[Edward woodwood]

Hi folks

Chris Mills, a good friend of mine and all round top bloke has gone very green this year and is undertaking his year list entirely on bike

why not visit the site and give him some encouragement?

http://birderonabike.blogspot.com/

atb
Tim

[BarbaraM]

What a great twist on the self-competition of year listing, to up the challenge by adding this sort of limitation. I shall visit the man's site.

later... well I would have commented on his blog but I hate to sign up for stuff. Would appreciate if you would pass along my encouragement. Barbara

[Edward woodwood]

of course Barbara

no problem

Tim

[buckskin hawk]

This is great. I'll have to start keeping a list of birds seen while riding my pony. I could just extract all the "barn" birds. 44 by just ltaking my local list and including only "Barn" birds. I'll need to start compiling it separately

Geese:
10. 3/05 Canadian Goose - Barn

Ducks:
11. 3/05 Mallards – Barn, pond

Vultures:
15. 3/05 Turkey Vulture - Barn

Hawks, Kites and Eagles:
16. 3/05 Bald Eagle - River
17. 3/05 Red Tailed Hawk – Residence and Barn

Falcons:


25. 4-05 Killdeer – Barn, pasture

Sandpipers:
26. 3/05 Wilson’s Snipe – Barn


Doves:

31. 3/05 Mourning dove – Residence and Barn
32. 3/05 Rock dove – Barn

Cuckoos

Owls:

Nighthawks:

Swifts


Hummingbirds:


Woodpeckers


35. 3/05 Downy Woodpecker –Barn

Flycatcher:
40. 3/05 Eastern Phoebe – Barn
41. 3/05 Scissortail Flycatcher – Barn
43. 4-05 Eastern Kingbird – Barn
45. 4-05 Eastern Wood Pewee – Residence and Barn
46. 4-05 Loggerhead Shrike - Barn

Vireo:


Crows and Jays:
48. 3/05 Blue Jay – Residence and barn
49. 3/05 Crow – Barn



Swallows:
51. 3/05 Barn Swallow – Barn

Chickadee and Titmouse

54. 3/05 Carolina Chickadee – Residence and barn
55. 3/05 Tufted Titmouse –Oxley residence and barn


Bushtits:

Nuthatches


Wrens:

61. 4-05 Winter Wren – Barn


Kinglets:


Gnatcatchers:


Thrushes:
65. 3/05 Eastern Bluebirds – Barn
66. 3/05 Robins - Residence and barn

Mockingbirds, thrashers:
67. 3/05 Northern Mockingbird – Residence and barn
68. 3/05 Brown Thrasher - Barn

Waxwings:



Silky-flycatchers


Warblers:


Tanager:

Towhee:
75. 4-05 Eastern Towhee – Barn

Bunting:




Sparrows:

79. 3/05 Field Sparrow- Residence and barn

81. 3/05 Vesper’s Sparrow – Barn
82. 4/05 White Crowned Sparrow – Shelly’s & Barn
83. 4-05 Chipping Sparrow – Oxley and barn
84. 4-05 Savannah Sparrow – Barn



Juncos:
85. 3/05 Dark-eyed Junco – Barn

Cardinals:

86. 3/05 Northern Cardinals – Residence and barn

Blackbirds:

87. 3/05 Great-tailed Grackle – Residence and barn
88. 3/05 Common Grackle – Residence and barn
89. 3/05 Brewer's Blackbird – Residence and barn
90. 3/05 Rusty Blackbird - Residence and barn
91. 3/05 Starlings – Residence and barn
92. 3/05 Red winged Blackbird – Barn
93. 3/05 Brown Headed Cowbirds – Residence and barn
94. 3/05 Eastern Meadowlarks - Barn

Orioles:

Finches:
96. 3/05 House Finch – Lake and barn
97. 4/05 Goldfinch - Shelly and barn

Old World Sparrows:
98. 3/05 House Sparrows - residence and barn

[Karl J]

Seems he's got a bit of a competition going with his mate from Hampshire .... 182 & 171 ...

'The Big Year On A Bike' .....

[John Cantelo]

Great! I spent 14 odd years birding with a bike as my principal means of locomotion (albeit with lifts to vital birds!). My best ever effort was to be the first to twitch Stodmarsh's American Coot on my push bike. I never compiled a year list though. I did do a couple of 'Big Days' (best total being, as I recall, 114 species) so I'd guess that my final year list might have approached 150 odd (buit I'll have to work it out!). Indeed I tried (with limited success) to persuade the UK Big Day Competition to go 'green' and promote birding by bike more actively. I will peruse the site with interest, John

[Andrew]

That's a great site. I do feel good when I connect with a good bird on the bus. It's not 'non-motorised' but still feels good.

