Thirty Years Ago - August 1994

5^th August:

An extended birding/social trip combining birding Cornwall while Adrian W was on his two Pelagics and allowing me to catch up with the lovely Loo in St Agnes.

The drive down was enlivened by a stop at Haldon Forest where the male Honey Buzzard soared over our heads displaying in their characteristic way. Stithians Reservoir next and we promptly found the randy male Pied Billed Grebe dozing while his Little Grebe wife sat on their second clutch. He still had a nice black bib.

A quick scan round located two of the curious first brood offspring. Weird Grebelets with huge ivory bills, like daggers and not sort and stout like their father. They had the stripy heads that young Grebes have but a spiky Pied Billed tail.  The male eventually went and relieved the female Little from the nest.

A Green Sand twittered but there was nothing else of note here. The last stop before offloading Adrian at Newquay was the Hayle were typically two Little Egrets obliged.

6^th August:

A day spent showing Loo around Cornwall – and she lives and is from there. Little in the way of birds other than one of the Hayle Little Egrets and a Peregrine.

7^th August:

I picked up Adrian from his first trip at 7am and off we went to Porthgwarra after some breakfast and birding news.  It was boringly quiet and we soon left with only a Great Skua worthy of comment. Two more Little Egrets were seen at Drift but that Squacco still eluded us. I left Adrian at 5pm to embark on his second trip.

8^th August: 

I was awoken at 7.15am by the sound of Adrian’s pager (not much use on a boat!) going off – Aquatic Warbler and Spot Crake at Marazion Marsh. It was blowing a gale and looked miserable outside and thus I dozed back off till when it said ‘showing well’ I dragged myself up and headed out. It only took twenty minutes to see this streaky fellow and another thirty before first rate, full in the open views were obtained. A really yellowy individual which hopped around on the cut reed stems like a funny Dunnock.

Aquatic Warbler

A walk on the beach only produced a few Sandwich and Arctic Terns and two Whimbrel so I headed to ‘Gwarra but it was once again birdless so I did some climbing on the boulders on the beach before heading back to Loos van.

9^th August:

Up early again after an eventful evening and I felt like death warmed up by the time I got down to Penzance. There was no sign of the Chalice at Newquay or Penzance so I tried to kip in the car while the raging force seven easterly sent huge waves crashing over the harbour walls.  The Chalice eventually came in and Adrian and the crew did not look too good.  They had only seen a couple of Wilson’s Petrels for their efforts.  With the weather completely wrong for seawatching we opted to try Marazion and to my amazement we soon found an Aquatic Warbler. A darker, less well narked bird than the one yesterday. Black tailed Skimmers and Oak Eggar moths were being blown by!

Rather bizarrely I decided at that point that we should go home via Sandwich Bay in Kent where a Lesser Grey Shrike had been found.  It was a long drive but it showed very well despite the windy conditions. A fitting way to end an 1100 mile trip.

[Eds: Sometimes I really do wonder what I was like back then!].

Lesser Grey Shrike 

13^th August:

I swore that I would never twitch Eire on the simply grounds that it is a separate country – not part of the UK and I have always found it strange that the list was ‘Great Britain and Eire’ but I gave in to pressure from Adrian [Eds: sorry, can’t remember which one!] and Mike S and joined them on an inexpensive day trip to Tacumshin.

The predominately in the dark ferry from Fishguard to Rosslare was enlivened by lots of Manx Shearwaters and a sun inhibited adult sum plum Sabine’s Gull.

Once ashore we joined two Welsh lads and hired a taxi to take us the eight miles to Tacumshin where hopefully the adult Sharp-tailed Sandpiper would be waiting for us.  The site was amazing; a huge flat watery, muddy expanse with three reedy inlets. There were literally thousands of waders but it was actually the fact that I found an adult Spotted Crake within the first ten minutes that caused a stir as it fed with up to ten Water Rails along the reedy edges. It was a tick for all the Irish birders present and the first twitchable in the country since 1990!

With no sign of the Sandpiper we resorted to removing our shoes and socks and circumnavigating the area with muddy feet. Even then we could not find it and over the next eight hours we amassed a good selection of species but not the quarry.  We knew it was there as the Welsh lads had seen it within an hour of arriving but lost it quickly.

