onionbagblog

Image Copyright: Richard Allen.

The migrating birds from the east may have eloped away from our estuary Mediterranean April, but the warmer climes has brought some feathered friends who are rather partial to a spot of North Essex sunshine.

Hurrah!

Richard Allen, Wivenhoe’s Bird Watcher Supreme, updates for this month with news a prehistoric bird (steady) nightingales and a Whimbrel en route to Scotland from Africa, via Wivenhoe.

Blimey.

“Summer seemed to have arrived early and brought in lots of migrants with it. Our first sighting however was a prehistoric looking Cormorant drying its wings after a successful fishing trip. Nearby our first migrants, a pair of Common Terns perched on a buoy showing their black tipped red bills. We saw several more later, flying up and down the river fishing.

The bushes and wood were alive with warblers, we heard many, but getting a look at them proved a little more difficult. Eventually Whitethroats showed themselves well, and we heard Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Reed and Sedge Warblers.

Nightingales have also arrived in good numbers, and two were singing in the wood, but apart from my Dad who was trailing behind the group, we didn’t get a glimpse.

Most of the waders have migrated north, but there were still some Black-tailed Godwits fuelling up before their flight to Iceland, many in their chestnut summer plumage. Another northbound migrant was a Whimbrel, this small curlew-like wader winters in Africa and was on its way to Scotland or beyond.

Other sightings included several Oystercatchers and Shelduck looking bright in the sunshine, and a distant Cuckoo was heard calling. On the way back a Marsh Harrier shimmered in the haze, a Kestrel hovered over the meadow, and a male Reed Bunting perched up nicely for some.

Recent sightings: First Swifts on 27th and two Greenshank on the river.

Richard’s next highly recommended bird walk takes place on Saturday 21st May, starting at 10am from outside the Sailing Club. The cost is a very generous £8, with bookings advisable over here.

There is also an opening up of Richard’s studio to coincide with Open Gardens for the weekend of 21st – 22nd May. You can see a selection of Richard’s wonderful bird illustrations in the recently published programme for the Wivenhoe Ferry.

I’ve blogged about this before, but here’s a timely reminder that the very good folk of Wivenhoe Town FC are putting on a beer festival to help celebrate / escape the Royal nuptials of the Establishment couple on Friday.

I plan to be at Broad Lane, and propose a toast to the happy elitist couple each time the BBC shows some fawning shot of a minor Royal confusing one nation identity with an opportunity for a p*** up.

Or something.

Chin chin.

Published as part of the Keep Colchester Cycling project.

The second speaker at the Active Travel conference held at the University of Essex last week was Michelle Lay-Flurrie from Colchester Borough Council. With the aim of the event to work out news ways to improve transport sustainability within Colchester, Michelle was able to explain more about the Bike to Work scheme that she manages for the borough.

Bike to Work is essentially a tax break to help employees buy a new bike to be used for work commuting purposes. The scheme works by offering a 40% discount on the purchase of a new bike. This is administered by offering tax break in your monthly salary.

At a local level, Michelle explained how CBC has been offering this service for almost three years now:

“Prior to Bike to Work, Colchester Borough Council tried to offer alternatives to the car for employees with a number of initiatives. We experimented with bus vouchers, as well as trying to promote car sharing. The Cycle to Work scheme came about as a natural extension of this transport policy.”

Fifty-four employees within the local authority have taken advantage of the very generous discount to date. To help encourage more usage, CBC has been able to offer further incentives to help make cycling more attractive to its staff:

“We have put in place purpose built safe bike lock ups on site. Tools and bike pumps are offered. Our next stage is to look at offering shower facilities for cyclists.”

A tricky question about policing the Bike to Work scheme was then asked. The letter of the law lays down the idea that the 40% discount is only available if the employee uses the bicycle for at least 50% of the work commute.

“This is a goodwill scheme and we aren’t going to go around snooping on cyclists! We have noticed however a considerable drop in our car parking space from the site locations where the Bike to Work take up is high.”

Which confirms more or less what we knew anyway here at Keep Colchester Cycling: when given the opportunity and incentives to cycle, most folk can see the advantages and will give it a go.

Sadly the scheme isn’t available to self-employed people. What is maybe needed around Colchester is a co-operative bike pool scheme.

Now then - what a great idea…

Published as part of the Keep Colchester Cycling project.

