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Illinois in Spring
Niagara Falls
Minnesota in Winter
The Great Lakes: Crane Creek, Point Pelee, and Kirtland's Warbler

Magnificent river basins bursting with extensive broadleaf and mixed deciduous woodlands, vast expanses of prairie grasslands, and the world’s largest stretch of freshwater marshes beckon fantastic birds and keen birders alike to explore the diversity of the Central U.S. The Great Lakes region alone offers a dazzling mixture of habitats and a stunning array of highly sought birds all throughout the year. The breadth and magnitude of spring and fall migration through the farmlands, river basins, grasslands, wetlands, and mixed woodlands of the central states is simply beyond compare. A true phenomenon takes place here, with countless transient and breeding raptors, waterfowl, and passerines providing a virtual avian feast for the jubilant birder.

In spring, neotropical migrants—glittering tanagers, resplendent orioles, glamorous warblers, gaudy grosbeaks, and buntings to boot—make use of this central gateway to the boreal breeding grounds. An equally impressive number of them stay here, on territory, for the summer months. Autumn brings squadrons of Broad-winged Hawks, extraordinary congregations of shorebirds, and huge numbers of passerines to stage yet again for a southward journey. Winter invites majestic raptors to hunt the snow-covered flatlands, and throngs of gulls and waterfowl to play on the shores and waters of inland reservoirs and America’s ‘northcoast’, the Great Lakes.

Join us on two spring migration sprees—a weekend in Illinois and a sensational excursion to Northwest Ohio, Michigan and Point Pelee—or winter trips to the wilderness of Minnesota and its owls and the spectacular Niagara Falls!