Pressing on

So that was France, all the way back in late May. I had not intended to write even a single word about it but then I encountered a streak of bloody-mindedness and so here we are. It is done now, and - once started at least - came to a very rapid conclusion by my standards. Part of the reason I raced through it is that I have loads of bird news to share. Ha! As if. I've managed a bit of time on the patch but it has not been particularly interesting. However seeing as I am here typing here is a summary.

June: Only kidding.

July: I saw my one and only Hobby for the patch in 2026

August: Much better, the latter half of the month saw the usual arrival of Spotted Flycatchers and Redstarts. I jammed a Pied Flycatcher on the 15th and a Shelduck flew over my head on the 24th, but it took until the end of the month before Spotted Flycatcher fell.

Somehow I managed to find the time to twitch both the long-staying Long-tailed Shrike in Gloucestershire and the even longer staying Black-winged Kite in Norfolk. This latter was particularly satisfying as I had dipped it way back in January and picked up a speeding ticket whilst doing so. This killed what had at the time felt like a bit of a twitching renaissance, possibly a good thing. I didn't take photographs of either and so I didn't bother writing about them, or at least I don't remember doing so. I got in the car, drove for a bit, saw the birds and came home again. Fun huh? Actually the Shrike was quite fun. When I got up on Saturday morning I had no intention of going to see it whatsoever but then I looked where it was and it was only two and a half hours away. I had to be in Reading at lunchtime for a birthday party in the afternoon, this looked like it was just the other side. We had been going to take the train until I reaslised that I could drive to the Shrike and still get to the party in plenty of time, and furthermore that I would be in posession of a car with which to drive the family home. Brownie Points were in the offing! If you were reading this blog in 2023 you may perhaps remember that this has happened before, in fact involving the same friends in the same house. Back then they had just moved in. Now they are fully installed and even have a pet snail called Long Eye Eye. Eastleach Martin in Gloucestershire is not as far away as Wales thankfully, but it is conveniently in the same direction. And so with no prior planning I set off with a fiver for the famer's field and had seen the bird by about 11am. I was in Reading before 1pm and able to help our friends get set up for the party, I think I made prawn kebabs or something. Mrs L and a child arrived a short time later, we had a thoroughly lovely afternoon and then I drove everyone home like the hero I am. 

Eastleach Martin twitch. I am solidly in the pictured demographic

With the Wilson's Storm Petrel I saw off Scilly in late July that makes four UK lifers this year which feels if not unprecedented, highly unexpected. Maybe I'll make 500 yet? It would require four a year for another ten years. Actually now that I write that, maybe not. No, that seems far too many, far too much like hard work. I intend to get to Scilly in due course, but there is the small matter of Brazil first. I am not going to be fully happy with the way things are going until I've written up Brazil. The prep work is done, I gave my mate Claude a csv file of the relevant checklists and developed a prompt. I kid you not but in less than 20 minutes it "wrote" nine blog posts. This is the difference between me being able to get this done and not. Worry ye not, I have not ceded editorial rights to our machine overlords. It has simply laid out a text version of what were lists. I will not have to type out the name of a single bird, they are all there waiting for me in the order in which I saw them. That 20 minutes a few days ago has saved me hours. I just need to go in and put some words and photos around them. It couldn't do the customary itinerary post, nor did I ask it to. That is my next job.

Wilson's Storm Petrel