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
I wonder what Mary thinks of a Bursar on your thigh...
ReplyDeleteI'd like to say that life in Devon is proceeding at a S.Nail's pace but far from it.
But at least the birds are now returning to the garden after some rather quiet times in birding terms.