Donations : Acorns
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/GaryPrescott2022
Many thanks to . . .
Paul Moseley, Alison Everett, Bill Urwin, Lee & Cathy Gregory, Sean (Liverpool), Lindsey Moore, Anonymous, Lindsey Barthorpe, Julie, Sue, Julie (Upton Warren), Ian "Seagulls" Morris, Larraine Tayleure, Andrew Bayes, Andy Pitt,Andrea, P & P, Moira, Jackie Griffiths, Bob, Keep U, Rosie, Jayne Grosvenor, Jane & Andy Revell, Louise, Stuart Griffiths, M & D Shaw, Dave & Sue White, Janette Lowndes, Bart, Lise Hanson, Maria Hill, Phil V, Chris Elmer, Sue Murphy, Nicky, John Hague, Mike, Kimberley Bills, Norma Hines, Rob Gilbert, Julia, Colin Graham, Sarah Moreton, Lizzy, Lisa Hillier, Rob Leech, &P.
And also many thanks to the person from Llandudno who sent money directly to Acorns Children's Hospice, stating 'The Biking Birder' in the letter. Brilliant! Thanks.
Total so far . . .
£870 plus gift aid
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Donations : RSPB
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bikingbirdervii-2022
Many thanks to . . .
Lynn, Bill Urwin, Lee & Cathy Gregory, Sean (Liverpool), Lindsey Moore, Julia, Nicky M, Karen and Richard Blackburn, Paul Moseley, Susan, Jim Royer, Anonymous, Foz, anonymous, Phil (Upton Warren), Dad and RSPB Badges sold, P & P, Moira, Jill from Dorking, Nicky M, Terri Akers, Anne Beckett, Maria Hill, Mark Carter, P
Gary's RSPB Justgiving page link
Total so far . . .
£476 plus gift aid
😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁
On the road again, I head off towards the Somerset Levels to the east of Burnham on Sea. Feeling great having seen the Kentish Plover, the cycling is fine and a phone call stops me as I sing my usual Yes songs . . .
Eventually the caller identifies himself as the famous birder Bill Urwin and he says that he will meet me at the location of a reported Tundra Bean Goose. On the way there, a cyclist stops me and chats for a while about here cycling tours at many places around the world. What a fantastic woman! Thanks Suzanne. Great to meet you.
At the Tundra Bean Goose site Bill is there but sadly the goose isn't. A dip, as they say in birding parlance, but one that I am reasonably sure I will pick up later in the year in Norfolk, if not before.
Bill is fabulous company and he talks not only of his birding now but of days long gone when he was part of the Big Bird Race back in the Eighties.
This book form 1983 beautifully captures the race between two teams of famous back then birders. Bill was one of the team members.
Having dipped the goose, we retire for a coffee at the Avalon Nature Centre, stopping first at a Little Owl site Bill has found.
There we meet Ali, the superb RSPB warden for the nearby brilliant RSPB reserve, Ham Wall.
Poor girl having to sit with two old birders!
Onward, I cycle to Shapwick and after walking and talking with my birder-in-arms comrade, Bill, surprisingly I find the reported male Ring-necked Duck*, an American rarity, at the back of the decoy pool. Unfortunately it swims off behind some reeds before I can get a photograph. At least Bill will be my witness that I saw it! Another good but expected to see bird goes down onto the BIGBY list, bird number 122.
A birder comes up and asks if we have seen the Ring-necked. She has been in the hide and not seen it. Bill explains that it cannot be seen from there as it is down a cut away area of reed to the right of the hide. We talk about local birds and luckily she tells us that catcott Nature Reserve will be closed tomorrow because of some tree cutting. My intention had been to go for the Baikal Teal at Greylake RSPB reserve first, sleep there and then go for the Glossy the following morning. With the news about the reserve being closed that plan has to change and I head towards Catcott into what had been a stiff behind my back all the way to here.
Bill is waiting there when I eventually arrive. Cycling into wind is never fun but the Glossy Ibis* is briefly on view so goes down onto the BIGBY list. It hides away for a time amongst the rush about fifty yards away and then flies out into the middle of the marsh in front of the hide.
Once again my photographs won't win any prizes but Bill is eager for me to get back on my bike and get over to greylake RSPB reserve before dark and get the mega rare teal.
The sun has set. Bill and I are searching the marsh, searching amongst the hundreds and thousands of Teal and Wigeon for the rarity. It looks like I will have to see it in the morning.
Bill coughs. Bill offers me a look through his telescope. In the gloom of dusk I can make out a duck tucked in beside some isolated rushes, a duck with three elongated scapulars draped across its back and flank.
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