AA Birdpix, Birds, Travel and More

  Godwit Musings Most birders like Godwits, and the current appearence of a Hudsonian Godwit has brightened up a summer for those in the south-east. The species has an amazing pattern of vagrancy, and I have an interesting personal history with them. It began in 1981;  I had started birding in 1980, but hadn't done any twitching. On holiday in Devon we saw a crowd of birders with telescopes trained on something, but as it wasn't a birding trip and we were with friends we didn't investigate. A few years, and integration in to the twitching fraternity, made me realise that I had driven past a Hudsonian Godwit, the long-staying (and returning bird) which was the UK's only record at the time, and was also recorded at Blacktoft Sands. Of course, that species (for me anyway), immediately joined the "most wanted" list. It was to be a long wait. I've never worried too much about my British list, although I did a lot of twitching I travelled a lot as I had a good j...

  Guide to guides No, not that sort, human bird guides. In fact the title is a bit arrogant on my part because I haven't known that many, but I do have a lot of experience of foreign travel, so have come across several. Most people aspire to a foreign birding trip eventually, in fact it is far more rewarding for many than birding in the UK. Many twitchers discover quite soon that for what it cost them to take a charter flight to Shetland they could have had a week in Florida, and these days there are far fewer "hard core" twitchers around. Plus, your actual carbon footprint will potentially be far lower since the flights will still go even if you're not on them.   There are several ways to bird abroad, personally I would always prefer to arrange my own tour, but this entails a lot of organisation and homework for success. It's not sufficient just to look at e-bird, some species which are "staked out" don't appear on there due to being endangered, or ...