Now in York and on 193 for the year

The last week, since Carnforth I have been mostly in a youth hostel in Earby, near to Colne in Lancashire. It had no Wifi, no TV and no mobile phone signal. 
Since leaving there I have been to the magnificent Fairburn Ings RSPB reserve and had four new birds for the Green Year list, namely sand martin, willow tit, bittern and swallow.
I am now at the RSPB Members weekend at York University, an incredible event.

So detail of the cycle from Carnforth to Earby today and when I get Wifi access I'll catch up with the details for the days since leaving the hostel and tell you about my adventures at Fairburn and the RSPB weekend.

Friday 25^th March light to fresh SW sunny or sunny intervals warm 11C

Carnforth is full of giant eggs attached to houses and businesses. Well it is Good Friday.

It is a pleasant day with some warm sunshine and only a light wind. The route back towards the East coast over the Pennines takes me to Kirby Lonsdale. I had wanted to go another way but the bridge over the River Lune must have been damaged in the December storms as the road that way is closed.

I can tell that it is going to be one of those tough days where my inner voice dwells to long on the negative things from the past and every part of my body that has ached over the days and months of cycling seems to be doing so once more, especially my left knee. I could do with some music on the MP3 player but I never listen to it whilst cycling on the road. Eternal Sunshine!

The A65, the road from Kirby Lonsdale heads south-east towards Skipton, is horrible. A sign states that Skipton is thirty two miles away. Not that the road isn't beautiful. The landscape is superb with Ingleton and other high flat Pennine and Yorkshire Dales peaks providing a gorgeous backdrop. The greenery at this time of year is muted awaiting the Spring blush. The trees are still bare and distant woodland looks grey.

No, I can't fault the scenery. It is the traffic. Constant traffic of cars mostly with a lot of motorbikes and the occasional large lorry keep the decibel level extremely high. At no time do I feel in danger though as I tuck in along the kerbisde.

A couple of texts arrive with one changing the mood completely. Carphone Warehouse's offer can be deleted but the other is a Happy Easter message from a very dear friend, Diane. The dark mood of guilt, blame and shame of relationships past are immediately replaced by a flood of memories of adventures and scrapes with Diane. Sunrise over Beachy Head, somersaulting car on black ice near Thurso, when 'hit me with a peat bog' became a mantra for anything surprising for a few years, just as 'well forgive me' was the same in the film, Fisher King.

Another text of Easter wishes from my cousin, Rosemary and her son, Paschal; it is great that these arrive when I am feeling my lowest.

I push the bike up a steep hill where the lane is an avenue of tall ash trees. I wonder how long these magnificent trees will be here with ash die back on it's way. There is alo a single wind turbine slowly turning near the top.

Things come in threes and a car stops me and a silver-haired gentleman starts a conversation and is reluctant to leave. His name is Steve and he tells me that he was a violinist. I mention some of my personal favourites; Ian Underwood, Jean Luc Ponty and Stefan Grappelli yet Steve was a string quartet player before arthritis set in. He was also an advertisement photographer and is now retired. Steve is eager to talk and the conversation includes his love of opera, particularly Wagner. Indeed Steve has a ticket for the ****** Wagner festival. The cost of the ticket, £5,000 means that I will have to give it a miss.

I reach the charming, small youth hostel and Earby, near to Colne where my first ever experience in front of a class of children occurred over forty years ago. My first teaching practise at Colne High School back in 1974 was an adventure. A group of teacher training students had been minibused to the nearby Nelson and put up in a bed and breakfast. I remember the mass of food the landlady gave us all as one evening we watched an England football match on the TV; memorable to me as an Aston Villa player, Brian Little came on for a substitute cameo. This was the first Aston Villa player I had ever seen play for England.

A memory from the teaching practise was when the head of science had me kill and dissect an earthworm in front of all of year 10's students! At 19 I wasn't much older than this crowd and this baptism of fire with boiling water to kill the worm dispelled any nerves for future lessons.

41.74 Miles 2336 feet elevation up 1878 feet elevation down

3 Days of Biking Birder with Haweswater and Leighton Moss RSPB reserves visited,

Monday 21^st March light NW sunny intervals, cool 2C to 8C

I open the tent flap to find a cloudy day and quite cool. Packed I am off towards Haweswater. The views along the bridleway to Rosgill and the stone-walled country lane downhill to Brampton are superb. I can see Haweswater from this elevated position and to the south the valley where I failed to find ring ouzel last year. The golden eagle ridge is just peeking above more nearby hills.

It is all so lovely with snow still on the tops in the distance.

I get to the RSPB offices at Naddle Farm.

