A weekend in London

At what should be one of the peak times of the year Wanstead Flats has been almost entirely devoid of interest for the last few days. The odd Yellow Wagtail passing over, various Stonechats popping up, but nothing out of the ordinary and in truth even the ordinary has been sub par. There was a decent arrival of Chiffchaff on Friday night, and Tony was lucky enough to pull out a non-calling Yellow-browed Warbler as it shot through Long Wood, but generally I would say that it has been below all of our expectations. The best bird I saw was a Spotted Flycatcher in one of my neighbour’s gardens. This was notable for being only the second seen from the house, and also because earlier that morning I had been discussing garden records with James and had mentioned that one of my best garden birds was a Spot Fly. A few hours later whilst eating lunch I was looking at one again. Maybe I should talk up  other birds?

Saturday afternoon and I traded birds for Cetaceans. I had mixed feelings about the Thames Beluga whale – that it is there cannot be a good thing. But gosh, talk about a never-to-be-repeated opportunity – possibly the only chance in my life I would have of seeing this species – let’s face it, I’ve gone 43 years without one so far. That said, I expected that seeing it  would likely be a slightly underwhelming experience, and half of me felt that if I went it would only be to say that I had, if that makes sense. It is not as if I keep a Thames whale list…. Anyhow, James offered to drive and I accepted a lift quite happily in the end. We elected to try from the Essex side so as to avoid the bridge, and after discovering it was not at East Tilbury, retraced our route to actual Tilbury where we watched from just outside the Fort.

Wreathed in cigarette smoke and admiring a fine Flag of St George and a Bulldog Tattoo I conceded that whilst the whale has duly been added to “things I have seen” in truth this was not the best way to see a Beluga. That would be in the high Arctic, kayaking alongside a pod of 30 animals in their natural environment. This one was swimming around a grey barge with a blue portakabin on it, whilst tugs dragged enormous cargo vessels past and various bits of rubbish came in on the rising tide. Still, it was nice to be out getting an occasional gulp of fresh air and the weather was great – shirt sleeves for a Beluga. I had not been here for ages, in fact the last time I was here I had found a Red-backed Shrike sitting on the fence.

Sunday was a quieter affair devoted mainly to domestic drudgery, but I did fit in a quick tour of Wanstead Flats with my youngest. It was decidedly quiet, worse than Saturday, but did allow for lots of questions and lots of learning. One question I could not answer was if a Yellow Wagtail calls once every three seconds on its entire southbound journey, does it arrive in Africa with a sore throat? It is a genius question if you ask me, but a perfectly logical thing to want to know and I was dumbfounded. Actually I want to know too, so if you could help me with that one I would be most grateful.

Misty morning hop

I've probably written a post with this title several times before. I am old and going senile, and short on time, cannot look it up as a good writer would. No matter. I've been ekeing out a small amount of birding as the best migration period comes to an end - Red-backed Shrike aside it has been poor. Two Pied Flycatchers were good, but I've had only a single Redstart, and only five Spotted Flycatchers. I'd expect multiples of that. Whether this is a microcosm of larger nationwide, nay global issues, or whether this is the result of the landowner's careless hacking followed by the fire I don't know, but this year has felt very hard, harder than any that have gone before. It is still beautiful though, and a pleasure to be rather than stuck behind glass.

The power of place

This is one of my favourite photographs, mainly because it was so hard to do and involved more than a little good fortune. But is also ranks right up there because of the memories it evokes. When I look at this photo I am transported to Quendale on Shetland. 

Spotted Flycatcher

Imagine the earth from space, then zooming in to the British Isles, then Scotland, and finally the Shetlands. And then to the south of the island, all the way into Quendale and the farm, and then the track just to the west, near the ruined buildings. That's the effect this photo has on me, I don't know why. I start in space, and then rapidly zoom in all the way to those buildings, and there's the bird.

I was lagging behind as usual, the others were far ahead, probably back at the car. But I sensed opportunity. Rare birds - the primary purpose of an autumn trip to Shetland - take a back seat when there are common migrants this good. It perched on the fence ahead of me and behind me, the bill snapping regularly as it snaffled flies attracted by the farm animals. It was warm, I had my shirt sleeves rolled up, hot in my waterproof gear and fresh from slogging the irises. The air was clear, there were birds and life was good.  I wondered if I could get a shot of it in flight, just as it left the fence. I didn't have to wonder long.... In the interests of full disclosure there was some post-processing clean-up that was fairly involved, but it does not detract.

