Bits, Bats and Bad Memory

Sometimes my additions to my challenge list occur two or three a day on my normal routine. This last weekend was one of those times. I had to lead a couple of guided walks on Cuerden Valley Park and as I walked there I had my first sighting of tree-creeper for the year. On the walks I only had one more addition to my list. Butterbur was seen on the approach to the wooden bridge. Unfortunately for those on the walk, neither kingfisher nor goosander put up an appearance.

 


The following day I travelled to Southall in London for a staff meeting of A Rocha UK. As I walked down Avenue Road I remembered the London Plane tree not too far from the ARUK centre. It was great to meet with A Rocha colleagues old and new and a little sad to say au revoir to our CEO Mairi Johnstone who moves on to a fresh challenge. On the way to catch my train two days later, I heard the unmistakeable call of ring-necked parakeet. This was good for my biodiversity challenge and reminded me to confirm reports of one in my area for my Patchwork Challenge. During the next week I helped with outdoor education for a school doing river studies and saw my first damselfly nymph. On the Friday of that same week I went on a Health Walk training day and saw coltsfoot on Brockholes.  Why bad memory in this title? In my search for dipper a week or so ago, I had passed two elm trees and just outside my house I pass three poplars at least four times a day but had omitted them in my total. Familiarity really does breed contempt.

They kept a welcome in the hillside - First long distance trip.

My challenge took a back seat for a while with a family bereavement. My mother-in-law having reached the age of 93, plus a few months passed away at the end of January. To honour her I took a trip to South Wales, she was born in Fishguard and I had promised her to keep visiting both South and West of her native country. The bonus of travelling by rail was being able to see many bunches of mistletoe near Abergavenny, the downside was that the train was travelling too fast for me to photograph any. My friends took me to the coast where I went on a flower twitch. Yellow whitlow-grass is a rare plant and is also the county flower of West Glamorgan. It wasn't in flower but I did recognise it half way up the wall of a ruined castle. The photo is from a previous visit.

 


I also saw Corsican pine, sea buckthorn, Alexanders, a tamarisk tree and a dipper on a nearby stream.
The following day we went to The WWT reserve at Llanelli. The Bonaparte's gull was nowhere to be seen but I was happy with many of the regular birds. Little egret, redshank, spotted redshank, knot, dunlin, lapwing, reed bunting, shelduck, black-tailed godwit and greenshank were quite close to the hide. One of the birders let me use his scope enabling me to add red breasted merganser to my list. We left that hide and walked to the next one on the other side of the visitor centre. A greenfinch made its distinctive call just above our heads. This is another one I need for my patch list, but am unable to count . I was about 170 miles away from my local patch and even the latest scopes aren't that good. A quick glance at the feeder meant we saw a water rail darting from the reed bed. Our last hide revealed gadwall, pintail and distant views of some Brent geese. It had been a brief but profitable trip to Wales.

 Thank you Freda for giving me the reason to visit the land of your fathers. My species challenge is now 152.

Two types of Quarry

I have set myself two challenges this year. My main one is to see as many species of everything in a year in the United Kingdom. The other one is being involved with the Patch Birding Challenge. The latter will be within a three mile radius of the centre of Whittle, which would then include Cuerden and Brindle. At the end of January, I set off walking from my home where already snowdrops and crocus were flowering on a field close by. My intention was to search for raven about a mile and a half away. It was a frosty day so I had ensured my fingers and ears were protected. Since I was walking the rest of me would be warm enough. A siskin feeding in my garden gave me a good send off, but a mistle thrush, practising his song early, was disturbed by my cough. I continued walking briskly and got to the quarry in a half hour.Several corvids were flying round, jackdaws shouting their name and a number of crows also making their presence heard. Then the "cronk" for which I had been listening. A pair of raven, their distinctive tails easily seen, seemed unhappy about an interloper. I scanned the clifftop with my binoculars and saw a solitary peregrine.

 That was a bonus ( including two points on the Patch Birding Challenge). I returned home a different way and apart from the usual common tits and finches, managed to see a kingfisher, heard a great spotted woodpecker and surprised a stoat too focussed on stalking a small mammal. I was surprised to see a single lesser celandine in flower. This is a little early for this flower, but it did get my total of botanical and zoological species seen to 80