Awayday 2
A trip, in the misty rain...though it proved on and off during the morning....
I set off to find Lodge Hill for my Nightingale expedition in May. As it is located not too far from Cliffe Pools I decided the best way forward would be to go to Cliffe first....bound to be a few birders around...then I can ask some local knowledge and go off to visit Lodge Hill.....
So...to Cliffe....not bad...only took me 40 minutes to get there. It appears im in the middle of either North Kent coast or South Coast, Rye Harbour....both around the same time from here...
I arrived at Cliffe Pools....now...if this is one of your favourite sites you probably wont want to read much of this....im not the greatest fan of the RSPB....and this visit hanst changed that at all...
Gate closed. No excuses. Birds...and birders....get up at dawn.
Map/signage - none. Crap. Quite honestly. Crap. The complete lack of a map. Ridiculous.
Views - could be described, at best, as 'distant'. Even with a scope.
Im being honest and not churlish. The RSPB really do need to sort themselves out over some of these things.
So...to the visit itself.
0800 - 0915 overcast, drizzly f2-4
Song Thrush, Greenfinch, Dunnock, Black Headed Gull, Robin, Chaffinch, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Coot, Long Tailed Tit, Blackbird, Mallard, Greylag Geese, Jackdaw, Canada Geese, Tufted Duck, Oystercatcher, Great Tit, Chiffchaff, Wren, Gadwall, Med Gull, Goldfinch, Grey Heron, Linnet, Skylark, Crow, Meadow Pipit, Teal, Lapwing, Redshank, Avocet, Shoveler, Shelduck, Wigeon, Little Egret, Little Grebe, Reed Bunting, Ringed Plover, Golden Plover, Yellowhammer....and bird of the day.....Swallow....!!
So...on to Lodge Hill. The first person I asked, not a birder, claimed to be local. Then seemed to have problems telling me how to get to Lodge Hill. Which I kind of knew as I had a map. Anyway, once he had gone I asked another...I did this mostly because I heard him mention Great Tit...maybe this should have given me the clue not to ask....they had a dog as well...another great sign of a non-birder. They dont go together. And if Great Tit was his bird of the day...hmmmm....even for a beginner....hmmm....
Anyway, this persons pearls of wisdom revealed a different set of instructions entirely. Hmmm...what to do....so I followed this second set, possibly more because they at least liked birds...the first guy was just a dog walker. The second persons instructions took me to Northward Hill. Good grief!
So I followed my map, then the instructions from the first guy. His instructions werent really any better. So back to the map....and eventually I found my way across the military camps and roads....
I found an archery club at the top of Lodge Hill. I enquired within.....things were about to go all banjo playing.....
.....you know how sometimes you wish you hadnt....well...one guy claimed to do surveys with the RSPB...the other guy just kept saying how lucky I was I wasnt wandering around this bit of private wood or I would be shot with an arrow. I hate righteous do gooder 'get off my land' types. As if by walking on it you are damaging it.
I got some information out of the other guy who then thought he would treat me like a five year old....telling me how I would hear the Nightingales and they liked scrub and blah blah blah...all despite giving them both the idea, from the start, that I was a birder.....then the other guy joined in....stories of arrows through heads, arms and up whizzwabs....
....it all started to have the feeling of Deliverence.....banjos started playing somewhere....so I got in the car as fast as I could and drove home....
Thats why most of us birders are loners Graham LoL Best go to Leybourne Lakes for nightingales, it's a damn sight easier mate ;-)
ReplyDeleteDogs and birders don't go together - really? I've been birdwatching on the Swale NNR for 30 years, 26 as a Vol. Warden, and always with two dogs. I've probably seen more birds as a result of the dogs flushing birds up than I would of done without them, not only that the dogs are far better companions than some of the idiots who go chasing birds around the countryside and think that they are far more intelligent than some of us local yokels.
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