Once again.....

Once again the Birding Gods shit on me from a great height. I am entirely used to this, though it never ceases to irritate the hell out of me. So, a good two hours on the Flats this morning, meeting up with Nick and then Dan. A lovely morning, but bar a few movements of Chaffinch and Redwing, nothing doing. Leaving Dan to go and release rare Waders in the park, Nick and I strolled over to Alex seeing not a great deal. The routine here is that Nick escorts me off the patch so that I can catch a train to work, and then goes off and finds something good. It happens so frequently that it is an "in joke" between us. I find the humour to be waning......

Naturally it happened again. I was on the platform at Manor Park when the good news came through. Rook. A patch mega, annual at best, and a monster grip back for Crofty. It had been no more than five minutes. Now I don't need Rook fortunately, but in the unofficial Wanstead listing stakes Rook is a very valuable bird indeed. Of course, had I been with Nick still, the grip back would have occurred anyway, but that is not the point. The point is that if I had still been with Nick he wouldn't have seen anything. He only finds rare birds if I have just left the patch. I'm kind of the opposite of a lucky charm, which explains why he is always so keen to make sure I get to work on time. Black Redstart, Little Owl, Tree Pipit, Kittiwake, the list goes on just about forever. And now Rook. Only a year-tick, and since Nick always wins the patch year-list competition anyway, not a massive deal, but it is the principle of it. I work it hard (occasionally), find nothing (almost all of the time), and then a nanosecond after I leave for the salt mines, boom (dead cert).

In other news, I am about to buy some mugs. Never say that this blog goes off on tangents. I bought Mrs L a Little Miss Scatterbrain mug about a year ago, and have now decided that all of the family should have one. She guessed the one I would buy Muffin immediately, but took three guesses for me. Her first guess was Mr. Dictator. As if! I mean Mr. Dictator doesn't even exist!!! Durrr! Her second guess was Mr. Shouty. Yeah right. He doesn't exist either, poor Mr. Men knowledge or what?!