Big Green Big Year EUROPEAN Top Fifty

 

Every week, well almost every week, I find out the top fifty Green Birders by looking at each countries Green Birding rankings website or page.

This week's Top Fifty Big Green Big Year Green Birders are  . . .

1 Pierrick Devoucoux France 144

2 Niklas Holmstrom Sweden 122

3 Peter Moore UK 115

4 Sander Bruylants France 114

5 Guillaume Bruneau France 109

6 Didier Desmots France 106

7 Corentin Morvan unknown 103

8 Gael Kervarec France 102

9 Olivier Morel France 99

10 Johan Tufvesson Sweden 94

11 Adrien Gouyer France 92

12 Camille Vacher France 89

13 = Jean-Christophe Cordara France 87

13 = Mercenary Csaba Hungary 87

15 Aleix Comas Spain 86

16 = Judit Petho Hungary 85

16 = Valentin Vincent France 85

18 Bastienn Jeannin France 84

19 Guillaume Petitjean France 83

20 Jose Luis Anguita Spain 81

21 Orjan Engebrand Sweden 80

22 Antoine Vrignaud France 77

23 = Oscar Bargallo Spain 73

23 = Vincent le Calvez France 73

25 = Etienne Colliat France 72

25 = Loic David France 72

25 = Phil Villiers UK 72

28 = Lars Giner Sweden 70

28 = Magnus Johansson Sweden 70

30 = Magnus Hallgren Sweden 68

30 = Ifj. Bebesi Zoltan Hungary 68

32 Thomas Giles UK 66

33 Jacob Brown UK 65

34 Elias Ernvik Sweden 64

35 Colin Dupriez France 63

36 Ann-Sofie Jonsson Sweden 62

37 Tomas Altes Gonzales Spain 59

38 Johan Andin Sweden 58

39 = Joel Bjrberg Sweden 57

39 = Maarten Hillenaar Sweden 57

39 = Lars Johansson Sweden 57

42 = Simon Thorn Sweden 55

42 = Dirk Von Werne Belgium 55

44 Asa Enefalk Sweden 54

45 Frederic Leviez France 53

46 Pierre Gitenet France 52

47 Manuel Fernandez Pajuelo Spain 51

48 = Dan Bengtsson Sweden 50

48 = Catherina Engebrand Sweden 50

48 = Petter Olsson Sweden 50

48 = Eric Sandin Sweden 50

Spring is coming everyone. Those migrants will be arriving as I type!

Good luck everyone.

Pictured is Niklas Holmstrom of Sweden who is doing a Swedish Big Year - BIGBY - Big Green Big Year.

Details of Niklas' BIGBY Year list can be found here :

Niklas Holmstrom Big Green Big Year in Sweden

Biking Birder I February 11th 2010 Langstone Harbour and Pilsey Island RSPB Reserves

 

11^th February  2010

The Tide is High                      Blondie 

I had been contacted by Chris Cockburn and he had offered to show me around the two RSPB reserves, Langstone Harbour and Pilsey Island RSPB Reserves, reserves where he was warden.

 The latter one involved taking carbon transport as access was only possible by crossing Ministry of Defence land, something I was not allowed to do on my bike. Into a Land Rover we went and luckily for me no new birds for the year were seen. There were however masses of waders as the tide was high and the birds were having their twice daily rest. There were Bar-tailed Godwits, Knot, Dunlin, Grey Plover and Redshanks by the thousand.

To Langstone Harbour RSPB Reserve next and a good rarity that had been recently promoted into a full species, Green-winged Teal [131]. 

This bird has recently been demoted to just a teal. Lumped through using DNA evidence; Green-winged and Eurasian Teal are now one species!

Then I took a long walk around the sea defence wall, pushing the bike and chatting constantly with this wonderful man. Chris was one of the 'old guard' RSPB wardens, a rarity in himself, being an expert on birds unlike the some of the new breed of conservation degree holding youngsters. I have nothing against the new generation, the RSPB needs to become more inclusive and its Nature's Home direction is understandable. This is the shape of the organisation to come as they move away from their birds’ image to one of more diverse wildlife approach. The RSPB has always cared for all of Britain's wildlife forms yet due to name, people associate them with just birds. To me the change is overdue for the World's biggest conservation group.

