Sunday, September 22, 2013

South Sawbo

My standard walk with D#2 - House .> Pishiobury Park -> Beckingham Palace (back of) -> Old Harlow -> Stort path -> cut through the boardwalk back to house. Highlights were Grey Wagtail on Southbrook just outside the house, Kingfisher making a welcome return dashing up the river, a Tawny Owl hooting, and then at 7:05 pm precisely something rather special.

Swallows had been present in good numbers along the river and over Pishiobury House, but over the field east of the Park they all seemed to congregate at once and swarmed all over the field and neighbouring area like a flock of huge flies. I tried counting - first 10, then in tens, then in hundreds, and the best I can do was between 500-1000. Just low, around and above, everywhere you looked.

It felt like I was watching something commonplace from decades ago, something that hardly ever happens now because numbers of all birds are much lower than they were.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Local - mid Aug to mid Sept

Following a summer lull I've been getting out a bit more. A quite impressive list too, if I'd actually seen the birds I'd been going for, but it turned out just a marginally interesting list.

18th August - Amwell (Hobby, Common Sandpiper, Red Kite x2) then King's Mead (Green Sandpiper).

24th there was much rain and a major fall on the E coast. I visited Amwell after all the action. There was a Garganey which was a very washed out buff, and a Wigeon. The next day I took a walk rund South Sawbo and had Lesser Whitethroat, Bullfinch, Blackcap, then over the Lower Sheering Road up towards Sheering itself there was Common Buzzard (a family party of 4), Spotted Fly and juv Whinchat.

26th August Hanningfield Res - 1 juv Black Tern, 1 juv Arctic Tern, 1 Greenshank, 1 Green Sandpiper, 0 WWBT!

1st September the new reserve at Thorley Wash held a Lesser Whitethroat + various commoner warblers, and a few Roach and a Pike in the river. Then a dog-walk in the afternoon in Pishiobury Park had a Spotted Flycatcher.

7th September repeat of the South Sawbo walk had uch the same plus 8 Skylark and 15 Linnets but no spot fly or whinchat.

7th pm at Rye Meads RSPB had 3 Green Sandpiper, 1 Snipe, 2 Wigeon, 2 Ruddy Shelduck, 2 Little Egret and a hobby.

14th September Pishiobury Park had another Spotted Flycatcher, then on ther 15th a visit to Pincey Brook (a flooded field near Hatfield Broad Oak) produced 30 Greylag Goose, some Teal and Snipe, but failed to produce the hoped for Ruff.

So, would any of this feature in MBYOW, given that these visits are often squeezed into an odd half hour when in MBYOW I'll have all day to go where I please? Well yes. Firstly, I expect there will still be a lot of squeezing in short trips. Then there's the context of the sightings. Local birds fit into a history of birds in that area, so sightings of, say, Meadow Pipit have a meaning in the local park they don't have on a day trip to Minsmere.

Finallyand for me most imprtant there's the views you get. Birds in the park, or for that matter at Rye Meads, are often close-too so you get good views. Watching terns at Hanningfield is a bit like watching bands at the O2, whereas local birds are like seeing bands down your local pub. Yes I was there, yes I can tick them, but did I really see them? The terns were dots in the distance. Perhaps the EWT should put big screens up and have remotely controlled cameras on a boat so we can all get good views. Although the Hanningfield list is the best, that's the one that probably won't make it into MBYOW.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

MBYOW??

If you had a year to do whatever you liked, no constraints, no places you had to be, how would you spend it? If you had complete freedom to go where you wanted, when you wanted, would you really take that opportunity? And if you'd spent your life thinking I'd really like to be doing X, and you got the chance, would you do it? And then the next question no-one can really answer; would it have been just what you wanted? Or would it turn out that really, it didn't hit the spot. That it was okay for a while, but it turns out you'd have been happier doing something else?

I've always been a birdwatcher, from getting an Observer's Book of Birds almost as soon as I could read, and looking up Oystercatchers and finding that yes they did occur in the Yorkshire Dales and I had just seen one, and then finding Waxwings on the way to school and just being blown away that such an amazing bird from such a distant part of the world could be here, now, on my street, outside my house. Then holidays in Northumberland with screeching terns, skuas, gannets plunging into the sea and a Bar-Tailed Godwit with surely the deepest brick red colour in all nature. School trips to Minsmere, Leighton Moss, with Bitterns creeping out of reeds, Marsh Harriers quartering reed beds and passing food in mid-air, then camping at Spurn Head in a freezing October and seeing a flock of Snow Buntings swirling and tumbling down a windswept beach like huge snow flakes. So I've always thought if I got the opportunity then I'd head off and do some proper birdwatching, maybe twitch a rarity or too.

But now I'm at an age when that opportunity might come, I'm not so sure. I've been increasingly aware that the best moments in wildlife watching aren't the moments you think will be the best, not the things on your list you are heading out to see, they are the ones you don't expect. That moment when boom! something drops into view, or a moment when a common bird stops right next to you. Seeing wildlife there and then, enjoying the spectacle, the colours, the sounds, the drama and then trying to understand what I'm watching, understanding what piece of the jigsaw puzzle of nature is in front of me. This, increasingly is what makes stepping out the front door, binoculars round my neck, something to look forward to.

So if that opportunity comes, how will I spend it? Would I want to spend hours on the road going to distant places to see rare birds, and then a few hours more waiting for it to pop out of a bush? Would I want to learn bird ringing or get involved in some other such activity to be part of expanding our knowledge? Would I want to spend it mainly in the company of others enjoying being in nature, or by myself? Or would it be easier and hence more realistic to just focus on all the wildlife that's around me here in East Herts with its valley, its Forests, and its gravel pits? And just birds,or butterflies, bats, dragonflies, plants, fish, ants, the lot?

I don't know the answers to these questions, so I'm going to send some time finding out. And when that opportunity comes I'll be ready for My Big Year of Wildlife!