This next snazzy drawing is a Lithuanian beetle drawn by me in your actual Lithuania ..... I've shrunk it a bit because my annotation says it is "life-sized" so I've tried to shrink it to "the right size" ... Here at last is the final part of my gripping account of my week in Lithuania ...... in case you haven't been paying attention, part 3 is on the far end of this cunning link ... Here we go then .... We did have one afternoon of semi-freedom when we were taken to a Folk Museum. Instead of dancing about and eating over-salted fish I wandered about spotting Hawfinches sitting in bushes in front gardens! On the minibus ride I saw more White Storks and two more Short-Toed Eagles. As the week went on I got more and more knackered, getting up at 5, tramping around until breakfast, working all day then "eating out" at night.My "diet" of nuts and raisins wasn't exactly power food either. Despite this, even on my last morning, I staggered out to the park for the last time.The Golden Orioles gave their best views, and one of several hoodwinks attracted my attention for some time. Ah yes, Hoodwinks. Throughout the week they appeared and tantalised, only to disappear. A classic was the several Wrynecks I didn't see. A Wryneck-type call would be heard, I would grow even more convinced as I searched for the blasted thing, and what did I see when I found it ? A Gt. Spot. For some reason, Gt. Spots in Lithuania give prolonged calls remarkably like Wrynecks. Other Hoodwinks were the three Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers I never got a good look at, and the various songs I couldn't for the life of me identify, and nor could I track down the blasted bird singing them. All too soon Mike and I were winging back to England despite me losing the airline tickets. The airline sandwiches we had ridiculed on the way out looked and tasted absolutely amazing. I got a fantastic view of the Spurn peninsula from the plane and we had an amazingly bumpy and precipitous descent into Manchester through huge towering cumulus clouds. Heyho ! I had been to another country and seen some birds. No more would I feel left out when proper birders boasted about their last trip to Texas. I had a Lithuanian list ! I had braved the mad-dog-infested forests of Kaunas ! From now on I could enthrall everyone in the tearoom and Grumbling Stumps with the portentious words ... " When I was in Lithuania....... " What music could possibly go with that ? What I could do with is a song called " Somewhere Else" ... and here it is ...
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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