Gah! So close!

I was lounging around on the sofa today when I got a text from Paul, a local birder. It said "Red Kite east over Wanstead now" NOW!!!! Gah!! I sprang into action, grabbed bins, dashed out the front in my slippers. Then another text: "West, towards bush wood". Come on!!! That's near me!!! Back inside, through the house, out into the garden, started scanning towards Bush Wood. Any minute now!! Can't be long!!

It never came. Hrrrmph. It was probably just a shade too far north to be visible from the garden. So close, yet so far. To add insult to injury, as I was scanning north I became aware of movement to my right, and just saw the shape of a duck zipping over the roof. A silent dark duck, and I didn't think it was a Mallard. In terms of garden duck needs, it's basically everything except Mallard and Shoveler, and it whilst it definitely wasn't a Shoveler, I wasn't getting Mallard in my brief view. Maybe it was a Mallard, in fact that would be best really.

But back to the Red Kite. Along with Osprey, Red Kite is my most wanted bird for Wanstead. They're just about annual I reckon. I spent hours looking at the sky at this time last year, and didn't get one. Today, with all three kids at home, we spent the day playing and watching DVDs, and the sky got ignored. Unforgiveable.

Tonight's post wouldn't be complete without a short word on my continuing failure to find a Wheatear on the Flats. So, I didn't find any Wheatears this morning. Again. OK?

Moving away from this painful subject, the results of the latest Poll were as follows.

1) More Gulls please - 58%
2) A new blog, just for Gulls - 12%
3) I hate Gulls, and will soon hate you - 29%

A quick spot of maths shows this to be 70% in favour of Gulls, and 29% not. And 1% vanished into thin air by the looks of things. So, have some Gulls, it has been far too long.