17th
May 2010 Theme to Bonanza
Up early next morning, 5:00 a.m. to walk around the whole of the allowed part of the Coombes Valley RSPB Reserve. Birds seen included : seven Redstart, four Garden Warblers, three male Pied Flycatchers, one Cuckoo, one Raven and other usual birds for the time of year.
Later I enjoyed watching the sight of three Dexter cows being celebrities on Radio Stoke, as they were released into an area that requires grazing. I met Emma, Chris, Ella and Gracie Shufflebotham, the owners of the Dexters. What do they say about TV and animals? Do you remember the Blue Peter elephant years ago? Well, these were similar. Two ran off immediately and the third only stayed for the press photos because of a harness.
Fun over, I met Jarrod Sneyd and just for him I'll say that Coombes Valley is the best woodland reserve in Staffordshire that I have been to this year. In fact memories came flooding back at every turn as thirty two years ago I came here as a residential volunteer. I could not do much work at the time as I had been in an awfully bad motorway accident on the M6 and my left side was in a bad way. Whilst hitch-hiking to a job interview, the lorry in which I was travelling was cut up by an idiot in a car, who suddenly went from the inside lane to the outside without looking. The driver of the lorry, in which I was unseat-belted in the passenger seat, slammed on the brakes but this put us into a spin. The lorry then hit the crash barrier and a lamppost in the central reservation and I was thrown out through the door by the impact. The accounts I heard later when I was in hospital stated that I had bounced on the tarmac and after flying so far through the air, landed on a crash barrier. That is where the ambulance crew had found me. A couple of feet higher and I would have landed on the fast lane of the northbound carriageway! Hedgehog like death! I was lucky. I can remember them picking bits of glass out of my back and rubbing some yellow jelly-like stuff into the burn like wounds. As for the accounts, they were told to me by two people in my ward, who had come to hospital after crashing on the M6 too. They had been involved in a crash because they had been rubber-necking, agog at my body on the crash barrier!
Still back to Coombes Valley RSPB Reserve. It is a
wonderful reserve and if you enjoy proper woodland birding, as I do, then it is
for you. No hides but that is all for the good because you need ears and eyes
in a wood. The benches are creative and wonderful. The views are fantastic and
luckily there were a lot of butterflies too.
Later another volunteer, Rebecca, emptied the moth trap from the previous
night, showing me mostly Drabs and Hebrew Characters but also Powdered Quacker
and Waved Umber; the latter being new moth species for me. I needed to learn
more about these fascinating creatures. I still do.
Then it was off to cycle to Carsington Reservoir via a cycle path that took me
to Thor's Cave with a lot of orchids on the limestone banks along the Manifold
Valley.
I stopped at Tissington to see the Well Dressings and arrived at Carsington
where the RSPB has a presence in the shape of a superb shop. Kath and Tamzin
greeted me, kindly gave me coffee and biscuits and photographs were taken for
their blog. Both were lovely and Kath impressed me with her tale of cycling
from Land's End to John O'Groats. I was to do the same eventually but by rather
a roundabout route!
To the wildlife centre a little along the shore of the immense reservoir, which
has one of the most comfortable hides I have ever been in, with its remote
control video monitor so that one can see waders on the far side of the island
and central heating, as well as huge windows.
Then I cycled to the Paul Stanley hide at the far end of the reserve and at
last, had Willow Tits [197] there. Comfortable in the hide, I
settled down for the night on the floor.
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