I leave and head for Leighton Moss. The less said the better.

Up and over Shap, the highest A road in England and boy does it feel it, and down to Kendal where I find a hotel to collapse in for the afternoon and evening, The County Hotel. Brilliant, it has a deep bath in the ensuite.

http://www.rural-roads.co.uk/shap/shap1.shtml

So the year list is still on 189, which is twenty five ahead of this time last year. Migrants will be here soon. Yippee!

27.38 Miles 1751 feet elevation up 2479 feet elevation down

Tuesday 22^nd March light W sunny intervals, cool 2C to 8C

To Leighton Moss RSPB reserve involves a shortish cycle along the A6 south from Kendall. 

It all seems to be downhill and a smooth ride gets me to the Arnside area quicker than expected. I reach the reserve and am greeted by Lesley and Sophie in the RSPB shop. They want a photograph of the Biking Birder for the reserve's twitter page.

Out onto the reserve there are plenty of black-tailed godwits to see from Lillian's hide, some are in beautiful summer plumage. With a small group of redshank are a couple of spangly-backed ruff and a couple of little egrets walk around the reedbed edge.

Next to the Grisedale hide where a couple of female red deer are quite close before quietly walking and disappearing into the reedbed. 

A female marsh harrier is sitting on a branch away to the left of the hide and I sit and relax, enjoying watching the duck on the water, wigeon, pintail and teal and the occasional group of up to four over-flying buzzards.

With the afternoon drawing to a close I head off for the causeway where a couple of bittern were seen last sunday.

A couple of residential volunteers, two young girls, are also looking for the bittern. They were the birders who saw the bittern on Sunday but report that to them the birds seemed to be leaving. Darkness falls and water rail pig squeal but no bittern are either seen or heard. All I get are a number of insect bites on my neck and head! Oh well, it would have been nice to get bittern at Leighton Moss but there's a couple of months in East Anglia to come.

19.16 Miles 976 feet elevation up  1119 feet elevation down

Wednesday 23^rd March No discernible wind cloudy, cool 6C

I get to the reserve very early and enjoy birding around every trail and from every hide. The insect bites from last night have blistered and the lumps are hot and swollen. Ouch. These are worse than any bites I had last year but need to be far worse to beat the ones I received from horseflies back in 2010. Sausage lips!

               

I keep a day list and by the time I reach the Lower Hide at the far eastern end of the reserve I have forty-nine on the page. An adult mediterranean gull flies past, fifty up.

Back to the centre for a drink in the superb upstairs cafe, I meet Kevin who was the laughing RSPB staff member to my right in the photograph from last year. 

He is going to Fair Isle this Autumn and it's great to know that we will meet up there on the magical isle.

Before leaving the reserve to start the long ride back over the Pennines I go to the top of the high sky tower; a strong steel construction from which one gets a panoramic view of the whole reserve. 

It is superb to be above a male marsh harrier flying past.

Leaving the reserve, it has been lovely to visit this favourite RSPB reserve; well one of them. It has everything; great birds, lovely staff and diverse habitats as well as a great ambiance and cafe. What more could one want? A broadwalk? There's a long new one which takes one to the causeway through the reedbed. A tower? Already mentioned and fabulous. Nature's Home garden ideas? It's all there. A superb RSPB reserve.

6.66 Miles 352 feet elevation up 323 feet elevation down

The Pennine Way on A Beautiful Day

Sunday 20th March no wind very sunny AM, clouded over for PM, cool 2 to 8C

A glorious morning greets me from my farmhouse cottage bedroom window and after breakfast I am off on the physical challenge of the year. My planned route is across the Pennines via the Pennine Way. I have no idea on the surface of the pathway yet know that no matter what it may be I can either cycle or push and still enjoy it on such a beautiful day.

Naive? I'll see later.

With many thanks to Michael and Emma at this wonderful b and B, at £30 a night it has been superb value, I set off.

The road has frosty imprints from a few passing vehicles and there are a few lapwings skydancing. The road takes me to a large reservoir and I take a route that gets me to The Pennine Way just south of a large dam. A pair of red grouse are on a small island beneath a powerful water shoot.

The tarmac has gone and the track is cyclable, just. After a farmhouse it changes again though as the way is made of a new covering of stones. I push.

A small tortoiseshell butterfly flutters by as I cross a stream. Birds are few and far between out here, just the occasional red grouse and curlew. A single meadow pipit lands on a wall quite close. There may be few birds but the scenery is so beautiful and so empty of people. No one is walking the way today.

Mile after mile of pushing, I reach a turn in the path where the stony way changes to boggy grass and small boulders. This is going to be fun!

