Trips

Wimberley Birding Society Trips

The Wimberley Birding Society may be the best-traveled bird club in Texas. Club members have visited avian destinations both within Texas and around the world. (For information about past trips, see our Trip Archives.)

In Texas

Trips within the state have included visits to numerous birding festivals, held in locales such as Harlingen, Three Rivers, Concan, Balmorhea, Rockport-Fulton and Clute. We’ve enjoyed visits to private ranches including the K.C. Ranch outside Balmorhea; Kennedy Ranch near Refugio, Bamberger Ranch near Johnson City, and Bob Petersen’s ranch outside Blanco.

Some places have called for repeat visits. We’ve enjoyed the Galveston area, Hornsby Bend, the Rio Grande Valley and the Big Bend area several times. East Texas trips have been rare, but an Elderhostel in Broadus was very rewarding.

In addition to birding, we take time to enjoy other activities on our trips. We’ve taken boat rides, paddled canoes, gone on wild game drives, looked at ancient cave wall art, visited wineries and breweries and heard Christmas carols in caves. And we’ve had some fabulous meals.

Yes, this club likes to eat. We’ve had great Chinese food in San Angelo, a memorable dinner at AransasZu in Rockport, excellent Italian cuisine in Galveston and terrific seafood at the Stingaree near Port Bolivar. The service was outstanding and the food fine at Marble Falls’ Bluebonnet Cafe and the fish was fresh and portions huge at the Big Fisherman near Aransas Pass.

Beyond Texas Borders

On January 22, 1997, 20 intrepid birders left for Costa Rica on the club’s very first out-of-Texas trip. Since that momentous journey, club members have traveled to Panama, Peru (including Machu Picchu and the Amazon), Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Hawaii, Maine, Ecuador (including the Galapagos Islands),Orcas Island off the coast of Washington, Arcata, California, and Africa.

In addition to seeing some outstanding birds — carmine bee-eater, Pel’s fishing owl, resplendent quetzal, bearded bellbird, oilbird, scarlet ibis, toucan, oropendola, Atlantic puffin, iiwi, nene, and black-tailed trainbearer — we also had some wonderful experiences. We climbed among ancient Mayan ruins, saw double rainbows over the Amazon River, swam with tiger sharks in the Galapagos, watched a turtle lay her eggs in Trinidad and ran out of gas in a small boat in the Panama Canal. In Africa, we saw lion, elephant, rhino and cape buffalo and awesome Victoria Falls.

Don’t miss out on the fun. Visit Future Trips to learn about upcoming trips.

Trip Archives

For information and photos from past Wimbirds trips, check out our Trip Archives.