A Birder's Guide to Southern California (ABA/Lane Birdfinding Guide)

The vast, varied topography that is Southern California has recorded over 555 naturally occurring bird species, many of which are near endemics to its geography. Each of Southern California's many habitats offers its own specialties, and this guide will help you to find them all. The birding routes, with instructions and exact mileages between suggested stops, guide resident and visiting birders to hundreds of birding sites. New to this edition are chapters covering the Kern River Valley, the rugged Clark Mountain wilderness, southeastern California's Blythe region, Sespe Condor Sanctuary, coastal Ventura County, and birding hot spots in suburban San Fernando Valley. All chapters from earlier editions and their locations have been revisited by the author and/or local bird authorities to test current conditions and confirm or revise birding information for accuracy. The maps, bar-graphs, and Specialties section all have been up-dated to ensure that the reader has effective tools at hand for contemporary birding.

Brad Schram was first introduced to bird-watching in 1952 at age nine and became part of the rapidly evolving world of high-velocity California birding in the 70s. A life-long California resident, he has lived most of those years in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. Since his early retirement from the business world in 1996 he has been a part-time tour leader for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours, leading birding trips in Southern California, Alaska and the American West, Trinidad & Tobago, Iceland, East Greenland, and Antarctica. Serving as a naturalist aboard small eco-tour cruise ships in Polynesia and Melanesia, Kamchatka and the Bering Sea, the Canadian High Arctic, Antarctica and the Scotia Sea, and the Chilean Fjords, has delivered him to amazing birds, adventures at sea, and to scores of remote islands.