THE Biking Birder - Green and Carbon Birding Adventures Over the Years: BIKING BIRDER VII April 1st 2025 On the Road Again - Part One

Wednesday, 23 April 2025

BIKING BIRDER VII April 1st 2025 On the Road Again - Part One - ACORNS Children's Hospice, Walsall

Biking Birder VII

The Laurie Lee Adventure

Back in 1934, a young man named Laurie Lee walked away from his home in the village of Slad, Gloucestershire, UK.

Detailed in the autobiographical book, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, tells the story of a young man, nineteen years old, seeking adventure.

From his home, Laurie walked first Southampton in order to see the sea; something Laurie had never seen.

Disappointed with his first view as the sea at Southampton was muddy, Laurie found that he could make a living by busking with his violin. Therefore he continued along the south of England coast to Bognor Regis, Littlehampton and Worthing before heading north to London.

From London, after a year working as a labourer on building sites, Laurie took a ship to Vigo in Northern Spain and from there walked, eventually to a beach east of Malaga.

My aim is to cycle his route with the occasional detour to visit nature reserves, particularly RSPB and W&WT ones and sites of interest, such as Stonehenge.

Hence Biking Birder VII begins . . .

April 1st 2025 BIKING BIRDER VII

Part One Acorns Children's Hospice

On the Road Again - Donkey & Shrek

And so at the tender age of 68 (!) I am back on the road again and heading for Walsall. Where better to start yet another Biking Birder adventure than at the children's hospice I will be supporting over the coming three months; ACORNS Children's Hospice.

ACORNS has three children's hospices : one in Worcester called The Three Counties Hospice. There is another in Birmingham and the one I am cycling to today is called The Black Country Hospice.

Having had the privilege of visiting every one of them, how different they are to one might think they would be like.

Each ACORNS hospice is colourful, beautiful and functional.

They have amazing staff and the atmosphere is one of love and fun. Create happy memories despite the sadness.

Hydrotherapy pools, music rooms, magnificent gardens and everywhere colour and brightness; each hospice gives private rooms for the children and family rooms so a family can chose to be close.
With over 700 children receiving care, love and attention every year, the work of ACORNS is never ending and I will do what I can to support them; including by repeatedly asking you to give a donation to ACORNS via my JustGiving page . . .
https://www.justgiving.com/page/garyprescott-laurielee-acornschildrenshospice2025

A Biking Birder mug so kindly made for me by Paul Herrieven. Paul has a business called . . .

UK BIRDING PINS

. . . and sell the best UK bird pin badges and other sorts of bird-related stuff.

Well worth a look; please follow the link above or click on the photo below.

Early morning, pre-dawn, I go out to gather my thoughts and intend to leave in order to be on time for the sunrise.

Leaving Mum on my lightly laden bike; only essential cycle repair tools are necessary for today as I will be returning to Mum's this evening, I cycle to a viewpoint, resting against a five bar gate awaiting the sunrise.

After watching this and contemplating both the day ahead and the coming Biking Birder adventure, I cycle downhill through the village of Romsley, North Worcestershire (the county that gave the name to the fantasy land in Shrek 2).

A steep downward, no need to peddle descent heading north, I stop to photograph and remove from the road a large adult Badger, the first roadkill casualty seen. Car-nage begins.

Feeling really good to be on the bike again, I reach the main Kidderminster to Birmingham road, the A456, Manor Way.

Wonderful to think that I won't be joining the early morning rush hour traffic in my trusty Nissan Note; I carry on towards Quinton. This involves mostly pushing as hills have always presented me with a challenge.

Loving the trees as Spring is bringing back the leaves; this Monkey Puzzle tree though has evergreen leaves that are extremely spiky!

Reminds me of last year in Chile with my daughter, Rebecca.

Decades of asthma have left my lungs unable to give me the oxygen I need for most hills and the get off and push strategy, frowned upon by many tarmac-watching cyclists, has been a necessary part of my cycling experience in every Biking Birder adventure.

BIKING BIRDER VII!

Ponc Feliu Latorre & I at the 2019 Ebro Delta Bird Festival. Ponc is the undisputed European Green Birding Champion and last year he did what is called a BIGBY, a Big Green Big Year, seeing 457 bird species by cycling and kayaking alone!

Ponc's blog is superb, detailing so many birding locations and birds seen at each, together with fantastic photographs ...

https://www.greenbigyear.com/en/

Fan-tailed Warbler, or Zitting Cisticola of you prefer, seen as I pushed the bike up a Pyrenean foothill in 2019, before the back wheel broke!

