The joy of veg

We are still living the vegetarian dream in Chateau L. All dishes are scored out of five by all family members, and then rounded up or down depending on the whim of Mrs L. I wanted to post this for two reasons. One, it is an excellent filler - written inspiration continues to be alternately easy and hard, and it is the hard phase that seems to dominate. And two, if I can become mostly vegetarian then anyone can. It is easy, healthier and cheaper, and we have found that we do not miss meat that much at all. Perhaps the biggest downside is that red wine – of which I have a lot – lends itself very well to pairing up with meat-based dishes. Still, there is always cheese I suppose. Goat’s cheese of course.

Anyway here is the list of dishes that we keep coming back to. Some experiments don’t work, but some of the below have become staples around here. By the way, for anything involving Paneer or Tofu, I was conveniently out. But I would have scored them zero - meat substitutes are pointless in my opinion, rubbery tasteless nonsense. There are plenty of actual vegetables with which to make fabulous dishes. Anyway, take a look at this mouthwatering list!

Pea and Paneer Curry 5 
Tofu and Mushrooms 5
Carrot Biryani 5
Roasted Veg Lasagna 5

Spinach and Almond Cannelloni 4
Green Beans, Potatos and Chives 4
Mexican Soup 4
Veg Tagine 4
Kale Speltotto 4
Macaroni Peas 4
Basil and Ricotta Risotto 4
Broccoli Pasta 4
Veggie Tacos 4
Pasta with Greens, Chilli and Garlic 4

Summer Stir Fry 3
Veggie Pasties 3
Summer Veg Frittata 3
Mushroom Risotto 3
Mushroom Bourguignon 3
Pasta with Kale, Chilli and Garlic 3

Spring green pasta from the River Cottage Veg Every Day cookbook. We had it during the winter with Kale and it was not as good, only scoring a 3.

The Upper Texas Coast - Spring migration Trip Report

I finally managed to hit the Upper Texas Coast (UTC) for the spring migration to explore the places of birding lore like Smith Oaks, Boy Scout Woods and Sabine Woods around the town of High Island. Tag on Anahuac NR, Bolivar Flats and a slight diversion to Cape May in New Jersey and you have the makings of a very fine birding trip indeed!

Logistics

• A five day trip in late April, leaving London on Wednesday afternoon and returning overnight on Monday. This allowed three full days on the UTC, a morning in the woods north of Houston, and then nearly a full day on Cape May.
• Afternoon flight to Houston from London put us in position for the following morning at High Island, and then back via Philadelphia which is only an hour from Cape May.
• Texas hotels universally crappy. Winnie is the closest (20 mins) reasonably-priced accommodation from High Island as is a total dump. Suck it up and think about the birds.
• Cape May is the off season still in late April. book a hotel in advance as most are closed, and don't arrive late thinking you can get food!
• Typical american fare throughout. Big shout out to Al T's and Sonic Burger.
• It gets hot in Texas, and there are lots of mosquitoes. Bring sunscreen and repellent.

Itinerary

• Day 0: This was basically a travel day, getting over to Texas ready to hit the coast the following morning.
• Day 1: Early start at Smith Oaks Sanctuary, High Island. Spent the whole day exploring here, Boy Scout Woods and the nearby area.
• Day 2: Dawn at Anahuac NWR, a vast wetland area above High Island. Afternoon at Sabine Woods.
• Day 3: Back to Anahuac for the morning as it was so good, High Island for a few hours around lunchtime and then across to the Bolivar Flats for the afternoon. Evening drive back to Houston.
• Day 4: Early morning birding at the W G State Forest for a shot at Red-cockaded Woodpecker, then a lunchtime flight to Philadelphia arriving at Cape May that evening.
• Day 5: Explored Cape May until mid afternoon, a quick stop at Heislerville WMA, and then an the red-eye back to London for a day's work.

