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Catch up on the latest news from Victor Emanuel Nature Tours by reading the latest VENTFLASH.
Colorado Summer Week
Brennan Mulrooney: Jun 30, 08
Our Colorado Summer Week tour has few equals when it comes to visiting a wide variety of habitats in a short period of time. And, of course, when you visit a wide variety of habitats, you can see a great diversity of birds. Add to this some of the most stunning scenery in North America, and you can understand why I look forward to this tour so much every year. Having said that, there are a few birds on this trip that tend to garner the lion's share of attention—three birds that have...
Bhutan
David Bishop: Jun 17, 08
This was the twenty-first VENT bird tour to Bhutan since 1994 when we first began operating in this magical kingdom. We regularly offer two tours a year and they always fill very quickly. So what is it that makes this particular VENT tour so attractive? Quite simply, Bhutan is in a class of its own. Yes, it's an expensive tour, largely because the Bhutanese have decided (in my opinion quite rightly) that they would rather not compromise their culture and spectacular natural environment to...
Grand New Mexico
Barry Zimmer: Jun 16, 08
The fourth day of our recent Grand New Mexico tour stands out as one of the best days of North American birding I have had in some time—and with the amount of birding I do, that is really saying something.We awoke to a nice crisp, sunny morning in Silver City with temperatures in the upper 50s. Our plan for the day was to bird the Mimbres Mountains north of town, with emphasis on Cherry Creek Canyon, and end up at the famous Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. We had barely made it ...
Scotland in Style 2
Peter Roberts: Jun 16, 08
This was the third and last week of VENT's Scottish tour program in 2008. We'd had perfect weather during our first Scotland in Style tour, followed by pretty-near perfect weather (barring the first day) on the Scottish Islands Cruise. This last week in the Highlands carried on in the same vein, with great, clear, dry, mostly sunny weather right up until our transfers to the airport on the last day. That should put a stop to those who mock and make fun of Scottish weather!Our small, c...
Scottish Islands Cruise
Peter Roberts: Jun 16, 08
VENT's 2008 small ship charter around the Scottish Islands followed a very similar route to our successful 2007 cruise. We were blessed by mostly excellent weather and sea conditions after a rough start as soon as we left Aberdeen Harbour at the start of our journey. After the disappointment of being unable to land at Fair Isle the next day, things turned very much for the better during the rest of the week. That evening we made a Zodiac landing at the fine Pictish Broch on Mousa and expe...
Scotland in Style 1
Peter Roberts: Jun 16, 08
During our six full days based in the charming ancient market town of Grantown-On-Spey, we enjoyed a varied and daily program of events. We always keep the program flexible to allow for notorious vagaries of the Scottish weather, but we needn't have worried this year, as it was "set fair" almost the entire week. Everyone enjoyed the Highlands scenery of high peaks, extensive moorlands, and Caledonian pine woodland; the stunning coastal scenery of cliffs, inlets, and offshore isl...
Adak, Alaska
Michael O'Brien: Jun 10, 08
Adak is a remote island in the central part of the Aleutian chain, part of the so-called Andenof Islands. But unlike most other islands in this region, Adak has an extensive infrastructure due to military operations here between 1940 and 1997. During our visit here, we enjoyed the various amenities from an extensive road system, to a comfortable house, to a convenient restaurant where we could always count on a hot meal (Violet was just great!). Our van had seen better days but served us well...
Circumnavigation of Sicily
Barry Lyon: Jun 06, 08
The natural and historical wonders of majestic Sicily were on full display on our first ever Circumnavigation of Sicily cruise. On this trip, our latest in the genre of birds and history cruises, we experienced a different kind of island paradise—not one of palm trees and sandy beaches, but one of sun-splashed Greek ruins, ornate Norman cathedrals, medieval towns, and scenic pastoral landscapes.For seven days, our enthusiastic inaugural group explored the premier sites of the island, co...
Point Pelee, Crane Creek and the Kirtland's Warbler
Kim Eckert: Jun 04, 08
After leading this tour for some 20 years, I would think there could hardly be anything new for me to experience in the areas we visit in Ontario and Michigan. (We also spend a day in and around Crane Creek/Magee Marsh in Ohio, but this was only our third time we've done this productive day, not the 20th.) So, it was certainly a profound surprise when we visited the world-famous Tip at Point Pelee National Park—and found no Tip!This southernmost point in all of Canada, a natural mag...
South Florida
Brennan Mulrooney: Jun 03, 08
South Florida is home to many birds that can't be found easily anywhere else in North America. The trick is that most of them aren't that easy to see in Florida either. This is the challenge of leading this tour: there is a long list of "target" birds and almost every one of them could be missed if things don't go just right. They range from birds that are becoming increasingly rare like the Smooth-billed Ani, and birds that are notoriously difficult to observe like the ...
