19th
to 21st May
Three
days of cycling only with birds seen along country lanes; lesser and
common whitethroat, blackcap and garden warblers, yellowhammers and
chaffinches and the occasional kestrel.
A
quality Bed & Breakfast, Pickwick Guest House in Stone le Clare,
is as exceptional as booking.com had described. I never book with
Booking.com by the way, just find a place via their site and then
phone personally.
A
night at Dave Lovatt's house in Brandon is the same. Dave has kindly
said that the house is available any time I cycle through Brandon.
Finally, before reaching the Norfolk Bird Fair, a night in the tent
tucked away from prying eyes between two large hedgerows at Fowlsham,
near Fakenham.
This
day, the 20th of May, I have cycled from Brandon, stopping
at a large church for a rest. Imagine the surprise when on entering I
find a large model railway! Not every day one finds a very detailed
model railway layout with track, trains and cars etc. in a church.
Norfolk
Bird Fair Mannington Hall, Norfolk.
Day
1. Saturday
Stand
number 52 . . The Biking Birder
Bike
is loaded and the main attraction; people want to be seen with The
Lads. It is great to see that my stand is opposite the WWT stand and
that on it is Emma from Welney.
Emma, not Amanda that I have always
thought her name was and have put on my blog and facebook pages. Must
change that.
Also
opposite is the superb Wader quest group with Rick and Elise Simpson.
I can't help but have a chat with these excellent people, new friends
hopefully.
The
public enter the large marquee and I start a competition with anyone
who comes up to the stall; how many bird species, wild ones, have I
seen this year? You all know the answer, 247. I have a separate
children's competition with the same question and amazingly a young
boy, Connor guesses exactly the 247. I tell him to go around the fair
and find something he wants for £10. With his Mum and three sisters
he goes off and comes back wanting a large photograph of a hare from
the B & J Legge stand.
I
really want to go to some of the lectures but feel that I can't leave
my stand. The first lecture is by Yoav Periman, Director of the
National Bird Monitoring Scheme at the Israeli Ornithological Centre.
Incredibly after his talk he comes to find me.
He has a proposal.
Would I like to take aprt in the Champions of the Skyways bird race
in Eilat, Israel in March next year? It would be an honour and a
privilege to do so I need to get a team of the best Green Birders.
Would Chris Mills be up for it? Nick Moran from the BTO?
Maybe
we should have an international field. How about Ponc Feliu, the
current European Green Year list record holder and why not ask the
World record holder, Dorian Anderson?
Wait
a minute, these would be hares to my tortoise but that can't be
helped. What a prospect.
I
am still in delighted shock at this invitation when another huge
surprise occurs. Cath Mendez, a lady who I met on Fair Isle last
year, has made it all the way up from South Wales to see the Bird
Fair. She stays with me for quite a while and tells me that she is a
volunteer at the Fair isle Bird Observatory this year for three
months, August to October. Brilliant to see such a great friend.
The
day flies by and the evening has a pig roast followed by cheesecake,
a favourite combination. I sit with three ladies; Liz Huxley, a bird
photographer:-
www.lizhuxley.co.uk
She
has recently been the birder who found the Franklin's gull at
Abberton; the bird I was very lucky to add to my list earlier in the
week. The other two are bird surveyors from Scotland, Laura and
Amber.
Soon
time for sleep and I make the mistake of placing my tent in a field
too near to the site generator. Two sleepless hours listening to that
from Midnight with frequent hoots and squeals from nearby tawny owls.
Mind you, I lay in my sleeping bag writing notes from the thoughts
buzzing around in my head from the day's events and people met.
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