We’re going to start posting a series of reports that came out of the recent Active Travel conference that took place at the University of Essex. Kindly organised by the Colchester Travel Plan Club, the aim of the event was to stimulate debate about how employers and employees can use alternatives to the car when commuting, and how interested groups around Colchester can work in co-operation to help achieve this.

Keep Colchester Cycling was very kindly invited along to update how our bike fleet scheme is progressing. We made many contacts with local groups from which we can learn, and hopefully work together to help make our bike pool plan a success.

With so many great speakers and ideas on the day, the best way to organise and continue the conversation online is going to be to blog about individual speakers per post. Starting off this series is Ben Paton, a bike mechanic who runs his own business, Cycle Tech Colchester.

Ben’s overall business aim is to “de-bunk the black art of bicycle mechanics.” In essence he offers a bike mechanic service, with very much the aim of empowering people to understand the workings of their own bike, and to try and keep them on the road.

We heard how Ben offers a service that is far removed from the one-size fits all approach to bike mechanics. No one bicycle is going to have the exact same mechanical problem. Ben is able to help cyclists understand how their own machine works, and then offer advice about upkeep and maintenance.

In a practical work sense, Ben spoke of how employers and employees around Colchester are increasingly attracted towards using cycling as the main mode of transport:

“Cycling saves money, it is the quickest form of transport, it respects the environment, it is fun and social and it helps fitness. My own business is a natural extension of my life long love of cycling.”

This was an approach that was hugely infectious. Ben clearly loves his work, and has found a way to run a small business based around his own passion for cycling.

Ben then explained more about who he believes can benefit from his mechanical skills:

“Statistics show that every household owns on average 1.6 bicycles. It is this 0.6 demographic that I am keen to work with. This usually represents a broken bike at the bottom of the garden that the owners think is a write off. This is never the case - most bikes can be saved!”

The local Colchester economy seems to agree. It was wonderful to hear how some employers take on Ben to look after the fleet of bicycles that is collectively owned by the employees.

Rather than pay for a one-to-one service privately, some businesses hire Ben to come in and spend some time in the company to fix all staff bikes. This is a brilliant working arrangement, which then helps employees back on the road for the daily commute.

Ben is highly visible around the town, attending many local cycling events in his Cycle Tech Colchester splendid yellow branded colours. He is about to offer a weekly Dr Bike service at the market each Friday, running all the way through until September.

In terms of buying a new bicycle, here at Keep Colchester Cycling we rather liked the food chain hierarchy of bikes that Ben advised:

“Road bikes would be my preference, but a hybrid should suit most users who want to cycle around Colchester. No one really needs a mountain bike around here for a daily commute.”

Plus Ben is also skilled at Moulton mechanics, something that certainly added to his vision and cycling evangelism.

If you are part of the 0.6 demographic and want to get back in the saddle, Ben is your man. He can be contacted over here, and is available to visit on location, at either home or work.

Wivenhoe Town 1, Stanway Rovers 1

To Broad Lane on Monday afternoon for the final time this season. Actually, that’s not true; Wivenhoe Town are celebrating the nuptials of the future King and Queen of England this weekend with a beer festival.

Blimey.

I’ll drink to that, etc. I thought it only rude not to turn up on Easter Monday and acclimatise myself to the ritual that is getting slowly sloshed whilst up at Broad Lane. Stanway Rovers were the local derby visitors, in a game that the Dragons really needed to get something out of if they want to banish any fears of the drop.

I’m sure that the future King and Queen of England were returning the special relationship favour, drinking cans Special Brew in some Berkshire country estate and toasting the survival of the Dragons in the Ridgeons Premier.

A rare early arrival for @AnnaJCowen and I was all the fault of a couple of visiting Friends in the North. We were rewarded with the sight of the ref and two linos warming up, raising a thigh muscle slightly too high above the advertising barrier.

Whoops - one of the boys has just popped out of the barracks, boy.

Keeping with the topical theme of outdoor celebrations ahead of the big event (Royal Wedding, not a Ridgeons grudge derby) and our little colonised corner of Broad Lane became a picnic sanctuary.

With the last food order just missed at the Horse and Groom, One Stop sells exceedingly nice sarnies for a Bank Holiday Monday afternoon. With everyone’s favourite local shop (yeah, right…) about to be re-branded as a Tesco, I don’t think that it was any coincidence that one of our Friends in the North confessed for an irrational fear of cold sandwiches.

We took up our usual place in the away end (it’s a long story…) and were joined by a couple of old boys from Stanway. I blame the Greenstead roundabout, which takes the best part of an afternoon just to circle around one of the satellites.

