More Of The Same

Woke up and checked the pager - nothing. Checked the phone: 'Wood Warbler Canons Farm'. God, I hate that place. Never a dull moment always a good bird (actually that's quite a good patch motto, I'll have to start using that for here although I need to find out what it is in Latin first). This year they have had Common Redstart, Ring Ouzel, Hen Harrier, Wood Warbler and probably something else good. What have we had? Err...I guess Gadwall are still quite rare? It got me thinking though, why do they turn up all these great birds and we get nothing, with as much habo and water. The answer is simple. Canons master & commander Devil Birder spends about 9 hours a day patching. I reckon he has visited the patch every day this year. Me on the other hand, I have made about forty visits all for no more than 4 or 5 hours. To sum it up, while he was finding Wood Warblers, I was asleep in bed. So truly, you snooze you lose.

My patch wasn't so bad though. First on the deck Yellow Wag of the year and it was one hell of a bird. It was so bright and colourful it actually hurt my eyes to look at it. I had to shield them from the glare. So I resolved to do this beautiful bird justice with a top notch photo. Said photo is at the top with a handy red ring around the bird to show you where it is. To clarify, I will be submitting this to YWPOTY (Yellow Wag Photographer Of The Year). Nice Buzzard on the Airfield as well. Went to the CTP in the small hope of a Firecrest or Trippit but no luck. I did however see the 'Whitethroat who will not be photographed' who sings his heart out every day in the plantation. I managed a phenomenal Wheatear site count of 26+ birds (WALBOC record?) and Aaron had our 20th Red Kite of the year (may as well go for fifty) which was on the deck on the Airfield. Most Surrey patches get the odd flyover so to get one on the deck is fairly special.