10,000 Birds
Birds, Birding and Blogging
Fri, 09 Oct 2026 03:30:42 +0000
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10,000 Birds
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Cabranosa’s autumn delights
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Fri, 09 Oct 2026 15:59:00 +0000
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Unimposing it may be, but Cabranosa is a great place to visit if you like birds of prey.]]>
Monte da Cabranosa sounds rather more impressive than it really is. It’s a low, pine-clad hill, just a short distance away from Cabo São Vincente, the south-western most point on the European mainland. In the autumn migrating raptors tend to be funnelled towards the Cape (Cabo), due to the rising coastal plateau and the main coastal valleys. When they get to the Cape they invariably turn back…
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Species Spotlight: Light-vented Bulbul
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Fri, 09 Oct 2026 11:00:00 +0000
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The Light-vented Bulbul is ubiquitous in Shanghai. I once used its characteristic call as the ringtone for my mobile phone but had to abandon this idea as it was simply too confusing to decide whether I received a call or just heard a bird. (Masochistic sidenote: Not sure if the Ivory-billed Woodpecker has a characteristic call and whether it has ever been recorded, but its use as a ringtone should limit confusion considerably). The HBW sounds almost a bit negative about the species: One of the commonest birds in S China, especially in cultivated and settled areas; abundant in many regions … Being commensal with man, this species requires no conservation action; it is favoured by deforestation and tolerant of highly degraded habitats. For this reason, its range is spreading. I guess they like their birds to be a bit more obscure. Bulbuls craving the attention of ornithologists better choose university campuses as habitat – for example, the campus of Hainan Normal University in Haikou. Some individuals which used this approach successfully are featured in a recent paper describing their novel behaviors. One involves climbing up trees in the manner of a woodpecker, searching for insects. The other describes foraging for insects, aggregating under artificial light at night. The researchers describe both behaviors as examples of birds adapting to urban environments – though frankly, I do not quite see how the first one fits that description (trees are not a highly characteristic feature of urban compared to non-urban environments). A better example is that, apparently, the nesting material used by Light-vented Bulbuls depends on the type of land they used as habitat. The proportion of anthropogenic materials such as plastics, paper pieces, cloth pieces, nylon particles, and threads increased significantly in more urban habitats. The researchers take a massive leap of faith speculating that this is due to an increase in the availability of anthropogenic nesting materials toward the urban core. Better access to a greater variety of nest-building materials is not the only advantage of city life for the bulbuls. Yet another study found that more urbanized habitat was linked with earlier nesting, increased frequency of feeding the chicks, and less predation. What’s not to like? My guess is that it is young urban Chinese who are particularly attracted to bulbuls. To my surprise, the Chinese translation of an old post of mine on bulbuls has received a large number of views on Chinese social media. Apparently, quite a few young Chinese, to some extent, identify themselves with bulbuls. With the help of ChatGPT, I figured out why: The Chinese word for pessimist, beiguan zhuyizhe, starts with the same sound (but not the same character) as the Chinese word bei for bulbul. So when Chinese people call themselves beiguan zhuyizhe (with the bulbul bei), they are identifying with the bird and with pessimism. Which thus is both a pun and an expression of a weary or downbeat mood through a cute bird identity.]]>
