The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Myself and 3 friends have recently returned from 2 weeks birding in Indias smallest state, we stayed in the hotel Mariha Dourada in Arpora, a good quality hotel with air con, and some rich local bird habitats,indeed over 40 species includind a male pied harrier seen from our 2nd floor balcony,
The food in a local indian resteraunt was superb and cost about £5 per person for a 3 course meal a cold beer and coffee inc a generous tip!
Weather was 25to27oc at dawn ( 0615) and 35oc by midday,and dry and sunny every day with variable humidity, a local taxi cost £12 for a 7 hour
birding trip to various locations and in the 2 weeks the group recorded 263 species of birds including some spectacular looking birds and several rare UK species, eg blyths reed warbler, clamarous reed warbler,
green warbler,booted warbler, pallid harrier, etc.
The total cost per person was £ 1250, ( the basic holiday package £650 b&b)
visa and courier service £80, taxis, food, water, beer, boat trip, etc and a great time enjoyed by all, Nick Tribe , Neil Pike, Nige Lound and John Walker. Happy xmas and new year to readers of this page, John.

John,
Linda & I went to Goa with the tour operator 'WildWings' in 2005 and had a great time. We found Goa to be not only a wonderful place for birds, but also for its people. We felt safe at all times and most of the locals seemed very friendly with smiles on their faces - it was rather different in The Gambia!
We stayed for the bulk of the time at the Biera Mar hotel which is terrific as far as its location is concerned - right opposite the Baga Fields, but the hotel you stayed in has much better facilities.
Did you get the Collared Kingfisher from the river trip?

Roy

Nice to hear you enjoyed your trip. We go to Goa on 11th Feb next year (7 weeks and counting ) It is such an amazing place to visit and so cheap! We went there in Dec 2005 and loved every minute. Wonderful birds and wildlife, friendly people, fantastic food etc etc. Looking forward to photographing everything this time as we didnt have any camera gear on our last visit.

We had Brahminy Kites nesting above the pool, and also every morning when the hotels plants and flowers were watered, little jewelled birds came from everywhere to bath in the leaves that had collected water and we spent ages on our balcony watching them Black Kites were everywhere too and amazing kingfishers etc.

Cant wait to go back!!!


M&M

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Roy, yes we saw all 8 species of Goan kinfisher, some especially well from the boat trip up the side channels off the Zauri river, including collared, black capped and sword billed, dwarf kingfisher was seen in the forest at Backwoods. We too found the people friendly and we wandered in many locations birding without hassle, wonderful,Neil also took the crocodile river trip and saw all 3 species, ( saltwater , marsh,
and gharial) wishing you a good trip M&M, John.