Birding across America by Train: May 22—Jun 04, 2010

A sensational cross-country birding trip aboard Amtrak trains, linking New York's Adirondack Mountains, the prairies of North Dakota, and Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

This remarkable 14-day adventure combines the excitement of a cross-country train trip with great birding in some of the classic landscapes of North America. Our route will take us from the northeast through the Midwest, and across the northern tier of the United States, all the way to the deep blue waters of the Pacific Northwest. En route, we will experience a sampling of ecosystems: the northeastern forests, lakes, and bogs of Upstate New York; the prairies, farmlands, and wide open spaces of the Great Plains of North Dakota; and the snow-capped mountains, old-growth forests, and rocky coastline of Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

At a lodge in the Adirondacks we'll see a wonderful assortment of eastern woodland birds including woodpeckers, flycatchers, warblers, and tanagers. We will see Common Loons and hear their calls, one of the great sounds in nature. We'll visit the Moose River Plain and Ferd's Bog in search of Three-toed and Black-backed woodpeckers, and Boreal Chickadees.

After boarding the Lake Shore Limited, we will travel overnight to Chicago, and then connect to the Empire Builder. Awakening the next morning in the Great Plains, we will get off the train in Minot, North Dakota, and spend two days birding the prairie in search of Sharp-tailed Grouse, Sprague's Pipit, Baird's Sparrow, and a huge assortment of nesting and migrant waterbirds.

The final leg of our train trip will take us through the northern Rockies, skirting Glacier National Park, and on to the Pacific coast. Our trip will conclude with three days of birding on the Olympic Peninsula, where we should see Tufted Puffin, Rhinoceros Auklet, Pigeon Guillemot, Black Oystercatcher, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, and American Dipper. A day in Olympic National Park will provide breathtaking mountain scenery.

Conditions at all hotels good to very good; Adirondack League Club rustic, but very clean and comfortable; cuisine very good; conditions aboard Amtrak good, with comfortable beds and showers; dry weather expected, but rain possible.