The Light-vented Bulbul is ubiquitous in Shanghai. I once used its characteristic call as the ringtone for my mobile phone but had to abandon this idea as it was simply too confusing to decide whether I received a call or just heard a bird. (Masochistic sidenote: Not sure if the Ivory-billed Woodpecker has a characteristic call and whether it has ever been recorded…
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The Favorite Birds of Our Profiled Bird Guides
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Thu, 08 Oct 2026 11:00:00 +0000
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In our series on bird guides, so far, 131 profiles have been published. To start the interview, we asked each of them the same question: What is your favorite bird species? Not surprisingly, given that our bird guides are from 50 different countries, there was very little overlap in the answers. A total of 128 species were mentioned, but only six species were mentioned more than once. And more than once just means they were mentioned twice: Bee Hummingbird Cuban Tody Doherty’s Bushshrike Pel’s Fishing Owl Resplendent Quetzal Shoebill If I were in a better mood, I would now explain how this little overlap demonstrates the amazing and fascinating variety of the avian world. Instead, I will just give you the names of species that were mentioned just once: African Crowned Eagle; Alpine Swift; American Flamingo; Andean Condor; Andean Cock-of-the-rock; Bar-bellied Pitta; Barred Buttonquail; Bay-breasted Cuckoo; Bengal Florican; Bicolored Antpitta; Black-and-white Monjita; Black-bellied Seedcracker; Black-billed Capercaillie; Black-capped Kingfisher; Black-throated Tit; Black-backed Grosbeak; Blue-headed Quail-Dove; Bornean Banded Pitta; Bornean Bristlehead; Bugun Liocichla; Chaco Owl; Chestnut-headed Partridge; Chinese Monal; Cinereous Vulture; Cock-tailed Tyrant; Common Raven; Crested Tit-warbler; Ceylon Bay Owl; Drakensberg Rockjumper; Egyptian Nightjar; Egyptian Plover; Esmeraldas Woodstar; European Honey-buzzard; Eurasian Bullfinch; Eurasian Roller; Fire-tailed Myzornis; Florida Scrub-Jay; Florida Crested Caracara; Glistening-green Tanager; Golden Eagle; Gorgeous Bushshrike; Great Blue Turaco; Great Gray Owl; Great Hornbill; Great Philippine Eagle; Green-breasted Pitta; Green-bearded Helmetcrest; Green-tailed Towhee; Gray Hawk; Gray-throated Chat; Grey-crowned Crane; Hooded Siskin; Hoopoe; Iberian Imperial Eagle; Indigo Flycatcher; Ivory-breasted Pitta; Kirtland’s Warbler; Lear’s Macaw; Loggerhead Shrike; Magellanic Woodpecker; Maroon-fronted Parrot; Marvelous Spatuletail; Mountain Tailorbird; Multicolored Tanager; Nile Valley Sunbird; Narina Trogon; Oahu Elepaio; Orange-breasted Green-Pigeon; Orange-breasted Laughingthrush; Oriental Scops Owl; Ornate Hawk-Eagle; Pennant-winged Nightjar; Peregrine Falcon; Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan; Red-and-yellow Barbet; Red-billed Firefinch; Red-billed Tropicbird; Red Bird-of-Paradise; Red-cockaded Woodpecker; Red-ruffed Fruitcrow; Red Warbler; Red-backed Shrike; Reeve’s Pheasant; Ring Ouzel; Rockrunner; Rufous-tailed Jacamar; Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo; Sarus Crane; Scaly-breasted Illadopsis; Secretarybird; Semi-collared Flycatcher; Sword-billed Hummingbird; Spotted Palm Thrush; Spoon-billed Sandpiper; Sri Lanka Frogmouth; Sri Lanka Green-Pigeon; Straw-headed Bulbul; Sulawesi Dwarf Kingfisher; Sumatran Ground-Cuckoo; Swallow-tailed Kite; Syrian Woodpecker; Tamarugo Conebill; Three-banded Courser; Three-toed Woodpecker; Uirapuru; Ward’s Trogon; White-crested Laughingthrush; White-tailed Cisticola; White-tailed Kite; White Wagtail; White-winged Duck; White-browed Tit Warbler; Whitehead’s Trogon; White-backed Woodpecker; Western Tanager; Whooping Crane; Yellow-eared Parrot; Yellow-headed Picathartes; Yellow-shouldered Amazon Parrot; Yellow-throated Toucan; Yucatán Jay; Zapata Wren.]]>
In our series on bird guides, so far, 131 profiles have been published. To start the interview, we asked each of them the same question: What is your favorite bird species? Not surprisingly, given that our bird guides are from 50 different countries, there was very little overlap in the answers. A total of 128 species were mentioned, but only six species were mentioned more than once.
