Buffalo Ornithological Society
Birding Western New York and the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario

Cape May Warbler - © Sue Barth

Leader - Matt Nusstein
[email protected]
(716) 446-3376

The Big Sit: Saturday October 4th, 8:00am (8 hours, onsite)

Meeting location: Silver Lake State Park Boat Launch

Founded in 1992, The Big Sit is an annual, international birding event similar to a bird-a-thon. The catch is that all observations must be made from within a circle no more than 17 feet in diameter. Our count circle will overlook the southern portion of Silver Lake. You can stay for as little or long as you’d like to help with the count or to learn more about the birds of Silver Lake. Bring a picnic lunch if staying for the lunch hour. At the very least, you will have Matt's undivided attention for the duration! This is in Wyoming County for those of you looking to beef up your eBird list for Wyoming Co!

Meet at 7 pm in the Cummings Room.

Saturday, October 11th, 2025

BOS members are encouraged to participate. Please help us add to the decades of records that the BOS has collected reflecting population dynamics of the area birdlife. You can be part of a field team or simply count birds at your backyard feeder. All observations are important! If you don't know what section you live in, please contact Marcie Jacklin who will put you into contact with the correct section compiler. Thank you so much!

Compiler: Marcie Jacklin ([email protected] or 905-871-2577)

More about the October Count: more info »

Photo of a Wilson's Snipe at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Outlet Collection Ponds, Ontario by Jean Hampson on October 26, 2024.

Leader: Andrew Gaerte (585) 610-6842
[email protected]

This field trip will be on TUESDAY, October 21, 2025.

Join Andrew Gaerte and the Buffalo Ornithological Society for a special behind-the-scenes birding trip to Ralph Wilson Park (previously La Salle Park)! As this iconic waterfront park, and favorite birding hotspot in Buffalo, undergoes a major transformation, discover how native plantings and habitat restoration are being thoughtfully integrated to support local and migratory bird species. Learn about the park’s innovative design features that promote biodiversity and enjoy birding in an evolving green space that’s becoming a haven for wildlife and people alike.

We will be guided through the construction area by Kari Bonaro, director of the Ralph Wilson Park Conservancy. Because this is an active job site, please read the following instructions from Kari…

The Ralph Wilson Park Conservancy, in partnership with Gilbane Construction, is offering small hard hat tours when possible, depending on the conditions at the park, which is an active construction site. We can tour groups of up to 25 people

We will cover up to 2 miles of uneven terrain without stopping to sit down. Please be advised of these conditions and only choose to join if you are able to walk 2 miles of uneven terrain in under 90 minutes.

All attendees must wear close toed shoes and pants. To join the tour, you must be over 18. The Ralph Wilson Park Conservancy will provide a construction helmet and high visibility vest, which must be worn while on site. Attendees must complete this waiver before entering the site, and must follow all safety instructions and protocols.

Map to 5 DAR Drive in Buffalo. Parking is available at the construction trailers. Take Porter Ave., enter the park on DAR Drive, go past the pool & football field, through the ‘road closed’ signs and enter through the gate. You can park in front of the construction trailers. Anyone who prefers not to drive/bike into the site can park in the football field parking lot and walk in. We will meet there to get hard hats and vests on and review the safety protocol.

Please email Andrew if you plan on attending this event!

Meet at 7 pm in the Cummings Room.

Leaders: Katelyn Davis and Devin Banning (716-260-8889) [email protected]
Date: Saturday, November 23, 2024
Meeting time: 9:00am

Place: Dunkirk Harbor Pier
Alternate meeting place (to be used if pier is closed): Dunkirk Memorial Park (just west of the pier on Route 5)

This trip will be targeting newly arrived waterfowl that use the Dunkirk Harbor and the surrounding area to winter. It is not unusual to see over a dozen species of waterfowl in a morning here!
We will also be looking for gulls and shorebirds along the way, as well as the harbor’s resident Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons. Bring a scope if you have one, if not we can share!
Depending on recent bird reports from surrounding hotspots, we may choose to bird Point Gratiot, the Berry Road Marsh and/or Lake Erie SP after birding the harbor. Dress for the weather, there is often a breeze coming off the lake.

Photo of a Brant taken by Nathan Stimson on November 17, 2024.

Annual Holiday Celebration at 7:00 PM in the Cummings Room of the Buffalo Museum of Science.

