15-May-2008 - The Best Birding Websites

I spend a lot of time on the internet reading blogs, drooling over bird pictures, planning birding trips etc etc. There really is bugger all else to do around here especially when darkness falls, American TV is just pitiful and changing diapers only takes up a few minutes. I have some favorite sites that I visit, most of which are under the Mega Links column and I don't use the word Mega lightly. If you are like me and have nothing better to do then check out these following sites they are sure to broaden your horizons in more ways than one.

Tom McKinney's Diary - a.k.a Skills Bills

Tom is an expert in swearing and takes writing about birding to another level. Classic British humor mixed with deep rooted sarcasm and wit, which is sure to put a smile on most faces..even some of you yanks. Reading his diary brings home how much I miss British birders. The best birding blog on the internet but don't tell him that coz it might go to his head.

I suggested that the car should be stopped immediately so that we wouldn't die, and Miss Cole's response was something along the lines of: "I swear to God I'll rip your nuts off if you criticise my driving one more fucking time!"

Buckton Massive a.k.a Buckton Birder

Mark Thomas is without doubt one of THE most dedicated birders I have ever known. Classic British Birding written with enthusiasm plus great pics and some footie stories as well. I am slightly biased as he was my Best Man and he's a top bloke but read it or I'll send the boys round to beat yers up.

Wow!, I had not imagined the scene that greeted me - the main lake was packed with scores of beautiful (I don't use that word that often to describe birds!) silky Arctic Terns - all elegantly dipping over the water with their incredibly long tail streamers following behind.

Punkbirder - The Unsound Approach

Hilarious and informative accounts written by a bunch of current and former UEA students birding in various parts of the world but mostly in Norfolk. A must resource for any serious British birder especially the Rare-ometer.

10th April

Cotswold Water Park (RDM)

Another afternoon looking through sh*t. These Red-crested Pochards were crap.

Aves-Vous un Cuppa

Tea, footie and birding. Need not say anymore other than that Monsieur Gray is a fellow Red.

Also maybe people's memories are very short sightened, but didn't this country fight a war less than 70 years ago, against the fascists and Nazis, who had the same ideas about the right wing agenda, the BBC, Daily Mail and the Tory party aspire to at the moment?

The Drunk Birders

A collection of birding accounts, footie tales and some of THE best beer recommendations you'll ever get. Straight to the point, classic British humour. Quality!

14-May-2008 - Excuse me can you tell me where my head is?

Yeah it's on the top of your neck. Follow yer toes up yer leg and then slowly make you way up yer torso and it should be the large empty object attached firmly to yer neck. Yeah the bit that houses yer eyes, mouth and nose but apparently not yer brain.

You have no idea what I'm banging on about do you? Bollocks, that's what I'm on about, total bollocks.

If you are smart you may get the gyst (god knows how you spell jist) of it from the next paragraph or two.

Julie and I took our beautiful ickle baby to St Marks National Wildlife Refuge yesterday. Those of us who have a brain often refer to it as SMNWR. We parked in the car park adjacent to the lighthouse. Yeah one of those big dildo shaped stone buildings with a twirly light on the top. The carpark is imaginatively known as the lighthouse carpark. Next to the carpark is a fecking big pond and yeah you got it that's called lighthouse pond. The other ponds on the refuge aren't called lighthouse pond because they don't have lighthouses next to them and if they did then yeah that would be confusing. Getting the gist yet?

So I birded said pond, you know the one next to the lighthouse and bugger me if there weren't birds dilly dallying all over it. Birds are great dilly dalliers. There was a White-rumped Sandpiper presumably named after its white rump just like the pond next to the lighthouse was named after it. I can't remember what else I saw without referring to my Birdbrains post but maybe I shouldn't read that as it seemed to cause no less than 6 people a whole lot of confusion. Where exactly is lighthouse pond at St Marks?

