A novelty - Hi tides at Weston Super Mud.

Monday September 19 to Friday 23^rd. 

Oh dear…. I think I’m going to be at loggerheads with the editor (bless her), because with 24 hours to go, this looks like being a week of serious inaction on the bird front.

But first I thought you may like to see the following photo taken at our 2,000^th booking day, which my SIL Julian took.

.. and don't forget the usual walk next Sunday (Oct 2)

Incidentally, I googled David Bennett Carsington, and found a site with photos, taken by someone named David Cook who was apparently on the walk on 3^rd April!! I can’t copy the photos as they are his, but there is a group photo you may be in (Amanda is!!) and a couple of nice pictures on LBJ’s. See for yourself.

This short break at Weston SM was meant to be some consolation and rest for Mary for all she has done to look after me since my op in May. The hotel had to have a ramp to accommodate my mobile commode, there should be no late night sexual activity from the Woodpigeons on the Iron railings outside our bedroom window, and a high tide would be nice.

The good news is that I did not need the commode ramp, as the hotel has installed an outside loo…sorry, outside lift, so you could go up one floor, open the door and make a ceremonial entrance into the lounge area, so that was a plus.

Sure as eggs, the woodpigs were in nooky mood, until Mary dampened their ardour by lobbing a glass of water out of the window.

Well the last requirement, we got in spades…  very high tide on Tuesday at 9.56am, and all the flood gates along the prom were closed to be on the safe side. The tide at least pushed the Oystercatchers close in (large yawn).

Tuesday we got the BOW at the marine Lake, twice, with a couple of very confiding Rock Pipits. It was good to see them close to, because their flight jiz is much like a wagtail, so you need a clear view.

Wednesday, had a chat with a birder at Sand Bay, which is a headland sticking out into the Severn Estuary just north of Weston and can be good for birds like Wheatears and Stonechats. He had seen 2 Wheatears at Middle Hope, a particular area near Sand Point. There were plenty of Hirundines around, and when Mary I reached the head they seemed to be enjoying buzzing us. 14 Little Egrets had been pushed well inland because the 10.30am tide was still a high one.

Thursday, we poodled west along the coast to Burnham on Sea. We encountered, how can I say it kindly, a bit of an anorak on the prom. He’s positioned himself just near the loos and the café, by a bench, with his wife and his top quality scope on a 6ft hi pod, so that’s Kn*****ed it for me. His wife was actively feeding a 2/3 year old Herring Gull, who she said was called Sylvie, which apparently claimed squatter’s rites and repelled any other gulls who dared to home in on her patch. Mrs Twitcher said she had seen Sylvie throw a Great Black Backed Gull over the prom wall…allegedly!

So let me set the scene. This fellow birder has his scope trained on a small island twixt Burnham and Steart, and beyond Steart is Hinkley Point, a nuclear project better known for having an opening ceremony unattended by HM Government.

My interest is that Steart is an excellent developing WWT site, good for waders and for raptors.  I asked what was around, and was told there is a fox on the island, and sometimes the local Peregrine sits there. When he focused his scope on Cardiff, and started telling Mary how to use the scope (I wouldn’t do that!), I decided it was time to go and see what BARB was all about.

Burnham has 2 rescue services, one the standard RNLI, but in addition because of the extensive mud in the Severn estuary, there is also a hovercraft rescue service called BARB (Burnham Area Rescue Boat) which can get to boats, and people that get stuck on, and in, the mud. They had 2 very slick orange hovercrafts and it was good to learn how the two services cover all the options. By all accounts, in 2016 BARB is ahead of RNLI in call outs.

You live and learn

Ed; Sounds an active week to me!

Duck Quacks Don't Echo

I now have a self-appointed managing editor, who has decided she will approve all future posts and the contents therein. She says that there will be no more waffle and straying from the subject as happened in the September 11^th edition. Amendments by herself will be left in the article, with blue pencil highlighting where her view has predominated.

She is of course correct, so I apologise for drifting from the Avian norm. I used to collect train numbers, she collects Eddie Stobart names, so we’ve mutually agreed that the blog will be about birds.

On the subject of weekly posts, I am able to see how many people have looked at my blog, and from which country. However, for those of you who get my posts direct and don’t look at the blog, this does not get a “hit” so the number of “hits” has dropped significantly. IF you want to make a comment, you will have to place your words of wisdom via the website, and not reply to the mail. (OK Ed?? YES)

In a recent crossword, the clue “Duck quacks don’t (blank)” made me extract from the deep recesses of my mind the phrase “Duck Quacks don’t echo”. I trawled the net and found that there was a TV quiz programme with this name, hosted by Lee Mac, but not having Sky I was unaware of it or the title.

