These are a few of my favourite strings

It's that weekend of the year when Dungeness beach gets inundated with birders out to 'year tick' a Pomarine Skua. Most of them leave the beach having had a sea watch full of great birds - whether they've actually seen them or not...

With apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein, these lyrics can be sung to the tune of the Sound of Music track 'These are a few of my favourite things'. It's already a number one download at Dungeness!

 Purp Sands are Stormies
House Martins are Leach's
Nightjars are Swinhoe's
From headlands and beaches
It's amazing what rarities
Imagination can bring
These are a few of my favourite strings

 Slavs past Cap Gris Nez
Confirmed at "The Patch"
All done by us birders
Starting from scratch
Claiming a Thayer's Gull
Seeing one wing
These are a few of my favourite strings

When the mist comes
And the rain falls
And the light gets bad
It helps to create my favourite strings
That makes my life list feel glad

Curlew and Whimbrel
Get fewer and fewer
I'm stringing them all
As dark phase Pom Skua
Little Gulls and Kitts
Are very small beer
But in diffuse light their called Sooty Shear

Divers that pass 
Are always Great Northern
Because I once saw a
Black-throated at Malvern
Long- distance auks
Are maleable things
These are a few of my favourite strings

 When the mist comes
And the rain falls
And the light gets bad
It helps to create my favourite strings
That makes my life list feel glad

A desperate attempt
To year tick a Pom
Not knowing that my
ID is always wrong
Not naming a bird
Is a terrible thing
These are a few of my favourite strings

And this is the end
Of this sad little story
I've just strung a Fulmar
Into my first Cory's
I don't give a shit
As my life list is King
These are a few of my favourite strings

 When the mist comes
And the rain falls
And the light gets bad
It helps to create my favourite strings
That makes my life list feel glad

 My thanks to two of the Dungeness regulars who penned 90% of this little ditty, but who wish to remain anonymous for fear of birder retribution. I only contributed a small part of it, so am immune from any future violence.

Comments

Tony Morris said…
Come to St Margaret's, we get it right here !
2 May 2015 at 14:05
GeoffB said…
sublime Steve ..you n your co-writers who I suspect are really your imaginary friends ;-) have peened an excellent ditty ..my I share it to a wider audience?
3 May 2015 at 12:51
GeoffB said…
penned even !
3 May 2015 at 12:51
Steve Gale said…
Be my guest Geoff!
3 May 2015 at 13:12
Steve Gale said…
Tony, that's tempting...
3 May 2015 at 13:13
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