Upcoming Field Trips

The quickest way to find out about upcoming trips and registration details is via our member's eblast (these will likely come out in the last week of month prior to the trip). If you have not already signed up for our eblasts sign up here.
Sign up and confirmation notes:

If the Google sign-up form for the trip you want to go on doesn't work the first time, try reloading the web page or restarting your browser, then try again.

If it's less than 3 days before a trip that you signed up for, and you think you should have gotten a message but haven't, try looking for it (carefully) in your spam/junk folder.

If these suggestions didn't help solve the issue, please contact us at fieldtrips@pasadenaaudubon.org .

July 12: Mt. Pinos

Saturday, July 12, 2025
Time: 7:30 AM - 12:00 NOON
Trip Leaders: Lance Benner and Naresh Satyan

Join us as we explore Mt. Pinos at the northern edge of Ventura County.

This mountain provides good access by car to montane habitat at elevations exceeding 8000 feet. The mountain is a short distance west of Frazier Park and about 70-80 minutes by car from Pasadena. We'll make a few stops along Mt. Pinos as we drive to the top and then we'll explore Iris Meadow (elevation = 8300 feet). After that there will be an optional extension to hike two miles to the summit of Mt. Pinos, where there are more options for high-elevation species. Possible species include white-headed and hairy woodpecker, golden eagle, Cassin's and purple finch, red crossbill, all three nuthatches, thick-billed fox sparrow, green-tailed towhee, olive-sided flycatcher, dusky flycatcher, Clark's nutcracker, and Bell's sparrow.

Participant number: 15, determined by lottery. Sign up before Wednesday, July 9, at 6 PM.

Trip details such as meeting location will be emailed to signed-up participants before the trip.

Photo: White-headed Woodpecker (Leuconotopicus albolarvatus) by Chris Spurgeon

Sign up here

July 13: Los Angeles Arboretum Monthly Bird Walk

Sunday, July 13, 2025

8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Trip Leader: Katy Mann

We are excited to partner with the Los Angeles County Arboretum to offer free monthly bird walks to PAS members. Please note that due to new rules implemented by LA Arboretum these trips will only be open to current PAS members (and not friends of members as in past years). In other words all persons attending must be current Pasadena Audubon members -- either on their own, or as part of a PAS family membership.

Not a PAS member? Join here!

This field trip is offered by reservation only. To reserve a spot go to https://www.arboretum.org/events/bird-walk-with-pasadena-audubon-8/. Registration is scheduled to open at 9 AM on Tuesday, July 8, 2025.

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT REGISTERING FOR THE ARBORETUM WALK: Evidently when the monthly Arboretum walk has reached capacity, the sign-up form stops functioning correctly. This issue is beyond our control. If in doubt, sign up early!


PHOTO: Red-whiskered Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus) by Luke Tiller.

July 19 - San Gabriel Mountains - Buckhorn/Chilao

Saturday, July 19th, 7 AM - 12 noon
Trip leader: Alex Coffey

Join field trip chair Alex Coffey amid Incense Cedars and Ponderosa Pines in the heart of Angeles National Forest. At over 6,000 feet, you can expect to see some interesting birds going about their business on a mid-summer morning: White-headed Woodpeckers, Pygmy Nuthatches, Green-tailed Towhees, and Purple Finches to name a few! We’ll also try for Black-chinned Sparrows, potential Lewis’s Woodpeckers, and breeding MacGillivray’s Warblers. Group will meet at the bottom of the CA-2 hill at Flanders Rd & Milmada Dr at 7AM to reasonably carpool; and plan to caravan to Chilao landing around 8AM.

Participant number: no limit.

Trip details such as meeting location will be emailed to signed-up participants before the trip.

Photo: Black-chinned Sparrow (Spizella atrogularis). CREDIT: Tom Benson/FLICKR. LICENSE: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Sign up here

July 20: Black Swifts and Lesser Nighthawks

Sunday, July 20, 2025
4:45 PM to 9:00 PM
Trip leaders: Darren Dowell, Oliver Huang, Luke Tiller

Black Swifts, so enigmatic was this species that up until 2012 ornithologists still had no idea where the birds wintered. We will seek out these aerial acrobats at Claremont Wilderness Park, the only reliable spot in LA County to find this most mysterious of birds. The swifts are best looked for late in the day and so we will spend a couple of pre-dusk hours seeking them out. On our return towards Pasadena we will make a sundown stop in Duarte to look for displaying Lesser Nighthawks.

