Sister Marie Joseph told me I was going to the burning fires of eternal hell when I was seven years old, so I suppose an element of bad luck throughout life was only to be expected - nuns are not to be messed with after all (although I still maintain I was fitted up for the mortal sin of blowing out all the candles in church during Lent - there were no witnesses, believe me, I checked).
Bad luck was what I got today - the first time I get out of the office with enough light for a spot of post-work birding this week, and it was chucking it down.
Incessantly.
And there was a crew working on one of the drains into the Sands Lake when I got there, so the place was heavily disturbed as the daylight melted away ridiculously early.
And there is still no prospect of me getting to go shrike molesting in Lincolnshire in the near future.
And did I mention it was raining?
Only about 40 Tufted Duck on the water today (maybe the noise of the workmens' generator scared them off). with two Shoveler and about 100 Mallards.
Long Tailed Tit, Robin, Wren and Carrion Crows in the bushes, and a small flock of Greenfinches through.
Quiet as it was, the Water Rail was squealing away at the north end, in the tangle of rank vegetation, so I settled down off the boardwalk to see if it would emerge.
By 4.10pm it was nearly as black as night, and the rail hadn't emerged, so I cleared out.
Rain bedraggled Greater 'pecker still bashing billy-o out of the nut feeders at Dempsey Towers this afternoon, and a cracking urban Fox trotting along the pavement at 5.35am by Merchant Taylor's School in Crosby, so the day wasn't a total loss.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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Maurice Pons wrote...
A couple of Goldcrests dropped into my garden birches at first light today but more surprising was a Red Admiral careering around in the gloom and pouring rain at midday with the temperature at 10c.
Posted by: Maurice Pons | November 13, 2008 7:11 PM