Monday 1 April 2013

Fantasy Birding

0630hrs - I awoke to a wet nose pressed against my face.
"Morning master, here`s your early morning cuppa, just the way you like it, and there`s a bacon sarnie waiting for you in the kitchen". At last, Barney had made himself useful.
"Come on then, the wind is from the south, the suns shining and the birds are singing."
I pulled on me shorts and T shirt and wandered into the garden drinking tea. A male Bluethroat sprang from the side of the pond, sat on the bird bath and burst into song. Mmm, a good start, best go birding I thought. As we strolled down Taylor Road an Alpine Swift swooped overhead while the  Herring Gulls mobbed a Black Kite heading north. A scan across the Lade Desert revealed a flock of Little Bustards and as we moved closer a Calandra Lark flushed from cover. The mobile trilled telling of a massive fall down at the Point, including Dark-eyed Junco, Short-toed Treecreeper and Subalpine Warbler; apparently the Obs had 10 bird-ringers working flat out. The seawatchers had already had King Eider, Brunnich`s Guillemot and Harlequin Duck fly past and distant views of what appeared to be a Great Auk swimming just outside the marker buoy.
"Hurry up master", barked Barney, "lets go for a seawatch".

And then the alarm sounded, and I heard the blasting east wind slapping against the window pane...

4 comments:

  1. Hmmm, bit dubious about some of that. Surely the mobbing flock of gulls would have been Audouin's rather than Herring...? :)

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  2. Come on Paul, that is so far fetched - whenever have you seen 10 ringers at the bird observatory?

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    1. Steve, its a fair cop gov. Just hope DW doesn't read this nonsense, otherwise I`ll never get another cup of tea down there! ps: sorry about the white-arses.

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