On the up

I have finally finished my July 2024 Brazil write up, I feel a great weight has been lifted and I don't care if nobody reads it as I so enjoyed writing it. In doing so I got to relive a great trip, and it is gratifying that my memory continues to work so well. I suppose it is only six months ago but for things I am genuinely interested in I appear to still have good recall. For things I am not interested in.....sorry, what?

I am determined to catch up, and, if I can help it, remain chronological, at least for the duration of a single trip. Hence why Brazil was a consecutive dump with nothing in between even though at times I did get tired of doing it and wanted to write about something else. Largely I wrote them in two large blocks, after which I lined them up to publish day by day. The eagle-eyed may have spotted that there was a small break in the middle - this is because I only managed to write up until Day 5 before going to Morocco - these then continued to drop for most of the time I was away, thus giving would-be burglars who also read birding blogs pause for thought. I resumed writing Day 6 as soon as I got back last weekend, even though the only thing I in fact wanted to write about was Morocco and the stunning Wheatears that live there. I still want to do this, but yeah, chronology.

Red-rumped Wheatear

That's the official taster, there will be no more until I can get up to date. Probably. Immediately after Brazil I spent a hedonistic day in Rotterdam described here. So much for chronology. I had a nice summer mostly spent at home or in Scotland and the next trip after that wasn't until September, a long weekend in Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. This had two aims - two new countries, and the possibility of a Western Palearctic tick in the form of Rock Partridge. This is up next. It will not take me very long as I either did not take a camera, or did take a camera but failed to use it in any meaningful way. This was still the Canon era, so perhaps it is the latter. All I can find are a few phone pictures of landscapes with small panthers in the foreground. Whatever. After that there was a trip to Mexico, and then weekends in Greece and Spain. Mexico could be a bit involved but the European trips will be a doddle. And then Morocco! I just need to be careful not to go anywhere else in the interim. What could possibly go wrong?

Obviously it is mid January and I can only imagine that readers are desperate to hear about my Wanstead birding exploits, of which I have so far not written a single word. There is a reason for that over and above wanting to get Brazil out of the way, and it is that I have seen virtually nothing. Being in Morocco has not helped, but even when here I have felt no desire to trudge around seeing the same old birds. Furthermore it has been cold, dank and generally miserable outdoors, and so I have stayed inside drinking wine rather than ruin my health looking for a Redwing. I think I've had a couple of short forays and my patch list is something like 40. I could increase it to 60 in about an hour most likely, but then again 2015 Beaune is drinking so well don't you think?