Back to talking about Chris though. He reminded me of my very dear late friend, Gordon Barnes, being fabulously knowledgeable and great fun to be with. A BBC Radio Solent interview of me during the day was difficult as Chris kept pointing to imaginary birds to distract me! 

 

The reserve itself had exceptionally large numbers of Brent Geese and waders, with distant grebes on the water. The geese were in large flocks on the grassy meadows inland of the sea wall. In summer, Chris said, the reserve had large colonies of terns and I was to be invited to return and take a boat out with other RSPB volunteers to survey them. I have still to take up the offer. I must contact him. 

21.35 miles  

142 elevation up   185 feet down

Day ending with me reaching Portsmouth after stopping to take a photo of the fully laden bike outside Portsmouth Football Club's stadium. Up Pompey!

Biking Birder Evening Talk Wigan RSPB Local Group PERU 2018 - Biking Birder IV

 

Biking Birder Evening Talk

Wigan RSPB Local Group

PERU 2018 - Biking Birder IV 

Wigan RSPB Local Group website

Tonight, at 7:45pm, I will be giving a talk about my Biking Birder IV - Peruvian Green Birding adventure.

This is a photo of my bike laden ready for the BBIV adventure.

I always cycle with cuddly toys and nowadays collect as many as I can for a toy recycling business called Toys4Life

Bike and Packraft, in 2018 I cycled from Lima to the Amazonian region, crossing The Andes.

Arriving in the Manu National Park, cycling down the world famous birding Manu Road, I gave my bike away to local indigenous children and packrafted down the mighty Madre de Dios river, a large tributary of the Amazon.

Push, paddle and plummet - my aim was to beat the number of bird species seen without using fossil fuel by the phenomenal Dorian Anderson. Dorian saw an incredible 618 bird species when he cycled around the USA.

Birding Under the Influence: Cycling Across America in Search of Birds and Recovery - Amazon Link

Dorian's book is a proud testimony, not only to his amazing cycling adventure but his will to conquer drug and alcohol addiction.

Did I manage to beat Dorian's World Green Birding record?

Six months of Green Birding adventure told in two hours.

Biking BIrder I February 10th 2010 Roman Mosaics and a Bear at the AMAZING Fishbourne Palace,

 

10^th February 2010

Teddy Bear's Picnic                Ann Stephen's 

                                       

       My day started with another repair the bike session at a near to my B & B bike shop.

          Just a quick look over really and a purchase of new brake pads. Gert's bike was going well.

          I continued with the Roman theme started by my Gladiator exploits a few days earlier, by visiting the magnificent mosaics of Fishbourne Palace, west of Chichester.

           

              In fact I spent a few hours there enjoying not only the amazing mosaics, viewable from above by extensive walkway platforms but also enjoying taking photographs of Barnaby Bear posing with the mosaics. 

     You will recall Barnaby Bear was given to me by wonderful The Geography Association.

              The GEOGRAPHY ASSOCIATION

 The Geographical Association (GA) is the subject association for teachers of geography. Our members and volunteers are at the heart of our Association – a diverse, inclusive community of individuals who work together to create positive change for the world of geography    

     A couple of friendly school parties came in and the children started asking about why I had such a famous bear with me. They had been learning about the world by enjoying a project on Barnaby Bear, as many Primary schools do across the United Kingdom. There are even TV programmes about Barnaby Bear's adventures . . . 

        Barnaby Bear Programmes on the BBC

Where in the world is Barnaby Bear? Well, he was with me and yes, we, Barnaby Bear and I, had a picnic together in the Roman Palace grounds! 

            The Official Barnaby Bear Group

              A fabulous and fascinating day culminated with a fish and chip shop insisting that I enjoyed a fish and chip supper for free. 

     The money I would have paid for the meal became a donation to Asthma UK. 

11.75 miles

126 feet elevation up   105 feet down