A Little About Our Philosophy

An ecotone is the ecologist’s word for the transition between two habitats — the reedbed that fades into open water, the woodland that gives way to heath, the shore at low tide. Ecotones are richer than either habitat they sit between. The species from both sides come to the edge…if you want to see a lot of birds, you go to an edge, and you wait.

That is the whole method. Small groups, patient days, long sessions in edge places, at the hour when the edge is at its most alive.

What follows from that

A few practical things follow from taking the edge seriously.

Group size. We keep our groups small. A single-file line down a boardwalk finds more birds than a tour-bus semicircle. And a small group can stand still, which is the single most reliable birding technique there is.

Site selection. A great trip is not the one that visits the most parks. It is the one that returns twice or three times to the site where the light will be right, at the tide state that draws the wader flock in, at the hour the Nightingale sings. On a typical journey we move hotels every second night, not every night. Fewer transfers, more birds.

The right morning, not every morning. Dawn is a tool, not a slogan. Some of our sessions are pre-dawn, are late-afternoon into dusk. A few are lazy mid-morning walks in a wood, because the wood we picked is at its best in warm sun.

The reason it all matters

At the edge of any two habitats, on a still morning, you have a real chance of seeing something you have wanted to see for years — and of seeing it at close range, in the light it was designed to be seen in, with someone next to you who can tell you what it is.

That is the whole product. Everything else — the hotels, the transfers, the timing, — is in service of putting in position to experience the best in nature.

We think it is worth the trouble.