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The ups and downs of birding (1 Viewer)

Paul Longland

Well-known member
Sure this has been done before in various forms but after my experiences last week I thought it might be interesting to see if others had similar highs and lows of a day out birding.

All started well for the first trip out of the year, January 2nd. Decided to take a run over to North Norfolk and start the year off with a decent day list. As we approached Hunstanton decided to make a quick detour to get the Eastern Yellow wagtail onto the year list (twitched it earlier in the week for the life list). So far so good.
As we were about to set off for Titchwell the news that the Desert wheatear that had put in a brief appearance at Eccles the previous day was back and showing well. Satnav primed and we were on our way. about an hour and a half later we were standing on the beach getting great views of this cracking little bird. A lifer for me!

So well chuffed we set off back to Titchwell to finish the day off.

It was all going so well until...……… Driving down a country lane we hit an unseen pothole that was filled with mud/water. Although doing no more than about 45 MPH the front wheel crashed down the pothole, closely followed by the rear, bottoming the suspension out and rattling our fillings. Within 10 yards my dashboard tyre pressure monitoring system told me that the rear nearside tyre was losing pressure rapidly. Managed to find a gateway to pull into and sure enough the tyre was flat as a pancake. Closer inspection revealed a rather large hole in the sidewall where it had blown out.
The next half hour was spent emptying all our gear out of the boot to get at the spare, followed by a tricky roadside wheel change on a very narrow lane. fortunately no other vehicles wanted to get past.
Space saver on we set out again for Titchwell to complete our birding day.

On the way back to Leicester, despite being restricted to 50mph by the spare wheel being fitted, I noticed that the cars handling seemed a bit off. Stopped at the petrol station near home and noticed that the front nearside tyre was also looking a bit under par pressure wise. (pressure monitoring system not functioning due to spare being on).

Pumped it up but by next morning was flat again. To top it all I realised that in all the panic of the roadside wheel change I had contrived to lose the locking wheel nut key! So off to the main dealer who managed to remove the locking wheel nuts, two new tyres and a replacement set of locking wheel nuts later and I was down to the tune of about £500. Plus on close inspection my alloy wheel rims are now in a shocking state and will at some point need refurbishing.

So the ups. A lifer, a year tick for an extreme rarity and a decent day list
Downs. Two flat tyres, a very long slow journey home, an expensive bill and some seriously chewed up alloys.

On balance though wouldn't have missed it!
 
At least you had a spare tyre, albeit of the 'space saver' variety. I've been driving lease cars for the last 6 years or so with no spare and a tyre repair kit. My luck held for 5 years - no flat tyres, a much better record than I ever managed previously - but ran out on the way to work last year. The puncture wasn't bad, sustained on windblown debris with no sidewall damage, but the repair compound was totally ineffective. Had to call the main dealer (as it was a lease car) and wait an hour for a breakdown truck to arrive and take my car away, and call my colleague to give me a lift to work.
Fortunately it didn't happen whilst birding or otherwise in a more remote place, but it seems totally stupid to sell cars without spare tyres, turning what would be a quick DIY roadside repair into a major inconvenience.
 
A little more dramatic and could have been significantly worse.

I was on th M55 heading to Blackpool and Martin Mere hoping to see the American Bittern.
Early morning February 4th 1991 and doing 70-ish in the "outside lane" there was a bang and the car veered across three (luckily) empty lanes and I managed to wrestle the car into a straight line on the hard shoulder.

Front near side blow out. Mangled alloy wheel.
Luckily we could carry on after fitting the spare. And we saw the bird !!
 
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