Our PAS Birding Trips/Travel Committee is up and running and we have some great trip ideas for you! Our PAS committee members, consisting of Dianne & Hal Benham, Steve Ellis, Steve Gabbert and Doug Walkley, held a recent meeting and have been communicating frequently via email to discuss possible travel trips for the coming year. Here are some trips we are discussing and would like feedback from you before we proceed. After reading the following list, please send an email to me at diannebenham@me.com to let me know which trips you will be likely to attend if the trip goes forward. We will make a checklist of each trip location and based on the number of interested participants we will move forward with our plans.
September 18-19, 2022 Idyllwild, CA:
This birding field trip, which has typically been a one-day trip in past years, will now debut as an overnight Sunday/Monday Idyllwild Adventure! We will bird our way to the Idyllwild Nature Center with Doug and Diane Walkley as our guides. After racking up more than 40 species, we check into the Silver Pine Lodge and use the beautiful community room to gather for bird count, happy hour and a pizza party dinner. The following morning we will bird Black & Decker meadow and return just in time for checkout and head home. Last weekend, in just this small meadow we counted 21 species including four woodpecker species. You will be responsible for your own transportation, food and lodging. Doug Walkley will follow up this announcement after we have a response to the level of interest.
December 6-9, 2022, Sandia Crest and Bosque del Apache, New Mexico:
This trip can be done with Wildside Nature Tours $1,350 pp. We expect to see all three Rosy Finches and the amazing spectacle of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese. With Wildside, you will be responsible for your own airfare to Albuquerque plus all meals. Alternatively, at a very significant cost reduction, we can we organize our own itinerary where, in lieu of the payment to Wildside Nature Tours, we pay for the ground transportation, accommodation, and shared cost of an expert private guide.
January 6-9, 2023, Morro Bay, CA:
This Friday to Monday trip includes two days with an expert professional guide. The area is prolific with local and migrating birds this time of year. You can expect to see well over 100 species of birds! Our travel committee will design this trip to suit the preferences of our participants! You will be responsible for transportation, food and three nights lodging, plus shared cost of the guide.
February 3-5, 2023, Salton Sea Trip, Brawley, CA:
This Friday to Sunday trip has long been a favorite of PAS members, and we are excited to offer it once again. We will drive to the Brawley Inn on a Friday afternoon, and meet in the conference room around 5:00 for happy hour and to discuss our itinerary for the following day and a half. Steve Ellis will be our guide, and will lead us in a caravan to the birding hot-spots of the Salton Sea. You will be responsible for your transportation, food and lodging.
Late April/Early May, 2023 (Possibly April 28-May 2) Eastern Sierra:
The highlight of this trip is seeing the mating ritual of the Greater Sage Grouse on the lek. Truly an unforgettable sight to see! If you’ve never participated in this field trip, you must consider going! Steve Ellis will once again be our guide, with possible assistance from some of the local experts. You will be responsible for your transportation, four nights of lodging, and your meals.
April 22-23, Big Morongo, Yucca Valley, CA:
This is the best weekend in the year to see Yellow-breasted Chat, Summer Tanager, Western Tanager, Long-eared Owls, Verdin, Ladderback Woodpecker, Vermillion Flycatcher, Green-tailed Towhee, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Lawrence’s Goldfinch…. Stay overnight where you choose, but good Mexican Dinner together. We’re on our own for costs. Make your reservations now because we have competition from other birding groups and the music festival crowds. We have put on hold a limited number of rooms at Americas Best Value Inn in Yucca Valley. If you find you cannot make a booking, let the committee know and, if they have not been assigned already, we will assign you one there.
May 14-19, Magee Marsh, Ohio:
Our PAS participants on this trip will fly into either Detroit or Cleveland and share a rental car with others in our group. We will stay in the same motel and use our shared rental cars for day trips around the area. We are planning 4 to 4 ½ days of birding, two days with a private guide and the other two, mainly on the boardwalk, on our own. Because this is such a popular event, we must we will ask for a firm
commitment. You will be responsible for your airfare, lodging, meals, shared cost of
rental car and gas, and shared cost of private guide.
So, that’s our lineup for 2022-2023! I hope you will be as excited about our plans as we are! Please let us know the trips you would like to take with us so we can plan
accordingly. If we don’t have enough interest in some trips we will cancel them, and if we have too many that want to go on some trips we may have to limit the number of participants. Remember, this is just an interest survey, and not an application. We will announce the trips that have enough interest at a later date.
Dianne Benham, Travel Committee Chair
diannebenham@me.com