Please bring a treat to share and enjoy an evening of birding friendship.

UPDATE - this departure is already filled. A wait list has been started

This tour will run Sunday, January 25 - Saturday, February 7, 2026.

This tour will span a full 12 days of birding on the famous and well-travelled northern Colombia birding route including Barranquilla, the Santa Marta Mountains, the ProAves Preserves of El Dorado and Perija, the flamingo sanctuary at Camarones and more! The Santa Martas host a bevy of endemic species including Blossomcrown and Woodstar hummingbirds, an antpitta, a brush finch, the endangered Santa Marta Parakeet and more. We will not only be looking for the endemics but for other species such as Scarlet Ibis, Vermillion Cardinal, Northern Screamer, Wattled Jacana, Dwarf Cuckoo, Russet-throated Puffbird, White-tipped Quetzal, Blue-naped Chlorophonia, Golden-breasted Fruiteater and so many more jewels!
I have a Colombian guide that will make all of the tour arrangements and travel with us to show off the wonders of Colombia! The itinerary will be finished soon and sent to those that are signed up.

Photo is of the endangered Santa Marta Parakeet.

UPDATE 8/13/25 - There are still two spaces remaining for this departure.

UPDATE 3/10/25 - There are two spaces available for this departure.

UPDATE - registration begins mid-December of 2025. I will reach out to the group regarding trip deposit and other details in early August 2025!

Stay tuned for details on this trip. We will be joining Audubon of Kansas during their spring Prairie-Chicken festival. This festival offers field trips, a keynote speaker and evening socials. This trip will run for a week…from Wednesday, April 8 (flight to Kansas City) to Tuesday, April 14, 2026 (flight back to Buffalo).

We will arrive in Kansas City, MO and drive 4 hours west to Hays, Kansas on Wednesday, April 8. We will likely make a few stops along the way for target species! I will take our group birding on the pre- and post-festival days of April 9, 13 and 14.
During the festival, pre-dawn field trips will offer views of Greater and Lesser Prairie-Chickens as the males gather to dance on their leks to impress the girls. Other field trips offered during the weekend will include the famous Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira NWR. Species we hope to see at these locations include Franklin’s Gull, Cinnamon Teal, Baird’s Sandpiper, Snowy Plover, and Yellow-headed Blackbird. My scouting trip in April 2023 yielded a flock of 6 Whooping Cranes!
Additional trips to Smoky Valley Ranch and Little Jerusalem Badlands will offer opportunities to see Ferruginous Hawk, Say’s Phoebe, Rock Wren, and Harris’s Sparrow.
As with any BOS Travel Trip, please email Alec at [email protected] if you are interested to get on the participant list!

The date span for this tour will be Saturday, June 6 - Sunday, June 14, 2026. We will have 7 full days of birding bracketed by our travel days.

Target birds are MANY, but Montana is a large state! Our tour will cover a wide range of habitats in western MT including spruce forests of the Bitterroot Range, high sagebrush valleys, short grass prairie and pothole wetlands. Yes, Great Gray Owls nest in Montana and that will definitely be a target species - why freeze your tuchus off at Zax-Sim Bog in February?!

Our group will fly in/out of Missoula where we will spend our first three nights. After that we hop around between Dillon, Helena, Harlowton, and Great Falls.

Other birds of interest include but are bnot limited to...Dusky Grouse, Long-billed Curlew, Ferruginous Hawk, Williamson's and Red-named Sapsuckers, Lewis's and Three-toed Woodpeckers, Prairie Falcon, Clark’s Nutcracker, Dipper, Sprague's Pipit, several finches, 2 longspurs, Brewer's, Baird’s and Sagebrush Sparrows, MacGillivray's and Townsend's Warblers, Lazuli Bunting and more! Yes, we will also try for Great Gray and Flammulated Owls. We even managed Gray Partridge and Sharp-tailed Grouse last year!

Photo is of a Flammulated Owl.

