Here's a "New Years Day-Ticker" luring in a tricky species ... This must have been the duffest New Year's Day for ages as far as birding was concerned. Yesterday everywhere was totally iced up, roads, pavements treacherous. And most of today was the same .... and by the time it had got slightly less dodgy, there was very little time left. So the garden was the main source of sightings... but even that was an ice-rink, and the water bowls frozen solid. The male Blackcap was around again, but the female hasn't been seen for over a week now. Plus, "The Rev" seems to have vanished as well. But there'll be lots of excellent days to come....he said hopefully. We have a "character" in our area who does a NYD Big List each year, and he always gets a massive total.... I've tried it loads of times, and I get nowhere near his total...and others have the same results. But we all know what's going on. The technique is simple ... you tick off all the "standard" stuff before you even set off, so you've got plenty of time to connect with all the trickier birds. And on top of that, I suspect a few "extras" get into the notebook "because they're there most of the time and I'm counting them". I've often found on those outings that you can spend ages " not getting a Dunnock" and/or " just missing a Jay" ..... very frustrating ... but in the whole scheme of things, it's not all that important, and certainly not worth lying about. But now, the music .... can I "tick" the Loon as in Loon Pants ... which they are all wearing ? Can I tick Grasshopper Warbler because of the "reeling" in the song title ? Probably Knot.
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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