Manu the Frog and Acorn the Parrot - Chaskawasi-Manu and the WWT (Wildfowl & Wetland Trust)

People look at my bike and smile at the collection of 'friends' I have on it. There is a reason for each and over the next few weeks I am going to introduce you to each character and explain why they travel with me. They provide so mu inspiration and although sadly any conversation with them is one way, I wouldn't be without them.

The Lads on the Bike – (2) Manu the Frog and Acorn the Parrot too

Manu's name was originally Sid. Indeed this followed the name of every one of my pets over the years. I named them all Sid in deference to Sid James of the Carry On movies fame.

Nowadays I only have one pet and he is far too heavy to travel with me on the bike. Sid is a large metamorphic piece of rock from the Pyrenees. In fact he is from the French Pyrenees. Back in 1991 I was walking there with a wonderful girlfriend from my past, Diane. Together we had walked from Gavarnie village, south of the famous Catholic sanctuary of Lourdes, to the highest waterfall in Europe in La Cirque de Gavarnie. After taking a number of photographs of each other next to the noisy cascade, we could hear the imploring cries of someone not too keen on water nearby.

“Aidez moi, beaucoup trop de leau.

We searched and we found the large rock who told us that he had been at the base of the waterfall for centuries and that he was fed up. He wanted a different life. Picking him up and drying him off, we carried him the five miles or so back to the car and from there back to Britain. He didn't have to go into quarantine.

Sid is now in my sister's garden with his family. In 2009 I went back to Gavarnie to search for his wife and children. I found them in the same spot as where I found Sid and brought them back.

OK enough silliness. Back to Manu and Acorn.

Manu the frog is from the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust; in fact I bought him from the WWT shop at Slimbridge. As I said originally Sid, he was on the front of the bike for the whole of 2010, the year of the first Biking Birder tour of all of the RSPB and WWT reserves. Then he represented the magnificent Wildfowl & Wetland Trust. He still does but ever since my trip out the the Manu National Park in Peru, he has taken on a dual role. The name change to Manu is to show this.

As I have said before whilst on the Peru trip I had the immense good luck to meet two incredible sisters, Herminia and Maria.

Herminia was at Chontachaka, a Reserva Ecologika centre.

This is my review on Tripadvisor:-

At 30 US dollars a night, the Reserva Ecologika Chontachaka offers a cheaper way of getting to know the Manu than other hostels and lodges. This includes all food (vegan) and transport to and from far away Cuzco. Just getting here is an adventure!
To be greeted by Herminia and on arrival introduced to the volunteers, and then being asked "do you want to see Cock of the Rocks?" was fabulous. Meeting Paulo also, a tame howler monkey was amazing.

Right, let's quickly be honest. This is not a hotel! It is a basic, open to the elements accommodation place where one can bird or choose to join in with the ecological program. I did both.
The bedrooms are open all around and mosquitoes nets are provided. They weren't too bad and the only ones that got me were when I forgot to put repellent on.
Showers are cold but that doesn't bother me none. If it bothers you - look away now.
Food as I've said is vegan and there is plenty of it. Inspirational to me. 
The five volunteers there when I was where were fabulous company, as was the previously mentioned Herminia and her sister Maria (Spanish ladies who choose to live here). Meeting local people increased the intense pleasure I derived from my stay. Augusto and his father Mario gave guided tours for free to parts of the reserve and área. In fact being part of the entertainment at the former's son's birthday party was a privilege.

Be warned, there are bugs. I love them! Butterflies in the kitchen, birds in the gardens. Others you may not be keen on include ants, leafcutters mostly.
One final thought, Access is via a basket zipwire across the large river. Brilliant fun!

So, as you may be able to tell, I loved each day of my stay. Each day starting with a 4.30am walk to a Cock of the Rock lek which gave very close views of up to 5 males and 3 females. I loved the work that I chose to join in with and I loved the company. The open to the air bedrooms are right up my Street, the food was fine by me and the general ethos of the place as an ecological reserve goes with my philosophy on life.
If you're expecting full mod cons - go elsewhere. If you want to experience something deeper and more meaningful, this is the place.

