Getting Back to Birding

Following on from the last Azores & Madeira post, we've decided to go a few steps further now and add another Macaronesian tour in our short series of tours in the 'Getting Back to Birding" programme. The current situation around the UK and Europe is still promising and within the next 2 weeks our wonderful government (that's tongue-in-cheek by the way) are going to announce a list of countries that are going to be safe to travel to...... Hmmmmm...... well, let's see! Well, we thought Portugal was going to be in the top 3 of that list but it seems despite the Azores & Madeira barely having any cases of Covid-19 we would still have to quarantine upon return to UK - the government have made this very confusing. And the next best/safest destination could well be the Canary Islands. So with pretty cheap flights from the UK and Europe, throwing in a bunch of endemics, add a list of endemic subspecies that could well be split in the future, a few seabirds, throw in the odd Houbara Bustard and Cream-coloured Courser into the mix and it looks like a recipe for a damn decent trip. Oh and let's spice it up a bit by some island hopping and call in to Gran Canaria for the recently split Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch on top of visits to Tenerife, La Gomera and Fuerteventura and all this in just a 9 day tour. See tour info here - Canary Islands Info

See our 'Getting Back to Birding' philosophy here - Getting Back to Birding Info

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That's all ok but these are difficult times and our invisible enemy is still out there somewhere, lurking in plain sight.... That's Covid-19 by the way. So we have hired large, private villas on Tenerife and Fuerteventura for a 3 night stay on each island, with a 2 night stop on Gran Canaria at an all-inclusive resort. As with all our other 'Getting Back to Birding' tours we will bring our own cook/housekeeper rather than get a bunch of strangers in a restaurant to prepare food for us. We will also have 2 vehicles so we can manage the social distancing requirements whilst travelling to and from sites etc. We've even looked at etiquette around using leaders' scopes and hygiene issues and social distancing...! Then there's the hygiene and cleaning of our vehicle each day... And on and on. But what I really want to stress is how seriously we are taking all this, and how seriously we are looking at making your next birding trip as safe as possible. This isn't just a business to us, this is us looking after friends on a birding trip. This is us looking after you.We know how most birders feel about not travelling, about our confidence being affected with the travel industry and with travelling in general right now. But it will get better. 

Other tours in our "Getting Back to Birding' Programme:

Azores & Madeira - See full tour info here

Isles of Scilly & Land's End - See full tour info here

Scotland in Winter - See full tour info here

We believe there is a way to 'Get Back to Birding' in a safe and sensible manner. And we believe we've got it covered as much as possible. Let's go birding!

Birding Through the Looking Glass: Macaronesia Dreaming...

So all the signs are that the lockdown is easing, Covid-19 cases are on a downward curve, pressure from countries with summer holiday destinations is increasing even here in UK, and Bojo has mentioned just this week about a proposed 'air bridge' between the UK and Portugal. That pricked up my ears a bit and after doing a little (lot) research it amazed me that both the Azores and Madeira have had very few Coronavirus cases and zero fatalities from this awful disease..... Let that sink in. Zero fatalities..... I don't know about you but I'm sick of seeing that sycophantic Hancock bloke most evenings telling us what to do, how and when! And the teenager policing the supermarket queue reminding me to socially distance every time I get to the entrance of the shop. Amazingly I haven't been living under a rock and I'm perfectly aware of the current rules, having still got a few grey cells between the ears!

Anyway, I'm literally climbing walls now. Living in an area surrounded by beautiful fields and hedgerows is all well and good and I've been distracting myself by trying (pretty unsuccessfully I might add) to get a decent photo of the pair of European Bullfinches that visit our garden most days, seemingly mocking my attempts at a clear shot. How is it I've got decent images of tragopans, wren-babblers, warblers, pteradromas but not this species...... Hmmm, bullfinches and pteradromas..... No Covid-19..... Hmmmm.... 

In my imagination there's a place I can take myself with minimal threat of the virus, bobbing around an ocean with sexy, long-winged, and mega-rare petrels all around. And a lush-sided mountain with a mega-rare passerine found nowhere else in the world. Sadly, it's just a dream.... or is it? 

Well, no actually. Keeping fingers and everything else crossed, all things being equal, and the world/politicians/new world order/zombie apocalypse don't interfere on Wednesday 12th August ( that's under 9 weeks away so there's still plenty of time for the world to kick us in the face again) it is possible that we could be on a direct flight from Stanstead to Terceira in the Azores.... The gateway to some of the most exciting pelagic birding in the Western Palearctic. Now we are talking.

Desertas Petrel

Zino's Petrel

This archipelago of 9 volcanic islands is about 930 miles west of Lisbon in mainland Portugal, right out in the Atlantic Ocean. We will visit 3 of the islands where the focus is on doing two pelagics out to the Bank of Fortune where we should see Monteiro's Storm Petrel and i'm praying for a Swinhoe's Storm Petrel too! This is the best place in the Western Palearctic to have even the slightest chance of seeing the latter, whilst the former species breeds on a couple of small islets in the Azores. Oh, and Barolo Shearwater is possible too, let's not forget that one! And we'll have time to nail the rare Azores Bullfinch too!

A short flight takes us to Madeira and our private villa. We have 3 pelagics looking for Desertas and Zino's Petrel. Do you know how rare Zino's is? With possibly around 110 individuals it's incredibly rare, but we still expect to see them. And we'll visit a breeding colony high in the mountains one evening and listen to their eerie calls. Other birds we are targeting include Madeiran Storm Petrel, Bulwer's Petrel and White-faced Storm Petrel - all great birds for your Western Palearctic list. 

Madeiran (Band-rumped) Storm Petrel

Bulwer's Petrel

So over these 11 days we will literally be birding in the outermost limits of the Western Palearctic and I don't know about you, but i'm hoping for a rarity as well...!!

Cory's Shearwater

Great Shearwater

Long-tailed Skua

Wilson's Storm Petrel

You can see the full tour details here: Azores and Madeira Ultimate Pelagic Birding

But that's not really the whole story. We really wanted to make this as safe a tour as possible, bearing in mind all the social distancing and hygiene measures we've all (sadly) become accustomed to. That's why we are organising a series of tours over the next few months that include staying in private holiday homes and villas. We have our own housekeeper/cook along to cook us fresh food and this way we can keep away from other people. Just in case. But as I said before, the Azores and Madeira are probably the safest places to be right now, but why take a chance. Ok on the Azores we may well have to use a hotel, but there's minimal risk. Convenience doesn't come into it really, it's damn more expensive to use private villas but we feel it's a very important aspect of these tours for the time being. 

I'm also planning trips to Norfolk, there's an Isles of Scilly and Land's End tour in October, a week in Scotland in an enormous house in the Speyside area for November, and a winter Sweden tour in January i'd like to do. Oh and a trip to Tenerife, Fuerteventura & Gran Canaria (who split that Blue Chaffinch??!!) in September 2020. All of these tours will be on the website over the next week or so - I hope. If you are as desperate as I am to go birding, then maybe there's something here to float your boat? Pardon the pun.

So in the meantime stay safe, go birding, and brush up on your seabird identification!