Catching up

Apologies for the December hiatus, I have been extraordinarily busy with various things, not least two trips up to Scotland, a short trip to Spain, and then all of the various social events that happen in December and that you have to show your face at. Mercifully the work calendar is now finally beginning to calm down - people seem to lose the urge at around this time of year and meetings are quietly cancelled as they slip away. And the potential trip to the USA isn't happening either which is rather a relief. Anyway it has been rather frenetic and I have to say I am hoping for a bit of peace and quiet over the next few days in which to catch up with real life. And blogging.

In fact I already started, and if you have been paying attention you will have seen that a series of posts about a trip I made to Singapore in June have made an appearance. I wrote them all in one go, good news actually as I hadn't written a full sentence since the beginning of the month and was slightly concerned I might not be able to. In the event it came out in one huge splurge and I was able to then line up four or five posts of the usual sort to auto-publish every day up until the end of this week or so. The next challenge is Brazil, an entirely different undertaking from a guided trip to the Pantanal in July. I would really like to get this done before the year is out, but I don't actually have any time off other than the bank holidays so it may not be possible. Allegedly my family would like to spend time with me, no idea why. Let's see.

I have not seen any more birds in Wanstead since I last wrote about that here, and it is looking quite likely that I will finish the year on 117. I've tried a couple of times for the pesky Barn Owl currently in residence on Wanstead Flats, but it gets dark so early that I am normally still in meetings at the ideal time of day, and then I am typically busy or not here at weekends. Nick sees it what seems like all the time which is rather frustrating, but then he keeps pretty much the same schedule as an Owl these days so perhaps it is not that surprising. At least I saw the Otter, I still can't quite believe that. As my calendar becomes more forgiving I'll try again, see if I can squeeze it in before the year is out. It would be only my second ever so I am quite keen to move it from its current italics status. And that's basically it.

In unrelated news here is an American Wigeon from a recent trip to Fife. It was on a small loch that also hosted a Lesser Scaup for a nice Yank double. As you can see my digiscoping skills continue to defy belief. How does he do it I hear you ask? Well, it's a secret.