On our way from lighthouse pond we stopped at East River Pool as there was a nice flock of Mississippi Kites hunting dragonflies in the skies above. Now I'll grant you this...there are no obvious landmarks associated with East River Pool but it is on the east side of the refuge and the St Marks River does run parrallel to it so I guess that's why some clever clogs named it East River Pool. C'mon guys give me a fecking break it's not rocket science. How many bloody East River Pools and Lighthouse Ponds can there be at St Marks NWR? They even numbered the Stoney Bayous and Mounds Pools but that still causes confusion. I bumped into a guy only last week who had been trying to figure out where Stoney Bayou 2 was for 3 years! You see once upon a time there were these really clever people known as cartographers who spent hours every day producing these wonderful sheets of paper and they call them MAPS! Please buy one. If you can't read one then use mapquest.com or if that fails email some other poor bugger.

It doesn't end there!

So later on in the day for reasons only known to herself, Julie gave me permission to go birding up at Lake Seminole. I had a few holes in my Jackson County list so I explored the western edge of the lake along River Rd just north of the small town of Sneads. I happened to find 2 singing Yellow-breasted Chats in a scrubby area on the NW corner of Butler and River Rd, one of which showed off in full view for 15 minutes, he even allowed me to videoscope him. Bloody marvellous. I will post said video on this ere blog as soon as I figure out how to transfer the footage from our new video camera to the puter. Ok so now you have several clues as to where I saw the chats. I can simplify it by placing the clues together as follows...

2 singing Yellow-breasted Chats,  NW corner, Butler & River Rd, Sneads, Lake Seminole, Jackson County

Now I defy anyone to struggle finding those birds as long as a) you know what a singing chat sounds like b) you know what a chat looks like c) you know how to use the internet and finally d) you know how to follow a map printed out care of the internet.

JUST in case you aren't aware, there is a wonderful website called MAPQUEST. Here is the URL

www.mapquest.com

This was one of the reasons why I stopped posting to the listservs. Bloody Nora Batty! Anyway at least it wasn't that muppet Lucas spouting off his usual drivel.

Apart from that it's all pretty wonderful. I reached 150 for Jackson County, which was nice. Eat my dust Bankert! Just coz you are in the Final 2 on Idol doesn't mean you're gonna have everything yer own way sunshine!

Saturday will be exciting. I'm going for a boat ride out on the deep ocean with 100 other crazy feckers. Yep it's time for this years annual marathon pelagic. Ive been praying to the baby Jesus and will be keeping my fingers crossed for the following

Moby Dick, Marie Celeste, Lord Lucan in a rowing boat and a bevvy of scantily clad mermaids. If we see some birds as well then that'll be a bonus. Throw in a few giant squid, a Great White Shark eating a boat load of Cubans and some teenage mutant pelagic turtles and I'l be in heaven. I'll hopefully have a movie made documenting the event sometime next week. I bet you can't wait. In the meantime I made a movie today which will have the BBC Natural History department green with envy. Eat my shorts King!

7-May-2008 - The War on Squirrels

The War on Squirrels

5-May-2008 - Another spring passes by

Spring migration was unbelievable this year, I really can't do it justice with a few mere words, so I'll sum it up with just one. CRAP!

My spring migration highlight was a male Hoooded Warbler in the yard, singing no less and watched from bed. Yer can't get better than that, didn't have to move the one muscle I've got left. Didn't even need bins. Easy Peasy.

We have an excuse of course for not having a great spring and I'm more than happy that our 11lb 3oz bundle of joy prevented me from enjoying these gargantuous fallouts experienced by Tallahassee's finest. Why? Well there really weren't any fallouts. Granted a few warblers set down during the odd thunderstorm but that doesn't constitute a fallout. Thank the baby jesus that Mr Murphy gave us a real feel for what happened this spring.

I'd also like to point out that I have been asking "where are all the birders at our local hot spots during spring migration" for the last 5 years. I guess they were all having babies too.

Anyway thankfully there are one or two birders getting out and about and finding all these great birds for us to read about, it's like I'm actually there in person. A few photos would be nice.

