Field Notes
Birding Hotspots
One named site at a time — where the birds are, and the ground you can legally stand on.
Kuna, ID
800 Pairs of Raptors in One Canyon: Birding the Snake River NCA
The Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area holds the greatest concentration of nesting raptors in North America, on 485,000 acres of BLM ground with almost no facilities. It is forty minutes from Boise and it asks a lot more preparation than that distance suggests.
Mount Vernon, WA
Skagit Flats: A Hundred Thousand Snow Geese on Land You Cannot Walk On
Roughly a hundred thousand snow geese winter in the north Puget Sound basins, and almost all of them spend the day on privately farmed fields. The birding is spectacular and the public ground you can legally stand on adds up to a few hundred acres. Knowing which acres, and how to use them, is the entire skill.
Point Reyes Station, CA
Point Reyes in Autumn: Why Lost Birds Keep Landing on One Headland
Point Reyes has one of the longest vagrant lists in North America, and the reason is geographic rather than magical. A headland that sticks ten miles into the Pacific, a handful of isolated tree stands, and a coastline that runs the wrong way. Here is how to work it, and what the 2025 ranch settlement changes.
Princeton, OR
Malheur: 42 Miles of Gravel and the Best Birding in the Great Basin
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is a long way from anywhere, has more than 340 recorded bird species, and is organized around a 42-mile gravel auto tour built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. What it does not have is a visitor center in winter, cell service, or anywhere to buy lunch.
Birchwood, TN
Hiwassee: The Refuge Closes Exactly When the Cranes Arrive
Thousands of Sandhill Cranes winter where the Hiwassee River meets the Tennessee, along with the occasional Whooping Crane. The refuge itself is closed from November 15 to the end of February, which is the entire season. The observation platform is open year-round, and that is not an oversight.