On this very day of the 26th Feb ( but way back in 1986) I drove to a conference centre to a ...yes .. conference. It was just a "day" thing, and my "bit" of it was my usual spiel about recreational mathematics. But ... I also had an ulterior motive ...... so I set off really really early and got to a well-known wood only a few dinky miles from said conference centre which should ..... yes, should ... contain a Lesser Spot !! Now where I lived at the time was not exactly teeming with Lesser Spots , and consequently it was not on my list. I had put in a lot of time and effort trying to see one .... I had even been to this magic wood several times before without any success ... but I'm A Persistent Old Hector ..well, I was then anyway. Anyway, this time I got the thing ... and with excellent views too, so I was chuffed. And off I went to tell the waiting hordes all about how make mathematics bearable. So ... that was all good. But ... exactly 16 years later, I found something else ..but at the time I didn't think it was anything special. It was a Wednesday, by the way. I had trundled to a good local coastal spotting-spot, but didn't really see much, but when I went back to the car, there was a fine male Wheatear hopping about merrily. Very nice. It's a bit early, I thought, so I gave it a good scoping just to make sure it wasn't one of those other sorts of Wheatear which are sent try us ... and sure enough, it wasn't. It was a bang-to-rights, bog-standard Wheatear. But ... rather nicely, there was something special about it, but I didn't find out about it for a while ... and then I discovered that it was the first Wheatear in the whole country .... I looked at the message closely to see if it was a misprint for " first in the whole county" ... but no, it said "country" all right. Woo! Briwsion ! It might also have been the earliest EVER in Lancashire ..for that is where I was living at the time. I was quietly chuffed. Two entirely different events .... with different sorts of marvellousness. I now have a dilemma ..... I want to get to 400 posts on the last day of the month, exactly 365 days after I started this rather odd blog. I could miss a day,which would be a bit strange, and lounge about reading Bats for Beginners or whatever, as you do, or I could write something but call it #399b. Decisions, decisions ! [ Worry not ... I've thought of something .... ]
[ Update ... I've noticed on the LDBWS website that my "earliest Lancashire Wheatear" record has been equalled today !! What a wonderful coincidence.... I hadn't even thought about that sighting for ages. Mind you, it was very much on the cards with this exceptional warm weather coming up from Africa. ]
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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