I'll never hang mesen ...

31 December 2011

That's what my mum used to say when I was kid.  I was always changing my mind see, like here with this.  Where I keep getting the different minds from I don't know ... but it works ;-)))  Anyway ...

A new year's list starts tomorrow and I'm hoping that in 2012 I will get to do a lot more birding than I did in 2011!  It's not a 'resolution' it's a hope.  Tomorrow was planned to be a big day out to Cley with a drop into Titchwell on the way home before the sun goes down too far.  That has changed because we had a bit of extra dosh available and we're off the Norwich to the WEX (http://www.warehouseexpress.com/Home/default.aspx), sales room to pick up a new 70-300mm lens for Jan's Sony Alpha 330.  I already have one and we have been sharing it, which has worked OK but will be a lot better when Jan has her own lens.  After that we will drive on to Hickling Broad and Stubbs Mill in the hope of getting the common cranes that roast there.  I saw them a few years ago but Jan hasn't so it has to be worth the trip just for that.  Hopefully photos will follow on Monday - but maybe tomorrow evening, depend how tired I feel.

So to all birders everywhere, A Happy New Year and I was wish you all FULL BINS all year round.

Last post of 2011

27 December 2011

This will be the last post from this year.  Starting from next week I shall begin again and hopefully I will be able to keep up with things and go birding more often and post on here  more often too.  I'm not sure how to change the title though - if we can that is so it will continue with its current title.

So then, yesterday Jan and I had a run down to Slimbridge for a day's birding.  I like Slimbridge, always have done.  The key to Slimbridge is to decided what can and can't be 'ticked' isn't it?  So a nice shot of a drake smew ... 

can't be ticked but the mandarin duck ... 

can.  The redbreast geese ... 

can't but all the pinkfeet, greylags, barnacle and canadas can.  At least the goldfinch ...

coots ... 

moorhens ... 

and tuffy ducks ... 

can.  Altogether we had about 40 species for the day but it was good to be able to get out in the fresh air, even if the bittern didn't show at all yesterday.

I still can't get to grips with digi-scoping.  I tried it again yesterday and just couldn't get it to work properly.  At least I did get some images, bad as they were!  The images seen here were all taken on my Sony Alpha 350 DSLR with either my Sony 70-300mm or Tamron 55-200mm.  Neither lens is top of the range but they produce some good results, well, good enough for me.  I met and spoke to guy with a C.... (sorry, I don't like swear - even on here ;-))) ) with a 600mm lens on it.  It was huge!  He claimed to be an amateur; I wish I could afford a lens like that for my amateur shots!    

We used our mobility scooters to get around and that brings me to a point I'd like to raise.  Slimbridge is more or less fully accessible to disabled visitors with the exception of the upper levels of some of the hides.  Sadly that is where some of the best views can be had.  I'm fortunate that I'm able to be climb stairs in them.  Other's are not so lucky.  We were helped by a number of people when it came to opening and closing gates - a real pain in the you-know-where if you don't get any help.  But not all sites are so well laid out are they?  

Take Brandon Marsh for example.  There's a track that runs around part of the site and leads to one hide which is great.  Sadly though the path to other, arguably the better hides is far too narrow and muddy to allow wheelchair of scooter access.  I don't blame Warwickshire Wildlife Trust for this though.  The site is part of a worked out gravel extraction site and because of that the Trust is limited on what they can do.

Titchwell and Minsmere are fine with ample wide pathways allowing access to most areas of the reserves.  Cley however is not so well covered.  That's OK though, after all Norfolk Wildlife trust also has to work with what they have.  Where I got a tad uppity though was when I asked at the visitor centre if we can get our scooters all around the site, we were told we could.  So imagine our disappointment when we reached the beach car park on our scooters to find that the path to the North Scrape Hide is actually all shingle and the scooter just wouldn't move at all because of it.  At the other end of the site we also found it hard going on our scooters.  

This is where things can and should be improved.  Staff training should be at a level where they would know where access is good, bad or impossible.  At least then if you are advised properly you can make your choice and deal with it. 

Have any of you read any of Stewart Winter's books?  Last night I finished reading The Birdman Abroad.  It's the story of the far off travels of the Sunday Express environment editor.  I had already read his Tales of a Tabloid Twitcher some time ago and enjoyed that so was looking forward to reading his second offering.  The second book starts back in 1970 and his mother putting her foot down with a firm hand and insisting that they Winter's go aboard for a holiday while the World Cup was on.  This was not to be a misery over not watching football although I would have agreed if she had done so, but no, it was to protect them all from her hubby's anti-Germany rants.  Young Stewart still managed to get himself in trouble over it anyway.  But it was while he was away that his budding interest in birding really took a hold on him.  He saw a hoopoe, a magic bird I have yet to see! 

