Our annual autumn visits to the wonderful Haydn festival in Eisenstadt always offer an exciting range of birds to complement the magnificent music. In 2009, though, in addition to our regular September extravaganza, we’re offering a springtime week in this exciting venue.

To commemorate the bicentenary of Haydn’s death, a magnificent musical feast has been arranged, including Gottfried von der Goltz and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Paul Goodwin conducting the Acadamy of Ancient Music, and Adam Fischer and the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic with the Vienna Chamber Choir. And plans are underway, too, for Adam Fischer to conduct the Farewell symphony at Prince Esterhazy’s summer palace at Fertod, the Hungarian Versailles, in the very room where Haydn first conducted it.

As for the birds, many species will be on breeding territory: Savi’s, Moustached, River, Marsh, Great Reed, Icterine, Bonelli’s, and Barred Warblers; Red-breasted and Collared Flycatchers; and Hoopoe, Roller, Golden Oriole, Lesser Gray Shrike, Nightingale, and Wryneck. There could also be Little Bittern, Pygmy Cormorant, Night Heron, Montagu’s Harrier, Red Kite, Red-footed Falcon, Lesser Kestrel, Honey Buzzard, Mediterranean Gull, Caspian and White-winged Terns, and Imperial, Spotted, and Lesser Spotted Eagles. The Great Bustards could be displaying. The Bluethroats will have blue throats. On top of the Schneeberg we’ll search for Alpine Accentor, Alpine Chough, and Water Pipit. And at the Hohenau banding station there could be some exciting surprises in the hand.

If you’ve already enjoyed the Haydn festival in September, this is a unique opportunity for the perfect complementary experience. And if you haven’t experienced Haydn at Eisenstadt, this spring week will provide wonderful music magnificently performed, one of the finest selections of birds in Europe, luxury accommodation in the best hotel in Eisenstadt, and the chance to discuss the music with the performers and other experts—all this will leave you with an afterglow that will stay with you all year. Join Bryan Bland and Amanda Holden for this once-in-a-lifetime experience!

With something close to 75 endemics and a bird list longer than that of any other country on earth, Colombia has long been every birder’s dream destination. For years, though, it was essentially off limits to most foreign travelers; that’s changed, and now, with careful planning and good local contacts, Colombia is once again “open” for birding.

Recurve-billed Bushbird, courtesy ProAves

Barry Walker has created a new WINGS tour that specifically targets the rarities and endemic specialties of the Colombian Andes. Scheduled for August 2009, this will be a rugged, even challenging tour to see places and birds that so many of us had, until recently, almost given up on ever experiencing. Barry’s deep-rooted familiarity with Colombia and its birds combine with the skill of our driver and the presence throughout the tour of a local Colombian travel coordinator to ensure that our time in the country is smooth and utterly bird-filled.

We’ll be staying at some of the reserves owned and patrolled by ProAves, a Colombian conservation NGO devoted to the preservation of Colombia’s endemic birds and their habitats. The accommodations at Mirador are very basic, but the other preserves we’ll be staying at feature comfortable lodging with private bathrooms. And all of them are satisfyingly birdy, often with specialties visible without even leaving the balconies!

The main tour is followed by an extension concentrating on two of Colombia’s finest endemics, the critically endangered Yellow-eared Parrot and the recently discovered Chestnut-capped Piha. Together, the tour and its extension run for some 21 days, just time enough to fall completely under the spell of some of the most enchanting birding, and the most enchanted places, in the world.

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.