27th Feb. Goodbye Old Friend

I haven't blogged for a while but chucked a draft post together this morning moaning about what a crap month I'd had blah blah blah.  I was going to add some more dross to it this evening but received some terrible news that made my small troubles pale into absolute insignificance.

The news this evening was that Yorkshire birding stalwart Russell Slack had passed away after losing his battle with cancer.


I have some happy memories of birding with Russ, when he first came to Sheffield Uni' in the mid-Eighties. Being a couple of years older than me and my then birding mate we looked up to him and were inspired by his enthusiasm, student tales of charming members of the opposite sex (that failed to inspire me to progress my education) and his seemingly ever present smell of Patchouli Oil and long curly locks.

During this time Russ and I would regularly bump into each other at Thrybergh Country Park usually seeing very little, in fact the highlight of a few years visits was a summer-plumage Spotted Redshank that circled the reservoir then left. It was only a few months ago that we were laughing about that and how crap Thrybergh was (and it still is). On another Thrybergh visit I was sat next to Russ when he was shit upon by a Swift which gave us much hilarity and a short discussion on the likelihood of an apus shitting on you - of course statistics were very much Russ's bag.
My first Spurn visit was courtesy of a field trip organised by Russ and I saw my first Subalpine Warbler and Brent Goose!

I've used the word inspiring a couple of times already but to me as a 16 year old birder Russ was like a big brother during those distant Thrybergh days and truly did inspire me to get out birding.

Russ you were a bloody good bloke and you will be much missed R.I.P mate though the memories will live on.

6th February 2013. I Don't Feel Like Dancing...

I got an email this evening, that almost had me choking on my enchiladas (Mexican dish not a small furry animal in case you didn't know). I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to be posting it on here but it did say circulate it amongst like minded individuals - or something like that.

The email originated from a television production company looking for a group of 5-7 birders for a new program for Sky 1.  "Oh no not more shit made to look birders even nerdier?" I hear you scream. Let's face it anything that features birders will at some point make us look like a bunch of sad twats. History proves this with the recent dire attempt Twitchers a Very British Obsession and the almost as bad The Big Year (though not a documentary it was still awful).

So what is this new idea for a ground breaking TV show?

You'll never believe it.......

BIRD WATCHERS WHO CAN'T DANCE

Alan Partridge's brain storming session in this clip is clearly far from fantasy! I can just imagine it now....

But who could forget this gem, where even the normally camera shy me makes a cameo appearance at 3:23 (black T-shirt)..

30th January. The Age of The Train......

During the early 1980's the late multiple sex offender Jimmy Savile would pop up on our screens during the Corrie ad break with the phrase "this is the age of the Train" encouraging us all to 'let the train take the strain' - though at the time I suspect the only thing straining on Savile's train were the fifteen year old girls making for the emergency cord!  As it happened (sorry) it certainly wasn't the age of the train, shortly after they were privatised and the whole network fell into terminal decline. 

Fast forward 30 years and Jimmy is rotting in Hell and the age of the train is eventually upon us. I got a whiff of the proposed HS2 route a week or so before it was announced and didn't really appreciate the impact that it would have.  On the face of it it's route through South Yorkshire isn't too drastic, though it looks as though we'll lose some mature woodland in North Sheffield. The route passes through the whole of the Rother Valley skirting the edge of  Rother Valley Country Park then passing through Woodhouse Mill, Orgreave, Treeton and Catcliffe on a massive viaduct at speeds of up to 360kmph and around 8 times an hour each way!!  Of course this is a long way off and by the time it's completed (assuming it's done on time) I'll be 60! The route looks a pretty done deal, though there could be some minor amendments, and on the whole I reckon South Yorkshire will come out of it relatively unscathed - though the affect of the ancillary works could prove more disruptive.

Looking at the both routes from Birmingham i.e. Manchester and Leeds there's an awful lot of birding sites that it speeds through e.g. Rostherne Mere, Swillington and Wintersett.  The potential economic benefits to the North are apparently massive, but at what cost to the environment?

The route through Orgreave, Treeton and Catcliffe

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.