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

Two days in the Yorkshire Dales to visit caves and to walk : Part 1, The Journey and the Hotel

Last week, I took my two off days in the middle of the week to proceed to the Yorkshire area. Travelling to Clapham, where I had booked a night's stay at the Brookhouse Guest House. 

The journey from my home to the hotel took nearly three hours. I had to take a bus to the Blackpool North station (10 minutes, plus a waiting time of 15 minutes), from where a rail-replacement bus took me to Preston (50 minutes, plus a waiting time of 11 minutes); from here, it was a short rail-ride to Lancaster (24 minutes, plus a waiting time of 12 minutes); and, a railroad journey of another 40 minutes to Clapham. However, this does not finish the journey. From the station, it was a long walk of 1.7 km to the guest house. This is a sleepy village in the Dales, and there were no taxis or any people on the roads, so, it was pretty much down to me by myself as I walked the distance to get to the guest house. 

Here are some photos of the route I took from the Clapham station to the guest house:

No one on the road - a very quiet but pleasant walk

Ewe with her lamb in one of the fields

Another one with two lambs

This is the ram with a pigmented face quite different from the ewe

All kitted up for the strong, cold wind and the showers that are a part of the UK climate

Arriving at the Brookhouse Guest House

To be honest, the day was a sunny one with the temperature in the high single digits. It soon moved on past 10, and stayed around 10-12 through the morning and into the early afternoon. Arriving at the guest house, I rang the bell and was immediately welcomed by Mr Alan, who, I later learned, is the sole proprietor, manager, service provider and chef of the property. I was shown to a very well-kept room on the first floor. Interestingly, the rooms (all 4 of them - and similar to each other) - were named after localities around Clapham. My room was called the Ingleborough room. It was a single room with a nice double bed, streaming sunlight, a TV with Freeview channels, and a very clean and well-accessorised bathroom-cum-toilet. 

Some photos of the guesthouse and the facilities:

The flight of stairs

The Ingleborough room

Room 1: corner 

Room 2: Wall decor

Me inside the room

Room 3: Bed and TV with tea and coffee machine

Restaurant 1

Restaurant 2

Alan, the proprietor, chef and everything else

Restaurant 3

Restaurant 4

After leaving my luggage in the room allocated to me, I set off immediately to go to the Ingleborough caves. More about this in my next post.            

Writing after a long time

It is true that I have been very busy the entire last month. Just last week, I had to rush home to India to help my family look after my mum who took suddenly and critically ill and was admitted to the ICU. She came down with sepsis secondary to infection in a bed-sore. With treatment, during the three or four days that I was there, she managed to pull out of the critical stage and has gradually improved over the last 10-12 days that have elapsed since. 

In other news, I am trying to get a visa to visit the U.S. to present a paper (a poster, actually) in Orlando, Florida, in mid-October. This would be at the World Congress of Gastroenterology. Towards this end, I went for an interview at the US Embassy in London. The interview went off well, I think, and I should be granted a visa to go there. 

Now, I am shifting to new rented premises outside the hospital. It's bye-bye to the rooms I resided in for the last over 20 months. It will be a bitter-sweet parting, as these 1 1/2 years have taught me a lot ... and not just about my work, but also about living alone in a developed country, where one can have anything one wants by ordering it online or buying it in a store. I have hoarded so much stuff that when the van-renter came to pick up my things to transport it to my new premises, he simply gawked and said he had never seen as much luggage with a bro! Well, my luggage was phenomenal in volume - stretching to over 300 kg by his estimate. It consisted of several cardboard boxes and literally dozens upon dozens of plastic bags. As I write this, I have shifted all my luggage to the new premises, but a lot is still to be unpacked and put away in its proper place. 

In the afternoon, I visited the Furniture shop of the British Heart Foundation and bought several used pieces of furniture that will be delivered to my new place tomorrow. These include a dining table, two chairs, a glass display case, a computer table, and several other smaller items. Once they are all set-up, I should be ready to live in my new place.

So, where is it? It is a mere 5 minutes' walk away from the hospital in what is known as Victoria Mansions. Hopefully, I will complete my move within the next 36 hours. HERE is a map showing my new place. It is only 300 meters away from my current location (and the hospital) as the crow flies, but translates to about half a km if you follow the roads.

In quite other news, I went to the Blackpool Livewire 2017 event at the Promenade yesterday. The event organisers had offered free passes to the concert as well as to the after-dinner party for the first two days of the event, viz. on Friday and Saturday. I had requested passes for two people only for the Saturday, and the passes were waiting for me in my inbox when I returned from India. They had upgraded my pass to a VIP pass. This pass enabled me to access the VIP area on the promenade. This was an elevated shamiana facing the large stage where singers and performers came, traipsing in a line, to entertain the crowds. 

Is anything else happening? Yes. I did a few registrar locums now. One was at Whiston last month and the second was just a few nights ago at Oldham. Both of them were in Paediatrics and I guess they went reasonably well. 

At my own trust, I am now a person that is increasingly entrusted with tasks done by middle-grade doctors, and I guess my progression is just about at par with my expectations. I should be looking at better prospects once my current tenure expires in February 2018. Whether it will mean a proper middle-grade job in Blackpool, or whether I will have to look elsewhere, I do not know. We will have to wait and see. 

And that brings me to the end of the post. Do let me know your reactions to this post and comment on what you think. Thank you.

Weekend update

I have been quite irregular of late - in updating this blog. My apologies to the regular readers. If you are stumbling upon this blog for the first time, welcome. I am an Indian-origin Paediatrician who writes about his life in the U.K. here. My name is Taher. It has been over 18 months since I moved to Blackpool. This is a coastal vacation town on the Irish Sea coast and geographically belongs to North-West England, and to Cumbria, and even more specifically, to Lancashire. 

I am working as a junior doctor in the NHS-run Blackpool Victoria Hospital. I am gradually learning a lot of practical skills and am able to navigate the system almost 100% now. 

Last week, a few positive things happened. I inserted a peripheral long line into a newborn baby for the first time - and it was quite easy. I was supervised by the consultant who is in charge of neonatal services at our hospital, and who is also MY educational supervisor. The baby was the second of twins and was born, like his sibling, 9 weeks earlier than term. I had observed this procedure 2-3 times but had never done it myself. Hence, doing it accurately and correctly the first time was extremely satisfying. To understand what this procedure is all about, see THIS YT video. 

On Saturday and Sunday, I went to Whiston Hospital to do locum duties. They had arranged for my accommodation within the Neonatal unit by allocating to me one of the rooms reserved for relatives of babies who are admitted to the unit. Hence, it was a breeze to work. The Paediatric department of the hospital has two wards - one each on the third and the fourth floors. This can mean a bit of running around between two floors. Their A & E is located on the bottom floor, and one keeps getting called there to see new patients who have been referred to them through the G,P, or the community walk-in centre. While Saturday was a relatively quiet day, I had several calls from the A&E on Sunday. I did, however, find the time to go for lunch in the hospital's top floor restaurant on both the days. They had a lamb rogan josh with rice on Saturday. It was very good. On Sunday, I had their lamb hot pot with pastry. This was so-so, but wholesome, to say the least. 

On both the days, I had dinner from my own supplies that I had brought with me from Blackpool. This was mostly a collection of samosas and lamb pattice with chappatis. In addition to the meals, I had a lot of tea and some coffee - machines with free tea and coffee are installed in every clinical area. Overall, it was a good experience. 

That's it for now. See you around. Do follow me if you wish by adding your email ID to the Follower's list. And, if you feel like it - do comment in the space below this post to tell me what you thought about this post. 

And hey, do view that video ... Thanks. 

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.