Destinations
The air holidays shown are ATOL Protected by the Civil Aviation Authority. Our ATOL number is ATOL 3253. ATOL Protection extends primarily to customers who book and pay in the United Kingdom. Click on the ATOL logo if you want to know more.
News
Spring is coming ... honestly!
Some wintry weather is forecast in the UK, but farther south there are signs of spring. On Sunday, 29th January, Domingos Leitão photographed the first new season flowers in Santarém, Central Portugal, near to where Honeyguide’s group will stay for four nights. These - on the right - were the stunning giant orchid (Barlia robertiana) and the strange western friar’s cowl (Arisarum simorrhinum). "In a few weeks the area will be teeming with several orchids, daffodils, squills, fritillaries and many other beautiful flowers," says Domingos.
New web pages: Dordogne butterflies & Dordogne bugs; Crete orchid gallery & Crete orchids page.
Left to right: large copper, pill millipede, cream-spot tiger and rose chafers.
More news from Portugal
The Caia Dam Important Bird Area in Portugal is one of the sites visited by the Honeyguide holiday. Its large population of waterbirds includes collared pratincoles, little and gull-billed terns, red-crested pochards and other duck, spoonbill and egret species. SPEA, BirdLife partner in Portugal, is managing ten islands used by terns and pratincoles to nest. |
Gull-billed terns at Caia Dam IBA More and pictures on our Portugal News web page. |
Honeyguide Wildlife Charitable Trust: the late Roger Jordan and his group of friends in the Wildlife Outreach Network in the Chelmsford area raised funds to support conservation projects overseas, including a regular series of top-ups for Honeyguide's conservation donations, £4,700 by 2010. Jill Jordan kindly arranged that the remaining money they raised, £1,643, also cames to Honeyguide Wildlife Charitable Trust. The trustees' plan is to use this linked to our own projects, much as before, in Roger's words "... to give a little help and encouragement to conservationists … overseas." As always, the Honeyguide Wildlife Charitable Trust welcomes additional donations or legacies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted 6 January 2012
News from Portugal, and two more new web pages ...
Domingos Leitão, Honeyguide's leader in Portugal and on the staff of SPEA (BirdLife Portugal) has sent news about Portugal's Atlas of Wintering and Migratory Birds; the reintroduction of ospreys in Portugal; a free app about Important Birds Areas in Portugal; and a birthday for SPEA. Read more on our Portugal news page. To come with Honeyguide to Portugal: more on our Central Portugal pages.
The Cévennes and Causses
|
|
Honeyguide on Madeira: I was with the group on Madeira in the second week of November, and very good it was too. Birds were the usual fairly modest list, including the two endemics, trocaz pigeon and Madeira firecrest, and various sub-species. Less expected were what is likely to be the first accepted hen harrier record for Madeira [left, photo Madeira Wind Birds], a white-rumped sandpiper, the island's fourth [middle, digiscoped, with greenshank] and even a kingfisher, another vagrant. The boat trip was a highlight, out there in amongst a small raft of juvenile Cory's shearwaters [right]. More photos in the right hand column.
Text and pictures updated by Chris Durdin, 1 December 2011
Honeyguide in South Africa's South Western Cape
Our group has recently returned and, in the words of Honeyguiders John and Jan Croft, "It was truly magnificent. Geoff Crane was an excellent guide/tour host; leading us through the intricacies and beauty of the fynbos, the great landscapes, local history, and of course the birds and animals." Some of John & Jan's photos are below: more from the links here.
Sugarbird on pincushion protea; right whale breaching; sacred ibis (all by John & Jan Croft, photographed on the Honeyguide holiday in October 2011). Holiday report.
Picos de Europa recce: towards the end of October I had an interesting recce visit with local leader Teresa Farino. It was far from the ideal time to go for a spring/summer destination, but the wildlife potential was clear and the autumn colours glorious, when the sun shone (it also rained!) Here are some photos of wildlife highlights; there's also a recce report here.
Picos de Europa web pages here.