If ever you are considering a visit to the Manu and not just a bird-tick fest of mega proportions, then a visit to Chontachaka would be brilliant. Are you brave enough to go down The Manu Road?

On a later visit to the area I was invited to meet the incredible children of Chontachaka – Manu. This is the domain of one of the most wonderful women I have ever met, Maria. 

Together with three other Spanish girls; Omyra, Sabella and Laura, they give the children of the Manu a family-like home for them. These children actually live deep in the Manu rainforest but they want an education. They come out to live at Chaskawasi-Manu and access the local school in the village of Salvacion, Peru.

For more details please look at the website:-

http://www.chaskawasi-manu.org/en/

It is these children that I am asking you to support when I ask for donations or 1p a bird sponsorship whilst I cycle. Many thanks to all of you who have done so.

It is also to this project that I will be returning to next year once the Biking Birder experience in Europe is finished.

Acorn the parrot was stuck in a drain manhole in Essex and I rescued him, cleaned him up and now he is great friends with both Manu the frog and the new girl aboard the bike, Bobette the Caterpillar. It has been great to see how the three get on with each other!

So last week it was Albert the albatross, a reminder of the brilliant Birdlife International and RSPB Albatross campaign.

This week, Manu the frog and Acorn the parrot. Here to remind me of the WWT, Chontachaka and Chaskawasi-Manu.

Next week it will be the turn of Ophelia the orca and don't forget that there are still Scaggy the rabbit, Colin the Stone Curlew, Ricky the Robin, Oscar the otter and Tigger still to mention.

If you would like to help me along, as well as the Lads and Lasses on the bike, then please either make a donation to any of the chosen charities. Links are above for the RSPB, Asthma UK, WWT and Chaskawai-Manu. Maybe you would like to sponsor me 1p (or whatever) a bird. If 1p that would mean hopefully £3.00 at the end of the year. Every penny of the sponsorship money will go to the charities. Please either email me ( bikingbirder2010@hotmail.com ) or message me here or on facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/bikingbirder2015/?ref=bookmarks

Finally during my rest all of my family have added their names to the sponsorship list. Thanks to them for this and their love. 

Thanks everyone for looking, reading, supporting and hopefully enjoying the blog.

A Rest so An Assessment of Monthly Bird Targets

Biking Birder Monthly targets

My Green BOU (British Ornithological Union) Year List is currently 256, which includes a heard only quail. Now to beat Ponc Feliu, who holds the European Green Year List record at the moment with 304, I need 49. 

http://www.bubo.org/Listing/view-all-lists.html?showlists=1,BOU,1,2016,0    

Now to non-birders this may seem a small number, especially when one considers that there is six months left. This is not the case. Other than a few British breeding birds and some birds only found in Scotland, that I will detail in a minute, the available birds in the coming months will be those incredible ones that are vagrants. These are rare birds in British terms that have got lost either by a process caused reverse migration or through the action of weather conditions that have forced them away from their normal migration route. 

Some of these birds, such as yellow-browed warblers, are virtually guaranteed if one is at a certain famous island during September and October. Despite originating from their summer breeding grounds in Siberia and migrating in the direction of in good years hundreds of these beautiful, small lost waifs end up in Britain.

Then there are the super rarities, the birds that are so rare that planes would be chartered by the fanatical few, the mega twitchers after a mega. An American magnolia warbler on a cliff face on Fair Isle was such a bird. A Cape May warbler on Unst, Shetland and the legendary golden-winged warbler in Maidstone, Kent are two others. 

The latter caused the biggest twitch ever to be seen in Britain when thousands of twitchers descended on a modern housing estate on the outskirts of the town trying to see the bird. It was chaos! The locals couldn't drive for the crush of birders. Buses couldn't get through.

I was there with birding friends a couple of days later after the initial rush. A freezing cold day, it took seven hours of searching with by now a much reduced crowd, yet still around a hundred or so. At one point we had retreated into the warmth of a large Tesco store's cafe only to have a birder rush in shouting “it's here!” Leaving our food we rushed out to find that it was a waxwing. Nice but not the mega bird.

