>I've been lurking on Tweeters for a while now - this thread looks like a
>good place to get my feet wet (virtually, anyway, until the East side
>loosestrife pull begins).

Glad you posted, you've done well...

>1. I joined the Natl Audubon, assuming that I would get a local
>chapter membership which would give me info about outings - so far no local
>newsletter or any such thing has materialized.

When did you join? PAS gets updates on members quarterly, I believe,
perhaps an SAS person could verify. I remember hearing not long ago
that there was a delay of at least that long from our membership people,
so even if they update us monthly we're not updated with LAST months
new members. This whole process is one source of friction between local
chapters and National Aububon.

Also, if ELWAS is a small chapter, membership services are likely
being done entirely by volunteers, so processing may take time.

Consider calling them up, explain the situation, and I'm sure
they'll start sending you their newsletter.

> I read through the recent
>posting explaining the Audubon organization, and I'm wondering - do I need
>to join the local chapter individually?

No, you should not have to.

>(It would be helpful to have the various chapters' activities
>posted online so you don't have to join them all!)

That's a good point - as one person pointed out, it's easy for
a Salem Audubon person to meet a Portland Audubon field trip to,
say, the coast if they know about it (and vice-versa).

>Weather-wise, the
>Texas and Arizona hotspots seem like the best bet.

Either would be good. Florida would be good, too, but unfortunately
prices for lodging etc rise dramatically after Christmas (on a
sliding scale month-by-month 'til March or so in some cases), peaking
with the snowbird invasion.

Between Texas and Arizona I personally would recommend Arizona. The
hummers and all aren't all there (but some stick around), but there
are a lot of resident species. I'm being a bit of a non-traditionalist,
here, because Texas in winter has a lot of "specialities" and this
is really by far the best time to go there (except for spring migration).

But, if you've not been to the Sonoran Desert and the SE Chihuahuan
Desert ranges before, the scenery and flora is just as great as
the birding and you should be able to find a good organized trip
that will explore more than "just birds". The Rio Grande ,
which is the traditional stomping grounds for winter birding tours
in Texas (along with looking at Whooping Crane on the gulf coast),
take place in terrain which is (any Texans reading?) less than
spectacular.

This is just my spin on taking a "birding vacation". If it's
the best birding you want, Florida or Texas are probably better.



- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>