I could pretend that ripping the casing off a computer tower and jumping into the maze of wires, circuit boards and general electro-junk is a breeze, that binning a hard drive and rebuilding everything is a walk in the park - and you know something?
It is.
As long as you have the very patient help of the eternally Buddha-calm Nick Owens on the other end of the blower (and the frankly crazy Mrs D, tooled up with screwdrivers and beer), what could potentially be a cyber-punk "Juggernaut" (God help all of you who can remember that heap of 70s disaster movie garbage - Fallon is so NOT the champion), rebuilding one of these stupid machines really ain't that scary.
Especially if you whallop hell out of all the electro-spaghetti until it gives in.
Okay, enough introspective bollox, what have I been seeing for the last few days?
Well, a quick trip to Martin Mere with Bazzo revealed the regular Kingfishers, summering Whooper Swans, Tree Sparrows etc and a hugely "mothed-up" Andy Bunting, alongside a healthy population of young Avocets.
At least three Green Sandpipers on the reserve too, with birds showing very well from the Hale Hide, although nicest of all was the Little Owl perched up in the usual trees across from Windmill Farm - it must nearly 30 years since this site became a regular stake-out for this species, and they're still as hit and miss as ever.
Heard a second hand report of a Wood Sand at Marshside, but no one sent me any direct gen on that one...
Neill Hunt and Mike Stocker had great views of two Roseate Terns at Seaforth (permit only) yesterday, alongside the soon-to-be very enigmatic Arctic Tern, plus Commons etc.
As things hotted up during the week, insects got real interesting at work, with Red Admirals, Painted Ladies and 4 and 6 Spot Ladybirds breezin' in over Ainsdale beach...while offshore small numbers of Manxies and Gannets were fishing.
Sarnie Terns are now starting to roost on Ainsdale beach again, albeit in small numbers, but the most exciting coastal event this week was undoubtedly the arrival of Red Veined Darters at Sands Lake at Ainsdale - I spent 30 minutes at the north end of the lake after my shift at 5pm on Thursday and counted a minimum of 12, and a maximum of 18, of these superb dragonflies (thanx to Dave Mac and Phil Smith for the tip-off).
The Hobby bait was whizzing everywhere, so it was hard to get an accurate count.
A smarter man may have had a camera with him.
The darters were mating and ovipositing in the scorching heat, while at least 3 Red Eared Terrapins scuzzed about in the algae, and Black Tailed Skimmer and 2 Emperors tried to compete with the supercool darters.
Absolutely wonderful.
Before I forget, sorry to anyone who has e-mailed me anything in the last week or so - it'll be a day or two before I attempt to recover everything from the old burnt-out hard disk, so I'm not ignoring you honest...and after all, what could possibly go wrong???
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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neil wrote...
welcome back, missed you for a week. if you go past martin mere and turn right (marsh moss lane ??) a little owl sits in a tree by the old mission all day, everyday. you'd think it was stuffed. there has been a pair nesting in that old tree for as long as the one at windmill farm. i dipped on the green sandpiper twice !!!
Posted by: neil | July 4, 2009 4:20 PM