I'd like to start by wishing my readers a Happy New Year, hope you both have a good un😀! I don't usually bother making resolutions but thought I would give it a go!!
1) Do more Birding, especially Sea-watching! (seems a no-brainer and should be fairly easy to keep!)
2) Show Margie even more love, affection and respect than I do already, tell her I love her everyday, acknowledging all the little things she does around the house, that I usually ignore, take her to at least one Bryan Adams concert and a minimum of 5 castles in 2022, buy her lots of presents and it wouldn't kill me to do a bit of housework every now and then💓 Love you Hunny💕
3) Stop leaving the laptop unattended when doing Blog Posts, especially when Margie is about!! Though she might have a point on a couple of the issues raised in resolution 2,Bryan Adams and Housework maybe a step to far!!
4) Stop arguing with Twats on the internet! (almost impossible😲)
5) Stop being a Twat on the internet! ( equally unlikely😏)
6) Lose weight! (over the Covid period have put on 2 stone😲!!)
7) Eat less cakes!!😢 ( this could be a difficult one but essential to achieve number 6,though difficult when your other half works in a cake shop and keeps bringing home cakes!! I know I should show more self-control and apply some of that iron willpower that keeps me staring out to sea on a sea watch despite knowing, nothings gonna come through)!!😁
8) Be more Green!! ( although we don't fly, have cut our mileage from 20000+ miles a year down to less than 7000, only eat Organic food, recycle everything possible (in truth that is mainly down to Margie!) and have given the garden over to wildlife (rumours that this is mainly down to laziness and a reluctance to get the Lawnmower out are outrageous slurs!!) So will have to have a think about what else we can do, feel I'm a bit to long in the tooth to glue myself to a road(me back won't stand it either) or have a riot so will have to be something less strenuous, any suggestions welcome!!
9) Stop making resolutions I'm unlikely to keep!! (except number 2 obvs)
Last day of the year today and with the weather forecast implying that today and tomorrow may be the only rain free days before I go back to work, we felt, we should try and get out. Unfortunately the weather forecast turned out to be wrong (quelle surprise) and we were greeted with a fine drizzle, undeterred we set off anyway. Yesterday a Snow Bunting had been reported from Bo-Peep car park so thought we would have a crack at that, now I wouldn't normally twitch a Snow Bunting, as I've seen loads but after 10 years in Sussex I'd never heard of the Bo-Peep area of the Downs so I thought could be a good idea to check it out! We headed along the A27 the grey drizzle getting thicker but I used my legendary catchphrase "It's getting brighter over there" (I grant you it's no "Nice to see ya, to see ya nice" but we can't all be Bruce Forsyth and I'm working on a better one) and we reached the turn off to Bo-Peep Lane the rain did stop!! Huzzah!! (took your advice there Nicky) unfortunately as the lane wound it's way up onto the Downs we drove into thick cloud!! Denied!!! On opening the doors we discovered not only were we in a pretty thick fog we had the bizarre situation of also being in a howling wind!!! Not sure how that works shouldn't a howling wind clear thick fog!!
We decided it was refreshing and a short walk would blow the cobwebs away, so unconfident was I in finding a single Snow Bunting in these conditions I left the Camera in the car, we checked out the Sheep Pens where the bird had been seen before, and walked down the atmospherically mist wrapped track, no sign, we chatted to another local birder who hadn't seen it earlier, apparently seed had been scattered around in a couple of places but both were Bunting free!! We were just about to give up when I decided to check out the Pens again, with Margie's usual catchphrase "you can't go in there" (she's no Brucie either) ringing in my ears, a quick peak into the furthest pen revealed the Snow Bunting sitting right out in the open, rootling about in the mud, quick dash back to the car, enlighten the other guy to the situation, grab the camera and return with Margie, who having kept the bird in sight further excelled herself by offering her shoulder as a camera rest against the onslaught of the howling wind, enabling me to take a few pics, best of em below
Very restrained only 9 of the 246 I took😀. Even I was getting a bit bored with it, when sensing it was losing it's audience the bird abruptly took to the air and flew off into the mist, seemingly flying around in a circle and landing on the track approx 100 yards to the south, difficult to be %100 sure because of the mist. After this success we decided to call it a day, heading back to the car we found the gloves I had dropped in my haste to get to the car, thanks to the other birder for pointing them out!!!
Happy New year everyone may 2022 bring you everything you want!!😍😍😍
Green-winged Teal for me please!!!! (and world peace obvs😂)!!!!
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