Not a morning person, then this may be the perfect PAS trip for you!

Participant number: no limit

Trip details such as meeting location will be emailed to signed-up participants before the trip. At the Swifts site, anticipate a slow, uphill/downhill hike on a wide dirt trail (fire road), approximately 2 miles round trip. At the Nighthawks site, the route is mostly paved and level with some short interruptions; distance is approximately 1 mile round trip.

PHOTO: Black Swift (Cypseloides niger). Photo by Luke Tiller.

Sign up here

July 26: Huntington Library

Saturday, July 26, 2025
8:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Trip Leader: Mark Hunter

This is a great walk for beginning birders and families, with easy walking and a nice variety of species present year round.

Please note that due to rules implemented by The Huntington these trips will only be open to current PAS members. You must be a Pasadena Audubon member to attend this trip! After you sign up for the field trip, you will receive an email acknowledging your signup. The acknowledgment email is not a guarantee of a spot! PAS will process signups in the order that they are received, verifying your membership status. The trip leader will contact you after signups are closed, informing you whether you have confirmed spots or are on the wait list. Not yet a member? You can sign up for PAS membership here.

If you have a Huntington membership that allows you to enter the gardens at 8:00 on weekends, please consider making a reservation using your Huntington membership, thereby freeing up spots for PAS members who are not Huntington members.

Photo: California Towhee (Melozone crissalis) by Chris Spurgeon

Field Trip General Notes

This field trip is offered by reservation only. If you miss out on the initial places you will be added to a waitlist and will be emailed by the trip leaders if a place opens up. If you are unable to attend a booked trip please email the trip leader and allow them to make your space available to someone on the wait list.

Sign up!

July 27: Lower L.A. River – Shorebird Extravaganza (part 1)

Sunday, July 27, 2025
8:00 AM - 12:00 NOON
Trip leaders: Luke Tiller, Jon Fisher, Alex Coffey

This year Pasadena Audubon will be running two LA River trips looking at shorebirds. The first trip will allow us to see some adult birds still in breeding plumage and the second (in August) more juvenile birds and adults in basic plumage. Late summer is about the peak of shorebird migration in Southern California as our wintering birds return and transients pass through. Come and join PAS shorebird experts for a morning honing your ID skills with the common species and working out the ID challenges posed by potential uncommon species and vagrants. This is the most exciting time for shorebird migration and the Los Angeles River can boast north of 30 species of shorebird in July and August.

Participant number: no limit

Trip details such as meeting location will be emailed to signed-up participants 3-5 days before the trip.

Photo: Long-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus). Photo by Luke Tiller.

Sign up here

September 28: Dana Point Pelagic

NOW OPEN TO NON-MEMBERS!
Sunday, September 28, 2025
7:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Departure location: Dana Point (24200 Dana Point Harbor Dr, Dana Point, CA 92629)
Price: $135.00 per person

We’re excited to announce our dates for 2025’s dedicated pelagic! Departing from Dana Point in Orange County aboard the Ocean Institute Explorer, we'll spend time exploring the waters of both Orange and Los Angeles Counties. This nine-hour trip will help us connect with species that are harder to see from just your average whale watch and chartering the boat will allow us to focus specifically on the birds. (Trip report from last year here.)

We will be providing expert pelagic tour leaders for this trip to help pick out interesting species. Birds that might be encountered include a variety of shearwaters, jaegers, phalaropes, alcids, gulls, and terns. One of our main targets will be the rafts of storm-petrels that gather offshore in September which may include both Black, Ashy, and Least. Uncommon and rare species discovered on similarly timed trips have included: Manx and Flesh-footed Shearwater, Arctic Tern, Red-footed and Blue-footed Booby, and Craveri’s Murrelet among others.

Please note that all ticket sales are final, except in the event of trip cancellation. We will, however, allow transfers and do our best to assist those who need help with that.

By traveling on their boat, this trip also helps support the non-profit Ocean Institute, whose work focuses on marine science, environmental education, and maritime history.

Photo: Pink-footed Shearwater (Ardenna creatopus) by Luke Tiller

Sign up now!