Biking Birder Rides Again 2015

Saturday 28 h February Have you seen a ring-necked duck this year? I have. Bird number 155 on the year list but what a time finding it. Good gen is what's required but it's not what I had. My fault, a friend had sent details of the bird being on the SW corner adjacent to a footpath at a lake. My fault was in not knowing the name of the lake, The previous day I had cycled from Braunton to Bampton after visiting the peaceful RSPB reserve at Chapel Wood. After over 40 miles of cycling a heavy bike along the roads of North Devon, made heavier by my purchase of a tent, I reached a great B and B in the village. Bampton I thought was close to the lake where I thought the bird would be. You know what thought did. After breakfast at The Quarryman's and after talking with incredible owner, Martina, I cycled north, after seeing dipper and grey wagtail by a stream through the village,  and pushed the bike up a couple of incredibly steep hills until reaching a c...

Thursday 26 h February Did rain fall on you this morning? In Devon it pelted it down and I did the sensible thing until it stopped at 10.30am. I stayed in a warm conservatory watching birds come to the feeders on view there. And what a mass of birds visited them too; mostly blue tits but also great and coal tits, a male great-spotted woodpecker, dunnocks, robins, chaffinches, house sparrows and a wren. Off on the bike along a road with masses of destroyed tarmac and streams from the rain. I came to a flooded part down in a valley. Sense should have made me turn back but since when did I have any sense. I thought if I keep to the sides I'd get through. I didn't. It was half way up my thighs! I fell against a muddy bank and clambered out onto it dragging the bike with floating panniers out of the water. Still I wasn't going to have it defeat me. I dragged the bike against a hedge with a rushing stream about a meter wide between me and the road. “Now if I use the bi...

Wednesday 25 h February Not much to report on the day really. It was spent trying to get into Devon, successfully. The cycle from St Austell to near Clawton in Devon was tough with poor weather and occasional low cloud fog. Mind you the day started well with a new bird for the year list. As I cycled north along a B road towards Bodmin there was a clearish stream cascading down the hill. As I came to a clear part where one could see the rocks a dipper was on one particularly mossy rock. Brilliant! Bird number 152. Or is it? That Kumlein's gull I saw way back in Littlehampton. It's a sub-species of Iceland gull isn't it? Of course it is so can I count it on the year list as an iceland? I haven't yet and if I can that would be the bogey bird from 2010 out of the way. In 2010 I remember waiting at Bartley Reservoir on the final evening of the year with friends expecting the Iceland gull that had put in an appearance there for the previous week to do so. It did...

Tuesday 24 th February Let's try to catch up. Monday morning was spent mostly sorting out a few matters over issues arising with the bank! All sorted amicably eventually and it was then a cycle to Helston to meet a friend with Upton Warren connections, Stuart Croft. Stuart has worked in Cornwall for the RSPB for a long time now. Initially he worked on the Cornish Chough project but is now involved in the cirl bunting project. At Helston Boating Lake, we enjoyed a long chat, a pasty in a shelter and then hot chocolate in the cafe. Just outside the whooper swan swan around and hence became bird number 150 on the Green Year list. Do I get a round of applause like in cricket? Great to see him but with the need to get going, we said goodbye and I cycled along the A road towards Falmouth. After 6 miles I deceided to take the smaller country lanes and enjoyed this far more than the noisy traffic strewn road, despite the frequent ups and downs. Into Constantine village and ...

Sunday 22nd February Go West! That was the demand from finding out that Porthgwarra was a RSPB reserve. So despite the weather forecast and despite the already falling rain, I set off in that direction along the A30. Cycling to within a mile of Land's End, I turned left towards Porthcurno and reached Porthgwarra at around 10.am. There was the toilet block that had helped me remove material on my first visit here back in 1982. Not a pleasant story, with no happy ending but here goes. I was birding on the Isles of Scilly and an amazingly rare bird, a chimney swift, had been seen at Porthgwarra. I took the helicopter to Penzance and the bis to Porthcurno. Thinking that I would walk the coastal path to Porthgwarra I hid my rucksack and camping gear behind a holiday house there and started the trek. Another birder started a conversation as we found and looked at 2 firecrests together and he offered a lift in his car to 'Gwarra. On retrieving the rucksack, I placed it on m...

Saturday 21st February A, in my mind, well deserved rest for the last 4 days was over and with an interview on BBC Cornwall completed, it was off to Marazion RSPB Reserve. Arriving at a viewpoint over the reed bed, an enterprising freelance photographer, who had heard the interview, was there waiting for me. His thought was to take a few photographs of me and send them to the local press. He said that last week one of his photographs was published in the times and that he was a beginner as a birder. Tamsin arrived shortly later, the RSPB staff member who had been kind enough to put up the poster of my journey at Hayle Estuary RSPB reserve and who had emailed me to arrange a morning's birding with her and other RSPB people. Soon Jen, the assistant warden and Peter, a local volunteer arrived and so we all chatted and watched the birds from this roadside edge view. Snipe, little egret, little grebes, teal and a flying bittern were all seen, together with a nesting grey...

Saturday 14 th February To wake up alone on Valentine's Day is sad maybe, especially when one has slept the previous night in a barn. Now as much as I might like a relationship I can't see one happening at the moment. So turning away from dreams of such I got up, packed and started the next cycle journey in the dark. No one will ever know I was there. I was careful to leave the barn the way I found it. Back on the A road between Totnes and the A38 I came across the worst section of pot holes that I had yet come across. These were not pot holes, these were deep trenches were the tarmac had disappeared. I was lucky to get through this section. Onto the A38, I stopped for a drink at a garage and met Amanda, an ex-Brummie who had been on Opportunity Knocks, a talent finding TV programme from the 70s when she was younger. Two lovely chatty ladies, an hour went by as I drank a litre of milk and chatted.  Back on the road I was soon down at the Tamar Bridge and whil...

Monday 16 th February An amazingly wonderful day started with a large breakfast at The Mad Hatters B and B in Hayle, with lovely Pauline, the proprietress sitting on an opposite table chatting away. With her two boisterous dogs under control, I enjoyed the breakfast which included a bowl of strawberries as well as the full English and cereal. Leaving by the back door as the bike had been stored in a building behind the house, I took a couple of photographs of the creek. Here a few years ago now, an adult ring-billed gull had been an almost permanent resident there. Being an American gull, the ring-billed is still a very rare bird in Britain. After sorting out a few financial matters at a bank, I cycled around to the Hayle Estuary RSPB reserve and was delighted to see a poster advertising my journey on the wall of the breeze bloc hide there. Inside I met Peter Walsh, another birder who I had last met on Fair Isle when I was cycling another Biking Birder trip 5 years ago. In...