birdtours.co.uk Frequently asked questions

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Frequently asked questions:

Who are you?

John Girdley, once a Science Teacher, (Environmental Science, Electronics, Physics etc.) but now National Executive Member for a large teaching trade Union (the NASUWT - which keeps me very busy), birder, moth enthusiast, rock climber (I had climbed South Stack cliffs long before I knew there were Choughs there), and last of all, amateur Web-Page designer.

John Girdley

Are you a Dot.Com millionaire?

I wish! I'm not even a dot.com! www.birdtours.co.uk started in Jan 2000 (after I got a cheque for £13.40 from Amazon.co.uk) The simple aim, still, was to break even. It was always my intention to provide free information for travelling birders around the world. Visitor numbers have soared over the years and we now pull in well over 3000 visitors a day, with significantly more than two million pages of information viewed each year. Birdtours will become a limited company from June 2003 (purely to keep me on the right side of the tax man!). A recent addition is our sister site www.worldbirder.com which now displays, in their full glory, some of the 5000+ images that I have been sent over the years.

Why call yourself Birdtours.co.uk?

I knew that I had something useful to offer the birding world, but nobody could remember my old domain name. Birdtours.co.uk was available and so I bought it. I had a six fold increase in visitors overnight. Catchy domain names really do work.

Can I send you a report?

Do you have a report from.....?

Just follow the links on the menu bar, I usually manage to get reports on-line within a month (can be busy with real work!). Sometimes in holiday times within a couple of days.

What made you get started?

My son, then aged fourteen, said "why don't you write a web-page dad?"
"But I don't know how" I protested.
"Don't worry, I'll teach you" he replied.
A steep learning curve led to my Sunderland Point pages, by then I was hooked...

Your world list must be enormous?

Just over 630 actually, although reading all of these reports is giving me itchy feet. Countries visited: California, Florida, Canada, Southern Spain (several times), Fuerteventura, Tenerife, Menorca, France, the Pyrenees, Ibiza and Crete.

What was your luckiest ever sighting?

Whilst climbing in the Alps, (non-birder at the time) a Wall-creeper flew between my legs when "bridging" up a corner in a 1000m cliff face just outside Chamonix. (range -six inches) I identified it later from a field guide! My only thought at the time was, "they have pretty birds here in France." The image lives on and it is still the only one I have ever seen.

Are you a twitcher?

Not really, well, ok, every now and again! I only ever go for world ticks ( though I was tempted by the Sora, and the little Swift and the......). Primarily I'm a local patch birder, based in North Lancs. I do take part in BTO surveys like the CBC and WeBS. Within 10 miles of my home in Morecambe I have seen just over 270 species!

Do you fancy going birding?

Why not send us a report, or an update to one of your current reports?

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