Birds & Conservation in BC’s Columbia Valley

Land Tour
Highlights

Highlights

  • Explore the spectacular Rocky Mountains, from valley to peaks
  • Get to know an internationally-recognized wetland complex
  • Delight in the variety and abundance of birds and wildlife
  • Meet dedicated conservationists - and see what they’re doing to protect wild nature

Tour Overview

The Columbia valley in eastern British Columbia is many things: a place of outstanding beauty, a spectacular Ramsar-recognized wetland ecosystem, an internationally important migration flyway – and home to some wonderful and inspiring conservation projects that protect birds, wildlife, and wilderness.

In this innovative birding & conservation tour you will explore all this!  As always, we’ll focus on the birds – you’ll be awestruck by the diversity and abundance of the birds we see in alpine, forest, and wetland habitats – but we’ll take a few hours here and there to be inspired by some of the Valley’s leading conservationists, as you experience first-hand the exciting projects they lead to protect swallows, badgers, grizzly bears, and everything in between!  

Part of the proceeds from this tour will go towards a conservation project of your choice.

What's Included

Tour Price Includes

  • All accommodation (Good quality)
  • All breakfast and lunches
  • Ground transportation
  • 1 guide with 4 - 8 participants, 2 guides with 9 - 12
  • All park, conservation and entrance fees
  • Includes a $150 donation to project of your choice (projects visited during the tour).

Tour Price Does Not Include

  • Evening meals
  • Travel Insurance
  • Items of a personal nature
  • Taxes (5% GST)

What to Expect

Overview

The Bird’s and Conversation in BC’s Columbia Valley tour is a moderately paced birding tour. We focus on finding a diversity of birds. You can expect some early mornings and the occasional post-dinner walk.

Food

We generally have breakfast at the hotel before we head out for the day. Sometimes we will have optional pre-breakfast walks. We often take a picnic lunch in the field, but will occasionally stop at a restaurant for lunch. Dinner is usually at the lodge or a nearby restaurant. Each evening after dinner we compile the day’s checklist, review the day’s activities, birds, mammals and other observations, and plan the next day’s activities. 

Accommodation

Generally we stay in standard hotel rooms in locations close to where we want to go birding. 

Walking

The walking on this tour is rated easy to moderate. Most birding is done from roads and well-marked trails, but we occasionally traverse low brush, swampy and uneven terrain, and there is some hill hiking. We walk at a slow pace, stopping frequently to observe fauna and flora. When we have two leaders, we sometimes split into “faster” and “slower” groups.

Driving

Driving times will vary from 1 – 3.5 hours of driving when transferring to a new location. We will have many rest stops along the way when moving to a new town.

Climate

The weather in the Interior of BC is usually dry and sunny in Spring, but rain is a possibility. It is best to check the weather the week before the tour starts and pack layers!

Featured Wildlife

While we cannot guarantee sightings of the birds or mammals listed below, we believe that encountering these species is quite likely during this tour.

  • Bighorn Sheep
  • Elk
  • Grizzly Bear
  • Lazuli Bunting
  • White-throated Swift
  • Clark’s Nutcracker
  • Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch
  • Black-headed Grosbeak
  • Bullock’s Oriole
  • Lewis’s Woodpecker
  • Long-billed Curlew
  • Williamson’s Sapsucker
  • Bobolink
  • Steller's Jay
  • Townsend's Solitaire
  • Varied Thrush
  • Townsend's Warbler
  • Western Tanager
  • Clay-colored Sparrow
  • Swainson's Hawk