Dear Rob and Birding-aussers,
I have never been to
PNG---in fact actually fear I may no longer be up to it at 75--, and I have no
knowledge of this actual tour, but I still feel that you have maybe gone on
this tour with somewhat unreasonable expectations. I myself have during these
last years been on one or two birding tours every year (i.a. with Rockjumpers
to Madagascar and Namibia-Botswana), and I am one of the older people that Rob
had so much troubles with. I have always had bad eyesight, and am now also hard
of hearing, and the days are probably not far ahead when I have to pass on the
steepest and most slippery slopes. I love nature and birds, but I am at best a
moderate birder and am much dependent on leader and participants to show me the
birds I never would have found on my own. I am not a 'ticker' though, although
I do keep a life list (around 4000), and I love to watch also the commoner
birds again and again. So in many respects I am one of the elderly people, that
according to Rob should never come on such trips, as they are in the way and
disturb the real birders.
I beg to differ! I think that in
fact most birding company trips are primarily meant for people like me, who
need the assistance in logistics, bird spotting and bird identification, and
who have much more problems in organizing such trips on their own---often
considerably cheaper. As these trips are expensive, it is no wonder that many
of the participants are elderly (although this changes a lot from trip to trip:
last year in Argentina I was the youngest participant, this year in Ecuador by
far the oldest (both VENT trips)). The ornithological knowledge of the
participants is indeed quite variable, although most have traveled extensively
on similar trips, and many are much better birders than I am. Also, some
participants may be not in the best of mobility; again, in Argentina we had
regularly to assist an 80-year old both to get around, and to find the
birds---he had had many eye operations---, but the man derived great pleasure
of the birds he saw and clearly had a most satisfactory trip.. And this year an
elderly lady skipped the day we visited Angel Paz and his steep forest paths
towards the Cock-of-the -Rock display area, but she greatly enjoyed the other
days.
Going on a trip with 10-12 other
people always means one has to adapt to a certain degree. Each group has
usually at least one person to whom one has difficulties adapting: incessant
talkers, people who always are first at the telescope and show little empathy
for the others, people who never help other find the birds, people who clearly
are on the wrong trip, etc. These problems arise independently of the quality
of the birding knowledge of these participants: the one time one participant
had to be let go, because he very clearly was unfit to be in a group, the
person concerned had the sharpest eyes and best spotting abilities of anybody I
have met on these trips
I fully grant that the normal birding
trips, with Rockjumpers as well as with other companies, will often feel
frustrating and limiting for the best birders, but for them the solution, if
they are unable to organize their trips themselves, must be to use the
possibility of customized tours, while the 'normal' birding trips are primarily
for people like me: run-of-the-mill birders, who through these trips and their
leaders get the chance to see many more birds, and those also much better, than
they ever would be able to see on their own. My two Ruckjumper trips were a
great pleasure, and I won't hesitate to go out with them again.
Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø, Norway
________________________________________
Van:
namens robert morris
Verzonden: zondag 1 januari 2012 10:01
Aan: ; birding aus
Onderwerp: [Birding-Aus] Feedback on Rockjumpers PNG birding Tour July-August
2011 - Between a rock and a hard place so think before you jump!
This is the feedback I gave to Rockjumpers about a tour I went on to PNG in
August 2011. If you are a serious birder, I would not recommend travelling on
their tour with 9 or 10 others. be warned or at least prepared.... I did not
receive an evaluation form before departing from the leaders - and I am happy
to give constructive feedback. It won't be pretty but the leaders will be
perfectly aware of all the major issues: 1. the people on the tour were too
old, unfit and had virtually no birding skills or knowledge2. because of 1
they: a) needed long rests ( I would go and bird alone most days in
the breaks of up to 4 hours!). b) were more interested in eating
than birding. c) could not walk far and struggled to walk up hill.
Some trails were not even attempted. d) took a huge amount of time
to see the birds. This was mainly because there was 1 scope between the 10
people and most had poor eye-sight. e) there were 12-14 pe
ople going down narrow trails looking for shy birds which is a joke. I left
the group to bird independently at every opportunity. f) they made
night birding a complete nightmare and I felt guilty for continuously raising
the issue. I actually had to be left alone in remote locations in PNG jungles
for many hours on end to see difficult species - such as Papuan hawk Owl. I did
not in any way dislike the group or any individuals - but birding wise it
ranged from a joke to a nightmare. These trips are NOT for real birders. They
are for OLD people who are generally happy to spend 1 second looking down a
telescope to tick something. If they glimpse a bird, a shadow etc. most of them
count what they are told they've seen. I had my own Leica 77 for the whole trip
and I was completely independent from the queue at one leader's scope (the
other leader rarely took his because it wasn't working properly). Add to the
above the amount of time we stood around waiting for buses
to show up because the agent didn't have control of what was going on (we
lost many, many hours of birding time), descriptions in the published
itineraries which are at best 'economical with the truth' and good local bird
guides that Rockjumpers booked and paid for who were 'unavailable' e.g. Daniel
Wakra was guiding others when he should have been with us, and I spent most of
the very trip frustrated. The leaders did help try me to bird alone where
possible which I really appreciated and I did see a lot more birds than the
general group - but overall I was bitterly disappointed with the whole
experience. I actually feel really sorry for the leaders in a situation like
this. Cheers
Rob Morris
Rob Morris
Brisbane, Australia
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