Big it up for this Chris Mills!

[StevieEvans]

Tim, I wish to make a complaint.
He's been cheating......

surely getting off & walking is not allowed....?

Very comendable, Well Done Chris Mills.
Imagine if we all did that!
Hes just behind me on the Surfbirds County listings.... hes cycled1000+miles, id hate to think how many ive driven...
Makes you think.
SE.

[Edward woodwood]

Yeah Stevie

the weight's dropping off him too

We had a chat at Cley - jammed in on the Purple Heron...!!! He has nice new hybrid thingy bike and the mileage is now over 1300...

well done Millsy...keep it going.

Tim

[Karl J]

Yep ... now's the time of year to get the miles in

btw, you got that bike yet tim ?

[Andrew]

Might have seen him at Holkham one evening (or that might have been you Karl!).

[Karl J]

Originally Posted by Andrew

Might have seen him at Holkham one evening (or that might have been you Karl!).

Might well have been him i guess Andrew, reading his site i think he's based somewhere out that way (?)

And that'd be a round trip of about 160 miles for me. I know i'm slowly working my way up but ... er ...

[Edward woodwood]

Yes Andrew

probably

he's based in Foxley, very near to Fakenham

Tim

[Mars4096]

I maintain a life-list for my bicycle trip to work. I'm at about 35 species currently with Cedar Waxwing and Northern Cardinal (uncommon this far north) being the last two added. My biking trip is about 8 to 9 km one way and the search area is likely about 20 to 30 square kilometers as I can vary the route considerably. I vary the route to take in as many different habitats as possible but my favorite area is near a creek (with riperian area, and thickets) that crosses the Kate Pace bike path. I rarely bring binoculars (too bulky) so interpreting the bird songs and calls is a fundamental part of the challenge.

[Karl J]

Dunno if anyone else follows this, but there are some good updates recently. Now on216 .. wow

[JWN Andrewes]

Definately following it - bumped into him with my girlfriend at Titchwell in March, just after he nailed Lesser Pecker at Holkham (though I didn't know at the time he was undertaking this enterprise) - thoroughly nice fellow, good to see him progressing well.

James

[CornishExile]

Just bumping this excellent blog back up. Chris is back from overseas and has hit the road again. With mixed fortunes! Read it and feel guilty about ever using a car to go birding...

http://birderonabike.blogspot.com/

ce

[Karl J]

An account of a fantastic day on 10.09.05 ... http://birderonabike.blogspot.com/20...t-of-this.html

[Gerry Hooper]

Sounds like the best way to get to work Mars4096, Norfolk's probably flatter though.
I'll be doing a few miles in the morning.
Great sites.............More Power to your Pedals!!!!!!!!

[Karl J]

Almost 250 now

(and deserves a bravery award for biking the Acle Straights )

[Tim Hall]

Used to bird by bike a lot on Teesside a few years ago. Useful for listening as you go. Found a stunning Gropper on a post that way. Would have missed it by car.

[Isurus]

Originally Posted by BarbaraM

What a great twist on the self-competition of year listing, to up the challenge by adding this sort of limitation. I shall visit the man's site.

later... well I would have commented on his blog but I hate to sign up for stuff. Would appreciate if you would pass along my encouragement. Barbara

In line with Barbara's signing up to bligger comment above, Tim please could you pass on my congratulations and 'nuff respect ot Chris for hitting 250 - an unbelievable achievement (not to mention an entertaining diversion for me).

[Edward woodwood]

Originally Posted by Isurus

In line with Barbara's signing up to bligger comment above, Tim please could you pass on my congratulations and 'nuff respect ot Chris for hitting 250 - an unbelievable achievement (not to mention an entertaining diversion for me).

sure thing mate

hope to see him this weekend... i'll get him a beer in

Tim

[Hidde Bruinsma]

Can be tricky though birdwatching on a bike. Just a week ago I rode home from work. It was already getting dark. I saw a crow-sized bird flying by and thought "what is flying at this time of the day" (calls himself an ornithologist...). It went under the light of a streetlamp and then I saw the brown colouration. It also flew in a strange, erratic way when it crossed a road to duck under the light of another streetlamp. And then I noticed the ear-tufts: Long-eared Owl. But instead of stopping and looking at it as well as I could I just kept on riding. There was this very small pole standing in the middle of the cycle path. A normal human being couldn't hit it. But I did. BANG !! Right against my knee. But it was worth it ! I hadn't seen a Long-eared for ages. So far this anecdote of a member of a cycling nation called Holland.
By the way, great website of what seems to me a very nice bloke.

[Karl J]

One from me as well Tim, thats some achievement

As well as being a thoroughly entertaining website that certainly gave me more than a little inspiration

(for anyone who hasn't seen it before - go and have a look)