Zero carbon...nah, zero birding

Hanging around in the mid 60s is not an impressive self found total for one month in. Let's see what February brings.

Curly-wurly

Despite the crap weather this week I've managed to extract a couple of nice ones - first was a Merlin which shot over the bonnet of my car just sound of Blunham Lake, then gave excellent views sat in the fields, before heading off towards Southmills.  There was nothing very much on the lake though!

The second 'useful' year tick was a Curlew this lunchtime.  I was on my way to pick up Darren from GLE and thought I'd pop in and look for Mr Merlin on GLW.  I knew Darren had been there just 40 minutes before, but you never know, eh?  I pulled up, had a quick scan for the Merlin - no sign, then noticed a lump on the edge of the big puddle.  Bins up - Curlew!  A quick call to Darren and it secured it on his year list too.  Nice of him to save it for me to find...

Biblical birding

Steve laughed heartily when I told him this, and insisted that I post it here, when I jokingly mentioned that self-finding was first mentioned in The Bible. I assure you this was original, spontaneous and carries with it not a whiff of plagiarism (try Googling it if you don't believe me).

We have all heard the story of the Last Supper; Jesus and the Apostles at the Garden of Gethsemane etc. The Book of Matthew relates how one of the disciples - it may have been Judas Escariot, I know not - said to Jesus ''Lord, I fear I have lost my way, I have lost my faith - how can I re-find it?''

Actually, this is a load of old bollocks. What Judas actually said was ''JC, my man! I'm doing a Disputed Territories Self-found Year List and I'll be damned if I can find Palestinian Sunbird.''

Jesus replied ''Judas, my son...seek and ye shall find - on the road from Gethsemane to Calvary. And be careful what you wish for, it may well come to pass...''

D

Blinkin', flippin', hard work...

Nine hours and 18 miles in the field this weekend and bugger all to show for it apart from an aching thigh. Unable to [zero-carbon] self-find Golden Plover, Barn Owl and Crossbill and I can't find a Pochard within walking distance...which, realistically, are the easier species I have left to go for this month. Anything else would be a bonus/ surprise/ stroke of luck.

And we still have February to come, which in birding terms isn't so much a month as a state of mind.

How are we treating Cetti's Warbler at 'known/ traditional sites?' Contentious...

I have passed three BirdTrack milestones this week however: 40,000 total records, 1,000 total lists and 1,000 records for 2014. Not a bad dataset is developing, although I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it.

DOM

Shelduck Added

A brief visit to Dunstable SF this morning produced a newly
arrived Shelduck. These can be difficult to find in the deep south.
Actually just looking at my photo has just reminded me that I'm
in need of a haircut.

Broggy Pintail (21/01/2014)

Being ahead of schedule while heading south on the M1, I thought
I'd take a look over Brog Lake to see if the overnight fog had brought
anything in. In the s/east corner were 46 Wigeon (the most I have
seen there) and amongst them were 5 Pintail (3m). Coincidentally
stopping at Dunstable Sewage Farm later in the day produced 3 more
Pintail (1m)

Ball o' String

Well, my first post of the new year and the pressure is already being piled on by the main protagonists. Tales of Scaup, Owls and Cetti's have certainly sparked me into action. So a week or so back, I dusted of my trusty ecosteed and once more started to SFYL.
2 Snipe sp. and Shelduck have been barely notable as I anticipate better fare............
And then it came!
Is it? Isn't it.............surely not,.......er, yes it is!
So after I told the world about my first ever SF Slav, I brought myself back to earth again.
A long ride round the lake to see Mark T and Jim G (who had rushed to Broom on my account) to say:

"Er, sorry lads- I might have got a bit excited there"

But, I suppose it's better to have a rush of blood than actually find something good and not tell anyone till its dark................................

Slavonian Grebe

Like the one wot I saw at Broom today..............