Bird-watching and walking through the Forest of Bowland, 19/05/2018

MY VISIT TO THE FOREST OF BOWLAND:

On the 19th of May, a warm, balmy Saturday, I went with 5 other men to this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), the Forest of Bowland. Wikipedia refers to this as the Bowland Fells. It is not a forest in the traditional sense. It is an area marked by gritstone fells and peat moorland. These areas include the geographical centre of the United Kingdom. They also encompass the Trough of Bowland, a large valley within it.

I went with Graham, Michael, Steve, Ken and Steven - this was a meeting organised by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (the RSPB), Lancaster Group. Our walk leader would be Graham Thomas, a veteran RSPB volunteer for decades. Michael was the man who picked me up from the Lancaster railway station and brought me to the starting point of our walk, the main Parking Lot of the forest. In reality, this was just an area to the side of the road. On getting out of the car, I realised, immediately, that this was a lovely outdoors event. I had with me just me new Canon 7D Mark II with the various EF lenses. Our aim was to circumnavigate a section of the park, trying to spot and listen to the avifauna of the area.

The walk lasted over 5 hours and we did nearly 10.5 km, all cross-country and up and down. On approaching a clearing near Littledale Hall (an old house which now has a drugs rehab centre), we had our packed lunch, before setting off once again. By the time we completed our walk, we had seen only 6-7 bird species but identified over 20 through their calls. We had also burnt a lot of calories and got good exercise. Here are some memories of this unique excursion.

In the evening, Graham gave me a lift right into Preston, from where I caught a bus to return to Blackpool In the latter part of the evening, I would join the members of the Fylde Coast Hindu Society for some good food and song-singing, but that is another story.

Links:

https://www.forestofbowland.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_of_Bowland

UK Life, Two years on.

I completed two years of my work/stay in the UK on the 16th of November last year. Nearly two more months have elapsed. It is time to take stock of where I am, what I am doing, and what my future plans will likely be.

Let me begin with the good news. I am moving on to become a full registrar at Blackpool from coming March. The progress my consultants have seen in me and my work have finally convinced them that I am safe to be a full-time registrar and manage the department on my own. Thus, instead of working 40 hours per week, I will be on the full rota. This will mean that my locuming days will probably get reduced drastically. However, it will also mean that I WON'T need to work elsewhere, as my emergency hours work will get me extra income from within my own trust. 

This has been a very satisfying bit of news. I have the most extensive experience as a Paediatrician - even more in the number of years I have worked as a children's doctor than most of the consultants I am working under. However, thanks to my complete inexperience with the working requirements of the NHS, I was unable to inspire, so far, the confidence that I can manage patients on my own - until now. Come March, things will change, I hope.

How has life been? I could have had better life had I seized all the opportunities at my disposal and used them optimally. However, to be fair, I have tried to live a balanced life; this has meant that while I have worked very hard to earn the maximum possible money and experience, I have also enjoyed on those weekends when I haven't worked but roamed around the countryside, or within Blackpool, or even visited more distant landmarks within the country. The farthest I have ever been on my own is the Peak District National Park, the nearest, the Marton Mere Nature Reserve. I have undertaken many different railway-bus-car-on-foot journeys, some of which are definitely worth repeating.

I have taken up new hobbies such as learning to play the keyboard and learning how to colour pictures with a pencil colour set. I have persisted with my old hobbies such as cooking, travelling, birding and bird photography and a bit of writing and a lot of reading. 

The arrival of Sky TV/Telephone and Network changed a lot in my life. I now record a lot of programs, look up things I have missed and catch up with those, rewatch a few programs that I recorded earlier, and so on. I also purchased the mid-range New Amazon Echo, and with it, I am now able to listen to old, golden songs from the super singing sensations of the yesteryears, such as Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshikar, Asha Bhosale, and many others. 

In the UK, I have also made a lot of new friends. More about this in my next post. 

Thanks for reading. 

Dr Taher

Weekend trip to NE England - Northumberland - Farne, Seahouses and Bamburgh - II

A new day and a new morning. I was agog to reach Seahouses to start my bird-watching adventure. Of course, breakfast was free at the hotel I was lodged at. I quickly got ready and went down to be allotted a table all for myself. Michael's wife (I can't remember her name) was the one coordinating the breakfast service. She did have all the politeness that hosts do, but I do think she is a bit impatient and suffers fools badly, as she made me out to be one. I was simply asking her nicely where I was to be sat, and what was there for breakfast. She sounded a bit terse, but it could be my own perception that was a bit off.

