Move your mind

So say the marketing men (and women, one assumes) of Saab, the Swedish aerospace-oriented car manufacturers.

Saab sponsor an aerobatic helicopter display at Mountain Mayhem to reinforce their link with military aeronautic boys' toys.

However, on the weekend of the 23rd/25th June, it wasn't so much my mind I needed to move (it's relatively light-weight) as the rest of my body as I entered the Saab Salomon 24 hour Mountain Mayhem event. Imagine the Le Mans 24 hour sports car race but with mountain bikes. Team members typically rotate laps of the 7.5 mile course and someone must be on the course at all times. A lap takes about 45 minutes. Most riders will have to complete at least 2 laps in darkness. Many teams elect to double up night laps (each rider does two laps before rotating) so that resting team mates can get at least a couple of hours sleep.

Our team came in a creditable 92nd out of 245 teams in the Sport Men category; completing 31 laps between the 4 of us.

Me putting the power down and looking fresh on lap 2 of 8 at Mountain Mayhem. The night laps lie ahead! This boy's toy has it's wheels firmly on the ground!

They glow in the dark!

This weekend I've been at a party at Lumley Fee near Brigsteer in the south Lake District. The building is used as a residential centre by Bramley and Rodley Community Association and can be booked by the general public. It's a great place with fantastic views to the Lake District Fells to the north and Morecambe Bay and the Lyth valley to the south. A good spot for walking, cycling and rock-climbing on Scout Scar.

As the party progressed into the night, we found glow-worms in the surrounding undergrowth.

Glow-worm from above

Glow-worm from below (it's the white tip of the abdomen that glows)

The crazy green luminescence of the glow-worm

Raptor ringing

A real highlight of the last two weeks has been the opportunity to climb up to raptors' nests (under the supervision of licensed ringers with all appropriate permissions) to help with the ringing and tagging which is so important to managing the conservation of these beautiful birds.

Me climbing an oak tree in the Washburn valley to a buzzards' nest in rather ungainly fashion. Not something I'm very practiced at and it's a long way down!

A buzzard chick, close to fledging. Was this the one that clawed my finger?

Four chicks in this nest is a good number. These first three shots are by Andy Jowett.

The view from a red kites' nest in the Wharfe valley with corpses of 1 rabbit and 3 jay chicks in the larder and the ringing team in the background. It's thanks to these people that I'm 70 feet up this tree!

Kite chicks returned to the nest with wing tags in place. The one you can see is orange on the left wing (denoting a Harewood, Leeds bird) and green on the right (indicating that it hatched in 2006). It's number 14. Let me know if you see it around!

It was real privilege to be this close to the birds and impossible not to get good shots from this range.

Some catching up to do

I've not updated the blog for some time so this one might turn out to be a mega post.

Since last time I've been:

1. Undergoing mountainbike leader training with MIAS. I'm now a level two instructor.
2. Caving at Gaping Gill as part of BPC's annual winch meet.
3. On a family holiday in southern Spain where we visited the Alhambra at Granada and I got some birding in.
4. Getting some miles in on the bike.

Here are some pictures (just snaps really):

From Spain

Woodchat Shrike

An Acrocephalus warbler of some ilk (Reed?)

Black-winged Stilt

Greater Flamingoes at the Fiera del Puente salt lagoon

Hoopoe at the same spot