View From The Shed by Shaun Finnie - LOCAL HEROES

LOCAL HEROES

Do not believe everything you read on the internet. I'm generally suspicious of any 'facts' I find on the 'net and I particularly always check online 'quotes' that are attributed to famous people. Case in point; I saw a meme this week quoting Benjamin Franklin as saying “If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail”.

As usual, I dug deep into this attribution and found that there's no record of the American Statesman saying anything of the sort. The first recorded use of this adage was over a century after Franklin's death in a pamphlet giving advice to writers of sermons by the Reverend H. K. Williams. That must be the truth; I found it on the internet.

Even though old Ben didn't say it, the “failing to prepare” quote is still a good life lesson in general, and it applies to bird-watching just as much as any other activity. Here are three examples taken from my own experiences over the last couple of weeks.

Example one – Those nice people at RSPB Old Moor recently laid on a lovely treat for their volunteer staff (like me). It was a 'thank you' for the work that we volunteers do and it was much appreciated. They took us to Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve for the day, out in the wilds of Lincolnshire. A great time was had by all but one particular thing would have made it even better.

Gibraltar Point is known for its huge flocks of Knot, Sanderling or Plovers. These are birds that don't turn up very often in the Dearne Valley so you can understand my anticipation of the day. Sadly, I saw none of these species. In fact, I saw not one single shorebird. Not only did I see no birds on the beach, I didn't even see any sea on the beach. Maybe there were birds on the surf line, maybe not. I wouldn't know, it was that far out. Even with my strongest optics I couldn't see any saltwater at all.

Lesson one: when visiting the seashore, always check the tide times.

Example two – My wife decided that we should have a day at the seaside just for us two. Unfortunately, the 'seaside' she chose to visit wasn't beside the sea at all, but the Humber Estuary. Cleethorpes, I've been bitten by you before. Your tide goes out even further than it does at Gibraltar Point. So I checked, and I checked again. Thrice I checked, because these things always come in threes, until I was certain of my facts. We planned to arrive at Cleethorpes at around 10am and I learned that the high tide was scheduled for 12-50. Perfect. We'd be there to see any birds that eat along the edge of the incoming tide as it pushed them closer inland, and we'd still be around for any that like to dig into the soft, wet sand left behind as the waves recede from high tide. Cleethorpes, do your worst.

Sadly, it did. Unfortunately, the one thing that I couldn't predict was the Great British weather. The forecast had said that it was going to be bright and sunny all day. I'm sure the sun was there but we didn't see it. We didn't see much else either apart from a small patch of about fifteen feet all around us. Everything else was shrouded in a blanket of thick fog that never lifted all day. A fisherman spotted my binoculars and chuckled. “You'll not see owt today,” he offered, less than helpfully. “On days like this there's no chance of the fog lifting until the tide's way out. Any local knows that.” Locals might do. I didn't.

Lesson two: Local experience will always trump predictions made from far away.

Example three – Me and a friend decided to visit some nearby moorlands at twilight. We had been hoping to see Nightjars (too late in the season) or Woodcock (he did, I couldn't pick it out in the gathering gloom), but I didn't trouble the scorer on either count. But just as we were beginning to feel the Call of the Pub strongly luring us like a Siren song, another birder who was also scanning the horizon with his binoculars said, “I presume you've seen yon LEO?” For those not aware of birding parlance, a LEO is a Long-Eared Owl. They're a proper 'birder's bird' and I hadn't seen one in a long while. “No, where?” I replied, as nonchalantly as possible. In this case, 'as possible' meant trying not to leap up and down on the spot in excitement. “Over there, on yon post. He always sits there for a few minutes before he starts hunting of a night.”

I frantically searched where he was pointing. I couldn't see the owl. I couldn't even see the post. It was so dark by now that I was even having trouble seeing the birder himself. But then, glory be, a miracle happened. A dark shape rose from the centre of my field of vision. The land was pitch black by this time. The sky wasn't much lighter but astoundingly there was a slightly darker blob, an owl-shaped patch of darkness punched out of the surrounding slightly less dark darkness. It was clearly flying in a very owly fashion too. “There,” said my patient new best friend. “See it?”

I grinned. “Yeah. Lovely”.

The point of all this is Lesson three. However much homework you do, however much you plan a trip before you go somewhere, there's no substitute for local knowledge, and preferably many years of it.

If you've ever been to our Old Moor site in South Yorkshire you'll know that there's a huge variety of birds to see here. But how much better would it be if you had one of these local experts to show you around the reserve? Even better, to have the place to yourself with a small group before the reserve opens to the public.

You're in luck. We host these Early Bird Guided Walks on the first Sunday of every month. Here's the link where you can check the dates and book a place. Early Bird Guided Walk I'd heartily recommend them to everyone, novice or more experienced.

And we also have a dragonfly walk on Wednesday 4 October with our expert David Pritchard. I'll be there too. Please come join us. Dragonfly Walk

But even if you can't join us for one of these walks, you'll benefit from knowing what's been seen on the reserve. And this is where our sighting board comes in useful...