Friday 28 October 2016

The Response to the 300 and The European Green Birding record on Birdforum

Wow. I have just been onto my thread on Birdforum, bravely maintained by the wonderful 'Oracle', Phil Andrews, and seen such fabulous comments of congratulations.
Here is a selection of them appertaining to the 300 and the European green Birding Record . . . .


Phil Andrews Saturday 8th October

Gary reached his next landmark today with his 300th species (BOU) of his Green Year list - an Olive-backed Pipit (still on Fair Isle)

Brosnabirder

Congratulations and well done.

Stuartvine

Great job

Dantheman

:)

WACCOE

Well done

Paul Higson

Yowser !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nutcracker

Nice !

Spoonbill finder

Well done mate. Hope Shetland will bring you nearer to your next target.

Jasperpatch

Congratulations! Great news.

A few days passed, never to be forgotten by me . . . . and then.......

Phil Andrews 18th October

And now for some good news - the Good Shepherd did Dail with Gary on it. Three potential ticks on Fair Isle today.

Flurry of ticks on Fair Isle this afternoon with the addition of Bean Goose (BOU #305, AERC #303) and Siberian Stonechat (BOU #306, AERC #304).

(photograph by Lee Gregory)

Almost there!!! Just one more bird . . .


THE RECORD IS GARY'S

(photograph by Lee Gregory)


He has just broken the European Green Birding Record with Pine Bunting on Fair Isle (BOU #307, more importantly AERC #305).  

Congratulated by Shaun Robson
(photograph by Lee Gregory)

Paul Higson

Absolutely brilliant.

Saluki

Fantastic! Well done Gary!

Stuart Reeves

Agreed! I can't help but feel that this is a greater achievement than the world and ABA records being pursued at the moment because of the sheer stamina and commitment required.

David Ball

I'd second that.

Farnboro John

Superb achievement! Well done Gary!

Andrew Whitehouse

Brilliant achievement! I guess there might well be quite a few more species to follow too.

Jasperpatch

Congratulations! So very very well deserved. Hope there is more bubbly available tonight!

Edenwatcher

Amazing achievement. Many congrats to Gary. Onwards and upwards!

Rob

WACCOE

Nice one

Spoonbill Finder

Absolutely magnificent!

Phil Andrews

Clearly I am biased but I couldn't agree more Stuart. Not only the endurance and physical effort of pursuing this all year but also the minimal financial outlay. Gary has been funding this year purely from his pension; indeed when he has offered free food / accommodation he has insisted contributing an equivalent value to charity.

If you haven't already done so please visit his Just Giving page (will re-post the links this evening).

Wheatearlp

.. and also he's done this for two consecutive years! Amazing stamina & commitment IMO, so more than pleased Gary has finally achieved his goal.

Phil Andrews

Please see below links - Gary is supporting 4 charities this year:

Asthma UK - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gary-prescott2

Wildfowl & Wetland Trust - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gary-prescott4

RSPB - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gary-prescott3

The Chaskawasi orphanage in Peru - http://www.chaskawasi-manu.org/en/do...-manu-project/

Whilst I am sure people are donating in other ways, including cash along Gary's journey, the total committed of just over £2,100 via Just Giving is a pitiful amount. If you have followed Gary's Big Year or even just dipped in and out of his adventures please consider making a donation to these worthwhile causes.

Gary Biking Birder Prescott 28th October 2016

Can I take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to all of you on these pages for the immense support I have received from you? Your comments of support and congratulations have been so important to me. I especially want to thank Phil Andrews, The Oracle.
Just over two months to go, I would love to raise the bar to around 320.
Thank you so much everyone.
Gary xx



( all photographs by Lee Gregory)


Back to Shetland...... Coue's Arctic Redpoll for Bird Number 310 and Great Company

Tuesday 25th October Strong S-SW Occasional Showers

Early morning singing session, to take my mind off the ever-rocking Good Shepherd as she sails away from Fair Isle, starts the day.
Goodbye to Lee Gregory at the Quay. I will miss this wonderful birder and friend. It has been fabulous to be in his company these last few weeks.


The sea swell is I suppose normal yet enough to cause some white knuckle moments as I cling on and sing.
A single little auk passes the boat but I can’t count it on the year list; carbon transport involved. A sooty shearwater does likewise and I wake Nina, a volunteer from the Fair Isle Bird Observatory who is heading home and sleeping in a corner of the deck. I am sure she would to see such a great bird.
Grutness, goodbye to Shaun, Deryk, Kenny and Ian and many thanks. A great crossing, it is always such an adventure and with me a complete lottery over whether I will chuck up or not.
This time I didn’t.
I feel tired and sleep for a few hours! The day goes by with me oblivious to the harbour activities and when I wake up the quay is empty, The Good Shepherd has returned to Paradise.

