Local Guides
1. You're on a trail in the forest...
You: "Did you hear that?"
Guide: "It is me playing a recording"
You: "Ah, what is it?"
Guide: "Look, there, here it comes....... Dullish-everythinged Antgleaner."
You: "Wow, nice one. Thanks. Wasn't sure you'd manage to find that one for me. Cool."
You've been with the wrong guides, Larry, or on the wrong kind of trips for you.
I know you know this but I'm sure there are many guides like me. I don't use tape lures. I believe in field craft. I bird my patch all year round and my routes change depending upon, e.g. bird movements and land use changes by farmers, etc. And I always have a Plan B, C, etc.
There's strategy behind my madness too.
i) Fixed accommodation so we can adjust and adapt chosen daily itineraries based upon weather forecast, targets (if any) acquired, local bird news or even whim
ii) Use of 4x4 vehicle which, although expensive to run, maximises deep country access - with sandgrouse often car-side for example - and increases guide/client contact
iii) I design each tour to cover as wide a range of habitats as possible, repeating them as much as possible, in order to encounter the full range of species available without having to rush around chasing birds
iv) I'm a qualified zoologist so like to chat about each species life history, ecology, adaptations, etc., all of which, I think enriches the experience
There's more but my point is that many of us are professionals that take our job seriously. I know you weren't saying otherwise, Larry, I'm not challenging your experiences. I totally understand those that want to find birds themselves rather than hire a guide.
I love birding my patch throughout the year and get a huge thrill showing clients around Catalonia and Aragon (sometimes other parts of Spain) and my objective is 'always try to make the experience as close to birding with friends as possible'. Selfishly, it's a better experience for me too.
I had a fantastic tour in the Steppes yesterday with a couple and their kid, all of us (including me) absolutely thrilled at an Eagle Owl looking at us down the scope, counting and re-counting Pin-tailed Sandgrouse close to the car but still hard to see until they stand up, head-throwing, farting Little Bustard, marvelled at 200 Griffons circling overhead trying to pick out the Egyptians only to find them on the floor close-by, Great Spotted Cuckoo pursued by Magpies, Golden Eagle helter-skeltering, etc. etc.
They made the comment that, birding on their own, they wouldn't have got 10% of the species we spent time watching and enjoying. We watched and enjoyed birds ALL DAY. No time wasted driving around, trying to find species, may be getting lost, etc.
Depending upon who you are, I suppose there are advantages and disadvantages between self-birding, local guides or big tour companies.
Birding experiences aren't always made by the birds. For some it's the people you share them with too. Others, on the other hand, prefer their own company. It's all cool.
Good luck to us all. We're all after the same thing, just in different ways.