My Patch is Incredible!

I am almost lost for words. Not quite though. Sorry. My patch is incredible. Amazing. Good, e-ven. This evening I saw my third Wryneck in four years. I live in zone three. I am about four miles from Canary Wharf, that bastion of avian dreams. I am surrounded by humanity, my patch is overrun with activity. And yet the birds still come. Two Stone-curlews, innumerable Whinchats and Wheatears. Annual Pied Flycatchers. And now yet another Wryneck.

Bob found it. Or refound it, an interloper (cheers James!) had found likely the same bird earlier in the week. In the same hawthorn that the Nightingale had been in earlier in the week, sitting in the sunshine. Admiring the patch. I don't know what to say, it's bordering on the sensational, and I am quite emotional about it. I can scarcely believe that I live here, and have all this literally on my doorstep.

I spent an hour or so kicking bushes, after nearly expiring whilst running over to the Broom Fields. It had unfortunately disappeared. I pretended to leave, and naturally it popped up. Cries of "Jono!" from Bob and Marco had me scurrying back and there it was. I drank it in, euphoric, and then nabbed Nick's camera and took a quick shot. Hope it's there tomorrow!!