If this statement interests you, check www.snopes.com where there is some good reasoned research as to whether a quack does echo. Trevor Cox, an acoustics expert at Salford University in Manchester set this legend to rest, with the conclusion that a quack fades away, and when it has faded away there is no chance of an echo off a wall or cliff etc. He therefore concludes “A Duck’s quack might echo, but it is impossible to hear unless the bird quacks while flying under a bridge”. (..so that any echo will be heard instantly.)

On the other hand, you may not be bothered!!

Tuesday 13^th September must really have been one of the hottest days, at least in our area. But undeterred, Chris and I decided to visit Frampton Marsh to see if we could replicate a boom visit we had there a couple of years ago. We dropped her husband John at Boston, as he wanted to take some photos of The Stump (because??) and we went to the RSPB reserve.

Temminck’s and Little Stints had been reported, and I did identify a Curlew Sandpiper to add to my 2016 list (No 175). At one stage we thought we had found the Temminck’s, but whilst I was recouperating in the car, some skilled birders pointed out 3 Little Stints to Chris, and as they say, I dipped.   I think the heat, with nowhere to hide, deflated my enthusiasm, so we did not stay long, but long enough to see 3 Yellow Wagtails.

When I do my Carsington walks, I tell people that the best place to find Yellow Wags, in the summer, is round the hooves of cattle, as they move and disturb the dust. And this is exactly where and how we saw them to-day.

Just to keep you up to speed with my unofficial sighting reports for 2016, Chris is on 183, Amanda is on 188, I’m on 175, and Carsington Volunteer Mike Daykin is on c225 - he gets out a lot!

To end, I have another of the super wow moments sent to me for a newspaper article in 2013.

On a cold January evening a family returned to their old cottage with a porch with 2 doors, one into the porch and one into the hall. A beautiful old lamp, with a frame hung in the porch. As they entered, to the family’s astonishment a flock of Long Tailed Tits, which had gathered nearby, bravely entered the porch one by one and settled on the frame of the lamp. The family went into the house, closing both of the porch doors, and left the birds to settle in for the night.

The following morning, the lady of the house opened the outer door and all the Long Tailed Tits flew away chattering what she said sounded like “Thank Yous”.

Off to Weston Super Mare to-morrow for 4 days – Weston on the mud to regular visitors!…Mud = Waders. (I hope)

From Radio to Radar!!

Sunday 4^th September I was particularly pleased to see how much media coverage I got for the 2,000^th bird walk booking on this Sunday. We had 5 new people on the walk, and ironically it was one of them that came out at number 2,000.

Monday 5^th September. I mentioned that Andy Potter from Radio Derby was coming up to do a news item about the walk, and my plan was to take him in the Kybota round the usual route for the monthly bird walk. However, I had never driven this little vehicle, which looks like this but with an enclosed cab.

………………. So I had to have a driving lesson.  It’s a bit different, with no clutch and when you take your foot off the accelerator, it stops. The latter I suppose like modern cars. but not what I’ve driven. Anyway, I passed Chris’s test, and Andy did not go through the windscreen.

Tuesday 6^th September So I was up again, this time at 8.45 to meet Andy and we drove (noisily!) to the outdoor classroom, for a 5-minute chat, followed by a visit to the Wildlife Centre where Andy had a further chat with Severn Trent volunteer Pat Spencer about the birds that the public can see there.

If you want to hear the interview, you can Google BBC Radio Derby, find Andy Potter programme of 6^th September, and listen at your leisure. It is only available for 30 days from the transmission, so don’t delay.   To make it a bit easier, and to save you trawling through a 3-hour programme, my slot did not come on until c2.15pm If you move the timer indicator slide to 1hr 17min, you get my interview, music, and Pat’s interview. There is then another piece of music, and the next and final few words by Andy are quite amusing, so stay with it!!

RIGHT, I’m sorry, but I cannot continue to keep a secret that has been on my mind during the last 2 months. I have to confess that I have visited a nature reserve where I saw a male Ruddy Duck, so he (that’s a clue) is in my 2016 count. 

People new to birding will probably not know about the government decreed cull of this species - as I say regularly, ironically a species that was introduced into the UK, at Slimbridge, by Sir Peter Scott. So they will not realise that, thank goodness, the cull was not 100% and a Ruddy CAN be found if you know where to look.

Sunday 11^th Apart from seeing 25+ Tree Sparrows at the Carsington wildlife centre this morning, I now have to wait until my trip to Frampton marsh with John and Chris next Tuesday.  So let me tell you about my finding of “Big Birds in Sky” on the computer. Some of you may know the web site 

I’m going to talk about, but I was one that didn’t.

