Birdquest Tour Leader Evaluations (1 Viewer)

Was hoping some here might have experience with the following Birdquest tour leaders, and be willing to share their impressions of their leadership styles. (I find the Birdquest website unhelpful in this regard). I’m less interested in birding skills (which I expect are very good or better for all) than people skills, pleasantness, ability to manage groups effectively, being respectful and considerate of participants, and having an interest in wildlife other than birds. I list them in alphabetical order:


Nik Borrow (I know he is author of noted field guides), Dave Farrow, Hannu Jannes, Danni Lopez-Velasco, Craig Robson (I know he is author of noted field guides), Mark Van Biers

I've travelled with Hannu - very good birder, and, having travelled on tour with him would also regard him as a friend as much as a guide. 10/10 in all categories mentioned above.

I have only met Mark Van Beirs in person. I have Dani as a FB friend. Both are really nice guys from my personal experience. Nice in the sense that they are social, eloquent, think before they speak, and thus are not the kind of pushy / cocky / loud / ... guys.

I can only guess that all others have the same qualities, if not, they wouldn't be guiding for Birdquest and they wouldn't have led a dozen of succesful tours each, and there is no one complaining on the internet.

disclaimer: I am not involved with Birdquest or (at least at the time of writing) any bird tour company.

Is this an appropriate forum for what are quite personal evaluations? Of just one company?

I suppose it is fine when comments are positive but less so if there are negative sentiments?!

FWIW, I've only ever been on a few brochure tours; namely Birdquest: New Zealand Sub-antarctic Islands, Birdtour Asia - Banda Sea, Wildwings - Antlantic Odyssey. A theme there I guess. In all three cases the leaders were excellent.

cheers, alan

temmie said:

I can only guess that all others have the same qualities, if not, they wouldn't be guiding for Birdquest and they wouldn't have led a dozen of succesful tours each, and there is no one complaining on the internet.

Click to expand...

Thanks to you and WP for the comments.

Maybe I'm the sensitive type, but I have had tours with a variety of companies and leaders, including Birdquest, and have had several leaders that I would not bird with again, and would not have birded with to begin with if I'd known more about them. That is why I'm asking.

My impression is that participants are reluctant to post negative comments about a leader for various reasons, so the absence of negative comments is not necessarily indicative of anything.

lewis20126 said:

Is this an appropriate forum for what are quite personal evaluations? Of just one company?

I suppose it is fine when comments are positive but less so if there are negative sentiments?!

FWIW, I've only ever been on a few brochure tours; namely Birdquest: New Zealand Sub-antarctic Islands, Birdtour Asia - Banda Sea, Wildwings - Antlantic Odyssey. A theme there I guess. In all three cases the leaders were excellent.

cheers, alan

Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments.

I believe it is absolutely appropriate. They offer a service, and should be evaluated on the quality of that service. If you don't want to post negative comments, no one is forcing you to. No one questions frank reviews of an author's books or articles on a forum such as this; why should guiding services be any different?

The reason I'm asking about Birdquest in particular is because unlike other companies they don't post quotes from evaluation forms on their website, so they provide little info about guiding styles.

Jim M. said:

The reason I'm asking about Birdquest in particular is because unlike other companies they don't post quotes from evaluation forms on their website, so they provide little info about guiding styles.

Click to expand...

So would A.N.Other bird tour company post negative quotes about the performance of their guides? I don't think so. Surely selective positive quotation from single sources can be as misleading as no comment at all?

Like any service, I would have thought personal recommendation(s) from friends would be amongst the best way to positively select a tour / guide / company.

cheers, alan

I'd ask that we not let the thread diverge into a meta-discussion of how to evaluate bird guides. If you don't like the idea of commenting on guides, then no one is forcing you to post a comment. I am also happy to receive PMs if you'd rather comment that way.

I have no connection with any tour company and am just asking to assist my personal decisions. I am from the US, so not many of my friends tour with BQ. If I don't have any feedback on a guide, I won't tour with him or her. So I definitely appreciate the comments made so far! :t:

Birded with Hannu when we were on the same Antarctic trip - before he joined Birdquest. Thoroughly nice guy.

