BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Birding Taking Any Trips to Bird?

Are you thinking about doing any trips this year to see birds? Where are you going? What do you want to see?

I'm hoping to go to the Everglades again, I love it down there. The birds are so lovely!

It's been many moons sinse I've stopped by here. Had an extra minute tonight and thought I'd drop by to tell you about a recent birding trip DH and I took.

We live in Soldotna, Alaska. The town of Homer is about 70 miles from home. This town has a wonderful lady who takes special care of the Bald Eagles. During the summer she collects fish parts from the cannery and freezes them for winter feeding. Each morning she puts out blocks of frozen fish parts. The Bald Eagles gather by the hundreds for this daily feeding.

DH and spent about three hours viewing these huge "flocks" of eagles. It was so fun to watch them fight over the fish scraps. In all, there must have been close to 500 Bald Eagles on the spit that day. A perfect, sunny day for watching them too.

Rose

Wow, that sounds great!! Alaska is one of my favorite places in the world. We have only gotten out there once so far and I am really eager to get back there again. My travel notes are here -

http://www.lisashea.com/lisastrips/alaska/index.html

we began in Anchorage, went up to Fairbanks to visit a friend, then drove down around the Kenai peninsula just to roam. It was so gorgeous ... I envy you!

Thank you Lisa for sharing your travel notes on your trip to Alaska. I always enjoy reading how visitors view our great land.

It was interesting you observation of Alaska not being the "special" place that people had described. That it reminded you of other places you have been. I say this because after being in Alaska for so many years, that is how I describe other places. That they remind me of parts of Alaska. The very fact that you got to see such a small part of Alaska limits your perspective of it. Yet at the same time, you were able to view what most people see when they do visit. I appreciate your observations. I hope you get the chance to take another trip here and get out into some real wilderness. The remoteness you experienced is only a tip of the iceberg. *grin*

Thanks again for sharing.

Rose

Oh, it definitely was very special for us! I think what I meant was that people who we'd talked to would go on and on about "you've never seen anything like it anywhere on earth". So they built up false expectations. I think it's like seeing a movie. If you go in with no expectations you really enjoy it completely. But if everyone you talk to says it's the most fantastic movie ever seen with the best acting, best plot etc., even if it's really good you are more likely to realize that it's "as good as other greats".

I definitely want to go back to Alaska, we really enjoyed our trip there! Our friends work with the native cultures there and I'd love to go with them out into the villages and more quiet areas.

If you are looking for another idea within the US, the gulf coast is a great place for birding. Last year we were in Cameroon, LA, for a phenomenon called a 'fallout'. Crossing the gulf is an incredibly long journey, and sometimes the winds and fronts will blow thousands of them in a certain direction. In last year's case they were all blown to shore by the thousands. We were able to walk right up to all these birds and could touch them if we wanted to, they were so tired from the trip. Novices like me were able to sight up to 179 species in just a few hours. Many of us bought bags of birdseed and tossed them near the poor things so they could eat whereever they dropped. It was an amazing experience, and previous years were not a disappointment. Grand Isle, LA, is also another hotspot for the migration period, but towns all along the Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tesax coast all turn into birding paradise twice a year for the migrations. I wasn't a birder until I moved to this flyway zone.

Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun!

I just got back from 4 days in the Florida Keys and Everglades, and it was a BLAST. Usually we go in January when birds are in mating colors, but this time we went during nesting season to see the chicks. It was great fun! I'm loading the photos on the birding site now <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />