The Trogs have been a long-standing fixture at Grumbling Stumps for an unknown and probably unknowable number of years. As in every group, one of them is an amiable but useless birder... you couldn't really rely on any of his identifications . However, he's really nice bloke,and well liked too ... mainly because he isn't any sort of rival and he makes the other four feel like experts. Win-win. We'll call him Jim. And here's the others ... Dan ..... the best birder in the group, and he's been to Scilly .. twice ! Ed ....... the joker of the group. He's been to Benidorm and seen a Red-Rumped Swallow.. maybe. Stan ... the quiet one. But he carries a bird book with him. Not done in top circles. Mac .... the Scottish one. A giant of a man too. I hope he's a gentle giant. Every so often their usual routine of ambling round the various hides and seeing very little followed by a couple of hours in the tea-rooms drinking one cup of tea very slowly, is interrupted by something or other ... generally something strange, uncanny, unexpected or weird. So far they've " got rid of" an upstart intrusive git ..... 177-the-trogs-first-adventure.html The "duffer" amongst them has had a mystical experience ..... 259-the-trogs-have-a-strange-adventure.html ..so ...here's their most recent incident ... a Moral Lesson for us all ... .... as usual, Jim, Dan, Ed, Stan and Mac had been sat in the Weetabix* Hide for 40 minutes when a bird appeared .... right on the far side just poking out of the reedbed. Jim immediately called it as a Sora Rail ! A prolonged row ensued, as you might expect, with more heat than light being brought to the debate/row/tiff ! Usually their little tiffs lead to nothing ..but this time it got nasty, and the other four, led by Mac, made it clear that if he stuck to his ridiculous identification he could bugger off ..... effectively they kicked him out of their little coterie. Except it was them that left .... Jim watched them go, and then waited for the Sora/who-knows-what to reappear. Which, by the way, it did. Well, a week later. As the four of them stomped off to the next hide, they were adamant that his expulsion was permanent ... no going back. Then Dan stopped for a moment ... turned to the other three .... and told them that they ought to give him a second chance .... they'd been too hasty. But Mac immediately told him that he was barred too.... he couldn't put up with people who supported "birders" like Jim, who couldn't tell a sparrow from a snipe and should have been banned from the blasted reserve ages ago ! Without a word, Dan turned on his heels and went back to the Weetabix Hide to see if Jim was OK. The remaining three, a bit mystified at what was going on, resumed their walk, and were much quieter now as they turned left towards the Gannet Hide. * As soon as they were in, a big raptor flew by .... but only Ed saw it, as the other two were looking at the "recent sightings" list on the back of the door. Ed watched it for a good minute or so, but it was a long way off, and he couldn't get much on it..... and then Stan and Mac turned up, and wondered what he was looking at. They were not best pleased when they realised he had been watching it for a full minute and hadn't told them .... and even worse, he couldn't tell them much about it and didn't know what it was ! Of course, another heated argument got going, and the upshot was, Mac told Ed that he was bloody useless, and told him in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to keep that sort of thing to himself he could have to get used to it, because they wouldn't be birding with him ever again. So ... the remaining " Perfect Two", Stan and Mac, stormed out of the hide. They kept silent for the next 15 minutes as they trudged through the flooded track that led to the Sewage* Hide ... and suddenly Mac turned on Stan and asked him why he always carried a bird book with him .... and before Stan could get his "defence" in, and what with the febrile mood they had got themselves into, Mac pushed him off the track and into 8 feet of smelly sewage, turned his back on him and stomped his way home. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sitting in his kitchen, Mac went over again and again all that had happened. He'd shown them that he wasn't putting up with idiots, fantasists and halfwits ! And he certainly wasn't going birding with that lot ever again !! That would show them !!! The days went by. Empty, companionless days. He was "comforted" by telling himself that he was in the right, and they were all wrong. But as the days turned into weeks .. and months. Mac realised that HE was the one who was suffering. The other four had all got together again by the end of that strange day, and were happily birding without him. And it was HIM that was the twit left all by himself. THEY were all getting good stuff at Grumbling Stumps and elsewhere . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, there's a " moral tale" for us all. Of course, all could have gone a lot better.... BUT ... 'tis Music Time now .... but what would be relevant ? Well, there might be a bird in it ...who knows ? You shoulda heard me in the lounger
Telling people what they was Spitting out all types of sugar Just dying for a cause, cause, cause A smiler slithered to my corner On a face so true My word is always in the ready And I’ll attribute that to you I don't belong to anyone I don't belong to anyone I don't belong to anyone I don't wanna belong to anyone You shoulda heard him in the bowery Learning people with a tongue Cut from second-hand cloth Make the women feel young I heard him serving as a soldier In the annexe of the earth Threw himself before a bullet And threw the metal to the dirt Hear the man’s word I don't belong to anyone I don't belong to anyone I don't belong to anyone I don't wanna belong to anyone I don't belong to anyone I don't belong to anyone I don't belong to anyone I don't wanna belong to anyone I don't belong to anyone I don't belong to anyone I don't belong to anyone I don't wanna belong to anyone . * Weetabix Hide ... because it is indeed Brown, Crumbly and Soggy. * Gannet Hide ... that's where everyone has their dinner. * Sewage Hide ..... sponsored by the local " Sewing Circle"
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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