counting coots

You probably know this, but it’s the Bank Holiday weekend. Ideal time to get the Germans out to go and see some birds I reckon. But where dear reader? Where?

On Monday it is the Autumn Bird Count at Brent Res, all welcome, So that’s one possibility. The last time I went for this, by the time I turned up, everyone had gone home. Which was disappointing, but I continued nonetheless.

However, I’m thinking that the absolute very best thing to do would be to go to Cornwall for a spot of seawatching. There are some belting winds coming off the Atlantic over the next couple of days going straight along that peninsula, so it can hardly fail to produce results. Birdguides are already showing nice finds. But. London to Cornwall and back on a Bank Holiday weekend? I think not.

How about a visit to the cottage in Norfolk, what? Well the winds that are blowing all the birds into the south west headlands will be blowing all the birds away from the Norfolk coast into the North Sea, and the journey will also be on the bad side of bitch. So that’s pretty much out.

There was a Hoopoe in Kent that might have got me tempted to drag Mrs Thing along to twitch, but it didn’t hang around. Which is a bit of a bummer.

So I’m leaning towards local birding, hell that even sounds like it could involve a patch or two! Splendid! However, there is another option which sounds quite appealing. The Chilterns. A sunny day, a big hill, Mrs Thing and the Germans – and Kites. With the possibility of some wind whacked vagrancy. Sounds very tempting indeed...

Here is a picture. It is a picture of the beady eyed dodgy gull from previous posts (attentive readers will be aware that I mentioned that it had returned). Note the eye colour. Dodgy.