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!!