In any case, the breakfast was scrambled egg with salmon, toast with butter and jam, and tea. It was quite filling, actually. I had already brought all my stuff down to the restaurant so that after breakfast, I immediately set off for the nearby bus stand to catch the next bus that would take me to Seahouses. This town is about 10-11 minutes away by bus and the journey is quite picturesque. I happily arrived at the quaint town and walked a short distance to the seafront, where I located the ticketing office of William Shiel's boat trips - the one that I had booked my journeys with. My plan was to do three journeys - but the pelagic tour that I had set my heart on was not available as it only starts operating from late July each year; hence, I was going to do the Inner Farne island tour today and the Staple Island tour the following day. I purchased my Inner Farne ticket and then went around the place to browse the pier where our boats would finally depart from. I walked into the local office of the National Trust - this was a makeshift kind of small kiosk on the pier. I was greeted by one of their volunteers. I was informed that their annual membership would allow me to visit over 600 sites all over the UK absolutely free of cost, and I would also get to park my car free at each of those resorts/places. Now, I do not have a car, and I am unlikely to go country trotting to that extent, but the amount is so low that it makes sense to take an annual membership. Thus, I became a member of the Trust - paying nothing today, but aware that my membership fees would be debited monthly from my current account. I was given a sticker which would make my landing on Inner Farne free (the normal rate for a non-member is £ 9.00).

I was taking a few pictures of the Farne islands from the pier and suddenly, my camera battery ran out of power. I had not been prudent enough to charge it the previous night and I thought I had no spare battery, so I ran helter-skelter to find me a way to either charge my battery with the charger I had with me (it turned out to be the wrong kind of charger) or to buy a new battery (which I could not do, as there was no place in Seahouses to buy it from). Eventually, when I boarded the tour, I could not use my DSLR camera at all. I did not even carry it with me. I just left it with the people who were minding the National Trust kiosk. All the pictures I took were with the mobile phone camera. I present some of them to you.

Male Eider in eclipse

Inner Farne island from the pier

A closer look at the Inner Farne island

Eiders (there were many)

Shore line

Arctic tern, fiercely protects its babies/eggs

Puffins, resting on the green areas

Holes in the ground where puffins nest

Shags - adult and babies

Shags, cormorants, gulls etc

Razorbill

I returned to my room at Beadnell towers by the afternoon, It is quite a cozy place and I enjoyed the evening very much. For dinner, I went down once again to the restaurant. Initially, I just whiled away some time by ordering a coffee and sipping it ever so slowly so that the time kept elapsing. After I had a feeling that I had sat for a long enough time, I ordered some dinner and a non-alcoholic beverage and enjoyed it. 

Presently, I joined the land of the dead as I retired back in my room and went to sleep. The next day, given the right opportunities I would be visiting a couple of new places before I boarded any form of transport that would return me to Blackpool.

Weekend trip to NE England - Northumberland - Farne, Seahouses and Bamburgh - I

So, I had always been keen to travel to Seahouses to take the trip from there by boat to the Farne Islands to watch seabirds. I knew I had three off-days from the 1st to the 3rd of July, and I tried to book a hotel almost a fortnight ago. Unfortunately, most of the hotels in Seahouses were full, too costly, or had no single rooms. Hence, on Thursday last, I gave up on the idea of going on this trip.

By the time it changed from Thursday to Friday, though, my mind was screaming to me to listen to its inner voice. I booked my railway trips, sorted out my funds and was ready to travel the same afternoon.

I set off around mid-morning. My trip would take me from Blackpool to York and then from York to Berwick (pronounced berrick) upon Tweed. From this place, I would need to go by bus to a place called Beadnell that is about 3 miles from the Seahouses pier where the boats would ferry me to Farne Islands. The journey that commenced from my home at noon culminated in my checking into the hotel at half past seven. That means a good, solid travel time of 7.5 hours! (This would be repeated in reverse on my return trip, hehe.)

I went with the flow, as it were. The initial trip from Blackpool North railway station to York railway station was through Northern Railways. The train was quite empty when it started, then filled up and emptied off and on at Preston, Bradford Interchange, and so on. This train has no pantry car, no trolley service, nowhere to go and have drinking water nor any drinking water bottles (as I have seen elsewhere in the UK) and no plug points to charge one's mobile phones or laptops. The only interesting thing that happens is when the train reaches the Interchange. From here on, the train direction reverses! Which means that instead of facing forward, which I was, earlier, the last leg of my journey saw me facing the rear view as the train was now going backwards as it sped towards York.

