Biking Birder at Sandwell Valley RSPB reserve by garyprescott186

Gary Prescott, a 53 year old teacher from Bromsgrove, Worecstershire will be spending the entire year birdwatching all over the United Kingdom. His mode of travel? Bicycle!

Gary plans to visit every RSPB and WWT nature reserve that is open to the public. That’s about 190 total!

From the press release:

The RSPB said no-one had ever visited all of its reserves in one year by any transport, so if Gary manages it he will be the first.

He planned much of his route so he would be in the right place at the right time of year to see certain birds. Check out his ambitious January through June and July through December itinerary for yourself!

Gary also hopes to see more than 250 types of bird during the year, in order to break the current non-motorized UK birdwatching year list record, held currently by Chris Mills of Norfolk.

I’m sure he is going to have a wonderful time on his trip. I know I would! But it’s also for a good cause.

“The RSPB was there when I wandered lonely as a teenager, not realising that other people shared my obsession of watching birds. It’s one of the main charities that I hope to raise money for through my trip.”

He is also raising money for the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) and Asthma UK. Along the way, he will be visiting many Eco-Schools to share ideas about being green and to raise awareness of climate change.

Barnaby and Me by garyprescott186

So how did this all start to begin with? Well, Gary said:

“The day I decided to complete this project to cycle to every single RSPB reserve was much like every other. I was commuting, and I’d rather have been birdwatching.”

I think we’ve all had days like that!

You can follow along with Gary on his journey at his blog called Biking Birder 2010.