Friday, September 21, 2007

The perfect storm

Not really. I was expecting it though, after our trip out to hoover up the good seabirds of the North Sea was called off on account of weather. Shame. I went down to the sea for an hour in the morning to be hit with a ferocious SW force 1 and a sea virtually empty of birds. 07:00 - 08:00 yielded 2 Black-throated Divers (Arctic Loons) going south (well, one definite, one maybe), and only 3 Red-throated Divers, with another one north. One wonderful Manx Shearwater going north (thats 'Vun Vunderful' Manx Shearwater to fans of ze Count) , 1 Common Scoter and 4 Eurasian Wigeon south. 164 Northern Gannets north, (6 south), a measly 10 Black-legged Kittiwakes, all north, 139 auks north and 72 south, 13 Sandwich Terns north, and 3 south.
So, sea has been boring in this week's winds, but the morning was not without its compensation. A Redpoll sp. was flying over the house, calling, as I stepped out the door, and, continuing my current run of good form, I found this Pygmy Shrew on the clifftops.


Because I was in that sort of mood, I fixed it to the bonnet of my car, and drove home with the windows open, a-hollering and a-whooping, firing my rifle and crushing cans of Budweiser before throwing them out onto the road.

5 comments:

Harry said...

We called our German teacher 'The Count', due to his fondness for giving lines as punishment...not lines of coke, mind, that would have been most irresponsible for a secondary school teacher!

John said...

"a-hollering and a-whooping, firing my rifle and crushing cans of Budweiser before throwing them out onto the road."

Now If you just had a pickup truck I would think you must be from Texas.

Stewart said...

Martin, at least my shrew was alive! Yeeha!

Camera Trap Codger said...

We gonna have to send ya some Copenhagen smokeless tobacco fer yer lip, and a cassette -- so's y'all can enjoy Hank Williams Jr when yer cruisin. Then you can sing along with that great hit -- "Country Boy Can Survive".

John said...

Hank Jr. - Hell Ya!