Here's the sort of birding books every county should have ...... I didn't know about that 2nd one ... but I got the first one years ago in a charity shop for a mere 50p. Its full title, which is tricky to read , is "Easy Birdwatching at sites in and around Suffolk." It lists and describes loads of sites that birders with mobility problems can get to ... and it tells you where they are, and how you can get there, and where a nearby car park is, and whether you can "do your birding" wholly or partially from your car, and where the toilets are, which bits you can get to if you use a stick or a wheelchair ... it's as helpful as it can be. There's lots of clearly drawn, helpful maps as well. And as I mentioned at the start, it's the sort of book every county should have. Maybe some do ...... but that's the only one I've ever seen. Maybe nowadays all that sort of info is gettable on t'net. But I suspect that's only for reserves and the like ... all those dinky but brilliant little watching-places are still largely unknown to most . But that Suffolk book tells you every detail about those too ... the best lay-by to go to, a map reference, what you might see at different times of the year ... it's brilliant. Here's the first bit of the foreword ..... "Management of a public nature reserve demands almost as much concern for people as it does for the wildlife they have come to see. When we were developing Minsmere, in the early sixties, the occasional wheel-chaired visitors had to wait in the reserve centre while their partners were out on the trails and visiting the hides. Such people rarely complained about what they were missing. They were content, they said, to be able to watch the Sand Martins in the newly made cliff by the reception hut ; they enjoyed close encounters with the people-conditioned thrushes, tits and finches in the picnic area and were pleased to see the wilder warblers and other more elusive creatures that frequented the rich woodland-reed-bed ecotone at the west side of the car park. Good enough - but from our point of view, it wasn't good enough." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So .... that's me being serious for once. But ... I remember well when The Significant Otter broke her foot many years ago, we found out only too quickly what being even temporarily impaired was like. We tried wheeling her around the town in a wheelchair and just about everything went wrong. We couldn't get into the bank ... they couldn't find the ramp that was supposed to help us get past the single step .... so that was up the shoot. Then we went to another bank which, helpfully, had a lift to get us up the steps. Smashing ... except that after it had ascended about 6" it jammed, and we were stuck there for about 20 minutes. And when they had got us out, they then couldn't get us into the bank. It was almost funny how inept everywhere was. And this farcical trail of cock-ups and carelessness kept on happening almost everywhere we went. We won't even go into the whole public toilet issue. No. Completely Mad ... the whole experience. It's good to know that things are much better these days. (?) Or are they ? Well, to some extent. Anyway, I'm going to have a little saunter around the net to see what info there is around my little birding sphere ... but for now ....... music .... sweet music ... and appropriate too .. it's the excellent Yelle and " Completement Fou " .... which, of course, means " Completely Mad" ....
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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