A World of Birds
My Birding Buddies

My beautiful wife, Maria Chevarria-Gain has traveled the world with me from Europe (France, England, and Scotland) to North America (US and Canada) to the Yucatan Peninsula. Here in the US, we birded together in Arizona, Texas, Florida and Hawaii. She calls herself a beginner birder, but she is plenty knowledgeable and even aced Wally Tordoff's Winter Birding class at Stan State.  At the top of her Most Wanted birds to see is SNOWY OWL (and any puffin).

Mom and dad, Katie and Tom Gain, inspired and encouraged me from a small lad to pursue my interests in nature. My mom especially would love to go on rides with me out to the Merced area wetlands. 

My sister Janice Hartley and Gary Hartley in addition to experiencing their wonderful wildlife friendly property in Arkansas (which I dubbed Gary and Jan's Wildlife Sanctuary) they took me to explore Greer's Ferry Lake, Blanchard Springs Caverns and the Bald Knob NWR.

Son the Younger, Jonathon and his GF Piper Woytiuk accompanied me across the plains, forests and parks of Saskatchewan, Canada. I was able to add birds such as Canada Jay along the Waskesiu River Trail, Redpoll at Piper's backyard feeders in Leask and Snowy Owl south of Saskatoon.

My grandchildren, Ellie and Isaac, along with Son the Elder, Luis and Becky helped guide me from Monterey to Key West and from Papworth Everard to the Scottish Seabird Centre and to Etang de L'Ursine, France. 

My daughter Cathy and son-in-law Kirk Burningham (with Sofia my grandaughter) who helped make a visit to the restrooms at the Merced NWR a stop to remember!

Richard Brown and I joined forces in the late 2010s and soon became bird photography best buds. Together we visited the Saguaro Cacti of Arizona, the smells of the Brownsville Dump, the trogons of Belize and Guatemala and most recently Costa Rica along with Jim Ross. (Rich shown here immediately after bagging a beautiful Black-headed Trogon at the Lamanai Ruins in Belize.)

Jim Ross and I recently started birding together after our Costa Rica adventure with plans for more trips, both local and far afield.

Harold Reeves, Eric Caine and I have been birding Stanislaus County since the 1980s. Over the 30 years between 1984 and 2014, we three (mostly Harold and Eric) are responsible for over 100 new species added to the Stanislaus County bird list. Harold and Sheri (Harold's wife) along with Eric would allow me (the rookie) to tag along with them while doing Big Days (birding from 3:30 am to 9:00 pm) in Stanislaus County. We didn't have eBird back in the 80s and 90s so many of those checklists and early records are mostly just memories in my rapidly aging cerebrum. 

San Joaquin County Birders David Yee, Frances Oliver, Kurt Mize and Jim Rowoth (not shown) exhibited great patience and I wandered around "their" county (San Joaquin) and bumbled into many new (to me) species. In fact, David was actually responsible for implanting in me the spark of birding by ear. My first ever trip to Caswell State Park was led by David. As we walked into the park by the entrance, he stopped us and pronounced "Olive-sided Flycatcher" is nearby, it's giving the hic-three-beers call! I was like, What? Next up he called out, "Western Tanager" giving its chur-bit call. From that moment on I was determined to start learning those beautiful sounds.

Eagle-Eye Birding Tour Guides Paz  A. Irola and Ernesto Carman. I first met Ernesto while he guided us on an Eagle-eye Birding Tour in Belize and Guatemala in JAN/FEB 2023. He again was our guide on the Eagle-eye Costa Rica Sampler Tour in JAN/FEB 2024. This time he was joined by his GF Paz who was every bit as knowledgeable and friendly as Ernest was.

Jade Jungle Birding Guide (formerly Pook's Hill Lodge) Mario Choco was another extremely friendly and knowledgeable guide who instantly made you feel like you were best friends.

Amar Aves Tour Owner Miguel Amar (pictured here with my sister and brother-in-law) either personally led me or coordinated with Claudio and Chino (below) to compile 38 checklists from Rio Lagartos, Yucatan to Cozumel Island to the Calakmul Archeoligical Ruins near the Guatemala/Belize borders. Miguel was the most chill bird guide I have ever encountered and so full of interesting information about the local indiginous people and their history as well as general knowledge about how all things are connected in nature.

Amar Aves Tour Guides Claudio Lopez, and Santiago (Chino) Contreras. Claudio led me on a 5 day birding adventrue from Cancun to Rio Lagartos and all the way down to Tres Marias by the Belize border. As we drove along, he would hear bird after bird, knowing their calls so well. Plus he knew where every rarity was near Calakmul. Chino was the best boat guide posible in the Rio Lagartos area where he knew every nook and cranny all along the lagoon.