We eventually saw this incredible small warbler on a cotoneaster bush that surrounded the door of a small town house. UTB. Under the belt and one that will probably remain a mega blocker to anyone who didn't see it. That is the chances of another one are extremely slim.

Actually, unknown to all birders there who had the golden-winged, there was nearby another American warbler, a common yellowthroat but the information on that was suppressed until it had gone.

Back to now, what follows are the details of the bird species that either are available or statistically will or may be available for me to cycle to and add to the year list.

This time last year I knew I wasn't going to beat 300 let alone beat Ponc. This year I am confident that the 300 figure will be beaten. All I have to do is keep pedalling.

I return to the road on Friday after having collected the bike from the cycle shop where major repairs are, hopefully, being carried out. If the bike is beyond repair then a new one will have to be bought. Whatever the outcome I will be heading for a woodland near Scarborough to try for honey buzzards.

There follows a long cycle to an area in Northumberland. I need to get here as fast as possible as there is a very rare Bonaparte's gull that has been seen for the last few weeks. I missed the Boney's available in Devon earlier in the year and obviously this boird would be a major addition to the list. Just up the coast from this bird there is a colony of roseate terns, a vary rare British breeder. My problem here is that they are on a small island offshore, Coquet Island, a RSPB reserve. I will need to see them from the opposite shore as I am not allowed to take a boat out to see them. No carbon in this case.

So for June, who's original target number of year ticks was five, I may end up seeing ten!

July Targets – Scotland (Mull and Cairngorms/Abernethy)

Ten birds

Osprey

Black guillemot

Hooded crow

Rock dove

White-tailed eagle

Golden eagle

Crested tit

Ptarmigan

Capercaillie

King eider

In 2010 I had the good fortune of seeing a Pacific golden plover during this month. Last year the unexpected bird was a spotted crake so maybe another surprise may occur . . or two.

August – Orkney (North Ronaldsay)

ten birds

Now we enter the world of the rare lost migrant excepting a few regular seabirds.

Storm petrel

Sooty shearwater

Icterine warbler

wryneck

September – Fair Isle

ten birds

The return to Paradise. I adore Fair Isle. The people, the landscape and of course the birds. The perfect combination of magical elements that come together every Autumn with rarities in every wet ditch, amongst dry stone walls, clinging to vertiginous cliffs or in the hands of the supreme Bird Observatory staff after having been caught in a mist net or Heligoland trap.

Using old Fair Isle bird reports I have created a spreadsheet to not only see what birds have turned up in the last eleven years but also work out the chances of them being there this year. The statistics also give an average for the number of possible year ticks for this month. That figure stands at nineteen! The maximum number of year ticks for me would occur with a repeat of the birds of September 2006. That would have netted me twenty five year ticks, including yellow-breasted bunting and aquatic warbler.

September 2009 would only have given me twelve year ticks. This would still be more than my target number of ten though. Confidence is high.

Almost certainly the year ticks I will see include:

yellow-browed warbler

common rosefinch

barred warbler

little bunting

bluethroat

barnacle goose

There is also mealy redpoll and associated races. I will not be counting any I see.

Then there are the more than 50:50 birds:

pectoral sandpiper

citrine wagtail

red-breasted flycatcher

olive-backed pipit

barnacle goose and.....

lanceolated warbler.

Yes this amazing mega has occurred in six years out of eleven years.

As well as these there have actually been forty eight other bird species seen over these years. By the way, add twite to the list. There are good numbers of these on Fair Isle.

October – First week Shetland

• rest of month, back to Fair Isle

ten birds

The Birding Clams are coming to Shetland for their annual birding fix. If the weather allows the Good Shepherd to sail back to South Shetland, I will go and see my best birding friends, Jason, Steve, Tony, Rob and Martin. Adam will be sorely missed but how wonderful that he will be concentrating on a wedding to the beautiful Nadia. All the very best to you both. My plan is really to stay around South Shetland but that might change if a mega turns up elsewhere. A lifer on Unst might tempt me to undertake the two to three day trek north; especially if The Fife Birding crew are there at that time.

