Here comes August!

I am back in the mix! It's autumn again! Waders coming thick and fast, monster seabirds off distant headlands, it's all hotting up, including in London where today it was 34 degrees today! Not that I got to enjoy any of it of course, things are 100% back to normal where I work, and the days pass without a sniff of the outdoors! Fact of life, get over it and get on with it! And that's what I do - however the weekend is just around the corner, and I am very much looking forward to it, especially as it will be the first weekend since discovering I knew very little about my lens that I will be able to pick it up again and potentially do some damage with it. Hooray! This is what it is all about - work hard play hard. Of course I envy those who just get to play, and they're not all children!

Two exciting things have just happened. Firstly is that I am busting to go seawatching, and so have booked up a flight over to Ireland for the Bridges of Ross - always been wanting to do that. Secondly is that Mrs L has agreed, in principle, to come to Morocco with me. When I was there earlier this year Marrakech didn't get a look in - we were in the 4x4 and over the mountains before you could say Jemaa-el-Fnaa. Hopefully with a repeat trip based solely around the visiting the city, the birds will stay distant enough for me to actually have a look around, haggle for some tourist tat, and drink mint tea.

There is of course more excitement, closer excitement, and that is in the form of birds, especially birds I've not seen on patch this year. For starters Gulls are beginning to appear, and whilst I hesitate to say that they're truly exciting (large dollops of Gull rarely are), the thought of picking through them in numbers and extracting a Yellow-legger or a Med or something equally sought after is relatively appealing after not having looked at Gulls for several months. Spotted Flycatchers could make an appearance too, but really it's all about Waders. August is the month for the biggies. Common Sand fell just a couple of days ago, hardly a biggie but a start, and I am eager for more. Wood Sand is on the cards (seen two over the years), but the ones I really want are Godwits or Whimbrel. And I have a plan to get them, which is very cunning and essentially involves following Dan wherever he goes. Can't fail.