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Saturday 21 March 2009

Jersey beckons and Easter bird race!!

Just a brief posting to say I'll be back. Bit of a mini break to Jersey this coming week, if any of you are near Exeter Airport give me a wave....it's my first ever plane flight at 44 years and 356 days. I know, I know everyone flys these days but I haven't as it's always worried me. But why worry I say these days, so needing to overcome this fear I'm off, pity my friend who has taken up the challenge and will have to hold my hand. Does she know what she's taking on ha ha. But a trip to Durrell Zoo is on the plan so we're both looking forward to it. I'm sure there'll be a blog posting from the Zoo.



In fact this blogging malarkey is a funny old business. A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Dorling Kingsley the publishers who asked if I'd review a soon to be published book and post a review on the Blog. I said yes, so when I'm back, I'll post the review. I've just received the book, and so far it looks great, but more about that soon.

And before I go and pop the Valium and creme d menthe to get me on the plane, a bit of forward notice. Over Christmas I ran a bit of a bird challenge, which seemed to go down well. Many of you mentioned could this be done again in warmer weather and Easter was mentioned. I'll mention this again, but a date for your Diaries - the QUICKSILVERBIRDS EASTER BIRD CHALLENGE is on.

Rules are simple. Log all the birds you've seen (other wildlife records welcome too but won't count for your score) between 00.01 hrs on Good Friday (April 10) and 23.59 hrs Easter Monday (April 13). Send me your score and I'll publish on the blog for all to see.

Thought I'd have three categories this time;

Overall Supreme Champion x 2

Overall most bird species seen in the UK over the 4 days, with a sub category for species seen in the Rest of the World, as I know many of you read this from abroad.

Non Birding Award

Most birds seen while travelling about, out for walks, cycling, out with families and so on, basically how much can be logged while not actually birding. After all it's Easter and we'll be eating eggs.

Beginners Award

Open to anyone who doesn't normally go bird watching but wants to - go on give it a go, even if you just see 1 species, it's a start so don't be shy.

I'll post more when I'm back but hope you are all up for a bit of fun and an excuse to get out there. There are no prizes (yet) it's the taking part that's the challenge..... now where's my bucket and spade !!

9 comments:

  1. Flying to me is just like getting on a bus. But it seems to affect people in two ways.
    Either your exillarated or you brake your partners hand.
    My wife is the latter, whilst my mother in law seems to get high on the expierence, both is beyond me.

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  2. Cheers ST, I'll let everybody know if I'm a hand breaker or an adrenallin junkie :-)

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  3. Have a good break mate. Come back safe!

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  4. Andrew I might not have time to go at the Easter Challenge this year. I hope I'll be back birding by Christmas though!

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  5. Have a great break; I join you in the "hand breaking" club though Andrew!

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  6. Hi Andrew,

    Interesting post. Hope you have a good time abroad.

    I think I will have a go at the bird challenge this time. My score may not be brilliant, but fingers crossed, I may get time to visit a nature reserve or local woods, etc to boost my count!

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  7. Count me in for the Easter challenge! I'm not sure I'll get out too much, but I'm volunteering at Old Moor RSPB at a family birdwatching event on Easter Saturday which should bump up my score a bit...

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  8. Looking forward to hearing how the flight went, lol. Great to hear to hear about the Easter Challenge.

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  9. I'll have a go at the challenge too. I had my first flight on my 50th birthday (not long ago I promise) it was a really bad weather day and the pilot had to have two attempts at landing...I was blissfully unaware that the turbulence was not normal while my fellow passengers were terrified! My husband let me belive it was all normal and didn't tell me until we were off the plane!

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