Left to right: dipper,
Merendera pyrenaica, alpine chough, Crocus nudiflorus
Posted by Chris Durdin, 3 November
September news - Holidays for 2012
Our brochure has been posted and is hitting doormats. Two notes about this. Though on this website, our new Peloponnese holiday was fully booked before the brochure was finalised, so is not in the brochure. Secondly, South Africa holidays: Kruger National Park is in the brochure and we also plan to run South Africa's Garden Route in our coming winter, 27 January – 11 February 2012. We already have three takers for the Garden Route, details for which are on this website, but not in the 2012 brochure.
Tarifa & Gibraltar A new holiday, new leader and new base, creating lots of new experiences for the first Honeyguide group in Tarifa in southern Spain during the second week of September. Everything was possible – right down to sumptuous picnics – due to the knowledge and contacts of local man Frank Vargas. Huerta Grande's informal set-up and home cooking in the cool setting of a wooded glade contributed to a memorable week.
The visit was timed for migration, and the sky was busy with birds. Right from our arrival, almost everywhere you could look up and booted & short-toed eagles, black kites and vultures were drifting south. A steady trickle of honey buzzards were not far from eye level at the top of the Rock of Gibraltar. As well as raptors, there was a thermal of about 1,000 white storks (pictured, right) and daily groups of bee-eaters.
Other highlights included a ringing demonstration by local group GOES (left, Cetti's warbler, and more pictures here), long-finned pilot whales under the ship's prow on our whalewatching trip (centre) and two-tailed pasha butterflies in Gibraltar (right).
Have I got old news for you?
News 2011 . . . . News 2010 . . . . . News 2009 . . . . . News 2008
Back to top of this main news page
Friar's cowl and giant orchid (Domingos
Leitão)
Website latest: Madeira, Bulgaria and Istria holiday reports are new on the Honeyguide website here.
Crete orchid gallery - 20 photos, here and new Crete orchids page Above: Ophrys cretica and Orchis italica.
Also new are Dordogne butterflies and Dordogne bugs (see left) and a page for the Flowers of Crete website on flower books for Crete.
Still four places available to see cranes in Extremadura in February: more on our Extremadura pages. Crane photo by Steve Fletcher
_____________________
Some Honeyguiders are planning to walk parts of the Camino de Santiago in the Spanish Pyrenees in the early autumn, probably for a week in late September. It will be fairly gentle walking, though covering more distance than a typical Honeyguide group, taking in wildlife, buildings and the stunning scenery along the way, but not a religious pilgrimage.
Accommodation will be at Casa Sarasa in Berdún.While it'll be a small group, there's scope for more to join them. If you're interested, please contact us.
Casa Sarasa was on Aragón TV - watch it here. The programme lasts 25 minutes and is in Spanish.
Casa Sarasa in Berdún
_____________________
Madeira photos
Madeira small copper, perched on Agapanthus. Below: Madeira chaffinch, on a bird table ...
... and a long-stay green-winged teal. All from our holiday in November 2011.
Cranes, cranes, cranes ...
In Extremadura, the winter cranes have arrived. Martin Kelsey writes: "Autumn is marked by the arrival of the common cranes, which in their own way transform the landscape, or rather soundscape, with their gorgeous and evocative trumpeting an almost constant sound whenever one is close to the their feeding and roosting areas." More in Martin's blog or come with us to see them next February.
The Norfolk Cranes' Story book by John Buxton and Honeyguide's Chris Durdin. Reviews, news and how to order here.
Crane photo by Steve Fletcher
Sandhill crane in Suffolk (and elsewhere). Anglia TV clip here (filmed 3 October 2011), with interview by Honeyguide's Ian Barthorpe. Read Ian's blog here.
Above: southern chamois Rupicapra pyrenaica subsp parva. This and dipper (left) by Teresa Farino.
_____________________
The greater honeyguide – our logo bird – has essentially a favourable press for leading honey badgers and people to bees' nests and honey supplies. But it has a darker side, as a brood parasite (like a cuckoo): read Honeyguide chicks stab their foster siblings to death with hooked bills from Discover magazine.
_____________________
A thermal of white storks, Tarifa, September 2011
Would you like to search this website? We don't yet have a search function, but if you type into Google site:honeyguide.co.uk plus your search item - e.g. site:honeyguide.co.uk wallcreeper it searches www.honeyguide.co.uk
