1 week in April; where to go?

I have a week for vacation the last week of April; where would a good destination be for birding at that time? Confined to N. America, please.

Snydremark wrote in post #17968386
I have a week for vacation the last week of April; where would a good destination be for birding at that time? Confined to N. America, please.

The peak of songbird migration through the NYC area generally occurs during the first 10 to 15 days of May, but if they are lucky with winds, they may get there sooner. A couple of years back, we had our best migrant days Central Park around Apr 27th, and 29th, I think. So, the most likely place along the east coast to catch the best of the migration the last week of April is probably Virginia or so, I would guess. Maybe someone from Virginia or Maryland or thereabout could comment.

We'll add this to our options list; thanks John!

Snydremark wrote in post #17968386
I have a week for vacation the last week of April; where would a good destination be for birding at that time? Confined to N. America, please.

It'd be awesome to do a lekking bird trip!

Options could be Wyoming for Sage Grouse, Minnesota or Colorado for Greater Prairie Chickens., or a combo trip to the Fort Pierre National Grasslands in South Dakota for both Prairie Chickens and Sharptail Grouse.

Lekking birds are kinda hardcore bird photography, with advance scouting and the use of blinds required. But the cool thing is that by 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning you are done on the lek, which leaves the rest of the day for touring around and seeing what else is in the area ..... usually there are a lot of raptors in areas where game birds have leks, so you could use the days to pursue Burrowing Owls, Short-eared Owls, Prairie Falcons, Ferruginous Hawks, etc.

If you're interested just give me a call or a PM and I can give you contact info for some areas that already have blinds set up for public use.

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I second Tom's idea. Last spring (the last week in April) I did a trip for Greater Prairie Chickens. I used public blinds near Crookston, Mn. I had a great trip and got some fantastic photos. The only downside is you have to get up and hike into the blind before the sun comes up-requires pre-scouting and a flashlight but worth it.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #17968637
It'd be awesome to do a lekking bird trip!

Options could be Wyoming for Sage Grouse, Minnesota or Colorado for Greater Prairie Chickens., or a combo trip to the Fort Pierre National Grasslands in South Dakota for both Prairie Chickens and Shirttail Grouse.

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Mel-S wrote in post #17984778
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Ahhh! You caught me! Darn spell check. I am always using words that it doesn't know, and having to override the damn thing.
Thanks for the heads up - I'll correct it.

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