The trouble with visiting Minsmere/Titchwell etc.

[senatore]

I have recently returned from a trip to Minsemere which was fabulous for me coming from Warwickshire.However there is a downside and that is my local patch is poor in comparison and a visit has become very tame.

Has anyone else noticed this or am I a lone miserable old goat ???

MAX.

[CJW]

You should be grateful - at least your local patch won't be full of old duffers and dudes wandering around with RSPB carrier bags full of tat.

[Clouseau]

Visiting a bird reserve is, in a way, like a 'treat' for all the years plodding around the local patch seeing not very much! But then, Titchwell can sometimes be totally devoid of interest...... You can go there in the Summ,er and see just a few returning waders, hirundines and a couple of Marsh Harriers. Whereas a few miles from Warwickshire, you might see Red Kites, Black Grouse, Whinchats etc etc. And you have Cannock Chase, which has often produced good birds! Remember: Bill Oddie 'cut his teeth' in your County!

[James]

You should be grateful - at least your local patch won't be full of old duffers and dudes wandering around with RSPB carrier bags full of tat.

Say what you really mean CJ!!!

Keep the amusing comments coming.

I didn't get where I am today without enjoying the odd amusing comment.

James

[Reader]

I have recently returned from a trip to Minsemere which was fabulous for me coming from Warwickshire.However there is a downside and that is my local patch is poor in comparison and a visit has become very tame.

Has anyone else noticed this or am I a lone miserable old goat ???

MAX.

You are right Max.

Our County isn't blessed with many good areas for birds. I supposed the best places are around the Tame Valley area. i.e Ladywalk, Kingsbury Water Park etc. There is also of course Brandon Marsh, which can be extremely quiet.

I'm not sure about Clouseau's comments regarding Red Kite and Black Grouse. The nearest Black Grouse is at Worlds End near Wrexham and the nearest Red Kite is at Gigrin Farm, Rhayder (unless you tick off the Chilterns birds) and both of those are a good distance away. Even the Chiltern Red Kite's are not what I would call on your doorstep and Cannock Chase is 50 miles from here so certainly not qualifying as a local patch.

A good point is that these make for good days out as you will see birds you normally would struggle to see in our area. You would't want to travel to see these birds if you saw the Norfolk / Suffolk birds continually.

Hopefully, a week on Saturday, I will take you to one or two relatively local places you haven't been to and introduce you to possibly some more new birds.

[Tim Allwood]

Howdy

Well, I never get bored with living in this fine county and don't get bored with the fantastic birds on offer and the very real chance of finding your own stuff. I spent way too long as a kid wandering around Derbyshire reservoirs and gravel pits seeing next to nothing. And it's great to be by the sea too.

you don't have to go to Minsmere or Titchwell - there are many other great spots in Norfolk. The dudes are ok - it's the listers that annoy me whizzing from one tick to the next.

And you start to make your 'treats' a bit more exotic. It's surely no surprise that Norwich/Norfolk is the birding capital of the UK?

the accent grates, mind....
and the football's not what it could be either

Tim

[Clouseau]

the accent grates, mind....
and the football's not what it could be either

Tim
Oh, the accent thing is SOOOOOOOOOOO true! Do they play football in East Anglia? I had no idea!

[DJW]

Do they play football in East Anglia?

No.

eg Fulham 6 Norwich 0

(A very happy West Brom supporter)

dave

[Alan J]

[You should be grateful - at least your local patch won't be full of old duffers and dudes wandering around with RSPB carrier bags full of tat.
]
The blessing of old age will come to you in time, I hope that you meet with more tolerant people when you are older and indulging your passion for birds.

[neilmc]

Agreed, Alan.

The old "duffers and dudes" are almost always very nice people and keep conservation going, even if they only watch blue tits at the feeder.

Almost certainly nicer than the group of twitchers I walked behind at Minsmere on Monday who, when not talking into pagers, were being very dismissive in a very sneery way about other people's sightings.

Neil

[Karl J]

Hi Max, i suppose you just have to take it for what it is. At Minsmere it can sometimes be difficult to find the peace & quiet you can take for granted on a local patch. But yes it's a great place.


