has collected reflecting population dynamics of the area birdlife. You can be part of a field team or simply count birds at your backyard feeder. All observations are important! If you don't know what section you live in, please contact Marcie Jacklin who will put you into contact with the correct section compiler. Thank you so much!

Compiler: Marcie Jacklin ([email protected] or 905-871-2577)

More about the October Count: more info »

Photo of a Wilson's Snipe at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Outlet Collection Ponds, Ontario by Jean Hampson on October 26, 2024.

Meeting - Topic TBD

Date: 11/12/2025   (Wednesday)

Location: Buffalo Museum of Science (map)

Details: (click for more)

Meet at 7 pm in the Cummings Room.

Meeting - Holiday Celebration

Date: 12/10/2025   (Wednesday)

Location: Buffalo Museum of Science (map)

Details: (click for more)

Annual Holiday Celebration at 7:00 PM in the Cummings Room of the Buffalo Museum of Science.

Please bring a treat to share and enjoy an evening of birding friendship.

BOS Travel Trip - Santa Marta Region of Colombia with Alec Humann

Date: 1/25/2026   (Sunday)

Location: Barranquilla, Colombia to Valledupar, Colombia

Details: (click for more)

UPDATE - this departure is already filled. If you are interested in this trip, please reach out as I can add a 2nd departure if enough interest warrants. The 2nd departure would run Sunday, February 8 - Saturday, February 20, 2026.

Tour 1 will run Sunday, January 25 - Friday, February 6, 2026.
This tour will span a full 12 days on the famous and well-travelled northern Colombia birding route including Barranquilla, the Santa Marta Mountains, the ProAves Preserves of El Dorado and Perija, the flamingo sanctuary at Camarones and more! The Santa Martas host a bevy of endemic species including Blossomcrown and Woodstar hummingbirds, an antpitta, a brush finch, the endangered Santa Marta Parakeet and more. We will not only be looking for the endemics but for other species such as Scarlet Ibis, Vermillion Cardinal, Northern Screamer, Wattled Jacana, Dwarf Cuckoo, Russet-throated Puffbird, White-tipped Quetzal, Blue-naped Chlorophonia, Golden-breasted Fruiteater and so many more jewels!
I have a Colombian guide that will make all of the tour arrangements and travel with us to show off the wonders of Colombia! The itinerary will be finished soon and sent to those that are booked on the first departure. If you are interested in the 2nd departure, let me know and I will get an itinerary to you when it becomes available!

Photo is of the endangered Santa Marta Parakeet.

BOS Travel Trip - Kansas for Lekking Prairie-Chickens with Alec Humann

Date: 4/10/2026   (Friday)

Location: Hays, Kansas

Details: (click for more)

UPDATE - registration begins mid-December of 2025. I will reach out to the group regarding trip deposit and other details in early August 2025!

UPDATE 12/13/2024 - This departure is now full. A waitlist has been started.

Stay tuned for details on this trip. We will be joining Audubon of Kansas during their spring Prairie-Chicken festival. This festival offers field trips, a keynote speaker and evening socials. This trip will run for about a week…from Tuesday, April 7 to Tuesday, April 14, 2026. ***

***I do not have the exact date of this festival at this time, so it could run the following week (April 14-21, 2026). Please keep both weeks open until further notice if you plan to join this trip.

Pre-dawn field trips will offer views of Greater and Lesser Prairie-Chickens as the males gather to dance on their leks to impress the girls. Other field trips offered during the weekend will include the famous Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira NWR. Species we hope to see at these locations include Franklin’s Gull, Cinnamon Teal, Baird’s Sandpiper, Snowy Plover, and Yellow-headed Blackbird. My scouting trip in April 2023 yielded a flock of 6 Whooping Cranes!
Additional trips to Smoky Valley Ranch and Little Jerusalem Badlands will offer opportunities to see Ferruginous Hawk, Say’s Phoebe, Rock Wren, and Harris’s Sparrow.
As with any BOS Travel Trip, please email Alec at [email protected] if you are interested to get on the participant list!

BOS Travel Trip - Majesty of Montana (2nd departure) with Alec Humann

Date: 6/27/2026   (Saturday)

Location: Western Montana

Details: (click for more)

This tour does not yet have dates set. I am currently aiming to run this tour late June into early July. Whatever the dates, this departure is full. A wait list has been started.

Target birds are MANY, but Montana is a large state! Our tour will cover a wide range of habitats in western MT including spruce forests of the Bitterroot Range, high sagebrush valleys, short grass prairie and pothole wetlands. Yes, Great Gray Owls nest in Montana and that will definitely be a target species - why freeze your tuchus off at Zax-Sim Bog in February?!

Our group will fly in/out of Missoula where we will spend our first three nights. After that we hop around between Dillon, Helena, Harlowton, and Great Falls.

