In Which I Am Horribly Gripped Off...

.. By my own father!

But more on that later.

You know, looking at all the nonsense about the Olympic Torch, I can't help but think that they've done it all wrong [and I'm surprised by this because..??]. The whole point should be that the Flame is run to the venue by a relay of runners, surely. Passed from hand to hand, the spirit of Marathon and ancient Greece. I have no issue with 'worthy' people taking part in this, but imho, it should be run the whole way. We have a huge number of amateur athletic clubs who'd do a great job of this.
Maybe less circuitously [or just taking a little longer], but run. Not walked / run for a couple of hundred yards, then used to light the next Torch [even as the previous one is sold on ebay...], run a couple of hundred yards more then driven to the next photo opportunity.
And get rid of the sponsors! They weren't even that impressive, with PAs turned up way too high for their speakers... The whole point of the Olympics used to be is amateur competition - that means for its own sake, not for financial gain. Hell, they used to give out laurel wreaths, not huge lumps of semi precious metal!

Ahem.

Right then...

I'm back on my beloved Night Shift, just in time for the heatwave from hell, so aside from seeing House Martins back in their little colony on Patch on Wednesday, my report is all today. And no, I didn't have a chance at the Courser. Arse. [Maybe that should be 'nape'?]

Straight down to the Nose, where the combo of an easterly wind and developing mist in't Channel made me hopeful of migrants, maybe even a Grotfinch of my very own? Ha. A few Swallows and Swifts were coming in/off into the brisk northerly and there was a single Wheatear. Best bird was a cracking male Bullfinch - which posed at ridiculously close range for me.. :) The heat, well didn't so much build as it was already 20° when I got there! I headed home as the sun fried the mist..

Only to head out again! This time on my first odonata trip of the year - paparazzi getup and all! Stover was the target, and it was boiling... My li'l car's thermometer hit 30° as I passed through Teigngrace. Ye gods and little [deep fried] fishes....

The wind was getting up, but there was so much heat that the dragons were nicely active despite it. 8 species isn't bad for May, though I dipped Downy Emerald [While they're tricksy little buggers, it looks like something's happened to their pool.. :( ]. I'll be back there next month, hoping for double figures :) The action was dominated by the dragons [as usual], with Hairy Hawkers on the wing in good numbers - I even saw a female! [My first one! Gasp!]. Both 4-Spotted and Broad-bodied Chasers struck poses for me, so at some point next year you might get a shot inflicted on you ;)

Ok, now to the business of the title...
I spoke to my Dad this afternoon and he asked me, "What looks like a Crow but with a red bill?"
I in turn asked, "Was it's bill straight?"
"No, curved, bright red."
"That'd be a Chough... Where was it?"
"Last sheep field before you drop into Berry Pomeroy. I think it was there last week, but I didn't get a good look at it until today."
"Last...week..."

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?