Once The Birding Clams leave then it is back to Fair isle for the rest of the month.

Once again I have done a spreadsheet of possible birds and probabilities for the month. Without omitting the most likely September year ticks, there is an average of eighteen year ticks over the years. The same most likely birds as the previous month dominate the table, adding little auk and waxwing later in the month which both have a more than 50:50 chance of occurring. As well as the top thirteen there are another eighteen bird species that have turned up. These include good chances for Siberian rubythroat, short-toed lark, white's thrush and arctic redpoll. Now wouldn't a tame 'snowball, Hornemann's arctic redpoll be great?

November – Scotland

five birds

Target bird, bean goose, should be a gimme with flocks around the Falkirk area, especially the RSPB reserve at Fannyside. With by now hopefully less than ten birds required to reach 300, the task will be to get to any birds available. Snow goose? Blue-winged teal or ring-necked duck somewhere; I do hope so.

December – Who knows? Back in England and back towards The Midlands, eventually.

five birds

I have already had some of the major Winter birds; shore lark and rough-legged buzzard for instance. If the pallid harrier returns to Norfolk I might head that way. So whatever I need I will go for.

Finally, just to wet my appetite for the rest of the year, here is a list of the best rarities from last year that I haven't seen yet this year. Some probably will be listed before the end. Some it would be miraculous if I saw them again. Chestnut bunting!

arctic warbler

Red-flanked bluetail

Blyth's reed warbler

Chestnut bunting

citril finch

Radde's warbler

Citrine wagtail

subalpine warbler moltoni

Eastern subalpine warbler

King eider

Lanceolated warbler

laughing gull

Siberian rubythroat

Little bunting

night heron

Ortolan bunting

Pallas' grasshopper warbler

Pallid Harrier

Leaving Spurn for York and a Birthday Rest

15^th to 17^th June   light to fresh N-NW    mostly cloudy and cool

15^th June

“There be quail, Captain.” A text from Tim Jones tells me that there are quail around the North Duffield area. I am on my way around lunchtime though leaving the comfort of the new Spurn Bird Observatory is tough. Thanks Spurn, delivered as always. Bee-eater and golden oriole added to the list.

Through Hull and along the lanes, I head for North Cave Wetlands reserve, a superb Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve with gravel pits and black-headed gull covered islands.

At one spot the cycle path is blocked by a mass of fly tipped bin liners and assorted rubbish.

A stop in North cave is for the best fish and chips that I have had this year. Give my compliments to the chef!

I arrive at the reserve and watch gulls and duck from the first hide.

Leaving a hide I meet a scout troop that have been doing some work. Their leader and a local birder, Barry tell me that there is a probable lesser scaup on the other side of the reserve. I head that way after looking at Mediterranean gulls amongst the many black-headeds. Interesting to see how mature the black-headed gull chicks are here. There are lots and some have fledged already.

Once around the north side I meet two Garys. There won't be many times when such an occurrence will occur again. The news tells that the name will be extinct in the future as no one is naming their child such a magnificent name.

 

So with North cave's highest lister, Gary; Yorkshire highest 2016 year lister, Garry and me, Britain's highest Green lister, we look for the lesser scaup. Unfortunately it has flown and Gary, the local is not sure of its full credentials anyway. Seems there is too much white on the upper wing and it may be a little too large. He has told me that there is a nearby spot that has had quail in the past and so, as the other two go in search of the maybe rare American duck, I head for a nearby ridge and camp there for the night hoping to hear the resonant 'wet-my-lips' call. I don't.

 

16^th June

There's a metal bench conveniently placed at this remote spot and after packing away the tent, I lie on it hoping once more that any quail will call. Once more they don't but I do hear skylarks, corn buntings, yellowhammers and yellow wagtails whilst lying with eyes closed.

