For a start, almost exactly a year ago ( 16.9.18)(post 220) the first Pinkfeet of the season flew over my house ... and yesterday, 17/9/19, I was watching a fine male Sparrowhawk circling high over the garden, with 1 crow and about 30 Starlings wheeling around above it , when to add to the scene, a flock of Pinks went over southward bound. Plus, a Bullfinch was calling away in the orchard and a Chiffchaff was singing loudly. That's biodiversity that is. And on top of that, when I looked back at that post, two steps further on, post 222, 18/9/18 , there was this poem wot I rote, all about a dodgy bit of I/D. That struck a chord too, what with me going to see that " possible?" "Eastern" ( maybe) Black-eared Wheatear .... with my monopodised scope being pretty useless in the strong gusty winds and chilling rain, I only got moderate views of it ... but the bloke on my right with a nice steady tripodificated scope assured me it was the EBEW.... but let's face it, I couldn't really be sure. And that's just the "sort of thing" that "poem" from a year ago was all about... We went to see a THRUSH It was really rather RARE We had to race and RUSH As we didn't quite know WHERE The stupid thing could BE So I got out the MAP And scanned it DESPERATELY But I was in a FLAP And I hadn't got a CLUE So we stopped and asked a MAN He was a birder TOO And he drew a sort of PLAN On a crappy bit of CARDBOARD With a lump of Gannet POO Then he walked off to STARBOARD Leaving us all thinking, WHO ? Could he possibly BE ? Maybe he's "Ticker" STEW Or Millington, or LEE ! That map just made things WORSE And we drove into a DITCH So we commandeered a HEARSE But we still did not know WHICH Would be the road to PICK As the plan was total CRAP And the suspension made us SICK So we stopped and had a NAP As all of us were KNACKERED Then we continued TERSELY And this time we went BACKWARD As it would only go REVERSLY But that was SERENDIPITOUS Because we found a straggly LINE Of twitchers, all quite CRAPULOUS But of the bird there was no SIGN It buggered off an hour AGO If only we'd not been so LATE We thought we should give it a GO And wait and wait and wait and WAIT . It seemed like years as we waited and WAITED In the cold and wet and sludge and SLIME It's true to say our breath was BATED We could have been there till the end of TIME But at last, at last, I saw the BIRD It was miles away, the size of a FLEA Up the line, we spread the WORD And everyone was so happy to SEE Something that vaguely looked like a ZOOTHERA "Vaguely" isn't really a strong enough NAME For the way we'd ID'd it (by trial and ERROR) Any rational person would say it was LAME ..... Of course, it "had to be" the BIGGIE But we "knew" it didn't look the PART It was long, and slim, a bit like TWIGGY But us lot didn't give a FART We were all very quiet on the long drive BACK We stared out of the windows without a WORD That sighting was a load of CACK It was less like a tick, and more like a TURD So, what is the moral of this TALE ? Why is "that sort of thing" so COMMON ? Here's why ...it's the way of the adult MALE To be at the top, not down at the BOTTOM ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anyhow, it's only a subspecies anyway, and I got a rock solid Black-Eared ages ago, so I'm not too bothered. Now we have a highly appropriate bit of music ...a German band called Wunschdenken = " Wishful Thinking" with a song called Warum = why? ....
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
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