VENT Birding Tours: Photo Galleries
Spring in South Texas 2010 Photo Gallery
Aug 17, 10
Our 2010 Spring in South Texas tour had it all. Starting on the Central Texas Coast, our boat trip to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge yielded some of our best views ever of majestic Whooping Cranes from about 50 yards. We had already tallied 14 birds, though all somewhat distant, when a family group came flying right at our boat. They landed on the edge of the marsh providing unsurpassed, prolonged studies. A short while later we visited nearby rookery islands where stunning Roseate Spoonbil...
Grand Belize 2010 Photo Gallery
Aug 16, 10
We were standing at the edge of Bull's Point in the Mountain Pine Ridge of Belize staring down into the vast expanse of broadleaf forest below. Two pairs of stunning White Hawks were circling lazily about in the distance. We had about another ten minutes of birding time to go before we had to leave to catch our charter flight to Chan Chich. Suddenly a large dark raptor appeared at eye level, quite close but partially blocked by a tree in front of us. When it broke into the open we could s...
The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico 2010 Photo Gallery
Jun 30, 10
There are few trips that I look forward to as much as our Dominican Republic tour, which offers a wonderful combination of endemic bird species and good birding conditions.Despite its size (about 18,000 sq. miles), the Dominican Republic is comprised of an incredible mix of habitats, from coastal mangrove to grasslands and three forest types: moist, cloud, and pine. Although we spent most of the tour in the forest, we also visited gardens, grasslands, and desert scrub in the southern section ...
Colorado Grouse I 2010 Photo Gallery
May 05, 10
Finding the White-tailed Ptarmigan at 12,000 feet on the last day of our Colorado Grouse tour is always a wonderful relief for the tour leaders. It usually means that we have completed the entire family of Colorado's native grouse, seven species in all.It all started seven days earlier with our first early rising to observe the incredible filoplumes of the Gunnison Sage-Grouse. An amazing 80 birds, half of them strutting males, made for a great start to our grouse-watching. Sandwiched in ...
Belize: Relaxed and Easy 2010 Photo Gallery
Apr 26, 10
A new tour this year, our first Belize: Relaxed & Easy tour was not only relaxed and easy, but it was also really birdy! We were based in two lodges: Bird's Eye View in Crooked Tree, and Lamanai Outpost Lodge near the famous Lamanai ruins. Each had its own special charm and creature comforts, and each its own set of birds. Before heading to either of these lodges, we detoured to check out the impressive Mayan ruins of Altun Ha. Being our first birding stop, we were dazzled by many new...
El Triunfo 2010 Photo Gallery
Apr 12, 10
Sumidero Canyon is a great way to introduce birders to the amazing and varied avifauna of Chiapas. Despite the wind, we found Russet-crowned Motmot just inside the gate. The endemic Red-breasted Chat was next, swinging his tail and singing from the thickets of the thorn forest at the lowest elevations of the national park. Our next stop produced the large White-throated Magpie-Jay and the tiny Canivet's Emerald and White-lored Gnatcatcher. A cooperative male Varied Bunting sat for scope v...
Trinidad & Tobago 2010 Photo Gallery
Apr 01, 10
It is always difficult to summarize the highlights of our Trinidad & Tobago tour. It is tempting to write, at length, about the geography of both islands—Trinidad linked with South America with Tobago drifting away as a true island. Also fascinating are the consequences of this geography—the avifauna in Trinidad being rich in bird families, but poor in number of species per family, while the avifauna in Tobago has relict populations of species that are not found in Trini...
Short West Mexico 2010 Photo Gallery
Feb 17, 10
From the cool pines and oaks above Provincia to the sun-baked beach in the hidden bay of Tehuamixtle, we birded a multitude of habitats ranging from beach and saltwater lagoons along the coast to thorn, broadleaf, pine oak forests with evergreen forest residing in just a small drainage above Provincia. Finding 250 species in six days was a lot of work, but we still had time to enjoy breaded oysters, grilled Dorado, guacamole, limonadas, dozens of shrimp, and tons of Bonnie's wonderful bre...
Winter Southern Arizona 2010 Photo Gallery
Feb 05, 10
Despite some of the most challenging weather that I have ever encountered on a tour, our recent Winter Southern Arizona tour was hugely successful. Normally this trip enjoys mild conditions, with warm, sunny skies. This year, however, a series of fronts brought us instead a steady dose of wind, rain, and even some snow. Our bird list did not reflect the weather situation, however. With four full days of birding based out of Tucson, we enjoyed a bounty of rarities, hard-to-find southwestern sp...
Winter New Mexico 2010 Photo Gallery
Feb 05, 10
Once again our Winter New Mexico tour was filled with wonderful highlights. Despite generally cold weather, caused by the massive Arctic front that gripped much of the nation in early January, the birds put on a show. Beginning in El Paso the first afternoon, we enjoyed the amazing spectacle of an estimated 8,000 Yellow-headed Blackbirds coming in to roost in one spot late in the evening. The ground, roofs, and trees were literally covered in black and yellow. The next day we scoured the rive...
