This is a belated report on a trip Clarice and I took to England, Wales, and
Scotland April 15- May 16 this year.My first trip to any part of Europe, so
this is more about impressions than birds. The occasion was mostly for
rhododendrons. C. and I have been to China twice on rhododendron species
mapping and collecting trips. These were sponsored by certain biologists
with the Royal Botanic Garden in Edingburgh, and on the last trip we were the
only ones from the U.S. So, we had some botanist and horticulturist friends
to see, and the Scottish chapter of the American Rhododendron Society was
hosting a big convention in Oban Scotland, and we looked up a birding guide
to help us around for one week-- so off we went.

First we saw friends outside of Farnham, near London. These friends were
avid birders, and we never knew it (even after they had stayed in our house
and after two trips to China). I guess you have to ask. They had an ancient
bird guidebook with beautiful paintings in it. I thought, how "quaint", a
guide not arranged by species relationships but from smallest bird to biggest
bird. Not at all like my copy of "Lars" nor any other guide I had ever seen,
so of course it seemed "wrong", until I got copy of a guide from the Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds that was arranged more or less the same
way. Like driving on the left, it started making sense after a while.Started
ticking off all the common birds-- they had a lot of woods, a grey heron
rookery nearby, and some ponds. Began hearing the refrain we would hear the
whole trip-- "been a late spring". But a lesser whitethroat in the garden
made me think that at least some of the migrants might be showing up.

Left there and met up with our soon to be bird guide in Bristol, for a beer.
(This was Peter Frazier, who we found helpful, friendly and knowlegeable.
Self employed bird guider and maintainer of rare bird sighting software for
various municipalities. I would recommend him if you are planning a trip,
and could give out his phone # if anyone wants it). Pete told us to spend the
next week on the south coast if we could-- but of course we had other plans
and went north up through Wales.

In Wales we went mountain climbing and got blown around a lot by the
wind. Northern lapwing were displaying everywhere. One peregrine on a nest.
Red kites floating right over the car on the Welsh coast. Went to south
stack on Anglesey and watched red-billed chough dive over the cliffs, flip
over, get blown back--always incessant, cold wind. "Aye, we should have some
poofins here,but they go out aways when its so windy". Funny going to England
and ending up so quickly in a place where English is definitely a second
language. Went on to look at some Welsh gardens and spent a delightful day in
the wierd little town of Portmeireon (you know, where they filmed "The
Prisoner") and poked in the China shops.

Noticed one thing in Wales (and later again in Scotland) that was a bit of a
culture shock. Commercial falconry places. Spent a day with this fellow
whose life was breeding, flying, selling, and showing birds. According to
him, as long as the bird is banded as being captive bred, it can be sold to
anyone, whether they know what to do with it or not. And the choices he had
were staggering. Bald Eagles, ferruginous hawks, gyrs, sakers, dozens of
peregrines, eagle owls, snowy owls, harris hawks, redtails, buzzards, sparrow
hawks, coopers, on and on (not all for sale, but all there). "To a lot of
us, they are no different than chickens". I have always felt it was a little
odd to play geneticist by cross breeding birds I like to think of as "wild",
so it was interesting to talk with him. He had no other customers, so we got
to see him demonstrate several of his cross-bred falcons, and to begin to see
what went on in his head to make him want to do it. "By breeding saker to
the gyr, you will see how, rather than chasing his prey down, he uses cover
better, and yet is still a gyr in strength." Still seemed odd, but his birds
did have distinctive flights. He was an aircraft designer with birds. And,
to see someone fly a bald eagle from his hand-- a bit overwhelming.

Went on a hike on the way to Scotland, near Hadrian's wall, to see "England's
only breeding pair of Golden Eagles". Did get to see the pair, and to marvel
at the RSPB operation, full time warden just to keep people from hiking
across this completely open heather to get too close. We felt like we were
getting a pretty decent bird list by the time we got to Scotland, where we
stopped by a friend in Perth. Turned out, they were in to birds. As well as
their thousand acre estate and house built in 1740. The history around there
is impressive. They had an old egg collection from the 19th century. Found
it in the attic with some of grandfather's things. each egg in its little
mahogany divider in its drawer. While there we asked at an RSPB preserve why
they had to monitor an osprey's nest full time with security cameras-- "egg
collectors".

Met up with Pete and went with him for a week all around Scotland. Cold,
windy, lots of snow, "its been a late spring". Went hiking in a forest for
capercaillie, I was hoping to be accosted by a male but I guess the "late
spring" had them on their leks during our visit, so we were only met by snow.
But we did see a female eating gravel along the road. Also lots of lekking
black grouse. Went out to the Isle of May and kicked myself good. I didn't
ask if we were going on a big or little boat so I left my camera at the hotel
(not wanting salt spray, etc.) and it turned out this would have been a place
and time for wonderful photography. Got the Atlantic puffin fix we missed
in Wales, (40K or so nesters). Also shags (voted the best dressed),
kittiwakes, fulmars, and eiders, all nesting close enough for a normal lens.
Ate lunch beside a rock with that ever present wind coming over, and had a
fulmar the whole time fly up from below, break over the top within a few feet
of us, swoop out with the wind, and come back for more. Saw a male king eider
in with the common variety on a mainland estuary. Spent an afternoon
glassing the sea-- something I have never done before. I really enjoyed it,
picking out great skuas and arctic skuas (parasitic jaegers), learning to
recognize their flight, and gannets, alcids of all sorts, and the like,
including black throated divers (arctic loon). Spent a day out on Skye (heard
but did not see a corn crake) and a morning with the migrating barnacle,
bean, pink footed, and so forth geese. One hotel we stayed at had just cut
down a tree, of course because it was perfect owl habitat. "Look in de
hole-- thats a baby owl" "Will it live?" We told them to put it in a box,
and sure enough momma (tawny owl) came back. "I didna know they would do
that."

Lots of political and birder/political discussions. "Your locals got upset
over 30 cars looking at a great grey? We got 2500 birders into a safeway
parking lot one Sunday." People wear pagers to get the latest rare bird
reports. Some are updated 10 times a day (according to Pete, who works with
that) and since the calls cost you a fee the reports are a business;
different providers will compete for the best reports. Lots of scenery and
history. I suppose I had heard of the "clearances" in school at some time,
but to actually see miles of countryside where the people were just rounded
up and shipped off to make room for sheep. Strange country for conservation,
too. There is not a single inch that has not been altered by humans, and the
common idea of a forest in Scotland is atrocious, but still many people are
trying to save whats left of the diversity.

Then, sans Peter, Clarice and I went conventioneering in Oban. More gardens.
Then on to finish out the trip in Edingburgh. The Royal Botanic Garden is a
researcher's heaven. The herbarium has the original specimens from the 19th
and earlier 20th century British (and some Americans like Joseph Rock) plant
collectors. We know two botanists there, both working on Rhodies. The place
is doing botanical surveys of wonderful places (Bhutan, Irian Jaya-- remember
the British botanical students kidnapped there recently, Sarawak, so on) and
really gets the grant money. I was suitably impressed to see not just one
but two electrom microscopes. Then on to home.

Uh-- bird list. We managed 144 species, which seemed fine to me. Lots of
them would otherwise require me to go someplace exotic, like the east coast.
-------------------------------------
Name: Jerry Broadus
jbroadus at seanet.com
901-16th. St S.W.
Puyallup, Wa. 98371
206-845-3156
06/03/96
17:05:05