Texas Locations

• High Island Reserves: Boy Scout Woods, Smith Oaks Sanctuary, Hooks Woods
• Sabine Woods, an hours drive east of High Island
• Sea Rim State Park
• Anahuac NWR - superb wetland reserve with a great drivable loop
• Rollover Pass - coastal habitat halfway towards Bolivar Flats west of High Island
• Bolivar Flats - impressive concentration of waders, gulls and terns
• W G Jones State Forest, Houston. Surrounded by urban sprawl, this is a reliable site for Red-cockaded Woodpecker

New Jersey Locations

• Cape May - Lighthouse, Wetlands, South Meadows, Sunset Beach
• Heislerville Wildlife Management Area  

The joy of shoes

Am I alone in appreciating a nice shoe? Most people seem to buy a cheap pair of shoes which then fall apart after a year, forcing them to buy another pair. Nick C from my local Wanstead patch is the classic example of this. Every time I see him on the patch he has a new pair of shoes on because the pair I saw him in last time have mysteriously developed a hole and are letting in water, and that isn’t a reflection of how frequently I go birding locally. I take the opposite approach – a higher initial outlay but then years of mostly trouble-free use. For instance I had a pair of brown brogues that I bought in 1997 and that I only threw away last year – 21 years of service, albeit that during the final few years they had been relegated to gardening shoes. They were refurbished only once during that time, and came back almost as good as new. It was a sad day when they finally reached the end of their long, long life. Happily I have managed to replace them with a pair of scotch grain derbys on dainite soles which look equally sturdy, I’ll let you know in 2040 how they’re looking.

I actually have another pair of brogues that were bought at around the same time, either 1998 or 1999, but these were never worn as much as the first pair as they were very slightly on the tight side. I had these repaired about five years ago, just before the first pair became the gardening shoes – how about that for advance planning?! They too came back after a 10 week holiday looking equally sparkly, and I happily started wearing them as my everyday go-to shoe. So much so that they are now beginning to show their age and I found myself in that grey area between a further repair or whether to buy a second-hand pair in better condition – a pair of brown brogues is of course an absolute must for the fashion-conscious man-about-town . I chose to source different ones purely on the basis that the fit was not quite perfect, and I’m pleased to say that I have now found a lovely pair on Ebay that should last for ages and ages.

Wait, you wear second hand shoes? Shoes worn by another person? Absolutely, no qualms whatsoever. A pair of decent shoes cost £400 new and that is obscene really in this day and age. If you hunt around a bit you can pick up a pair with only a small amount of wear for a third of that, often even less - the last pair I bought cost a mere £50 and needed no remedial work whatsoever. A bit of basic hygiene and off you go. If you are so inclined you can also send them back to the factory where they were made and have them come back almost as new and still end up ahead. I’ve now bought four pairs of pre-owned shoes and been extremely happy with three of them; being fickle I sold the fourth. Style is everything, not for nothing am I known as a fashionista.

I suppose you are wondering at this stage whether I have a shoe fetish? Well, a bit. How many pairs of shoes do I have? Not as many as Mrs L is the only answer I am prepared to give. OK, if you only count proper shoes, and not wellies, flip-flops etc, it is well under ten. Ten?!! Ten!!!!!! Well, I have two pairs of shoes for work which I rotate, both black oxfords but in different styles. One pair is actually the ones I got married in, which makes them close to 18 years old – they are still going strong, just as we are! Then I have 3 pairs of more utilitarian brown shoes in different styles, one of which is going to find a new home shortly, and then an essential pair of tan brogues. So that’s six pairs. Walking boots seven, a pair of running shoes eight (immaculate condition!), and then two pairs of western boots. Western boots? Oh yes….. They are very special…. No, no photos of me wearing them exist I’m afraid.

