When I wrote my column last week, we were in Florence, Italy, visiting our son, Jeremy, and his family. Our time in Florence passed quickly as we hit all of the popular tourist spots, which were truly breath-taking and amazing.
We left Florence on Friday of last week, taking a high-speed train down to Rome where we caught a flight over to England. Two additional train rides took us to the port city of Southampton where we spent the night before boarding a cruise ship on Saturday, June 8th, the exact date of our 40th wedding anniversary!
We purposely planned our trip to Italy to coincide with our 40th so we could do the two trips back-to-back. As of this writing, we are on day three of a twelve-day British Isles cruise. The cruise itinerary includes visits to the following four countries: England, Ireland, Scotland and France.
While this is not a birding trip—as mentioned in last week’s column—I do plan to do some birding at each of our eight port stops, as this is the first time I have visited each of these countries. Since we embarked on the cruise, we have made one port visit so far in Portland, England.
Fortunately, through my connections as a Swarovski Optiks dealer, I was able to get help finding local guides. Clay Taylor, the Swarovski Naturalists Manager for North America reached out to one of his contacts in the UK who then put me in touch with four different local guides.
Our guide in Portland, England was Kevin Guest. He owns a birding tour company called Dorset Bird Tours. I have to say, Kevin and I were like a birding clone of each other. We were a good fit in our passion for seeing wild birds. Our pace was intense; I’d call it “speed birding”.
We birded together for about five hours, visiting four different locations in and around Portland. I absolutely love having a local guide when I am in a new area, as they know the area intimately. They know where to go, and have an expectation of what species they’ll find in each location.
We visited two bird sanctuaries protected by the RSPB, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the equivalent of the National Audubon Society in North America. The variety of species observed included geese, swan, ducks, grebes, gulls, terns, shorebirds, and other species associated with a wetlands habitat.
Kevin did a fantastic job of scouting the area in advance and knew what birds were present and where we needed to go to find them, all the while staying on a strict timeline knowing I had to be back to the ship by a specific time. This was not a leisurely walk. This was work. At the end of the day, I think I was literally the last person to board the ship!
For the day, we saw over fifty different species, of which thirteen were life birds, including common shelduck, little tern, razorbill, black-legged kittiwake, little owl, western marsh harrier, sedge warbler, common reed warbler, reed bunting, dunnock, northern wheatear, rock pipit and Eurasian linnet.
It is a rare day for me to see a new species in North America. One of the challenges of birding in the same place for over fifty-five years is that you see the same birds. In order to see something new, I have to go somewhere new. Adding thirteen life birds in one day is a good day!
Until next week, Happy Birding!
Eric Moore is the owner of The Lookout, in Prescott, where you will find a Hallmark Gold Crown Store, wild bird products, and Swarovski and Vortex optics. Eric has been an avid birder for over 55 years. Eric can be contacted at eric@thelookoutaz.com.
