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Post by downriver on Jun 13, 2021 23:36:34 GMT -8
What state(s) do you think have the best year-round birding/bird watching? Any specific areas? Thx.
Regards,
DR
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trinity
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Post by trinity on Jun 14, 2021 20:15:40 GMT -8
That's tough to answer, because, as with so many other things, "best" is hard to define. You could probably make a case for my home state of Texas, which has quite a bit of bird diversity, due largely to its size and variety of habitats. The upper Texas coast has great year-round birding. Texas has lots of typical eastern songbird species in that part of the state, some northern birds that make into the Texas panhandle, western and mountain species out in west Texas, sub-tropical specialties in the lower Rio Grande valley, and a lot in between. I should think the other candidates for "best" might be Florida and California.
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Post by starwalker on Jun 14, 2021 20:53:04 GMT -8
The best place in Oklahoma is Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge. Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, just 25 miles south of my house, is a good place in the winter for seeing Bald Eagles.
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Post by bradmacmt on Jun 15, 2021 5:39:34 GMT -8
I’m not a believer in the concept of “best” but I get the idea.
To me, to get the most out of birding in NA, I’d want to be in the thick of one of the four major flyways linking Canada and the Arctic from the Caribbean, Mexico, and South/Central America. So a lot of it comes down to what sort of birds do you want to see and what sort of environment do you want to live in while seeing them?
Just for sheer volume of birds it’s tough to beat the Mississippi Flyway, and specifically Eastern Missouri or Arkansas. But I don’t want to live there! The Mid Atlantic states/Appalachians have great birding too. Here in SW Montana I live in the middle of one of the finest raptor flyways in the Western USA, and we have the highest concentration of Golden Eagles anywhere in the Continental USA. But, we lack a lot of diversity when it comes to other birds. For instance, this Spring I saw exactly one variety of Warbler! In Missouri you can see dozens.
So yes, “best” is a flawed, highly subjective and very personal idea at best.
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FamilySherpa
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Post by FamilySherpa on Jun 15, 2021 7:01:49 GMT -8
Almost every birding field guide I have talks about Texas being the best state for year round birding.
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rangewalker
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Post by rangewalker on Jun 16, 2021 18:12:24 GMT -8
What state(s) do you think have the best year-round birding/bird watching? Any specific areas? Thx. I would not go back but all my intense birding friends rate Texas as the best all year round state for birding. I was born there (Corpus Christi). Have some family there. I worked out of there in the late 70's and most of my adult paychecks came from Houston banks, followed by Calgary and Denver. When I worked there, my Western mind could never reconcile the lack of public land.
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Post by burntfoot on Jun 24, 2021 15:19:53 GMT -8
Judging by his pictures, I wish Franco would answer here.
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Post by bradmacmt on Jun 24, 2021 16:08:30 GMT -8
burntfoot I wasn’t aware Australia was a state…
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Post by swimswithtrout on Jun 24, 2021 22:05:02 GMT -8
From my few visits there, I'd rank AZ towards the top of the list.
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trinity
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Post by trinity on Jun 25, 2021 2:43:37 GMT -8
burntfoot I wasn’t aware Australia was a state… Texas is going to annex it, so that we can once again be the largest state in the union, as God intended. From my few visits there, I'd rank AZ towards the top of the list. In particular, the Chiricahuas and surrounding areas are world class. Hard to beat a sky island for diversity.
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desert dweller
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Post by desert dweller on Jun 25, 2021 8:37:00 GMT -8
Hawaii would be a good candidate.
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Post by bradmacmt on Jun 25, 2021 10:09:27 GMT -8
Texas is going to annex it, so that we can once again be the largest state in the union, as God intended. “Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word.”
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
-STEINBECK
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Post by downriver on Jun 25, 2021 16:55:49 GMT -8
Texas is going to annex it, so that we can once again be the largest state in the union, as God intended. “Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word.”
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
-STEINBECK
From Travels with Charles, yes? DR
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Post by bradmacmt on Jun 26, 2021 5:59:59 GMT -8
From Travels with Charles, yes? Correct.
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Post by High Sierra Fan on Jun 26, 2021 7:35:15 GMT -8
From Travels with Charles, yes? Correct. Great book. I also really liked his eulogy for Ed Ricketts in Log from the Sea of Cortez. He was an interesting guy. Iirc his wife was a Texan. Alongside Edwin Way Teal’s series among my fondest road trip books. Wandering Through Winter; “ It is the final volume in his natural history of the four seasons in North America; a 76,000 miles journey over 15 years, which began with North with the Spring, Journey Into Summer, and Autumn Across America.[5][7]” 76,000mile road trip! Living the dream. And they did it in a car not an RV as Steinbeck had. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_Through_Winter
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