counting coots

That's right kids!  It's the return of the list for those species only seen from the little room!  It's been quiet because there are only so many species that you can see from a suburban toilet in west London, but it still exists!  It doesn't go away just because I haven't spoken about it!  It's been sitting in the book of lists, no entry since September.  Sitting, waiting.

As I've said (ad nauseum) winter has been too long and boring.  Spring has taken it's time, and the whole can-we-have-some-nice-weather subject is getting tedious.  More so that the clocks went forward and the bloody weather turned horrible again.  So getting up in the morning now happens in the dark, and in the bloody rain.  This is not good.  I want more, I want better and I want it now.

I've had little snippets, but they haven't been enough.  Goldcrests singing, Chiffchaffs singing (not good enough, might have overwintered), nest building here there and everywhere but none of that is good enough.  I want to see or hear something that has recently returned from Africa and then I want to see or hear something else that has come from Africa!   And then something else and then something else - it's not too much to ask is it?

So back to the subject.  I smiled this morning.  I rarely smile in the morning.  I can do mornings and have done for years, and I have been known to smile too.  Rarely at the same time.  Until I opened the window this morning and heard some bird song.  Wren, Robin, Blue Tit, Starling, Willow Warbler, Great Tit *inserts sound of needle scratching a record* what?  Willow Warbler?  It did it again!  A bloody Willow Warbler!  Singing in the garden!  Fresh from Africa.  Result.  Morning and smiling happen together.   As one of my  Millwall supporting minions would say - GET IN!