You cannot however buy yourself a decent pair of shoes and then expect to have them last several decades just because they are well made. Maintenance is key, and good shoes  need looking after on a regular basis. Those brown brogues I mentioned were purchased during my feckless years, and I still feel a twinge of regret that they might have gone on for far longer had I looked after them properly in their early days. These days I brush, clean and polish on a mildly obsessive basis. All the shoes have trees, and I rotate what I wear so that the shoes get a rest. When I put them on I use a shoe horn to protect the heel, and if I go out in bad weather, the first thing that will happen when I get home is that the shoes get a brush down, then the trees go in, and then they are left to dry for a couple of days before I give them a clean. And it goes without saying that the more you look after them, the easier it becomes to keep them in tip top shape. I've got a selection of brushes, cloths, creams and waxes that I keep in an old wooden box, and there is something actually quite pleasurable about sitting down of an evening and getting my shoes looking really nice.

I hope you have all enjoyed this mega-boring post.

The *other* Hoover Dam

Back in 2014 Famille L did a road trip around some of the northern states around Lake Erie - we were there for my grandmother's 90th birthday, what we me being part 'murcun 'n'all. Just outside Columbus Ohio, as we headed up towards Cleveland, we saw signs for the Hoover Dam. Wow! This is one of the modern wonders of the world, a must see! We immediately decided to divert, this was unmissable, what a stroke of luck!

A short while later we arrived at a small lake with a decidedly unimpressive dam at one end. There were a few joggers, a couple of cyclists and a nesting Killdeer.  We had a bit of a wander, kicked a few stones, and wondered which fool had decided to list this pathetic construction as one of the pinnacles of human engineering achievement. Later that evening we discovered that there were two Hoover Dams.....

For obvious reasons I never wrote a blog post about Ohio’s Hoover Dam, but fast forward nearly five years later, this blog is somehow still alive, and now I have a chance to write about the actual Hoover Dam, which sits on the border of Arizona and Nevada, and was conveniently on the route that Henry and I were taking back to Las Vegas. We may therefore be in a select group of people who have visited both Hoover Dams. Seen one dam, seen them all?

As these photos hopefully show, no. Not by a long shot. The real Hoover Dam is incredible in a way that the Columbus one really isn’t. In fact I would go as far as to say it was breathtaking. Magnificent in a totally different way from the natural wonders that we had seen over the previous few days, it had that same capacity to make you feel really really small. The ingenuity of man, so destructive but yet so so clever. It was built over the course of five years starting in 1931, and at that time was one of the most incredible man-made structures on earth. It probably still is. It is a tourist attraction in its own right so we were able to visit both the road bridge that overlooks the dam, notable for the number of lost baseball caps on the canyon walls, and then the roadway atop the dam. It was scarily high, very windy, and eerily silent and enormous – we both felt extremely exposed. Nonetheless, certain things have to be done....

The Mother Road

The mother road, Route 66. We chanced upon this legendary cross-country corridor as we headed out of Arizona towards Nevada. Spotting a sign and intrigued, we diverted off the Interstate to see if we could drive a section of the old road, and remarkably we hit it at exactly the spot that had been the inspiration for the Pixar film 'Cars'. Seligman, Arizona. This was a childhood staple for my lot, and Henry was right into it from the get go. Burma Shave slogans and rusting pickups, dead towns killed by the I40, and miles of straight tarmac. Surprisingly busy in places, we were the only car on other stretches. I. Am. Speed. Rascal Flatts was sourced via our internet-enhanced car, and we immersed ourselves in this extra and unexpected part of our journey. Yes it took longer, yes we did more miles, but this was little bit of history that we were pleased to experience.

Mile 66 on Route 66. 

No matter the price,
No matter how new,
The best safety device
In a car is you.
Burma Shave.

Arizona - The Grand Canyon

There is probably little that hasn't been said about the Grand Canyon in the way of superlatives. It is mind-blowing in its scale and grandeur, neither words nor photographs can do it justice. You have to be there, to be standing on its edge, to fully appreciate the immensity and the timelessness. You are a brief dot. It, a chasm millenia old.

