Monday 10 January 2011

A thought about birdracing

I've participated in bird races for a few years now, both winter and summer. We haven't done the summer birdrace for a couple of years now, midnight til nigh on the following midnight, it takes up the whole weekend including time to recover, it's tough going and difficult to find a free weekend.

I do enjoy a winter birdrace, as long as it's not on the 1st or 2nd of January, for some reason, there didn't appear to be a winter birdrace this year at all (unless nobody told me, which is possible) and this got me thinking about the whole principle of birdracing.

As fuel becomes more expensive and people think more about their carbon footprint, twitching has become more of a taboo, hare-arsing around the country in the pursuit of rarities, burning the worlds precious resources..... I wondered whether the cost of fuel and guilty conciousness are making people think twice about bird racing?

On a summers bird race, I bet it is easy to clock up 250-300 miles roving the far-flung bits of the county in search of ospreys, wood warblers and black grouse. At £70 to fill the tank, it's an expensive day out. I also got thinking about Stewart and his OFFH (on foot from home list) and ADMc and his incredible bike list of 2009. People have year lists without resorting to using a car, or any form of motorised transport, could a low-carbon birdrace be a possibility?

It could be on foot, on a bike or on the bus or a combination of the three..... It's got me thinking!

In recent years, our team and no-doubt others have developed finely-tuned routes that they stick to and for me, that got a bit dull, as the planning was the best bit!

So, any thoughts on a low-carbon summer bird race? Anyone fancy a challenge?

7 comments:

Alan Gilbertson said...

How about the birding equivalent of a 5 furlong sprint? First one to see a bird is the winner. :)

Ghost of Stringer said...

I really like the idea of a "big sit" ! Not just because I'm lazy...... but mainly because I am lazy !!

Warren Baker said...

My patch work is all on foot Ipin. Its a good idea, to start a green bird race :-)

Skev said...

No need to re-invent the wheel Iain ...
Seeing as Leicester City was the first Environment City in the UK (http://www.environmentcity.org.uk/) seems fitting that a green bird race took part last year. One team on foot, one team on public transport, one team on bikes - see:
http://www.environmentcity.org.uk/

Skev said...

Better still, see this link (bloody clipboard!)
http://thedrunkbirder.wordpress.com/2010/05/30/a-spoon-full-of-sugar/

Stewart said...

Iain, every one could start at one spot, say, DBCP Visitor centre and have to return to the same spot at exactly the same time say 5 hours later. Bikes or on foot would be the mode of transport from there...The Widdrington Inn would be a good start/finish too...

Ipin said...

Some good thoughts there chaps, thanks and thanks for the link Skev. My idea was that epopel could combine foot, bikes, trains, buses, canoes...whatever and devise a route from a start point. People could be quite inventive...