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Demotivational Posters for Birds (LI)
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Thu, 08 Oct 2026 11:00:00 +0000
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Occasionally, chicks visit our editorial offices and ask why our posters paint such a negative picture of bird life. We have noticed that adult birds never ask us the same question. We therefore see no reason to revise our editorial policy.]]>
Occasionally, chicks visit our editorial offices and ask why our posters paint such a negative picture of bird life. We have noticed that adult birds never ask us the same question. We therefore see no reason to revise our editorial policy.
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Hummingbird Curiosity
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Thu, 08 Oct 2026 10:00:00 +0000
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Central Mexico is a great place to get to know lots of hummingbirds. I have seen 19 hummingbird species within an hour of my home in Morelia. Thirteen of those species can be seen year-round here, but we look forward to the winter season when we host the other six species as well. The resident species range from the comparatively large Rivoli’s, Amethyst-throated, and Blue-throated Hummingbirds, to the Bumblebee Hummingbird, one of the world’s smallest birds, and the spectacular Sparkling-tailed Hummingbird and Golden-crowned Emerald, also tiny but with tails that double their length. My birding buddy Nacho lives the dream when it comes to hummingbird observation. He is a university professor of botany, so he oversees many field trips to different parts of Mexico, which allow him to also visit many different habitats for birding. But even when he is home he has unusual birding opportunities. This is because he lives on a 7 hectare (17 acre) property on the edge of Morelia, with a mix of pine-oak forest, recovering pastureland, and a unique large marshy meadow. Two years ago lots of Calliope Hummingbirds stopped for a few weeks at this meadow on their way from the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia to Mexico’s southwest coast., I have only seen this species in 4 of my 14 years of birding Michoacán, so that was quite an event. And this is why the Calliope is worth looking for. This mid-September, Nacho invited three of us to bird his lot, in the hopes of locating more Calliopes. We failed to find that species. But his meadow is still a unique and wonderful habitat for many kinds of hummers, so we were not disappointed. This one was a Broad-billed Hummingbird. The main attractions in his meadow are the wild sweet peas-type flowers and small nodding thistles that grow there. They not only attract lots of hummers, they also make very photogenic perches for them. Even without the Calliopes, we saw four different species of hummingbirds on this trip, with a total of at least 15 individuals. The wildflowers also made for nice photos of other birds and insects. There is a Vermilion Flycatcher above this section of Nacho’s marshy pasture. Black-headed Siskin a female Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater Not a bird. But the true belle of the ball (well, technically, beau of the ball), was a single male Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Female Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and their close relatives the Black-chinned Hummingbirds both may spend their winters in the Michoacán highlands, although they are not all that common here. But for some reason the males of these species almost always fly down to the coast for the winter, leaving only the almost indistinguishable females to confuse us from September to March. So we were very excited to see this male with its brilliant red throat. A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Or is it Black-chinned? But there is no doubt with a male. This one is definitely Ruby-throated. Of course, we first took photos from quite a distance, in case our subject suddenly decided to flee. Then we walked a bit closer and tried for better shots. This pattern continued for several minutes. (You probably know the drill.) Finally, we had gotten close enough to hope we might actually have taken some really good images, although photographing hummingbirds is always quite a challenge. (They are very small and extremely hyperactive. Their irridescent colors only show when the angle of the light is just so. And when they do flash their colors, it usually happens so quickly that the camera cannot adjust in time to the sudden brightness, producing an overexposed, fuzzy image.) An overexposed, fuzzy image. And then something happened that I’ve only ever experienced with hummingbirds: The male decided to get a good