maandag 19 maart 2012

20th maart 2012 - Off to Morocco

I will shortly be leaving for Morocco, to lead my 70th tour for Sunbird/WINGS. Hopefully i will have internet on a few days to keep you up to date with what we are seeing and to upload some photos.

maandag 12 maart 2012

12 march 2012 - update

To say it has been hectic since we arrived home would be something of an understatement....
In fact the first week flew by with unpacking, washing clothes, downloading photos, catching up on post etc.
After that i made the giant leap to become self employed. Basically i will still only be guiding for Sunbird/WINGS but will not be working through agencies in the Netherlands. This has involved numerous meetings with intelligent people, people with calculators, desks and large collections of pens.....
Anyway it's now nearly all sorted, registered with the chamber of commerce (KvK) and insurances are in place.
Somewhere in the middle i have sorted my taxes, been arranging my stag do and am now in the UK. After a few days in Dorset, seeing family, friends and lots of Med Gulls i was collected by BBRC secretary Nigel Hudson and his wife Danni. They then drove me to Minsmere, seeing Red Kite along the way, for the annual BBRC meeting. Our chairman Adam Rowlands is the main man at Minsmere and he arranged our digs in Scott Hall cottage. This was just a few minutes walk from Island mere hide where we saw Otter, Bittern, Cetti's Warbler, Glossy Ibis, Med Gulls and Marsh Harriers over two pre breakfast visits.
On the saturday we broke our meeting for a quick look at the scrape, where several Yellow-legged Gulls were in residence although without a scope i didn't see any Caspian Gulls.
Sunday morning we continued with the meeting, and once again it was great to see everyone. After lunch Martin 'super chef' Garner and i had a quick look for Dartford Warblers at Dunwich, seeing at least 4 birds. After leaving Dorset 4 years ago it seemed strange to be exerting myself to find a Dartford! Martin then kindly drove me to Sandy where i could catch up with the Sunbird crowd (well Steve at least).
A quick trip to the office this morning and im now near Newark for a few days before flying home on thursday. One week tomorrow i will be off to Morocco.....