The Lyons Share

I was struck by how cathartic it was writing about my old bird diaries. It wasn't an easy period in my life and I didn't have many suitable male role models growing up but those bird-watching days were of real importance to me.  I really can't thank Ewart and Richard enough for their influence. I believe my drive to go to uni, my career in natural history and much of my inquisitive scientific mind come from those adventures.

Anyway, at 12, I might have known what a Waxwing was but I clearly didn't know that I was actually in Nuneaton not Nottingham (thanks for the update Ewart). You'll be telling me that the Snowy Owl wasn't in Leicestershire next!

Blithfield Reservoir is definitely in Staffordshire however. Well, it definitely was in 1991...

We set of to Blithfield, we found a dead dunlin and we walked across the ice on some of the small inlets. 

        We searched the teal for this greenwinged but the numbers where to great. we walked around for a while and saw a nice male pintail and a male gad wall. We went back to the bus and sent a few icebergs out to see while I stood on them! We talked for a while about the mobius ring, atoms and anti matter, we then went home.

Only a short one this time. Tune in next time for a trip to Leicestershire to twitch a Snowy Owl...

Waxwing photos are all over the Internet at the moment. I've not had chance to go see any this winter and haven't stumbled across any either. However, nearly 26 years ago, I went to twitch some with my old YOC group. Being in somewhat of a pensive and retrospective mood at present, here is a glimpse into my 12 year old world.

Firstly, I almost certainly copied the illustration from the Reader's Digest "Field Guide to the Birds of Britain" so I don't want Reader's Digest on my case for copyright issues some 26 years later. Secondly, the following is my 'notes' section that I used to write after the list of birds. So this is taken word for word, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors and all. Anything in brackets is an explanation I have added in now...

We was (two words in and you've let me down already Little Graeme) going to Martin mere but because of bad weather it was cancelled for a local trip. By the time came the bad weather had gone and it was a very nice day. Good enough to have gone to Martin mere. Mr Gardner said "I blame Mr Berry".

               We descused going to a place in Nottingham where there were four Waxwings (good to see I had the correct use of capitals for species names nailed at age 12 even though I hadn't figured it out for place names yet). And after that we where going to Kingsbury Water park. We thought we would have a good day because only six of the 'plonks' came with us (now this is a little embarrassing. 'Plonk' was the derogatory term I coined for the other YOC kids that didn't quite take their birdwatching as seriously as I did at age 12 - what a barrel of laughs I must have been). On the way we asked an old couple the way to Hinkley road. The women pointed one way and the man pointed the other and said "come on duck will miss the blumin thing! Later we found he was talking about the bus, eventually we found it, 111 Hinkley road.

               We walked up and down the street for ages but didn't see a thing, when we saw Mr Berry and the 'plonks' by the mini-bus giving us one of those pitiful looks, and you can imagine them thinking in there heads "please let us in the car" (maybe try reining in that contempt Little Graeme and der, it's a mini-bus not a car, you just told us that). Luckily we decided not to cross over and go home because just then aman ran across the road to join two more men with raised binoculars. We turned to see three Waxwings, 'scoffing' berrys down like there was no tomorrow. two flew from the bush and sat in a tree one stood there showing of, but letting us get very close it had an enormous appetite eating berrys down hole and, because of this a large, plump belly. Its head was very thin from the back but I think this was because the rest of the body was very big. The black eyestripes gave it an evil look. You could also see the red tips to the (can't read this word) secondary feathers. I said that it was the only bird I had ever seen that I could have looked at for a long time (ha ha, this cracks me up. Obviously I was VERY busy then and didn't have time to stare at birds for more than a couple of seconds). We took the 'plonks' back and Mr Gardner took me to my house I grabbed some lunch, went to the loo (too much information) and wet out to Blithfield to look for the Green-winged Teal.............(thirteen points of suspension?!)

And that I'm afraid, is another story...

UPDATE: An email from Mr (Ewart) Gardner today. So cool that he didn't know I kept a diary until now and I get to share it with him all these years later.

October 1996: Partly through frustration at my A-level biology teachers ("that's not a rock-rose Graeme, it's a buttercup" - really? Is this what it's gonna be like if I do biology at university?) and partly for reasons that will forever remain a mystery, even to me, I started a degree and masters in astrophysics at Sussex University.

I have just had one of the most rewarding weekends! Six month's ago Dr Alan Stewart of Sussex University asked me and a number of other specialists to come and help teach students in entomology at the campus as part of a BENHS event. For me, coming back to the university after all these years was very strange. Especially as I often used to look across from the maths and physics blocks up to the biology department thinking, "I really should be over there". I remember seeing the Biology Road sign all those years ago. So to go back and teach entomology, all be it just for a weekend, provided a great deal of catharsis for me. I gave talks on beetles, spiders and biological recording. The weirdest thing here was the lines and lines of calculus on the chalk boards, all very familiar but totally forgotten by me.

Anyway, the real stars of the show were the students. I was amazed at how keen they were, many of them turning up with reference collections and lots of equipment! On the first day we spent our time in the field by a dew pond on the campus (next to where twenty years ago Richard Attenborough gave us an introductory talk and I specifically remember him mentioning how important extra curricular activities are! - this could not be more true in the field of entomology) and the chalk-grassland at Stanmer Park. Alan and I had our petrol and electric suction-samplers respectively and this produced a wealth of material to show students. I was encouraging students to take carabid specimens to key out (the other half of the students split off with Mike Edwards to look at bees and flies).

I even managed ten new beetles with the help of Peter Hodge but it was back in the lab where the real work started walking students through keys for the first time. It was so great to see students get their first correct identification. One student picked up what I thought was a small Harapalus in the field which turned out be a male Ophonus. I helped really only by dissecting the aedeagus but the student managed to card the beetle and mount the aedeagus and we tentatively put the name Ophonus schaubergerianus which might even be new to East Sussex. I'm going to get a second opinion on this one. Sadly I didn't manage to get many photos of specimens or students. I did manage this photo of Chris Bentley and I at the microscopes.

On the second day we opened some moth traps. The highlight was the most well hidden Mullein, perfectly adapted to hiding on pegs.

We did more survey work on the campus and the highlight was finding yet another of the RDB1 Cassida denticollis. This area is clearly a hot-spot for this very rare beetle as we recorded it at Malling Down and Southerham last year. We picked it up (and two much commoner Cassida) in the suction-samplers. What was great was seeing students in the field come back with specimens they had caught such as Green Hairstreak, Rhinoceros Beetle, Andrena fulva, at least eight species of shieldbug and the saproxylic weevil Phloeophagus lignarius. The whole weekend was so exciting and I really felt like I helped make a difference. Well done to all the students and teachers alike, I hope this becomes a regular event!

Four years with my head in the stars seems like just a drop in the ocean now for me as I continue my life long journey down biology road.