Baga Goa in March (1 Viewer)

ScottishBirder · Jan 23, 2011

Hello again . I am off to Goa in March for two weeks ( not a birding holiday, I have been warned ). Can someone recommend a Guide to take me around from early early morning till mid day. Before the wife gets up. I have names of a few but any other names of good guides at good prices and reliable and good with knowledge of places to visit.???????o

Bananafishbones · Jan 23, 2011

ScottishBirder said:
Hello again . I am off to Goa in March for two weeks ( not a birding holiday, I have been warned ). Can someone recommend a Guide to take me around from early early morning till mid day. Before the wife gets up. I have names of a few but any other names of good guides at good prices and reliable and good with knowledge of places to visit.???????o

Hi Jamie.... a bit off subject ..sorry!
I was fortunate to sit on Baga beach December 31st 1999 and watch the last sunset of the millenium :t: never to be forgotten

Dave

forthbirder · Jan 23, 2011

Hi,
I stayed in Arpora, (about a mile or so from Baga) in March 2007. Stayed at the Lagoa Azul from where the birding was great. I used a guy called Santosh Redkar who took me to Carambolim Lake and woods and he was really good. He used to hang about outside the Beira Mar hotel in Baga.
Local spots easily reached without a guide include sunset from the terrace at Beira Mar, Arpora woods, and the coastal track over the hill to Anjuna, which was great for watching white bellied fish eagle. I'm sure you'll love Goa,
Mark

ScottishBirder · Jan 23, 2011

forthbirder said:
Hi,
I stayed in Arpora, (about a mile or so from Baga) in March 2007. Stayed at the Lagoa Azul from where the birding was great. I used a guy called Santosh Redkar who took me to Carambolim Lake and woods and he was really good. He used to hang about outside the Beira Mar hotel in Baga.
Local spots easily reached without a guide include sunset from the terrace at Beira Mar, Arpora woods, and the coastal track over the hill to Anjuna, which was great for watching white bellied fish eagle. I'm sure you'll love Goa,
Mark

I was told that Santosh was great but his prices were getting high. I have emailed him and he did reply. Someone told me of a guide called Lloyd but no contact for him. Will find one when I get there I suppose.

Alf King · Jan 23, 2011

It depends on what you mean by high. As an example Santosh took my wife and I to Morjim Beach where he worked very hard to find the target species including the Bay-Backed Shrike. We then called at Siolim on the way back and spent an hour there picking up numerous extras.

From picking us up at the Marinha Dourada to dropping us off again it was four hours and we paid Rs1100, which doesn't exactly sound too much to me. At that time of year taxi drivers were wanting Rs250 to go to Calangute and Rs850 to the airport, so this is worth taking into account - fuel prices are rising in Goa too.

Another driver/guide who is recommended goes by the name of Raymond and is to be found outside the Beira Mar hotel. I was told that he was also very good and reasonable.

Dave Williams · Jan 24, 2011

You haven't looked too far, 6 threads below this one.
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=189301

If you turn up at the Beira Mar in Baga any evening for the last couple of hours before it goes dark you are likely to meet other birders and guides so you might get the chance to halve the cost by sharing.
Taking a taxi to Morjim and spending the day at the beach might appeal to your o/h. It's a short walk away from the shacks area to the gull and tern roost at high tide and you will get several wader species here too. The Bay backed Shrike hangs around a pine tree behind the shacks. More info on other threads on here.

Jaysan · Jan 24, 2011

ScottishBirder said:
I was told that Santosh was great but his prices were getting high. I have emailed him and he did reply. Someone told me of a guide called Lloyd but no contact for him. Will find one when I get there I suppose.

I agree with Alf King regarding prices going up. Not sure what prices you have been quoted and since I have not gone with a guide, I will not be able to comment eitheway. Just to say that a cup of coffee was ~Rs2.00 when I left India in 2002. It was between 20 and 40 Rs when I went in Dec2010.

Alf King · Jan 25, 2011

Just to add that I am fortunate in that my wife is also a keen birder which effectively halves the per capita cost of using guides. Also some people compare the cost in sterling with what it might have cost 2 or 3 years ago. It's worth taking into account that stirling has fallen in value by 20% over that time.

If I were birding on my own then I would do as Rioja suggests and try to find another birder who might be willing to share costs. The Beira Mar is your best bet for that with the Marinha Dourada coming second.

HTH

Dave Williams · Jan 25, 2011

Alf King said:
Just to add that I am fortunate in that my wife is also a keen birder which effectively halves the per capita cost of using guides. Also some people compare the cost in sterling with what it might have cost 2 or 3 years ago. It's worth taking into account that stirling has fallen in value by 20% over that time.

If I were birding on my own then I would do as Rioja suggests and try to find another birder who might be willing to share costs. The Beira Mar is your best bet for that with the Marinha Dourada coming second.

HTH

I think the Marinha Dourada only applies if you are staying there. It's not somewhere that birders gather otherwise.
Have you put in a report anywhere Alf ? I'm interested to hear how you got on ! cheers Dave

Alf King · Jan 26, 2011

rioja said:
I think the Marinha Dourada only applies if you are staying there. It's not somewhere that birders gather otherwise.
Have you put in a report anywhere Alf ? I'm interested to hear how you got on ! cheers Dave

True Dave but it is becoming something of a favourite with birders nowadays and certainly compares favourably as a hotel with the BM. I actually encountered more birders at the MD than I did at the BM on a number of visits there.

I wasn'y going to write a full report as Goa is so well known to most by now and the Gosney guide covers it pretty well, albeit with constant updating being required. i will jot some highlights down before long and post them in this forum.

Vietnam beckons next!

Stuart Ling · Mar 9, 2011

Arrived back yesterday from another very enjoyable time in Goa. Spent all our time pottering about in the north using a scooter as the only means of transport and so did not bird all the sites in the state. Major sightings included;
Ashy Minivet - female at Saligao Zor - possibly only the 4th record for Goa
Blue-eared Kingfisher - 1 at Pilerne Pond - possibly the first record from the coastal belt in Goa - also here Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher
Yellow-legged Buttonquail - 2 seen very well at Arpora Woods
In addition to the above; River Tern at Agarwaddo, Brown Wood Owl showing well at Saligao Zor, Brown Fish Owl at Arpora Woods, Bay-backed Shrike at Morjim and Collared Scops Owl at Nagoa.
Just before we left I heard a report of Long-billed Pipit at Dona Paula but didn't have time to check it out.

Baga Goa in March (1 Viewer)

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