Slik D2 lightning conductor

Not a lot of birds to report this week. grrrrr.... I was out nice n' early this morning though. I guess we're in the summer doldrums, but I could smell the ozone and hear the call of the sea - not long til the seawatching starts again. Anyway, there I was outdoors on a warm morning. that much is good. I was watching a Sedge Warbler hopping along the stones at the side of the Elsick burn, picking out low-flying flies, and made the mistake of trying to record the moment through the medium of biro artwork. BIG mistake. Possible the worst drawing of a Sedge Warbler ever undertaken. When time heals the shame, I'll scan it and put it on. Plagues of House Sparrow families, + Sedge Warblers, Whitethroats, Dunnock etc. If I was of that aesthete temperament, I'd suggest that life was bursting up through the mud. Good job I'm not. So basically quiet, and down in Newtonhill Bay there was a family of Mallards (mum + 3 6/8 size duckling trying to get away from me on wee stmupy wings), and a half-baked creche of Eiders (6 kids and three ad females). A few Kittiwakes resting on rocks, and a lone clap of thunder in the distance. I guess a lone clap is better than a single herpe. So I get to my usual seawatching spot, and there isn't really a lot happening - Kittiwakes, a few Gannets going south, Fulamrs, 3 spp auks etc. 1 (yes, i counted) Sandwich Tern. The suddenly there is an enormous thunderclap, and another, and there's lightning all over the shop, and I'm on an exposed rocky outcrop with 2 m of metal tripod sticking in the air. That was too much excitement for me and I headed home. It was BUCKETING down, and me in my usual Y-fronts etc, not prepared. Didn't see much else.