When: Anytime

Length of stay: One to several days

Number of guests: 1 to 5

Fee: This depends entirely on what the visitor wants and where we go. To give an example, a four day trip for 2 people in Kent recently cost £325.00 per person. This included all transportation costs, accommodation in a Travel Inn, meals (taken in the hotel restaurant), guide, pick-up/drop off from agreed locations and a checklist. Excluded were drinks and items of a personal nature.

A ten day tour of the UK again for two people was priced at £1225.00 per person. This included all transportation costs, accommodation in Bed & Breakfast style accommodation, meals (taken in the local restaurants and pubs), guides time, pick-up/drop off from agreed locations and a checklist. Excluded were drinks and items of a personal nature.

BACKGROUND:
Winter birding around the London reservoirs can produce a good selection of commoner species and good numbers of ducks, which include Pochard, Tufted Duck, Smew, Goosander and Goldeneye. A variety of sites in the Lee Valley also offer some excellent birding, with various diving ducks (often including Smew), Water Rail, Snipe, Jack Snipe and in recent years, regular wintering Eurasian Bitterns.

The heathlands of Surrey and Sussex are located close to Gatwick and Heathrow airports and are home to resident Dartford Warblers and Stonechats. During the spring and summer Thursley and Chobham Commons are home to Woodlarks, Hobbies, Eurasian Curlew, Tree Pipit, Redstart and a host of other commoner woodland and heathland species. The heathland in Surrey is home to Dartford Warblers, Woodlark and Tree Pipit.

There are a number of excellent woodlands that are home to all three British woodpeckers, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Marsh Tit, Coal Tit, Jay, Lesser Redpoll and Hawfinch.

The marshes of North Kent provide much interest at all seasons, with many breeding and passage waders and thousands of wintering ducks, geese and waders. For those with a little more time, the excellent migrant traps of Dungeness or Pagham Harbour are accessible with both sites providing excellent birding throughout the year, with good numbers of common migrants throughout the migration periods and regular rarities.

For those with flights into or out of Stansted, then the excellent little reserve at Fowlmere is within easy reach and here we may find species such as Water Rail, Kingfisher, Reed & Sedge Warbler, Garden Warbler, Blackcap and Willow Warbler. Also within reach of Stansted are the magnificent wetland habitats of the Ouse Washes. This area is home to large numbers of wintering wildfowl and shorebirds (including Whooper & Bewick's Swans, Eurasian Wigeon, Lapwing and Golden Plover) and breeding shorebirds include Black-tailed Godwits. Abberton Reservoir in Essex is another site within reach of Stansted that offers some varied birding as does the excellent coastal scrub around Walton-on-the-Naze, an area that attracts migrants and regular scarce and rare species.

We welcome enquiries for birding trips from 2 hours to a full day. Our one day trips around the south-east regularly produce 60-95 species, whilst if you have 2 or 3 days the potential species list can reach 120 in winter and 140 in May or September. Each itinerary is formulated to meet your specific needs. We can visit a wide selection of sites, representing a broad cross-section of habitats and their typical birds thus ensuring that a wide range of species will be encountered. Alternatively you can specify your target species and we will do our best to find the birds that you most want to see.

Longer Trips:
We also operate longer breaks sampling the finest birding that Britain has to offer. We can design an itinerary for trips up to 2 weeks in duration. Whether you have a list of target birds you wish to see, or just wish to sample the wide variety of habitats Britain can offer we can design an itinerary for you. Recent five and seven day itineraries have visited Kent, East Anglia and Wales producing up to 140 species whilst nine and ten day itineraries have targeted species in England, Wales and Scotland producing lists of 160 or more.

We can offer itineraries that target any regularly occurring species in England, Wales and Scotland. Just let us know your objectives (or send us a list of the birds you want to target) and the length of time you have available and we will formulate a customised itinerary specifically for you. Whether you have a few days or two weeks, we can put together a programme that will meet your objectives.