look at us. There were four of us, standing in a straight line. And he flew to about four meters (12 feet) from us, stared at us with his gorget blazing, while hovering (as only hummers can) for what seemed like a very long time. Then, his curiosity satisfied, he flew away to sit on a rather distant twig. We, of course, all froze during this encounter. We would have loved to attempt to photograph him as he stared. But we were afraid any movement of our arms and cameras might spook our new friend, and doubted that he would stay as long as he did. Which may have been a good thing, as it forced us all to be entirely focused on our very special meeting. I love watching hummingbirds. Who wouldn’t? But it is always a surprise to be reminded that hummingbirds may also love watching me.]]>
Central Mexico is a great place to get to know lots of hummingbirds. I have seen 19 hummingbird species within an hour of my home in Morelia. Thirteen of those species can be seen year-round here, but we look forward to the winter season when we host the other six species as well. The resident species range from the comparatively large Rivoli’s, Amethyst-throated, and Blue-throated Hummingbirds…
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Beholding a Jewel
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Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:00:00 +0000
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Chris Gooddie describes them as “the ultimate forest prize” – and this couldn’t be a more apt description of members of one of the most reclusive families of birds in the Great East. Scattered across rainforests of Asia, Africa, Australia, and several islands in between are forty-plus members of the pitta family. True gems, found mostly in the understory of mosquito and leech infested ancient forests, these plump, small-to-medium-sized birds are dabbed in crushed ruby, emerald, sapphire, saffron, and so many other fantastical colours. Mr. Gooddie is the author of “The Jewel Hunter“, the cover of which is a photo of a single azure feather resting atop the leaf litter – the tell-tale sign of a nearby pitta. His tome describes his quest to see all (then) 32 species of pitta in the world, which (spoiler alert) he did, but only barely. A couple years ago, a friend lent me this book to enjoy while on a couple long-haul flights en route to the Solomon Islands. A single island in this archipelago nation is home to Black-faced Pitta, and my dear friend thought that reading about the horrors involved in searching for pittas would suitably prepare me for that trip. Back then, our itinerary did not have room for a pitta hunt, but maybe on our next visit… The following year I had another opportunity with another pitta, the Green-breasted Pitta of west and central Africa. We roused at the usual ungodly hour and drove the short distance to a discrete roadside trailhead within Uganda’s Kibale Forest. Known for its population of Chimpanzees, we were here before dawn to try for the pitta. When we gathered to enter the trail, we were a motley crew of different tour groups: myself and my wife, an American family, a Belgian couple, and a single male birder. Accompanied by an armed ranger and a couple of local guides, we began marching into the jungle. Within about half an hour, we began hearing a very distinct bonk resonating through the forest. The tolling of the bell is the sound of the Green-breasted Pitta, adding further to its mystique. However, no sooner had we heard it did one of the guides start up the bluetooth speaker. Those who know me well would know that I’m not a fan of using playback, but I was in another land so I kept my mouth shut. Maybe this is how things are done here, I thought. Onward we strode. Suddenly, our guide stopped and turned around, wide-eyed. It’s there. I raised my binoculars and focused on the thick, wooded vines, twisted upon one another – sat upon this was indeed a bird that I had previously read about. As Chris Gooddie did, I ogled at its cream eyebrow, black face, and a neon blue, the likes of which I had never seen before or since. It perched facing away from us, proud, upright. And then it flew. It didn’t hop down onto the ground, it disappeared. I had only just touched my camera and there was no bird in sight. Looking to the left of where the bird was, however, I noticed a couple of our guides alarmingly close to the perch. Coincidence, maybe. I was wrong. Over the following two to three hours we trod through the forest, occasionally coming close to a pitta. The speaker was never turned off. Each time, I could barely get a view before it’d dematerialise again. Throughout our journey, that solo traveller was consistently at the front of the line. Even when we’d advance through a tight