As for the totally unnecessary and unfounded ''old duffers and dudes'' comment CJW .... go along and you'll find it caters for the whole span of age ranges and abilities. Thankfully that is more than your attitude does.

[senatore]

Thanks for all the comments everyone.I think the answer might be for me( having just visited Minsmeer )to do no birding for about 2 weeks so I can build up an urgent desire again and be happy to go anywhere to do some birding !!!!!

When at Minsmeer I teamed up with a small group of local veterans who whilst very helpful to me seemed to be a little bored and took it all for granted.I suppose this would happen to most of us if we lived there.

MAX.

[d.steeley]

I had a strange experience at Minsmere about 2 weeks ago. My wife and I were walking along the 'wall' path towards the shore when someone said "bittern flying". We quickly scanned the reedbeds to the left and just saw a bittern as it landed and disappeared into the reeds approx 100 metres away. We were both happy and sad as this was the first bittern we had seen but it was over so quickly. I got chatting to a chap who had all the gear, good bins, good scope, tripod, loads of badges on his waistcoat and baseball cap. He said to me that as he sees bitterns so regularly they are not really important to him anymore and he tends to ignore them now. Just at that point the bittern took off again and began to fly directly towards us giving excellent views. I thought "this is great, it is going to fly right over our heads", when suddenly, this bloke I had been chatting to, began to run along the wall to another group of birders shouting at the top of his voice "BITTERN, BITTERN FLYING, BITTERN" at the same time trying to open up the legs of his tripod. This had two effects, firstly everyone looked towards this chap in astonishment (most were already watching the bittern) and secondly the bittern immediately turned and dropped down into the reeds and out of sight. We thought to ourselves that it is not always the 'dudes' or 'oldies' that show behaviur not expected at a nature/bird reserve. Anyway we had a great time although the reserve was very busy (they opened a field as an overflow car park). We had a similar experience in the bittern hide but I'll leave that till later.

Dave.

[florall]

I think the answer might be for me( having just visited Minsmeer )to do no birding for about 2 weeks so I can build up an urgent desire again and be happy to go anywhere to do some birding !!!!!

Doing this does work. I've done it several times when coming back from good birding holidays, just give the local area a rest, but after a couple of weeks I find I'm keen to get out there again.

[christineredgate]

Make the most of your local patch.The big well known reserves are okay,lots of birds that one perhaps may not see locally,but in ones own area there is lots to see,and is often missed in the quest for something unique!!!

[Keithec]

Agreed, Alan.

Almost certainly nicer than the group of twitchers I walked behind at Minsmere on Monday who, when not talking into pagers, were being very dismissive in a very sneery way about other people's sightings.

Neil

Yes Neil, I've seen plenty of that over the years and they generally go into supersneer mode if you have the audacity to have any children with you.

[nessie]

Yes Neil, I've seen plenty of that over the years and they generally go into supersneer mode if you have the audacity to have any children with you.

My dog goes on non-reserve birding walks with me, you should see the sneering we get from fellow birdwatchers!

Natalie

[beaker]

Persevere with the local patch. Self found rarities at a local patch amazing, also recording first arrival dates,WEBS counting, even counting roosting gulls can be satisfying (honestly). Mix and match with the odd day at a reserve and the odd twitch and have the best of all worlds.Even better if you can manage a week's birding away each year.Just my opinion.

Andy F.

[hornet]

I'm a Warwickshire birder and I love Minsmere (and Titchwell, the Farne Islands and any of the other famous hotspots I've visited in the last three years of so).

But...

I get just as much pleasure, if not more, from my patch, and by that I mean the area around my house as well as the county's better known reserves (Brandon, Draycote, Ladywalk etc). Last weekend for example, I found a Common Sandpiper less that a mile from my house, a patch first for me. Then the next day I turned up at Brandon to find two Temminck's Stints there. I got far more excitement from the Common Sandpiper than I did from the much rarer stints. Not only was it was a first for me on my local patch walk (indeed the first wader) but it was self found.

