Welcome to Texas Target Birds!

Roseate Spoonbill

I am based in the Houston area which means that I have easy access to a wide variety of habitats and an impressive diversity of bird species.  All of this is accessible through a major international airport. 

 

If you want to photograph or just look at birds anywhere in Texas, I’m the right guide for you.

What’s new?

It has been quite a busy spring and I have been out helping people see and photograph birds every day for the month of April as well as almost every day so far this month. I am working on the 2014 trip schedule and hope to have details about those trips up soon.

 

I will be testing out a couple of trips that I hope to offer next year over the next few weeks so it will continue to be busy for a bit longer but once I have a day or two at home I will resume regular updates to the website.

The Florida trip this past March was a huge success. We found pretty much all of our target birds and everyone in the group managed good photos of them. We even got a couple of unexpected birds like a very tame Western Spindalis in Key West. I will plan to offer a very similar trip in 2014 the last week of March. The main difference will be that instead of going all the way down to Key West we will spend more time in Key Largo and possibly in The Everglades. This will allow us to cut out a substantial amount of driving and shouldn’t cost us any birds. This schedule should also help make the trip a little less expensive.

Limpkin

Click HERE for details.

California Breeding Birds

Barn Owl

Click HERE for details.

2014 Trip Schedule

 

I have added a rough schedule of the trips I plan to offer in 2014. As the details firm up I will add dedicated pages for each trip. If you see something you are interested in please contact me so I can email you with more details as soon as I get them.

 

For details click HERE

My Blog

I recently started a little photo blog. The main focus is on birding on the upper Texas coast and the birds found here.

Click HERE for my latest blog post

I also am adding a few trip reports from some of the trips I have run.





California Quail

Birding California

For an intex of blog posts please click HERE

Audubon's Oriole

Birding in Texas


Texas is a big place with extreme geographic diversity and as a result has one of the most diverse bird populations in North America.  Finding birds in this vast area can certainly be a daunting task and having someone with you who is familiar with the area and birds can save lots of time and money. 

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White-tailed Kite

Services

 

Just let me know what birds you want to see or what area you want to visit and I will put together your itinerary.  I can help you get the photos you want, help you tick off those species that you have been struggling with or anything in between.  All of my trips are customized to fit your individual needs.

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Why hire me?

Having spent many years searching for birds in a great many locations, I have learned not only how to find them, but also how frustrating and time consuming the search can be. I am certainly someone who likes to avoid spending money unnecessarily, and for this reason I always try to hire a guide when traveling to a new location. Airplane tickets, ground transportation, food, lodging all cost a lot and are unfortunately necessary expenses when birding away from your local patch. Hiring a skilled guide who is wired in to what is going on in the location you are going to visit can make a huge difference in the outcome of your trip. It could mean the difference between a OK trip and a great trip or even the difference between a successful trip and a trip that needs to be repeated later.

 

Furthermore, if you are interested in photography, having a guide who is a skilled photographer really does enhance your trip. It is one thing just to detect a bird and check it off the list and it is another to get an identifiable photo of the bird. It’s once again a whole other thing to actually get a great photo of the bird that you would be proud to show off to your friends. When birding away from home, time is limited and the birds and birding locations are new and unfamiliar. As a result a large portion of field time is allocated to simply locating the bird. This limits the amount of time actually spent on photographing the bird. If you aren’t a strong photographer it is easy to miss key photo opportunities because of less than ideal camera settings or techniques or lack of knowledge about a particular bird’s behavior.

 

On my trips I am there not only to locate the birds efficiently, but also to stack the deck in favor of you getting beautiful photos of the bird. I am right there to answer any questions you have about your camera or the lighting as well as to help you get into an ideal position to photograph the bird you are after. I am your photography coach as well as your birding guide. I will try to set up the situation to ensure your success. Any time I am in a place that I am not very familiar with I will always take on an assistant who is very skilled at locating the birds of the region so I can better be there to help you.

 

The end result is that we see a large variety of species and come home with lots of great photos. You will also come away from the trip with stronger photography skills.

 

At the end of the trip the money you spend on hiring me as your guide will not only make your trip more successful and fun; it will also save you money since you can get so much more done in a shorter period of time.