Sunday, September 24, 2006

Did anyone else notice it was raining?

A decod glass returd to Dottigham peas. Oh yes, mater, I have a code id de hed. And what better for it than a 4 1/2 hour walk in the pissing September rain. Nothing better as far as I'm concerned. Stock up with Tuuunnnneees and I'm away. Bit of an easterly wind going overnight, and of course the rain, so high hopes for patch-tick Yellow-browed Warbler. Really have to see one this year after previous year's disastrous finding of Pallas's Warbler, which wasn't even a patch tick. And strike me dead with a custard cream - I didn't see one, or indeed many migrants at all. Bit of a wash out. There's a new unringed Dipper on the Elsick Burn. It was drying off by going for a swim. Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Great Tits yada yada. You don't want to know.
Look offshore - no repeats of last weekend's fireworks. In fact with 58 Barnacle Geese going south in 2 flocks (first of the autumn, and unusually beating the pinkies in), there's a distinct wintery feel to the sea... 3 Red-throated Divers, 5 Eurasian Wigeon, 2 Sandwich Terns, some Common Gulls south, a trickle of Gannets and auks, incl a Puffin. No shearwaters or skuas. Boo! The Coastal Park, Community Park and Allotments were dead, bit of relief down the Muchalls Track with a few Goldcrests and a Northern Wheatear having a fight with a Chaffinch on the telegraph wires (true!). Saw another birder down at Water Valley - first time I've intercepted another birder on my patch in over 4 years, apart from that old boy with the dog. He hadn't seen much either.

Nothing else, sorry. This week I have been mostly listening to Ritual de lo Habitual by Jane's Addiction. Seriously weird - my no. 1 top album for the last 10+ years
Of course this land is dangerous!
All of the animals
Are capably murderous.

When I was a boy,
My big brother held on to my hands,
Then he made me slap my own face.
I looked up to him then, and still do.
He was trying to teach me something.
Now I know what it was!
Now I know what he meant!
Now I know how it is!

One must eat the other
Who runs free before him.
Put them right into his mouth
While fantasizing the beauty of his movements.
A sensation not unlike
Slapping yourself in the face...
Slapping yourself in the face...
Slapping yourself in the face...

Wow, those lyrics sound so much better when you're on a Paracetomol/
Ibuprofen/Custard Cream high.

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