Hard to believe that this was 6 years ago and I've not been to Shetland for two years. Must rectify that one of these days.

Excited

I find that in my line of [largely soul-destroying] work that I have to have something to look forward to. What I mean by that is birding trips. I have a hit list, places that I know my way around, places that I am comfortable, places where I know I will have a good time. Iceland, Morocco and Florida are on the list. New York is also on the list - for summer bird photography and an overall fun area. I last went in 2016 and had fully intended to go again this year. For reasons already alluded to I never managed it, indeed Iceland that I had actually managed to book went down the pan as well. 

2019 is going to be different, and so New York is booked. Just a weekend, Friday after work, returning Monday morning and straight back to my still warm suit... Still, that leaves me two days to see what I can manage on Nickerson Beach, assuming I can remember what end of the camera to look down. Here is a reminder of what I saw last time. Call this post a filler if you will. I am excited.

All hail to the chef

I've been following cricket for about as long as I can remember, and it really does feel like the end of an era. Whilst I remember Gatting, Gooch, Atherton and Nasser, my memories of the England side are built around Vaughan, Strauss and Cook. More recently it has been Cook - it is hard to believe Joe Root has been captain for 20 or so matches already. Today Alastair Cook played his final test innings and what a way to bow out. He has not had it easy, openers never do - they face the best when they are at their best - and he has been out of form for a while. The decision to retire from the test arena has clearly freed him up mentally as he has been supreme in this final match. Class, as they say, is permanent. 

As many people have said, in particular Graham Gooch, Cookie should be lauded for being a great person as well as one of the finest test batsman many of us have been privileged to watch play. A beacon and a role model Gooch said, and I can certainly attest to that. Almost four years to the day today he came with some of his Essex team mates to play at our local club here in Wanstead. It was all about the kids, he was brilliant. Here are a few photos from that memorable day. I am about to listen to as much of the day's play as I can before I fall asleep - what a day it would have been to be at the Oval - but thank you Alastair Cook, you have been magnificent both on and off the field and I have enjoyed the game all the more for it.

Not birding in Malaysia

Iconic

Mrs L and I recently went on a short break to Malaysia and Japan. Ostensibly this was a grown-up holiday, with spa treatments, nice meals and all that kind of thing, but actually I just went birding. Not really. I was a dutiful husband and largely we did the tourism thing and just enjoyed being together. In our daily lives in London we seem to pass like ships in the night, such are the pressures of work and family, so some downtime a deux was really nice. We spent three and a half days in Malaysia, and then a day in Japan on the way home. Japan isn’t on the way home of course, but the way the airline tickets worked out meant that we couldn’t get home from Kuala Lumpur in the required level of comfort so had to look at other options. In the end ‘via Japan’ was an excellent choice, and we both enjoyed it a lot. Despite this not being a birding holiday I did of course take binoculars. Even more remarkably so did Mrs L!

During our Malaysian break we spent the majority of time in the Cameron Highlands, a tea-growing colonial era hill station about three hours north of KL. We did get an evening in KL when we arrived though, and in addition having a nice walk around a night market and eating large amounts of Satay Chicken from street hawkers and going to a roof terrace bar for amazing views of the Petronas Towers, I also spotted a Black-naped Oriole from our hotel room and numerous Common Mynas. Not forgetting of course the Milky Stork that flew over the car on the drive from the airport.

The endemic Cyathea excavata - a tree fern

The best birds were in the forests. The Cameron Highlands rise above the coastal plain to a high point of just over 2000m, and the town of Tanah Rata where we spent most of our time is at 1440m – pretty much identical to the summit of Ben Nevis. At sea level the temperature is 34 degrees and humidity close to 100% - tropical and steamy. In the Highlands it was a much easier 22 degrees with very little of the clamminess of KL – easy to see why the English settled the area as somewhere to grow crops – principally tea - and escape the heat early in the pre-war years. The Highlands are well known for their walking trails – we were cheered by someone we met in KL who asked why we were going there, as there was only nature and stuff! Precisely! Whilst we had enjoyed wandering around the city, both of us prefer the outdoors and so over the course of the next few days we walked a number of the trails. Birds and plants, that is what it is all about, and these days I am probably equally interested in both. Some people see entire landscapes, I see individual elements in a landscape, and tropical forests are remarkable places. The proliferation of immense ferns, both epiphytic and terrestrial, fascinating orchids and all manner of various other plants was incredible and a highlight of the trip. There was even a species of Begonia with iridescent leaves that changed colour depending on how you viewed them. 

