Penultimate Foot It

Typical Northern Tundra.

I was struggling today with a feeling of general apathy. My fortnightly Friday off and I really couldn't be bothered with any kind of birding so sat trying to write a Foot It article for Bird Watching Mag whilst keeping an eye on the garden feeders. Not a thing landed on the feeders - the cat staring at them out of the window didn't help and the article was waffle, which is where this post is heading! The offer of going shopping was the final straw and I reached for the boots, bins, scope and tripod and set off on the four miles to Orgreave. My best chance of picking new birds up was most likely ducks or gulls as the lakes at Orgreave, unlike the adjacent waters, are not frozen. However despite being more Pochard and Wigeon there was nowt else. Whilst scanning one of the plantations a the Starlings erupted as a Merlin shot through them scattering them all over the place, presumably the bird I saw on a in the car visit a couple of weeks back. Walking around the now muddy edges of the small lake I flushed a dozen or so snipe then bird of the day (month) a Jack Snipe. Not a Foot It tick but a patch tick and only the second recorded here, the first being just last weekend. I can't see there being many other foot It attempts this weekend and I certainly won't make my personal goal of 100 birds and 100 miles, but you never know. Mark

Essential supplies have been key to Foot It survival.

13th January. Another 8 Miles

I didn't have time for any Foot it attempts this morning so opted for an hour or so on the patch, I'm also taking part in the Patch Birding challenge and can't afford to miss out on some of the key January species, particularly as the weather turns colder. Unfortunately I spent most of the time pursuing another group of Hare coursers.  However mt reward was a fem/imm Merlin as it pursued a couple of Meadow Pipits before settling on a post on the 'Plains' exactly the spot where I'd had one last January.

Back to the Foot It challenge and Jo and I spent the afternoon walking to Pit-house West and RV.  A full 8 mile round trip which was more notable for the shear dearth of birds, though I did see the duck whose name we shall not speak taking me up to 86 and 102.4% Annoyingly Pete and Roy had an Oystercatcher, Caspian Gull and Grey Partridge at Orgreave, all of which would have been very useful indeed.



Nice to see a Buzzard feeding on worms in a field next to the busy A57. Twenty years ago I'd have given it more than just a passing glance, and probably taken some better photos!

Having passed my target with relative ease (though I have been lucky) I'm  now thinking that with continued luck I could hit 100 by the end of the month and having now clocked up around 48 miles I'm also aiming for 100 miles.

6th January. Leg It...

My third Foot It venture yesterday and I decided to make it a big one, a great big 15.59 mile (that's what the GPS said when I got back) round trip taking in a variety of habitat from mature woodland, farmland, heath (well the nearest thing that we have to it) a reservoir, reclaimed mining areas and a couple of subsidence flashes.

Leaving the house I struck Foot It gold, just 100m from the front door, with a species that I've never seen in the Rother Valley during 30 years of birding the area - Nuthatch!  Obviously this wasn't on my target list, they just don't occur around here, even in the most mature woodlands.  A great start and exactly what this challenge is about, finding out what's on your doorstep.

I'd actually added another doorstep species earlier in the day with a Tawny Owl calling at 2am starting the day on 58 species.  Given the saturated ground this was going to be a walk in wellies, so I had a plentiful supply of blister plasters.

The first few miles was fairly sterile soggy arable farmland. I picked up a few easy species namely; Skylark, Fieldfare, Stock Dove and the target species here Red-legged Partridge.  I failed to pick up Grey Partridge here and everywhere else today.  Walking through to Ulley I got Bullfinch, Goldcrest and Green Woodpecker. The target species here was Tree Sparrow and tweeting the semi-resident ranger the afternoon ensured that the feeding station was stocked up and I duly connected albeit with just one.  A text to a former Ulley birder gave me a tip off for Long-eared Owl, it just so happened that I was stood in the exact spot when he rang me and some one of the harder target species was on the list.

Dropping down towards the River Rother and Blue Man's Bower I crossed a field with three sheep, well two sheep and a very inquisitive ram.  After an initial sniff at my bag, presumably drawn to my delicious pie, his inquisitiveness turned to aggression and a couple of firm strikes to my side had me legging it across the field! I only picked up a Lesser Redpoll between Ulley and Blue Man's Bower but added Water Rail at Bolehill and Little Grebe at Catcliffe Flash before having the last few hours of daylight at Orgreave.

I knew the patch wouldn't let me down and I was right. The Red-crested Pochard that I'd found on a non-Foot It visit the day before was still present and a Short-eared Owl posed for me on a post, unfortunately I'd left the camera at home so had to settle for a woeful phone through bins shot. A few big gaps in the list were filled namely; Common Gull, GBB Gull, Linnet, Meadow Pipit and a conscience easing Shelduck - the RV bird although wild is too fond of the plastic ducks.

I could have gone to another nearby site for Snipe and Jack Snipe but decided to leave them for next weekend.  The journey from Orgreave to home is 3 miles and usually takes a few minutes in the car, however this time I would have to do it on foot to validate the whole day.  It's not only 3 miles it's also uphill all the way. By the time I got home I was hurting but Jo had the bath run and the tally at 77 species was well worth it.

