Not really a trip report, more a recommendation and a thankyou.
I've just come back from a five day trip to the Donana region of Spain with another BF'er, Allen, and what a top five days it was. Initially all we had to go on in the way of site guides and info was 'Finding birds in southern Spain' from Birdguides. I don't know what all the others in this series are like but this one was well out of date and i certainly wouldn't recommend it. I then contacted John Butler from Donana birdtours in the hope of prehaps booking a day with him. He was fully booked for the period and i guess you might expect that was where the contact ended but not a bit of it. John couldn't do enough to help. Not only did he book our accomodation but he went well out of his way to send a couple of site guides/reports from his forthcoming book, more than enough to keep us busy for the five days. I must say that the information was superb. As an example, John had mentioned a good site for Red-necked Nightjar and stated that they sometimes sat on the metalled track to get the warmth from it. We went to the site and could hear the birds but, by now, it was pitch black and we could see nothing. We then had a drive further along the road and, sure enough as promised, was a Red-necked Nightjar sat fifteen feet infront of us. It even sat there patiently whilst we photographed it. Unbelievable. The rest of the break followed a similar trend and we saw most of the stuff we'd expected to see, and some we hadn't, in the places John had recommended.
He quite obviously knows the place very well and, although i wasn't able to go on a guided tour with him, if the info he provided is anything to go by, i'm sure the tours are superb. I'm looking forward to his book being published and expect it to be in a similar vein to the Muddeman book on Extremadura which i've used and is also excellent.
Thanks again John. B
Cheers
Graeme.
I've just come back from a five day trip to the Donana region of Spain with another BF'er, Allen, and what a top five days it was. Initially all we had to go on in the way of site guides and info was 'Finding birds in southern Spain' from Birdguides. I don't know what all the others in this series are like but this one was well out of date and i certainly wouldn't recommend it. I then contacted John Butler from Donana birdtours in the hope of prehaps booking a day with him. He was fully booked for the period and i guess you might expect that was where the contact ended but not a bit of it. John couldn't do enough to help. Not only did he book our accomodation but he went well out of his way to send a couple of site guides/reports from his forthcoming book, more than enough to keep us busy for the five days. I must say that the information was superb. As an example, John had mentioned a good site for Red-necked Nightjar and stated that they sometimes sat on the metalled track to get the warmth from it. We went to the site and could hear the birds but, by now, it was pitch black and we could see nothing. We then had a drive further along the road and, sure enough as promised, was a Red-necked Nightjar sat fifteen feet infront of us. It even sat there patiently whilst we photographed it. Unbelievable. The rest of the break followed a similar trend and we saw most of the stuff we'd expected to see, and some we hadn't, in the places John had recommended.
He quite obviously knows the place very well and, although i wasn't able to go on a guided tour with him, if the info he provided is anything to go by, i'm sure the tours are superb. I'm looking forward to his book being published and expect it to be in a similar vein to the Muddeman book on Extremadura which i've used and is also excellent.
Thanks again John. B
Cheers
Graeme.
