Admittedly over 23 years as a journo I've seen some pretty mad and bad things, but nothing breaks me out in a cold sweat like mornings when Bazzo wants to sing.
You know as soon as you pick him up....a wry smile plays on his lips and there's a spring in his stride, then before you know it it's like you've got Shane McGowan's dad in your car.
This morning, as we headed down to Marshside, he'd clearly been possessed by the spirit of Ol' Blue Eyes through the weird vapours of some type of transpiritualisation mullarkey.
The horror, the horror.
The great American songbook croaked across the marsh as we checked Marshside One from Hesketh Road (no, I won't fly you to the bloody moon).
I've never heard of anyone beaten to death by the blunt end of a Slik D3, but there's always a first time McCarthy...
Luckily a Whitethroat was feeding in the vegetation next to us by the platform, and a Stoat was stoating about in the corner, but apart from that, it was pretty quiet - despite a surprisingly large amount of folk turning up to twitch the Glossy Ibis, which, fickle as ever, was nowhere to be seen.
A Common Sand bobbed amongst the Jackdaws and BHGs on the water beneath the Hesketh Road platform.
The summering (injured) Pink Foot was grazing with the Greylags, and hordes of Goldfinches were feeding on the seedheads along the bank.
Further up the road, it was all quiet at Sandgrounders Hide (apart from Ruddy Duck and Tufties on the lagoon), so we walked up to Polly's Creek, where there were three Dunlin, a single Little Ringed Plover and no less than 6 Little Egrets.
Water Rails were calling from the reeds under the bank on the landward side.
A Peregrine was hunting over the outer marsh, but we decided to cut our losses and head over to Martin Mere (there's only so long someone can sing "That's Life" on the Coast Road before they get arrested or killed).
The Mere was mighty busy, but Andy Bunting was on form at In Focus, having trapped a Brown Tussock moth at Ainsdale on Friday night.
"Bunting" gen revealed numerous (up to 3) Marsh Harriers, a single Hobby and the usual Common Buzzards had been seen over the last few days, but the best we could manage from the Ronnie Barker hide was 20+ Ruff, a few Avocets, a juv Yellow Wagtail, Stock Doves and an adult and young Ringed Plover along with hordes of Lapwings and the 3 summering Whoopers.
"That's life, that's what people say...."(stop it Bazzo)
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies....
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andy bunting wrote...
Hi John,
Actually it was Dark Tussock, as 'Brown Tussock' would be new to science!
I would point people to the Martin Mere sighting link on your blog to see more moth related stuff.
Juv Yellow Wagtail? Excellent I'll update that straight away!
Posted by: andy bunting | July 27, 2008 9:50 PM