Where will you go? (1 Viewer)

[Andrea Collins]

I'll be happy just to be able to travel freely again within this small group of islands on the north western fringes of Europe, and to enjoy spending some quality time with the small but interesting selection of birds that make their home here for all or part of the year.

If I had to single out one species to spend time with it would be Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus). For various reasons I have had to make do with distant views through my scope for the past two summers and I'd like to experience the sort of thing shown in the attached photo again soon.

 

[Andy Adcock]

I'll be happy just to be able to travel freely again within this small group of islands on the north western fringes of Europe, and to enjoy spending some quality time with the small but interesting selection of birds that make their home here for all or part of the year.

If I had to single out one species to spend time with it would be Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus). For various reasons I have had to make do with distant views through my scope for the past two summers and I'd like to experience the sort of thing shown in the attached photo again soon.

View attachment 742186

I had one in my freezer for a few years until I gave it away. I witnessed it collide with a telephone wire on Shetland whilst it was harrasing a Gull, they are spectacular when they're in action.

 

[wolfbirder]

I love Skuas - especially Poms. Not sure why.
The raptors of the sea!

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

I'll be happy just to be able to travel freely again within this small group of islands on the north western fringes of Europe, and to enjoy spending some quality time with the small but interesting selection of birds that make their home here for all or part of the year.

If I had to single out one species to spend time with it would be Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus). For various reasons I have had to make do with distant views through my scope for the past two summers and I'd like to experience the sort of thing shown in the attached photo again soon.

View attachment 742186

Get yourself up to Handa Island Andrea. Well worth the trip. Great food at The Shorehouse where the boat goes from as well. My all time favourite place to eat.

Rich

 

[Andy Adcock]

Get yourself up to Handa Island Andrea. Well worth the trip. Great food at The Shorehouse where the boat goes from as well. My all time favourite place to eat.

Rich

Sounds nice, had to google it.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Let's expand, what's the bird which you'd want to see if you could only see one more species in your life.

Horned Guan for me.

 

[dwatsonbirder]

Unquestionably Malayan banded pitta for me.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

If I know it is the last bird I will ever see, Seriema to complete all the orders in at least one classification. Otherwise, anything available, wild Kakapo please!

 

[opisska]

If I know it is the last bird I will ever see, Seriema to complete all the orders in at least one classification. Otherwise, anything available, wild Kakapo please!

We saw some from a long-distance bus from Paraguay to Bolivia

btw. cool concept with the orders - made me check. Missing: Kiwis, Emus, Mesites, Sunbittern, Cuckoo Roller

 

[Steve Babbs]

Let's expand, what's the bird which you'd want to see if you could only see one more species in your life.

Horned Guan for me.

Does it have to be a bird? I will do snow leopard one day, although the thrill of find one's own would be infinitely higher than seeing one on a tour. Even if that is unrealistic.

On the bird front, I've spent so much of my life failing to see a Malaysian rail-babbler that it'd have to be that.

 

[Mysticete]

Can't remember if I posted already, but:

Panama, since I had already booked my reservation and paid for a stay at Canopy Tower and Lodge.

Beyond that, I am hoping next winter break to bird South Florida to improve my ABA list (I have a conference there assuming conferences can be in person by that point). Summer 2022 there is another conference, in Cairns Australia, that I also really want to go to, as that region of Australia has long been in my top five reasonable international/overseas destinations to bird.

 

[opisska]

Canopy must be great, my wife had used to be a big fan of their fruit feeder webcam and there was so much stuff in there!

 

[Andy Adcock]

Does it have to be a bird? I will do snow leopard one day, although the thrill of find one's own would be infinitely higher than seeing one on a tour. Even if that is unrealistic.

On the bird front, I've spent so much of my life failing to see a Malaysian rail-babbler that it'd have to be that.

Mammals can be included, most people note what they see these days anyway.

Does anyone know a guy called Curtis from Michigan? I met him on Sulawesi and he was on a big mammal tour, he'd just twitched Babirusa somewhere and was, when I met him, checking hollow trees for bats.

