Bob's Travels

Here you'll find some descriptions of birding trips, with references to field guides, site guides, restaurants places to stay, along with some personal comments on what we saw, where we went, and who we met. Also, there are usually a few photographs or links to a photo site. Hopefully it's useful to others for planning their own birding trips.

2010 Trips

Anza Borrego, CA - March

This Southern California Desert is known for wildflowers, but it's also time for nesting desert birds.  Four of us stayed in Borrego Springs and I took advantage of the cooler mornings to photograph at the park headquarters, where I found Verdin, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Costa's Hummingbird and Roadrunner all nesting and providing some good images.     Roadrunner -->

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Susanville, CA - April 4-8

A friend has a home at Eagle Lake, near Susanville, CA.  It's Sage Grouse country, and Lew had set up a blind adjacent to a nearby lek.  After a couple of false starts, the third day was magic, with lekking males all around the blind, and when a female arrived, the place went nuts!          Male Grouse -->

See Sage Grouse images

Texas - April 13 - 27

Eleanor Briccetti and I made a Texas coastal tour, starting at High Island, (missing the major fallouts), driving south to Galveston and South Padre Island, and finally photographing at the Cozad and Martin Ranches north of Mission, TX, and finished at Alan Williams home, near Pharr, TX.  Click on location links above to go to images in my photostream from that location.   Caracara -->

Click here for all Texas images

Arizona - May 16 - 22

Friend Obie Gilkerson and I took a quick trip to Arizona, staying in Portal, in the Southwestern corner of the state. The objective was to debug a hummingbird photo setup. We got a few pictures, and the rig seemed to work ok, so it looked like it would be good for Ecuador. We visited the nearby Portal Ranch, and went up Cave Creek Canyon to get looks at the nesting Elegant Trogon.                                         Coati -->

Click here for all Arizona images

Ecuador, July 6 - 22

On our last Panama trip, we met Peter Hawrylyshyn, from Toronto, Canada.  Peter was planning a trip to photograph hummingbirds, and invited Eleanor, Hanno and me along.  Our excellent guide was Boris Herrera, based at Mindo Loma, his family's lodge not far from Quito.    We saw 64 species of hummers, and photographed about 50.         Antisana Volcano -->

See Ecuador images      See Trip Report

Ecuador, Sept 27 - October 10

My friend Ed Hall mentioned he was planning a trip to Ecuador, and asked if I was interested.  Second trip this year.  This trip was to the southern part of the country, starting and ending in Guayaquil.  We visited a number of Jocotoco Reserves, and got to see the endangered Jocotoco Antpitta.  Our guide was an old and good friend, Edison Buenaño, with whom I'd traveled in 2005.  Lots of new species, and some good images.           Polylepis Forest -->

See Ecuador images      See Trip Report