Anthurium sp, commonly seen as house plants!

Blue Begonia - Begonia pavonina. Unbelievable.

Whilst there was a lot of relaxing, including tea baths and Malay massages, we spent most of our time walking the trails. They were steep! Anyone who has been birding in a rainforest knows how hard it is to identify unfamiliar species – they are often obscured, high up, but frustratingly vocal! Nonetheless we racked up a nice selection of birds over our hikes. Trail #s 5 and 9  were probably the most profitable, and there was a memorable bird wave which included my new favourite bird, Blue Nuthatch. We spent one morning with a bargain local guide for about £30, recommended to us by our hotel. Mr Attak knew all the birds, but rather entertainingly did not know their english names. He would say things like "the Yellow one!", and then we would have to guess. Luckily I had a field guide in my pocket and so gradually we were able to piece things together. The highlight in terms of rarity was probably the Mountain Peacock Pheasant, a brief sighting one morning on an unguided walk of a bird up towards what is known as the Lutheran Mission between the towns of Tanah Rata and Brinchang where we were staying. As an aside, the Cameron Highlands Resort was extremely nice, and was an excellent base from which to explore the area.

Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush

On our final day we headed north from Tanah Rata and visited a tea plantation. After a cuppa and a slice of cake we drove up to the highest point in Peninsular Malaysia, the peak of Gunung Brinchang. This was in a cloud, but had lots of good birds from the boardwalk, including Pygmy Wren Babbler, Chestnut-tailed Minla, and Little Pied Flycatcher. It was a rather hurried visit because we needed to be back in KL for an evening flight to Tokyo and the traffic in the Cameron Highlands can be rather trying.


Trip List (in rough order seen rather than taxonomic)

1. Milky Stork
2. Common Myna
3. Oriental Magpie Robin
4. Black-naped Oriole
5. Large-billed Crow
6. Glossy Swiflet
7. Asian House Martin
8, Pacific Swallow
9. Tree Sparrow
10. Red-wattled Lapwing
11. Cattle Egret
11. Mountain Peacock Pheasant
12. White-breasted Waterhen
13. Bronzed Drongo
14. Grey Wagtail
15. Paddyfield Pipit
16. Javan Munia
17. White-throated Fantail
18. Black-crested Bulbul
19. Yellow-vented Bulbul
20. Olive-winged Bulbul
21. Mountain Tailorbird
22. Chestnut-capped Laughing Thrush
23. Streaked Wren Babbler
24. Pygmy Wren Babbler
25. Blue Nuthatch
26. Streaked Spiderhunter
27. Silver-eared Mesia
28. Little Cuckoo Dove
29. Mountain Leaf Warbler
30. Fire-tufted Barbet
31. Slaty-backed Forktail
32. Mountain Bulbul
33. Black-throated Sunbird
34. Mountain Fulvetta
35. Everett's White-eye
36. Long-tailed Sibia
37. Barred Cuckoo Dove
38. Chestnut-backed Scimitar Babbler
39. Malayan Whistling Thrush
40. Golden Babbler
41. Stripe-throated Bulbul
42. White-tailed Robin
43. Chestnut-tailed Minla
44. Little Pied Flycatcher
45. Asian Glossy Starling
46. Rock Dove

The modern man

A few years ago many men looked like this.

Then something happened. First of all add this.

Then this

And finally this

And so now 90% of the male UK population all look the same, thus: 

I am not even going to begin to wonder at why, but surely we are at beard, tattoo and headphone saturation point? These photos are simply randoms that I pulled from the internet, and if you reading this and are one of these people then I apologise in advance. In a sorry not sorry kind of way. It is ridiculous. Fair enough at one stage it was probably trend-setting, but now it is just silly. What happened to individuality? Why do people feel the need for a huge beard and a tattoo covering 80% of their body? To make them stand out? These days it is more likely to be to blend in and not be different! Baaaaah! I predict a revolution, beard clipper manufacturers are set to make a fortune. Not so easy to get rid of a full arm tattoo though is it? Did they think it through? What happens when they get old and wrinkly? Yuck I expect. That's where I am going to make my millions. Arm transplants.