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Jack & Cathy Rasmussen on April 30, 2010 at 07:09 PM said:

Being unfamiliar with the local area and birds, we hired Jon to guide us for two days to sites around Corpus Christi & Port Aransas. Having an expert birder such as Jon makes the birding experience so much more enjoyable & productive. If Jon could see it, he could immediately identify it. So instead of spending a good part of your time looking through a guide trying to figure out what female warbler you just caught a glimpse of or whether that light yellow & gray Vireo was a Warbling or a Philadelphia, you can be looking at the bird while Jon describes the key field marks. You have a much better chance of learning the bird and knowing for certain what you are looking at. While you are paying for expertise when you hire a guide, it is always enhances the experience if he is congenial and easy to interact with which Jon is. We very much enjoyed our two days with him and recommend him highly.

Guy and Dave, Vancouver, B.C. on April 27, 2010 at 08:25 PM said:

If you have a target list you need to call Jon. He really knows his way around and finds the birds quickly. We had a most enjoyable and productive time with Jon who exceeded all our expectations in his efforts.

Doug & Ulai Kirwin/Greg & Lieng Thomas 3-18-2010 on March 25, 2010 at 09:19 AM said:

What a great day! Jon gave us a whirlwind tour of the whole Corpus Christi area including Goose Island, Guadalupe River, Indian Point, Sunset Lake, Sutter Park, Charlie's Pasture, Paradise Pond, and Aransas Pass. Jon's eye for movement is superb along with his built-in song library in his head. Spotting and identifying birds came quickly which saved us plenty of time we would have spent digging through the book. We saw well over 100 species on the day of which 30 were life birds for Greg. We highly recommend Jon if you are a serious birder!

Harry Forbes/Ronny Moore on January 11, 2010 at 09:40 PM said:

Had a great time with Jon on a targeted all-day birding expedition on Jan 5, 2010. He worked hard for us all day and we were able to find a good number of the birds on the "hit list." We left before dawn and got back after dark...and covered lots of places and lots of miles in the process. In the Central Texas coastal areas, Jon knows the spots and found us some birds we would have had extreme difficulty in finding ourselves. And in most cases, we got really good, close looks. Bottom line-Time and money well spent. Highly recommend.

Joan & Ron Schwartz on December 30, 2009 at 06:49 PM said:

Had a fabulous afternoon with Jon, birding around Corpus Christi. His expertise, enthusiasm and willingness to share were tremendous and we recommend him to everyone.

Steve Taylor on November 8, 2009 at 07:33 PM said:

The 2009 Big Day has come and gone. The Big Day is an annual effort by our friend Jon, to see how many bird species he can see in one day. In one sense, it’s like when Judy and I go somewhere. I drive; she tells me where to go. In this instance, I drive; he birds (while telling me where to go). After all the years Judy and I have talked about, thought about, and sometimes even studied birds, we get blown away by a really good birder. There is a difference in aptitude. Jon sees shapes and movements (undetected by us) in an instant. He has enough bird pictures and songs in his head that identification rarely takes more than another instant. Really, he’s not a normal human being. He’s a Martian. Not only is this a self-inflicted fast-paced birding challenge, but this year we expanded the concept to include sleep deprivation as well. Judy and I got up normally one morning and had a normal day. Then Jon and I left at midnight that night to start the challenge. We used the entire twenty-four hours. We listened for rails at the Birding Center in Port Aransas. We drove all the way down to Bentsen Rio Grande State Park south of Mission for some owling in the dark. We birded through the morning chorus at daybreak and got some South Texas Specialties we needed. It really helps to have all the birds start yelling, all at the same time, so you can pick out who is there and where they are. After the night-birds and the daybreak forest-birds in Way South Texas, we headed back north for Green Parakeets, to fields where we could find inland wading birds, and other sites for migrants, mudflat birds, ocean shore birds, more migrants, ducks and gulls, to a backyard for siskins, to a highway bridge over a hint of a creek for seaside sparrows and boat tailed grackles. We finished off daylight a hundred miles north with more forest birds and the barred owl. Time was no longer of the essence, so we stopped for some fine dining at the Dairy Queen in Refugio. I had a blizzard for dinner. Jon had nachos. Then we finished off the night on the trail of the black rail on some private property (by permission) that Jon had found out about. As a result of our driving, birding, and talking about birding for twenty-four continuous hours, we stayed awake and mostly functional, drove six hundred fifty miles, birded seventeen distinct birding sites, and tallied one hundred ninety-one bird species. We didn’t do as well on migrants as we wanted, but we did great on everything else, except for the biggest, noisiest, most conspicuous bird in all of South Texas, the Plain Chachalaca. We birded the Rio Grande Valley and couldn’t get a Plain Chachalaca. Even without the Plain Chachalaca though, we had a great time.

