Birdchick Podcast #216 Panama, Subarus and Species

Thank you to everyone who became new members of the American Birding Association last year and sited us as a reason. We won the trip to Canopy Tower in Panama! I was there back in 2012 and I've always wanted to go back!

Some Subarus now include an app that directs you to birds reported to eBird. 

The debate goes on over how many species there are in the world

Again if you are looking for other birding podcasts, there are some new ones. Check out the American Birding Podcast and Out There With the Birds

Birdchick Podcast #215 2017 Goals and Podcasts

Are you in the mood to travel? Want to go to Cuba? Come with me!

There are some new podcasts in town that you should check out! One is from the American Birding Association and the other is from Bird Watcher's Digest

Here's a sum up of the people who did a 2016 North America Big Year. And then there's Arjan and his word-wide Big Year. But then there's the worldwide big year from Arjan...

 

6 Reasons To Come With Me To Cuba

Space is filing up on my Cuba trip for April 2017, but we still have some room left if you'd like to join us. If you are on the fence, here are some reasons to go...

1. Commercial service to Havana began in November 2016 with non-stop service available from ten major US cities including Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa, Atlanta, Charlotte, JFK, Newark, Houston, and Los Angeles. There's been news since last summer that Twin Cities based Sun Country Airlines as been approved to fly to Cuba, but I'm not sure how soon they will be selling tickets. 

Plaza Vieja in Havanna. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

2. Wouldn't you love to be able to say at parties, "So I was having breakfast in Havanna...," when starting a story? This trip will give you that. 

Bee hummingbird. Photo by Debbie Sturdivant.

3. Go pick up a penny. Hold that in your hand. Really feel that penny. That weighs more than the bee hummingbird, the world's smallest living bird endemic to the Cuban archipelago. To give you an idea, here are photos of them perched on thumbs and pencils. That's how tiny they are. 

Cuban today photo by Sharp Photography. One of the many birds you can only get in Cuba.

4. And speaking of endemics--Cuba has 25 species of birds that you can only see there! We're talking blue-headed quail-dove, Oriente warbler, the Tocororo (Cuba's national bird) and Zapata sparrow (a colorful sparrow--that's crazy talk).  I love the songs of solitaires and I'm pretty excited to hear the endemic Cuban solitaire

I'm all about relaxation.

5. As much I love birds and base my travel around it, I want  you to go home with a little bit of rest. And you can't go to Cuba with out getting in some culture. We'll visit the cave Che Guevara hid out in during the Cuba Missile Crisis, tour a tobacco plantation and even have time to explore Old Havanna. 

I'll help you digiscope all those endemics with your smartphone. 

6. I'll teach you all I know about smartphone digiscoping (and regular digiscoping too). At the end of each day, we'll use wifi to taunt our fiends with slomo video of bee hummingbirds and time lapse photography of flamingos while we sip cocktails. It will be delicious. 

For more information, or ask logistics questions or sign up visit Holbrook Travel.