OMAN BIRDING ADVENTURE

So the world is opening up at last. And where to go birding? Certainly Oman ticks a lot of boxes, whether it's Crab Plover, Hypocolius, Omani Owl or the other Arabian specialities that float your boat. Or just some good birding visiting mountains, lagoons, desert, wadis and oases, and a pelagic thrown in for good measure..... Oh and for sure there's a mad-mix of Palearctic, Afrotropical and Oriental birds on offer.... 

We have tours to this amazing birding destination in December 2021 and February 2022

View the tour itinerary here: Oman Birding Adventure Tour Info

Grey Hypocolius

Crab Plover

Arabian Babbler

Sand Partridge

Arabian Wheatear

Crowned Sandgrouse

Jouanin's Petrel

Menetries's Warbler

Nile Valley Sunbird

NW ECUADOR 10TH - 23RD OCTOBER 2021

 ECUADOR IS OPENING!

In a couple of British newspapers today, it was stated that Ecuador (along with Argentina, Colombia & Peru) are being upgraded to the UK's Green List from next week. If that is true then our  NW Ecuador - Chocó Specialities Tour is good to go. 

Take a look at our Ecuador Tour Info and let's go birding!

Long-wattled Umbrellabird

CYPRUS MINI-BREAK 4th - 10th September 2021

It's been a long period of staying at home due to the global Covid-19 pandemic and most of us are tentatively looking towards the future and foreign birding trips. Cyprus is currently on the UK's Amber List and if you are fully vaccinated all that is required for entry is an online form to be filled out. Upon arrival, everyone will be tested by the local Cypriot authorities. And that is it! The FCO have cleared UK citizens to travel to Cyprus so your holiday insurance is not affected.  

That's the technical bit over with. And now for the good stuff......

We are staying at a private villa on the west coast of Cyprus where we will be catered for without the need of visiting local restaurants. This tour is only for a select group of 4 people, staying in 2x twin bedded rooms at our villa. We will have five and a half days birding where our primary focus will be on seeing the 3 endemics: Cyprus Pied Wheatear, Cyprus Warbler and Cyprus Scops Owl. We will also head up into the Troodos Mountains for a number of endemic subspecies and then spend the rest of our time visiting various sites such as Paphos headland, Akrotiri Salt Lake and others in search of a variety of species. Our trip is timed to coincide with the peak dates that Demoiselle Cranes stop off on their southward migration, and although a great deal of luck will be needed to see them this is the best site in the whole of the Western Palearctic for this particular species. Fingers crossed! We will aim to take a break in the middle of the day and take advantage of the pool and have lunch at the villa before heading out again in the late afternoon. 

As well as the 3 main endemics, there's a whole host of mouth-watering possibilities for us to look for such as Black Francolin, Long-legged Buzzard, Bonelli's Eagle, Greater Sandplover, Slender-billed Gull, European Roller, Eleonora's Falcon, Masked Shrike, Lesser Grey Shrike and Cretzschmar's Bunting amongst many others.

Cyprus has all the elements of a classic birding destination with anything possible: there's flocks of shorebirds moving through, flocks of terns, hirundines, wheatears, shrikes, warblers, pipits and buntings. Add to this  great weather, great food and a fantastic private villa. Sounds horrible right? So for a first foray overseas after a while, then this could be just the ticket. Let's go birding.

See the full tour info here:   https://www.zootherabirding.com/cyprus-endemic-and-migration-tour-intro.html

JUST ONE SPACE LEFT...

India Tour - Himalayan Monal Quest

So with the Covid vaccine being rolled out, hopefully we can look forward to getting overseas later this year (2021). What i'm currently working on is a little change to the Classic Himalayas tour to include a visit to Chopta in search of the amazing Himalayan Monal. We'll be posting the new itinerary within the week on the Zoothera Birding website.

But just take a look at this beauty....

Thanks to Shyam Sharma/Asian Adventures for the photos.

Face Masks for Birders

 Like it or not, face masks are here to stay. Nobody likes them but the science suggests it's to protect others as well as ourselves, so let's do it! And if we have to wear them, then why not do it birder style?

There are a number of different designs for all sorts of situations...

Take a look at this website for birder's face masks and other gifts:

Country View Arts

Monteiro's Storm Petrel Pelagic

Graciosa Island is Monteiro's Central, with a couple small islets just offshore being home to most of the world's population of this rare seabird. We had 3 pelagic booked but unfortunately after the first the weather began to deteriorate and we did just a short boat trip close to shore on the second day and everything was totally cancelled for the third day. However, our first and only deep water pelagic was good enough and we got to see double-figures of Monteiro's Storm Petrel. It was a great pelagic and I think we did pretty well during our 7.5 hours out to sea.

Classified as Vulnerable by BirdLife International as it only breeds on these few small islets off Graciosa Island in the Azores.The population is estimated at 375-1499 individuals making it probably the rarest regular breeding seabird in the Western Palearctic.

Monteiro's Storm Petrel

At this time of year the Monteiro's are approaching the end of their breeding season and are looking rather worn, with the base of the inner primaries missing on many of the individuals we saw - but not all. And most of them had noticeable deeply-notched (forked) tails too. We did have a few 'odd' looking petrels and two birds in particular looked like good candidates for Grant's Storm Petrel. This species replaces Monteiro's on the breeding grounds usually from September onwards, with a big overlap during that month. So the 2 darker, squarer-tailed stormies probably have to be left unidentified. There was a paler. greyer-looking stormy that 'got away' too!

Cory's Shearwater

During our time at sea we had awesome close views of 1000's of Cory's Shearwaters and with the news there had been a White-chinned Petrel the week before on the other side of the Azores we grilled every single one! But to no avail!

But we had several Wilson's Storm petrels attracted to our chum slick....

Wilson's Storm Petrel

We were all hoping for Swinhoe's Storm Petrel but there wasn't much variety in seabirds at all, not a single Great Shearwater or even any skuas... But we did see a few Azores (Yellow-legged) Gulls, Leatherback Turtle and stacks of Portuguese Man O' War....

Azorean Gull

Leatherback Turtle

Portuguese Man O' War

On the much shorter second trip we managed to find a Sooty Tern, a much wanted lifer for yours truly (and yes I know it's a tarts tick and I was constantly reminded of this by my 'ship mates'...!), but it's a good Western Palearctic tick. And it was this bird that got me excited about Western P listing, and after counting up I realised what a pathetic list I have for this region. So I made a mental note to do something about this... 

Sooty Tern