I only had an hour to spare this morning so had a short walk around the woods behind the house succesfully picking up Treecreeper and Buzzard.  Unfortunately the two Caspian Gulls on the patch this evening were car assisted so it looks like next weekend will involve carting the scope/tripod around.

26th December. Boxing Day Hunt...

Boxing day is traditionally the day of the year when everyone and their granny go out into the countryside for a walk, trying to kid themselves that by doing that they can wholly justify the previous days calorie overload. Obviously Orgreave was over run when we arrived mid-morning, mostly with dog walkers going abut their own business. However, at the edge of the 'plains' I noticed a couple with an inordinate amount of dogs and moving in an all too familiar way. Clearly their business was hunting Hares! As they moved around the edges of the young plantations at least three Hares sprang free immediately pursued by two Lurchers whilst another two strained on the leash while their master broke into a trot.  Too distant to photograph we moved to a position where I could get closer - the hunt was on.  After scrambling to the top of the hill I came upon them less than a 100 yards away, sat the camera on the tripod and pointed it at them! Instantly they knew I was onto them as they gave me a friendly two-fingered wave.

Unperturbed we carried on pursuing them, keeping a good distance between us as they moved away their faces away turned from the camera.

Based on the fact that I had never seen them here before I guessed that they had probably come by car. We watched which direction they headed - they had now restrained the dogs and were just 'walking' them - and left for our car to get to where I suspected they had parked. When you've observed scum like this regularly you get a feel for how they behave and what kind of vehicles they use - always wrecks! Quickly taking the registrations of the likely vehicles just in time before they appeared at the exit. No surprises what vehicles they got into, as we drove innocently past them - RESULT.  All details and photos have now been passed to  the Police, I doubt there's enough evidence for a prosecution, but enough for a knock on the door from plod! A very exhilarating Boxing Day hunt, we also managed a Short-eared Owl, two Waxwings and an impressive 44 Whooper Swans heading low south east.

Rather worryingly if the law preventing hunting with dogs is repealed by the current Government this behaviour will become legally 'acceptable' though objectionable to the majority.

I took this photo back in November of a Hare that had clearly not been quick enough......

25th December. All I Want For Christmas is Whoo...

For most birders December can be among the most grim of months and this one has been no exception. Yesterday, after yet another rain soaked visit I was pondering my final blog of the year, but I didn't get around to it..

Unprecedentedly I was allowed to go out birding on Christmas Day. I don't do religion and I'm just too old to believe in Santa Claus but someone somewhere was smiling down on me this morning when I was given the gift of an adult Whooper Swan. Probably the last patch year tick this year..

Truly an Angel from the North.

Merry Christmas One and All

8th December. Yuck Fou

Having heard nothing true or otherwise about the ridiculous 'Chinese Theme Park' for almost a year I was about to remove the 'save Pit-house West' page link above, when a story appeared on the Roth Biz website.

As you will see the post has now been removed, no idea why, except that it didn't make good reading if you were a Rotherham Councillor or the Chief Exec' of RMBC. Fortunately I read it before it was removed

 (I really wish I'd copied and pasted it now) and the general gist of it was that the Chief Exec' used his delegated powers (rather than through a more democratic process) to rubber stamp a lease agreement to ensure that the main financiers of the scheme didn't take their money elsewhere.

In my experience delegated powers are not used when the subject is contentious and the fact that this scheme has received letters of objection and a 200 signature petition surely makes it contentious? 

Reading between the lines of the Roth Biz article you could almost smell the shady backroom dealings. The excuse that the backer would withdraw their money if they had to wait any longer, as they would if they'd been made to wait until the next monthly cabinet meeting, stinks of lies and corruption. Surely if the backer is that serious they could have waited another month?

I'll make a prediction now. The Chinese Theme Park won't happen (it's an awful, fanciful, white elephant of an idea and everyone knows it), but now the developer has his hands on the land what will stop him using the site for housing, warehousing etc? Particularly with the new relaxed planning laws and RMBC' determined to wash their dirty hands of Pit-house West.

Foot It update

I've lost count of the number of birders wanting to take up the challenge of the January on foot year list, but there seems rather a few. In the next day or so I'll create a new blog specifically for the challenge. If entrants drop me an email I will add them to the blog where hopefully they can add their own targets and areas.

The full and final rules will appear on the new blog, once I have agreed them with Tom and Martin, which seems only fair as they were involved in the original throwing down of the gauntlet. One rule at this stage is that it is ON FOOT only i.e no driving to locations and doing a route around (the point is to see how many species you can record near your own home) and no walking to and jumping on a bus back.

This is the area that I intend to do, a 3.5 mile radius (though likely I will only be doing the blue-shaded area) from my house.

27th November. FOOT IT

One of the great things about Twitter as a birding source, is not only do you often find out about 'rare' before the major news outlets, you also get to keep in touch with birders worldwide.  Hearing about another birders success in the field can often spur you on to try just that little bit more, occasionally proving worthwhile.  I regularly keep in touch with Pugneys stalwart Jonathan Holliday @jonnybirder who's patch updates have regularly inspired me to keep on trying and hopefully on the few good days that I've had he's felt equally enthused.