Other birds of interest include but limited to...Dusky Grouse, Black Swift, Long-billed Curlew, Goshawk, Ferruginous Hawk, Williamson's Sapsucker, Lewis's and Three-toed Woodpeckers, Prairie Falcon, Pinyon Jay, Dipper, Sprague's Pipit, several finches, 2 longspurs, Brewer's, Baird’s and Sagebrush Sparrows, MacGillivray's and Townsend's Warblers, Lazuli Bunting and more! Yes, we will also try for Great Gray and Flammulated Owls.

Photo is of a Flammulated Owl.

BOS Travel Trip - Falsterbo, Sweden (3rd departure) with Alec Humann

Date: 8/28/2026   (Friday)

Location: Vellinge, Sweden

Details: (click for more)

This trip will be limited to 7 participants, plus myself, and will span 6 full days of birding plus 2 1/2 travel days (due to overnight flight and 6-hour time zone difference).
We will depart on Friday, August 28 on an overnight flight to Copenhagen, Denmark; arriving midday Saturday, August 29. We fly home on Saturday, September 5, 2026. Flights for western Europe depart in the afternoon from the eastern US, fly overnight and arrive at destination the following morning/afternoon.
Our British guide, Stephen Menzie, will pick us up from the Copenhagen airport and drive 45 minutes across the Oresund Bridge to the town of Vellinge, Sweden where we will stay at a working organic farm for our tour.
Falsterbo has a bird observatory where point counts and banding are conducted and our tour will be based nearby. Daily itinerary will be dictated by the weather as this is a migration bottleneck, like legendary Cape May, NJ or Point Pelee, Ontario. This tour will coincide with a wide variety of migrants, and if migration isn't especially active we will head inland to search out forest species such as Black Woodpecker! Target birds will be many including…Eurasian Hobby, Bearded Reedling, Eurasian Curlew and Oystercatcher, Pied Avocet and Lapwing, there species of Harrier, Wagtails, Pipits, both Green and Black Woodpeckers and so forth and so on! Stay tuned for updates! If you are interested, let me know so that I can add your name to the participant list - [email protected]

Here is the link to the trip report from the September 2024 tour…

https://ebird.org/tripreport/273583


Photo is of a Bearded Reedling taken by Tim Schadel on our September 2024 tour.

BOS Travel Trip - New Zealand with Brent Stephenson and Alec Humann

Date: 1/17/2027   (Sunday)

Location: New Zealand - North and South Islands

Details: (click for more)

UPDATE 11/26/24…Speaking with Brent to set up a second departure that will begin on February 4, 2027 and extend two weeks. It will be likely that I would have Group 2 arrive on Wednesday, February 3 with the tour beginning the next day.

UPDATE 8/7/24…this trip is now full at 8 participants. A waiting list has been started.

Well, I never thought I would be even considering a birding trip to New Zealand, BUT HERE WE ARE! This is an incredible opportunity to bird New Zealand with one of her native sons and past BOS member, Brent Stephenson! Brent lived in the Buffalo area for a few years before moving to Vermont with his wife, Lisa.
This trip is a ways out and Brent and I are still figuring out the logistics but the 2-week itinerary will embark on or around January 18, 2027. The group will plan to arrive a day before the tour begins (Jan 17) to give us a day to adjust to the loooong travel day and time zone difference! This trip will be limited to 8 participants and the land-based portion of the trip will cost about $6500 (this includes all lodging/meals/guiding/travel within country/multiple pelagics/ferry rides) plus your airfare. It is a trip worth saving for and you have a good two years to do so!
Details and itinerary will be added here over the next few months…
In the meantime, if you are considering this trip, you may want to order Brent’s book “Birds of New Zealand: A Photographic Guide” by Scofield and Stephenson. I just ordered mine off of Amazon! You have 2.5 years to study….GO!

Photo is of an endemic parrot, the Kea.

BOS Travel Trip - New Zealand (2nd departure) with Brent Stephenson and Alec Humann

Date: 2/5/2027   (Friday)

Location: New Zealand - North and South Islands

Details: (click for more)

Well, I never thought I would be even considering a birding trip to New Zealand, BUT HERE WE ARE! This is an incredible opportunity to bird New Zealand with one of her native sons and past BOS member, Brent Stephenson! Brent lived in the Buffalo area for a few years before moving to Vermont with his wife, Lisa.
This trip is a ways out and Brent and I are still figuring out the logistics but the 2-week itinerary will embark on February 5, 2027. The group will plan to arrive a day before the tour begins (February 4) to give us a day to adjust to the loooong travel day and time zone difference! This trip will be limited to 8 participants and the land-based portion of the trip will cost about $6500 (this includes all lodging/meals/guiding/travel within country/multiple pelagics/ferry rides) plus your airfare. It is a trip worth saving for and you have a good two years to do so!
Details and itinerary will be added here over the next few months…
In the meantime, if you are considering this trip, you may want to order Brent’s book “Birds of New Zealand: A Photographic Guide” by Scofield and Stephenson. I just ordered mine off of Amazon! You have 2.5 years to study….GO!

Photo of Yellow-eyed Penguins, Katiki Point, South Island by Brendan Tucker 11/2024.