This trip will be limited to 7 participants, plus myself, and will span 6 full days of birding plus 2 1/2 travel days (due to overnight flight and 6-hour time zone difference).
We will depart on Friday, August 28 on an overnight flight to Copenhagen, Denmark; arriving midday Saturday, August 29. We fly home on Saturday, September 5, 2026. Flights for western Europe depart in the afternoon from the eastern US, fly overnight and arrive at destination the following morning/afternoon.
Our British guide, Stephen Menzie, will pick us up from the Copenhagen airport and drive 45 minutes across the Oresund Bridge to the town of Vellinge, Sweden where we will stay at a working organic farm for our tour.
Falsterbo has a bird observatory where point counts and banding are conducted and our tour will be based nearby. Daily itinerary will be dictated by the weather as this is a migration bottleneck, like legendary Cape May, NJ or Point Pelee, Ontario. This tour will coincide with a wide variety of migrants, and if migration isn't especially active we will head inland to search out forest species such as Black Woodpecker! Target birds will be many including…Eurasian Hobby, Bearded Reedling, Eurasian Curlew and Oystercatcher, Pied Avocet and Lapwing, there species of Harrier, Wagtails, Pipits, both Green and Black Woodpeckers and so forth and so on! Stay tuned for updates! If you are interested, let me know so that I can add your name to the participant list - [email protected]

Here is the link to the trip report from the September 2024 tour…

https://ebird.org/tripreport/273583


Photo is of a Bearded Reedling taken by Tim Schadel on our September 2024 tour.

UPDATE 3/9/2025 - There are only three spaces remaining for this departure.

Andrea Heine and Celeste Morien put me up to this and I couldn’t be more excited! Africa has always been a place that I have wanted to travel to because I grew up watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins!
This will be a 17-day tour, plus travel days to/from Africa, that will have us birding Namibia and a bit of Botswana, including Etosha and Chobe NPs and Victoria Falls. This trip is still in the planning stages so these dates are NOT SET IN STONE and may vary by a day or two. At a maximum our group would number 12 in total and that will get us two guides and two 8-seat safari cruisers.
The bird list is ridiculously incredible and includes families such as Bee-eaters, Rollers, Sandgrouse, Hornbills, Bustards, Cisticolas, Larks, Sunbirds, Coursers, Spurfowl and more. Specific birds include Bateleur, Secretarybird, Ostrich, Lilac-breasted Roller, Verreaux’s Eagle, Pygmy Falcon, Rockrunner, White-crested Helmet-Shrike, Emerald Spotted Wood Dove, Marsh Owl, Black Bustard, Bat Hawk and scores more!
We will also see some of Africa’s iconic large mammals possibly including African Bush Elephant, Black Rhinoceros, Kudu, Lion, two species of Zebra, Giraffe (Angolan subspecies), Oryx and Warthog.
The date span of the safari will be Sunday, November 1 through Tuesday, November 17. We will likely fly into Johannesburg, South Africa on an overnight flight from the US on Friday, October 30, arriving on Saturday, October 31, spending the night near the airport and then take a 1-way flight (about 1 hr 40 min) from Johannesburg to either Kasane, Botswana or Windhoek, Namibia - this will depend on which city our tour will begin/end. At the end of our tour, we would again take a 1-way flight back to Johannesburg from either Windhoek or Kasane.
If this is a trip you would be interested in taking with the BOS, please e-mail me so I can get an idea of the possible group size. A ballpark figure for a trip like this would be around $9500 which would include the flight from Buffalo to Johannesburg (around $2300 today 4/22/25), two 1-way flights from Johannesburg to Windhoek/Kasane and back (around $450 for both as of 4/22/25), and two extra nights in a Johannesburg hotel near the airport at the start and end of the trip. A single supplement will cost about $800. The sample flight I looked at out of Buffalo has one layover in Atlanta for 4 hours, departing Bflo at 3:30pm on a Friday and arriving in Johannesburg the next day at 7:00pm.
I should have a more precise figure by summer ‘25 as it will be dependent upon the number of participants as well as getting the 2026 costs for lodges. Also keep in mind the currency fluctuations between the US dollar against the South African Rand.

Photo of a Secretarybird taken on the Etosha Pan.

UPDATE 11/26/24…Speaking with Brent to set up a second departure that will begin on February 6, 2027 and extend two weeks.

UPDATE 8/7/24…this trip is now full at 8 participants. A waiting list has been started.

