Welcome, G’Day, Bien venue, and Velkommen!  We would like to welcome our newest members from around the world, including new friends from Italy, Florida, California, Washington, and Michigan. We’re glad to have you and look forward to hearing about your birding and hosting experiences.

 What a Spring! We attended the Florida Birding and FotoFest, the Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds, and Potholes and Prairies, in North Dakota. We made many new friends and connected with some of our members from around the country.

The Florida Birding and FotoFest was a huge success! Over 500 participants explored the area on foot, by kayak, and car. We had the opportunity to stay at a member’s home nearby, (thank you for your hospitality!) Although we were busy manning our booth during the actual festival, we did explore some of the areas on our own. At Fort Matanzas National Monument, we observed Least Terns on their nests on the beach, and are grateful for the volunteers with St. Johns Audubon who roped off the nesting area and continuously monitor the nests. At Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, we located a newly fledged Great Horned Owl, a Yellow-throated Warbler, a Cape May Warbler, and many Northern Parula. Severe weather interrupted our search for Painted Buntings at Anastasia State Park, (foiled again!). We happened on a pod of dolphins playing just off the beach in Marineland, and Glen was able to add a Northern Gannet to his list. (Jennifer was at the booth at the time - hmmm….).   Jennifer’s Sister Gail joined us for a few days; helped us at the booth and joined in our explorations. Dinner at the Saltwater Cowboys is not to be missed!

 On to Orlando…..We left St. Augustine and headed to the Orlando area to meet with another member. We greatly enjoyed staying with a member who educated us about the problems with the invasive African Apple Snails and their effect on juvenile Snail Kites. African Apple Snails, released from aquariums, are flourishing in the area lakes and have been discovered by adult Snail Kites, creating a huge increase in their population in that area. Unfortunately, they are a good food source for adult Snail Kites, but are too big for the juvenile Snail Kites to manage; resulting in a poor survival rate among fledglings. 

Our host took us on a boat tour through her neighborhood: we rode past an Egret Rookery and walked around a nearby island, looking for Carolina Wrens, Bells Vireo and anything else that might be stirring. We were quite surprised when she caught an armadillo by the tail to give us a closer look.

Stacia catching armadillo from Glen U on Vimeo.

Potholes and Prairies Birding Festival, in Carrington, North Dakota….. Add this festival to your bucket list. Don’t let the middle-of-nowhere reputation of North Dakota stop you from enjoying this unique area created by the Wisconsin Age glaciation. This process resulted in a hilly landscape dotted with prairie wetlands, mixed grass prairie, prairie thickets, woodlands, and farmland. Birding here was reminiscent of birding in the Everglades; the bird activity and diversity was mind-numbing. Travel tips: the best numbers and diversity can be seen from May to July; however April, August and October can be good months, depending on what you would like to see. Be sure to pack warm clothes and rain-gear, even for June and July. It can be brutally cold and windy, or “hotter than Hades”. You will want to have a spotting scope; the area is quite vast. Click on the Potholes and Prairies link for more information about birding in North Dakota.

Tell Us About Your Experiences with BHB! We want to hear about your experiences traveling using BirdersHostingBirders.com.   If you have had an opportunity to travel, or host, and would like to share your experiences, please submit your comments and pictures to glen@bhbsite.com.

The more, the merrier! We are looking to expand our membership, particularly in Alaska and Central and South America. You can help us create a vibrant world-wide community if you tell your birding friends about our “Let’s Get Acquainted Offer”; their first year membership is only $19.99!

We need your input! Working with Jennifer and other members of our business team, we're studying the ways to build BirdersHostingBirders.com into a stronger organization with a broader member base. As you know, we provide the services we do without advertising. This, in turn, means we have to be really good at drawing in new traveling birders and giving them excellent reasons to join.

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Well, that’s all for now, fellow traveling birders we hope you have the opportunity to travel soon; don’t forget about BirdersHostingBirders.com when making your travel plans! Believe me; you’ll be glad you did!