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

Activities with the RSPB Lancaster group - Birdwatching at the Wyre and in Fleetwood Marsh

On the 28th of March, I joined the volunteers of the RSPB to go on a bird-watching walk near Blackpool. Valerie was the chief host, but we had a few other volunteers including Ken and Michael, who were knowledgeable and helpful as well, and about 8-9 members who accompanied us. We met at the Wyre Country Park near Stannah, a suburb of Thornton. To reach there, I took a cab from the hospital, as I was going there directly from having completed my night duty. 

We began the walk down the Wyre river on a track specially made for birdwatching. A few of the members and Ken had telescopes that we used to identify and observe waders and river-swimming birds. We saw ducks, geese, gulls and a few other birds as we walked. It was a relaxed walk where we even got to admire the bushes and flowers around us. For example, I first came to identify the gorse bush with its distinctive, small yellow flowers. 

There would be high-tide within a few hours, so, after a hour-long walk which took us to a spot on the track where the water was already advancing on to the track, we decided to turn back and to walk back to the country park, where we took a break for lunch. I decided to eat in the cafe located here. They had an option to have chicken tikka masala with rice - which was actually quite nice. I do think, though, that they serve a very small portion of rice to go with the large amount of chicken. A cup of coffee to round off my lunch, and I was back with the others to proceed on the second part of the journey. This time, we would drive to the Fleetwood Marsh Natural Reserve at - where else - Fleetwood. The person who would take me in their car was one Mr Graham, and he and I had interesting conversations as we reached the marsh. I used Google Maps satnav to reach the location, and it took us there without an error.

At the marsh, we passed by a pool with a lot of water birds, and then on to the actual marsh, where, unfortunately, the river was quite a distance away, so we saw very few birds in the water. However, we did see some shells of whelk snails, and, on the way back to the parking lot, we saw and photographed wheatears that were hovering around at the back of the reserve over a steel stile. 

Graham then gave me a lift back to the hospital. We exchanged emails and promised to stay in touch. It had indeed been a great day. The big takeaways from today's activities were:

1. Meeting new people. I met Maureen, Graham, Ken, Jim, Michael, Valerie and one more person whose name I cannot recall now. We had four others, but as they did not accompany us in the afternoon, I did not get the chance to learn their names. 
2. Hearing a lot of bird calls that I struggled to learn. Among them, the easiest was the call of the chiff-chaff, which is, to be honest, exactly as if the bird uttered the two syllables "chiff" and "chaff" repeatedly; we also heard the song thrush, the goldfinch, the curlew, and a few others. 
3. Sighting some birds for the first time, such as goldfinches, the egret, the wheatear (well, it was the first time in the U.K. - I have seen them as the "Northern" wheatear in Al Muwayh in Saudi Arabia) and a few others.

Here are a few pictures I took:

Greater black-backed gulls

 A herring gull takes flight

Adults and chicks of herring gulls

Tufted duck, female

Tufted duck, male

Wheatears

That's it for now. Do write in the comments how you found this post. 

A visit to the Ness Botanical Gardens and the RSPB Burton Mere Bird reserve- Part II: The Bird Reserve

Read about my visit to the Ness Botanical Gardens HERE. 

After visiting the botanical garden at Neston, I exited and turned right to endure a long walk of over 1.7 miles to reach the RSPB Bird Reserve located off the Puddington Road on the Burton site. This is a recently formed bird reserve park located on the English side of the Dee estuary. The latter divides England from Wales, and you can see the Welsh mountains from the back side of the bird reserve. The river Dee is not nearly as full as one may have liked it to be. The walk takes you large but simply decorated homes in the Burton town. There isn't much in the way of ostentation about this reserve. 

The walk from the asphalted road into the main area of the reserve is woodland marked by a single-lane untarred road. You walk nearly 500 metres down this till you reach the Reception Centre of the reserve, which is also their first bird hide. I was greeted by a volunteer, who checked my membership badge and allowed me free entry (their normal entry charge is £4 per person. 

Inside this main reception, there is a tea, coffee and biscuits and snack counter, where you self-serve yourself your poison and put the money into a collection cylinder. Your journey begins by first sitting here and watching the marsh birds as they alight, take flight, swim and generally do what they do right in front of you through the looking glass. They have even left a telescope behind for you to use if you need to. 

The volunteers will often come to your side and engage you in conversation. I had a long chat with Eve. We spoke about what the RSPB has been doing. She was quite optimistic about their conservation efforts. As an example, she told me the local reserve had saved nearly 70 chicks of the 30-odd Avocet pairs that bred here last year.These chicks are at the mercy of marsh harriers and other natural predators. Today, I saw a lot of Canada Geese, Gulls and a pair of avocets (the first for this year, according to Eve). 

