Mr J.S.Nail RIP

When I was in Articles training to be a Chartered Accountant, I used to carry out an audit at a vewy posh Girls School in High Wycombe. With my staff we were only allowed to audit during the summer hols, but we were still finishing the work when the Rollers and Bentleys brought the rich little darlinks back for the Autumn term.

They were met by the education Head Miss Fisher, and the large cheques (this terms fees and last terms extras) were paid to the Head of Admin, known as the Bursar. I remember it was a surprise to find that the admin head of the next girls school down from Roedean could not say Certificate, but said Sustificate.

This all came flooding back when I paid a post-holiday visit to my GP to see whether the continuous leg and thigh pains were a by-product of my Pneumonia. He told me I had a Bursae!!

“Bursitis is a painful condition that affects the joints. Bursae are fluid-filled sacs that act as a cushion between bones, tendons, joints, and muscles.  When these sacs become inflamed it is called bursitis. Tennis elbow is a common form of bursitis.

Remembering the lady in question, “to have a bursar on my thigh” is not a memory I want to relish.

Sorry for the digression. So what about the Avian world?

Candidates for the 200 club are making good progress, and Severn Trent Volunteer Lorna has breached the 200, now on 204, and Mac has accelerated from 171 to 183 due to a week in Norfolk. Amanda? She just keeps going! She is on an incredible 219 (probably more as I type!)

Mary and I are in Exmouth (again!) at the end of the month, and whilst I don’t expect to add much to my year list, I am staying in Hunstanton for a couple of nights at the start of November, so Mary’s I-Pad and I will be tracking what is around Norfolk coast for 60 hours.   

Markeaton Bird Walk for Beginners this morning was not very productive, but as the trees are starting to shed leaves, and the tree tops are becoming more visible, deciduous woods should be more productive in November.   A couple of young Goosanders and 5/6 Goldcrest were the pick of the crop.

Some sad news, I’m afraid. It was in the news this week that Jeremy passed away last Wednesday.       However, he very recently sired 56 young, and he is to be preserved for students of genetics.

Sorry it’s a sad news, but the press article did say that he died “not without a smile on his face!”

I’ll finish with a picture of a bird which I still need for 2017, a Purple Sandpiper, but as he can only say Ola and Gracias, and is Spanish, he does not qualify for the 200 club!

 Oh……………… had you not heard about Jeremy?

He is, sorry was, a lovelorn “lefty” snail that could not find a mate with the corresponding anti-clockwise shell with which he could mate, and as they mate by sliding past each other, the wrong combination becomes a head-on crash, with nothing to show for it!

  

Initial efforts were made to breed Jeremy with 2 lefty snails, one from Majorca and one from Ipswich. They both shunned Jeremy, in fact in favour of each other. (You don’t need me to draw pictures, do you?)

Researchers finally announced that Jeremy did actually produce 56 eggs and the experts have somehow worked out that an estimated 19 will belong to El Caracol (and thus Anglo/Spanish) and 37 will be Gippeswykians (Anglo – from Ipswich).

Ed: Bad news day?

Happy Birding