'Sick as a parrot'? Bah! 'Sick as a birder who didn't go seawatching when he conceivably could have and very likely would have been rewarded with Cory's Shearwaters' more like...
Yes, not only the joys of glorious weather coming through while I'm working, but staying around all day and me looking at it and thinking "Oh, it looks good, those squalls are wonderful, BUT I'll never be able to park when I get back, and I have to work tomorrow, don't I? SO that'll mean getting up extra early and walking however many streets it'll be after I'm extra tired and later to bed...." There'd been no reports of Cory's east of the Lizard by then, so I figured it wasn't worth it and I'd behave myself.
[[I think we're well past octuple drat at this stage, don't you?]]
I know, going over all the could haves and might haves and if onlys - if only the parking here wasn't so extra-horrific right now, if only I was on nights, if only there'd been even one report to encourage me to go "Oh what the hell!". I've been trying to cheer myself up by reasoning that big shears never come close to the Nose, even in beautiful squalls when they show at point-blank range at Berry Head, [Off the top of my head, I've seen about a half dozen large shears from the Nose, all but one being recorded as something like 'Large Shearwarer sp., probably Great' because they were just too far out and never showed well enough to be certain.] but it's not doing much good.
Whinging to you poor souls isn't helping much either.
On a brighter note [he says, reaching desperately] a new canteen location at work gave me a nice bit of sky to look at, with Herring Gulls, Swifts, Sparrows, and a couple of Bullfinches flying about [Work Tick! Yay!]. In the Garden the Sparrows have fledged another brood [third pair - the new nestbox ones - not a second brood yet], with 'lots' of assorted juveniles now facing the gauntlet of cats, Magpies [they're not very good at catching juvenile Sparrows, but they don't give up trying] and more cats. I'm still keeping an extra eye on the Swifts, but haven't even seen Damaged Primaries again - its definitely not one of the very local ones. As for Stocky Pale One at work or Moulting Odd-caller here. Two sites on the edges of colony areas, so plenty of room for them to hide, assuming they're residents and weren't just passing... ::Shrugs::
Finally, got my hardcopy of Palores* today and am delighted with the gorgeous shots of Arctic and Pom Skua - a brilliant comparison of the differences in typical 'seawatch view' shots [SR you have done well!].
[[* Newsletter of CBWPS, who do lots of good and have some very nice reserves. If you bird in the SW, you really ought to join. While you're at it, also join DBWPS - a likewise very worthy and hard-working society, whose newsletter is The Harrier.]]
[[[Recruitment spiel over]]]
Oh, even more finally; don't worry, still no plans to inflict my Work List on you!
Edit: While watching the Swifts and House Martin [at least 42 Swifts and 1 House Martin - the latter don't come this far up the hill much] out the window this evening, I've just seen a[nother?] chunky Swift - thickset with shallow tail fork and blunt-tipped wings - but could get nothing else on it. It happened about 10 minutes ago, and since then I've seen what might be it twice more, even more distantly and briefly.
This is getting silly....
[["Getting?!!??!?" I hear you attempt to cry through the peals of laughter... ;) ]]
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