After you have had your fill of watching the Canada geese, the gulls, etc. you can unlock one of the side doors and walk down a path to go off one or the other side of the reception. I did precisely that. The long board-walk is over a km long, and takes you to two bird hides. Initially, I went to the one that was quite a distance away, but later, I came back to the one nearer the reception. I was in the company of an ex-Army person by the curious name of Ian Fleming (his middle name is James too, ha ha). He kept guiding me, helping me identify species I had not seen before and chatting about the site and its history. It was really enjoyable with him by my side. He even lent me his binoculars on a couple of occasions for me to see the new species more closely.

In the event, I ended up seeing a few new birds, including gadwalls, Whooper swans, etc. Here are some memories of a well-spent afternoon:

Canada Geese

Mallard Duck, male

Up in the air

Whooper swans

Female Teal

Black-capped night heron? Egret?

Robin

Coot

Black-tailed Godwit

Flowers in a pot at the Neston station

Neston station, flowers in a pot

I finished around three p.m. It would be a long walk back to the Ness Gardens, from where I would take a bus back to Neston station, and then, the reverse journey by train/train/bus/train/bus back to my place in the Victoria Hospital. In the event, I requested a single man who was about to leave in his car to drop me to the bus stop at the gardens. He and I got to talking. He told me he was a banker who retired early at the age of 52 so that he could pursue his hobbies, the chief being birding. He sounded quite content in his life and left in me the envy I always feel when I see people who are free to do what they like ... He left me all the way to the station. I thanked him and proceeded to return home. On the way back, the third pit stop was the Liverpool Lime station. I indulged in a bit of food and coffee before boarding the train to Preston. Eventually, I reached home after eight, since I did a bit of shopping at the big Sainsbury store just outside the Blackpool North railway station. 

All in all, a great day! Thanks for reading my post. Kindly participate in the blog by commenting below. 

Redoux: Visit to RSPB Leighton Moss Bird Reserve

I made a repeat trip to this excellent bird reserve located in Silverdale in the district of Cumbria. The reason: haven't gone for birding in a long, long time and wanted to do it as I was missing it sorely.

The repeat visit came on a weekend that the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) had announced as the Annual Garden Bird Counting weekend. The aim of this was to watch birds that visited one's garden for an hour and to record all the birds that visited the garden during that hour. I realised early on that this would not work for me as I live in hospital quarters, and there isn't much of a garden there. 

Hence, I decided to go back to his lovely reserve at Silverdale. Silverdale is located north of Lancaster. It is a small town, and is advertised as the best location for a quiet holiday by the authortities themselves. Just five minutes walk from the station is the Leighton Moss Nature Reserve. It is owned and maintained by the RSPB. There is no entrance fee. As you enter, you are into their visitor centre which also has a display of the best ornithological books on sale, a mix of other kinds of merchandise including tee-shirts, cups, etc. and a row of sales counters. Just behind is a staircase that takes one up to their cafe. To the right of the sales counters, one goes past the sales items to a door that opens out on the back of the building and directly on the reserve area. 

Here, one can stroll to their main show area with a canopy from under which you can see and photograph garden birds that stroll the grounds (such as pheasants and dunnocks) or that alight on the feeders to eat the delicious bird food left there by the reserve volunteers (such as tits, robins, chaffinces, redpolls, finches, blackbirds, and even doves and the wood pigeon). Once you are done taking these photos, you have the option to walk to any one of the five different bird hides spread out over the grounds. 

In the event, I visited all five. While the first one is located a very short distance away, there are hides that are upto 2 km away. I had great fun observing birds that wade or swim in the various water-bodies, as well as those that fly here and there. I saw various kinds of these water-birds today. But, most of all, I saw my first bittern today from the Lower Hide (the one that is farthest from the visitor centre).

Not surprisingly, there were a fair number of casual and more dedicated visitors. Many, like me, were birder-photographers, and some had cameras far more advanced than mine and lenses that looked oh-so-mighty. Some even had telescopic viewers. I did chat a bit with some of them, and learned that they were into serious birding only since the last several years (like me, too).

After my birding, I visited the cafe for lunch. They routinely give a 10% discount to guests who visit the centre by public transport or on bikes. I used that to get a dicount. I had a vegetarian quiche, (as the  kitchen had run out of chicken-based items) that tasted quite delicious. 

Here are some pictures that I took:

Male pheasant

Male Chaffinch

Male Mallard duck

Female pheasant

Nuthatch

Female Blackbird

Great Tit

Brown squirrel eating up the bird grain

Egret with fish in its bill

Teals

Teals again

Marsh harrier, record shot

Blue Tit

Robin

Female Blackbird

Grazing cow on the reserve

Cormorants

Pintail (centre)

The entrance to the lower hide

Cormorant drying its wings

My attire on this day 

Watch tower built from Heritage Lottery Fund

The Quiche I had for lunch

I returned home again via train. The journey was as unexciting as the journey I had undertaken TO the reserve in the morning. The only note of interest might be the fact that since the past two weekends, and for the next 6-8 weekends, train services from Blackpool North to Preston do not run and are replaced by BUS services. This is because the railways are carrying out repairs and renovation work between these two stations. While the buses are luxury buses, it does take nearly an hour to travel by a bus as conpared to a train journey which takes only 28-30 minutes.