Alexjh1
Well-known member
Hi, firstly apologies for not sticking this in the US forums, but they don't seem to get a great deal of traffic, so thought here would make more sense.
Essentially, fingers crossed at a little bit of holiday date wrangling, I'm intending to visit the US for the first time in mid-May and was wondering about some thoughts on the birding front.
It won't be only a birding holiday, but will have a heavy element of if but also will be a little bit restricted in how long I have access to a car for some slightly elaborate reasons.
Anyway, as I've never been to the US or the Americas at all before, I'm guessing it should be 90-95% new species for me anyway, not to mention whole families that I've never personally seen before (hummingbirds and pelicans for instance) so racking up stacks of lifers should be pretty easy, but that also means I don't really have the inbuilt knowledge of what is worth tracking down beyond my own personal preferences of groups.
As it stands my rough idea is:
California
San Francisco in general for basic California/Bay Area birds
Hopefully a trip
Monterey via Elkhorn Slough for coastal birds (but mainly sea otters)
A Whalewatching trip with whatever birds I can get in to that
A detour back via either Pinnacles NP or Big Sur to try for Condors
Mountain View Shoreline for Black Skimmer and Burrowing Owl
Chicago
Staying with a friend who knows where to see Bald Eagle and Sandhill Crane
Montrose Point for a bunch of migrants
This doesn't really have the space to be an intensive birding trip overall, my impression is I should hopefully be able to get 100+ new species over the course of the trip with a bit of luck. But really apart from the Monterey excursion section, I'll be largely limited to public transport.
But in terms of what should I pay attention to, for instance with local context should I be for instance looking at all the local sparrow species I can rack up in Chicago or are there known spots in parks for owls in either city?
Also which is a better bet for the Condors - Big Sur or Pinnacles? The latter sounds better for birding in general, but the former better for Condors specifically?
Thanks for any help!
Essentially, fingers crossed at a little bit of holiday date wrangling, I'm intending to visit the US for the first time in mid-May and was wondering about some thoughts on the birding front.
It won't be only a birding holiday, but will have a heavy element of if but also will be a little bit restricted in how long I have access to a car for some slightly elaborate reasons.
Anyway, as I've never been to the US or the Americas at all before, I'm guessing it should be 90-95% new species for me anyway, not to mention whole families that I've never personally seen before (hummingbirds and pelicans for instance) so racking up stacks of lifers should be pretty easy, but that also means I don't really have the inbuilt knowledge of what is worth tracking down beyond my own personal preferences of groups.
As it stands my rough idea is:
California
San Francisco in general for basic California/Bay Area birds
Hopefully a trip
Monterey via Elkhorn Slough for coastal birds (but mainly sea otters)
A Whalewatching trip with whatever birds I can get in to that
A detour back via either Pinnacles NP or Big Sur to try for Condors
Mountain View Shoreline for Black Skimmer and Burrowing Owl
Chicago
Staying with a friend who knows where to see Bald Eagle and Sandhill Crane
Montrose Point for a bunch of migrants
This doesn't really have the space to be an intensive birding trip overall, my impression is I should hopefully be able to get 100+ new species over the course of the trip with a bit of luck. But really apart from the Monterey excursion section, I'll be largely limited to public transport.
But in terms of what should I pay attention to, for instance with local context should I be for instance looking at all the local sparrow species I can rack up in Chicago or are there known spots in parks for owls in either city?
Also which is a better bet for the Condors - Big Sur or Pinnacles? The latter sounds better for birding in general, but the former better for Condors specifically?
Thanks for any help!