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. 

What I did in the last 4 days:Multitasking, reading, studying, sleeping and working

Dear Reader,

I have an idea that the title is not very catching. It sounds oh so plebian. And yet. these last four days have been extraordinary for me. Several small snippets of things I did occurred to me after I had finished watching a movie on Amazon Prime, so I thought to myself: what better example of a life led with variety than writing this chronicle.

I finished 4 consecutive nights on the 7th of this month and was granted three full holidays thereafter. Thus begins my chronicle.

Tuesday, 8th March.

I slept for about three hours during the daytime and caught up on the rest of the sleep only after everything for the day was done. The other activities included reading a bit of the Wilbur Smith novel "Golden Lion", cooking some lamb curry without a recipe but with a ready-made curry powder that I had purchased from India, speaking to my children, watching a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory (currently, I am on season 6) and finally, going out for dinner with Luckey to Sapori, an Italian fine-dining restaurant on Clifton Street. (Read my blog entry HERE.)

What was unique today? My first meal at Sapori, of course. Also, my first attempt to use a ready-to-use preparation to make lamb curry. To be honest, the curry was very, very simple to prepare. All I had to do was add 400 g of washed and cleaned lamb pieces, the entire contents of the lamb curry masala and 350 ml of water into my pressure cooker and then cook them for about 15 minutes, of which the last 10 were after sealing the lid closed. That's it. Amazing, isn't it? Yet, the curry turned out quite delicious.

Wednesday, 9th March:

I woke up late, having completed the sleep deficiency of the previous 48 hours. Today, Mumbaikar Pediatricians Drs. Hemant and Archana Joshi paid a visit to the hospital. Dr. Hemant had been talking with me since a week and was very keen to visit the Paediatrics department with me with a view to understanding how NHS works. He is a very different kind of person. Not very humble by nature - he loves to keep talking about his achievements - and yet, very humble and eager to learn. He presents a visage of a man who is an eternal student. I filled him in on all kinds of information. We went everywhere: the outpatient clinic, the ward, the special care babies' unit, and the A & E. We met with and interviewed nurses, healthcare assistants, play workers, outreach nurses, speciality nurses, and so on. The doctors also met Dr. Rabin Mohanty, with whom they had a 10-minute long chat.

Afterward, we all went to Basrai's World Cuisines restaurant at Talbot Road (remember, I reviewed this excellent place on my other blog? Read that review HERE.) Hemant and Archana's company was excellent, and I believe this: they went back very happy with the way the visit went. Dr. Hemant described it as a very happy day in his life because he said he had learned so much.

In the evening, I stayed home, doing this and that. Nothing else to write about.

What was unique? Obviously, the visit by Drs. Joshi. I did miss a "Meet the Author" programme that had been organised at the hospital - they had invited Mr. Steve Watson, the author of "Before I go to sleep", a psychological thriller that has been made into a movie a year ago.

Thursday, 10th March:

You can say this was the most uneventful day from among the four days that I am writing about. And yet, small things did happen. I remained in my rooms the entire day. This, in itself, is unique. From the time I came to the U.K., I have always ventured out of the house on every free day, so this was highly unusual. Over the past 1 week, I kept trying to call locum agencies to help me find a locum for today and for the coming Sunday. No jobs materialised. I had enough food in the refrigerator, so I did not need to cook. I watched a French movie on Amazon Prime. This was with subtitles in English. It is based on a true story and is called KALINKA. In it, the father of a 14-year old who is found dead in suspicious circumstances keeps investigating the matter after he has been stonewalled by everyone for bureaucratic, political, and other reasons. He finally gets the culprit after 28 years! A must-see movie. for every movie aficionado.

What was unique? The fact that a move in a language I don't understand can prove to be so riveting.

Friday, 11th March:

I went back to work after my three-day gap. It was a six-hour cover duty where I was supposed to go and see newly-borns on the post-natal ward. Nothing exciting actually on the job. But that all changed after I returned home. Today, I saw, outside my window, what seemed to be a new species of bird. Two of them were pecking things off the grass. Their behaviour, though, was reminiscent of commonplace blackbirds. I rushed to watch them with my binoculars. I brought out my RSPB bird guide, and discovered that these were nothing but juvenile blackbirds. Totally unlike their parents, these juveniles were brown in colour and heavily striated on their ventral aspects, as well as lightly striated on their dorsum as well. In my excitement, I forgot to click any pictures.

Later, I watched yet another thriller on Amazon Prime. This time, I searched for Before I go to sleep. And lo! It was there. Starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, this thriller is the same one I mentioned above in connection to the Meet the Author. The movie reminded me of Ghajini, in which the Bollywood star Aamir Khan plays the role of a man who lives only in the present and forgets everything after 15 minutes. Well, Nicole here plays a similar role, except that her memory lasts till she goes to sleep at night. Nobody can be trusted as she lives a fresh life every morning. Everyone is suspect: her husband, the doctor who keeps calling her every day and takes her to the hospital, her best friend ... no one. An amazing story indeed. Again, I strongly recommend it. 

