The Doctor is IN

...And he's bloody mad!

As Tommo notes, I was away from my patch for the best fall of the year. Diane sent me a text on Friday telling me it was raining from the east... and I started getting a bit jumpy, then Friday and especially Saturday there were Red-breasted Flycatchers, Red-backed Shrikes, Barred and Icterine Warblers, and Wrynecks up the Aberdeenshire coast... and I was mouthing off to everyone I met about how aggrieved I was. Then news of one or two Greenish Warblers, and I became a disgrace, turned into a new 'Pete' from Big Brother, wandering up and down twitching, hitting myself and going 'Meow, root-toot- *Wankers*, huh huh!!

I showed my scratched bins to the repair man at the Zeiss stand, and he just laughed, more when I told him my darling children knew nothing about what happened. Still, he gave them a clean and a check-up, and some new eye cups, all for free. Zeiss rocks! It will cost £75 to get the lens replaced, which doesn't sound bad to me, but I made the mistake of having a look through the 7 x 42 and 8 x 42 FL Victories - they're bloody brilliant! Zeiss rocks, again. Diane will have to mind some more children and then I can get a pair. Saw a Green Sandpiper from the optics tent too.

The Fair was good too. Fantastic meeting all you people. Sorry I was being an arse! I received good advice from someone who might wish to remain anonymous, I'll call him 'SH' so no one guesses, that I need to increase the libels in the Secret Freezer. Trouble is, Im not very good at it, although I did hear from 'TA' that 'DM' was trying to claim a Raven over the reserve. I think we'll need to see that description.

Thousands of happy punters enjoying the Bird Fair sunshine

Chemical Toilets. Go early, or go when you get home.

Terrible amounts of wildlife-related tat


BB editor Roger Riddington (right) with BB contributor Andrea Corso (left). Disappointingly, Andrea is a man, in spite of his name. We checked.


British Bird Fair. That rocks too! Note BB stand on left