FlyAway Birding

04/17/2025

Ultimate Alaska Birding Adventure!
June 1 – June 13, 2026

We are happy to announce an amazing Alaska birding trip for next year! An even more ambitious sequel to our Alaska trip last year, this adventure includes a visit to Saint Paul Island in the Bering Sea. Visiting this spectacular corner of the globe is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the island's rare and magnificent avian inhabitants and frequent vagrant visitors from Asia!

The species of birds we may encounter boggles the mind - breeding Bristle-thighed Curlew and Bar-tailed Godwit, ptarmigans and Gyrfalcons, nesting Long-tailed Jaeger, Arctic Warbler, Bluethroat, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Yellow-billed, Pacific, and maybe even Arctic Loon, Red-legged Kittiwakes, and alcids galore, including Tufted Puffin, Kittlitz’s Murrelet, Parakeet, Least, and Crested Auklets. The timing of our stay on the famous Saint Paul Island also provides us with the possibility of seeing asian strays from Hawfinch and Brambling to Siberian Sand-Plover and Red-necked Stint.

If you're potentially interested in this trip, please contact us at [email protected] as soon as possible. We’ve secured dates to visit St. Paul and will need to put down a deposit soon, as well as indicate room preferences. We hope you’ll join us- it’s going to be a spectacular trip!

See the attached trip announcement for more information. And happy birding from the FlyAway Birding team!

04/09/2025

Come join me for some great birding and a 2 night stay at a wonderful Vermont inn!

Calling all birders! Come join Shore Acres for our Spring Migration event - more details on our website!

03/25/2025

We only have one space left on our trip to Argentina this coming November! Join us for our mind-blowing exploration of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.

Dates:
November 7-19, 2025

Penguin colonies, marine mammals and spectacular scenery await us on this exciting trip to southern Argentina. We’ll explore the legendary Pampas near Buenos Aires, the immense penguin colony of Punto Tumbo, the spectacular Los Glaciares National Park in the southern Andes, as well as Tierra del Fuego at the very tip of South America. The bird life will be breathtaking and diverse - Greater Rhea, Gentoo and Magellanic Penguin, Snowy Sheathbill, Magellanic Woodpecker, Elegant Crested-Tinamou, Rufous-chested Dotterel, Chilean Flamingo, Thorn-tailed Rayadito, Burrowing Parakeet, Magellanic Plover and so much more.
Price: $6,235 single, $550 discount for double occupancy

Email: [email protected] for more information or to sign up!

03/11/2025

We're excited to announce a new FlyAway Birding trip to California for this coming fall. Check it out and email us at [email protected] for more details!

Southern California Extravaganza - September 4-14, 2025

The West Coast of the United States is a marvelous matrix of unique and beautiful habitats that host a diverse array of birds and other wildlife. Within just ten days, and a surprisingly small amount of travel time, we will journey from coastal chaparral and the off-shore oceanic banks of San Diego into the arid climate of California’s inland deserts around the Salton Sea, and then back to the coast north of Los Angeles.

We will look for many “California specialities” including California Scrub-Jay, Oak Titmouse, California Gnatcatcher, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, California Quail, Wrentit and California Thrasher. The expedition includes a full-day pelagic trip out of San Diego where we will look out for Least Storm-Petrel, Pink-footed Shearwater, Sabine’s Gull, Red Phalarope, Craveri’s Murrelet and more. We’ll also take a day trip to Santa Cruz Island to see the endemic Island Scrub-Jay. Our time around the Salton Sea will be spent searching for the rare Yellow-footed Gull, as well as the numerous landbirds of this arid landscape, both resident and migratory.
See attached for complete details.
Cost: $5,500 per person. $1,000 discount for doubles. $500 deposit due upon registration.

03/07/2025

As part of our goal to expand FlyAway Birding, Sam Darmstadt is officially joining the family business and stepping up from an occasional guide to a FAB partner! For those of you who haven't birded with him yet, “Seabird” Sam, as some call him, is a keen birder and an avid naturalist.
Sam was raised here in Vermont and after graduating from Brandeis University, he worked as a field tech in remote areas of North America, including the boreal forests of the Alaskan interior, the High Sierras of California, and several remote islands in the north Pacific, including Middleton Island, Southeast Farallon Island, and Saint Paul Island. In between these stints of studying the fascinating bird life of these unique locations, Sam helped lead trips both domestically and abroad where he gained experience working alongside Chip.
Sam’s favorite birds are seabirds (surprise, surprise!) and shorebirds, and his go-to birding destination is anywhere close to the poles. He is excited to help grow the offerings of FlyAway Birding and to bird with you on one of our upcoming trips!

03/05/2025

Fernando Corrada also hit a major milestone on the FAB Colombia trip - species #1,500! The jury is still out exactly which species was #1,500, but we're going with Lanceolated Monklet - a rare, elusive and totally dreamy species of puffbird. Congrats Fernando!

03/01/2025

Ali Wagner hit an awesome milestone on our FAB trip to Colombia last November - her 1,000th world bird species! Number 1,000 was a very obliging Choco Brushfinch, a species of New World Sparrow endemic to the Choco bioregion of Colombia and Ecuador! This species will practically eat out of your hand at Montezuma Rainforest Lodge - like I said, very obliging. Congrats Ali!

08/30/2024

Hyacinth Macaw was one of the birds our group was most hoping to see on our North Branch Nature Center trip to Brazil. The wetlands and savannas of the Pantanal of west-central Brazil are the final stronghold for this spectacular and vulnerable parrot. Loss of habitat and the illegal pet trade have drastically reduced the numbers of this palm fruit-eating specialist, as well as its relatives - Glaucous (probably extinct) and Indigo Macaws. It was breathtaking to watch these birds feed, fly and even come down to the river to drink! Photo credit: Miguel Carasol Gil

06/28/2024

I'm still reeling from our grand adventure in Alaska - the first FlyAway Birding trip to this magnificent corner of our continent. So many fantastic birds and mammals, incredible scenery and lovely companions! So hard to say what was the "bird of the trip", but the group especially loved the Horned and Tufted Puffins, the very vocal Bluethroat in Nome, the Sandhill Cranes around every corner, and the elegant Red-throated and Pacific Loons in their splendid breeding plumage!

06/17/2024

Our intrepid FAB travelers had an awesome time in Seward, the first leg of our Alaska trip. Our boat trip in Resurrection Bay featured a whopping 10 species of alcids, including Parakeet Auklet, Kittlitz's and Marbled Murrelets, and both Horned and Tufted Puffins. Red-faced Cormorant, Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel and Northern Fulmar were also welcome sights. And add Hump-backed Whale and Orca to the list! Now onward to Nome!

02/23/2024

The inaugural trip of FlyAway Birding to Minnesota is now a wrap! Our intrepid group of 6, plus Sam and I, observed over 50 species of birds - not bad for a winter tally in the boreal forests, waterways and bogs of northern Minnesota - from Minneapolis to north of Duluth. We enjoyed 4 splendid species of owl in 4 full days of birding - Eastern Screech, Northern Hawk-Owl, Snowy and Great Gray Owl. Our quest to find a Great Gray Owl kept us vigilant until our last morning in Sax-Zim Bog, when we finally got good looks at a lone bird at dawn. Other avian highlights included Northern Shrike, Black-billed Magpie, Hoary Redpoll, Pine Grosbeak and magnificent looks at both Black-backed and American Three-toed Woodpeckers. And the mammals were wonderful as well - Snowshoe Hare, coyote and even a Pine Marten. Many thanks to our group for making this a great trip. I’m already looking forward to the next visit to Minnesota!

02/14/2024