Many of my favourite birding moments have been with a couple of miles of my house - a Spotted Flycatcher, Little Owls, a breeding pair of Tree Sparrow, Goosander, the sandpiper etc. Not as rare as some of the birds I've seen elsewhere, but I've found all of them myself, they've all be unexpected and no one told me they were there or posted them on a whiteboard / photocopied sheet. That adds something special to the experience.

Don't give up on your patch wherever you live. I've been lucky enough to spend a little time with a couple of experienced county watchers and you'd be amazed what is on your doorstep (I mean seriously amazed - I've found out that several of the birds on my wish list are regularly(ish) found within 10 miles of my house!).

I think the only difference from Minsmere etc is that it takes a little more time and experience to find those special birds on your patch (unless you're looking for Crested Tits, which could be a little harder), but when you do, it is well worth it.

[Quacker]

I have to agree with what you say. It depends on your birding habits. I've changed mine, and recently weekends have been for target birds. Highlands a few weeks ago, E Anglia (inc the big two) last week. I now take days or half days off work to check out a few of the local patches.

I'm not into twitching, but don't mind travelling to see birds (as opposed to trvelling JUST for one bird) if that makes sense?

I like visiting new reserves, ponds, reservoirs etc. and don't mind travelling to do that. I'm equally at home in Norfolk as Northumberland. - My first visits to Welney and Titchwell made my next local patch visits look "dull" - however, well-timed visits to Saltholme pools (Teeside) make my most recent Titchwell visit look bland.

THe best advice I ever got when I began was "Just get out there and bird" - easy to spend too much time thinking and talkiing about it.

Steve

[GaryS]

You should be grateful - at least your local patch won't be full of old duffers and dudes wandering around with RSPB carrier bags full of tat.


Its great to see the tolerant birdwatcher have their say - why not get rid of older people, children, the disabled, those with budget optics............ then there would be space for the perfect ones amongst us!

[Andrew]

Spent two weeks in North Norfolk and LOVED Titchwell even though I spent little time there. It is very handy as it draws everyone and leaves you to thrash out lesser known spots such as Stiffkey, Warham, Burnham Norton, the lanes of Norfolk and so on. If anything turns up at Titchwell or Cley then you WILL know about it and it will be very unlikely that you will not miss it if you are within ten or fifteen miles. Sadly I did not find much myself but cleaned up on most of what others found.

[florall]

[QUOTE=hornet]I get just as much pleasure, if not more, from my patch, and by that I mean the area around my house. Last weekend for example, I found a Common Sandpiper less that a mile from my house, a patch first for me. Then the next day I turned up at Brandon to find two Temminck's Stints there. I got far more excitement from the Common Sandpiper than I did from the much rarer stints. Not only was it was a first for me on my local patch walk (indeed the first wader) but it was self found.

Many of my favourite birding moments have been with a couple of miles of my house - a Spotted Flycatcher, Little Owls, a breeding pair of Tree Sparrow, Goosander, the sandpiper etc. Not as rare as some of the birds I've seen elsewhere, but I've found all of them myself, they've all be unexpected. That adds something special to the experience. You'd be amazed what is on your doorstep (I mean seriously amazed - I've found out that several of the birds on my wish list are regularly(ish) found within 10 miles of my house!)./QUOTE]

I couldn't agree more with all you say here, Hornet. I've never found anything rare on my local patch, but when I find a new species of bird there, it's always exciting because of the unexpectedness of it, and because of the excitement of finding it myself. (I've yet to find my first wader there, although someone else who does a WeBs count along the same bit of river, sees waders there, so I know if I keep looking, I will eventually.)

I just love local patchwatching, and I love reading the reports from people here on their local patches. One of my favourite bits of BF.

[midge]

You should be grateful - at least your local patch won't be full of old duffers and dudes wandering around with RSPB carrier bags full of tat.
As a newcomer to actively going out to watch birds this is unfortunately the kind of attitude I have already encountered amongst those who consider themselves real birders. And arent those "dudes" with their RSPB carrier bags" helping to support what I consider to be an important organisation?
Midge