Nile Cruise in October (1 Viewer)

What a wet, dreary day....so the mind automatically turns to going somewhere nice and hot for a holiday!!

Doing some early research for Autumn half-term 2009, which will be the last week in October - unfortunately no flexibility on dates - and one possibility is a Nile cruise.

Anyone any good gen on whether this is likely to be productive bird-wise and any info regarding sites etc. I know next to nothing about Nile cruises, but imagine that there might be quite a range of possible schedules and destinations, so any info that would garner some reasonable time for a bit of dedicated birdwatching would be appreciated.


All the best.... Ray

Ray,
I did one a few years ago and it was great! However, destinations are limited. At that time, the Egypt part of the Nile allowed for cruises between Luxor and Aswan, or as a second option, on the lake above Aswan. The one we did was the first of these, and as the boat is relatively small, the river reasonable in size, and most of the sailing done in daytime, lots of birds could be seen while sitting on top of the boat under the canopy with a telescope, and watching birds such as black-sholdered kite, spur-winged plover, and Senegal thick-knee. I was there at the end of september, and some raptor movements were ongoing; I could imagine that october is better. However, you may miss the one Skimmer I saw on the trip.

The trip we did was combining the archeological sites with my birding, so most of that part was locked regarding sites. We had two weeks total, so did a little more independent things later. However, I still remember the first Sooty Falcon at the Kom Ombo Temple; OK, I did not see it quite well enough, but later sightings confirmed it, so temples are not all bad .

Cheers
Niels

Thanks Niels - that all sounds quite promising..... We would quite enjoy the tourist sightseeing part of things, but (obviously!) didn't want to go somewhere on hols that was no good for birds.

Sounds like a Nile cruise might tick all of the boxes...


Thanks... Ray