Downhill to a river, more tough pushing and then over a bridge. More stones and a bouncy push uphill, I meet a walker, the first of the day.

Half a mile later two cyclists stop for a chat, Antony and Dan. Their bikes are built for this terrain with huge tyres. Photographs swopped and respect.

There are no birds singing here and I decide to listen to some of my favourite songs and sing along to them. Meat loaf and Status Quo songs head across the moorland and suddenly there are crowds of people. So far today I have seen three people. Here there are dozens and they are all at this spot because of the incredible, magnificent view. I am reached the top of High Cup Nick and a group of people tell me that it is nicknamed 'The Grand Canyon of the North.' The valley is u-shaped and surrounded by steep cliffs with views over the plain far below over to the Lake District.

People want to know why a happy singing man is pushing a heavily laden bike across the moor and a couple kindly give a donation into the robin collection box. Thanks Patricia.

BAE systems - WPS Fell Walker group

I start to head towards the way down. The path goes along a cliff edge and bumping the bike over the rocks is fun and difficult. A purple-haired girl helps push over one particularly hard part. My hands are getting battered by all of this and once the steep path down is reached I find that with care I can white knuckle ride.

Reaching the village of Dufton after 15 miles of mostly pushing I can at last relax and cycle. The small country lanes takes me through valley after valley, village after village in the direction of Haweswater.

A cyclist named Lee questions my reasons and tries to lift the bike. He makes complimentary comments about my legs as his wife, Ribby, puts a large donation into the collection box. Brilliant.

Over the A6, over the M6, and with the sun now having set, I find a bridleway that cuts a corner and find a secluded area to set up the tent for the night. I am a bit tired.

So the year list is 189, which is twenty six ahead of this time last year.

27.98 Miles 2329 feet elevation up 2997 feet elevation down

Pennines and Black Grouse.

Saturday 19th March no wind cloudy but high, cool 5C

After leaving my daughter's place in Newcastle yesterday, after having a goodbye High Tea, and having reached Castleside, near Consett by dusk, I leave the wonderful Castleneuk Bed and Breakfast to head for Langdon Beck. Over breakfast I sit with Chris originally from this area but now living in Coventry. Chris works at Aston Martin and he tells me that they produce over 24 cars a day, the cheapest sell at £200,000. Thirty years ago Chris was a miner and he tells me of what it was like to be a striking miner; the deep resentment is still in him for what the police did back then.

Jan the B and B owner has filled my water bottle with juice and chats for the last time about her years of hitchhiking back in the 70s. She tells stories of hitching across Europe and India evoking memories when hitching was my taxi service in Britain. A fabulous B and B and so much better than a Travelodge and the like. At £30 a night with a huge breakfast what more can one ask for; superb house, lovely bedroom ensuite and great people.

Deep in The Pennines now the road is alternatively steep up and steep down before I reach the Sea to Sea route seven cycle path.

It has already been wonderful for displaying birds with lapwing, snipe, golden plover and curlew all sky dancing, diving or drumming to a backdrop of skylark song and red grouse clutterings. A single red kite glides over. I worry that it will suffer the same fate as the Black Isle kites in Scotland from two years ago. There sixteen red kites were poisoned and there has been no action taken.

https://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/2016/03/18/ross-shire-massacre-two-years-on/ 

    

I stop at a cafe and B and B near Waskerley owned by the friendly Lorraine. This must be a perfect stopping point for cyclists using the route and a full house must be an exciting place to be in a late evening when the drink is flowing and the tales are being spun. There's a family with a young seven year old dancing in the first cafe room. They and I are joined by a group of cyclists out for the day. They want to know my tale and receive a Biking Birder sticker for their patience in listening. Lorraine then tells tales of the mad red grouse that attacks passers by and of how long she has had the establishment. Great place.

White knuckle downhill section to Stanhope, a car stops in front of me and four young people get out. One shouts “are you the Biking Birder?” They, three men and a woman, Caroline, Steven, John and Mike, are out for a day's birding and turned their car around to say hello when they passed me. Yesterday the driver of a van shouted “hello Gary,” as he drove past and a couple of cars pipped their horn at me in recognition of either me or the RSPB and WWT posters on the bike.

They are a brilliant enthusiastic group and it is inspiring to think that maybe in some small way I am inspiring others.

After a quick shop for some provisions in St John's Chapel and after photographing the war memorial there, I turn towards Langdon Beck, the signpost telling me that I have five miles to go. I can see that this is going to take some time as the road heads towards the moorland top where small patches of snow are gathered in crevices. Headphones on, I mostly push the bike whilst singing to the fields. A few cyclists pass on their macho climb and most say hello.

