Birding Tours

BIRDING TOURS with the groups company appeal to the kind of person who wants to combine an interest in ornithology with a taste for travel. The area to be visited may be comfortably in the heart of Europe, or may involve travel in the interior of Ethiopia; for example. The amount of travel involved, and the degree of difficulty of that travel, is not an issue; provided there is enough time spent at the destination to allow some certainty of sighting the birds of the region. The amount of time built into the itinerary for simply waiting, watching and hoping for a sighting is the critical factor in a bird-watching holiday.
 
You may choose to include the services of an ornithological expert, either a generalist or an expert in the area visited, as part of your arrangements, or you prefer simply for us to facilitate a visit to a region of interest; this can be determined at the planning stage of your visit. You may prefer that your group consists solely of your immediate bird-spotting friends, or members of your local club; or your may want the groups company to arrange for members of another club to join you, in order to increase the number of participants and thus reduce the per person cost of the holiday.
 
You may prefer to plan an itinerary to a wildlife area, a wetlands region for example,  where there is a high degree of sightings, where large numbers may be seen with little difficulty. Or you may prefer to design a programme focused on a visit to an area where the elusive nature of sightings means more effort but more reward. 
You may prefer to bring along partners or friends as another way of reducing costs, although catering also for their interests may impinge on the itinerary as visits to areas of interest at unsocial hours, in the hope of the best chance of sightings, may be curtailed.
Whether you choose to travel close to home or further a-field, and with or without an expert along, is up to you.
You and your group choose the style of birding holiday that you want.
 
We operate Birding tours to the following destinations:-
Bulgaria, Dubai, Ethiopia, Gambia, India, Israel, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Madagascar, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Poland, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailland, USA
  
A typical day...
Breakfast may be a leisurely affair; but on an ornithological holiday, breakfast may come later. An early morning cup of tea might have to suffice before an early start to the day with a drive to an area of interest. Time then will be spent watching and waiting, all the group focused on that elusive sighting. Only after some time – and the time spent on site will have been determined by you and built into the itinerary – will you return to your accommodation for breakfast.
 
If you are visiting a wetlands area, however, with a high degree of sightings easily possible for a greater part of the day, then breakfast may precede your morning visit. The middle of the day might well be spent resting, writing up notes on sightings that morning, or reading up on the birds of the area, with lunch as a break. In the late afternoon a second visit to an area of interest, a visit as short or as long as you have planned, may precede the evening meal. The timing of this itself may be decided by the need for a night-time visit if conditions, or the object of your search, so determine. But sometime during the evening there will be the chance for dinner with the rest of the group and time to talk over the sightings of the day, and perhaps the night, and discuss plans for the next day.
 
If you have planned an itinerary with several different night-stops, then days when you need to travel will affect the time spent on sightings as little as possible, with travel, as far as can be planned, at times that will impinge as little as possible on sightings.
 
Whether you choose to plan an itinerary with a high degree of sightings or to travel perhaps further afield to Africa, and to more elusive sightings is up to you. You and your group choose the style of bird-spotting holiday that you want.
 
Sample itineraries ...
The itineraries below are intended only to give an indication of what might be possible in a particular country, following an itinerary catering for a particular special interest.
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No details of meals or accommodation are included in the itineraries as it would be your decision, at the planning stage, as to what is included. You would decide whether your tour included all meals, just Bed and Breakfast, or Bed and Breakfast plus some lunches or dinners at certain points on the itinerary. Similarly you would decide what standard of accommodation you wanted to use.
 
