Ticking over

So that was the USA from April, and now I am only seven months behind. It was made easier and quicker because I barely took any photographs, it was all about birding. I should be able to bash out my May trip to Slovenia pretty quickly as well as that was only a weekend, and looking in my folders I can see I saved just 18 photographs of four species. Way to go!

I am not yet ready to write about the US Presidential election. It is too traumatic to even think about. And crazy, crazy to think that even after the chaotic first term, even after the "Stop the Steal!", the Capitol riots, even after court cases, one of which concluded with a guilty verdict, that this could happen. That Americans could be so short-sighted. He's a lying criminal, a misogynist pig, surrounded by vacuous acolytes made in his own image - the family give me the creeps. And he has four more years in which to dismantle America's great institutions, and this time I think he'll do it, no holding back. That people who are genuinely struggling could vote for him thinking that he will change their fortunes is incredible. But then what did the Democrats do for those people? Herein lies the problem. But anyway, this is for another post whilst I compose myself. I note that even a slight reference to it in my recent trip report drew the immediate ire of a reader, how dare I mention politics on my own blog etc etc, so this promises to be a lot of fun once I can summon the energy.

So what's been happening then? Not a great deal, it has been a busy period at work and I've burned the candle at both ends to the extent that I am now ill, some lurgy picked up on public transport no doubt. Tis the season. I've not been out with the new lens again, the weather has been particularly grey and miserable, but I've watched endless YouTube videos about how the camera functions and I have high hopes that the next time the sun makes an appearance and I am not dying or working I may be able to see if I have learned anything. 

Bird-wise the vizmig season seems to be drawing to an end, there is not nearly as much movement. Highlights locally include yet another Great White Egret over the Flats, my eighth since the first in 2018, as well as a lone Lapwing courtesy of Tony and a Short-eared Owl sent my way by Marco. This puts me on 116 for the year with not much, if anything, left to come. A Yellow-legged Gull perhaps? It's either that or an arctic blast. 

So, to Slovenia then.