corridor to then reverse out, he’d muscle past everyone to return to the front of the line. Everyone grew more exasperated with not only his actions, but those of the guides as well. Apparently there was a pair of birds we were tracking all morning, and once located, all eleven of us would descend upon these two birds, with the two local guides actively making attempts to separate the pair. Naturally, I questioned this. The response was “if we separate them, then it is more likely that one bird will perch on a visible branch to display to find its mate”. I was appalled – and I felt quite sick to know that I was a part of it. I mentioned to one of the guides that it seems as though we’re stressing the birds, but the response was “no, they’re fine”. Alright then. We left the forest that day with a fairly decent workout under our belts, but only a few sniffs of a truly wonderful and gorgeous creature. Despite not having a photograph, I was happy to leave. This year, we returned to the same jungle, again with the goal of seeing a Green-breasted Pitta. I expected frustration, but when I realised that it was only myself, one of my clients, and three guides with a ranger – I figured the odds were decisively in our favour. Such is the lottery of birding. The previous year, we walked and walked. We hunted for around three hours and barely got a view. This time we were not walking for more than twenty minutes when we came upon a Green-breasted Pitta on the trail. Ahead, in view, on a root. No bushwhacking, no playback. Sounds perfect, but there must always be a catch. To see a pitta, one must begin before sunrise. Seeing one this early meant that the sun hadn’t yet touched the leaves of the trees, getting light on the ground was still at least an hour away. It was so dark that I was having trouble seeing the bird despite it being in full view in front of us. Pushing the limits of my camera, I made my first image of a Green-breasted Pitta. Grainy and terrible, but it’s there: Green-breasted Pitta In the half hour or so that followed, we tracked this single bird quietly as it moved through the understory. If some time elapsed with it being out of...]]>
Chris Gooddie describes them as “the ultimate forest prize” – and this couldn’t be a more apt description of members of one of the most reclusive families of birds in the Great East. Scattered across rainforests of Asia, Africa, Australia, and several islands in between are forty-plus members of the pitta family. True gems, found mostly in the understory of mosquito and leech infested ancient…
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Interviews with 10,000 Birds Writers: Kelly Isley, USA
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Wed, 07 Oct 2026 11:00:00 +0000
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Your Birding History and Future How long have you been a birder, and how did you get into birding? I’ve been around birds for as long as I can remember. My parents introduced me to both fishing and the outdoors, but birds won me over. I’ve also had bird feeders at every home since I was tall enough to refill them, so watching birds has been a constant in my life. At some point, birding moved beyond a hobby and grew into a passion. Photography deepened that connection. The camera gave me a reason to slow down, pay attention to behavior, study light, and appreciate all the little details that can easily be missed when you’re simply walking through a landscape. Has your attitude toward birding changed with time – for example, did it get intense, do you focus on different things now, etc.? Definitely. I think my relationship with birding has grown over time. Early on, there was naturally more of the “What bird is that?” excitement. As my photography developed, I became increasingly interested in behavior, habitat, light, and the story behind the bird. I still love finding a new species, but I don’t feel that every outing has to be about adding another bird to a list. These days, I’m just as happy spending time with a familiar species and observing something I haven’t noticed before. Sometimes the most rewarding birding experience is watching a bird do something unexpected. And photography has taught me patience. The perfect photograph, or sometimes simply the right moment, usually happens when you’re willing to wait and least expect it. What have been the ornithological highlights in your life so far? There have been quite a few, but one of the biggest and most recent highlights has been writing Amazing Hummingbirds You Can Find in Arizona. To me, hummingbirds are extraordinary subjects because they combine incredible beauty with fascinating behavior. Photographing them has given me a much deeper appreciation for the species that visit the southwestern United