This fall we have been busy at two birding festivals across the country. Kevin and Adrian manned the Wildside Tours booth at The Cape May Autumn Weekend and Bird Show for the 7th year with great success. The booth display was eye catching and the laptop with revolving photographs an instant draw. We met old friends and travel participants along with a number of new people that expressed interest in our trips in particular those to Alaska, Central America, the Galapagos and East Africa – we thank those that took the time to stop by and chat and we look forward to having you join one of our exciting tours in the near future.

Outside the Cape May convention center scopes were set up to scan the Atlantic Ocean for Gannets, Parasitic Jaegers, Red-throated Loons and scoters. The Sea Watch in Avalon recorded a record breaking number of scoters on Oct 26 with over 159,000 – an extraordinary total for one day. A front on the final day produce the passerines that everyone was hoping for, with flickers, kinglets, thrushes, Purple Finches, Rusty Blackbirds, large numbers of accipiter’s and falcons and 20 warbler species.

Another of North America’s leading birding festivals, The Rio Grande Birding Festival, is held in early November in Harlingen, Texas. Adrian was invited as a Keynote speaker and enlightened the audience with tales from his travels with a talk entitled “The lighter side of birding”. Along with a workshop on “Bird Names” Adrian lead field trips alongside some of the country’s leading birders to Laguna Atacosa NWR (the Madre lagoon and coastal vegetation), the King Ranch (live oak and mesquite scrub) and Anzalduas State Park (short grass, oaks in a park setting and the Rio Grande River) 3 of the valleys most well known birding sites along with a search for Red-crowned Parrots and Green Parakeets.

A fine assortment of Texas specialties were seen on these trips including Grey Hawk; Greater Kiskadee; Long-billed Thrasher; the outrageously colored Green Jays; Buff-bellied Hummingbird; Northern Beardless Tyrannulet; Sprague’s Pipit; Audubon’s and Altamira’s Oriole along with a tantalizing close calling Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl.

Festivals are a tremendous way to experience a new birding destination, meet new birders and enjoy a wide assortment of vendors, workshops and lectures. We will again be in Cape May for the Spring Weekend May 16-18 , 2008 as well as at the ABA Convention in Snowbird Utah June 23-29, 2008 and look forward to seeing familiar and new faces.