I fall asleep.
There is another possible quail site not too far away as one was reportedly heard there the previous evening. I therefore head for North Cliff wood.
It all looks a bit like a needle in a haystack as there are a lot of possible fields with high crops that could conceal a quail or two. I start to stop and give each field a few minutes before moving onto the next.
At one particularly large barley field I think I have heard one call and so stop and push the bike the length of the field. No joy.
Now I am still in an area ten miles or so before the one mentioned by Tim Jones and so I decide to head that way.

 

 

 

Half a mile or so later I think I have heard a quail. I stop beside a large barley field at a junction with a road that heads down to Carr Farm.

Wet-my-lips! Quail utb. It calls four times and like so many times when I have listened to them in the past, that's it.
I text the oracle with the news and location details for Rare Bird Alert. Bird number 255.

I set off for Wheldrake Ings, yet another Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve near to York. I had visited here the day after the RSPB Member's Weekend back at the beginning of April. Then there were large areas of flooded fields and the river was in spate. Now it was lush, the meadows dry and green and the trees and bushes leaf laden. Banded demoiselles and blue-tailed damselflies fluttered along the pathway and the occasional willow and sedge warbler sang. A peaceful afternoon and evening.

 

 

 

17^th June to York

Into York, I find a cycle shop and hear that the bike will probably be in need of too much of a repair and a replacement will have to be found. That crash back in November last year has left its legacy and the frame is ruined at the front. I had half expected this news and leave the bike for Andy, the shop owner to do his best.

I wander through the streets of York, buy a ticket for the train back to Worcestershire and head to the library.

I am meeting my daughter, Rebecca this evening for the journey back to my parents’ house and so have a few hours to fill.

Horrific news about the Labour MP being killed. The hatred displayed by too many during this EU campaign fills me with despair.

 

3 day mileage  . .  82.45

Year's mileage … 4,203

Gordon Barnes and Spurn with Monthly Target Figures.

Gordon Barnes

It is now well over the ten year anniversary of the death of my very close best friend, Gordon Barnes. The privilege of saying 'friend' will stay with me always.

Sitting here in the Spurn Bird Observatory, having just come across the Fair Isle Bird report for 2006, there is an appreciation of the wonderful man by the respected Nick Riddiford.

Gordon was a wonderful man. A phenomenal birder of amazing knowledge as well as a superb botanist. The stories from his life on Fair Isle are legendary.

There is an autobiography available and if you would like a copy then please email the Fair Isle Bird Observatory for a copy or message/email me. It is well worth the read and at £5 plus postage cheap as chips.

Tonight I am sitting with a brilliant young birder, Dan Branch; a very enthusiastic twenty-one year old and in him I can see reflections of Gordon back when he was that age. I have only faded black and white images of Gordon from then At twenty six Gordon became the assistant warden on Fair Isle. Then a crofter he became with Setter as his home until he, his wife Perry and the two boys John and Alan left to start a new life with a sheep farm in Wales.

I can see Dan having a similar career in birding. He and other 'Next Generation Birders, young RSPB wardens, volunteers and keen unaffiliated youngsters like Jack Bradbury and Mya.Rose Craig, are one of the biggest thrills from a Biking Birding experience.

Dan and I have just come back in from an attempt to see whether two caspian terns, that we've been told left Gibralter Point, Lincolnshire at 19:15 heading north, would come past Spurn. They didn't but we did meet the man top of the BOU Year list on BUBO listing webpage, Gareth Hughes. Top 'Carbon Twitcher' meets The Biking Birder. I'm fourth by the way. Top man, Gareth has seen 295 birds having added the Spurn golden oriole to his year list yesterday. 

We met last year when he was seawatching from atop a sand dune in Northumberland. Smashing to talk to, Gareth's enthusiasm for birding and year listing is inspiring.

http://www.bubo.org/Listing/view-all-lists.html?showlists=1,BOU,1,2016,0

Now for Spurn Bird Observatory. For the last three nights I have stayed here, spending two nights almost alone in the old Bird Observatory building with its artefacts and original furniture, history and ambience. Last night was spent in the new Bird Obs; a plush modern affair with spacious kitchen, plush lounge with good bird book library and beds, two of which are a little more expensive with linen and all others without so a sleeping bag is required. Wifi is available here hence the updates. 

http://www.spurnbirdobservatory.co.uk/

The birding has been generally low key, well it is June and yet I have seen two of the best birds of the year; bee-eater and golden oriole. So with the list now on 254 I head towards a birthday, and it's a big one, rest and the EU referendum.