From there he goes on to visit places all over the world, many of them on the paper's penny too - bloody good job if you can swing it!  He tells of his meeting with a cottonmouth snake and a 1 foot long rattler in Arizona; of being stung by a bullet ant in Panama; of joining the World Birding Series in New Jersey.  Winter claims to have seen over 600 species of bird in the States - that's more than there is on the full UK list.  But the one story that struck home to me was the last one, the story of the albatrosses.  It seems that 19 of 21 species of albatrosses are on the at risk of extinction list.  He travelled to the Falklands with John Craven and a BBC film crew who were doing a film for Countryfile.  It was there he came face to face with an albatross chick, a bundle of white fluff with big staring trusting eyes.  As I read it I thought, "You lucky sod!"  But luck      has to be on the side of the albatross now so that we don't lose such a magnificent bird. You do see them occasionally here in the UK.  I remember reading in a magazine of one being seen down at Dungeness.  The writer was saying he pointed out the bird to the only other person in the hide at the time - and he just shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "So what?"  I couldn't believe it when I read that!  If it had been me I would still crowing about it to anyone who showed any interest at all. 

Tonight I shall start on David Lindo's The Urban Birder.  Should be good. 

I also have another blogg if you interested ...

http://bitzersdorktownnews.blogspot.com/2011/12/birding-and-hate-crimes.html?spref=fb    Actually, its still there even if you're not ;-)))

You might also be interested in my first novel, The Mission.  It's the story of a birder gone bad ... or mad ... you can make your own minds up.  That can be found at ...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mission-Ron-G-Clark/dp/1461133092/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321289980&sr=1-1

Such a long time ...

17 November 2011

Yesterday we had our first birding trip since ... We went off to Gibraltar Point for a look around.  on the way down there we got collared doves, magpie, wood pigeon, blackbird, rooks, crows, jackdaws, pheasant, kestrel, starling, herring gull, Canada geese, black headed gull and moorhen.  What I didn't do before hand was to look at the tide times so when we arrived the tide was well out - and as most people know, when the tide is out at Skegness, it really is OUT!  First things first for us is a wobble to the visitor centre so we can use the toilet.  A cuppa and slice of short bread biscuit each cost £6.20 - we were not amused!  So off back to the car to get the scooter out and off we went.

There didn't seem to be much about at all really.  We saw two mallards flying over and our next sighting was of a single red shank and 2 curlew over by the boat yard - and where I realized we'd badly miss timed the visit.  Back to the car park where we got a single redwing before we set off around the site properly and off down one path where we set off towards the coast proper.  Eventually we saw a small flock of Brent geese - don't ask, not interested in what race they were.  Now here's the thing; neither of us can walk very far, that's why we use our scooters.  I could hear birds all around but we couldn't see any of them, and I like to see a bird before I claim it; beside which, I'm not very good with bird song ;-)))  The scooter make a lot of noise I'm afraid to say so it tends to scar the birds off.  We did get a couple of blackbirds though.

At the first hide we came to ... we got loads and loads of teal.  OK Teal are male smart little birds but I fail to see why so many folks get so excited about seeing them.  Be that as it may, there was a couple of hundred of them in that pool along with a couple of moorhen and shovellers and a shellduck.  As we made our around the rest of the site all we got was greater black backed gull, chaffinch, reed bunting, tufted duck, coot, white fronted geese, pochard, pink footed and bean geese.  As I said before, not our best days birding but it was still nice to get out into the sea air. 

We're hoping to get out again soon, but knowing us, next year is a possibility ;-)))           

Not a good week's birding.

There's not been a lot of birding in Dorktown at all for some time now.  We had hoped to get some done over last week when we travelled to Blackpool for a few days off.  The idea was to look at Leighton Moss and Bolton-le-Sands over one day; to get round to have a look at Marten Mere, the lake that Blackpool gets its name from; Rossal was another place we wanted to have a look at; and finally on the way home on Saturday we had hoped to head off along the coast road to Southport for Marshside and finish off at Martin Mere the WWT site.  Oh dear ...

It was raining heavily when we arrived at Leighton Moss and as we need to use our scooters for getting around, that one got scrubbed after a cuppa in the cafe upstairs.  Arriving in Morecambe though it had brightened up a good deal and we got a good(ish) list of the usual waders there. We didn't get to Marten Mere at all.  Rossall was OK but we didn't see anything special; we also went there the day before the Fleetwood Birder's  (http://fleetwoodbirder.blogspot.com/2011/09/low-key-autumn-morning.html) mate Ian found an Ortolan bunting there!  

Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast and packed the car in the rain so Southport was out and we headed off home without doing a lot of the birding we had planned and hoped for.  Ah well ... maybe again later when we are looking at going down to Minsmere, stopping a night in Great Yarmouth and the drive the coast road along to Cley, Titchwell and so on.

Now then, we all know just how violent we birders can get at times ;-)))  Well, my first book called The Mission will be soon released on Amazon and Kindle.  It's main baddie is a birder who goes around murdering folks - including birders!  I'll let you know when it's released.        

