Well, there's no doubt about today's " Bird of the Day." Unless something really remarkable turns up. Having staggered downstairs at 0640 BST, it was very dark outside as I entered our dinky kitchen and switched the radio on, keen to hear more about Boris and his cunning strategic talents in "The Field of Shambolics" . But instead, I heard the unmistakable call of the Tawny Owl. Naturally, I assumed it was on the radio ... they're very scarce round our way these days ..and, of course, nights. So I turned it off. BUT ... sure enough, it still carried on ke-wicking. I opened our luxurious back door ..and there it was, right up near the top of that Eucalyptus, calling lustily. Which was smashing .... having not seen or heard one anywhere in the 3k, let alone from the garden, for many, many months. After about 10 mins of this welcome sighting, it retreated somewhat but continued calling for another 15 mins .. There's been Tawny Owls up there before, so 'tis not an addition to the recently-written-about " Eucalyptus List" ...(see post 954) but I was dead pleased. BUT..you're wondering .. where are all those Common Gull counts ? Well, tides and circumstances have been against me lately, but the main problem is, my "new" camera's so-called "instructions" are not very helpful. It took me a week and lots of Trial and Error to work out how to look at the pictures I had taken !.. but now the main problem is taking close-ups ... like those graphs we all know and love. I'm still working on that. Here's the basic figures so far ..... 1st figure =Commons/ 2nd figure =flock size 8 Sept 11Sept 13 Sept 21 Sept 8 Oct 10 Oct 12 Oct 2/232 3/368 5/290 1/191 6/131 2/256 11/323 The obvious thing is the hefty jump in numbers on that last visit. I've been putting "happy" songs on my French blog for obvious reasons ..... here's one ... fou en plus !
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
|