My evening is spent in great company. Into the superb Sumburgh Hotel for a meal, my first cider is a gift from the proprietor, hence a donation to the charities.
Steve Minton, a local birder from Scatness arrives. He only be described as an Alexei Sayle character, not the subtlest bloke I have ever met! His birding credentials are exemplary and as for his garden list, is there a garden in Britain that has a bird list of 201? If there is one somewhere I would love to know about it.

Richard Bonser arrives with Stef McAlway (sorry Stef if my spelling is off a bit!) and Juan Brown arrive and the stories of birding binges lift the laughter to the rafters. Birds seen, escapades and near drownings; birders like this should have an outlet where the stories can be collated and enjoyed by all.

Wednesday 26th October Strong SW Occasional Heavy Showers

Three aims to the day; get to Lerwick as soon as possible to find a tick the Coue's arctic redpolls there. Then get the repairs required for my bike done and finally get the ferry to Kirkwall, Orkney.
Heavy rain and a strong south-westerly, which is mostly coming from behind me, makes for a reasonable cycle despite the lack of gears. Oh for that moment when with bike fixed I ride with a full set of gears again.

The views along the main road north alternate between moody magnificence when showers hit and brilliant beauty when the sun shone brightly.
A proper Shetland downpour when I reach Lerwick, I take shelter at a bus stop and chat with a lovely old couple wo wave when they get onto their bus eventually.
The rain slows and find the cemetry where a flock of redpolls has lessers, mealies and two Coue's.
Half an hour later, Coue's arctic redpoll goes onto the year list, 310 – the crossbar goes higher.



Into Leriwck centre and in through the entrance of the fantastic Shetland Community Bike Project. Incredibly to me they manage to repair all of the things required, front and back brakes, front tyre and inners. All completed in time for me to get to the ferry to Kirkwall, Orkney.

http://shetlandlinkup.org/page16.html 

Maybe having a meal before getting on the boat wasn't such a good idea. I saw it all a couple of hours later as the end of Finding Dory (isn't she cute as a baby fish!?) was approaching and the ship was rocking violently in the large swell south of Sumburgh Head.

I lie down between seats in the ship's cinema and try to sleep.

Thursday 27 October 2016

Leaving Fair Isle.

Monday 24th October     Fresh E     cloudy with showers

The weather forecast for the next ten days tells me that tomorrow is the only day that I can be assured the Good Shepherd will sail. Wind tomorrow will be south-west compared to a strong north easterly next Tuesday; the boat is now on its once weekly Winter timetable.
Also the wind for the next few days will also be south westerly so that will be from almost behind me as I cycle towards Lerwick, the capital of Shetland.
It would be reckless to risk staying until next week. The thing that would keep me on Fair Isle is the friendship of Lee Gregory and Cath Mendez.
I need to pack. I need to say goodbye to some wonderful people who it is a real privilege to know.
I head for Florrie and Jim's croft in the south of the island and chat with them whilst enjoying my first coffee for days. The view from their kitchen is amazing; a vista of sea and land with green and blue, white spray and mist. Paintings on the wall would be superfluous, their's changes all the time. Both Jim and Florrie have friendly, full smiled personalities and they tell me tales of birdwatchers from decades ago who weren't as well behaved or as conversant as today's birders. There is also a fear that some aspects of what makes Fair Isle so very special; the openness, the lack of any sort of crime and the wonderful sense of community in, may be lost in the future. All must work together, crofters, Bird Observatory staff and visiting guests to the island, to ensure that that never happens. Communities like Fair Isles, are extremely rare and therefore so very precious. A jade jewel of such splendour, a place to visit and marvel at.


Birding on the way back north, I watch the geese flock again. Goodbye and thanks to Fiona and Robert at the shop and a donation given to the November the Fifth firework fund.
Up from there to Lower Stoneybrek, Neil is back and I am so glad to see him! Neil is now retired as Captain of The Good Shepherd so I won't be able to say goodbye from the quay at Grutness, Shetland tomorrow.

As Neil closes his door after saying we'll see each other again next year, a northern bullfinch flies along the roadside and lands in the field nearby. This magnificent, large mass of pink topped by a black cap bird hops around in the grass, behaviour very unlike any I have seen display by British bullfinches.
The afternoon is spent with a broom kindly lent to me by yet another crofter, Rachel. I sweep out my abode and brush the wooden walls. My aim is to make it shine before I finish.