A couple of days ago, Mary and I were imbibing in the garden and took in some of the aircraft vapour trails. As one often does, she said “I wonder where they are going…I wish it was me!!”   That evening, I spent some time trying all sorts of word combinations on Google, and came up with a cracking site which could answer her question.

If you Google in planefinder.net, you will get a website where, if you click on the section “Airport and Flight Routes”, you will be presented with a world map covered in aircraft. If you keep watching the screen, and even zoom in using the + button, you will realise that all the planes are moving. They are moving on their scheduled flight path, and if you click on a plane, and you use the simple screen options, you can everything you could want to know about the flight and the aircraft.

My son flew to Sri Lanka last night at 8.30pm and I texted him, in flight at 9.30BST.

“This is your captain speaking. Welcome on board this Airbus A380-300 aircraft, flight number EY18 for Abu Dhabi. We are flying at a height of 37,000 feet and at a speed of 481knots. Our ETA is 7.20 local time, and we are 238 miles through a total flight of 3,431 miles. We will shortly be passing over Luxembourg. Have a nice day.”

…. Hang on, I’ve just seen some lights going over my house.. it’s just a Ryan Air from Charleroi to Manchester!!

OK,  and there is a web site to track Eddie Stobart Lorries!!

What fun!

Wonderful Wheatears

Tuesday 30^th August decided to have a visit to RSPB Old Moor. I really like the site, with the hides being quite close together, and a very good café (which I think I’ve mentioned before!!)

In the area called the Dearne valley, as well as RSPB Old Moor, there is RSPB Wombwell Ings, and also Broomhill Flash belonging to the Garganey Trust.   The good news is that the new 2-storey hide at Broomhill is now open, and that extra 10 feet in the air does get a better view over the reedbed area at the other side of the flash. 5 local experts (and 3 exuberant dogs) are in situ, and if you can understand Yorkshire dialect, they are happy to share knowledge of what is around. 

To-day, a good number of Little Egrets, Green Sandpiper, Snipe and Common Sandpiper, but sadly the bird I have seen here in the past, and need for 2016, a Red Legged Partridge is not present.

So it’s over to Old Moor for a look round the popular hides. Amanda is on duty, but has nothing ** much to report. I picked up Ringed Plover, and a total of 36 species + quiche, chips and beans!!

**On my way home Amanda texts to say a Wheatear dropped in briefly on the wader scrape, a bird that I see too infrequently.

The species we see in the UK are Northern Wheatears, but in Cyprus, I have been fortunate to see Cyprus Wheatears (endemic to Cyprus – of course!) and Isabelline Wheatears which stand very upright.

Our Wheatears are only in the UK from March to October and winter in Africa. One variant, the Greenland Wheatear has what is reckoned to be one of the longest annual wintering journeys, from Greenland to Africa. Not the longest of course because the Arctic Tern really has the Gold medal sewed up for that run.

When you get a species that is a bit special to you and you rarely see, I find you often remember a lot about those meetings.

I recall at Attenborough Gravel Pits, not surprisingly on the Wheatear field, in April time, a very tired bird just sitting on top of a bush, and not remotely interested in moving.  Another year it was the same at Lodmore nature reserve in Weymouth, Dorset, in that case sitting for ages on shingle.   

A couple of years ago during an autumn bird count at Markeaton Park, I was surprised to find a resting bird on the lip of a golf course bunker, and another meeting, at The Sanctuary nature reserve in Pride Park Derby, 2 or 3 very active birds. As I recall, these birds would have come down from breeding on the hills, pumped up and getting ready for the long journey back to Africa.  Very much a favourite bird of mine.

Sunday 4^th September was my monthly bird walk, and as I mentioned before and bang on cue, we had the 2,000^th person booked on the walk in just over 10 and a half years. Geoffrey Bartram received a bird nesting box (plus a bird i.d book) to commemorate the event and he has generously asked for the box to be mounted on a tree at Carsington Water. 19 people were on the walk, and with several good views, the BOD was a Little Ringed Plover. My IT adviser was present to-day, and his contribution was this close up picture of the BOD! (Note No eye ring)

If you are reading this in time, Andy Potter from radio Derby is coming to Carsington next Tuesday (6^th Sep) to talk to me, and also Pat, about my walks, and the interview will be in his 1pm programme on the same day. If you hear it and enjoy it, or even if you missed it, you can always hear it again on the web site!!!

This event has had good cover from the media with articles in Bird Watching Magazine, Derbyshire Images, Village Life, and possibly the Derby Telegraph, as well as BBC radio. Really encouraging when the press gives this welcome publicity.

Phew, that was a week!!