opisska
rabid twitcher
Hi folks!
I am fully aware that making a thread for myself like this is lazy, but it's also convenient! Feel free to bash me for it - preferably using links to already existing answers as a proof of your point
Or you can just bash me even freelier (my spellcheck doesn't like that, but what is the alternative? freerly?) for combining several questions in one....
1.
So here we are - the travel in Europe is "starting to open" in the most useless season possible - for some reason, everyone is head over heels to facilitate "summer vacations", a concept I have never come to understand, because summer, namely July and August, is a season which splits Europe into two equally horrible parts: one flooded with insufferable heat and the other one with similarly pleasant hordes of mosquitoes - and neither really thriving with birds or any other wildlife for that matter. But we are both gonna be fully vaccinated and done with the most pressing work (and with packing and moving to Prague) around the beginning of July, so what to do? Ideally, we would like to go for birds, mammals, herps or frankly anything that moves these days But most of Europe doesn't seem very appealing in July for anything. I was originally thinking of Iceland, but finding out that Harlequin ducks leave in June to molt on sea was a huge downer regarding that ... (Iceland is tricky overall - the ducks - and perhaps also the Goldeneyes - require May/June, but Storm-petrels are mostly seen from July on and for any rarer Shearwaters (Great and Sooty mostly) it seems that the time is even later).
Are there feasible destinations outside of Europe? I would like to note though that as a Czech citizen, I am legally (well, in my humble opinion illegally, but that's another debate) forbidden from traveling to: Botswana, Brazil, Eswatini, India, SAR, Kenya, Colombia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mosambique, Peru, Tanzania, Zambie and Zimbabwe "due to the risk of bringing back covid variants". I was quite thinking about Costa Rica, July could be great season for that, but the covid situation is getting worse there and "measures" (including completely silly ones such as selected registration plates forbidden from driving on selected days) are being increased there, which makes it a bit less appealing (and also a bit risky in terms of getting added to that list above).
2.
We have friends in France, who are somewhat into birding, but bigly into rockpooling and ocean, so we started talking about doing something like Ouessant later in the year, because it nicely connects the two ideas. Of course, "going for rarities" can always be hit or miss, but even the misses lately, we found out to be quite enjoyable - the question is, what is a good season for that? We would be more interested in "yanks" than "sibes", considering we get a fair those of the latter here in Poland (and yes, we are moving away, but we are also already working on moving back - and we won't be that far anyway in the meantime). If the answer is, as I fear, "October", isn't the weather dreadful? Or is there some other better option that's not terribly far for them from Paris? Inspired by last year's observations by some Spanish birders, I was considering the northern shore of Spain - I am following Dani Lopez Velasco on FB and he got what would be something like 7 lifers for me in one sitting on Estaca de Bares at the end of August - but it's pretty far from Paris (and Prague for that matter, but I am more resilient).
On a side note - besides birds, are there also cetaceans in these waters? Does anyone know if they are watchable from Ouessant or around or nearby and when?
I know it's a lot of questions, the only thing I can promise in return in answering any questions you may have about birds and mammals in Poland as I have been somewhat too much looking at those lately due to the lack of other options.
Cheers!
I am fully aware that making a thread for myself like this is lazy, but it's also convenient! Feel free to bash me for it - preferably using links to already existing answers as a proof of your point
Or you can just bash me even freelier (my spellcheck doesn't like that, but what is the alternative? freerly?) for combining several questions in one....1.
So here we are - the travel in Europe is "starting to open" in the most useless season possible - for some reason, everyone is head over heels to facilitate "summer vacations", a concept I have never come to understand, because summer, namely July and August, is a season which splits Europe into two equally horrible parts: one flooded with insufferable heat and the other one with similarly pleasant hordes of mosquitoes - and neither really thriving with birds or any other wildlife for that matter. But we are both gonna be fully vaccinated and done with the most pressing work (and with packing and moving to Prague) around the beginning of July, so what to do? Ideally, we would like to go for birds, mammals, herps or frankly anything that moves these days
But most of Europe doesn't seem very appealing in July for anything. I was originally thinking of Iceland, but finding out that Harlequin ducks leave in June to molt on sea was a huge downer regarding that ... (Iceland is tricky overall - the ducks - and perhaps also the Goldeneyes - require May/June, but Storm-petrels are mostly seen from July on and for any rarer Shearwaters (Great and Sooty mostly) it seems that the time is even later).Are there feasible destinations outside of Europe? I would like to note though that as a Czech citizen, I am legally (well, in my humble opinion illegally, but that's another debate) forbidden from traveling to: Botswana, Brazil, Eswatini, India, SAR, Kenya, Colombia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mosambique, Peru, Tanzania, Zambie and Zimbabwe "due to the risk of bringing back covid variants". I was quite thinking about Costa Rica, July could be great season for that, but the covid situation is getting worse there and "measures" (including completely silly ones such as selected registration plates forbidden from driving on selected days) are being increased there, which makes it a bit less appealing (and also a bit risky in terms of getting added to that list above).
2.
We have friends in France, who are somewhat into birding, but bigly into rockpooling and ocean, so we started talking about doing something like Ouessant later in the year, because it nicely connects the two ideas. Of course, "going for rarities" can always be hit or miss, but even the misses lately, we found out to be quite enjoyable - the question is, what is a good season for that? We would be more interested in "yanks" than "sibes", considering we get a fair those of the latter here in Poland (and yes, we are moving away, but we are also already working on moving back - and we won't be that far anyway in the meantime). If the answer is, as I fear, "October", isn't the weather dreadful? Or is there some other better option that's not terribly far for them from Paris? Inspired by last year's observations by some Spanish birders, I was considering the northern shore of Spain - I am following Dani Lopez Velasco on FB and he got what would be something like 7 lifers for me in one sitting on Estaca de Bares at the end of August - but it's pretty far from Paris (and Prague for that matter, but I am more resilient).
On a side note - besides birds, are there also cetaceans in these waters? Does anyone know if they are watchable from Ouessant or around or nearby and when?
I know it's a lot of questions, the only thing I can promise in return in answering any questions you may have about birds and mammals in Poland as I have been somewhat too much looking at those lately due to the lack of other options.
Cheers!