During one such Twitter conversation with Martin @birdingfrontier I appear to have foolishly offered to challenge him to a January bird race, a bird race with a twist. The challenge was quickly taken up by several other Tweeters (hate that word) including Tom McKinney @tom_mckinney.  The challenge is to see as many species as possible in the month of January. Fairly straightforward except there is a twist. They have to be within walking distance of your house.

Now I am fairly lucky in that I live in a fairly bird rich area and could realistically bag about 80 species on foot in one month. However some unfortunate souls (like Tom and Martin) live in areas where the diversity is on the low side and the chances of them seeing such high numbers in a year, let-alone a month, is problematic to say the least.  So with that in mind it seems only fair to bring in a handicap system, though this relies on the individuals integrity (I'm sure some birders must have some).

Every birder has an idea of what species they are likely to see on any birding trip and none more so than a trip to their local area.

The handicap system will work like so; You calculate (as honestly as possible) a list of birds that you could realistically see in one month in a reasonable walking distance from your house.  In my case this is 80 species.  At the end of the month you take your final tally and compare it with your predicted list.  Working out the percentage of species you actually saw will give you your score e.g my predicted total was 80 my actual score is 78 therefore I scored 97.5%. Tom on the other hand predicts say 40 species (it really is crap around Glossop) and sees a total of 39 giving him an equal place of 97.5% . Martin on the other hand predicts 60 species (not including races, hybrids, or regional variations) and scores a wapping 63 -BOOM- giving him a winning score of - long pause whilst I get the calculator out.......105%.

There will of course be some kudos for the birder scoring the highest total, though implausible totals from the Little Chalfont area will be confined to the bin...

So I propose that the rest of the rules are:

1. Total number of species recorded on a journey on foot from home.

2. No plastic species i.e. dodgy ducks, parrots etc etc.

3. The extents of your area must be stated prior to starting your challenge.

4. Species seen from the house can be included.

5. There are no limits on how far you can walk, providing that you have allowed for the varying diversity in your target score.

6. All lists must be posted on BUBO under the subtitle 'JANUARY FOOT LIST CHALLENGE'


Why do it?

1. Don't know really, it seemed a good idea at the time!

2. If nothing else it will open your eyes to the wealth (or in Tom's case dearth) of bird life in your immediate  area.

3. Prizes Galore

4. Number 3 is a complete lie, there aren't any! Unless of course Martin wants to have a word with his friends at British Birds for perhaps a free subscription to the winner or one of those nice new Swarovski Scopes -mines getting a bit worn out now :-).

5. It gives us something to do in what is generally considered a crap month!

And remember this was found by a birder walking to post a letter in January 1989.......

14th November. Mad as a Hatter

I should have known better than to follow the antics of Lee Evans (not to be mistaken for the comedian Lee Evans, this one's far funnier) on Twitter, but I knew that sooner or later Lee would provide me with yet more blogging gold.
Aside from his comments, regarding the latest pop music scene (I shit you not), his regular birding updates often bring a chuckle. However last nights was a pure gem and the true work of a madman. For someone whose livelihood depends on birders, or arseholes as he states, that's one mighty big bite out of the hand that feeds!

2nd November. Love On The Rocks

With the apparent end of autumn and travelling to and from work in the dark, with absolutely no chance of any mid-week birding I'm suffering a bit with can't be arsed syndrome - certainly as far as blogging goes.  Lots of posts in my head, just too knackered to write them up in the evenings.  

In general it's been pretty quiet on the patch, though a few highlights have brightened things up.

The gull roost produced 3 Caspian Gulls last Saturday(27th) with a cracking 2nd winter bird quite possibly one of the nicest looking gulls I've seen - and I genuinely mean that...

Best viewed at 720p (HD)

The previous weekends gull roost produced a side show 3 Short-eared Owls hunting the southern plains, the first to stick around since the site officially opened.  Unfortunately UK Coal are currently cutting all the grass, though having spoken with them about the owls I'm hopeful that they'll leave a decent sized patch uncut.

A calling flyover Snow Bunting on the 28th was frustrating and came during a good movement of thrushes, pipits, skylarks and an obvious influx of Reed Buntings.  

A full six hours trudging around this morning produced nothing of note, apart from 2 SEO's flushed by the grass cutter.  On my way back for the bus I took a diversion past the boulder pile. A dog walker was coming away from the rocks so I wasn't hopeful of seeing anything in there, a chat flicked up and perched on the outermost rocks - and instantly made my six hours of nothingness vanish - it was only a bloody Black Redstart, not only that it was perched on the rocks that I anticipate seeing a Black Redstart on every time I walk past them. It instantly flew off and I spent the next hour trying to re-find it. Typically as I was again heading for the next bus I found it on another rock pile where it vanished again, quite possibly the most elusive Black Red' that I've ever seen. It reappeared on the original rocks but never gave itself for the camera. Yet another patch tick for me (one previous record from 2009) taking the self-found year list to 137  , with still a few 'easy' species to get140 or higher is certainly looking plausible.

As good as it got!!