At the top there are three young stunt motorcyclists who have been laughing at my rendition of Money for Nothing. They show me a few one wheel, look Mum – no legs on the bike tricks and chat about Newcastles chances of staying in the Premiership, the Big Game tomorrow against Sunderland and where my team, Aston Villa, will be next year. Thanks lads!

Down the other side I can see black lumps in a distant field. Binoculars up, black grouse go onto the year list, bird number 189. There are twenty two males here eyeing each other up but mostly just feeding. Occasionally a pair will turn away from each other showing their white backsides. They are a few hundred yards away but show no sign that a bright yellow cyclist is causing them concern.

I cycle on past the Langdon Beck Hotel and after finding the youth hostel closed I go to a farmhouse bed and breakfast where Michael and Emma greet me kindly. A superb house with friendly and not so friendly dogs and a male peacock; sheep out on the hills, which a mass of rosettes around kitchen doorways shows what quality they are and a few cows in barns waiting for the Spring grass to start growing.

As usual the day is wonderful because of the people met. Birds and scenery are the icing on a rich cake.

Spring, first day of Spring tomorrow, migrants are coming!

So the year list is 189, which is twenty six ahead of this time last year.

23.96 Miles 2807 feet elevation up 2037 feet elevation down

The World and Earth Hour . . and THANK YOU to all donors and sponsors

Wednesday 16th March

It is an incredible thing, reading a blog. My blog – Biking Birder 2016 – The Quest for 300 is amazing because it makes me realise how the love of nature can link people from all over our wonderful globe.

The statistics show people from the United Kingdom make up the bulk of viewers but it is wonderful to see that people from many countries look in too.

The list is in order of number of views :-

United States

Sweden

Ireland

France

South Africa

Spain

Australia

Germany

Portugal

and

The Netherlands.

Wonderful.

Now can I ask everyone whether any of you are Green Birders? I would really love to know your story, of what you enjoy seeing and doing with nature. I would love to hear about the wildlife in your area and of your experiences with it. I would like to know your opinions about climate change, global warming and all Green issues.

If you have any questions to ask then please do. It would be a privilege to answer them.

Please if you can share these then please do so either using the comments section on this page or by sharing on the Biking Birder 2016 – The Quest for 300 facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/bikingbirder2015/

To become a facebook friend I warn you, my own personal thoughts, music loves, political opinions, love of cricket and obviously my adoration of this world and nature may be different to yours. I welcome everyone to be my 'friend' though but I thought it only fair to warn you. I am an opinionated and passionate lover of the environment, nature in all of its forms, socialist politics, music, film and cricket.

https://www.facebook.com/gary.prescott.92

Maybe you are interested in the facebook page for Green Birders as well.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/142347279437819/?fref=ts

Please, it would be marvellous to hear from you wherever you are.

Now considering Green Issues, Earth Hour is coming up.

Another request.....

Please take part!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTuotGlZj60

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huu4QGhMfXE

and the very powerful . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxhHhyjcTmo

To register then please visit :-

http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/?pc=EJG006001&ds_medium=cpc&gclid=Cj0KEQjwiKS3BRCU-7XQ75Te3NoBEiQAA2t_xPuMV5gLtcK-nizybuGuMsE5FznmgEb6ZRt9o8Q0fpcaAhxC8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

Finally, a massive thank you to everyone who has donated to any of the four charities I am supporting this year. I am extremely grateful to you all.

Also many thanks to everyone who has said that they will sponsor me 1p (or more) for every bird species I see this year. With every bird that I see that is new for the 2016 Green year list then the amount raised for these charities will go up.

If you haven't sponsored me yet and would like to then please message me or email me at

bikingbirder2010@hotmail.com

Thanks.

My love to you all,

Gary

xxx

Hartlepool to Newcastle

Monday 14th March light SE hazy sunshine 11C

I pass a sight you don't see every day, a house covered in drink cans! I am about to go to the door to ask about all of this when a passer-by tells me that it is empty, the owner having died. Looking up the story of the house later I find a youtube video:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppelxJNY4LQ

In fact there a few of them and a long film too. Brilliant. I love coming across the unexpected like this and remember the shark in Oxford and the windmills near Salisbury. There must be so many bizarre creations around the UK waiting to be seen.

I find a disused railway cycle path and take it for ten miles or so, enjoying the sunshine and occasionally walking instead of cycling. It is a beautiful warm Spring-like day.

