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GerbyBirding holiday Sao Miguel,Terceira and Flores from 13 to 20th Octobre 2014 - Leaving from Amsterdam 1300 Euros pp

One of the best places for a birder to be in the middle of Octobre is certainly the Azores.
This trip guided by Gerby Michielsen will cover São Miguel and Flores with a 3 hours stop on Terceira's magic Cabo da Praia waders topspot.

After 26 years living on the Azores and over 400 flights between the 9 Islands and many assistence to birding groups and individual birders I decide to organize my first independent tour.
The group will have a maximum of 8 guests to keep it quiet and is based on Bed and Breakfast in double rooms.Tour leader Gerby speaks Dutch, German, English and Portuguese and knows very well the best birding spots on all the Islands.

Day 1. You will leave from Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, early in the morning on a direct flight to Ponta Delgada,  where I pic you up at  8h35. We check in on a small hotel near a beach on 10 minutes driving and use the rest of the day for birding on the western part of São Miguel.

Ring-necked Ducks near Ponta Delgada

Day 2. We leave São Miguel at 9h25 and half an hour later we start birding on Terceira where we will visit Cabo da Praia and Paul da Praia wich are only a 5 minutes driving from the Airport. At 14h15 we fly to Flores, most western spot of the WP and certainly the best place to be in Autumn, where we arrive at 15h15. Check in and end the day birding around Aldeia da Cuada, a renovated traditional village where we will stay the next 3 days.

Lesser yellow leggs - Cabo da Praia

Days 3 and 4. Birding on Flores between crater lakes, waterfalls and small gardens searching for American vagrants. At night we will eat in one of the small cheap restaurants from Fajã Grande on 2 km from our guesthouse.

Bobolink on Fajã Grande

Red-breasted Gossbeak on Fajazinha where is located our guesthouse.

The legendary little fields from  Ponta de Fajã

Upland Sandpiper on Flores

Day 5. After a little birding in the morning we take a direct flight at 12h50 and arrive at 14h00 in São Miguel where we will bird around Ponta Delgada.

Day 6 Now it is time to go behind the Azorean Bullfinch, Europe's most rare landbird. After spotting this "must" we check out more hotspots on the Eastern part of Sao Miguel.

The legendary Azoren Bullfinch

Day 7. Today is our last full day on the Island and we wil head on to the west visiting the fantastic lakes from Sete Cidades, and  the coastal area of Mosteiros. We also check many other more secret hotspots before returning to our last night on the hotel.

Green Heron - Sete Cidades

Day 8. Flight back to Amsterdam at 9h05.

Unexpected Garganey drake

Early spring

Green Heron

American Coot

Glacous Gulls

Red-throated Pipit

Spotted Sandpiper

About wooden birds and a Green heron

To survive GerbyBirding winter sleep we start again ocupie ourselfs with handicraft. A brand new range of wooden birds,puzzles keyholders etc is in the make now.Not many time for birding.

Today an exeption. A fast escape brought an amazing beauty. My finest selfie bird since the Eleanoras Falcon.Green Heron is one of that birds we normaly just dream of.

Blue winged teal

Some quite birding with the familie brought me a
fresh Blue winged teal. First of the season.

Ring-necked Ducks