2009 Review  of the Year

In spite of the global recession and it’s major impact on the travel industry, we are pleased to report that over 95% of our programmed tours actually ran, giving our customers many many bird and wildlife highlights throughout the year. Full, post tour reports for nearly all of them can be found on this website and the majority plus our new trips are currently scheduled to run in 2010. We hope you to decide to come and join us!

Dave Fell took our annual group to Goa in January, coming home with over 260 species seen and heard, some of the star birds being Indian Pitta,  Malabar Trogon and Sri Lankan Frogmouth at our comfortable camp in the Western Ghats plus the expected species back down on the coastal strip.  Mark Andrews led our second season of short, intensive trips to Thailand with everyone coming home with super views  of Spoon-billed Sandpipers, White-faced Plover and both Gurney’s and Banded Pitta to name just a few plus at least one group saw Asian Elephant too. March saw Simon Cook led the Atlantic Odyssey, from South America to Cape Verdes via the islands of the South Atlantic. Pretty much all the expected goodies were seen with cetacean sightings being particularly strong with Blue Whale, Southern Right Whale and Southern Rightwhale  Dolphins all putting in appearances in addition to the more regular species. Chris Collins and Dick Filby led the third Western Pacific Odyssey which also sailed in March.  The ship had to avoid a cyclone early on in the voyage but still came home with a mega list of mega birds including Beck’s Petrel, Heinroth’s Shearwater  and Short-tailed Albatross to name a few. There are still berths available  for the penultimate 2010 voyage.  The third Eilat Bird Festival produced over 200 species during the week  in March including a host of Western Palearctic  rarities such as Crested Honey Buzzard, Black Bush Robin, Caspian Plover , Blue-cheeked Bee-eater  and more plus the region’s special birds were also well seen such as Macqueen’s Bustard, Hume’s Owl and Nubian Nightjar.  I visited the wonderful Midway Atoll in April and found it to be a major avian spectacle, especially if you like your seabirds. Gerard Gorman led the second Hungarian Bird Festival in May with participants enjoying the expected specialities such as Saker Falcon, Great Bustards plus most of the European woodpeckers and four species of owl including Eagle and Ural. Next year’s basic price is still only £599 per person twin share, now that really is value for money! Mark Andrews led our 15^th Beidaihe trip and came back with a very happy group and a superb list of species, star birds included Oriental White Stork, Streaked Reed Warbler and Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher . Siberian Thrush and White-throated  Needletail  were voted best birds by the group. May also saw Dick Filby heading east for our Poland in Spring trip based at both the forest and then marshes of the east of the country, again with all the specialities seen well by most of the party. Finally in May, Daniel Green led our short Sweden in Spring break which in spite of being over subscribed and requiring a second leader  enjoyed a fantastic few days seeing Great Grey, Ural and Tengalm’s Owls, six species of woodpecker and even a Lynx sitting in the middle of the road at one point! June saw Chris Collins and Simon Cook escort our group to Kamchatka in the Russian Far East and what an amazing voyage they had. The expected specials of these scenically stunning region were enjoyed and again a very good list of cetaceans including Baird’s Beaked Whales and yet another Blue Whale. Tony Marr led our annual group pilgrimage to Spitsbergen in the Arctic in search of Polar Bears and other wildlife, all successfully seen. Prices for these voyages have risen steeply these past few years, our group departure in 2010 representing excellent value for money however. Our Galapagos voyage was judged a great success by it’s participants in July, with all the seabirds well seen plus most of the land endemics too. Our local guide was rated ‘one of the best ever’ by a number of our clients. Mark Andrews and Regina Ribeiro led this year’s Brazil Jaguar tour and enjoyed multiple close and prolonged views of our main quarry plus much more besides. Tony Marr worked onboard the icebreaker in Antarctica and enjoyed two visits to the Emperor Penguin colony at Snow Hill Island, 2010 will the last chance for this unique voyage as the ship retires from passenger service soon. This year’s Sub-Antarctic  Islands of New Zealand  and Australia voyage sailed into some challenging weather  at first but turned out to be another great success with WildWing’s client Pete Fraser calling the bird of the trip, yet another Magenta Petrel. Our first clients are also returning from Antarctica  with rave  reports about the wildlife, the place and the carefully selected ships we sent them on. Finally, congratulations to Mark Andrews and crew after their successful but very difficult trip to Ladakh in October/November in search of Snow Leopards. Surely one of the most elusive animals on the planet, Mark managed great views of two animals (there are some photos on www.surfbirds.com  mammals gallery) but it seems quite clear it is too difficult to run as a commercial tour. High altitudes, low temperatures and a very high level of fitness being required. WildOceans ran our always popular Baja California voyage in March plus our clients also enjoyed Chas Anderson’s Maldives and new Sri Lanka whale and dolphin watching holidays in 2009. See you in 2010!

 

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OBC- WildWings Conservation Awareness Award

We continue to jointly fund this annual award to scientists working in the Oriental Region. This year’s award went to support work in Bangladesh in order to try and save the White-rumped Vulture.

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West African Pelagic NEW VOYAGE!

We are delighted to announce this new, 8 night voyage which will run in May 2011. Our comfortable expedition vessel will sail from the Cape Verdes via the west coast of Africa, the Canaries, Salvage and Deserta Islands to Madeira offering a good chance to clean up on the various Macronesian seabirds and cetaceans that occur in these waters.   From only £999* per person. Booking now.

 

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ONEOCEAN EXPEDITIONS….a new Antarctic  ship operator

With the demise of a number of vessels this year, largely due to the global situation and upcoming new safety requirements for passenger ships we are very pleased to announce we have become agents for Oneocean, started by our good friend Andrew Prossin who started Peregrine Voyages a few years back. Their second and current Antarctic season uses the Ioffe, a long-term WildWings favourite vessel and we have discounts of up to 20% for late bookers. We can offer berths in January 2010 from only £2940*per person. For the 2010/11 season they will be operating a ship called the Marina Svetaeva, the newest of the ‘Russian’ ships, like the Ioffe and Vavilov this vessel is very stable and carries just over 100 passengers. Oneocean will have large and enthusiastic expedition teams onboard and operate their vessels with minimal environmental impact. 

 

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A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

To all our customers, past and present from all of us in the office and our leaders around the world.