TURKEY 23RD MAY - 3RD JUNE 2007

OUR second tour to TURKEY was another major triumph following on from last year’s spectacular success. However, it was noticeable that several other tour operators have decided to follow our lead and offer this wonderful destination as part of their programme, and this gives huge cause for concern, as in one case the group size was almost treble that of ours That tour cost £600.00 more than our tour and followed a carbon copy of our itinerary. Our group sizes [in this case 7] are deliberately set low to ensure a personal touch, as well as causing as little environmental impact as possible when visiting the most vulnerable sites and habitats, and we fail to see how a group of that size can be deemed responsible eco-tourism. We recorded 181 species this time around, which was slightly less than last year, but a total of eleven Iraq Babblers beat that of any other group, as we were able to pinpoint them again following our finding of them last year. This year, we were able to find four breeding pairs of Greater Sand Plovers at a site where we were given some superb information, five Broad-billed Sandpipers and the more expected highlights such as Caspian Snowcocks, White-tailed Robins, Upcher’s and Menetries Warblers, See-see Partridge, Striated Scops Owl, Kruper’s Nuthatch, Pied Kingfisher, Armenian Gull, Asian Short-toed Lark, White-headed and Marbled Ducks, Red-necked Phalarope, Spur-winged Plover, Radde’s Accentor, Crimson-winged Finch, Red-fronted Serin, Black Francolin, Citrine Wagtail and a hole host of other exciting species. We will be returning again from 24th May – 4th June 2008 with the tour cost held again at £1375.00 with no single room supplement