My intention is to visit the WWT reserve at Washington and I reach there around lunchtime. I love this place with its grass-covered visitor's centre, the wildfowl collection in the usual WWT style pens and areas for wild birds with lagoons down by the river. After a cursory glance over the reedbed in the vain hope of seeing the apparently wild ferruginous duck I walk down to the largest of these lagoons and enter the hide just as a male goosander flies in.

There is another couple, John and Kate from Durham in there who are both keen and knowledgable birders. They tell me that their daughter is the golden eagle officer in Dumfrieshire. Now that would be good. There are already a few pairs there and if more could be helped to build up the numbers there may be a chance that the lonely male at Haweswater in the Lake District might at last have a female who appreciates all of his nest building efforts.

As well as the goosander there are a dozen avocets here; possibly the most northerly breeding avocets in Britain. Talking with the reserve manager later she tells me that there is evidence that some of these birds have been seen over wintering at Cadiz in Spain. It is great to meet Gill again and every visit to the WWT Washington has been an absolute pleasure. Thanks Gill.

Sir Peter Scott - the Father of Nature conservation and founder of the WWT (Wildfowl & Wetland Trust)

Leaving here late in the afternoon I negotiate the complex route of roads and cycle paths to take me down to the Millenium Bridge, which swings both ways blinking like an eye when a large ship needs to go upstream, across the Tyne. 

I spend the evening with my daughter. Here I am going to have a couple of days rest, wash my clothes and catch up on things generally. I hadn't bargained on being here until mid-April but the birds have been so good along the way that I may as well enjoy the time with Rebecca before another big push.

So the year list is 188, which is twenty six ahead of this time last year.

38.27 Miles 1696 feet elevation up 1591 feet elevation down

Saltholme and Hartlepool, Two more birds for the year list

Sunday 13th March light S hazy sunshine 11C

The sun is a-shining to welcome the day, hey ho.

Cycling and singing I get into Middlesborough and go past the 'stockings', by Anish Kapoor and photograph the Transporter Bridge through it's rings.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10281554

There is a crowd of people at the Transporter Bridge. They are there to watch young person after young person abseil down from the top. It is a sponsored event for a World Challenge event. Fabulous to watch the young people's faces when they reach the floor.

The cycle path takes me towards the A19 and, after a dinosaur park (!) I cross the river via another tremendous bridge.

To a favourite RSPB reserve, Saltholme and soon out of the visitor's centre to go find a long-eared owl for the year list. There's stonechats beside the pathway and the first comma I have seen this year lands nearby.

Reaching a shrub area I search for the owl and,with the help of a birder, Dave from Carlisle, the bird is located as hidden as ever in a elder bush. 

Dave is a bit credulous over the fact I cycle everywhere and thinks I catch trains to get from place to place. I suggest he looks at my list of routes on mapometer!

https://gb.mapometer.com/account

Dave is happy with his views and a fantastic young couple from Sheffield, Susan and John, arrive to look at the sleeping bird. It is great to meet such a close couple and I must admit to being a bit jealous. Oh to have a . . . come on Prezza, don't go there!

Back at the centre to celebrate the new year tick with a cuppa, I meet two birders, Morris and Dave, who are talking about my nemesis, Chris Mills. We chat about birding, Green Birding and the like. Morris says that he has been many times with Chris on many of Chris' tours. Knowing Chris' personality it must be fabulous to go on one of his tours and to go again and again shows how good they must be.

http://www.norfolkbirding.com/

Dave asks where I am off to next and when I say it is to try to see the shore larks at Hartlepool he asks whether I would like to stay at his house that night. The kindness of strangers once more pops its head up and I accept the kind offer gratefully.

Leaving Saltholme eventually, after checking out the long-staying red head smew, I cycle off towards Hartlepool. Birders are standing rather dangerously beside the road looking for the pendulines and I stop briefly to search for them myself, unsuccessfully. A lovely couple pass a donation over though, saying that they knew what I was doing. Thanks.

Before reaching Seaton Carew another cyclist comes up along me. It's Dave whom I had just met at Saltholme and together we cycle the maze of Hartlepool harbour, stopping to look at an adult Med' gull.

We reach the Jewish Cemetery and the large waste ground that the shore larks have made their winter home. A couple of birders, flora and Graham, are obviously looking at something and we cycle over to them. A dog walker disturbs three birds, snow buntings but the bird I need is in the opposite corner. Shore larks, two of them, go onto the year list, a very good one to get as this may mean I won't have to cycle to Norfolk next winter.

David and I cycle to the World war memorial park on the headland to see a black redstart there.

So the year list is 188, which is twenty six ahead of this time last year.

34.69 Miles 639 feet elevation up 996 feet elevation down