Dry Tortugas
Brennan Mulrooney: Jun 03, 08
A spring trip to Dry Tortugas National Park is a pilgrimage made by hundreds of North American birders every year. The Tortugas experience is truly unique, and can be downright magical. Most birders have heard the horror stories of the old days when 40 birders were packed into one boat that just had one room full of bunks and no showers, but believe me, we've come a long way since then. Our boat for this adventure is very comfortable. There are no more than four people in each of the four...
Eastern Venezuela: Rainforests, Tepuis & the Grand Savanna
David Ascanio: Jun 03, 08
Our 2008 Eastern Venezuela tour began with a visit to El Avila National Park, where we had a good introduction to the avifauna of the Tropics, and enjoyed views of several tyrant-flycatchers, tanagers, and a few hummingbirds. The day after, we took a flight over the vast llanos (plains) and landed in Puerto Ordaz, a city located at the south side of the Orinoco. Here, we started a drive that took us across tropical and premontane grasslands, wetlands, and an impressive assortment of forest ty...
Venezuela: Hato Pinero
David Ascanio: Jun 02, 08
Unique to the continent, a third of Venezuela's territory is represented by a continuous set of flatlands, running from the mouth of the Orinoco River west, until it meets the Andes. Here, grasslands are dominant, although patches of tropical dry forest and gallery forest break up the homogeneous landscape. This region hosts large concentrations of birds, a viable population of wild cats, and capybaras (the largest rodent in the world) run freely. Welcome to the Llanos!Geographically, the...
Spring Grand Arizona
Barry Zimmer: May 30, 08
This year's Spring Grand Arizona tour may have been our best ever. We tallied virtually every Arizona specialty bird and had several great vagrants. Before our first dinner we had already seen Burrowing Owl, Costa's Hummingbird, and Black-tailed Gnatcatcher! The next morning we started out north of Tucson, where we enjoyed excellent scope views of both Gilded Flicker and Harris's Hawk. Further afield, remote Aravaipa Canyon yielded both Common Black-Hawk and Zone-tailed Hawk (we w...
Spring Birding in Central and Northern Spain
Peter Roberts: May 28, 08
This was my 15th Spain tour for VENT. Alberto, my steadfast Spanish co-leader, and I tried a slight variation and extension to the itinerary in an attempt to show you even more of Spain and its birds than before. We rearranged our route to travel via Valencia to find, for the first time, the globally threatened White-headed Duck in its most northerly Spanish outpost. This worked well, with great views of these bright and distinctive ducks.All the sought after species are nowadays just about g...
Grand Southern India Train Odyssey
David Bishop: May 28, 08
This was yet another VENT world first, exploring and birding a delightful part of Southern India aboard the Deccan Odyssey train. From the bustling city of Bangalore—India's equivalent of Silicon Valley—we drove on pleasantly quiet roads (praise be to strikes on this occasion) and back in time to the lovely and surely medieval village of Kukri Belur. Replete with nesting endangered Spot-billed Pelicans and gloriously-colored Painted Storks, this village really is everything on...
High Island, Texas
Brennan Mulrooney: May 27, 08
High Island, Texas is legendary among North American birders, and with good reason. There are few other destinations that can offer such diversity and exciting birding in a relatively small area. The woodland preserves in High Island and nearby Sabine Pass offer tremendous birding for migrant landbirds; the mudflats of the Bolivar Peninsula, along with the flooded farm fields near Winnie, can hold an amazing diversity of shorebirds; and the wading bird colony at Smith Oaks is one of the great...
Austin, Texas Birding and Nature Festival
Barry Lyon: May 27, 08
The impetus for our first-ever Austin, Texas Birding and Nature Festival arose from the fact that never in its 32-year history had VENT held a tour or other event in its headquarters' city, Austin. With this thought in mind, we reached the conclusion that it was time we showed off our home turf! No better time exists than mid-April for discovering the diversity of Central Texas, with migrant and resident birds pouring through the region, roadsides peppered with wildflowers, and generally ...
Belize: Chan Chich New Year
Paul Wood: May 23, 08
In my opinion, the length of a bird list at the end of a tour is a poor indicator of peoples' individual experiences, or of the relative success of a tour. However, given the constant interruptions to our daily activities by frequent and unpredictable showers, I admit that the list took on a greater importance this year. First, I was curious to see just how much the weather (most likely the result of a La Niña event) had really eaten into folks' potential lifers—one of th...
Colorado Grouse
Brian Gibbons: May 23, 08
Snow punctuated our circumnavigation of Colorado. We also slipped into Kansas, and spent no more than twelve seconds in Oklahoma. The grouse are the highlight of this tour, and they did not disappoint. From our chilly morning in the Gunnison valley, we passed over the Continental Divide to the drier east slope. Once we left the Rocky Mountains just west of Pueblo we would not see them again for a few days until we ended our prairie run when we wound our way up to Walden. Again, in Walde...
