The City of Brotherly Love welcomes you! Plan to arrive by mid to late afternoon so that we can gather at 6pm in our hotel lobby to head out for our orientation/welcome dinner. Night in Philadelphia.

Just over an hour from Philadelphia is one of the most storied birding hotspots in the country. With close to 50,000 acres of maritime forest, saltmarsh and pine-oak woodlands, the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge shelters thousands of migratory birds. In winter it is especially good for ducks, geese and raptors. It is not uncommon to see 15 or 20 species of waterfowl. Usually Brant, American Black Ducks and Snow Geese are in good numbers, while Northern Harriers cruise low over the marshes, Peregrines post up to watch for Green-winged Teal, and Bald Eagles often number in double digits. With luck we could encounter a Golden Eagle or a Snowy Owl, but we’ll need some help from the birding gods. Some winters they are regular here but they are generally scarce. Always though, there is something to see. We’ll work the refuge for the first part of the day, find a place to warm up with some food for lunch, and then get settled in to our hotel before birding one or two other spots nearby to close out the day. Night in Ocean City.

With a variety of great birding spots to choose from within 90 minutes (or less) in any direction of our base in Ocean City, we will see what the weather and the birds offer us, but we will plan to divide our time to seek out seaducks, unusual geese, scarce sparrows, alcids, rare gulls, owls, raptors, and any rarities that might appeal. Within a figurative stone’s throw, we have Cape May, Stone Harbor Point, the Forsythe Refuge, Barnegat Light State Park, Long Beach Island, Manasquan Inlet and Island Beach State Park. And that’s just along the coast. Inland there are spots where blackbirds roost sometimes by the thousands, and we could encounter Rusty Blackbirds or rarer icterids, while agricultural areas can prove good for owls, winter raptors, scarce sparrows and other oddities.

Weather is unpredictable at this season, ranging from frigid to mild, at times windy, snowy or rainy, or it can be clear and calm. We’ll see what we are dealt during our few days together, as weather can hinder or aid our efforts, so we’ll adapt accordingly, but among our targets will be species such as Harlequin Duck, Long-tailed Duck, Surf & Black Scoters, Snow Geese, Purple Sandpiper, Great Cormorant, Clapper Rail, Marbled Godwit, American Oystercatcher, Northern Gannet, and more. Many winters feature scarcer species that we’ll invest time searching for too, such as King Eider, Golden Eagle, Snowy Owl, Red Knot, American Woodcock, Razorbill, Rough-legged Hawk, Snow Bunting, Seaside Sparrow, Saltmarsh Sparrow, Nelson’s Sparrows, American Tree Sparrow, and others. We will pick through flocks of geese and gulls in search of rarer species. Increasingly rare geese species such as Cackling, Barnacle, Greater White-fronted, or Pink-footed occur, though they are still unpredictable and often hard to find. Nights in Ocean City, New Jersey.

We’ll enjoy a final morning out in the field trying to mop up any last birds we might like to see. We’ll aim to be back to the Philadelphia Airport by about 1pm in order to catch flights out in late afternoon or early evening.