Campervan Birding

Many twitchers will remember us from the late 80's on as the couple with a campervan. If you have few commitments it is an ideal alternative to driving to a long-distance twitch and then home. The overnight bit driving there is great, but driving home, especially if you've dipped, holds a great danger of falling asleep at the wheel. It's easier now with Air Bnb etc. but I can remember many times spending hours looking for a B and B, only to end up sleeping poorly in the car. A campervan is a perfect solution, but obviously not for everyone. They're not cheap to run nor buy, especially since they became popular with the masses, plus it isn't always easy to find a camp site. Again, it used to be easier, we spent many nights at the bottom of Cot Valley, which enabled us to bird around there, but could hop over to Scilly as soon as it became necessary, without the delay of getting to St. Just Airfield, which also meant you could get the first available seats. Should a major rarity turn up elsewhere you were on your way immediately, and didn't have to worry about getting back. Sadly "wild" parking is now fraught with difficulties, especially in the south of England, so it's not the "no-brainer" it used to be.


 

Many people would remember our van at twitches in the 1990's. They may even have had a brew with us, such as when waiting for the weather to clear in order to see the Indigo Bunting on Ramsey Island. In our memory one of our best twitches happened on our way to Cornwall in 1999. We had stopped at the local newsagent in Mildenhall and Ann had gone in to cancel newspapers, when our pager announced "Veery at St Levan" It was a four hour trip by car overnight, we probably wouldn't get there in time, but Ann needed Veery. We'd give it a go! I ran in to the shop, yelled from the door, Ann ran out and we were on our way, never really expecting to get there before dark. Ann always used to drive, and I'll never forget the look on a lorry driver's face when a campervan overtook him on the A303 doing at least 80mph! There was no time to stop, I went for a pee at a slightly lower speed (we had a Portaloo- not out of the window), and we eventually found ourselves on the minor roads not far away with still about an hour's daylight. We rounded a corner and someone had blocked the road with a huge motorhome which was far too large for Cornish roads! Resisting the urge to cause a road rage incident, we had to wait whilst he executed something like a seventeen- point turn, all the while thinking we were going to dip. The car park at St Levan is difficult to access, being small and up a steep drive, but that wasn't about to deter Ann, she drove straight in. Luckily it was all but empty so we abandoned the van and ran to the gate where a very few people remained, NOT watching a Veery. As the light fell most people drifted off, but we didn't have to go home so stayed to the bitter end. Except it wasn't a bitter end, the bird suddenly hopped out from under a bush, rummaged in the leaf litter, showed us all its features and after five minutes flew off. It was never seen again. That of course was our start to the famous autumn of 1999. 



We also have had experience of hiring campervans abroad, and they can provide a superb birding trip. We hired one in New Zealand, you could park overnight where you liked, traffic was (in those days) light, and you could plan or modify the route as you went along. Two Australian Bitterns crossing the road (yes-on foot!) was an easily avoided hazard, the Yellow-eyed Penguin was a little more difficult, as the turn out of the car-park was steep and the van was already at several degrees from vertical. But-no animal was harmed during the making of the trip, except perhaps the odd introduced possum, which are best killed on sight anyway.


 

I don't think the USA would lend itself to campervan birding, but it is possible, THE place for it is surely Australia. We have had two trips involving campers and if ever we do it again it will be in one. Australia is the size of a small continent, and it really isn't possible to do it justice in one trip. If you're not trying to clean up there are many areas where you will see some fantastic birds. Our first trip was a package holiday for three weeks in Cairns. We did a couple of side-trips and ended up with a list that would have satisfied many. But Ann fell in love with the country, which is where the camper came in. Our first van trip was to fly in to Perth, visit Rottnest island and a couple of other sites by car over 2-3 days and then pick up the campervan. We then drove south to Dryandra and Two People's Bay, visited Woody Island, and drove north to Broome and then across to Darwin. Again, another excellent bird list including most of the south-western endemics. Unfortunately we used a cheap hire company, were given an upgrade which we didn't want as it was bigger, and ended up with a van with 220K on the clock. It never let us down, but bits fell off as we went down some of the unmade roads to birding sites (sorry, campgrounds). It wasn't too much more expensive to go to a decent company, where we were given a brand-new van for our next trip.

For my retirement we spent four months there (imagine spending four months with me in a campervan!), and incorporated a couple of organised tours to the outback (Strzelecki etc.) and Iron Range, Cape york peninsular. These cost far more than the hire of the van, but you really need 4WD and a second vehicle to visit the outback (unless you have a death-wish), and I wouldn't like to take a campervan to Cape York, although nowadays it could be done in the dry season. We did everything else ourselves, including several days at one spot looking for Australian Painted-snipe, but each day's activity was decided the previous evening. We even took the van over to Tasmania (good birding from the ferry), it was there that we overnighted in a car park at the top of a small mountain, and a Bassian Thrush walked around in the open just behind the van at dusk! Another great advantage, dawn and dusk are the best times for birding, you don't have to get up at stupid times to drive miles-you just step out of the van. Having spent all one day looking for Pink Cockatoo, we parked up in a small private campsite for the night, and two flew in to a tree about twenty yards away! Ann didn't even leave the van.

You can hire campervans in many countries now, but I wouldn't like to make any comments about elsewhere. Regulations are tight in some places (they are in Oz but once you're away from the cities nobody takes much notice), but I don't know about safety (both standards of vehicle and crime). It wouldn't take much to find out, and it's got to be better than holiday hotels! 

N.B. There is no longer a camping field at Gigrin (progress!)

 




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