Should I count the aborted 2019 BIKING BIRDER V adventure as one of the BB adventures? After all I did have to leave the broken bike beside a park bench in a park in Logrono, Northern Spain and get train, coach and ferry back to Britain. Maybe a failure that time but still the week or so cycling along the edge of the Pyrenean foothills had its moments.

As for BIKING BIRDER I, II, III and VI, all had been successful whole year adventures; the first two seeing me visit 'every' RSPB nature reserve and W&WT Visitor's Centres.

III and VI involved trying to beat European Big Green Big Year records; II in 2016 had me being labelled the dirty Green Birder! Well I did accidentally use a lot of ferries to get to a lot of islands, including the Isle of Wight, Mull, The Orkneys and Shetland and of course, Fairest of all, Fair Isle.

BIKING BIRDER IV?

Peru, April first to the end of September, cycling from Lima to the Manu, Amazonia and the packrafting downstream on the marvelous Madre de Dios river for over 250 miles.

Now that one was not only Green the whole way but also stupendous!

I digress.

Into Sandwell Valley after going through West Bromwich, a large area of nature with woodlands, expansive fields and lakes with superb cycle paths to traverse the area making it a delight to go through.

Parakeets and Chiff Chaffs, resident colour and migrant song; birds go onto my Biking Birder VII trip list.

Little Egret beside the channeled river, I reach the canal and with Grey Herons attendant, I cycle along it until the road adjacent takes me to The Acorns Black Country Hospice.

Mark Lyttle is behind the reception counter. He waves a small Acorns flag and greets me with his large, friendly smile.

Mark is amazing and the fundraising work done by him since the death of his beloved young daughter, Isabella, is truly remarkable. Soon to be walking The Great Wall of China for Acorns, Mark has funneled his grief and love for his beautiful daughter into raising tens of thousands of pounds.

Here is Mark's JustGiving page for that . . .

Mark Lyttle's JustGiving page for ACORNS

Kara Bevan and her daughter, Danielle, arrive.
Wonderful of them to come to The Black Country Acorns Children's Hospice to see me off.

Kara's beautiful daughter, Ellie, was here at Acorns for much of her sadly too short life and the staff there still talk about how lovely she was.

So, Kara, Danielle, Mark and I go through to the canteen area and sit and talk about the children we have each lost; Ellie, Isabella and Chris.

Staff members come through and say hello and together our reminiscences are shared, be they caring, loving, devastating or even funny.

Derby!

Time to get on the bike; photos are taken just inside the door and in a small part of the Rainbow Garden.

And off once more, this time I head south, back to my Mum.

Now knowing that I will be meeting many, many sunshine people, I have a new aim. That is to ask each sunshine person four questions.

Maybe you would like to answer them and share your answers through posting them in the comments or by emailing me at . . .

bikingbirder2010@hotmail.com

Anyway, let's start with Kara's lovely daughter, Danielle.

Favourite piece of music?

Lose Yourself by Eminem

Favourite children's book when a child?

Biggest passion in life?

Favourite film?

Kara.

Favourite piece of music?

Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen

Favourite children's book when a child?

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

E.B. White - Wikipedia

Biggest passion in life?

My children and family

Favourite film?

The Notebook

Mark

Favourite piece of music

All I Need by Air

Favourite children's book when a child

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

by Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl Wikipedia

Biggest passion in life

My daughter, Isabella and helping ACORNS Children's Hospice

Favourite film

Blues Brothers

Brilliantly Kara's husband, Scott Bevan has joined in the fun of the four questions . . .

Scott Bevan

Favourite piece of music

Summer by Calvin Harris

Favourite children's book when a child

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

By Roald Dahl

I love the original film with Gene Wilder and still will practice doing the entrance Gene did at the factory entrance!

Biggest passion in life

Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club

Favourite film

The Great Escape

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It is going to be amazing over the coming months, meeting people and asking the four questions. I wonder what people will say in their answers.

It will be great when Danielle messages me over her missing answers! 😁😁😁😁😁

As for my little brother, Chris, today is his birthday, April 23rd, Shakespeare's birthday. Chris, if he had died in October 1975, would have been 54 today.

Talking with Mum, we wondered what Chris would have been like. Would he have been tall? Would he still have his blonde hair? LOL.

Fifty years this October it will be; it seems like yesterday.

Memories are cruel in that they aren't chronological. One can recall a memory from fifty years ago as if it was yesterday, with clarity over circumstance, location, sounds, emotions and images. I still see everything from that awful time.

Chris, my little brother, was wonderful, a true sunshine child. Still missed and much loved.