After working on a project with Julie's Dad today I managed an hour at the bird window. The squirrels were very entertaining. One of them winked at me and exclaimed "Dude you should've been at St Marks the other day, there was a massive fallout"....."There were 18 species of warbler"......"Huh" ...."Thats almost as good as the 24 we had at Ft Morgan on a slow day last spring"....."Have you heard of the old saying Swings and Roundabouts?"...."No" said the Squirrel and continued eating a delicous peanut. Peanuts are truly delicious. I had a whole bowl full whilst I watched my mate the Squirrel. A Blue Jay showed up as did the pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers. Did you know that the male likes suet and the female likes peanuts? Bloody amazing!

Squirrels....They're great....Love 'em. Isn't it funny though how some folk get wound up by them? Chill Winston. The subject deserves a whole entry in this ere blog at some point in the near future. Now don't get too excited....

What else has been going on...oh yeah the Mighty Reds got knocked out of the CL down at the bridge. To be fair Chelsea were due and I'm hoping they lift the trophy for the first time. They're playing Shrek, pretty boy, car thief and their merry band of scumbags...a.k.a Manchester United. Most yanks will have heard of them, they're like the New York Yankees...hated by everyone. It should be an entertaining game.

Labour lost a load of seats in the by-elections. Surprise! Looks like Britain's dabble with the left has ended and a swing to the right is occurring. In 20 years time it'll swing back again no doubt after a period of complete and utter chaos. Politicians are a bit crap really....they are the same all over. They should just be honest.

"Vote for me and I'll really bollocks up the country, I won't do anything you want me to do because that would mean I'd have to work hard for my kazillion dollars that you the taxpayer so kindly throw my way"

It's all going a bit Pete Tong over here with the Presidential Campaign in full swing. It's really hard to know who to vote for because they're all a bit crap. Sound bytes, spin, big smiles, kissing babies, 80's disco hits, silly hats....blah, blah, blah. Try something original, something the voters have never seen before....like do a Big Year. The candidate who gets the biggest list wins. Probably wouldn't work though, they'd just string everything. Personally I think they should have a WWF style Election Rumble. The last one standing gets to run for President.  Wouldn't that be much more fun? Yeah it would be brilliant.

Well this is a bit of a crap entry really, I'm just writing for the sake of writing. It's only taken me 5 minutes so far because I can type fairly fast. A rapid stream of bullshit eminating from my fingers.

Looks like it has been pretty lively on t'other side of the pond. Another Black Lark showed up in Norfolk. Saw the last one on Anglesey. What an ordeal that was. Shitty weather too. Dad sent me pics of the Ross's Gull that's been mega tame in Lancashire for the last couple of weeks. Now that's a bird...not one of yer gaudy warblers but a real Arctic gem.

Ross's Gull in Lancashire taken by me Dad

There are lots of good pics on Surfbirds but isn't it funny how every once in a while birders post really shitty pictures despite the fact that there are very very good pictures on there of the same bird. Why do they do that? And they post next to the picture....Record shot, distant, poor light. Be fecking honest eh fellas and write....I'm a crap photographer, my camera is 100 hundred years old, I have no clue what I'm doing, I just wanted you to know that I saw the bird and it's now on my list!

I think I'm turning into Victor Meldrew!

My mum took some great pictures when  they visited last month.

Red-headed Woodpecker at Pebble Hill Plantation, taken by me Mum

24-Apr-2008 - Vote against the hunting of migrant birds on Malta

please vote NO to stop the uneccessary SLAUGHTER of millions of migrant birds that fly over the island of Malta every spring. The hunting on Malta has without doubt contributed significantly to the frightening decline of many european breeding species such as the Turtle Dove (almost a rarity these days). When I worked at Dungeness you could count on one hand the number of Turtle Doves that passed thru during spring migration. They used to be common! Story sounds kinda familiar doesn't it.

I'm with Tom if this isn't banned then I think we should invade Malta and kick some.