In the evening, I prepared roast chicken in the oven for the first time! I used Chicken breast pieces, some mixed herbs to marinade, and sunflower oil to baste the chicken pieces. It turned out to be easier than I had thought, and with this, my confidence in making stuff in the oven has gone up a notch
. 
And that's about it for now. Eventful four days of my life. Thank you for reading. 

Truly, knackered.

Working 4 successive nights is something I have just completed for the first time in hospital. It has been a mixed experience. This is because I worked as a registrar for the first two nights and as a senior house officer the next two. During the nights as a registrar, I was carrying the bleeps meant for a middle-grade doctor. This means that I was the doctor responsible for whatever happened those nights - on the hospital campus. One of my colleagues worked as a SHO "under" me. On the next two nights, I held the bleeps for SHO, and another colleague worked "over" me as a registrar.

This allowed me to see the work from both points of view. And, I hope, it made me a better doctor. I think I managed the ward reasonably well, considering that this was my first time as a registrar, albeit as a stand-in.

Working nights means you need to sleep well the day prior to your first night, and then, every day following. In that respect, I guess I am a poor sleeper. I tried to sleep longer hours, but couldn't manage more than five and a half tops. On my third morning, I even took a herbal sleeping pill - but it did not lengthen my sleep time by even a few minutes. All I am saying is - I can get by with a lesser amount of sleep compared to an average bloke.

The other thing that doctors (or other healthcare workers) do when they do night shifts is that they carry with them a lot of food. This can either be a healthy mix of, say, sandwiches, fruit juice or fruit, and some healthy snacks, or, as is more usual, a mix of some healthy stuff and also some unhealthy stuff like potato chips, carbonated beverages, chocolate, and so on. I can admit candidly that my diet goes for a toss when I am on a night shift. My food bag resembles the second type of mix. For example, on my first night, I took rice, paya masala, a bag of low-salt, hand roasted chips and a caffeine-free Pepsi. On the fourth night, I had a white bread chicken mayo sandwich, a Pepsi (the same as before) and orange juice. Thus it goes.

Finally, when the night is full of work, as it was on the last of the four days, one can get really tired. Even so, I managed well, I think, thanks to the 3-4 cups of tea that I had in between running around doing the chores.

And that's about it for now. Thanks for reading. Do share your comments below.

Living it up_ Birthday # 57 ... been there, done that.

Yet another milestone crossed. Older by a year, younger by a hair's breadth. Life lived one more year. One more month. One more week. One more day. And now, I am officially 57. It doesn't seem like it, though. If asked how old I am, I would say I like to think I am 16 - give or take 41.

The day yesterday began like a damp squib. I reached my ward at half past eight (as usual), attended the handover, and went to the post-natal ward to do my duty for the next eight-odd hours. In between, I was called to attend two or three deliveries. In the afternoon, I went for lunch and a teaching session in the teaching room below our ward. Lunch was sponsored by Abbott Nutrition, while the teaching was done by Alison Simmonett, one of the consultants who works in our department. Her case presentation and discussion were instructive and stimulated the desire to learn more. Food was a combination of a sandwich/baguette, fruit, fruit juice and some cupcakes. I reached for a Caesar Chicken roll, and it was quite nice.

In the afternoon, work at the post-natal ward continued until four p.m. Then I returned to the paediatric ward to await the evening handover. And at about half past four, I finished for the day. I invited a few of my colleagues to join me for dinner as it was my birthday, but no one was really receptive as they had other commitments. Story of my life, I thought. Everyone loves me for my humility, my knowledge and my affability, but no one forgets that I am at an age they are not comfortable to have an enjoyable evening with.


So, off I went to Costa. Sipping a special Caramel Cortado (that they have only introduced a few days ago), I felt content in some ways and missed merry-making with my family or close friends - which I would have done had I been in Mumbai.

I usually have an extra-hot coffee with a bit more milk than usual, and the baristas know that so well that they serve me my Cortado just the way I like it. This time, the difference was in the caramel granules they put at the bottom of the cup, a shot of caramel that they dissolved in the coffee, and the gentle sprinkle of even more caramel granules that they added over the top. I was digging into the new combination with pleasure. It was an hour or so before I wounded up my stay in Costa. By then, I had spoken to my daughters, my wife, a few other friends, and also played my cell phone games and so on. It was time to return to my rooms. My plan was to go out for dinner later in the evening. It would be a dinner all by myself, but I would make it count.

But destiny had other plans for me. I got into a conversation with Luckey. She told me she was going to go out for drinks with some English friends of hers, but then offered to have me go with them.  नेकी और पूछ पूछ ? I agreed immediately. And thus, I went to Ma Kelly's North at Talbot Street for a night out with Luckey and her friends.

The friends were her school friend Roberto (Robs) and his friend Lidya. Both of them stay around London and were vacationing with Robs' parents who stay in Blackpool. I arrived first, and went past the intimidating bouncer, who allowed me in and even opened the door for me. Inside, a live stage show was on with a guitar-playing male singer belting out oldies such as "The Summer of 69". Luckey and her friends joined me after almost 20 minutes of waiting. After the introductions, we went straight to the bar, where I ordered a Jack Daniels with soda and ice.

