27 april 2012 - Home from Morocco

Well it has been way too long since my last blog post, no excuses really as i did have internet in Morocco, but never had the time to do anything here as i was busy posting photos on facebook or to my new photo hosting website http://jameslidster.smugmug.com/

The Morocco tours were brilliant, below is the tour summary i sent to the WINGS office after the trips:-
I am just home after two amazing tours to Morocco, both very similar and yet still quite different! On both trips we recorded many of the hoped for species including Northern Bald Ibis, Moussier's Redstart, Tristram's, African Desert & Scrub Warblers, Levaillant's Woodpecker, Seebohm's, Red-rumped and White-crowned Wheatears, Black-bellied and Spotted Sandgrouse, Pharaoh Eagle Owl, Cream-coloured Courser, African Crimson-winged Finch, Egyptian Nightjar, Thick-billed, Hoopoe and Temminck's Larks, plus all the exciting 'new' species (or species in waiting). The latter included Moroccan Wagtail, Maghreb Magpie, Ultramarine Tit, Atlas Chaffinch, Desert Grey Shrike and Atlas Horned Lark. There were other constants as well from the healthy picnics of sardines, fresh vegetables and local bread, mint tea and tastey tajines to the stunning scenery and friendliness of everyone we met.
So what was different between the two tours? The weather for one. The first trip saw some wet days, some windy days ending with some pleasantly sunny days along the coast. Snow was limited in the Atlas and there was no lake in the Sahara....roll on 2 weeks and there is still no snow in the Atlas, but a lake several miles long in the Sahara!! The day after our arrival in the Atlas we then had 40cm of fresh snow fall, providing some quite dramatic scenery....or rather making already dramatic scenery even more beautiful!
Where one tour missed out, eg no Maghreb Wheatear on the first tour, but they did see Crowned Sandgrouse. In fact, of all the hoped for species those 2 were the only ones that were only recorded on one of the tours.
Migration differed between the two trips of course, the first trip finding some nice surprises in the form of a male Pallid Harrier, several Isabelline Wheatears and a small group of Little Crakes. The second trip was rewarded with a few of the later migrants such as European Roller, Golden Oriole, Rufous Bush-robin and even larger numbers of European Bee-eaters.
Could I choose between which tour was the best, no chance! Morocco remains a top class birding destination.....the only downside, I wish I was going back for a 3rd trip!

There has been quite a lot of talk of late of seeing Houbaras in Morocco. I have now seen 2, but the release project is now so large that seeing a genuine wild bird must be nearly impossible (or impossible to prove). There are now 3 breeding centres, releasing 2000 birds a year for the Arab hunters. Someone told me it's like counting Pheasants on your British list or White Storks in the Netherlands. The former i can agree with, the latter are (as far as i know) not supplemented by huge releases each year.

All the photos from both tours are now on the smugmug site, with labels. Im hoping that that site will be the definitive place for all my photos. The idea being that it will be fully searchable, by both english and scientific name, or by country. I have thousands of photos sitting on hard drives that although i dont think they are great photos they may well be of value to someone with regards ID features (Eastern & Western Ollys for example, Pallid Swifts).

Im working backwards with putting photos online, and am currently at 24th jan 2012......long way to go.

In the meantime the self employment is going well. The taxman sends me more letters than the average stalker, work is coming in, and basically i cant remember the last time i had a day of doing nothing. Next week Spain.....

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.

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.....

26 februari 2012 - time flies

So that was it....3 months away and in the blink of an eye we are back home again!
Since the bungy jump we headed to Knysna and spent 3 relaxed days, walking, eating and being tourists. We met up with Bex and Mustard for the best meal of the holiday, bacon wrapped scallops followed by ostrich steak and washed down with local honey flavoured beer and red wine.
From Knysna we headed west to Swellendam, ate at a restaurant where there was no menu and no prices, had a hostel room again full of mossies and then were up early to drive to Cape Town. In Cape Town we went shopping for souvenirs, had another great meal, more stunning scenery before heading back to the hostel to pack our bags.
Hoping to make the most of our last day we checked out of the hostel and drove to the Cape of Good Hope. The weather wasn't great but the mist and strong wind just made for a great atmosphere. We picnicked in the car due to baboons and bad weather.
There was then time to shower back at the hostel, catch up with Alan and then head to the airport for an 11 hour flight home.
Neither of us slept well but the sight of Martine, Ester and Vera, with homemade muffins, was enough to keep us awake until we reached Arnhem. Can't believe it's over....11 weeks of life changing experiences would do it all again tomorrow!!!

17 februari 2012 - bungeeeeeeeeeee

When we first started this trip we discussed what we did and didn't want to do. Remke was 110% certain that she didn't want to Bungy, i was 95% sure that i didn't.....when we arrived at Vic falls we were met with the news that the bungy had snapped a week before and that all bungys were off. Shame but that made decisions making easier.
After our sky-dive i started to think more about a bungy jump, and by the time we reached SA i was up to 70% that i wanted to do it.
After a morning birding and walking around Tsitsikamma forest (Knysna Woodpecker etc) it was time to head to Bloukrans. Maybe if i saw some people jumping it would make my mind up. I watched 4 people jump and started to have serious doubts as to whether i could or would do it. After a calming cup of coffee, no alcohol allowed, i headed to the info desk to ask how long the whole jump process would take. Not long at all i heard but i still wasn't sure and had just 2 minutes to make a decision. There were 2 Germans already waiting, and i was offered the chance to walk with them onto the bridge and decide once i was there. I jumped at that opportunity, the bridge itself was spectacular although i tried not to look down too much!
I watched the first 2 jump and made my mind up, i was going to jump as well. The guys on the bridge were great, very calming and professional. I waddled like a penguin to the edge and on their countdown i jumped, arms out and head up from 216 metres.....OH MY GOD......what i have done as i plummeted towards the ground at 120kmph, feeling the reassuring tension of the bungy, followed by 3-4 more falls, and more tension. It was amazing, different to the sharks and the skydive but my heart was racing. I hung upside down for a minute before some guy was winched down to me, to turn me upright and winch me back to the bridge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C84VSln2VjI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Once on the bridge i couldn't stop smiling. So pleased i had done it and was buzzing for hours afterwards!!

15 februari 2012 - pelagic photos

Title says it all really, im not able to crop or edit my photos so these are as they come.

15 februari - and relax

Finally time to do nothing. We are now in East London having driven (well Remke did) from Sedgefield in a day, about an 8 hour drive. We were supposed to be meeting a friend of Remkes here but he can't make it, so instead we are sitting by the pool, being treated superbly and the zebras last night were so close we could hear them grazing. We are staying on a farm/hostel type place and are the only guests. This morning i saw Knysna Turaco before breakfast and tonight they are doing a braai for us.
Anyway no photos yet but chance to put some photos from last few weeks online. All mammals, the lions weren't in the wild by the way. Pelagic photos to follow