Three hours later, having packed and cleaned, I go down to Lower Stoneybrek and leave a donation to the Island Development fund. It is a duty to do so. The island has been so good to me during my extended stay.

Tuesday 25 October 2016

Let's Get The European Record for Real. Carbon Free Days.

Friday 21st October very light SE sunny and warm

I have been to Fair Isle on three occasions including this visit. My first time was back in 2010 whilst on my first cycling-birding adventure. That was for a week when I stayed at the South Lighthouse.
Last year I came for almost five weeks with a gap of a couple of weeks when I returned to Shetland in order to see friends from The Midlands, The Birding Clams (Clear Lunacy & Madness Society), visit the RSPB nature reserves on the islands, that is Fetlar, Yell, Spiggie and Sumburgh Head, Mousa. Ramna Stacks I had to view over the sea from the Mainland and Yell. I also saw some excellent birds. The birds included Eastern subalpine warbler, olive-backed pipit and American golden plover.
This year's visit is coming to its conclusion. The weather forecast for the next ten days tells me that there is an 'escape window' on Tuesday next when the wind is a light south-easterly. This compares to the following Tuesday when a strong north-westerly will make my suffering horrible sea sickness more likely. The Good Shepherd is my only option yet how I would love to fly away!
I have been here since the penultimate day of August with a break of a week when I dipped on the First for Britain, Siberian accentor; a bird that Fair Isle gave to me yesterday. Thanks Lee Gregory!
In all that time I didn't realise that there was a Village Hall! Sure I had seen the biggest building on the Island apart from the World famous Fair Isle Bird Observatory but I just thought it was a gymnasium for the Primary school children. It is attached to that and part of the school complex.
This morning I need the loo. Desperately.
I know that there is a toilet next to the 'gym.' On going to it I don't see the toilet to the right, one that I have seen every time I have used the left hand toilets. There is a door. It is open. With a curious streak I peak in through it after going through two glass doors between the entrance and the open door. There are two people in there setting up a cinema and an animation is showing as they check sound levels and connections. The presumed gymnasium has been transformed into a Villa Hall and cinema for an event, I am told, for the next evening.
What I had always thought of as another toilet is just the reflection of the one toilet in the glass doors!
Yet wait, there's more.
There are more toilets; one set for Ladies and another for men. Using the latter I find hot water! Luxury.
By the Mens there is another open door leading to another room. It is open and inside I can see a Pool table!
There is not just a Village Hall but also a Social room with a pool table and two dart boards. I'm flabbergasted.
How fantastic it would be to see the room used as a meeting place for birders and islanders. Maybe a dart's night with teams of each; a pool tournament. Who knows? Next year.

A couple, Trudi and Len are walking down the road towards the Kirk and they stop me to show a photograph of a redpoll species. On the photograph the rump looks very white but that could be ue to the image quality from using a bridge camera. I remember how it was difficult to ascertain the flycatcher in Grey Geo species a couple of weeks ago because of flare.
I find the redpolls where they say and settle down to try to get good views of one that is obviously paler than the other mealies and l;esser redpolls.




There seems to be a conspiracy against me today for every time I try to get a look at the pale bird a vehicle goes past disturbing them all and sending them away to Da Water.
They always soon return, bless them but the final straw is when Florrie, a lady who has been on Fair Isle with her husband Jimmie for all of her life, drives past. Jokingly I throw my arms up in desperation and we both laugh as she passes.
Jimmie and Florrie are two of my favourite people on the island. Always happy, it is a privilege to think of them as friends.
Eventually I get the view I want and with bill too large, streaking on a pale rump and overall shape I put the bird down as a pale mealy. Interesting bird though.
The weather is unbelievable for October, very warm and very sunny.
Another couple are looking at some nearby Lapand buntings. Bernard and Carole from Cambridge have a now famous tripod. The Siberian accentor, still the talk of the island amongst the birders, actually sat on one of the legs. I joke that they should sell the tripod immediately. It would raise enough funds to come back to Fair Isle next year!


Saturday 22nd October Very light SE-E Sunny, warm

Down to Fair Isle's wonderful shop for a few provisions and a chat with Fiona, a Director of The Fair Isle Bird Observatory. As a focal place for islanders to meet it has no equal and a few of them are inside the shop when I enter. Their friendliness towards strangers such as I and each other is inspiring.
Sheep that like standing on a dry stone wall in front of Sheep Rock. Cool!