 

[Mysticete]

Mammals can be included, most people note what they see these days anyway.

Does anyone know a guy called Curtis from Michigan? I met him on Sulawesi and he was on a big mammal tour, he'd just twitched Babirusa somewhere and was, when I met him, checking hollow trees for bats.

He is/was active on mammalwatching.com, and I am friends with him on facebook. His mammal list is pretty spectacular from what I recall

 

[Mysticete]

Canopy must be great, my wife had used to be a big fan of their fruit feeder webcam and there was so much stuff in there!

I definitely watched that cam during the initial quarantine. So glad they could keep that going.

Longer term, my eventual goal is to see at least one representative of every bird family in the world. Having never birded the tropics, I obviously have a bit to go....

 

[Gleb Berloff]

Let's write up a list of the places I will go to when all of this is over. Some of the places I know are exceptionally good and offer a 100% success rate for observations, this includes birds as rare as marbled ducks. Some are in the UK, some in Spain. Not coming back to Russia because I can see everything much closer.

Local destinations- Places in or around Cambridge where I can see interesting birds. Also need to collect Chicken of the Woods from Paradise LNR.

Thetford Forest- Pursue goshawks. Should be easy to see given I saw one in the area recently. Enormous bird even at a distance.

RSPB Lakenheath Fen- Mostly for the exceptionally reliable barn owl near the entrance

Wicken Fen NT- This is conditional on the presence of hen harriers and short-eared owls, to my knowledge neither has arrived yet, which is actually very worrying as there were five owls last year and a pair of harriers as well

Isle of Mull- Oh a variety of things to do here. 'Invade' the forests to collect mushrooms. One tour company offers exceptionally unusually reasonably priced bird tours, will take these in the summer to see golden eagles, white tailed eagles with a high success rate in their habitats. Really hoping to have a chance to observe the huge sea eagles at their nest- something possible with these guides and get better images than last time.

Vejer de la Frontera- Visit the town for the sole purpose of seeing northern bald ibis. These things nest right next to a very busy road, and are exceptionally, perhaps unusually, observable for wild birds

Alcala de los Gazules- Visit to see the enormous lesser kestrel colony

El Clot de Galvany- Location offers a 100% success rate for marbled duck observations. Also offers white-headed duck and other things, particularly in the summer

El Hondo- Spotted eagles in the winter

Los Montesinos and La Mata- Exceptionally reliable sites for Montagu's harrier

San Juan de la Pena- Lammergeier

Lo Chapineria- Spanish imperial eagle and black vulture

Alcoy- Griffon vulture

 

[mjh73]

Only trip locked in for next year is a winter pelagic from Tasmania (as much as such things can be at the moment!) Still hoping for Light-mantled Sooty Albatross one of these days, plus I still need 40-spot Pardalote from my Tassie endemics (and to upgrade Scrubtit from my 'heard and barely seen blur' list)

Beyond that.... if we can't get out of Australia then Cape York or Darwin beckon, both the last domain of a decent haul of Aussie lifers for me.

If we can get overseas it ought to be family friendly (I not unreasonably have to alternate Dads crazy overseas birding trips with family holidays!)
I'd like to get to Japan (family can be swayed by Legoland and Universal Studios / Harry Potter things, and the World Rally Championship is supposed to be there November next year which could make a nice bonus activity).
Otherwise maybe Singapore or Fiji.

Further afield possible trips to West Papua or Malaysia have been mentioned by others.

At some point I will make it back to Colombia after aborting part way through this years trip when the virus turned everything to poop. We were on our way up to the Caribbean coast / Santa Marta and then Perija next up, gutted we had to pull the pin.

If I could only see one more bird in my life I reckon Harpy Eagle or Philippine Eagle.

 

[Andy Adcock]

If I could only see one more bird in my life I reckon Harpy Eagle or Philippine Eagle.

There you go, job done

 

[Mysticete]

If I could see one more bird, I guess I might as well go big and also say Kakapo

 

[mjh73]

There you go, job done

Thanks Andy, but it's not quite the same as seeing them, monkey in talons, myself!