States. Having the book help turn the spotlight on the International Hummingbird Society, while also receiving a Kirkus Starred Review and winning a 2025 Best Book Award, was especially meaningful. The honors were wonderful, but what I value most is the opportunity to help bring greater attention to hummingbirds and the work being done to understand and protect them. Traveling for birds has also been a major highlight. I’ve enjoyed seeing how different habitats shape the birds and their behavior. And then there are the unexpected moments—like finding myself much closer to a bobcat than I intended or encountering a bear when I would have preferred a considerably greater distance. Those encounters certainly become part of the birding stories you remember! What are your plans for the next few years, as related to birding? For example, trips planned? I’ll continue exploring the southwestern United States and the broader Americas, particularly places with exceptional bird and hummingbird diversity. There are still so many species and habitats I want to photograph. I’m also interested in continuing to combine photography, writing, and conservation into another book. I enjoy telling the story of a bird – not just showing a beautiful photograph, but helping people understand its behavior, habitat, and why protecting those places matters. If you had to make a living off birding, what kind of activity would you try? I suppose I’ve managed to turn parts of birding into a second career through the book, speaking, and exhibits. If I had to choose one thing, though, I’d probably combine photography and writing. A long-term goal is to spend more time documenting birds in different parts of the world and turning those experiences into stories, books, articles, and educational material. I’m also thankful for the people side of birding. Joining small groups or leading specialized photography field trips is appealing because you get to share the experience rather than simply photograph it yourself. Your Life as a Non-Birder What do you do for work? My professional life is probably a little unusual for a birder. I’m an aerospace engineer, business strategist, author, photographer, and licensed pilot. I’ve spent over 27 years working across aerospace, defense and space, technology, finance, engineering, behavioral health, and nature and wildlife. Much of my work has involved strategic planning, technology development, partnerships, capital funding, acquisitions, and helping organizations navigate complicated business challenges. At the same time, photography and writing have become important parts of my professional life. I’ve written five books, and my photography has appeared in publications, museums, books, magazines, and in the media. Is there any link between your work and birds/birding? There’s probably more of a connection than might initially appear. Engineering and strategic planning have taught me to observe carefully, analyze systems, solve problems, and think several steps ahead. Those skills are surprisingly useful in wildlife and nature photography. Photography also requires a combination of technical knowledge and creativity. You can understand every setting on your camera, but that doesn’t guarantee a meaningful photograph. You still have to recognize the moment. And my aviation background has certainly influenced my appreciation for landscape, geography, weather, and habitat. Flying gives you a very different perspective on the places birds live. What’s your favorite thing to do outside of birding? Photography is probably the obvious answer, although for me it’s closely connected to birding and gardening. I also enjoy hiking, flying, and exploring new places. I particularly enjoy being outdoors without necessarily having a rigid agenda. Some of my favorite experiences happen when you set out looking for one thing and end up discovering something completely different. How does your personal environment regard your interest in birds and birding? I’m fortunate that my husband enjoys birding, nature, and hiking too. That makes it easier when I disappear outside with a camera! On the days when I head out for a longer birding adventure, he often has a golf tee time waiting, so we’ve developed a good system. We also have two...]]>
Your Birding History and Future How long have you been a birder, and how did you get into birding? I’ve been around birds for as long as I can remember. My parents introduced me to both fishing and the outdoors, but birds won me over. I’ve also had bird feeders at every home since I was tall enough to refill them, so watching birds has been a constant in my life. At some point…
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Ask a Birder: What was your most unpleasant experience while birding?