Rob

We make arrangements for Birdquest in Peru. Of the leaders you mention I have only birded with Mark and Dani. Both last time on a private trip (not Birdquest trips) and was the first time I met Mark.

They are both excellent birders of course. I would not hesitate to recommend either of them. But they are also a generation apart. So this may influence your choice.

Some people would prefer who are well versed in the history and the culture of the area you are visiting. Obviously, with years of experience Mark would have an edge here.

Other people will prefer Dani's young passion for birds and birdwatching. He totally radiates birding and birdfinding.

I know Dani has travelled a lot the last couple of years and been exposed to some very tough tours, so in spite of being young, he is also very experienced in dealing with tough circumstances.
Mark must have been through it all during his years, so can fall back on his knowledge and experience.

Other Birdquest leaders that have also led in Peru are Pete Morris and Eustace Barnes. Pete is one of the most focused birders I know. He has a huge following among Birdquest clients, because he delivers. He is also a top bird photographer as can be seen from all his pics in the Birdquest catalogue. In the field sometimes considerble time is spent photographing a bird, but since no birds are missed, the group seems not to mind. He also shares a lot about his bird photography technique and settings, so anyone interested in getting photos of rare species can learn a lot from Pete.

Eustace is an artist and know almost every feather of the birds that come in front of him. More laid back than Pete with typical great British sense of humour. Eustace knows the birds of South America VERY WELL from years in the continent. He is also involved in research about mining, pollution and social effects in the Andes. He does not mind change, when change is for the better.
The last Birdquest Central Peru trip had a larger species count, and more endemic birds (several Birdquest firsts), because Eustace was pivotal to embrace the changes I had suggested since we first did the logistics for Birdquest. The changes included no more camping at Bosque Unchog and including the Oxapampa and Satipo road areas.

Hope this helps..

Gunnar

PS: Disclaimer: Somewhat disqualified to comment due to our close ties to Birdquest. So take this into account.

I birded with Craig Robson, nice guy and very good in birds (of course). I can recommend him.

If you are sensitive to guides personality, simply write BirdQuest boss, who is thoroughly nice and helpful guy, and openly ask which tour leader is especially nice and friendly. It is much better than encouraging people to post negative comments about named people who likely don't know the site and cannot defend themselves.

Thanks everyone for the helpful evaluations of the leaders. I've also received helpful comments via private message. I expect I'll make more such posts about other guides from other companies in the future, as I have in the past. I fully believe openness and transparency about this topic is the best for all.

jurek said:

I birded with Craig Robson, nice guy and very good in birds (of course). I can recommend him.

If you are sensitive to guides personality, simply write BirdQuest boss, who is thoroughly nice and helpful guy, and openly ask which tour leader is especially nice and friendly. It is much better than encouraging people to post negative comments about named people who likely don't know the site and cannot defend themselves.

Click to expand...

I see you have chosen to ignore my request to avoid clogging this thread with discussion of the best way to evaluate tour leaders. In any event, I already tried your suggestion, and it was a waste of time. I couldn't disagree more with the rest of your post; ease of ranking and evaluating people, products, and services is one of the great advances of the internet, and helps to reward those who provide good service, and protect consumers from those who don't. Everyone who deals with the public on a commercial basis gets publicly ranked nowadays, including teachers, lawyers, restaurant chefs, uber drivers, doctors, contractors, book authors, athletes, etc. There is no reason for a special exception for bird tour guides. Silence just rewards the bad guides and punishes the good ones--and punishes the unwary participant who has to suffer through a bad trip for which he's paid thousands of dollars.

If others feel the need to further discuss the topic of how to evaluate guides, I request that they either start a separate thread or PM me. The purpose of this thread is for comments about the guides I mentioned in the original post. Thanks again for the on topic comments.