Arriving near York station

Inside York station where I changed trains

I had some coffee and a lunch here at York

At York station, I had a much-needed break where I stopped at a small tuck shop to eat a lamb curry with bread. This shop is called ----- From York, I boarded a Virgin East Coast train with all the modern trappings that Virgin trains have. As I had booked the ticket over the net, I also got a code to use the onboard internet for free. I am sure the Virgin trains to London do not have free internet, so this was a pleasant surprise. I did have an issue where the charger points in the entire compartment where I was booked a seat were non-functional, so I requested and was granted leave to shift to another compartment and find myself an empty, unreserved seat and use that one for the rest of the journey. This made things a lot more bearable. The journey takes more than 1.5 hours, so it was a bit long, but the views of the northeastern countryside were really remarkable. We did pass a few important towns such as Darlington and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Berwick arrived at around 5:00 p.m. As it swung into view, I took photos of the bridges that span across the Tweed River here. 

A beautiful bridge upon the Tweed river

Darlington on the way to Berwick upon Tweed

Berwick upon Tweed

Berwick station

Outside the railway station, where I got onto a bus to Beadnell

From Berwick upon Tweed, it is an hour-long bus ride to Beadnell, where I had booked a hotel room for two nights. The bus that takes you there is an Arriva bus and the # is X-18. It runs three or four times a day, ending at Alnwick, and it goes via Seahouses and beyond it to Beadnell, a small beachside town where I had booked a hotel room in the Hotel Beadnell Towers. I reached there at half-past seven. The owners are a couple. The guy, someone named Michael, was around when I reached. He instructed his reception staff to guide me. I was allotted a single bedroom on the first floor. I went up, showered, and then returned to the restaurant below to have my dinner, a delicious chicken curry with naan bread and rice. I confess I was unable to finish the huge dinner plate that was served!

There was free wi-fi here, and I returned to my room sometime around 10 p.m., contemplating on my exciting adventure to unfold the next day. Little did I guess what misadventure it was going to be - but more in my next post. 

Birdsong for Beginners

I have introduced the subject to you, dear readers in my previous post.

I have always felt the need to understand how birds communicate with each other, and how this may help one as a birder to not just understand how they do so, but to also identify the bird from the way they call out in different situations. For a birder interested in learning more, knowing bird calls is as vital as knowing how to identify them visually. 

I had arrived early, and had already taken a few pictures of morning birds from the polygonal hide just inside the centre. One of the exciting things that happened while I was assembling my camera was a robin that flew to within a metre of me! It sat there, quietly waiting to see if I would offer it a crumb to eat. It was a very special moment for me. In fact, as I had a long lens, I had to step a few paces back to capture it before it fidgeted and flew away. 

The program was the second of four or five that the Leighton Moss RSPB Nature Reserve is conducting all through the spring and summer. Our guide this time was one Mr. Andy. We were six participants. We met in the Holt, the education room behind the visitor centre. Andy is a seasoned birder with a lot of experience in listening to birds. He took us down the path to the various wooded areas in the reserve where we stood and listened to birds. I am definite about a few bird calls after having listened to them repeatedly. These include the calls of the robin, the collared dove, the wood pigeon, the willow warbler, the Ceti warbler, the green woodpecker (it drums rather than calls) and a few others that I don't think I will remember: the reed warbler, the black cap, the red-shank, the  black bird and a few others.

I bought a 2-CD set from the shop, and will listen to the bird-calls over the next few months to try and memorise them. We even took a group photo at the end. Andy is right in the centre of the group.

After the program wound up,we all went to the cafe upstairs to partake of the snacks and coffee that was part of the fees we had paid for the program (£12 per RSPB member). I had a fried egg burger - they simply half-fried a couple of eggs and put them between the two halves of a burger bread) followed by a cafe latte. It was quite good, actually. Following this, the participants broke up. As my next train to Preston was over an hour away, I lingered on inside the visitor centre, browsing through books and other merchandise, trying out different binoculars (bins) and so on.

Finally, I left at half past twelve to catch a train from Silverdale station at 12:55. I arrived at Preston in a little less time than an hour, and caught the connecting train to Blackpool North, where I reached around three o'clock in the afternoon. I missed the bus to the hospital by a minute, and had to wait for over 30 minutes for the next one, so I went to the local Subway for a coffee. Eventually, I returned home by four p.m.

All in all, a very satisfying morning. Between the two days, I ended up spending over £110 for my experience.