Regardless we plodded on and after two complete 1.5mile circuits in the mud we collapsed at about 3pm. Suddenly we could see Stu Elsom running in the distance and soon a pre-arranged signal alerted us to its presence so it was back off with the shoes and back once more into squidgy discomfort.  It had been lost again and so we started all over again. Two Little Egrets were seen and Hooded Crows and hybrids were noted along with a Peregrine before it was mercifully refound. Running through algae and shell infested mud is not fun but we did it to get to the latest waving man! We had to keep telling each other to quiet down as we were just so elated to finally see this totally stunning wader. It looked proportionally like a funny crake than a sandpiper. Definitely one of the smartest waders I have ever seen and my 60^th of the tribe.

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper #407 - note that I did add it to my list despite my protestations but I have still not twitched Eire since (although I have visited) and saw the Oare Marshes Sharpie in 2007

We trudged our way back out of Tacumshin mud and headed back to the road. Everyone was gasping for a drink – we were hungry, sunburned and seriously dehydrated and without the hospitality of the owners of one of the two bungalows, we would have all been thirsty for quite a while longer.

[Eds: I seem to remember buying a bottle of Bols cherry brandy on the way over and carrying it around all day!]

With no public telephone we also had to ask them if they could call us a minibus to take everyone back to Rosslare.  It was nearly 6pm and thoughts of catching the last ferry seemed lost but our driver drove like a man possessed and we arrived on time. We were even able to exchange our £14 ferry tickets for £22 Seacat one at no extra charge.  The man simply gave us different boarding cards and wished us a pleasant journey! It was fantastic. The speed and smoothness of this powerful boat was amazing. I stayed up on deck for the 90 minute crossing and as we reached the Welsh coast rafts of 1000s of Manx Shearwaters began to appear as they gathered to head into their nest burrows for the night. [Eds: I can remember them being illuminated by the setting sun one way and silhouetted the other.] A great way to complete a memorable if somewhat muddy day and I do not remember getting home or apparently walking around a service station in my socks.

20^th-24^th August:

My first excursion with Emma to Northumberland to help her with her dissertation fieldwork. We saw quite a few bits up the Bizzle including Red Grouse, Peregrines, Ravens, Meadow Pipits, Wheatears and a family of Ring Ouzels.  A trip to Edinburgh with her parents was a nice day off and the first time I have been able to look around the city. Tawny and Little Owls were around the campsite.

28^th August:

Pete and I popped down to Cliffe for the Buff-breasted Sandpiper that had been around for two days. Quite a crowd had gathered and it showed exceptionally well on the closest mud. Such a tiny delicate bird with warm colours and exquisite markings.  [Eds: I seem to recall that we walked out to what would now be the back bund of the Black Barn Pools as viewed from the current mound.]

Like in late July the waders numbers were very good with a good mixture of species including an adult Temminck’s Stint and Wood Sandpiper.  Lunch and then a look at the North Quarry produced three Little Egrets, a partially albino Coot, six Kingfishers and a leucistic Sand Martin amongst the throng of normal ones.  It is strange how blasé we have already become about Little Egrets.

We spent the rest of the day poodling around the coast but seeing little although we did find two Pomarine Skuas off the Isle of Grain.

31^st August:

A trip to Canvey Island was quiet with just a single Arctic Skua and a few Terns but one of the Little Terns was a bit strange having concolorous grey upperparts, rump and central tail – all characteristics of Least Tern. Unfortunately it never called. Perhaps it was ‘Squeaker’? He did have history of visiting Essex being in the ternery at Colne Point in the summer of 1991.

Squeaker?

Uganda - the people along the way

When I return from these bigger, further flung adventures I always take a moment to reflect on the country I have visited. As we travel around I try and take candid pictures of the human world around me – usually only from the bus but they aim to capture the real everyday life that we experienced as we passed through.

Uganda was different.  The people were loud and vibrant and the towns bustling, noisy with trucks, mopeds and the countless Boda-boda boys on their well looked after taxi bikes and everything is coloured by the red dust that seems to get everywhere but the disparity between those living in the rural areas and those even in the smaller towns was an eyeopener.