Henry and I headed to its southern rim from Monument Valley after lunch on our penultimate day in America. It was a fairly long drive through scenery less spectacular than what had come before, but soon enough the landscape changed and a small gorge became visible on our right - the Little Colorado river. For us english folk this was pretty grand, little did we know. The road leaves the rim here and does not rejoin it until the scale has changed dramatically. Oh my.

We spent the afternoon moving from viewpoint to viewpoint, no two vistas the same but all equally impressive. I can thoroughly recommend it, but if you go in February make sure to dress up warm, this was the coldest we had been - at dawn the following day the mercury was down at minus 22c. I've only ever experienced colder in Estonia, by one degree - the sea froze there if that is any indication. Many cups of coffee were required to recover. 

But despite nearly losing all my digits I could not have wished for anything different. For starters we saw the sun for the first time all trip. Not a classic sunrise by any stretch, but a warm glow of the sort that had been entirely absent up until then. I can't begin to describe the scale. Everything is big in America, but this is different. Standing on the windswept edge looking alternately across and down you are reminded quite how ancient the land is. The Colorado river carved this landscape millimetres at a time, century after century, age after age. We are privileged to see it in its current state.

Local birds for local people

Well things are hotting up in Canary Wharf. Whilst my score is now 25, James has streaked ahead to 31. Given his CW life list previously stood at 35, this is perhaps more testament to his prior ambivalence than to his current level of excitement. I suspect it's a bit of both. I’ve not managed to get out much since the initial flurry, but a notable success was the addition on Blackcap whilst twitching a Reed Warbler. Yes, you read that right, I was twitching a Reed Warbler – this is what I have become. James had remarkably heard one burbling away close to the House Sparrow colony – this is (at the moment since we don’t really know any better) a fabulous record for the area and I was keen to get it on my list. The concept of lunch is somewhat nebulous where I work so I had to wait until the evening, by which time it had either shut up or moved on, but whilst looking for it I chanced upon the Blackcap and was equally stunned. Blackcaps are of course two a penny in Wanstead – in fact there is one regularly singing from my neighbour’s garden so I get to here the lovely song all the time, but in Canary Wharf, well.....ooof. A CW tick no less.

Talking of lovely song, a common confusion species (by sound) for Blackcap is Garden Warbler. In Wanstead a Garden Warbler is always a valued bird. This year has been really good for them, and we are possibly on five birds already. The song has a very very similar timbre and phrase to Blackcap, but has fewer if any scratchy elements, and is overall sweeter and more melodic. I also find that it is a tad faster and seems to go on for longer, almost like the reeling of a Dunnock or the swittering of a Goldfinch. However when you see a Garden Warbler it is almost shocking how plain they are. You expect something to match the song, a bit of glamour, a bit of pizazz, but instead you get a dumpy grey and brown thing. Then again the Nightingale is a very plain bird too, perhaps those birds that have the best vocals lose out in the looks department? When you hear your first Garden Warbler of the year you do a double take as you expect it to be a Blackcap but somehow there is something wrong. Even then you are not quite sure that your ears (and your keenness for a year tick!) are not deceiving you, and you have to get a view of it to be certain. Beware the non-singing Garden Warbler by the way, I’ve been done by autumn Whitethroats a few times. Don’t ask me how, it just happens! Song is by far the best bet, especially as Garden Warblers can be quite skulky.

