I’m not happy!!

There is a limit as to how long I can go on bottling up my frustration, but I think it is time I came out on the issues that are rocking my boat.

Bird lists, particularly annual lists.  Who said that I have to start my annual records on January 1? 

Why pick a day when sociable and amenable people will be nursing the mother and father of a headache from celebrating the end of the calendar year, Hogmanay or whatever excuse you like, and which usually drags on to 1 -2 in the morning. It was not that many years ago that the Government of the day decreed that Jan 1 should be a public holiday, but I did not hear the BTO, the WWT or the RSPB come out in sympathy. No it’s here we go again…..it’s Jan 1 so we must start counting.

I tried to challenge the system in 2014. 28^th March was our Golden Wedding anniversary, so I decreed on that day (to myself) that the next 12 months would be MY golden year for birding, and I would record from 28^th March 2014, to 27^th March 2015. Didn’t do any good – I still missed the 200.  

So I have a cunning plan.  I intend to start MY birding year on and from the date that I get a Mega. Imagine if that happened on the 31^st March, what a wonderful start that would be for the next 12 months, starting on a real fast track at the summer migration time. (I will probably still do the conventional Jan > Dec to cover 2 options!)

A long standing issue – I just get the feeling that the some of the letters you read from time to time, about birders not sharing info have got a grain of truth.

My first gripe is about talking birds in shorthand. What is a Sprawk? Or a Gropper, or an LRP? I wouldn’t even think of talking in bird-speak for those people on my walk for beginners. They have enough trouble with a Hedge Sparrow, which isn’t a sparrow, a lapwing, which Grandpa calls a peewit, a mute swan which isn’t, and an Egyptian Goose which isn’t a goose. So give the non-pros a break – you can write what you like in your diary, but at least give newbies a chance by saying birds by their full names.

And on the subject of names, for goodness sake, why is a Purple Gallinule in Majorca a Purple Gallinule, but in the Humber Estuary it’s a Swamp Hen?  It is in fact a Rail but for sure it aint a Hen.

And why did the perfectly satisfactory name Fan Tailed Warbler (which I saw in Cyprus in October 2000) now become the extraordinary name a Zitting Cisticola?

I rest my case.

Last Tuesday, I had 3 hours birding with Chris at Attenborough. Lovely morning and 36 species with a good helping of waders. I keep hearing that migration is running late this year, but we had Dunlin, Snipe, Ringed Plover, Ruff, Knot and a very viewable Black Necked Grebe.

Started off seeing a Mute Swan near the centre with a red ring with white lettering on its left leg, numbered Y619. I have reported it, and I’ll let you have any feedback I get.

Unfortunately, (here comes another gripe) we did the middle loop to come to the tower hide, only to find the steps were (rightly-) closed due to a collapsed step. A notice at the car park saying the hide would be closed would have been helpful, an experience which equally irked me last time at Blacktoft, when we found the Marshlands hide was closed for maintenance, only when we got to the hide.

The word on the street is that quarrying has now finished at Attenborough, and Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust hope to take on the whole site. (Interesting because final quarrying was at the end of the conveyor belt, in Derbyshire.) It would be great if they can.

What I will miss will be the reminder of a good birding friend and fellow smoker, Ivan Dring. Ivan, who died a few years ago, loved Attenborough, but his ambition was to have a job driving the tug from the quarry to the works.  He loved building boats and sailed them in his bath. I told the mourners in my eulogy about his hobby, but said that he should have waited until Hazel was out of the bath.

Busy month, eh?

River cruising - the best way for close up birding.

As part of the therapy to get over the consequences of my operation, I have to indulge in plenty of Positive thinking, forward looking, definite plans, upward looking and as Frank Spencer said, “in every day, in everyway, I will get better and better.”

Whilst endeavouring to fulfil some of these objectives, I find myself in a negative domestic disagreement situation with the Managing Editor, or in these circumstances, I prefer to call her “Er indoors”.  (That sort of remark is conducive to inflaming the situation anyway!)

You see I want to go on a cruise. This is where we differ. It appears to be something to do with the time 4/5 years ago when we stayed, together with 2 good friends Barbara and Roy, on my brothers boat on a swinging mooring in the middle of the River Dart. Simon, my brother, had made us feel very welcome on his boat “Tatti” and we slept on board for one night.

Apparently sleeping on what she described as being on a water bed, led Mary to spend the next 7 days suffering from sea legs, and nothing I can say to this day will move her from her entrenched view, that from the Isle of Wight ferry to the SS Queen Elizabeth, they will all result in the same symptoms.

I wouldn’t mind, but I only wanted to go on the Boston Belle bird-watching cruise to the Wash! 

It's only a trip down a river for goodness sake, so I was forced to exercise the authority of the master of the house, and go ahead with the booking (alone) on the 25^th of this month.

As a bonus, I have also booked (again alone) on the Avocet cruise from Exmouth and upstream to Topsham (and back!) on the 25^th January 2017, which should really boost my bird count for 2017. I have to be honest. Mary has done this cruise on the Exe, but not when it was designated a bird-watching trip. Her problem is that the cruise scenario, fortunately for birders, means the boat will loiter = wallow if there are good birds to be seen.

Sunday 2^nd October.  I did my monthly bird walk at Carsington this morning, and 18 people really struggled, and failed, to see the statutory 30 species - just a lowly 28. When we got in the right position with the sun behind us, we had good views of Wigeon, mainly still in eclipse, and which were rightly voted bird of the day. Only Teal and Willow Tit came close to getting any votes.

Soon after we set out, there was evidence of some serious birders on Stones Island, appearing to be taking a large amount of interest in some bushes near my 100^th walk commemorative nest box. 

It transpired that at 9.00am, a very competent birder had seen, and heard, a Yellow Browed Warbler, and as this was only the second time this species had been identified at Carsington in the 24 years since the reservoir was opened, this was a big attraction. 

We were too big a group to mix it with 8-10 knowledgeable birders. Bird twitches can get far more than 28 people, but that is usually when the birders can line up, with scopes etc and watch the bird activity. In our case, the exact location of the bird was not known, as it kept moving, so continuous movement of a large group of searching birders would more likely make the bird hide away.

Bird Guides web site had details of 4 reported sightings, at 9.10; 10.17; 13.15; and 15.45, and I don’t doubt some birders like us, would (in bird parlance) have dipped. i.e. not seen the bird.  We passed “The Spot” at 11.10.

So what else is news? Amanda is in Hungary (well, back now) and no doubt with photos of Cranes, Chris has been in Dorset this week, and moves closer to the magic 200, with 190 to date. She texted me about a sighting of a Wryneck on Portland on the 27^th September 2016, and I told her about the time I saw one in the same place, with the same bird guide she was with, on 11^th September 2006. Almost 10 years to the day, and shows the interesting benefit of keeping records. 

And no, it was not plastic!

Just in case you have not seen the poster at Carsington, the next few Bird Watching for Beginners Walks are November 6, December 4... and yes, honestly.....1st January 2017!