#AlwaysOnHoliday

So that was Oregon. It would be easy to assume that I am permanently on holiday but I can assure you that is far from the being the case. Although the last dozen posts or so (generating a massive response of two whole comments) have indeed been about places other than Wanstead, I do in fact spend most of my life in Wanstead. Actually that might be a lie, I probably spend more time in Canary Wharf. Anyway, that last run posts encompasses most of the latter half of 2025, I think it is the compressed nature of how I end up blogging about it that gives the impression of being on one long jolly. Sadly not. There are long stretches - very long stretches, and I use stretch very much in the penal sense of the word - where nothing at all happens and I go nowhere. I live a normal life just like everyone else does. However as I cannot be bothered with any other form of social media, especially the sort where you can share your non-existence as it happens, detailing the minutest nothings at all hours of the day and night, what ends up here is very unrepresentative.

The birding in Wanstead has been dire. Dire. I am actually ahead of where I was in 2025 but that is not saying a great deal. The main problem has been the weather. I do not like to get wet when I do not need to. And there is absolutely no need to get a soaking so that I can see a Grey Wagtail or some other dross for the sake of a year list. Put simply, this winter has been grim and so I have stayed inside and done other things, all of which have been boring or of limited literary merit. Go ahead and label me as uncommitted, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'll catch up, I always do.

Plus it is about to become exciting again. The 2026 Wanstead Wheatear Sweepstake draw happened the other day, overseen by Chairman Brown. I have been assigned the 16th and the 27th. Whilst the 16th of March is not a weekend this year, it is nonetheless the top date - three out of the last eight years - for the first Wheatear arrival. I hear that a bird was seen in Sussex today which makes me slightly nervous. But only slightly. The south coast always gets a super early bird, but it isn't until there are major arrivals that we stand any kind of chance. The south-east has to be saturated before we get even a sniff, this is the price we pay for living inland in a large city. With major airports.

And of course whilst Wheatear might be the most exciting spring arrival, it is not the only one, nor is it always the first. Sand Martins can be very early, so can Little Ringed Plover. In a little more than 30 days from now passage will be in full swing and all birders will be happy again. I might even blog about it. But only after I've written up Piedmont, Arizona, Lisbon, Morocco, Fife and Milan.