And whilst on the theme of singing skulkers, that prize always goes to Nightingale. A bird that is unmistakable, but that you rarely if ever see. Occasionally you will sneak a view through an impossible tangle of vegetation of a plain bird producing the most incredible repertoire but for the most part they remain hidden. Another bird that frequently remains hidden whilst belting out an incredible sound track is Marsh Warbler. One was reported yesterday in Wanstead Park by an unknown birder. Us locals only got to hear about it via the bird information services, and so naturally a few of hurried right there. If there was ever a bird to turn you into a birding incompetent, it would seem that Marsh Warbler ticks many boxes. Despite the cacophony from the nearby Crow colony, three of us were convinced we heard it from a small patch of gorse on an island on Heronry. Perhaps my mind was addled by the mere thought of a Marsh Warbler, a patch tick, but I had little doubt that the burst of song was indeed coming from an invisible, small, brown and unremarkable Warbler, plainer even than Reed Warbler. The trouble is they are mimics, which makes them very hard indeed. Song Thrush, Blackcap, Blackbird, Reed Warbler, these birds can throw them all in and more. I would swear what I heard could only have been produced by a mimicking Acro, but the longer I stayed and the more I listened the more confused I became, especially when others turned up, didn’t hear what I had and started chipping in with helpful suggestions that sowed the seeds of self-doubt. So far theories range from a funny Song Thrush to a versatile Blackcap, but I have a nagging feeling that a rare bird has just slipped through everyone’s fingers. The bird was not present this morning despite my 5am start, so thanks a lot whatever you were! 

Local birding, but not as you know it ….

…. Jim. Well, James. Do any of my readers remember the Peanut Challenge at all? It was probably back in about 2012 that James A and I decided to have a competition to see whose local work patch was the worst. He worked at Tower Bridge, whilst I was at Canary Wharf. We contemplated a ‘lowest score wins’ format, but ultimately decided against it as too much lying and stupidity would be required. So, a traditional patch list competition, the prize being a symbolic packet of peanuts, reflective of the avian quality of the two patches. In the event is was a dead heat on 42 species each, and so the peanuts were duly shared out. Or maybe James didn’t in fact like peanuts and I ate them all? Regardless, given I can see 42 species in a 20 minute foray onto Wanstead Flats at almost any time of year, it did at least prove that inner city concrete habitats really are quite poor for birds.  This was several years ago, and if anything there is now more concrete in Canary Wharf than there used to be. There are a couple of posts here and here that describe it in a little more detail, but I think I created a separate blog for it that was subsequently deleted.

James H (a different James) is a fellow Wanstead patch birder. He and I are quite unusual for London birders in that we both have jobs and are unable to spend every minute of every day with bins around our necks. The three day weekend we have just had was very much appreciated but was not kind to us on the birding front. Back at our respective desks on Tuesday morning, we were appalled to see a flurry of messages from our Wanstead Flats birding colleagues, who not bound by the constraints of employment were having a whale of time. Multiple Whinchats in the brooms, Swallows moving through, singing Warblers – all of this we had to ‘enjoy’ vicariously. In response James sent a photo of the patch of concrete he can see from his window. As we all know, somebody else’s misfortune always improves another person’s outlook on life, and stuck in exactly the same boat I was highly cheered by this and so sent my own lovely concrete-dominated view. If I am honest I think my view is a lot better, but the bottom line is that neither of us see many birds in Canary Wharf. Firstly we are both supposed to be here working and not staring out of the window, and secondly it is absolutely awful. So awful in fact that I have not bothered birding Canary Wharf since the original Peanut Challenge, there is just no point. 

So naturally I immediately suggested that we attempt a new Peanut Challenge. To say he bit my arm off is not much of an understatement. Even in a place like this the competitive fire burns strong. Or maybe that is precisely because it is a place like this? Anyway, he even beat me in creating a spreadsheet and that takes some doing! Neither am I reluctant of course, and so for the first time in years I found myself back at xxxxxxxxxxxxx (location redacted, this is a serious  competition) eking out a Blue Tit, a Great Tit and a Dunnock, and I took a slightly circuitous route to the tube in the evening to snaffle a suppressed House Sparrow colony. At the time of writing the score is 23-17 in case you were wondering, with probably the current best bird being a Goldfinch. I did have binoculars though…

