Bluebirds and Tree Swallows among the most likely birds to utilize nest boxes in the United States and southern Canada. In fact, birders have been instrumental in providing needed artificial nesting cavities in the form of nest boxes, which have enabled these birds to increase their populations and expand their nesting range in many areas of the continent. In America’s heartland, many farmers enlist birds to help suppress agricultural pests by installing nest boxes around their farms.

Birding Tours are a great way to expand your horizons with a minimum of concern for planning and safety – tour companies take care of all that! You enjoy the fruits of the tour company’s labors, leaving you to concentrate on studying your field guide and keeping your life list up to date. You may prefer to tour an area cross country, or in a different country altogether – maybe even a different continent. A tour company will provide an experienced guide, a well-planned Itinerary, and take care of the transportation, hotels and lodges, fine meals, and a your personal safety.

Every April, the tiny community of Karval and the Karval Community Alliance, an organization composed of local landowners and community members, comes together for what has become an iconic eastern Colorado celebration – the Mountain Plover Festival. In cooperation with the Alliance, festival leadership, and other landowners, Ryan Parker, the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies’ private lands wildlife biologist is working in nine southeast Colorado counties to ensure the long-range conservation of Mountain Plovers and other shortgrass prairie inhabitants.

Philippine Eagles are one of the world’s largest eagles, and the rarest. Inhabiting the tropical forests of just a few islands in the Philippines, this spectacular but critically endangered eagle is the focus of a new movie, Bird of Prey. Filmed by world-renowned wildlife cinematographer Neil Rettig, in association with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Bird of Prey is an expertly woven story with stunning photography that takes you on a journey deep into the vanishing world of the Philippine Eagle.

Two notable pelagic birding companies – one on the Atlantic and one on the Pacific – provide remarkable opportunities for birders to get offshore to appreciate the seabirds that ply our oceans – including occasional rare bird sightings, such as the recent European Storm Petrel, Bermuda Petrel, and Fea’s Petrels sighted offshore from the port of Hatteras, North Carolina. Currently, seabirding trips are leaving regularly from Hatteras under the direction of Brian Patteson through September; and in August, Debi Shearwater will be starting her 44th and final season of pelagic trips through October, primarily offshore from Monterey, California.

A quick trip to Minnesota always provides sightings of a variety of different birds from the eastern woodlands and lake habitats – different from the many birds I see in the Great Plains. I was especially excited to see a brood of 10 newly hatched ducklings encircling a female Wood Duck as they instinctively fed in the shallows, along with a Common Loon resting on calm water, a Peregrine Falcon and Red-tailed Hawk taking turns diving at one another, a Cooper’s Hawk with prey flying to its nest, colorful pairs of Northern Cardinals, periodic Ospreys in flight, and a seemingly huge Pileated Woodpecker flying overhead. No photo opportunities though; until the morning after my return to Dakota.

For birders, it’s hard to beat the Tamron 100-to-400mm Zoom Lens Model A035. This light-weight ultra-telephoto zoom lens has highly responsive auto-focus precision for taking in-the-moment action photos or bird portraits clearly and easily. Three Low Dispersion (LD) glass elements are used and effectively positioned to prevent aberrations, and Tamron?s proprietary eBAND (Extended Bandwidth & Angular-Dependency) Coating prevents reflections and produces clearer, more vivid photos.

Celestron TrailSeeker 8x42 Binoculars feature ED objective lenses that provide accurate color reproduction, increased resolution and contrast, with superior images virtually free of chromatic aberration. The fully multi-coated optics provide maximum light transmission through the optical path, while phase- and dielectric-coated BaK-4 prisms provide vivid true-to-life colors. Celestron TrailSeekers are constructed with lightweight and durable magnesium alloy, providing a tough, rigid frame that is rubber-coated. What’s more, the binocular is fully waterproof and filled with dry nitrogen gas to prevent internal fogging of lenses.

A standout among Duncraft’s variety of nest boxes, you can protect eggs and nestlings with the Bird-Safe Predator Guard House. The predator guard is located inside the entrance to keep your nestlings safe and out of reach of predators. Made of durable tan and green recycled plastic, this all-weather birdhouse has built-in side ventilation slots and drainage holes. With a 1½ inch diameter entrance hole this Bird-Safe nest box measures 6 x 5½ x 12 inches, and you can easily remove the base to clean the nest box after each nesting cycle.

Minnesota birders found three state records last week – a Third State Record Kirtland’s Warbler, a 14th State Record Sage Thrasher, and the18th State Record of a Laughing Gull. Other notable records were recorded when Cordova birders found Alaska’s First State Record Snowy Plover; Nova Scotia birders found a Second Provincial Record Lewis’s Woodpecker, Vermont birders recorded the Second State Record Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, and Idaho birders photographed a Third State Record Brown Pelican. Did we mention there were also sightings of rare birds from Europe, Asia, and Central America?