Trip reports
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Winter Birding In Cyprus
There is very little information available on birding Cyprus in the winter. I used the Arlequin guide (Stagg and Hearl) which gave good directions to many sites but little information on what to expect. In fact the book is misleading bringing the reader to half expect some rather rare visitors whilst one is unaware that some other more regular birds are even possible (greater sandplover especially springs to mind).
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Birding Provence
In recent years the south of France has presented an appealing prospect to keen Eurobirders. With the publication of Lancashire birder Chris Batty’s trip report to the area in 2003 and with flights from Stansted to Montpelier retailing at 1p (each way), I hastily organised a team comprising Malcom Goodman, Alan Clewes, Phil Davison and Matt Mulvey in order to see a mouth watering selection of birds. Overall the trip was a success although a number of potential good birds were missed.
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Birding Egypt
In early December prices on charter flights usually drops to almost ridiculously low levels to different popular tourist destinations. Among them Hurghada is off course interesting for birdwatchers wanting to come in contact with Egyptian birdlife. A week before departure we booked our tickets (1000 SEK/person). We had planned the trip months earlier, though. We hoped to cover the Red Sea Coast south to Bir Shalatayn. A few days before we went, we also decided to make a shorter trip to the Nile Valley to get some variety of birds for our trip.
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Birding Trip Report for Tenerife
This birding trip was booked as a late deal with Airtours through Lastminute.com. The self-catering accommodation was at the Apart Reveron in Los Cristianos which proved to be a good base. Five days car hire (Seat Marbella) was cheap at 96 Euros (about £62). Although the car would have failed its MOT on several points, it served us well and coped with the steep climbs which are a part of driving on this volcanic island.
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Around France in 14 days 27th July – 9th August 2003
Bob and I love to go camping and touring in France, and last year was no exception. We embarked on an ambitious tour, to take in several different areas and hopefully to see lots of different birds. We crossed the Channel from Dover to Calais and made straight for our favourite first night stop at Ste-Menehould, 200 miles south east of Calais, with autoroute all the way. This small town is in the Forest of Argonne, not far from Verdun and the trenches of the First World War. The campsite has always been very good for bird species and we were not disappointed. We had very good views of nuthatch, hawfinch, serin, short-toed treecreeper, redstart and best of all a singing golden oriole, plus coypu on the adjacent river. A tour around the local area also provided us with views of common and honey buzzards.
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DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY 31st May – 7th June 2003
Bob & I had been to Dumfries & Galloway before, when he was walking the Southern Upland Way and I was birding my way across Scotland in the car! We decided to go back to concentrate our efforts around the town of Newton Stewart. After a lot of searching the Internet for accommodation, we booked a small cottage on the Rusko Estate at Gatehouse of Fleet. The journey of 340 miles took us to a cottage in its own wood, surrounded by rhododendrons. It was perfect. Very secluded but surrounded by some lovely scenery and wildlife.
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SRI LANKA December 2003
This was a varied trip rather than just for the birds, so we took in other wildlife, such as elephants (in the wild and in an orphanage), fruit bats, three-striped palm squirrels (very keen on our breakfast), monitors (up a tree), various monkeys (leaping over crocodile-infested streams), turtles (in a sanctuary), snakes (large ones!), crocodiles (smiling) and leopards, plus heritage sites, botanical gardens, Buddhist temples, churches, tea factories, spice gardens, mountains, beaches and loads more! However in this account of our travels we will focus mainly on the birds……….
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