The great grey shrike is down by the Kirk but I don't get a good view of it as it is directly in line with the bright sun sitting on a fence.
In the field immediately west of Lower Stoneybrek there feed my favourite group of birds on Fair Isle at the moment. There may be a pine bunting, a new one from the other day, at Parks. There is still the possible Stejneger's stonechat on South Harbour beach yet the small flock of grey geese that have been here for a few days holds my attention the most. Where else but Fair Isle would one have five species of geese together and less than fifty yards away. Yes the watch you as you watch them, the sentinels aware of you and of their role as protectors of the flock. Yet I can sit and watch, photograph and video each species; bean geese, Greenland whitefronts, greylags and pink-footed geese and a lone barnacle goose.




I sit and remember the flocks of hundreds of Eureopean white-fronted geese that used to frequent the WWT (Wildfowl & Wetland Trust) reserve and headquarters at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire. From the high vantage point afforded over the Dumbles from Holden Tower, one would, back in the 1970s and 80s, looking for maybe a stray pink-footed goose, bean or with real luck a lesser white-fronted goose, usually a 1st year bird. Nowadays at Slimbridge there is a feral flock of barnacle geese and greylags, canadas and the occasional stray but there isn't the wintering European white-fronted goose flock. They have decided to stay over in The Netherlands.
At this range each feature that denotes each species is easy to view. The bean geese are having a small band of orange on their bills that have just a slight bulge along the baseline. Pink-feets have shorter necks; obvious when they stand next to a bean.
I want to look at the redpolls again and head in that direction puching my bike along the marshy path beside Buini Mere.
I walk up the hill along the road by the school when a small bunting starts to fly towards me. It is small too for as it lands just the other side of the barbed wire fence in the grass just a few feet away I see that it is a spanking little bunting. That's Fair Isle, they come to you.

The evening is spent in the company of many islanders and Bird Observatory staff at the newly found by me Village hall. A couple from Shetland Mainland have brought over a selection of superb films. For two hours all present are treated to locally made films showing a wide variety of aspects of life on Shetland. The mini fim festival starts with a well constructed and powerful film about the problem of depression amongst men. With humour and a huge nod to the islands' Viking heritage, Ragnar, shows the relationship between father and son, friends and landscape. It hits home without being maudling and the end shows a possible light at the end of the tunnel.
There followed eight short films with a wide variety of styles. Sometimes I couldn't understand the strong Gaelic brogue but then again if I 'spake wid me owen axunt' would they understand me? No matter, the detail and content was plain to see despite language differences.
From a mackerel fisherman of old to the avant-garde of a man who couldn't put his jacket on, comic Dance, Dance heroes to The Curse of the Wereduck cartoon, all were excellent in their own way and thoroughly enjoyable.
One memorable scene was when a toddler is tied to a rope just like a sheep would be, to allow tha 'wee laddie' to wonder safely in the fields. No cruelty here just fun and love and a child enjoying the intensity of his parents' affection.
No intermission meant cramp in the backside but one couldn't look away from the last film; a forty-five minute feature about the history of the island of Havera until the departure of its last inhabitants in the early 1920s.
Coffee and biscuit at the end, I had been sitting with the most sunshine personality on the island Dave of South Lighthouse. Dave's whole manner is one of excited geniality and to spend time with him is a pleasure that lifts spirits. His sunbeams are infectious.
How wonderful to sit with Britain's most remote community and know the names of each person present. The wonder of Fair Isle is its people.

Sunday 23rd October very light NE-E bit more cloud, still mainly sunny though, cooler

I feel like being a bit of a lister today and make myself a target of 50 bird species. Pink-footed goose and hooded crow are on the list whilst I lie in my sleeping bag at 5:00AM; they call and caw.
It is still dark at that time yet I decide to get up and have a walk, sleep being very hard to come by at the moment and my asthma is playing up a bit. Fresh, cool air will do it good and I walk down the island with Orion ahead of me again.
Silhouetted on Da Water's pool are a number of duck and by the light of the Moon I can see lapwings, five of them.
Sunrise around 7:30AM and Lapland buntings are in the field by the Kirk. Two grey heron cronk their way south flying high and a black-headed gull that sadly doesn't look too well is sitting in a marshy area.
The day list is on twenty five by the time I reach Springfield. Here, after seeing chaffinch and brambling together, I change my mind. I was going to take the short route along the iris bed stream to the Haa but I think I will go around the Moeness cliffs instead.
Finding a sheep dug seat on a finger of rock jutting out into a geo, I sit and watch. A seal is fast asleep, kettling in the calm sea at the base of the cliff where I am sitting. He is 'solid gone man!' I film him and photograph him, watching him for around twenty minutes with all thought of the day list dispelled. How often can one's sleeping companion be a sleeping seal? I feel like a speed nap myself.


