2016 Travel Schedule Eagle-Eye Tours Celebrating 20 years of Travel ABOUT EaGLE-EYE TOURS TOURS BY REGION 20 years! potentials. We are offering photo tours to Ecuador, We are thrilled to be celebrating our 20 year Patagonia and Manitoba. These tours include anniversary! We thank all of our past travelers and our instruction to improve your photography, from guides for joining us on this remarkable journey. Now, shooting to final processing of the image. Visit these we are looking ahead to another 20 years of innovative tours online to see examples of our leaders’ images. travel and unforgettable experiences around the globe! Tranquilo tours T New website! Are you looking for tours that offer great birding Our new website is live! Check it out and see while minimizing how often you change locations? what you think. For the latest updates on tour Our Tranquilo tours are a perfect choice. We have offerings and prices, itineraries, maps and more, designed each tour to stay at only one or two great look no further than www.eagle-eye.com. locations. That means less packing and travel, more birding, and more opportunity to relax on the veranda 1% For the Planet watching feeders if you need a little down time. We have joined an elite group of businesses as Look for great options such as Trinidad & Tobago, a member of 1% for the Planet. One percent Dominica & St. Lucia, Brazil: Atlantic Rainforest of our sales to will be donated to nonprofits or Rio Cristalino Lodge, Panama and Argentina. working toward environmental conservation. New Tours for 2016 Support for conservation ABC BSC Cuba We make an extra effort on several of our tours to Western India support conservation organizations and bird reserves. The Netherlands & Belgium: Birds, Art & Architecture We are supporting Bird Studies Canada (www. Northwest Ecuador birdscanada.org) with our tours to Trinidad & Tobago Argentina Tranquilo and Newfoundland led by BSC’s Jody Allair. Join us on Social Media In the Neotropics, we visit a number of spectacular reserves established by the American Bird Visit www.facebook.com/eagleeyetours for Conservancy (ABC, abcbirds.org) and their partners. photos from recent tours, discussions, news and Visiting these reserves supports their long-term our latest promotions. You can also share your viability and we’ll make a donation to ABC and photos or videos, ask a question, connect with their partners to support their continued work. other travelers, or check on last minute offers. Look for the ABC to identify these tours. You can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Vimeo! Photo Tours Are you a keen photographer? Our Photo Tours We look forward to welcoming you on offer opportunities to travel with professional an Eagle-Eye Tours adventure in 2016! photographers to areas with great photographic Happy travels, Cam Gillies and the Eagle-Eye Team “Polar Bear.....” Cover image: TOURS BY REGION North America Europe Alberta Prairie Birds 5 England Birds & Gardens 28 Baffin Island Floe Edge 6 The Netherlands & Belgium 29 Churchill & Southern Manitoba 5 Spain Birds & Flowers 28 Colorado Grouse 2 Asia Expedition Cruises 12-16 Bhutan 31 Florida 2 Oman 31 Grand Newfoundland 8 Russian Far East Voyage 18 Hawaii 4 Thailand 30 High Arctic & NWT 7 Western India 30 Manitoba Owls 3 Manitoba Owls Photo Tour 11 Africa Point Pelee & Algonquin Park 4 Namibia, Botswana & Victoria Falls 32 Saskatchewan Whooping Cranes 8 South Africa: The Cape 33 South Africa: The Subtropics 33 Mexico, Central America & the Caribbean Uganda 32 Central Mexico 22 Costa Rica 20 Australasia & South Pacific Cuba 21 Eastern Australia 27 Dominica & St. Lucia 23 Australia: Tasmania 27 Southern Mexico 20 Tropcial Australia 27 South West Pacific Cruise 19 South America Argentina 25 Brazil 26 Chile 25 Northwest Ecuador 22 Ecuador Birding & Surfing 22 Ecuador Photo Tour 10 Guyana 24 Panama 24 Patagonia Photo Tour 10 Southern Peru 21 Trinidad & Tobago 23 Antillean Crested Hummingbird NORTH AMERICA Florida Colorado Grouse Fine winter birding Lekking grouse, rosy-finches, and spectacular scenery Late February is a fine time to visit South Florida, the April in Colorado is a wonderful time of year. Snow- subtropics of the United States. We experience a range capped peaks straddling the Continental Divide, of fascinating habitats including upland pine forests, immense prairies and plains, wildlife-rich riparian cypress and mangrove swamps, hardwood hammocks, corridors, magnificent canyons and remarkable rock and the sheltered waters of the Florida Keys. We take formations. April is when lekking grouse – Greater in famous Ding Darling NWR for its waterbirds, and Gunnison Sage-Grouse, Sharp-tailed Grouse Babcock WMA for the pine trio of Red-cockaded and Lesser and Greater Prairie-Chickens – are foot- Woodpecker, Bachman’s Sparrow and Brown-headed stomping, cooing and cackling, as males try to impress Nuthatch, the Everglades National Park for Mottled females and dominate rivals – just an amazing wildlife Duck, Limpkin, Wood Stork, Roseate Spoonbill, spectacle! We travel through superlative