13 March 2011

Saturday 12th March - lengthy yet eventful, kind of.

Saturday morning (12th March) I intended to have a rendezvous at Rufford CP with some Geordie kids who were apparently hell bent on baggin themselves a Lesser 'pecker. I had intended to 'guide' them to the favoured spots within the county in return for a sexy 27yr old Geordie lass (with a surname that sounds abit like Tweety) that they had bundled into the boot of their car somewhere up their way. Unfortunately life often throws ya a cruel hand and I was forced to pull out of the engagement at the last minute but thankfully the northern boys still travelled and bagged their prey - Ya see, they didn't need me, just some gentle encouragement!

Anyhow, after I'd cleared my calendar early on, I managed to escape the house and headed for King's Mill Res'. En-route, I decided to have a gleg at some farm buildings near Stanton Hill/Brierley Forest Park, in the vain hope of having a one-on-one with a Little Owl. Seeing as though I haven't seen one at that location since around 2004 I already knew it would be a waste of time....and I was right! Consolation came however in the form of a tart walking a very big dog, or was it a horse(?) who was wearing a pretty tight pair of arse hugging jodhpurs (the tart, not the dog/horse) and two calling Chiffchffs......... She wasn't wearing the Chiffys!

I then headed to KMR where the only highlights during the hour I was present were 8 Shoveler, 15 Teal, 5 Snipe & a pretty decent, for KMR standards, 16 Reed Bunts around the car-park feeding station. Already getting claustrophobic with the volume of waddling chunky joggers, geriatric dog walkers and teen parents with offspring, I swiftly headed back to the motor to think of something else to do. I quickly recalled a Golden Pheasant(s) that had been reported on & off over the last few years at Haywood Oaks, near Blidworth so that's where I went! I shouldn't have bothered!
My next destination was gonna be Hoveringham but I decided against it and turned the Vectra west towards home. Driving thru the notorious dogging district of Blidworth Bottoms, I was suddenly engulfed in the shadow of a huge finch swarm that had suddenly erupted from a roadside field. Slamming the motor onto the nearest verge/rabbit/dogger, I eventually located the birds. Grubbing about in amongst the set-aside were c100 Blings, c300 Chaffinch, c100 Linnet & c50 Yellowhammer but despite giving it some proper grillage, I couldn't bring myself to string a Lap, Pine or Little Bunt. I attempted a few pix but sadly my new phone ain't nothing like my old trusty C905 and thus the results aren't worth a w*nk altho' I managed one or two scenic shots just to give you the idea of the habitat.




As I was throwing the scope in the car, my phone battery decided to have a nap and thus I didn't get to know about Mikipedia's Firecrest in his garden until I was nearly home and decided to have a gleg thru the pager as I sat at some traffic lights. Arriving home I gave the phone a quick blast of juice and then caned it Mikes but alas I was too late, in fact even if I'd have been within 500yds of his house when he had it I wouldn't have connected as the 'crest had actually tanked it thru his garden instead of loitering and wasn't actually seen (heard only). Leaving Mikes, I headed back to KMR hoping that with a bit of sun, I might bag a few early Sand Martins but with Joe Public having increased I didn't linger long, in fact the only thing of interest being a very smartly dressed bloke, who resembled Harold Shipman, holding an open umbrella aloft (it wasn't raining) and swagging a can of Asda smart price lager - what made it more interesting is that he had one of those nifty plastic Betterware resealable lids attached to it! After 17 years of watching it, KMR never fails to throw up a non-avian surprise (although a bloke lying on the bank of the reservoir, whipping his 'man-bits' with a bunch of nettles on summers evening a few years back takes some beating!).

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