...arse.
A phone call from Steve Lister this morning had me heading to Rutland Water (in my much improved car which no longer goes ‘clunge’ just before coming to a standstill, ‘rerrp, rerrp, rerrp’ when pulling away or ‘tikka-tikka-tikka-tikka-tikka’ when going round corners – thanks to Rob’s dad’s garage! *) hoping to see the county’s third ever Shore Lark. However, just like the previous two, this one had only shown itself to the finder before promptly buggering off. We searched all the shoreline around Whitwell where he’d seen it, and both sides of the Hambleton Peninsula before reluctantly accepting that it must have flown straight through.
Now, whilst obviously offering sincere congratulations to Steve on an excellent find, I do think this is just a little unfair after he gripped us all off with the Little Bittern the other week. Especially as I rang him about that and didn’t have to time to get there myself before it got dark! In fact I think I should be allowed to add one to my county list as well, as I would have seen the Little Bittern had it been identified as such when I first heard about it.
* – for anyone interested in the technical details, the clunge-ing, rerrp rerrp-ing and tikka-tikka-ing were apparently due to a broken tooth on the ABS reluctor ring on the front offside CV joint. I just nodded and tried to look like I knew what he was talking about.
A phone call from Steve Lister this morning had me heading to Rutland Water (in my much improved car which no longer goes ‘clunge’ just before coming to a standstill, ‘rerrp, rerrp, rerrp’ when pulling away or ‘tikka-tikka-tikka-tikka-tikka’ when going round corners – thanks to Rob’s dad’s garage! *) hoping to see the county’s third ever Shore Lark. However, just like the previous two, this one had only shown itself to the finder before promptly buggering off. We searched all the shoreline around Whitwell where he’d seen it, and both sides of the Hambleton Peninsula before reluctantly accepting that it must have flown straight through.
Now, whilst obviously offering sincere congratulations to Steve on an excellent find, I do think this is just a little unfair after he gripped us all off with the Little Bittern the other week. Especially as I rang him about that and didn’t have to time to get there myself before it got dark! In fact I think I should be allowed to add one to my county list as well, as I would have seen the Little Bittern had it been identified as such when I first heard about it.
* – for anyone interested in the technical details, the clunge-ing, rerrp rerrp-ing and tikka-tikka-ing were apparently due to a broken tooth on the ABS reluctor ring on the front offside CV joint. I just nodded and tried to look like I knew what he was talking about.
7 comments:
'Tikka tikka tikka tikka'..?? Sounds like a twitchers car...[or someone ordering food in an Indian restaurant]..
ps...my results of day are: Shorelark 0...Wigeon 1...
pps...little stretton pool 'wigeon' new bird..[taint much but hey]..!
ppps...also several hundred fieldfares...[and no bitterns little or large]...
After scanning ahead as the post opened there was a puzzled few seconds whilst I tried to deduce what species goes 'rerrp rerrp rerrp' was it a contact call from Corncrake on passage or maybe a rare Acro, oh well.
Tikka, tikka, tikka reminds me it's time we started to think about a date for an Xmas curry at the Taj...
Alan - a demented Corncrake is exactly what the rerrp-rerrp noise used to sound like. I nearly said that in my post, but decided that the opening sentence was already complicated enough without the addition of square brackets within ordinary brackets.
Andy,Jammy So and So comes to mind when talking about Steve ;-]
Birders make their own 'luck' as far as finding birds is concerned, but to get two 'gripping' county ticks in just over a week is a bit much!
And add to that a Lapland Bunting for good measure today.....Couldn't agree more though Andy, you make your own luck!!
Post a Comment