Every species must be proven beyond doubt

But that isn’t why I’m writing this. I’m writing this because this dumb competition got me out in the field and really enjoying proper birding. I listened, I looked for movement, and do you know what? Even in the urban wastelands there are birds. On my lunch time foray I noted an occupied Great Tit nest box which I never knew was there. I observed a Pied Wagtail feeding two young on a rare patch of real grass. Later on I found five Grey Wagtails in the space of 20 minutes, including two more youngsters being fed by an attentive parent. There were Canada Geese with Goslings, young families of Coot, in short it was great. Well, let me qualify that. I was not sat at my desk. Instead I was out and about and there were birds – unexpected and successfully breeding birds – right where I work.  Alongside the Goldfinch, Grey Wagtail was perhaps the biggest surprise. This is a species I struggle with in Wanstead, indeed my 2019 year list is still missing it. Here however, in an environment that you would have to say is inferior in almost every way, I saw five in short order, including young birds.

Of course yesterday was the easy and exciting day – the January 1^st equivalent of the traditional year list competition. From here on in it will get progressively harder and far far less interesting. For now though, there is a Robin to try and find!

Cyprus break

Over the Easter break we had a very enjoyable family holiday to Cyprus. I think this was my fourth visit, and I had taken one of my kids on one of them, but for the other two kids and Mrs L this was their first visit and I was keen to show them some of the places I like to spend time. In common with all of my previous visits we flew to Larnaca and then went further east to Agia Napa. Our hotel at Nissi Beach was one of those large multi-pool affairs, which was exactly what we all required. It had been a long term and some quality time doing absolutely nothing was sorely required for all five of us. Normally my trips are absolutely exhausting, trying to pack in as much as possible, but for family holidays I rein it in. Thus for five days I read a lot of books, listened to a lot of music, and turned most bits of my body bright pink as I flopped on airbeds and loungers. Mrs L and the kids did exactly the same and we all enjoyed it a lot as we had not done a med sun break for a while.

Nissi Beach is however really quite close to the aforementioned Cape Greco. You would almost think I had booked the hotel on purpose. So even though the holiday was a relaxed affair, it would have been rude not to pay it a visit. I went every day.

Whilst the family slumbered, each morning I was up out and watching the sun rise over the eastern Mediterranean in solitary splendour. I never tire of it. And with a little bit of warmth then in the air, and in glorious golden light and surrounded by fragrant foliage and spring flowers, I went off in search of birds to photograph as I had just happened to find a 500mm lens in our luggage when I was unpacking the towels. Ideal frankly. My time was extremely limited, this was after all a family holiday, but provided I got back for breakfast and then spent the rest of the day by the pool then those morning hours were all mine and I would like to think I made the most of them. As the old adage goes if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, so I spent almost all the time at the Cape, only abandoning it once to twitch a Demoiselle Crane at Paralimni on the way back to breakfast. My targets were the resident passerines of Cape Greco as well as migrants passing through. Warblers, Larks and Wheatears. Could I improve on the images I had taken in 2017 and 2014, and could I add anything new? Here are a few of what I ended up with – many of them taken out of the car window down by the Sea Caves.

Northern Wheatear

Cyprus Wheatear

I had half an eye on actual birding of course, and whilst I was crawling along the ground and creeping around bushes, as well as driving along the various tracks that criss-cross Cape Greco, I racked up what I thought was a nice little list in just 8 hours away from the hotel. I was also allowed a quick fifteen minutes at Oroklini Marsh on the way back to the airport which did not result in any photographs but did add a few more birds to the list. 

Alpine Swifts live under the cliff edge

One afternoon I managed to convince soporific family members to forgo a couple of hours by the pool and to come and see what all the fuss was about. I am pleased to say that all members of my family have now seen Cyprus Pied Wheatear at close quarters. Were they impressed? No, not really, it is just a bird apparently. Losers. The Alpine Swifts zooming around at eye-level probably made more of an impression, but basically birds are Dad’s [sad, boring] hobby, and could we go back to the hotel now please? Fine.

Cyprus Warbler

Ruppell's Warbler

Spectacled Warbler

Crested Lark

Chukar Partridge

House Sparrow

Cape Greco migrant patrol looking guilty.....