So....... We're all back in the room!!

Thursday 23^rd June a month to the day that my bird watching went into “hold”. But it’s good to be back, and thanks to Mr Awad and his excellent team, I have fought through a 5 hour op, pneumonia, Colitis and a period of non compos mentis to return to my blog.

Anyway I have no stomach for this subject so let’s move on.

As I looked out on 3 grey walls for 14 days, I often wondered what I would be able to write about, and I mentally inaugurated the RHEA club (Royal Hospital Exotic Avian Club). The first such visitor, a Pigeon, and not just any old pigeon but a feral pigeon to boot, came twice, defecated on the window sill and left. Pointed out the pigeon to the Indonesian Nurse, who wondered what the excitement was all about.  Then, with Mary and Sarah, we saw what was undoubtedly the BOF (bird of the fortnight) a Pied Wagtail.

Of course I missed my Carsington Beginners walk on the 5^th, but dependable Amanda and Gary looked after the 21 people booked for the course, including an encouraging 8 people who had not been on the walk before. All the Hirundines were seen, plus Swift, Whitethroat and Sparrowhawk, but the BOD was a pair of Red Crested Pochards.

Please don’t forget the beginners walk is ALWAYS on the first Sunday of each month – 10.00am Tel 01629 540696 to book.

I was amused by 2 interesting recent press items. The first was the Gull that fell into a bucket of Chicken Tikka Masala in June, at a food factory in Wales. Apparently it should be Ok when it gets oil back into the feathers, but in the meantime, Welsh birders may have some surprise sightings.

The other story was about a Jackdaw in Derbyshire, (which made national news) which swallowed a small pair of tweezers with which it was being hand fed. The lucky bird was taken to Cheshire where RSPB experts successfully removed the tweezers.

I don't know how many of you watch Springwatch, and an item on the final day of the recent series gave an incredible case of Deja vu.  Let me quote from an e-mail from Gary in 2013:-

 I was just reading the 2013 CBC annual report and your piece on the disappointing year for Ospreys at Carsington.  The reference to 'Blue 24' piqued my interest as my sister volunteers for the Dyfi Osprey Project in west Wales and there's been quite a bit of drama there this year with the 'resident' female Glesni arriving back to find another female on the nest, so to speak ... turns out that was Blue 24, who was promptly turfed off the nest by Glesni!!!  

Blue 24 (below) was seen at Carsington on June 11^th 2013, then on the 13^th at Rutland

Fast forward to Springwatch 2016, on Thursday 16^th June. In summary-

Blue 24, the same female Osprey arrives at Dyfi on the 1^st April 2016 and takes over a nest belonging to Monti and Glesni. Monti duly returns on the 3^rd April and straightaway starts mating with Blue 24. Later in the day, Glesni returns and turfs Blue 24 off her nest, (Blue 24 moves to another nearby nest,) leaving Glesni to mate with Monti.   

Are you with me so far?  Good.   So Monti is the male, and Glesni and Blue 24 are the females, and to prove it on the 17^th April each have a nest with eggs.

Ponder the thought – Monti has potentially 6 chicks to feed!

It’s a pity that Blue 24 was only 3 when she dropped in to Carsington in 2013 - she seems a bit more persistent now she is 6!!  

Happy Birding.

And now for a short intermission

Sunday May 15^th  a little meander round Markeaton Park with nothing out of the ordinary to report. 

I did watch a nice male Great Spotted Woodpecker searching for grubs as it worked its way up a dead tree, and heard plenty of bird song. But we are now in the difficult times for birdwatching, with the green foliage obscuring what may be there, and we have to depend on song and calls for the next 4 months.

............ and that could not be more true on Tuesday 17^th May at Whisby in Lincs.Whisby has always been a good site for Nightingales, although your patience gets seriously tested to see if you can see the bird that you CAN hear. 

Chris Tony and I could hear 2 Nightingales the other side of the railway, but no way could we see them, and a bird photographer with rigor mortise watching one particular branch, was just waiting for the right moment for that perfect picture, was equally unsuccessful.

Anyway, we did tick a nice Med Gull amongst 5000 black headed gulls (well it seemed like that, especially with the noise), an Oystercatcher on eggs, and a lovely Garden Warbler amongst a range of warblers.

After a good lunch at Whisby (at another eatery featured in the Egon Bennett guide to birding fast food outlets) we found our way to the newish RSPB site at Langford Lowfields, just north of Newark, and which I had not visited before

The site is large and still partially a working quarry. After a 600km walk, we found ourselves at the Beach Hut, a quaintly named mini visitors centre, (sorry...here we go again... it is the centre which is mini, not the visitors) manned on this occasion by a group of young volunteers. 

The perfect bird for us to end our day, and qualifying easily as BOD, was a Hobby. So this takes me on to a respectable 170, which at 17^th May handsomely compares with 2015 when I only counted 170 for the whole year.

Unfortunately, as I have hinted in the last couple of blogs, all good things are having to go on hold as I am about to pack my overnight bag for an operation followed by a longish stay at the Royal hospital in Derby. So I’m afraid that my blog will be on hold for a few weeks, not least of all because there aint much to be seen from a hospital ward window, and that’s assuming it HAS a window! And even when I get home I’m afraid recovery will be lengthy.

Thank you to all the relatives, friends and fellow birders who have sent me good wishes for my operation, some from as far as from Majorca, Devon and even Belper!!   I hope my (warped-) sense of humour will not be diluted, and one friend has suggested I write a book whilst in confinement to maintain my writing style.

I am able to various statistics about readers of my blog, which tell me amongst other things the home country of readers. Currently they are in Ireland, Russia, USA and Poland to name a few, and I sometimes wonder what makes them look at my article. Maybe they were just surfing, or possibly lured by the heading on the entry.

For example, I can see that the blog headed “so bald heads ARE attractive to birds”, on the 24^th April had more hits than any entry from Feb to May... I wonder what they expected?  

I hope that some readers may feel inclined to add a comment on an entry you enjoy, perhaps with your own experiences or sightings, and foreign comments would be very interesting..... to everyone. Just click on “No comment” at the end of post, and follow the stages through. You will then find that YOU are in print.

TTFN