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The Birding Tours on this website are copyright protected. I do not allow the text from these Tours to appear anywhere else. This includes print media and any internet websites, including personal websites and any nature related organizations. A hyperlink which opens my birding tour text directly from your website is also unacceptable. I will seek legal action against anyone who violates the copyright of this website. Please do not ask permission to borrow text from this web page. It will not be given. Please feel free to download these tours for personal use. Introduction The primary objective of these Birding Tours is to assist birders in identifying key birding sites in a particular region. Secondly, to link these sites together through precise and detailed directions, forming a loop through the region. Each site in these documents will have a brief description of habitat, strategy and when to visit. Because all the sites are in loop order, one can skip a site and move on to the next location without going out of the way. Backtracking was avoided whenever possible. The beginning birder will find these Tours invaluable, as it took expert birders years to discover and evaluate these sites. In-state, seasoned birders will find these Tours useful if they are unfamiliar with a particular region of Indiana. Out-of-state birders who cannot locate a professional guide, can download these tours and bird Indiana without even using a map!!! However, an Indiana Delorme Topographical Map and Indiana State Map is recommended, in addition to Tour Documents. These Tours were written and can be downloaded in Microsoft Word. I am also making them available in PDF format. If your computer does not already have Acrobat Reader on it, simply download it free from the Adobe Acrobat web site. Click the buttons on the left for an overview of the sites in each region. Anatomy of a Big Day 1999 - Microsoft Word Anatomy of a Big Day 1999 - Adobe Acrobat (PDF file) Every serious birder should do at least one Big Day in their life time. It is an unforgettable experience. This document gives a birder an idea of what is involved in doing a Big Day. It is a detailed account and analysis of a Big Day performed by the Amos W. Butler Men's Team in 1999. 1. North-West Birding Tour.doc Northwest Birding Tour - PDF.pdf This Tour is 46 pages long. The best region in the state for rarities and huge migratory fallouts, this Tour covers 38 sites in Jasper, Pulaski, Starke, Laporte, Porter, Lake, Newton, Benton and Warren Counties. 2.West-Central Bird Tour West-Central Birding Tour - PDF.pdf This Tour is 43 pages long and covers 29 sites. You will be birding 9 counties in the following order: Montgomery, Parke, Clay, Vigo, Vermillion, Fountain, Warren, Tippecanoe and Benton. The 3rd best tour, it also benefits from falling directly beneath the Lake Michigan migratory funnel ( A.K.A. - the "Lake Michigan Funnel Corridor"). 3. Southwest Bird Tour Southwest Birding Tour - PDF.pdf This Tour is 91 pages long. In this Tour you will be visiting 75 sites in Owen, Putnam, Clay, Vigo, Greene, Sullivan, Knox, Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh, Warrick, Spencer, Pike, Dubois, Orange, Lawrence, Brown and Monroe Counties. The second best region in the state for birding, the southwest harbors nesting species not typically found in other regions of the state. The southwest also benefits from falling directly beneath the migratory funnel of Lake Michigan. I call this the migratory "funnel Corridor", A.K.A.-the west side of the state. The borders for the southwest region are: south of I - 70, west of S.R. 135, the Ohio River and the Wabash River. 4.Northeast Birding Tour Northeast Birding Tour - PDF.pdf This Tour is 53 pages long. You will be visiting 38 sites in Allen, Dekalb, Steuben, Lagrange, Noble and Whitley counties. The northeast region is well known for the many lakes, ponds and wetland areas that exist here. The six counties have 374+ bodies of water. Grasslands are extensive, especially in Dekalb County. 5.Southeast Bird Tour Southeast Birding Tour - PDF.pdf This Tour is 54 pages long. You will be visiting 27 sites in Fayette, Union, Franklin, Dearborn, Ripley, Jennings, Jackson, Jefferson, Clark, Floyd, Washington, Bartholomew and Johnson Counties. I casually counted 90+ sub-sites within the 27 headlined sites. You will be busy. 6.Northwest Shorebird Tour Northwest Shorebird Tour - PDF.pdf This Tour is 10 pages long. It covers the 9 best sites to visit for shorebirds during mid-summer and fall migration (July, August, September). 7. EAST – CENTRAL TOUR (Microsoft Word) East-Central Birding Tour - PDF.pdf This Tour is 13 pages long. 8 sites in Henry, Delaware, Jay, Huntington, Wabash, and Miami Counties are covered. Marshes, lakes and reservoirs will be visited for spring and fall waterfowl migration (February, March, April, late October, November and December). 8. Salamonie Bird Tour Salamonie Birding Tour - PDF.pdf This Tour is 9 pages long. It covers 12 sites at Salamonie Reservoir in Huntington and Wabash Counties. This is a Big Day Tour which explores a wide variety of habitat. 9. Monroe County Bird Tour Monroe County Bird Tour - PDF.pdf This Tour is 13 pages long and covers 15 sites, 4 of which are in Brown County. Monroe County is home to the Hurrying Hoosiers of Indiana University (Bloomington). It is also home to the largest man made reservoir in Indiana, Monroe Lake. Monroe County has a wide diversity of habitat and receives excellent birding coverage by Indiana University Professors, students and local expert birders. Surrounding, or in the near vicinity, are Morgan Monroe State Forest, Yellowwood State Forest, Jackson-Washington State Forest, Hoosier National Forest (including the Deam Wilderness Area), Brown County State Park and McCormick's Creek State Park. This is a very basic tour, as there are many more sites in Monroe County not covered here. Use this as a basic framework for further exploration. The 15 sites in this tour are the most popular and frequently birded sites.
Help buy more land to hunt, fish, bird watch and recreate on. Buy a Indiana Heritage Trust License Plate from your local Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
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