Where to go for WP rarities right now? (1 Viewer)

[jurek]

Why not Burgas, Bulgaria or Istanbul for its raptor migration?

 

[opisska]

After two days of watching sources, it's quite clear that ebird is actually the best thing in spain you can find. Right now the NW quadrant of Spain has Baird's, White-rumped and Buff-breasted sandpipers and Short-billed Dowitcher. I don't think the entire ensemble is doable in one day, because the area is still huge, but it's pretty fine selection

 

[njlarsen]

White-rumped sand and the dowitcher is doable in just about any day around now here in Barbados. Buff-breasted has also been here this fall.
If you are vaccinated, entry means a PCR test before you leave home and another one at arrival with answer usually within 24 hours.
Niels

 

[opisska]

Well that's not surprising, both White-rumped and Baird's are familiar birds for me having spent almost year cumulatively in southern America. But I want them for my WP list

 

[Edward]

Hm Iceland, how is it with birds there? From thr occasional news I get the feeling that they get fantastic rarities, but very few, so one would have to live there for months to see anything, am I wrong?

We only have time now, not in October, sadly.

Not necessarily months. Last week you could have seen Baird's Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, two Pectoral Sandpipers, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, American Golden Plover, Buff-bellied Pipit and Sabine's Gull all in the same village, 10 mins from the international airport. And then a Yellow Warbler and White-winged Scoter just down the road. The potential for finding your own birds is pretty huge after a nice SW front hits. But if the winds aren't right then you might see absolutely nothing in terms of rarities. But Harlequin Duck, Barrow's Goldeneye and Gyr Falcon are available 365 days of the year if you want those for your WP list.

 

[opisska]

Wow, that's a village to visit I will keep Iceland on my watchlist - for this trip, it would have been just too expensive, since we need to stay in a hotel, but when we have more free time to camp, it sounds swell!

 

[njlarsen]

since we need to stay in a hotel,

I don't know about Iceland but in Denmark and I assume other Scandinavian countries you can rent a cabin ("summer-house") with good WIFI and it would be cheaper than a hotel for stays of several days to week long periods. Some campgrounds have very small cabins for rent as well.

Niels

 

[jurek]

Hi Jan,
If you want cheap and a good wifi connection for your wife, did you consider outside the Old Continent? Lots of places in Asia have good wifi and good hotels. Check their entrance requirements. From my experience with remote work there, however, a big problem may be looking out of the window and getting distracted by blue sky, palm trees, metallic starlings and bulbuls.

 

[Richard Prior]

Hi Jan,
If you want cheap and a good wifi connection for your wife, did you consider outside the Old Continent? Lots of places in Asia have good wifi and good hotels. Check their entrance requirements. From my experience with remote work there, however, a big problem may be looking out of the window and getting distracted by blue sky, palm trees, metallic starlings and bulbuls.

Sounds great, but no good for adding to Jan’s WP List which is the priority for him!

 

[opisska]

@Niels: From what I looked up in birding-ly attractive places, these things are still expensive, especially for just two people, compared to the cheapest hotels that we are looking for. Currently we are staying at Estaca de Bares at 42 EUR per day for both (and still grind our teeth about that).

@jurek: yeah, it's hard to stay put and work in a super interesting place. my wife actually appreciates my choice of Galicia, as she considers the landscape reasonably boring. She also told me she was not that big into seawatching, but I think this may have changed after today's evening ...

@Richard Prior: I like world birding as well But WP is a great competition indeed (admittedly, I also quite like winning it in the Czech Republic)

 

[njlarsen]

I just made a search using Blaavand in Denmark as the location. it is known as one of the better places for sea bird observations in Denmark (but probably not as good as Galicia) and overall pretty sought by tourists. The lowest price i saw was euro165/week. This will obviously vary with the exact week you need it.

Niels

 

[opisska]

On what service? I tried booking and airbnb and got vastly more expensive offers, maybe I am missing something?

 

[njlarsen]

Sommerhusudlejning i danmark | dansommer - this particular site is in Danish, I am not sure which site to use with English language

Niels

 

[opisska]

In this age of automatic translation, any Indo-European language goes. I am definitely bookmarking that! I have had a similar experience from Poland 5 years ago, where I got way better deals by using local polish language sites. Nowadays, everything in Poland is on booking.com though, the change was really fast.

 

[albatross02]

What would be a good source for records in Portugal? I found only scarce information about Sagres.

I am indeed happy to go to places where peiple don't go and something "underwatched" yet promising would be cool, but I am not very willing to go to Azerbaijan after I heard experiences of others - the country is corrupt and outright hostile.to an independent traveller.

September maybe Madeira especially for sea birds.
Seychelles is quite short for 10 days. But september is good time.