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Wed, 07 Oct 2026 11:00:00 +0000
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We asked several of our writers the same questions. Here are the answers to the one above. — Anything involving crowded places or long transfers usually annoys me, but I put up with much more than I would normally do when birding. Malaria and seasickness, for example, put a damper on the working day, but hardly affect a day’s birding. Funny how that works (Peter Penning). — Unpleasant experiences while birdwatching are—thank goodness—rare. But they do happen: there was a guest over eighty years old who collapsed in the heat and had to be carried out of a former training ground. Since then, I have made sure my guests drink regularly. Another unpleasant episode, in retrospect, was the fact that—while we were acting as volunteer wardens for a small seabird island on the Baltic coast of the GDR (East Germany)—we were being eavesdropped on by a combat diver from the East German Navy, acting on orders from the Stasi (East Germany’s secret police). It was only after German reunification that a colleague—who also volunteered on the island and had applied to emigrate to West Germany during the socialist era—learned that we volunteers had been spied on by this combat diver while sitting around the campfire in the dark. The bird island was located on the Baltic coast, which was a border zone. The combat diver was lucky, given that after a few beers by the campfire, we didn’t always walk all the way to the toilet… (Rolf Nessing). — This is a tough one, but ignorant and inconsiderate birders and increasingly photographers who don’t have the bird’s interests at heart are unpleasant. Too many new photographers are just interested in getting the shot and the likes on social media (John Hague). — A long morning involving heavy rain, mud, and mosquitoes, while the bird I had come to see remained completely uncooperative. The bird stayed dry, which somehow made it worse (Fitzroy Rampersand). — I had a couple of experiences with criminal elements while birding; I survived (clearly), but in the situations it was very touch-and-go. Both instances happened on consecutive days, with the same client, seeking the same species: White-tailed Goldenthroat (Faraaz Abdool) — Getting in the worst rain I ever experienced in the middle of the Norwegian tundra, with no shelter in sight. Hiked through it for hours; all my clothes were soaking wet, pants ripped from the weight, water overflowing out of my rubber boots, all my optics (scope, binoculars, camera) fogged up from the inside. Took more than a week to dry out again. 0/10, would not recommend (Jochen Roeder) — Lucky for me, I have not had any unpleasant experiences (yet) while birding. There have been some wasp stings, mosquito bites, sweaty weather, rainy weather, and talkative fellow birders, but that is part of the deal (Mary Alice Hayward). — Flash floods near Eilat. There is only one road leading north, and if that road is closed, the city is cut off from the rest of the country. That was two days before my return flight from Tel Aviv (Peter Hinow). — In March of 2023, I took a month-long birding trip to South India organized by an American man who invited a variety of, as it turned out, random people. It was indeed a birding trip and advertised as such with a great supporting itinerary. We had an excellent guide who I had birded with before in North India. I knew only 2 others in a group of eleven. On the first half of the trip, a bunch of things happened to cause a variety of unpleasantries that most trips will have of one sort or another. As the first part of the trip came to an end, and just prior to the extension to the Andaman Islands, one of the trip participants announced one morning at breakfast, “I really don’t get this whole birding thing.” Clearly not something a birder would ever say. After this, and as we headed off to the Andaman Islands, the group dwindled down to 5 participants—the trip organizer, his wife, and this married couple that included the woman who made the pronouncement of “I really don’t understand this whole birding thing.” I was the participant bringing up the rear. From then on, and it is impossible to explain and write all of the behaviors here, this married couple staged a coup d’etat so complete that the trip turned into chaos. They demanded hotel changes, different locations, different activities, and were the ugliest Americans I have ever experienced in my life. I felt very bad for our field guide, who did his best to hold things together. I supported him as much as I could, but let’s face it, there wasn’t much I could do. He said to me, more than once, “In my 20 years of guiding, I have never had clients like this.” I knew he was telling the truth. There are times when I think I would like to return to India to bird the very northern parts of the country with this same guide. But then I remember this 2023 trip, and it sends shivers down my spine (Catherine Carroll) — It would be easy to say that being charged by a bull elephant while on foot in Okavango was the most unpleasant, but looking back it was really rather more exciting than unpleasant. There are a few other contenders for most unpleasant experience, but the winner has to be the time when drunken thugs decided to chase the vehicle I was driving during a 24-hour bird race in Kent. It was shortly before midnight, and we were travelling in our BMW 325i to our first destination when the erratically driven Yugo (a nasty, cheap car that sold briefly in the UK) appeared in my rear-view mirror. The driver of the Yugo tried to get ahead of us and force us off the road; it failed, but did pursue us all the way to Canterbury...]]>
We asked several of our writers the same questions. Here are the answers to the one above. — Anything involving crowded places or long transfers usually annoys me, but I put up with much more than I would normally do when birding. Malaria and seasickness, for example, put a damper on the working day, but hardly affect a day’s birding. Funny how that works (Peter Penning). …
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