Sophie and Andre on May 7, 2009 at 07:23 PM said:

April 9th 2009, Sophie and André from Montréal :

We had a wonderful day birding with Jon. He is a fantastic birder and guide. The day began with a flock of Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher and a Loggerhead Shrike. Jon found well over one hundred species of birds and more than 30 were lifers. On many occasions Jon found birds for us in the most unlikely places. We would have missed so many of these birds and fabulous places without him. He was a great help with shorebird identification and paid particular attention to helping us with the fieldmarks and he made sure we both had satisfying looks at all our birds, especially our lifers. Some of the highlights of the day were: 6 species of Terns, Black Skimmers, Lesser Nighthawk, Chuck-will's-widow, Green Jay, Swainson's Warbler, Piping and Wilson's Plovers, 3 species of Grebe including Least, and 8 species of Egret and Heron and this is only naming a few. We would highly recommend Jon as a knowledgeable and entertaining guide to spend a day with. We will definitely bird with him again.

Ann Lux on March 1, 2009 at 05:30 AM said:

What a great trip. Our first time in Texas and we saw many new birds. Jon is very knowledgeable and patient with not so experienced birders. It was a great morning.

Gerry and Bernie Geenen and nephew Jim Bolwerk on February 23, 2009 at 08:02 PM said:

February 22nd and 23rd, 2009.

Guided by John McIntyre we saw 130 different species of birds in two days. Some of the highlights were Green Jays, Vermillion Flycathers, Greater Kisskadees, Couch's Kingbird, Whooping Cranes, and the Burrowing Owl. We found John very informative and would recommend him to any serious birders.

Thanks again John!

Ian and Diana on December 27, 2008 at 07:40 PM said:

We had a fabulous day and a half with John on 9-10 December, with relaxed and very successful birding in several areas from Aransas Refuge inland to Goliad and along the coast to Corpus Christi and environs. A total of 119 species was quite unexpected for two visitors from overseas, with great views of Least Grebe, Horned Grebe, the big roost of Black Bellied Whistling Ducks, Hooded Merganser, White Tailed Hawks, White Tailed Kites, Sora Rail (3 out in the open!), Sandhill and Whooping Cranes in the arable fields, a cute Burrowing Owl, a striking, resonant Barred Owl at sunset, many Golden Fronted Woodpeckers, a Green Kingfisher, brilliant Vermillion Flycatchers, Couch's Kingbirds, numerous Green Jays, highly visible Great Kiskadees, Long Billed Thrasher, a bright yellow Wilson's Warbler, several Lincoln's Sparrows, the Coastal Texas subspecies of the Boat Tailed Grackle, and a brilliant male (midwinter!) Baltimore Oriole. We marveled at John's knowledge of the many hot spots of the area and his uncanny ability to find well hidden birds quietly waiting until we had passed by! John, you gave us a great experience. We will be back!

Dale and Charlotte Grayem on May 19, 2008 at 05:00 PM said:

We are from Ohio so our birding expertise is east of the Mississippi. I knew that I could pick up a bunch of lifers in Texas, but I feared that I would also miss many because of the time I would have to spend leafing through field guides and finding hot spots. Also, I'm not so great with shore birds. The answer? Jon's bird tour!! We let Jon do all of the work, and boy does he work! We went to spot after spot and I could hardly write as fast as we were seeing the birds! Jon knows his birds, both by sight and sound, and he had an uncanny way of locating birds before either my wife or myself. We also enjoyed how personable he is. Several times, I had problems seeing birds, and Jon patiently added detail until I finally saw what he was looking at. We recommend Jon as a guide to birders of all levels of expertise. He made both of us feel right at home; like we were birding with an old friend.

Ian Mitchell and Frances Burton on March 15, 2008 at 07:38 AM said:

We had a simply splendid morning with Jon, despite a foggy start. We were too busy looking at the birds to keep a completely accurate account, but we know we had at least 25 life birds in the time we spent touring parks, waste treatment plants and coastal waters. Jon's knowledge of the local area and his obvious delight at sighting some of the more difficult birds were inspirational, to say the least. Our favourites had to be the Great Kiskadee, the Clapper Rail, the Golden-fronted Woodpecker and the Vermilion Flycatcher. Thank you, Jon, for a morning to remember forever!

Jeff & Julie Weingarz, Sycamore, Illinois on March 2, 2008 at 12:11 PM said:

We normally take birding trips to catch glimpse of 1 specific bird - Jon took us out in 1 morning and showed us 17 lifers in approximately 3 hours!! Our favorites were the golden-fronted woodpecker, green jay, great kiskadee, Couch's kingbird, Lincoln sparrow, and the black-bellied whistling duck - most of these species are not found in the upper midwest. We were impressed with Jon's knowledge of seemingly ordinary parks and residential areas harboring significant bird species; we had a great time and hope to get back to the area sometime in the not too distant future for a second outing!!!

Janet Colville on March 6, 2007 at 07:46 AM said:

With freezing temperatures the night before many birds we looked for were in hiding, but Jon was still able to find over 100 interesting birds to see including many nesting pairs of Great Kiskadees and a Peregrine Falcon. The troop of piglets we ran into made the day! Thanks for a wonderful day out.

Steve and Judy Taylor on March 4, 2007 at 08:14 PM said:

We needed some difficult sparrows. Four of them. Jon got us on all of them. We'd heard barred owls, but hadn't been able to see one yet. Jon got us one at dusk. An extended look. Nice day.

Thanks Jon.

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