Two days out

Today I report on two days out, aren’t you lucky lot then ;-)))  OK then, last Sunday Jan and I eventually managed to get down to Rainham Marshes.  It was really nice day but we were rather disappointed in the small number of birds that were about.  The count for the day I suppose was around 30 species but we did get two year ticks, reed and willow warbler.  Now there’s a point ...

Some time ago I had ended up at Titchwell in Norfolk and as I rode back to the car I was really bursting for a wee.  Anyway, when I feel the need to go it usually means not now but ten minutes ago.  I managed to get there in time but as I was on the way I heard a chiffchaff calling in the trees around me.  Of course I didn’t have to time to stop and look for it and when I came out there was sign of it.  Now I know that some birders count birds they have heard but haven’t seen.  I don’t, for me it seems to be a bit of a cheat.  So let’s go back to Rainham then.

There we were both of us riding out scooter around the site (very good for scooter and wheelchair users by the way, nice flat paths and board walks), when we heard the strangest bird sound we had ever heard.  Jan looked for it but couldn’t find it.  We got into a nearby hide and we heard it again.  No bird though, it was marsh frog!  See what I mean about going on bird song for your list?

After Rainham the idea was to go off to see and photograph the Thames Barrier and then a look around the Isle of Dogs for the monk parakeet that is supposed be growing in numbers around there.  Instead we decided that enough was enough and we head back home via the M11 and A14 instead of fighting the M25 and M1.  We still had a good day though.

On Tuesday we went off again, this time to Hay-on-Wye.  Somehow, and don’t ask me how I totally missed not only the M42/M40 junction but also the M42/M5 junction too.  That actually had me quite worried for a time because I am normally very aware of where I am and how I got there.  It’s something I shall be keeping an eye on because it could cause problems if it happens too often.  In any event we ended up going a different route to Hay. 

 

We took the M50 as far as Ross-on-Wye and then A49 and finally the B4348 along what is called the Golden Valley.  Well, it wasn’t golden at all but by heck it was beautiful the whole way through to Hay.   

I have already said that I like to snap pub signs as I go along and I’ve added a goodly number to the collection that day, a number of them in the Golden Valley.  We stopped for a pint at the Harewood End Inn and it was very nice too.   If you’re ever in the area, call and have a drink, very nice indeed.  The friendly helpful staff make the all the difference.

The Harewood End Inn bar and the pint of Rev James.

Hay was good as it usual is and I found three paperbacks by Ian Irvine that I had been looking for some time.  A few weeks ago I found a copy of Analogue in a newsagent in Dorktown, a bi-monthly sci-fi magazine that I didn’t know was still being published, so I bought it.  So while I was in Hay I took the opportunity to look to see if there was any of the older editions available.  I found loads of them, mostly from the 60s and 70s and bought just two of them, Venture Science Fiction from 1965.  I shall be keeping an eye out for more though on my travels. 

 

Lunch in Hay was in a cafe called the Sandwich Cellar.  It’s down a small pathway opposite the main town car park and it leads down to the town centre one way and to the castle off to the right.  Lunch was really nice mug of tea and cracking cheese and ham toastie, and all at a very reasonable price too.

This was taken while we had lunch.  It's looking back towards the car park which is only about 200 yards off.  And just look at the view form the top of it ...

Hay Castle.

Leaving Hay we headed out towards Brecon but changed our minds and went back a different way.  A couple of miles outside Hay is a pub called the Holy Bush and they have a camp site at rear of it.  I stayed there for several days in 1998 and had a great time.  We stopped there on Tuesday because we were hoping to get down by the river to get some photos but the very step steps and shaky hand rail put us off.  As left however, look what we found ...

Sadly he wasn’t flashing that gorgeous tail of his, ah well.         

We travelled back via the A479 and A 40 before joining the M5 to get home.  Again we had good run home but stopped for a rest and something to eat at a pub on the A40 called the, The Kings head.  There I had a pint of Doom Bar which was excellent and a tuna and mayo butty which was also very nice.  Again, friendly helpful staff made a big difference.  There was a little girl in there called Charlie, what a darlin’ she was.  She helped herself to a pint of coke, a packet of crisps and was heading for the larger pump when her Mum found her and took her off to bed.  I was told that as a special offer I got a free Charlie with my tuna butty but I decided to pass on it as she was a tad too big to fit in our oven.

A pint of Doom Bar, very nice and rich and creamy.

Bird-wise we got 16 I think it was, Jan was keeping the list so I’m not sure on that.  Whatever, we had another good day and arrived home safely and nicely tired out ready for an early night. 

Tomorrow we’re off the Brum for a few days so hopefully I shall be getting lost of new photos to add to my flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/15764683@N00/page3/    Why not have a look, there’s not many on there, only 3500 odd.  Some groups I post have user with more images on there than that!