Jim M. said:

Was hoping some here might have experience with the following Birdquest tour leaders, and be willing to share their impressions of their leadership styles. (I find the Birdquest website unhelpful in this regard). I’m less interested in birding skills (which I expect are very good or better for all) than people skills, pleasantness, ability to manage groups effectively, being respectful and considerate of participants, and having an interest in wildlife other than birds. I list them in alphabetical order:


Nik Borrow (I know he is author of noted field guides), Dave Farrow, Hannu Jannes, Danni Lopez-Velasco, Craig Robson (I know he is author of noted field guides), Mark Van Biers

Click to expand...

Maybe input can be improved if you say something about your people skills / pleasantness and ability to function in a group,... as well ;-)
Don't get me wrong, I fully support your quest for feedback about guides you pay a lot of money for, but I feel your question cannot be fully answered if we don't know about your character. Some people fit better with some guides etc. And remember that sometimes, it's not the guide but one of the participants who is influencing the atmosphere in the group the most. Things to take into account.

Travelled with all of them, most of them several times, In fact I've done 16 tours led by MvB. They all have different personalities but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them all.

I'm a bit of a Birdquest junkie, my next tour to Costa Rica will be my 70th with the company.

If you want more information, the sort that I wouldn't care to post on a public forum then PM me.


Ian

My friends and I once fell into the company of a guy (let's call him Mr Z) we only knew by reputation as a bird guide for a birding tour company. This was in the UK and we were all trying to relocate a significant rare bird. He wasn't leading a tour, obviously, he was out birding. The guy had loads of skill, field craft, knowledge and was really good company. We eventually relocated the bird and parted company. We spotted him an hour or two later across the car park as we all packed cars up to leave and waved.
The chaps in the car next to ours looked over, spotted him and said "oh look, there's that x?!xz Mr Z, I wouldn't trust him to lead me to the end of my garden"

In conclusion I would rely on your personal experience rather than the jaded opinions of others.
If you don't know the guide and don't want to travel with and rely on him - save your money.

I've been on a few organised tours, and have never had a problem with a leader. In my experience it's more likely that another participant will be a problem, but even this hasn't proven to be unmanageable (up to now anyway!). I can understand why you are asking, but a negative review may say more about the reviewer than the reviewed; certainly I was pre-warned about one guide who turned out to be excellent!

MSA said:

I've been on a few organised tours, and have never had a problem with a leader. In my experience it's more likely that another participant will be a problem, but even this hasn't proven to be unmanageable (up to now anyway!). I can understand why you are asking, but a negative review may say more about the reviewer than the reviewed; certainly I was pre-warned about one guide who turned out to be excellent!

Click to expand...

I was wondering about starting a thread on 'Tour participant evaluations'...

We've all heard stories about unofficial 'blacklists' so there must be nightmare clients out there.

cheers, alan

MSA said:

I've been on a few organised tours, and have never had a problem with a leader. In my experience it's more likely that another participant will be a problem, but even this hasn't proven to be unmanageable (up to now anyway!). I can understand why you are asking, but a negative review may say more about the reviewer than the reviewed; certainly I was pre-warned about one guide who turned out to be excellent!

Click to expand...

I fully agree , only been on one organised tour many years back (Israel with Sunbird, leader Killian Mullarney -brilliant) and I led a few for Gullivers Natural Hist Holidays, tour leaders need the patience of Job, just one participant can ruin the whole trip for everyone else and as mentioned above, happy customers are less often likely to pas comments of any sort than the unhappy ones.

lewis20126 said:

I was wondering about starting a thread on 'Tour participant evaluations'...

We've all heard stories about unofficial 'blacklists' so there must be nightmare clients out there.

cheers, alan

Click to expand...

Nothing unofficial about them

petemorris said:

Nothing unofficial about them

Click to expand...

Perhaps you should start a thread on that Pete, I might be on the list!!!

Totally agree about leaders and the personality type required, I couldn't do it even if I was a good enough birder.....which I'm not:-C

I've only heard bad reports about one guy who shall remain nameless, not a Brit or a Birdquest leader.

Pete, I've been waiting for your contribution to the 'Birds I've seen at work' thread!!!



A