31st January Watching The Detectives Elvis Costello
Broadwater Warren RSPB reserve and another huge area of mostly coniferous forest to explore. Photograph selfie taken by the large RSPB noticeboard; evidence for the doubters and unbelievers that I would visit every reserve. These boards were fantastic with maps of the reserve and photos of the special bird species. Most useful. How many more would I photograph before the year was at its end?
Upon walking the whole of the area designated on the leaflet with pathways around the RSPB reserve I saw very few birds. Nineteen species to be exact and only Wood Pigeon reached double figures. Mind you, Marsh Tit [122] was new for the year. Otherwise it was the usual woodland birds, tits, Siskin, Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Goldcrests and a few finches. This must be a beautiful place in Spring.
On leaving the reserve I came across a path leading south and thinking that this may save me five or so miles of cycling, I decided to take it. This tactic was to sometimes work and on other occasions fail me spectacularly. Well the path started with me pushing my heavily laden bike up a long rise. There was a fascinating area with quite tall sandstone cliffs to my right and a well wooded valley to my left. It turned out to belong to Sussex Wildlife Trust and an area of it was being coppiced. This area went along the top of this sandstone outcrop. I came across the warden of the reserve doing the coppicing and path clearing work. Always up for a chat, I stopped and found out that the reserve had SSSI status due to the presence of an exceedingly rare fern, the Tunbridge Wells Filmy Fern. Here was the chance to see it and I was taken to the small area where it occurs. It was always so amazing how a chance meeting would bring such wonderful rewards. No, I am not just extremely interested in birds. It is every aspect of natural history that delights me, be that microbe or mammal, protozoan or pine.
A long cycle ride lay ahead and famous village names occurred on the way. Arthur Conan Doyle was seen on the Crowborough village sign, the home of the Sherlock Holmes creator.
Further along the same horrifically busy main road The Piltdown Man came to mind at Piltdown, scene of the hoax paleoanthropological creation back in 2012. Of course the missing link between ape and Man had to be British. Actually this deception and the study of Human Evolution has been a passion of mine ever since certain people delivering my teenage Christian upbringing insisted that evolution was false and that creation was the truth. Richard Leakey books, visits to museums and prehistoric sites have made me conclude that the opposite is the case. Strange even that back when I was a student there was even a debate on the issue.
The weather was cold yet sunny once
more and the cycling was a pleasure along a road with undulating hills. I ended
my month’s cycling adventure by arriving in Hayward’s Heath where I found an
amazingly comfortable room for the night in a pub there.
24.41 miles 1596 feet elevation up 1680 feet down
Month's end - One month gone. It seemed at the time that the Biking Birder experience was going so fast yet what was ahead of me, eleven months more, seemed so long and so far ahead of me. Simplistically put I had been to nineteen RSPB reserves, one WWT reserve. I had cycled 512 miles, walked I do not know how many miles, seen 122 different bird species and cycled through snow, hail, rain, sleet, ice, sun, drizzle, fog and mist. Winds of all strengths from light to gale force had come from every direction, paranoically seeming to be usually in my face! Whilst cycling so many memories passed through my mind and if I were to remember them all then my notes and this book at the finish of the year would be a wonderful aide-mémoire for my old age. So forgive the extended January chapter. Long winter nights have I spent writing it all down. The following chapters will not be so large when it is midsummer and the birding hours are longer. Meanwhile, as an aid to insomnia, for which my book is invaluable and also to draught exclusion when placing three of my tomes at the base of a door, I conclude that there is method in my meanderings.
Chris Mills, the current Green Birding Year
List record holder was on 129 bird species at the end of his Big Green Big
Year’s first month, January 2005, seven birds ahead of me. Chris had only
needed to cycle 142 miles, spending only 11.4 hours on the road. All statistics
in sharp contrast to mine.
Chris by the way has his own birdwatching business these days called Norfolk Birding. Having seen Chris in action when birding myself I can say that Chris is an exemplary birder and guide, being extremely knowledgable and incredibly personable. Take a look at Chris' website to see what bird tours are available.
Simon Woolley, in competition with Chris Mills back in 2005 had been on eighty-nine bird species by the end of January; having spent almost the same amount of time on his bike as Chris and having travelled slightly more miles. All bird list numbers just go to show how good Norfolk is as a birding county in the winter months.
So I was behind Chris but well ahead of
Simon; one a cause for motivation, the other a cause for satisfaction.
Bird of the month was a monochromatic Stonechat at Rainham that looked like but was not a Siberian Stonechat.
499.28 miles 17.186 elevation feet up 17.596
feet down
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