Senior Leaders Rich Hoyer and Bryan Bland write from Oregon:

We’ve started our Birds and Shakespeare tour with two days down the coast, coinciding with a rare incursion of Elegant Terns. This group of 32 was at the north jetty of the Siuslaw River:

As usual, all seven of the plays we’ve seen were excellent, with A Midsummer Night’s Dream getting the highest marks.

Meanwhile, mornings in the field have been rich experiences. Crater Lake is as blue as ever, and Mount Ashland’s meadows are full of wildflowers, such as these Lilium pardalinum wigginsii.

Among the feathered highlights: this cooperative Wrentit in the Rogue River Valley.

And one of our picnic stops was enlivened by an exceptionally late Rufous Hummingbird nest.

Photos: Rich Hoyer.

Senior Leader James Lidster writes:

I was recently on a whale-watching trip in Husavik, Iceland, and bumped into Gary Rosenberg’s cousin and family. This followed a surprise encounter last December, when I was minding my own business outside my hotel near Ushuaia and there was David Fisher with the WINGS group.

We’re e v e r y w h e r e !

Graceful White-beaked Dolphins on an Iceland whale-watch. Photo: James Lidster.

Senior WINGS Leader Gavin Bieber writes:

The most exciting journeys begin when one strikes off into an entirely new corner of the world, with only limited planning–and even more limited backup. Those first few precious days, when every smell and sound are foreign, when one is half awake listening to a dawn chorus where none of the singers have names….

I’m lucky to have a career that takes me to new lands, in pursuit of new birds, new landscapes and a deeper understanding of the ecological and cultural connections that exist on this world. Traveling professionally, though, can sometimes make the pace somewhat frenetic: devising routes, finding hotels, obtaining recordings, studying to prepare myself for a future tour. And so this summer I vowed to take a vacation to a truly unknown land, with no clear goal or desire other than the experience itself.

The shrine at the summit of Doi Inthanon. Photo: Jon Dunn.

I’ve long been fascinated by the ancient cultures and wildlife of Asia, and when I found myself with almost a month to spare, I decided that the time was ripe. I’ve had a few weeks to prepare, leafing briefly through birding trip reports, travel guides, maps and travel blogs, and talking with friends who have traveled in the area before. I’ve enlisted a good friend as a companion, and my stalwart co-traveler and I have decided on a rough route through Thailand, with a week in the far northern highlands along the Burmese border, several days around Bangkok and the nearby lowlands, about a week in neighboring Cambodia, and if time permits a couple of days on the peninsula’s southern beaches. We’ve intentionally avoided more detailed planning aside, preferring to strike out and see where we end up.

White-crested Laughingthrush, resident in Thailand's Khao Yai National Park. Photo: Jon Dunn.

This will be my first Asian trip, and I’m very much looking forward to a completely new avifauna, colorful temples and markets, and the chance to really explore. We’ll be traveling in the low season, when we’ll likely encounter more rain, more mud, more mosquitoes, and more leeches than winter trips typically do. Can’t wait!

I’ll have my trusty camera along to record the proceedings. Look for updates on my travels here at The Wingbeat!

- Gavin

Welcome to The Wingbeat: The WINGS Birding Blog. Bookmark the blog, or click on the link on the WINGS website, for the latest news, updates, and advance word on new WINGS tours around the world.

The Wingbeat will be updated regularly on Thursdays, with reports from the field and from the wider world of birding; you can make your own contributions of text and photos by leaving a comment at the end of a blog entry or by e-mailing the Managing Director at rick@wingsbirds.com.

Ocellated Turkey, endemic to Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Photo: Rick Wright.

The new Summer 2008 newsletter will be landing in mailboxes in the next days; meanwhile, it’s “up” on the WINGS website, too.

This issue includes dates for our 2009 tour offerings, including a great selection of new tours to even more of the world’s best birding spots. There are also short, beautifully illustrated reports from many of our 2007 and 2008 trips. If they don’t whet your birding appetite, I don’t know what will!

A male Siberian Rubythroat, one of the Asian beauties to be seen on our new
May tour to China: Beidaihe and Manchuria. Photo: David Fisher.

We’re greatly excited to announce a new tour to Northern Peru with Gary Rosenberg. The tour will spend several days at the newly built and comfortable eco-lodge at Abra Patricia–which just happens to be one of two sites in the world for the mysterious little Long-whiskered Owlet. With the help of a knowledgeable local guide, we’ll also visit the town of Florida to look for what is easily the most spectacular of all of South America’s spectacular hummingbirds, the Marvelous Spatuletail.

Photo by Constantino Aucca, ECOAN, with kind permission of the American Bird Conservancy.

Many other endemics and near-endemics, along with a dazzling variety of Tangara tanagers (some 20 species!) also call this remote and beautiful area of South America home.