4 April 2016

News and RFI

Dear All,

I’m moving to New Jersey in June, so if you’d like to go on a personalized weekend tour in and around California with me as your guide, the only available weekends are April 9-10, April 16-17, April 30-May 1, and May 14-15. The cost will be $300 per weekend plus expenses; I’m willing to go as far as Yuma or any place in OR and NV.

Also, it just transpired that I’ll be in Europe in July-August. The plan is to spend a couple weeks with my wife and kid in southern Greece, do a very quick side trip to Crete, then explore all Balkan countries by car for about ten days. I’ll be certainly visiting Cape Kaliakra, the highest part of Romanian Carpathians, Dunai Delta, Lake Orchid, Meteora, Tara National Park in Serbia, and Jon’s site for Dinaromys in Bosnia (Jon, do you have GPS coordinates, by any chance?) Any other locations not mentioned in trip reports here? I’ll be mostly looking for small mammals (up to the size of marbled polecat), but would also like to see the three local chamois subsp., and particularly the monk seal. Are there any viewable seals this year? I’ve seen all birds of the area, but herping tips are also welcome (in particular, is there a place where I could see olms in the wild?)

Thanks!

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11 Comments

  • 4 April 2016
    Jon Hall

    I will email you about the dinaromys with some specific details.

  • 5 April 2016
    John Fox

    Just want to see any replies here, I will be in Europe in June and I’m looking to put a trip together.

    The Caucasus Mtns and Caspian Seal are high on my list, if anyone else is interested.

    Jon, could you email me with the dinaromys info, too. The “living fossils” are fascinating, like monito del monte.

    Thanks,
    John

    • 5 April 2016
      vdinets

      I now a good site for Caspian seal, but it’s on Turkmenian side. There is a small sand spit at the entrance to Turkmenbashi Gulf; ferries to Azerbaijan (if they are still running) pass very close to it, and there are usually a few seals hauled out. If there are no ferries, I guess you can hire a boat to get there, it’s less than 20 miles from the city of Turkmenbashi. Note that my data is from 26 years ago.

  • 6 April 2016
    vnsankar

    Vladimir,
    I might be able to do May 14-15. I’ll check the dates and try to contact you soon. I’d prefer to go to the Eastern Sierra/Mono Lake.

  • 7 April 2016
    Kerry Nelson

    Finally, I’ve got something to contribute! I’ve been following this site for a couple years, but mostly just to envy everybody else’s trips and plan for the day I can pull them off myself. I’m mainly a herper, with mammals a close second, but, long story short, I should be able to get you to some Olms. They were my number one target when I visited the Balkans a few years ago, and turned out to be far easier than I expected – several in a day are easy with little effort if water levels are right. I may have a connection for Chamois as well.
    If you’re still interested, let me know. (as I said, new to this site, I assume my email’s in my profile – if not just reply here and we’ll go from there).

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