and photogenic Snail Kite, Short-tailed Hawk, Purple Gallinule scenery. Mesas along the Colorado River, extensive and Smooth-billed Ani, and The Keys for southern grasslands and sagebrush, many snow-capped peaks Florida specialties such as Mangrove Cuckoo and over 4000 metres, magnificent canyons and wonderful White-crowned Pigeon. We also take a day trip to the vistas, alkaline lakes, and beautiful montane spruce-fir fabulous Dry Tortugas to witness the onset of breeding forests. Target species include Mountain Plover, all three by thousands of Sooty Terns and Brown Noddies. rosy-finches, Dusky Grouse, Pinyon Jay, McCown’s FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 5, 2016 (9 DAYS ) Longspur and a host of mammals: Bighorn Sheep, WITH KYLE HORNER Pronghorn, Elk, Mule Deer, Coyote and Red Fox. $3,125 USD, $4,150 CAD APRIL 11 – 21, 2016 (11 DAYS ) WITH RUDOL F KOES $2,875 USD, $3,825 CAD Roseate Spoonbill 2 Roseate Spoonbill Northern Hawk-Owl Manitoba Owls Excellent chances of finding northern owls Southeastern Manitoba is one of the premier locations on the continent for finding northern boreal forest owls. The list of owls present during most winters is very impressive; Great Gray, Barred, Great Horned, Snowy and Northern Hawk-owl, with always a possibility of Eastern Screech-owl and Northern Saw- whet Owls. Although numbers fluctuate from year to year, mid–March is a very good time to search for several of these owls as courtship is beginning and pairs can be vocal on still nights. Rudolf is a local naturalist who will have a very good handle on where each species can be found. Other species that could be present include Rough-legged Hawk, Sharp-tailed and Spruce Grouse, Black-backed Woodpecker, Pine Grosbeak and Gray Partridge. MARCH 9 – 16, 2016 (5 DAYS ) WITH RUDOL F KOES $995 USD, $1,195 CAD + GST Roseate Spoonbill Call for a detailed itinerary 1-800-373-5678 3 NORTH AMERICA Laysan Albatross Hawaii Point Pelee & Algonquin Park Brilliant honeycreepers, albatross and much more! Boreal birds and the famous migration spectacle The Hawaiian Islands are quite simply enchanting! On this exciting tour of Ontario, we start on the Spectacular scenery, mild climate and unique Carden Plain where we look for Upland Sandpiper, cultures are the backdrop for our tour of the three Bobolink, Golden-winged Warbler and Loggerhead islands: Hawai’i, Kaua’i and O’ahu. We search for Shrike. Then it is on to marvelous Algonquin the special endemics of each island, especially the Park, for Boreal Chickadee, Spruce Grouse, Black- bizarre honeycreepers with intriguing names like ‘I’iwi, backed Woodpecker and other northern specialties ‘Amakihi, ‘Apapane and the amazing ‘Akiapola’au. while keeping an eye out for moose, otter and Laysan Albatross, Red-footed Booby and both White- maybe even wolf! At the “Big 3” migration hotspots tailed and Red-tailed Tropicbirds are marvelously on Lake Erie, Point Pelee, Rondeau and Long close, Humpback Whales and Spinner Dolphins are Point, we search for species such as Red-bellied just offshore in the incredible blue waters, Green Sea Woodpecker, White-eyed Vireo, and Kentucky, Turtles are along beaches and the Kilauea Crater is just Cerulean, Hooded and Prothonotary Warblers. simply a must-see! A superb tour to a special place! During some spring migrations, up to 35 species MARCH 9 – 20, 2016 (12 DAYS ) of warblers may be observed at Point Pelee alone! WITH JODY ALLAIR MAY 9 – 20, 2016 (12 DAYS ) $4,450 USD, $5,925 CAD WITH STEVE OG LE AND KYLE HORNER $2,740 USD, $3,225 CAD + HST 4 Long-tailed Jaeger Churchill & Southern Manitoba Alberta Prairie Birds Exceptional birding at a premier birding hotspot! Grassland specialties of a beautiful area Willow Ptarmigan and Smith’s Longspurs are on Southeast Alberta is a superb area for short-grass open tundra, Pacific Loons and eiders in ponds, prairie and grassland birds, and we visit when Snow and Ross’s Geese along shorelines, Nelson’s breeding is in full swing. The community of prairie Sharp-tailed Sparrows and Yellow Rails in marshes, birds aptly-named “prairie bells’” will be a focus; Gray-cheeked Thrushes and Harris’s Sparrows McCown’s and Chestnut-collared Longspurs in stunted coniferous forests, and Connecticut in their musical display flights, Sprague’s Pipits Warblers and Great Gray Owls in Boreal Forest. singing overhead, Baird’s and Vesper Sparrows in the taller grass, Grasshopper Sparrows Our tour coincides with the migration of species trilling from exposed perches, with Western which breed in the High Arctic, such as Red Meadowlarks and Lark Buntings filling the air Phalarope, Long-tailed and Pomarine Jaegers, and with their songs. Swainson’s and Ferruginous Sabine’s Gull. Coupled with the bird-rich prairies, Hawks soar, Prairie Falcons and Merlins dash by, where we look for Baird’s Sparrow, Chestnut-collared waterfowl fill the potholes, and shorebirds are Longspur and Sprague’s Pipit, are the amazing numerous – Marbled Godwit, Wilson’s Phalarope, mixed forests of Riding Mountain, which hold Upland Sandpiper and Long-billed Curlew.