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Czech Republic: birds and music Tuesday 22 May to Thursday 31 May 2012 with Bryan Bland and local guides as leaders The Czech Republic is a delightfully rural country in which to wander in search of birds, with many flower-filled meadows and miles of attractive woodland. Cost: £2550 plus about £270 for flights (2012) Single room supplement: £250 Price includes good tickets for all operas and concerts. Please click here for details and an explanation of the price breakdown
Maximum group size: 12 with 2 leaders
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Prague is arguably the most beautiful city in the world, a city which has miraculously escaped development and where every building, not just an isolated few, is photogenic. Little wonder that it was chosen as the location for the filming of Amadeus. Every May in this breathtaking setting there is a feast of music – the Prague Spring Festival – with hundreds of events at over 30 venues. In addition, the three magnificent opera houses offer a selection of the world’s greatest operas in the most sumptuous settings imaginable. We’ll combine the wonders of Prague with three other delightful areas in the Czech Republic. Two of these are in Bohemia: Trebon – a beautiful walled town of pastel-coloured baroque houses lost in a countryside of large lakes, oakwoods, and buttercup meadows – and the Sumava mountains and primeval forest, a border area which was closed for forty years to all but wildlife. Our third out-of-Prague location is Lednice in Moravia, an area still possessing twelve old castles (one of them will be our home for three nights), miles of unspoilt parkland, impressive monuments and bird reserves. In these areas we’ll be entertained by pipes, pianos and folk ensembles rather than grand opera, but hopefully the most memorable music to our ears will be the calls and songs of Pygmy and Tengmalm’s Owls, Common Rosefinch, Nightingale, Golden Oriole, and River and Marsh Warblers.
Day 2: The whole day will be spent birding in the Sumava mountains and primeval forest, undisturbed for forty years. Specialities include Black Grouse and Corncrake, while other highlights in previous years have included Ural Owl, Three-toed Woodpecker, and Common Rosefinch. Night near Volary. Day 3: We’ll continue birding locally where Hazel Grouse, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Firecrest, and Crested Tit, are all possible. Later we’ll drive to the amazing fairy-tale town and castle of Cesky Krumlov, a place that settled down to sleep somewhere around the Renaissance and then forgot to wake up. After checking in at our attractive hotel in the twelfth-century lake-town of Trebon, we’ll enjoy a lakeside and woodland walk looking for woodpeckers and warblers. Trebon is an enchanting place where every day seems like a Sunday afternoon and the familiar songs of Wood Warbler and Golden Oriole blend with those of Fieldfare and Collared Flycatcher. In the evening we'll go out amid the stands of wetland pine to look for Woodcock, Tengmalm's and Pygmy Owls and Nightjar. Night in Trebon. Day 4: The Trebon basin is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and an internationally important wetland of 500 ancient fishponds with an interconnecting network of canals and avenues of old oaks. Our pre-breakfast walk here should provide us with White Stork, Syrian, Grey-headed and Middle Spotted Woodpeckers and Icterine Warbler – plus a range of associated wildlife from Roe Deer to Camberwell Beauty. After breakfast we’ll walk around two of the best lakes to look for grebes, ducks, waders, crakes, Bluethroat, Penduline Tit, and River and Savi’s Warblers. In the afternoon we’ll drive to a series of sites for Black Kite, Black Stork, and various woodpeckers. In the evening we’ll enjoy a private concert by the Pipers of Trebon, whose very varied programme will include Czech and European gothic, renaissance and baroque music; South Bohemian folk songs; pop-evergreens and jazz standards. Night in Trebon. The mediaeval fishponds at Trebon Day 5: After more birding around Trebon, where we can encounter anything from Red-crested Pochard and White-tailed Eagle to Eurasian Eagle-Owl and and Black Woodpecker we’ll set off for the spectacularly photogenic town of Telc where we’ll have lunch. We’ll then continue on to Brno where we’ll have a private visit to Janácek’s home (and, if they are in the country, a recital by the Janácek Quartet in the very room where he composed his greatest works) before continuing to our hotel near Lednice, where we should awake to the songs of Golden Orioles and Nightingales. In the evening we’ll enjoy a concert or opera in Brno’s modern opera house. Day 6: The celebrated Ride of the Kings at Vlcnov takes place every year on the last Sunday in May. A feast for the eye and for the ear alike, this living folk tradition includes locals in national costume, gaily decorated horses, and numerous folk ensembles. In the evening we’ll enjoy a meal and wine-tasting in the atmospheric Mikulov cellars to the exciting sounds of authentic Czech folk music from a group which we have commissioned for several years now, including wonderful cymbalon playing and a quite brilliant violinist. Night near Lednice. The Ride of the King Festival at Vlcnov Day 7: Lednické Rybnicky is an area of large fishponds in an extensive castle park with many old trees. A walk here should produce a range of birds from Wryneck and Black Woodpecker to Great Reed Warbler. We’ll probably picnic at the nearby Pastvisko reserve, where in past years we have seen Little Bittern, Honey-Buzzard, Penduline Tit, and Grasshopper Warbler, before looking for Bee-eater, Barred Warbler, and Corn Bunting at Pouzdrany or maybe even Hoopoe in the Milovice Forest. Night near Lednice. Day 8: After more birdwatching in Southern Moravia – hopefully in the Soutok flood plain looking at Red Kite, Saker, and Eastern Imperial Eagle – we’ll head for Prague and a change of emphasis, with orchestral concerts, ballet, or grand opera the order of the day (or rather, evening – today being no exception). Night in Prague. Day 9: To experience fully the wonders of Prague we’ll spend most of the day on a private guided tour of the city, leaving time in the afternoon for attending a concert before we go to another of the three stunningly elegant opera houses. Night in Prague. Day 10: Depending on our flight schedule there may be time for more sightseeing in Prague or a final morning's birdwatching in Pruhonice park before we return to London where the trip ends.
E-mail or phone +44 (0)1767 262522 for availability.
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