New to birding abroad (1 Viewer)

I am all for controlled borders - a country is physically defined by its borders imo. We would love to go back to Turkey but haven’t been since Erdogan came to power but that might change from the small rumblings in Istanbul - it needs to spread to the larger cities particularly Ankara. His power base is the Anatolian boonies but we live in interesting times - the people like most everywhere are kind and friendly and the cuisine excellent. Georgia has a border but we don’t venture South of Batumi:t:

Laure -

As detailed above there are so many possibilities to explore. From those you have specifically mentioned I have been to Gambia (going again in November), Goa and Texas (going again next April).

Gambia is just 6hours flight away and in the same time zone and with some terrific sub-saharan species plus a few commoner species from Europe. Small sized country and with birds everywhere. Goa is also easy to do with equally amazing birding within close proximity of the hotels.

Texas is excellent in spring, especially April into early May, with a visit to the Upper coast at High Island for 2 weeks providing super opportunities for american warblers and tanagers at their best.

Spain will be a lot closer and have a more familiar UK feel to some of the birdlife with added bonus of some species which occur in the UK as rarities (Rollers, Bee-eaters, Bustards, Great Spotted Cuckoos etc) plus species which would be specialities to the area, Extramadura would be a great choice.

Personal favourite of mine is Israel in spring (multiple trips in the past decade), usually lots of migration going on in March through to early May with skies full of Raptors and Storks, deserts with its specialities, parks with exotics, salt pans with waders and flamingo's and so on, and its only 5hours flight to Tel Aviv.

All of these places you can do yourself and don't have to go on an organised tour which means you dictate how long you stay where and with what birds and not tied to moving on with the group.

Cloudbirders is the go to place for Trip Reports with many providing very detailed information.

Once you start birding overseas it'll be hard to stop wanting to do more

Another angle:

if your wife is not a birder then choosing a hotel/Airbnb with a garden or that abuts a park will give great opportunities for photographing local birds while still being able to do other things that might be of more interest to your wife.

My wife is a non-birder and much of my birding on our trips is done in the early morning when she sleeps in or other times when she wants to potter about the room. Park and garden birds are often highly approachable and therefore easy to photograph too.

Examples where this has worked well are Venice - where we stayed on an off-island but went into the city every day, Argentina (Iguacu - hummingbirds in the garden and Salta - staying at Castillo San Lorenzo outside the city and Buenos Aires - walking distance from Costanera del Sur), almost anywhere in Sri Lanka, Sapporo, Hiroshima, Okinawa, Tokyo and Karuizawa in Japan, various spots in Thailand, and spectacularly at Arcos de la Frontera in Andalusia, where a clifftop room gave wonderful views of raptors including eagles and vultures at eye level!

Various ecolodges offer similar opportunities.

Bottom line : "You choose what we do/where we go and I'll choose where we stay" could be one form of compromise that makes you both happy and delivers both lots of photos and excellent "good husband" brownie points!

Cheers
Mike

Thanks Steve and Mike - help much appreciated. The tips on spouse diplomacy very insightful, thanks Mike.

Singapore would be a great place to get some easy tropical experience. The Botanical Gardens are excellent and there are a number of other good birding spots - all easy to get to by cheap and efficient public transport. It's also one of the world's safest places and the local birding community (mostly photographers are friendly and helpful). We got a good flight, a pretty cheap apartment and ate mostly in the food courts and local restaurants, so it can be relatively inexpensive.