I have never been anywhere where I have seen people quite literally living hand to mouth; where clothes were more hole than fabric, where shoes were a luxury. Different areas had different local industries whether it was huge white sacks of charcoal, more bunches of bananas than you can possibly imagine, pineapple, gourd, tomato and sweet potato sellers, pot weavers and the brick makers spending their days slaving in the mud to feed their ovens.

And where you found one pineapple seller they would be along side countless others on both sides of the road for miles and miles and the same went for any product we saw.  How anyone choses who to stop at I do not know?

We passed several of the huge roving banana markets where everyone comes to sell their crop – be it one bunch of a hundred before they head off, depending on the banana type, to the cities or distilleries to make the local gin.

The sugar cane fields obviously employ a huge number of people and it was the one time that the workers that we saw did not look happy as they headed off into the fields, jammed in the back of open backed truck, machetes in hand.

Mobile hawkers sell their chosen products in a variety of ways with bicycles customised to hold huge racks covered pots and pans, phone chargers, flip flops and such like while other simply carry them around attached to their backs, heads and arms.  In towns their is a battle between the food vendors to wave sticks of miscellaneous meat on sticks or corn cobs at the windows of any vehicle that vaguely lingers.

I suspect that the largely beige Land Cruisers used by nearly every tour company out here are recognised by the children and we were joyously waved at, danced at and ‘helloed’ where ever we went.  There was no expectation of handouts or gifts – they just wanted us to respond as enthusiastically!  Each school had a uniform and all were turned out immaculately as they walked to and from school albeit sometimes without shoes.

I am sure I will get the wording wrong here but I will have a go.   I have and never will be wealthy. I have never had proper savings (I worked for the RSPB, remember) but for the first time ever I felt weighed down with the simple personal wealth around my neck, on my back and my feet – you do the maths.  I did not feel ashamed by it – I live in a different culture and worked for my acquisitions– but I was acutely aware that I was at times surrounded by people who quite literally had next to nothing and while there I was powerless to do anything about it as we drove by, waving and smiling as we went.

It was not just I that felt this way and we had a good chat with Paul one evening and asked about his childhood.  It mirrored that of many of the villages we came through.  He was the first person in his village to go to University and subsequently escape.  We asked if there was anything we could do? Amazingly Paul has set up a charity to help families in the area in which he grew up and those around Bwindi so if you would like to donate then please have a look at Birds of a Feather 

One thing that we regretted was not bringing out useful items to donate.  Paul had asked that we did not hand out gifts to random children but that is better if gifts of pencils, books, paper, old glasses and clothes get given to your guide to take into a local school or such like.  We all had spare room in our cases and every little helps.  Some of the party flew with Emirates through Dubai and had over 60kg of available luggage if they wanted it.  They said that they would have filled an old suitcase with unwanted clothes (adults need clothes too!) and such like and simply left it with Paul to disseminate.  I am sure any other tour guide would be happy to do likewise.  I will also consider taking out any unwanted optics next time too which could be given to the numerous local helpers that we had,

It always amazes me how quick your short time in a new country goes and Uganda was no exception. I hope this Muzungu will get the chance to visit again before too long.

The pictures are not grouped in any way but sort of follow our journey...

Tomatoes were fabulous

Every town had several metal frontage, security gate constructors

The Pineapple Man

Lots of mattress shops and we even saw a factory
where they are made and stuffed with Capoc

Everyone in the village goes to weddings and funerals

Charcoal sellers

'nanna Men - they all wore their coats back to front

Banana market - eaters, cookers, plantains and gin'nanas

the huge 'everything' market that roams between towns 

Schoolish bus

'nanaleaf Man

We also saw pigs, sheep and chickens carried this way

Bada-Bada Boys

Croc alert!

Each town had a sofa maker with old pallets and eucalypt as the frames

Any access to water held a car, truck and bike wash stop

the Kampala Hat Man

And I will end with this enterprising gent with his triple booster bike obviously created to help him be the first Ugandan in space...