2010 travel update

Hey everyone, Chris W here from the grand state of Wisconsin, USA!

Just wanted to give a quick update. I've forgotten how long it's been since I've posted here, so I'll recap for the year since Jan.

Birding in Jan, Feb was rather slow. I got a quick start to my year list in Jan but then dropped off after that.
The last week of Feb, I was practically given the chance to go along on a VENT (Victor Emanuel Nature Tours) trip to Costa Rica for the first week of March. It was quite the most amazing trip I've ever been on. got around 200 new lifers during a week's time there.

Less than a month later, I had the chance to volunteer for three weeks as a guide at Tandayapa Bird Lodge in Northwest Ecuador. Talk about another amazing trip to the tropics! Nearly 200 lifers there as well.

For May, I birded the heck out my home state and worked my year list up near 300.
A 10 day trip helping lead a tour to Colorado in Jun pushed it over 300.

Now, it's July, the slowest birding month here in the US and I've been working on documenting my trips on my blog "The Southwest Wisconsin Birder"

Want to read the details of my trips? visit my blog! do it. :)

Displaying Goshawk Thursley Common

A good day was had at Thursley Common on Sunday with a couple of friends. We enjoyed good, though distant views of a displaying male Goshawk and good views of a Woodlark. This brings my year list up to 132. No Dartfords or Stonechats... the snow must have killed some birds off then... :-(. David.

Go BIGBY!

Hey everyone, sorry for not posting much lately.

I just wanted to make sure everybody knows about BIGBYing, or participating in a Big Green Big Year. It's simple - you count every bird that you see that didn't require use of a gas-guzzling vehicle on any part of the trip, from door to door (not sure about buses though...). Catch a train, bike to your local patch. It's much more challenging than regular ol' birding and is guilt free. You can sign up and become an official BIGBYer, or just do it on your own:

http://www.sparroworks.ca/bigby.html

Please consider joining the group of BIGBYers. We are the next generation of birders! We can pioneer this new trend and make a difference! It's so easy -- why not?! Especially since half of us can't drive yet!!