Stanway Rovers looked rather poncey in their pre-match ritual of playing patter cake, patter cake baker man. The Listen With Mother tactical approach clearly paid off, with the first half hour of the game giving little joy for the Wivenhoe massive.

Much like the lost Stanway supporters back on the Greenstead, the team from down the road were running rings around the Dragons. The response from Wivenhoe was to launch the dogs of war, i.e. the late arrival of the lovely mutt that also stands in the away section.

With a playing surface on par with Ballast Quay, this wasn’t an afternoon for yer fancy Dan passing game. And thank heavens for that. It wasn’t even an afternoon for studs (steady) with beach football on a rock hard surface being the best description.

Taking in the glamour of Broad Lane and the surrounds, our Friends in the North confused the portakabin down the side of the pitch for the corporate hospitality section.

Cripes.

This is *ahem* Wivenhoe, Madam.

The one chance that fell to the Dragons in the first half was an open goal that of course had to be missed. “Watching bad football being played badly is brilliant,” remarked a Friend in the North, before we both agreed that we would be one hundred times worse if we actually walked it like we talked it.

The highlight of half time was a spectacular multi-coloured tank top being paraded around in the bar. It wouldn’t have looked out of place on Swap Shop on a Saturday morning. I’d wager I’d be hallucinating if the knitwear makes a return appearance after five pints in the bar on Royal Wedding day.

The game finally opened up in the second half, with the heat and challenging pitch adding to the excitement. Our Friends in the north (not N Essex) cheered louder than @AnnaJCowen and I when Wivenhoe were awarded a penalty.

Almost orgasmic celebrations followed from the Friends in the North when the ball was calmly slotted home. I shot my own load at 4:45, with an ill-timed 5pm Bank Holiday work shift starting back at base.

No worries. 1-0 to the Dragons, and with less time than it takes a blushing Royal bride to say “I do” left to play, the game was over. Strange then to find that some five pints later down in The Station, and with a dodgy 3G iPhone signal fired up, buried away on the Ridgeons Premier League site was:

Wivenhoe Town 1, Stanway Rovers 1.

Bugger.

The end of season pitch invasion was presumably abandoned to apathy.

But keep the faith, you fan (s) of non-league North East Essex football. The beer festival has got to be the BEST way to celebrate the Royal nuptials in Wivenhoe. I might even stay until the end.

Chin chin.

Full flickr set over here.

Good news - re-growth has begun on the hedgerows that the Environment Agency so brutally vandalised back at the start of the year.

You may remember how the excuse of protecting the sea wall from burrowing rabbits (nope - me neither) was put up as the justification for the savage destruction of our beautiful local walkways. Strange then that the diggers left in place the roots of the rosehips, blackberry and hawthorn bushes.

Unlike the Environment Agency, Mother Nature has all the answers when it comes to the natural way of protecting our environmental heritage. A Mediterranean month of April in Wivenhoe (steady) and the first signs are starting to show of re-growth along the walkway past the Sailing Club and out towards the Creek.

Even the manufactured marshland - the mess made by the digger’s caterpillar tyres - is starting to heal. No sign of re-growth here, but at least the mud has hardened and looks slightly more pleasant on the eye.

Heading back in the opposite direction towards the Hythe, and it is a similar celebratory spring story along the Wivenhoe Trail. The Environment Agency decided to butcher the bushes all the way down to the University Quays accommodation, leaving a very exposed and bleak landscape.

Now I’m not great identifier of all that is good and green (um, it’s grass, isn’t it?) but some rather charming weeds with white flowers are now lining either side of the Trail out of the wooded area, three, four deep, greeting you as though you are Royalty as you cycle along.

Which is some ways, Comrades, we all are, of course.

The next challenge is to make sure that the Environment Agency isn’t given the opportunity to devastate our landscape with such ease ever again. A formal letter of warning (and it was a bloody warning) was sent to Wivenhoe Town Council last August, ahead of the vandalism.

This was slept on, with the diggers surprising councillors, and locals, with the unannounced speed of the devastation some six months later. I like to think that having seen the reaction to the folly of this mass enforced policy, Wivenhoe won’t give the diggers such an easy ride, should they return around these parts once again.

Now then - keep it a secret, but *shhh* - I’ve found a supply of hawthorns that should be ripe with rosehips in six months time. Don’t tell the Environment Agency; do tell however those nice folk from Transition Town Wivenhoe who are putting together a Free Fruit Map of the area.