He, I think of the seal as a he but it might be a she, wakes up and sees me watching from above. Unperturbed and probably with a it's Sunday, I'll have a lie in attitude, the seal carries on sleeping.
Leaving him to his dreams of fish and kelp, I walk around the cliffs and marvel at what I can see. The early morning sun makes for superb, magnificent even scenery. 

The South Lighthouse stands out in its whiteness against the greens, greys and blues. The Skerries are being washed over by a gentle swell. There are large and deep caves to be seen that I would love to explore but have no way of reaching.
A chiif chaff is on a cliff top making ready for the immense fly south, the thrill of witnessing migration. Eider drakes are head tossing and Frankie Howard “Oww” calling in display to the attendent female eider. A stunningly white full adult male long-tailed drake flies past. Two purple sandpipers are feeding in their usual habitat and I start daydreaming again as I approach South Harbour.
News of yet another Siberian accentor for Britain and Fair Isle comesin. This one has been found by David Parnaby, Fair Isle Bird Observatory warden, up near the North Lighthouse. Only five miles away yet I choose to carry one exploring the south. I am thrilled for David. He deserves to find this mega and hot on the heels of Lee Gregory's different Siberian accentor too; a sixth and a seventh for Britain in this incredible, totally unprecedented Autumn for the species.
Siberian accentor, never before seen in Britain. Now there have been seven, no eight. One has just been found on Unst. And as for Europe, the last time I heard there had been over 120!
I walk along above South harbour beach but to be honest I don't give it the once over grilling I should and don't see the special stonechat. Instead I sit and marvel at the chiff chaffs on the seaweed.
More chaffinch and brambling at Utra, nine wood pigeons are in the field there. The geese here include eight white-fronts, six greylags and two bean geese.

Just below Shirva I meet the teenage ram pair who are engaged in a bout of head banging. A short charge then head down . . . bonk. They are bonkers too but come to my call for a scratch of their oily fleeces.
Around fifteen bramblings, surely one of many people's favourite finches, are in amongst the thistles at North Shirva. A male stands out amongst the first year and female birds. Not as gaudy as a male bullfinch maybe, bramblings to me have a charm all of their own and the variety of orange tones is a delight to see.
I take another good look at the mixed geese flock and head for the Parks oat field to look at the new pine bunting.
Now here I must say how I feel about getting the new european Green Year list record back on the 18th.
Yes, as you may have seen from the photograph, I was more than thrilled to bits to see the three birds I needed for the record on that day. Yet I was unhappy over seeing them on a day when I had used carbon transport, namely the boat, The Good Shepherd.
I feel that a purer 'Green' record is when the birds are seen when no carbon transport is used. With that in mind since that wonderful day I had endeavoured to see each of the species involved on carbon-free days. Bean geese were easy and what a thrill to think I wouldn't have to search around the west of Falkirk area in November for beanies. Last year it took all of a snoy day to find them. Of course, as usual, I enjoy the search and adventure, the challenge and the elation of finding them but having some fifty yards away,.... I'll go for that in my dotage of being a sixty year old.
The possible Stejneger's Siberian stonechat I watched for a couple of hours absorbing it's jizz (behaviour) and plumage. A subtle bird, I hear both poo and a feather have been sent off for DNA analysis to ascertain the race.
So with two of the three covered I make my way to the third, the pine bunting.

I search each croft garden on the way there, say hello to the 'lads', rams in pairs in fields on the way and walk the edge of the oat field. Two birds come out. The first of the two is bright yellow. Yellowhammer onto the day list. The other is a paler bird with quite well head markings; pine bunting goes officially onto the Green year list and Ponc can now be informed of a new record.
Great views of this pine bunting, a more interestingly marked bird than the Quoy bird.
There's a waxwing been seen at the Bird Observatory. On the way there I stop for a chat with a birder, Andrew. His eyes suddenly expand. He has seen a cracking male black redstart on the wall behind him. Gorgeous bird. Thanks Andrew.
Waxwing onto the day list.
Down to The Havens, goldcrest and wheatear put down in the notebook.
Heading back to my little abode a flock of golden plover fly around Setter, bird number 53 for the day.

BB 2010 Oops, crash and a motorway Abominable Snowman in Hemel Hempstead January 5th

5 th January                                                            Tragedy                                              The Bee Gees   ...