Borealis Birding

05/28/2026

03/13/2026

https://www.eagle-eye.com/tour/southeast-arizona-birding-tour/?departure=2026-07-25

Heya folks! Lets go birding in Arizona this summer! I'll be leading a fantastic tour for Eagle-Eye Tours and I want you to come along! After the summer monsoons begin, Arizona comes alive in its second spring. One of my favorite times to be exploring the mountains and canyons of the Arizona/Mexico borderlands, birds can be everywhere at this time of year. Some species wait till now to began their breeding season, while the first stirrings of southbound migration can be evident. Hummingbird diversity is at its peak, while family groups of warblers, owls and trogons can be found in Sierra Madre woodlands. Other wildlife is is frequently encountered; many species of herps, mammals and butterflies are found no where else but in this ecoregion. And all set against some of the most spectacular scenery one can find in North America!

Please reach out if you have any interest or questions. I hope to see you there!

09/21/2025

A few weeks ago, I co-led with my friend Ed Corey, an excellent seabird cruise from Vancouver down to L.A. and boy howdy the voyage was just teaming with sea creatures! We had big numbers of several species such as Sooty Shearwater, Buller's Shearwater, Black-footed Albatross, lots of jaegers, many of which were Long-tailed, and over 20 South Polar Skuas. We had great storm-petrel diversity with Leach's, Chapman's Fork-tailed, Ashy and Black Storm-Petrels being seen. Birds like Sabine's Gull, Arctic Tern and Red Phalarope were all abundant and showed well. Some of the goodies we had included Hawaiian Petrels, Flesh-footed Shearwaters, Manx Shearwater, Guadalupe Murrelets and Tufted Puffin.
And it was a fantastic trip for cetaceans too! We had a couple pods of Baird's Beaked Whale, including a herd that was doing a lot of breaching, many baleen whales like Fin, Humpback, Sei and Bryde's Whale, as well as a morning with 10-12 Blue Whales, and several dolphin species like Common Dolphin, Northern Right Whale Dolphin, White-sided Dolphin, plus Dall's and Harbor Porpoise.
The spring cruises I do are great for getting rarities, but the amount of marine life one can see on an early fall voyage is simply stupendous!

07/09/2025

I was pleased to catch some nice waves of warblers this spring around my local patches at home in the UP. Days of cold weather really brought out their birbness. I love all kinds of birding, but a warbler fallout with these gorgeous little beasts feeding at your feet is a really special event!

06/26/2025

Spring tour season is a whirlwind with barely a moment to spare so I'm just now getting to the backlog of photos taken the last couple of months. Here are some of the highlights of my early May WINGS Owls & Warblers tour to Southeast Arizona!

05/15/2025

Howdy all! Louie Dombroski, Gary Palmer and I will be running a big day in support of the research programs at Whitefish Point Bird Observatory. We are all former counters at WPBO, and are happy to help the Observatory fund their counts. Our team, the Yoopland Sandpipers will be tearing across Delta County in the southern UP on May 24th to try and see as many species of birds as we possibly can to helpp raise money to continue the vital bird monitoring that WPBO has conducted for over forty years now.

Recently WPBO has gained a Research Director, hired a fantastic field staff that has been breaking some record high counts of birds and has been collecting data for an experimental Morning Flight Count for the first time ever!

Please consider donating or pledging to our efforts to help keep WPBO’s count programs running as well as expanding! We are grateful for for any assistance you can provide! Here is a link to support our big day!

https://wpbo.org/birdathon/

03/17/2025

The Raptor Count at Whitefish Point Bird Observatory is Underway

Spring migration is in motion, and the WPBO Spring Raptor Count is officially underway. From March 15 through May 31, dedicated raptor counter Sean McLaughlin will be stationed at Whitefish Point, documenting the movement of migrating birds of prey.

Sean is a seasoned hawk watcher from Pennsylvania with experience counting raptors along the Appalachian ridges and, more recently, at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Minnesota. This season, he’s eager to experience migration and track the incredible diversity of raptors passing through Whitefish Point.

Follow along with the count in real time on Trektellen: https://www.trektellen.org/count/view/4562

If you're visiting Whitefish Point this spring, be sure to stop by the hawk deck, say hello to Sean, and witness the spectacle of raptor migration in action.

03/11/2025

I just returned from a delightful jaunt through beautiful Belize!

01/13/2025

Heya folks! Been a minute since I've checked in with everyone here at Borealis Birding. I'm gearing up for the 2025 tour season and it is already really filling up fast. But I do want to push one tour in particular- my spring Texas migration and Hill Country tour in mid April. One of my most birdy trips of the year, we regularly get 260-280 species of bird and when the winds are just right, the migration can be stupendous along the coast!

This is a guaranteed tour to run but still has a lot of room for sign-ups so if you want to get a jump on your spring migration, please join us!

The Upper Texas Coast is a birding paradise during the spring. Our Texas Spring birding tour will take in the migration spectacle as tens of thousands of birds pass through this region. We will visit High Island, Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, the extensive salt flats and marshes of the Bolivar P...