Galveston Ornithological Society

We schedule many local outings for birding. We travel in "the Sanderling," the Society's 15-passenger van, which is far more energy efficient, safer and fun than caravans of cars. Anyone is welcome to participate, with most day trips $25 to $40.

Some of our favorite places to visit include Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, Brazos Bend State Park, Galveston Island, High Island, Bolivar Flats, and Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.

Usually, we leave at 8 a.m., and often from the COM (The College of the Mainland in Texas City) flagpole. For these trips, we are happy to pick up at the Galveston U.S. Post Office on Broadway, just past 61st Street (must be arranged in advance), and take participants to COM and back afterwards. This service is also available for monthly meetings.

Depending upon the field trip, lunch might be fast food or a family style restaurant, no bag lunch is required - ask when making your reservation. Bring water, a snack, a field guide and binoculars. Bug spray is a good option, and a hat might prove useful. Neutral colors such as brown and gray are appreciated, and note jackets that make rubbing noises are distracting in the field. Read additional tips and suggestions about GOS field trips.

Read some of the many positive comments made by satisfied customers in years past.

To register, just e-mail Jim, and to cancel without penalty, you must notify me 24 hours before FT starts. All trips are $33, as always.

View the GOS for all GOS Field Trips

The GOS offers several big trips each year from January through August, plus a few others occasionally. Read some of the many positive comments made by satisfied customers in years past.

In January, we take the Whirlwind Rio Grande Valley Trip, to get most of the tropical species which occur in the Brownsville area. This trip is great both for birds as well as photography, and is a big favorite.

From late January through the end of February, Jim runs three separate trips through Costa Rica, all with different birds and locations.

March through May, birding is fabulous on the Upper Texas Coast, and Jim stays put, offering local trips and hosting visitors from out of town. The Spring Songbird Seminar is an annual week-long event in the height of the spring bird migration along the Upper Texas Coast.

June is the Alaskan Trip, a great two weeks that spans this wonderful state. This is the trip of a lifetime!

A terrific trip in late August to the cool mountains of Southeast Arizona unveils a huge variety of tropical land birds that are normally seen only in Mexico. Over a dozen hummers and such delights as Red-faced Warbler, Painted Redstart and Elegant Trogon are easily seen in the beautiful wooded canyons.

NEW TRIPS FOR 2009

Jim has been putting together some opportunities for birders that will blow your mind!

I am offering a special, one-time trip that you may really be interested in! It's fairly inexpensive and a fantastic opportunity to see some staggering birds and amazing country. It will be to Bosque del Apache in New Mexico, as well as Sandia Park, near Albuquerque, NM (this is where all three rosy-finches may be seen together!). You would fly into Albuquerque Wednesday, Feb. 11, and out Sunday afternoon, Feb. 15. The trip is just $400 (not including plane trip), and you will see once-in-a-lifetime scenes at the Bosque. Try Googling it! Photographers, this is a truly spectacular opportunity.

This April, we are offering a five-day birding trip to Big Bend National Park and vicinity in West Texas. On Wednesday, April 15, we will drive from Galveston (through Houston) out I-10 West to Ft. Stockton, where we will be joined by anyone wishing to fly out. We will overnight there and head south on Thursday through prime birding habitat. We will also stay in Alpine and work Big Bend National Park Friday and Saturday, heading to the Davis Mountains on Saturday afternoon. Sunday, April 19, we will also work birdy Balmorhea State Park in the morning, and then head for Ft. Stockton to drop off plane people and drive home. $500 covers everything but meals (and plane tickets if you need one). All year, there are great western birds out there, from a gajillion sparrows and raptors to desert rarities. But in April, the western songbird parade races through, so things like Western Tanagers, Black-headed Grosbeaks and western warblers are a dime a dozen. It will be a GOS trip the likes of which we have not had. Western migrants.

Immediately after Mother's Day, we will take off in the van for a trip across the Southwest, all the way to the Great Salt Lake, birding in major hot spots in West Texas, Arizona (including the Grand Canyon), and Utah, especially the Great Salt Lake. Participants may fly home or continue on the second leg, which only gets better!

The second tour is the Montana Trip, where folks may fly into the Great Salt Lake (City), which is our first stop, then bird up through Idaho (some great spots!), and then spend several days in Montana, at various wildlife refuges, with target birds like Golden Eagles, Sprague's Pipits, Baird's and Brewer's Sparrows, Chestnut-collared and McCown's Longspurs, and sooooo much more. Then, we close with a swing through Yellowstone National Park, with Black Rosy-finches, and some of the greatest scenery in the world.

The third tour begins back at the Great Salt Lake (City), heads up to Glacier National Park in Montana, then THROUGH CANADA (!), all the way to Alaska! We're not sure just yet whether it'll be via ferry or ther Al Can, but by mid-June, we'll be in the Land of the Midnight Sun.

On-line bird identification course. You will receive five lessons a week, complete with appropriate bird pictures. Lessons will sent at the begining of the week, but may be read and studied anytime that day, or later. See sample lesson.
After 20 weeks, you will have a much better understanding of how to separate species from all groups of North American birds - especially those common in the Lower 48.

On-line bird behavior course. The course lasts 40 weeks (200 lessons), and teaches all about the behavior and other “secrets” of birds: courtship, migration, reproduction, jizz, anatomy and physiology, and characteristics of the various families. When completed, the student should have a very in-depth understanding of birds, their biology, and secrets to their survival. See sample lesson.

Fall of 2009 will be our initial year of the on-line zoology course, written by Jim Stevenson. Having taught zo for many years, and spending his life in the field, Jim will drop a lot of knowledge on us about birds and all other vertebrates (snakes, salamanders, fish, mammals, etc), and also marine animals and bugs. One hundred lessons, complete with images, will give us a complete picture of the animal kingdon from sponges to whales, and enough knowledge to make our head explode. Like other courses, it's $100, and lessons arrive Monday through Friday mornings.

Read some of the many positive comments made by satisfied customers in years past.