Help the Aged

The snow stopped early afternoon, so I ventured over to Canons Farm where I met up with David, Liam and Jamie. The first two named birders are very young, very keen and very proficient, but were OK with an old duffer like me wandering around with them. I was able to go into 'Father Time' mode and regale them with twitching tales from the black-and-white era - how we used to have to walk to Cornwall for a rarity, that you couldn't buy cream cheese bagels and cappacinos on site at any rare bird, that gulls were just that - 'gulls' - and that they possessed no identification problems as we didn't look at them unless they had clean white primaries. And of course I dusted down the old favourites, such as Wallcreepers, Varied Thrush, Hudsonian Godwit, et al. David has heard it all before but politely 'ooh'd and ahh'd' in the right places. Liam most probably wondered who the delusional old git was...

Spring at Canons Farm...

It was quiet. The resident Barn Owl was roosting in the favoured barn (but didn't emerge from it to hunt by 18.27 when I left). A flock of 200 Fieldfares and 100 Starlings messed about nearby. The lads had seen a Wheatear earlier in the day that must have been wondering what all the white stuff was.

And talking of Wheatears, I'm pleased to report that most of my linked blogs have decided to ignore my plea not to post images of Northern Wheatears this spring. Click on most of the blog list (to the right) and you will find plenty of pictures of white-arses to admire...

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