Thinking about monthly targets, and thinking that I need exactly fifty birds to equal Ponc Feliu's European record of 304, they are as follows:-

June - 5 birds. (already had)

July - 10 birds (Scotland including Mull, Coll & Abernethy/Cairngorms)

August – 10 birds (North Ronaldsay)

September – 15 birds (Fair Isle)

October - 10 birds (South Shetland & Fair Isle)

November and December - 5 birds (Down the East coast and then 'where's the bird.')

Fifty to go. I can almost taste the record. It's the final countdown.

Just Occasionally My Confidence Drains

A mystery bird . . Hottoft Pit- Bank Lincolnshire WT nature resevre, June 6^th 2016

A morning of glorious sunshine had me retracing my cycling steps along a fabulous cycle path and evntually through Horncastle and on to Hottoft. A

marsh warbler had been reported there and I had decided to try for this great to get bird instead of carrying on to Old Moor RSPB reserve for the little bittern. I was confident that the LB would still be there in a day or so.

Arriving at the reedbed reserve,I found that I was alone and that other than the occasional burst of sedge warbler song, there was silence. That is there were no mimicking calls or songs from the rare acro.

A nice spotted flycatcher was fly catching and for an hour or so the sedge and flycatcher were the only birds of note. A cuckoo cuckooed.

Then low down in the bushes that ran along the southern edge of the path I saw a small acrocephalus warbler. It looked good. From what I initially saw I thought 'marsh.' I photographed it and videoed it. The latter I completely forgot I had taken until today when I was searching on my external hard-drive for more photographs.

The bird disappeared into the undergrowth and a couple of local birders had brief views and thought the same as me, marsh.

They left happy with their identification, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Now many years ago when in my early twenties I had had a personally embarrassing experience over such an easy to identify yet mega rare back then, Pallas' warbler.

I had found one in Well's wood, the dell, and had run like a headless chicken to find my mates. I bumped into a group of far more experienced than me at that time birders and blurted out a description of stripes and wing bars. I forgot to say the yellow rump! I remember even now blushing at their laughter which was probably well meant but that embarrassed me at the time.

Sitting in the hide in the evening with images on the viewfinder of my camera, I started to be unsure of my id.of the warbler.

Phil Andrews, The Oracle had received my initial text:

18:23 – wish I could get these photographs to you! This looks good . . . . short bill, no warm brown to the rump . . .

And in return Phil texted:

Ready to declare 251 marsh warbler?

I wasn't. I just wasn't sure anymore.

20:50 Sorry mate. I don't think it is.feet look too dark. Not singing.

I camped nearby and was up early hoping that the marsh warbler would be still there going through a repertoire of mimicking song and calls. It wasn't and I cycled away towards Old Moor and really put it to the back of my mind. That is until I put a photograph on here a few days ago and alarm bells rang.

So have a look at the photographs and the video and see what you think. Personally I will put it down as the one I messed up this year, hope there aren't too many cock ups and I won't be adding it to my list.

I am though very interested in the lessons learnt from this bird. Even looking at the photographs and video this morning has left me confused as there are pointers that go both ways; reed and marsh.

Now away from all this acro debate, I have been at the superb Spurn Bird Observatory for the last three days and have been so lucky to have bee-eater and golden oriole to add to the list. Two easy to identify birds, bold and colourful each. So the year list is now on 254 and with honey buzzards just up the road, OK fifty miles up the road and roseate terns and a possible Bonaparte's gull both in Northumberland, things look good to beat the year tick target for June of five birds. Well, six due to missing my May target of twenty five birds by one.

More on monthly target projections next time. All the best everyone.

http://www.spurnbirdobservatory.co.uk/