The Private Eye of birding blogs has come up with a couple of classics lately – one about sheep farmers and a later post sensitively sympathising with my favourite bête noir, the fucking Maltese.
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 While I’m on the subject of reminiscing about the USA, let me go back to an ADBC trip in June 2004: “During this time I pushed my US list over 400 to 408, the 400th bird being a grey jay. This was particularly satisfying because I had previously tried to search them out in the Pacific North-West. “The highlight, though, I think must have been a couple of more…  This is one of my favourite songs: it’s so cheerful. It also marks the beginning of spring for me, so today’s male was trying it on a bit, especially because it was very much colder than yesterday. Fringilla coelebs, which means bachelor finch because the females tend to migrate further than the males, who then dominate the northern part of the species’ winter range. Check your garden birds and see if I’m not right. I logged the bird on the Mariner’s Path, which runs between Portishead Golf Course and Sugar Loaf Beach – so named because more…  Having missed the redstart at Battery Point on Monday, I assumed that was it for the month. So, imagine my surprise, on returning from a tramp round Portbury Wharf and Sheepway, to see maybe the same bird hawking from the roofs not a hundred yards from Gibb Towers. At the junction of Fennel Road and Phoenix Way, to be precise. She rather stole the thunder from an unaccustomed headline billing for more…  Three, to be precise. Who rather made up for last year’s failures at Grimley. Mind you, it still took some persistence on my part. An hour early afternoon didn’t produce them but did compensate with scads of wigeon, pintail, lapwing and shoveler. I even scoped very distant fieldfares. But nary an ibis. Only a more…  Well, nearly. From March 10, 2000, I became a serial poster to South Bay Birders, whose site still exists and maybe their list-server too. Here’s my first offering, which demonstrates how tough the Yankee sparrows are for the newbie: “I have been in the area for a few weeks and have got fairly confident with separating your more… This form of renewable energy too often gets a bad press from the nimby brigade and, it must be said, from the birding community. Iberdrola Renewables, though, use space-age technology to detect approaching flocks and shut down the turbines. Next time I’m down the pub, I’ll raise a pint of Butcombe to the Portland (Oregon) outfit. Way to go, guys. |
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