Biking Birder I February 1st 2010 Icy Roads, Radio and Friends.

 

1^st February              Glory Days                                                                Bruce Springsteen

                                                                       

So, after a month of almost daily cycling, birding and meeting people, seeing places and enjoying the definitely inclement elements, it was now time for February, a month which in the years previous to 2010 had had the most snow and the most ice. I had already seen enough of the white stuff to last me last month. Clinging powdery white snow with sloppy, slippery grey slush and frozen, frosty white landscapes and trees, I had seen and cycled through them all, with temperatures down to minus ten Celsius. I wanted no more. Roll on Spring!

Breakfast in the pub was great, a huge English and so, despite very thick ice, I spent the morning exploring the countryside just north of Hayward's Heath. Thick ice was on hanging like stalactites on hedgerows where puddles had splashed upon the twigs. It was cold, very cold yet I saw four foxes in the space of half an hour and was interviewed by Alelia on Radio Delta whilst sitting on a park bench.

Now here I must say a huge thank you to Andy and Jane Revell, who put me up overnight, after I arrived at their house in Cuckfield in the afternoon. Andy and Jane fed me a beautiful curry, whilst Andy and I reminisced over times we had had at a large comprehensive school, Coppice High School, in Wolverhampton many years before. Andy had only been at Coppice for a few months but it is incredible how such a fleeting time with a fascinating individual could leave such memories. His love of Donovan I remembered well and his working at the Grand Theatre in the city too.

Andy & I spent the afternoon going around his hometown of Cuckfield looking at his family history, from WW1 memorial oak panels to large named graves in a beautiful church graveyard. I enjoyed every minute of the stay and said thanks to them both. Thanks also go to their children, Georgina and Jonty. It was great to have caught up with him again and enjoy the privilege of meeting his family.

 

6.62 miles                                                          562 feet elevation up   459 feet down

The Biking Birder Explaining the Logo - Part One Patch Adams and the Gesundheit Institute - The Yellow Smiley Tie

 

The Yellow Smiley Tie

              Many years ago, in 1997 I bought a yellow smiley face tie for 50 pence from a charity shop in Wolverhampton. At the time I was a Primary School teacher at the amazing Merridale Primary School. 

              I was also married to the most fabulous woman, Karen, also at that time a Primary School teacher and our four children, Rebecca, Claire, Joshua and Sarah were young. Two each from previous marriages, our children in 1997 were 12,11, 10 and 9 years old; well until birthdays came around for each of them that year. Rebecca, Claire, Josh and Sarah.

              Having married that year, Karen and I were ecstatically in love and the children were fun, crazy and loved. Concerts and picnics, holidays, honeymoon and Disneyland!

Patch Adams - The Film with Robin Williams

              In 1998 a film came out with my favourite film star, Robin Williams in it. Called Patch Adams, the film told of an American doctor and of his story from mental hospital inmate through medical school to graduation.

              Once out of the mental institution, after helping an inmate with an aversion to squirrels, Patch used humour, empathy and connection to treat patients in a hospital when access to the hospital was banned to him as a first year student. 

               In the film there is a scene of Patch making a red nose out of an enema bulb to entertain a child with cancer. Patch increased the humour for the cancer-ridden children in the war using every prop available to become a chicken and a rodeo artist! Chaos eventually stopped by the system.

              Watch the film to find out the rest of story or buy Patch's book . . . 

Or visit The Gesundheit Institute website . . . 

The Gesundheit Institute

               To this day Patch wears lets say colourful clothes! Usually with a clown costume, wearing a red nose seems mandatory for Patch.

              Patch did build his hospital, The Gesundheit Institute. It is in West Virginia.

             To this day Patch has used humour, compassion, love and empathy to help people.

               I want to do likewise.

               My yellow smiley tie has yellow smiley faces of all sizes, small to large but there is one smiley face that is red. I tell children and adults whom I meet, that the red one is me. I say that I am shy and the usual, "oh yes" from a credulous adult always comes with a smile. I may be chatty, friendly and sociable and of course, shy I am not but to me the red smiley face is the red nose of Patch.

               In 2022, during my Biking Birder VI adventure, another year spent doing a BIGBY, a Big Green Big Year, a child asked if they could write their name in one of the smiley faces! After the first, another name was written and another; children and adults making a smiley face immortal with their name.

               Today the tie is covered with names, some indecipherable but all a memory of a special meeting. Dexter, a 12 year old boy in a wheelchair at the Everton women vs Aston Villa match, who signed the tie after a chat with a tie wearing Olaf the Snowman, also me and his Grandad. Maximus, another disabled boy, this time at Manchester United Women vs the mighty Aston Villa Women match, this time with both his Grandparents. Maximus, named after Russell Crowe's character in the film Gladiator!

              There's two of my Grandchildren's names on there; Summer and Amber. Summer adores football and plays every weekend. Strange that she loves Aston Villa. Amber, seven years old and wildly funny, loves to attack her visiting Grandad! The Claw!

              Must get Mylo to sign it!

              So there you have it. The yellow smiley tie is a part of me. People so often say, "I like your tie." People often sign it, especially children.

              The red face is me thinking of Patch Adams and his red nose.

              One last story from my yellow smiley tie. The name GLADYS is on there bold and noticable. Last year, 2024 I was in Chile at a place called Castro on Chiloe Island. It was my last day after a whole month in Chile, twenty days of which had been spent with my amazingly brilliant daughter, Rebecca. Buying some traditional Chilean cuddly toys for my Grandchildren from a market stall in the town, I asked the lady stall holders name. "Is your name Gladys?" I joked as I do so often when chatting with ladies met, whether they be in supermarket queues, met when fundraising for Acorns Children's Hospice or whatever. For over ten years I had been asking this of ladies but never a Gladys. A smile, a laugh and a first name given yes but never a Gladys until that day in Castro, Chile. The stall holders name was Gladys. I am now looking for a Phoebe to sign my tie. 

Coming soon, Part Two -  The Yellow Wellies.

              

Biking Birder I Janary 31st 2010 Broadwater Warren RSPB Reserve and The Tunbridge Wells Filmy Fern

BROADWATER WARREN RSPB Reserve

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. 

Chris Mills - Norfolk Birding

 

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