San Marcos Record, San Marcos, TX

Features

October 17, 2009

Birding festivals are plenty in November

By Jerry Hall

Two of the nation’s premier birding festivals will be held in November, one in Socorro, NM, and the other in Harlingen. Take your pick – either one promises to be tons of fun.

First, consider Festival of the Cranes set for Nov. 17-22. This is the 22nd year the city of Socorro and the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge will celebrate the return of sandhill cranes with this acclaimed event.

More than 100 lectures, workshops, hikes, tours and hands-on activities are planned. Tours are offered to areas not commonly available and birders will be out from dawn to dusk on and off the refuge. There is even a birding tour to Elephant Butte Lake.

In addition to thousands of sandhill cranes, the refuge is also a wintering stopover or home for snow geese, Ross’ geese, pintails, mallards, shovelers and numerous other waterfowl. You’ll be able to enjoy trails, observation decks, and a tour loop during the festival.

For additional information, visit www.friendsofthebosque.org.

Closer to home, the 16th annual Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival is set for Nov. 12-15 in Harlingen. Expect a terrific collection of eye-popping birds — green jays, great kiskadees, chachalacas and three species of kingfishers, just for starters.

You’ll be able to choose from a wide array of field trips, seminars, workshops and trade shows. And, get this, if you’re in an international mood, you can sign up for a tour to another tropical destination a bit further south — Ecuador.

That’s right, after the festival, on Nov. 16, you’ll be escorted to Quito where you’ll be met by personnel from Neblina Forest Birding Tours and guided for 15 days –— Nov. 15-30 — in one of the world’s birdiest countries. Your binoculars will truly be smoking by the time you return home.

If a shorter trip south fits your plans better, you can sign up for a trip to northeast Mexico — Nov. 16-20 — with van transportation from Harlingen to El Cielo Biosphere Reserve, a great birding locale that I highly recommend. Loved the mot-mots, sun grebes, boat-billed herons and the Tamaulipas pygmy-owl when I visited there.

For more information on this extended festival, check out www.rgvbirdfest.com.

I will not be attending either fest, by the way. But I will be visiting Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge Jan. 17-22, 2010. I am told that is the optimum time to see the maximum number of birds. And also, there is an Elderhostel (now called Exploritas) program at the refuge which Wimberley Birding Society members will be attending. The beauty of joining a planned program is that they pick you up at the Albuquerque airport, take you to Socorro and then house and feed you and arrange for guides to show you the multitudes of birds. All for $997, double occupancy.

Last I checked, there were still four vacancies on that trip. If you’d like to join us, e-mail me at jdothall@verizon.net and I’ll send you more information.

Whether you go during a birding festival, or go on your own, Socorro and Harlingen are two excellent birding destinations. And if you go all the way to Mexico or Ecuador, that’s even better.

Happy birding.

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