Don't know where to look?
This highly-skilled expert
might be able to help!
This tree is so big, it's had
Canyon Wren a couple of times!
I am sometimes available to help
guide you in finding birds locally.
Send an e-mail with dates, type of
party, number of people, and what
you'd like to see (if you have
any special preferences).
A little about me.... please note I am not crazy about
this part, but since there are some barely past beginner
level "bird guides" locally, that I've yet to see
out birding, I feel it important you understand the level
of the guide you hire.
Unlike some of the "bird guides" locally I study
birds, write about birds, and go birding with my free time.
I've been birding since I could walk, and published records
of my rare bird finds date back to the late 1960's.
I can ID most calls and songs in a nanosecond.
If you want a guide you can discuss molt, ageing, early and
late migration dates, Type B songs, feather tracts,
county, state or continental status and distribution, that
level of stuff with, there is only one serious birder locally.
There is no other local guide that can ID migrant Empidonax
flycatchers or nocturnal passerine flight calls. One
for pay "bird guide" here I heard call a Cardinal
to others "redbird", and another says "buzzard"
when they see Turkey or Black Vulture.
I led Los Angeles Audubon trips, and wrote the bird
report column for Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon for
many years. I was a contributor the the Texas
Breeding Bird Atlas in the 1980's, and the Los Angeles Co. BBA
in the 1990's. I have been a participant on the San
Antonio, New Braunfels, and Uvalde Christmas Bird Counts,
and compiled a count in California (Palos Verdes Peninsula)
for much of two decades. I published a (340+ sps.)
bird list for a park in L.A., CA, that I was vice-chairman
of the advisory board of for a dozen years, as well as a
study "Avian uses of tule habitats during the nesting season
at Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, in L.A., CA."
I was a California Fish & Game approved biological monitor,
and helped advise them with wetland restoration projects.
I worked for the City of Los Angeles and private firms in
that capacity as well. For the last 5 years I held
U.S. F. & W. Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo
endangered species research permits.
I was the first person to publish (web posting) about the
Texas hill country Yellow-throated Warblers being vocally distinct
from all others in the U.S., and how to tell Turkey Vulture
from Zone-tailed Hawk in spring and summer from long distance,
using molt limits.
Besides the birds which I know fairly inside out, I can ID
over 150+ species of local wildflowers, all the trees,
dragonflies, and the butterflies found locally, most insects
to family on sight, as well as most of the fish down to and
including native minnows, reptiles and amphibians, and even
the occasional fungi. A real nature nerd.
I've received multiple awards from the California State Senate,
and Assembly, the City of Los Angeles, and the Palos Verdes/
South Bay Audubon Society for my volunteer conservation work.
I probably have the high bird lists for Uvalde (323) and
Bandera (220+) Counties, and have seen about 475 species
in Texas, and though I quit chasing birds a long time ago,
I've seen over 700 species in the lower 48. I would be
happy to teach you some techniques and show you some birds.
Mitch Heindel
beak geek, feather freak, and bird nerd
Our E-mail
|