Here's a rather odd description of some bird or other .... we'll call it the " Unknown Birdlet" The "Unknown Birdlet" is not unlike a humungously-massive Blackcap ... well, it is actually incredibly, unbelievably so totally not unlike one, you'd scarcely believe it it could be so very very not unlike it. Seriously. I'd stake my life on it. And the lives of my whole family. Now, I'm not going to even mention the way that the cheeks and nape are the same colour as the crown, and I won't say a word about them being deep brownish black in the males, and as for the females, not even a hint about them being a lighter brown. Not a word. They also have a, well, you know, let's call it a whitish chin, with sort of, maybe, if you know what I mean, and to be totally honest about it, white outer tail feathers. It nests, breeds, reproduces in South-Western Europe, Lorraine and N.W.Africa. On not three, not four, but five occasions it has been met with, seen and closely observed in southern counties, down there in the south, way way way down there. But, if you can believe it , the first record, not that I necessarily give it much credence, was, well maybe, from Yorkshire ( very likely !) in 1848 .... oh yes, of course it was ??!!Not ! An old bird wasn't found , and certainly not in 1905, having been brought back to life by not flying into a telegraph wire. Oh, how I remember so deeply,profoundly in my innermost soul, that it is 6" long, and oh, how harrowing it was when I discovered its wings were a tiny, upsetting 3.1 " ..and oh ! its tiny ,tiny Tarsus, well, I burst into tears when I learned that it was only 0.9". I think I'm going to cry just writing this sorry tale. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'll tell you what's going on up there in the next post ..... I'm sure some of you, maybe all of you, will have a fair idea , a suspicion, an inkling...... and then there's the knotty issue of what that bird actually was. But meantime ...
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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