The Pantanal is the world’s largest wetland, with an amazing diversity and abundance of wildlife, with over 700 species of birds, including high profile ones like the flightless Greater Rhea, the beautiful Hyacinth Macaw, the world’s largest parrot, the amazing Sunbittern and the impressive five foot tall Jabiru Stork! With so many spectacular birds, the Pantanal is ranked number 15 in the world’s top 100 birding sites! In this exciting UNESCO World Heritage Site, the open savanna setting offers a superb safari-style experience, with easy birding, and so we should see around 350 species, as well as Yacare Caiman, massive Anacondas, and many mammals including Giant River Otter, Giant Anteater, Black-and-gold Howler Monkey, Brocket Deer, Brazilian Tapir, Ocelot, Tayra, Crab-eating Fox, Crab-eating Racoon, Ring-tailed Coati and Capybara, the world’s largest rodent. There is even a very good chance of seeing the magnificent Jaguar, and we shall make a special effort to find at least one, and probably more, with the aid of our local guide, as they are more common (and bigger) here than anywhere else on earth! In fact, so many are seen so often here that many of them are individually known by the locals and have been given names!
We also visit the ‘Big Water’ that cascades over Iguazú Falls! The 1.7 mile wide, 269 foot high falls form the largest waterfall system on earth and a visit here should be on everyone’s bucket list! This UNESCO World Heritage Site, amidst a sub-tropical rainforest is home to over 400 species of birds and is therefore ranked number 69 in the World’s top 100 birding sites. This amazing trip has so much to offer that even non-birding partners will love it!

Ranked number six in the top thirty birding sites in Europe, with over 350 species recorded, Falsterbo should be on everyone’s radar. It has been estimated that around 500 million birds leave Scandinavia every autumn, and most of them pass through Falsterbo, Sweden’s ‘Lands End’, at the southernmost tip of Sweden, before crossing the Öre Sund to Denmark and far beyond. This vast stream of migrants makes the Falsterbo peninsula one of the greatest bird migration watchpoints on Earth! Each autumn, literally thousands of passerines including larks, pipits, wagtails, hirundines, thrushes, warblers, flycatchers, finches and buntings pass through each day, providing an amazing spectacle, and amongst all this action we may find scarcer species such as Wryneck, Red-throated Pipit, Bluethroat, Red-backed Shrike, Icterine Warbler, Nutcracker or Lapland Bunting. Despite this incredible exodus, Falsterbo is particularly famous for raptor migration, as the numbers are staggering, with mixed flocks in the hundreds per day! Virtually every European raptor is regularly recorded here, including rarities such as Spotted and Lesser Spotted Eagles and Pallid Harrier! At the time of our visit Honey Buzzard numbers will be near a peak, with hundreds passing through on a daily basis, making a seasonal tally of around 5000! Meanwhile the shoreline offers plenty of wildfowl and waders, such as Brent and Barnacle Geese, Pintail, Eider, Velvet Scoter, Red-breasted Merganser, Grey and Golden Plovers, Little Stint, Spotted Redshank and Wood Sandpiper, and a little further afield we can also look out for Whooper Swan, White-tailed Eagle, Red Kite, Goshawk, White Stork, Common Crane, Caspian Tern, Eagle Owl, Black Woodpecker, Marsh Tit and northern white-headed Long-tailed Tit.

Borneo is a truly remarkable island. It has the oldest rainforest on the planet, with gigantic trees towering more than 260 feet above the ground! This magical environment is one of the most biodiverse places on earth, where the profusion of plants, animals and birds has to be seen to be believed. There are over 700 species of orchids alone, plus insectivorous Pitcher Plants and enormous parasitic Rafflesia flowers which mimic the sight and smell of rotting flesh! The rich diversity of rare mammals includes Bornean Pygmy Elephants, Clouded Leopards, numerous primates such as the bizarre endemic Proboscis Monkey and of course the great Orang Utan, which we have good chances of seeing in its wild jungle stronghold! It’s surely worth the trip for this alone, but Borneo is also birding heaven with over 500 species, including spectacular birds like Great Argus Pheasant, Whiskered Treeswift, Red-bearded Bee-eater, Rhinoceros Hornbill, Gold-whiskered Barbet, Black-and-yellow Broadbill and Great Slaty Woodpecker, the largest in the world, plus over 40 endemics such as Crimson-headed Partridge, Kinabalu Serpent Eagle, Bornean Ground-cuckoo, Whitehead’s Trogon, Blue-headed Pitta, the exotic Bornean Bristlehead and White-fronted Falconet, which at just 6 inches long is the world’s smallest raptor!

This exciting tour explores three of India’s most productive areas. Beginning in the western state of Gujarat, we explore the tropical savanna grasslands of Velavadar National Park and the rich deciduous woodlands of Gir National Park, before ending up in the saline desert landscape of the Little Rann of Kutch with its vast seasonal wetlands. Moving on, we journey through the Central Indian Highlands and the Deccan Plateau in the heart of India. From the rugged dry teak forests and bamboo of Tadoba National Park, we move northwards into the rich mosaic of forest types in Pench National Park, and finally to the woodlands and meadows of Kanha National Park. Next, we experience a complete change of landscape, habitat and species as we travel to the Brahmaputra River floodplain in India’s northeast corner, where we explore the vast grasslands and wetlands of Kaziranga National Park, with visits to neighbouring tea estates and to the evergreen forest of Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary.

This remarkable adventure offers a unique opportunity to combine intimate encounters with some of nature’s largest and smallest creatures; majestic Monarch Butterflies in their millions and magnificent Grey Whales at arm’s length!
We begin in the cool forested mountains of central Mexico at around 9000 feet, where the Monarchs congregate each winter in spectacular numbers. Estimates range from 60 million to one billion butterflies!
Meanwhile the Baja coast is the end point for the longest migration of any mammal, where 36 ton Grey Whales congregate after a 6000 mile journey from the Bering Sea to give birth to their calves. These ‘friendly whales’ voluntarily seek close encounters with people and may look you in the eye while you stroke them!
If I had to pick just one trip from the New Horizons schedule, this would be it, without a doubt! Even non-birding partners will love it!

Embarking from Oban, this fabulous cruise visits numerous fantastically scenic islands such as Mull, Rhum, Canna, Barra, North and South Uist, the Monach Isles, Skye and the ‘enchanted’ Shiant Isles. Our ultimate goal is Saint Kilda, an exceptionally remote archipelago of four small islands 45 miles west of the Outer Hebrides, and yet inhabited for some two thousand years until 1930! Weather permitting, we hope to anchor for two nights in Village Bay off Hirta which has Britain’s highest cliff, towering 1397 feet above the sea! Nearby Soay is home to the Soay Sheep, an ancient breed, similar to its ancestral wild Mouflon, while smaller Dun has a colony of over a quarter of a million Puffins! Slightly further away is rugged Boreray, home to 20% of the world’s Gannet population! Saint Kilda is also one of the very few places in the British Isles where the hard to see Leach’s Petrel actually breeds, as it is restricted to islands within 45 miles of the Atlantic continental shelf. This remarkable must-see location is now a National Nature Reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As well as all the seabirds we can also hope to see a wealth of other wildlife such as Orca and Minke Whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, huge Basking Sharks (at up to 40 feet long, the world's second largest fish!), Red Deer, Otters and exciting birds like White-tailed and Golden Eagles, Hen Harrier, Corncrake and Twite.