A change is as good as a rest

Let me give you a quick summary of my week's birding.

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Moving on, what else has been happening? Er, let me see now. Oh yes, work. And that's it! Still, I'd rather be working and solvent than not working and broke, and British Airways agree with me on this one. So no birding, and it's been quite good too. More Tree Pipits, more Whinchats, the return of Mipits. The weather has been nasty. Claggy, wet and distinctly autumnal. We have washing drying on radiators, so this latter part is definitely true. So, I've had an enforced rest from the patch. The reality is that an hour out on a claggy patch before an intense day mining salt doesn't have a huge amount of appeal. I said we needed a change in the weather, and that has certainly happened. The only issue is that it hasn't really delivered anything particularly different, and has seen the Wryneck off, unless it is just sulking. The happy news is that this means I haven't really missed anything - nobody likes a big grip off (other than the gripper). There is patch news though, as on Saturday evening I nipped out to Bush Wood to year tick Tawny Owl. I'd been waiting for a message saying something along the lines of "vocal Tawny Owl" for some time - I don't want to have to go find my own birds, that would be totally wrong. Miraculously the Owls were in exactly the same place that they have been in every year I have worked the patch, I just hadn't thought to go check yet. Happily Tim did, and so I didn't have to. This being the scene of the infamous mugging back when I started this blog, I didn't linger. Dressed all in black, I ninja'd my way over there, went only as far as I needed to to hear them, and scooted straight back. Tick and run in the most literal sense.

This is momentous. I'm not one to talk bird stats, obviously, but this was bird #113 and equals my best patch year list to date, 2012 and 2011 both netting the same total. Except I have nearly four months to go this year. Though in reality this is closer to 30 days, less when you lop off the weekends I'm otherwise engaged. Or abroad....