Well, I never thought I would be even considering a birding trip to New Zealand, BUT HERE WE ARE! This is an incredible opportunity to bird New Zealand with one of her native sons and past BOS member, Brent Stephenson! Brent lived in the Buffalo area for a few years before moving to Vermont with his wife, Lisa.
The group will depart Buffalo on Monday, January 18, 2027 to allow us to arrive on January 20 (due to crossing the International Date Line). The birding tour will then begin on Thursday, January 21, 2027. This trip will be limited to 8 participants and the land-based portion of the trip will cost about $6500 (this includes all lodging/meals/guiding/travel within country/multiple pelagics/ferry rides) plus your airfare. It is a trip worth saving for and you have a good two years to do so!
Details and itinerary will be added here over the next few months…
In the meantime, if you are considering this trip, you may want to order Brent’s book “Birds of New Zealand: A Photographic Guide” by Scofield and Stephenson. The digital version of the field guide is also available! I just ordered mine off of Amazon! You have 2.5 years to study….GO!

Photo is of an endemic parrot, the Kea.

The dates for this trip are as follows…depart Buffalo on Thursday, February 4, 2027 and arrive in Auckland on Saturday, February 6, 2027. (Due to crossing the international dateline). The birding tour would begin on Sunday, February 7 and run for two weeks, wrapping up on Saturday, February 20, 2027.

Well, I never thought I would be even considering a birding trip to New Zealand, BUT HERE WE ARE! This is an incredible opportunity to bird New Zealand with one of her native sons and past BOS member, Brent Stephenson! Brent lived in the Buffalo area for a few years before moving to Vermont with his wife, Lisa.
This trip is a ways out and Brent and I are still figuring out the logistics but the 2-week itinerary will embark on February 5, 2027. The group will plan to arrive a day before the tour begins (February 4) to give us a day to adjust to the loooong travel day and time zone difference! This trip will be limited to 8 participants and the land-based portion of the trip will cost about $6500 (this includes all lodging/meals/guiding/travel within country/multiple pelagics/ferry rides) plus your airfare. It is a trip worth saving for and you have a good two years to do so!
Details and itinerary will be added here over the next few months…
In the meantime, if you are considering this trip, you may want to order Brent’s book “Birds of New Zealand: A Photographic Guide” by Scofield and Stephenson. I just ordered mine off of Amazon! You have 2.5 years to study….GO!

Photo of Yellow-eyed Penguins, Katiki Point, South Island by Brendan Tucker 11/2024.

This Ecuador trip will be a shorter 10-day tour focusing on comfortable lodges that offer amazing nectar and fruit feeder set-ups! Leisurely viewing and great photographic opportunities with up close views of many tanagers, hummingbirds, toucans, barbets, woodcreepers, woodpeckers and more! This will be our fourth tour with our amazing guide, Nelson, and our equally amazing driver, Orlando!
We will visit several of my favorite locations including WildSumaco Lodge, Las Terrazas de Dana in Mindo and Bellavista Cloudforest Lodge. We will have less moving around on this itinerary, allowing for more leisurely birding at feeders and on short walks while still seeing an amazing array of species. Several of our stops will allow us to hand feed hummingbirds as well!
Details will be forthcoming for this 10 day tour which will allow us 8 full days of birding in the stunning country of Ecuador!
If this departure entices you, please email me ([email protected]) to have your name added to the participant list! This trip will run from March 11 - 20, 2027. I am going to offer an optional Amazon extension after this tour concludes running from March 21 - 29, 2027.

Photo is of a pair of Rose-faced Parrots from Amagusa Reserve (we will be visiting this amazing location).

April 10-17, 2027

Spring migration Texas-style! This tour will take you to the famous birding hotspots along the Upper Texas Coast; High Island, Smith Oaks, Bolivar Peninsula, Anahuac NWR and possibly Sabine Woods, Louisiana. We will fly in and out of Houston, Texas and use Winnie, Texas as our base of operations. This trip
will be limited to 7 participants plus Alec as your guide. We will travel in a 12-passenger van to allow for plenty of leg room.

Our focus will be northbound migrants. The Upper Texas Coast is famous for spectacular waves of migrants arriving from their trans-water crossing originating from the Yucatan Peninsula. When April cold fronts sweep offshore of Texas and Louisiana, they produce a headwind for songbirds. When this happens, exhausted birds arrive into the forested salt dome islands of the Gulf Coast, which is what High Island is.

