Western Palearctic Birding

Welcome to my online Western Palearctic birding diaries

Before I begin may I just introduce you to my company Oenanthe Birding Adventures  Having been birding for so long and with a great deal of experience of WP birding I have decided to launch this new venture aimed at providing reasonably priced birding tours in the WP and guided birding in Norfolk. Tours to Israel and Kuwait in spring 2009 and guiding in Norfolk through the 2008/9 winter and the 2009 summer and autumn have already been a great success. A number of exciting tours are scheduled for 2010. Please take a look at my website if you're interested (or even just curious!)

OK, blatant plug over!

These pages are designed to record my quest to see as many species of bird in the Western Palearctic as possible. Most of that birding, especially in recent years, has been done in the company of my brother Justin and friend Andy. We all have our crosses to bear! We've always tried to plan one main WP birding trip a year with other shorter trips being fitted in from time to time and other committments and finances allow. We are all based in Norfolk, myself just outside the village of Pulham St Mary in rural south Norfolk.

The emphasis in recent years has been trying to get as many WP ticks to the £ as possible in a trip but opportunities for big haul of new birds are now more limited than they used to be.

 

Looking to the future trips to Egypt, the Cape Verde Islands, Mauritania and Georgia/Armenia are in the offing and then there are the Azores in autumn for some nearctic vagrants which is very tempting. Other than those obvious destinations I still have a few bits and pieces to pick up in Finland/Norway and Estonia. A 10 day trip to Southern Atlantic Morocco is planned for late April 2010 to look for Kelp Gull, Royal Tern, Cricket Warbler etc.

 

 

The Crew (left to right - me, Lee, Jus and Andy)

Yours truly

I'd like to extend my thanks to the other birders who have supplied information allowing trip planning and photographers for kindly allowing me to use their far superior photos! These include Pablo and Clemente in Asturias, Spain, Steve Smith and Dot Machin, Trevor Davies, John and Judy Geeson, Rene-marie Lafontaine, Richard Bonser and his excellent trip reports and website http://www.freewebs.com/richbonser Klaus Malling Olsen, Reija Heinonen, Jouko Lunden, Kauko Hakkila, Jouko Olkio, Simon Berg Pederson, Richard Billington, Abdulrahman Al-Sirhan, Brian Foster, Mark Chichester, George Gregory, Pekka Fagel, Gary Brown, Austin Baird, Mike Pope, Raymond De Smeet, Pete Kinsella, Tuvia Khan, Oz Horine, Jonathan Meyrav, Noam Weiss, Richard Ek, Tom Cuffe, Dermot Breen, Chris Bell, Chris Batty, Peter Gluth, Eric Didner and others too numerous to mention.

The BIGGEST thanks have to go to my long-suffering fiance Belinda - thanks hun!

Each overseas birding trip I have made has its own link in the list to the right and within each one I have tried to give any relevant information that may help other birders. There is also a page detailing the new WP birds which I haven't had to leave the UK, Ireland or the near continent for.

If anyone has any questions I will also gladly help (if I know the answer!). Just contact me on:

Email - Canaryfan@hotmail.co.uk

Phone - 00 44 1379 676902

Mobile - 00 44 7979 823800

Birdforum username - Canarybirder

 

Websites that I've found to be particularly useful for planning trips are:

http://www.travellingbirder.com     A vast resource and the best first port of call

http://www.netfugl.dk  Danish website with WP lists, all the latest WP rarities and great galleries

http://www.osme.org  All things Middle East

http://www.surfbirds.com  A good trip reports section and great photo galleries

http://www.alsirhan.com   All the latest news from Kuwait with excellent photographs

http://www.rarebirdspain.net/home.htm  Rare bird info from Iberia

http://www.dutchbirding.nl  Dutch birding site

http://www.tarsiger.com  Finnish birding site, not very good for up to date news but great photos

http://waarneming.nl/#  All the Dutch rare birds news, maps, locations. Excellent site

http://www.artportalen.se/birds/todays.asp  All the bird reports from Sweden. Invaluable if visiting the country

http://home.tiscali.nl/~jvanderw/ John van der Woude's birding trip reports

http://www.hawar-islands.com/blog/14_stub.php Mike Pope's excellent photos from Kuwait

http://www.fyldebirdclub.org/abroad.htm Foreign trip reports by Fylde Bird Club members

 

GOOD BIRDING!

 

        

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