The itineraries detailed are deliberately short ones. It is intended to give a flavour, an outline, of an itinerary.  If you have more time, then extra time can be built into each stop on the itinerary, and additional places of interest and overnight stops can be added. Lengthening the itinerary, to 10 days or two weeks, for example, and adding further night-stops will enrich your journey; shown below is just a brief skeletal itinerary as a basis for discussion and more detailed planning.
Gambia - 8 days - 1. Fly London-Banjul. 2. In Banjul; city tour and local birding excursion. 3. Drive up-country to Tendaba Camp; birding excurson on arrival. 4. At Tendaba; birding excursions. 5. Continue up-country to Basse; en route overnight at Camp with brding excursions. 6. Visit Basse and return down-river to Tendaba Camp. 7. Birding excusion at Tendaba then return to Banjul. 8. Fly Banjul-London.
Namibia - 9 days - 1. Fly London-Windhoek. 2. Arrive Windhoek; drive to Swakopmund; birding excursion on arrival. 3. Birding excursions from Swakopmund. 4. Drive north, with overnight stop en route to Etosha. 5. Arrive Etosha; birding excursions in Western region. 6. Birding excursions in Etosha Eastern region. 7. Drive to Waterberg Plateau; birding excursions. 8. Drive Windhoek; depart for UK. 9. Arrive UK.
India - 10 days - 1. Fly London-Delhi. 2. Arrive Delhi; city tour. 3. Train to Ranthambore National Park. 4 and 5. At Rantambore; birding excursions. 6.Train and drive to Bharatpur Reserve. 7 and 8. In Bharatpur reserve; birding excursions. 9. Drive via Agra to Oklah Barrage, near Delhi. Birding excursion then arrive Delhi and transfer to airport for flight to UK. 10 Arrive UK. n.b. - An alternative would be to travel to Agra on the afternon of day 8, overnighting there to visit the Taj Mahal on day 9 before drivingto Oklah. this would allow a visit to one of the world's major minuments but would impact on birding time.

Sri Lanka - 10 days:-

1. Fly London - Colombo.

2. Arrive Colombo;

3. Birding excursion; Drive south to Singharaja Forest.

4. In Singharaja; birding excursions.

5. Drive to Horton Plains; birding excursion; continue to Nuwara Elya

6. Nuwara Eliya; birding excursions.

7. Drive to Yala Game reserve.

8. At Yala; birding excursions;

9. Drive to Colombo for evening flight to UK. 

10. Arrive UK.

 
Israel - 8 days: -

1. Fly London-Tel Aviv; drive to Galilee. 

2. pre-breakfast birding by lake; Golan Heights; Gamla reserve; Mt Hermon

3. birding around lake and Hula reserve; 

4. Early am drive south along Jordan Valley; Jericho oasis; Judean wilderness; birding opportunities enroute; Dead Sea; Ein Gev.

5. Dead Sea; En Gev reserve.

6. Ramon Crater; Negev Desert birding spots; Eilat. 

7. Int'l birding watching centre;  Salt pans & fields northern Eilat.

8. Fly home via Tel Aviv.

Bulgaria - 12 days: -

1. Fly to Sofia; drive to Vitosha Mountains.

2. Morning birding; afternoon drive to Trigrad, in Rodopi Mountains.

3. Morning birding in Trigrad Gorge; afternoon drive via Pazardzhik Hills to Plovdiv.

4. Drive via Arda River valley to Madzharovo.

5. Full day visit to Studen Kladenets Dam and Krumovitsa River; return to Madzharovo.

6. Drive via Sakar Mountains to Bourgas, on Black Sea coast.

7. Birding at wetlands near Bourgas.

8. Drive via Pomoriishko Lake to Cape Kaliakra to Kavarna.

9. Drive to Yailite Reserve, continue to wetlands near Shabla; return to Kavarna.

10.  Drive to Srebarna Lake and visit wetlands. Continue to Rouse.

11. Morning walk along canyons of Rousenski Lom Nature Park; then drive to Sofia.

12. Fly to UK.

Ethiopia 14 days: -

1. Fly Addid Ababa.

2. Arrive Addis Ababa; city tour.

3. Drive to Kombolcha.

4 and 5. Drive to Lalibela.

6. In Lalibela; visit rock churches.

7.Drive to Gondar.

8. In Gondar. 9. Drive to Simien National Park.

10. Drive to Bahar Dar.

11. Visit Blue Nile Falls and Lake Tana; overnight Bahar Dar.

12. Fly Addis Ababa.

13. In Addis Ababa; depart for UK.

14. Arrive UK.