Nearby Smith Oaks Sanctuary hosts a large colony of waders including Roseate Spoonbills. The beaches along the Bolivar Peninsula host many shorebirds and terns including Wilson's Plover and frequently hundreds of American Avocets. Anahuac NWR is a marsh/prairie complex that hosts both species of Whistling-Ducks, King Rail and Purple Gallinule. Agricultural fields dotting the nearby landscape offer fields for species such as Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Hudsonian Godwits. Needless to say, the birding will be fantastic!

***email Alec to get yourself added to the participant list.

American Avocet flock at the Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary, April.

The date span for this tour will be Sunday, June 20 - Monday, June 28, 2027. We will have 7 full days of birding bracketed by our travel days.

Target birds are MANY, but Montana is a large state! Our tour will cover a wide range of habitats in western MT including spruce forests of the Bitterroot Range, high sagebrush valleys, short grass prairie and pothole wetlands. Yes, Great Gray Owls nest in Montana and that will definitely be a target species - why freeze your tuchus off at Zax-Sim Bog in February?!

Our group will fly in/out of Missoula where we will spend our first three nights. After that we hop around between Dillon, Helena, Harlowton, and Great Falls.

Other birds of interest include but are not limited to...Dusky Grouse, Long-billed Curlew, Ferruginous Hawk, Williamson's and Red-named Sapsuckers, Lewis's and Three-toed Woodpeckers, Prairie Falcon, Clark’s Nutcracker, Dipper, Sprague's Pipit, several finches, 2 longspurs, Brewer's, Baird’s and Sagebrush Sparrows, MacGillivray's and Townsend's Warblers, Lazuli Bunting and more! Yes, we will also try for Great Gray and Flammulated Owls. We even managed Gray Partridge and Sharp-tailed Grouse in 2025!

Photo is of a Chestnut-collared Longspur.

Andrea Heine and Celeste Morien put me up to this and I couldn’t be more excited! Africa has always been a place that I have wanted to travel to because I grew up watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins!
This will be a 17-day tour, plus travel days to/from Africa, that will have us birding Namibia and a bit of Botswana, including Etosha and Chobe NPs and Victoria Falls. This trip is still in the planning stages so these dates are NOT SET IN STONE and may vary by a day or two. At a maximum our group would number 12 in total and that will get us two guides and two 8-seat safari cruisers.
The bird list is ridiculously incredible and includes families such as Bee-eaters, Rollers, Sandgrouse, Hornbills, Bustards, Cisticolas, Larks, Sunbirds, Coursers, Spurfowl and more. Specific birds include Bateleur, Secretarybird, Ostrich, Lilac-breasted Roller, Verreaux’s Eagle, Pygmy Falcon, Rockrunner, White-crested Helmet-Shrike, Emerald Spotted Wood Dove, Marsh Owl, Black Bustard, Bat Hawk and scores more!
We will also see some of Africa’s iconic large mammals possibly including African Bush Elephant, Black Rhinoceros, Kudu, Lion, two species of Zebra, Giraffe (Angolan subspecies), Oryx and Warthog.
The date span of the safari will be Sunday, November 1 through Tuesday, November 17. We will likely fly into Johannesburg, South Africa on an overnight flight from the US on Friday, October 30, arriving on Saturday, October 31, spending the night near the airport and then take a 1-way flight (about 1 hr 40 min) from Johannesburg to either Kasane, Botswana or Windhoek, Namibia - this will depend on which city our tour will begin/end. At the end of our tour, we would again take a 1-way flight back to Johannesburg from either Windhoek or Kasane.
If this is a trip you would be interested in taking with the BOS, please e-mail me so I can get an idea of the possible group size. A ballpark figure for a trip like this would be around $9500 which would include the flight from Buffalo to Johannesburg (around $2300 today 4/22/25), two 1-way flights from Johannesburg to Windhoek/Kasane and back (around $450 for both as of 4/22/25), and two extra nights in a Johannesburg hotel near the airport at the start and end of the trip. A single supplement will cost about $800. The sample flight I looked at out of Buffalo has one layover in Atlanta for 4 hours, departing Bflo at 3:30pm on a Friday and arriving in Johannesburg the next day at 7:00pm.
I should have a more precise figure by summer ‘25 as it will be dependent upon the number of participants as well as getting the 2026 costs for lodges. Also keep in mind the currency fluctuations between the US dollar against the South African Rand.