Services
Half-days, full days, boat sessions, photography, migration weeks and private guiding.
Four hours timed around high water, visiting two or three habitats — a roost, a salt pan and a stretch of marsh — with transport between them and very little walking. Telescopes and binoculars are supplied, groups are capped at eight, and the guide adjusts the route on the morning according to wind and water level. Suitable for complete beginners and for experienced birders wanting local knowledge quickly. A written list of everything seen is emailed the same evening.
Full days cover the whole estuary system with four or five stops timed to the tide, including areas closed to public access. Migration weeks in spring and autumn add the coastal watchpoint, the ringing station and the inland steppe edge, moving accommodation once and running from dawn to dusk for those who want it. Weeks are limited to six participants and typically record between one hundred and sixty and two hundred and twenty species.
A shallow-draft boat with an electric motor takes four passengers into the tidal channels at first light, approaching islands and mud banks that cannot be reached on foot. Sessions last three hours with the engine off for most of them, and are timed for calm mornings and rising tides. The boat carries a scope on a fixed mount and bean bags for cameras. Terns, spoonbills, ospreys and large gull roosts are the usual subjects, always at an agreed distance.
Sessions built around light and approach rather than species counts, using two fixed hides, a portable ground hide and the boat. A guide advises on where the sun will be, how the birds will move as the tide fills and what distance is acceptable, then stays out of the frame. Groups are capped at three. Multi-day photographic programmes with accommodation, transfers and evening editing sessions can be arranged, and we work regularly with agencies and publishers.
Weekend courses in wader identification, gull ageing, counting methods and using a telescope properly, taught in groups of eight with all equipment provided. Volunteers can join the monthly counts, autumn ringing sessions, hide maintenance and nesting-beach fencing days, with training and lunch supplied. Several of our current guides began as volunteers on those days, and everyone who contributes appears by name in the annual report.
A guide can be booked privately by the half day, day or week for individuals, families or societies, with the programme written around specific targets, mobility requirements or a photographic idea. We also guide visiting tour leaders on reconnaissance and act as ground agents for foreign operators, handling permits, vehicles, accommodation and restricted-area access. Groups of up to sixteen are split between two guides and two vehicles rather than run as one convoy.