Fall at Panama's Canopy Tower 2009 Photo Gallery
Jan 12, 10
Three hundred and sixty-nine thousand raptors in four hours! From the end of lunch until late in the afternoon, we watched as kettle after kettle circled overhead and streamed past the Canopy Tower. The official hawk counter tallied over 209,000 Swainson's; 100,000 Turkey Vultures; 59,000 Broad-wingeds; and a sprinkling of Mississippi Kites, Ospreys, and Peregrines in that span. One would need no other reason to visit Panama in October than to witness this incredible (in fact, indescribab...
North Carolina
Jan 08, 10
For more than 30 years VENT has operated tours to all regions of the United States. This year is special in that we will operate our first-ever tour based solely in the great state of North Carolina.Debuting May 29-June 5, 2010 our weeklong North Carolina tour will focus on specialty landbirds and waterbirds of the southeastern United States, with special emphasis on the pelagic birds that inhabit the Gulf Stream off the Outer Banks.In the Wilmington area, we'll search hardwood swamps and...
Polar Bears of Churchill 2009 Photo Gallery
Nov 16, 09
Without question, Churchill is THE premier site for observing and photographing polar bears. This area is more accessible than any of the other 18 circumpolar bear populations, and the bears themselves are more concentrated at this time of year. Looking back, now that I am home, and autumn leaves are falling, the entire polar bear and Churchill experience, to me, seems almost surreal. It was as if, in some sense, I were a time-traveler visiting another place at another time.Our group arrived ...
Barranca del Cobre 2009 Photo Gallery
Oct 30, 09
We began our 2009 Copper Canyon tour in the hot coastal town of Los Mochis. A Gray Hawk put in an appearance before we passed through the gate of Parque Sinaloa, where we got our first glimpse of the avifauna of Northwest Mexico. A mix of familiar northern and tropical species greeted us. Red-billed Pigeon, Black-throated Magpie-Jay, Streak-backed Oriole, Ruddy Ground-Dove, and Great Kiskadee were all easy to find. Our main quarry for the park was Mexican Parrotlet. We eventually found a nice...
Grand New Mexico 2009 Photo Gallery
Oct 07, 09
Our 2009 Grand New Mexico tour was a record-breaker, tallying an impressive 214 species of birds and besting the previous high count by 13. With its unique combination of west Texas/ southeastern Arizona specialty birds in the southern portion of the state and Colorado Rockies species in the north, the diversity is bound to be good; however, it is the quality of the birds seen that may be even more impressive. Many of the country's most difficult to find and sought after species are readi...
Spring in South Texas 2009 Photo Gallery
Oct 07, 09
The bluff at Santa Margarita Ranch is simply my favorite place in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Perched about 30 feet above water level, one can scan up and down river for a mile or so and view the nearby treetops from more or less eye level. Our group spent an entire morning at this spot with never a dull moment.From the second we arrived noisy Great Kiskadees squawked at us from a nearby hackberry. As it turned out, they were actively building a nest there, and we were able to watch the proc...
Alaska Mainland 2009
Oct 02, 09
It is always hard to decide which of the myriad highlights of a tour to write about. In the case of our recent Alaska Mainland tour this was especially true. The last evening I asked people to choose their three favorite birds of the tour, and the following highlights reflect their choices.Topping the list was the magnificent male Bluethroat in Nome. Against a backdrop of snow-covered peaks, this stunning little thrush displayed from two close willow tops. With the brilliant blue and orange b...
Jaguar on the Rio Cuiaba, Brazil
Aug 28, 09
If one had to summarize our 2009 Best of Brazil tour in a single word, that word would be “Jaguar”! Jaguar was definitely a primary target as we set out on our first boat trip along the Rio Cuiabá out of Porto Jofre, southern terminus of the famed Transpantaneira (or Trans-Pantanal Highway). But you don’t really find jaguars—they find you. The largest and most mysterious of New World cats picks his spots, and we can only hope to be in the right place at the righ...
Winter New Mexico 2009 Photo Gallery
Jul 09, 09
We stood on the dike of a large water impoundment at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, gazing out at a sea of white formed by a huge flock of geese. It seemed that every square inch of the pond was covered with birds (an estimated 24,000 were on the refuge) and some of them were literally 10–15 feet away. We had superb side by side comparisons of Snow and Ross's geese, and the photographic opportunities were unsurpassed. Sandhill Cranes began arriving at the pond as we sto...
Venezuela, Casa Maria & Hato Pinero: A Relaxed and Easy Tour
Jun 20, 09
In northern Venezuela lies a range of mountains running parallel to the coast. These mountains, known as the coastal cordillera, host one of the richest cloud forests in the world, with various life zones from sea level up to 6,000 feet. Our destination, to explore this rich ecosystem, was Casa Maria, a small lodge contiguous to one of the largest tracts of recovered cloud forest in Venezuela: The Palmichal Reserve. Two days were devoted to an area rich in tanagers, hummingbirds, flycatchers,...
