I just need to see that happy, smiling face of my arch Green Birding enemy, Ponc Feliu Latorre and I get the urge to get back on my bike and cycle 200 miles to get back to Spurn Head!
Yes, I will be back on the road again today. Mum's 90th birthday celebrations . . .
. . . are over and it is time to put The Spaniard in his place by beating him to the title, European BIGBY - Big Green Big Year champion.
Who will win?
Well, I have to believe that I will. Four months to go and although I am ten birds behind Ponc's current total of 262, the Autumn migration may give me all the birds I need to, not only catch him but take the title.
I will be spending most of the next two months at Spurn Head, East Yorkshire. Looking forward to everything that that will entail, especially The Spurn Migration Festival.
As for the competition between Ponc and myself, I hope that we will have a lot of fun over the coming weeks and months as we both struggle to add birds to our growing lists.
To that end, I have changed the words of a well-known England football song to reflect on the competition and I hope that you all will send me videos of you singing along with it!
Come on! You know you want to. Sing it loud. Sing it clear. Video yourselves singing and PLEASE send me the video.
These three are singing it so why not join in?
(Facebook, Twitter or Instagram message me!)
The words?
Oh yeah. They'd help.
OK, here goes . . .
BIGBY's Coming Home - Lyrics
Commentary – I think he’s used fossil fuels before
He’s used ferries before, not cycled it all before
It's coming home
It's coming home
It's coming
BIGBY’s coming home
Commentary – He’ll go on doing a dirty BIGBY,
doing a dirty BIGBY, doing a dirty BIGBY
It's coming home
It's coming home
It's coming
BIGBY’s coming home
It's coming home
It's coming home
It's coming
BIGBY’s coming home
It's coming home
It's coming home
It's coming
BIGBY’s coming home
Everyone seems to know the score
They've seen it all before
They just know, they're so sure
That birds just will not fly here today
They won’t fly here this way
But I know we can say
Cos we remember
(chorus)
Sib Acc on the cliff
Lee & Cath’s smiles beaming
Nine cruel years, what if?
Never stopped me dreaming
So many missed, so many fears
But all those oh-so nears
When I’ve dipped, through the years
But I still see that gull on the shore
And when Goshawks did soar
And the Firecrest so small
And some Cranes dancing
(chorus)
Sib Acc on the cliff
Lee & Cath’s smiles beaming
Nine cruel years, what if?
Never stopped me dreaming
(Commentary) – Britain has done it, in the last minute of December
(Commentary) - What a Bird!
Blue Rock Thrush.
(Commentary) – Good Old Britain! Britain with birds in the autumn.
Britain has got this in the bag!
I know that was then
But it could be again
It’s coming home
It's coming
BIGBY’s coming home
It's coming home
It's coming home
It's coming
BIGBY’s coming home
Commentary – Britain has done it
It's coming home
It's coming home
It's coming
BIGBY’s coming home
It's coming home
It's coming home
It's coming
BIGBYs coming home
It's coming home
It's coming home (Sib Acc on the cliff)
It's coming
BIGBY’s coming home (Lee & Cath’s smiles beamimg)
It's coming home (Nine cruel years, what if?)
It's coming home
It's coming
BIGBYs coming home (Never stopped me dreaming)
It's coming home (Sib Acc on the cliff)
It's coming home
It's coming
BIGBY’s coming home (Lee & Cath’s smiles beamimg)
It's coming home
(Nine cruel years, what if?)
It's coming home
It's coming
BIGBYs coming home (Never stopped me dreaming)
It's coming home (Sib Acc on the cliff)
It's coming home
It's coming
BIGBY’s coming home (Lee & Cath’s smiles beaming)
It's coming home
(Nine cruel years, what if)
It's coming home
It's coming
BIGBYs coming home (Never stopped me dreaming)
…….
Nine cruel years refers to how many years I have dreamed of being the European Green Birding BIGBY Champion. Ponc broke the record back in 2013, when he saw an incredible 304 bird species.
Lee and Cath and the Sib Acc, Siberian Accentor?
Back in 2016, when I was on Fair Isle, the best birder I know, Lee Gregory found an ultra rare Siberian Accentor. In fact 2016 was the year of the Siberian Accentor. Never before seen in Britain, that year brough over ten to our shore, with Lee's being the fourth. Lee's face as he cuddled his then fiance, now wife, Cathy, is one of my favourites.
This photograph of the fabulous couple was taken at the Blue Rock Thrush twitch on the penultimate day of that fantastic Biking Birder year.
So, back to Spurn with bird targets to see on the way there from Worcestershire; Pectoral Sandpiper at Blacktoft Sands, Spotted Crake at North Cave Wetlands and a Red-necked Phalarope at Kilnsea.
Wish me luck!
and just maybe I will be celebrating once more, like I did back in 2016 after seeing my 305th bird species of the year, a Pine Bunting on Fair Isle. BUT I used ferries and therefore the record is tainted, hence this BIGBY.
NO FOSSIL FUEL TRANSPORT THIS YEAR!!!!