I had no clue there would be no dinner. I ended up having 2 packs of roasted peanuts as I whiled the evening away with a drink or two, a lot of dancing and some great friendship parleys with Luckey's friends as well as a few new ones - one of whom was a mum of one of the kids who our department treats at the hospital.

After the partying, I went to drop Luckey, and then returned home in a cab. It had started off badly, but when the day ended, I was aglow with happiness. I did have fun, and I did make some new acquaintances.

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. 

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

Having worked quite a bit from Monday to Friday this past week, I had already decided not to do any locum jobs when I got some days off. Well, I did get my well-deserved rest on the next day, but like the birding enthusiast that I am, I planned a bird-watching activity to a new place this time. I was researching bird-watching places near Blackpool. I had already been to Leighton Moss a few weeks ago, hence homed in on this new place managed by the RSPB (The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) known as the RSPB Reserve Burton Mere.

To reach this place by public transport is a nightmare. For me, it involved changing 5 times! I first caught a local bus from my hospital home to the Blackpool North (BPN) railway station. From here, I reached NESTON via four changes - from BPN to Preston by train, then from Preston to Liverpool Lime (again, by train), then from the latter to Berkenfield North by a rail replacement bus, then by Merseyside railway to Bidston, and finally by Merseyside local train to Neston. From Neston, I took a bus to its last stop - the Ness Gardens. As I said, a long journey indeed. But here lies the sweet recompense: I got to visit the Ness Botanical Gardens - a side dish that turned out to be so delightful!

Eventually, I would walk to the bird reserve and reach it only by half past one, but the botanical gardens were a pleasant discovery, quite by accident. 

These gardens were originally created by Arthur Bulley in 1898, passed on to his family after his death, and got bequeathed to the University of Liverpool by his daughter Lois Agnes in 1942. Bulley was passionate about collecting and planting herbs and plants from all over the world. The gardens are home to more than 15000 types of plants, and also host 600 species of butterflies, birds, mammals, insects and so on. The gardens are spread over 60 acres of woodlands and meadows. Entrance tickets are between ­£ 3-5 per person.

The visitor year began this week with the abundant flowering of the various kinds of snowdrops, white flowers that droop downwards and spread horizontally during late-winter and early spring.  Here are some photos from my memorable visit. Some cultivars of the snowdrops are not natural. However, they all look pretty. 

Over the entire year, they have many new things happening, and one can visit their website to know more. Currently, they had a children's treasure hunt and a paid snowdrops viewing program going on. 

I saw many other plants such as conifers, British lavender, different kinds of Rhododendrons, azaleas and more. I think the gardens are a bit incomplete. There was no education centre, so to say, no sections on xerophytes or succulents, and no mention of tropical trees or Bonsai.

Some more pictures follow:

After the visit, I came out into the reception area where I had a soup in their Garden Cafe. It had been a memorable visit. And totally unexpected ... as my original plan had been to go to watch birds at the RSPB Reserve Burton Mere ... but more about this in my next post. Thanks for reading. 

Nearly a fortnight on the new rota as a Trust Grade SHO

Gradually, I am beginning to live the life of the title of this blog! It has been nearly a fortnight since I started on the full rota with holding the crash bleep. It has been a great experience so far. The consultants who work with me are also observing my progress with interest. I have to do this until mid-April, after which I should probably go back to my earlier routine. 

So, how has it been? Well, to tell you the truth, I am no longer doing registrar duties. I should add the word "almost" here since I did get called to do a clinic on one of my long days. As a SHO, I now carry the crash bleep, attend emergency calls, take referrals, and so on. It has begun to show me the correct way to handle cases. Well, I should qualify the word "correct". By this, I mean the way things are done in my hospital, and broadly speaking, the way it is done in NHS England. These guys do everything by looking at the evidence or by looking at protocols. It is not exactly similar to the way we did things back in India. I must admit, though, that following rules and protocols does make up for better practice of medicine. 

So, what duties have I done? I started off with a couple of night duties, then went on to do four long days (which simply means 12 1/2 hours of continuous work from 08:45 to 21:15 hours), and three other assorted duties ranging from between six to eight hours. In addition, I also got 2 mornings and three full days off. 

This change of duties has also thrown my life a bit out of gear. Before the start of February, my life was simpler: I worked eight hours a day, fixed timings, from Monday to Friday. On the weekend, I had the option of going elsewhere to do locum shifts and augment my usual income.  Additionally, I have also begun to mostly eat home-cooked food and avoid eating at the hospital's Oliver restaurant. My food has, therefore, become a lot healthier, although I still nibble at junk food from time to time. The other change that has happened is that, because I am now "first on", I have to walk a lot more. I am now averaging nearly 4 to 4.5 km of walking every duty day! 

The flip side of all this is that I do get a lot more tired at the end of a long duty; I eat at odd hours; I don't get the time to call my family much, and I miss my old routine. Be that as it may, I do enjoy this change in my routine and look forward to this work. The day after I write this, I am scheduled to do a duty from 13:00 to 21:15 hours ...

Do leave your comments below. Thanks for reading.