Visit the following link...scroll down the poll is on the right....PLEASE VOTE

http://www.timesofmalta.com/

24-Apr-2008 - Indie Music

Love it, love it, love it...not as much as heavy rock but love it. Having said that though it ain't what it used to be IMO. The late 80's early 90's witnessed a bevvy of great indie bands and not to mention some kick arse tunes...most of the bands now are poor imitations but there are a few good uns. Here is a great selection of my all time fave indie bands and their tunes.

Remember dancing to this a lot whilst on watch at sea. The russians must have thought we were a right bunch of potheads!

Classic Mundays

SORTED!

one of my fave all time tunes

The Greatest Indie band EVER. Squires has no equal on the geetar.

This one's for you Rich

The greatest US group. Luv me some peppers.

Squires continued to rock with the horses. Very Kula Shaker like though.

told yers

The greatest Indie song by the greatest Indie band. Squires guitar solo ranks as one of the best ever and Reni is awesome on the drums during same solo.

Noel Gallaghers best tune. Come sail with me on my yellow submarine...classic.

21-Apr-2008 - Shorebirds Galore

An evening visit to the refuge at high tide was very rewarding. Thousands of shorebirds. Nothing out the ordinary...7 Whimbrel, a Willet being caught by a Northern Harrier which was subsequently robbed of its hard earned meal by an adult Bald Eagle! The sand gnats were horrendous and I now look like I've got chickenpox. Here's a few digiscope pics.

Louisiana Heron (Bollocks I'm using old names from this point)

Dunlin (left) and Short-billed Dwitcher (right)

Caspian Tern on right

Short-billed Dowitchers

Western Sandpipers

more Short-billed Dows

sleeping Dunlin

An awake Dunlin

20-Apr-2008 - Bird Window

We have recently made some improvements on the ole rancherino and have created a nifty new bird window, so that Julie, Maisie and I can at least enjoy birds at home in comfort on days when hardcore birding is not possible.

I spent an hour or so this afternoon digiscoping through the new window and although we didn't have many birds visit (busy with nesting season) it was rather pleasant. Real quality dude birding!

Mourning Dove

Carolina Wren

16-Apr-2008 - Fox Squirrel

We have a managed a few trips out the house this last week while my parents are visiting from Rule Britannia. Did I mention we beat Arsenal in the Champions League? Yeah stick that in yer pipe and smoke it Arsehole Whinger. El Nino's goal was pure class. We might end up playing the filth in the final if we beat the Glams and they beat Barcelona. My prediction is Chelsea v Barca! Just to piss off the TV networks...who want a Liverpool V Scumbags final. Anyway I am digressing, so much on my mind lately. I had a really weird dream last night about a singing cardinal and a giant tennis ball. Is derangement a virus? Can you pick it up off your computer?

Well the birding has been pretty slow for us but we are trying to get out as much as possible. We had our new bird window installed so at least we can watch some backyard birds, especially the singing cardinals. Wow they have a beautiful song!

So I took mum and dad up to Tall Timbers. We didn't see that much as it was very windy and quite cool. A male Summer Tanager was the bird highlight. A baby Fox Squirrel pretended to be invisible in an Oak and allowed me to digiscope him.

The following morning Dad and I went to the refuge for high tide and we saw a kazillion shorebirds. Not much different in terms of species from my last visit but 7 Stilt Sandpipers were new for the spring as was a Spotted Sand and an American Avocet in alternate plumage. Other highlights included a male Hooded Warbler and 3 Redheads (late). The gators were out on the banks trying to soak up some rays.

Then last night we all drove to the refuge to take Maisie for a stroll. Didn't see much, it was very windy. A male Blue Grosbeak and a Sora was the highlight.

3-Apr-2008 - Colic, Droughts and Shitty Nappies

Birds, Birds, Birds......please let me see some birds. The missus came out the bedroom the other day to see me crawling on the floor clutching my binoculars. I was mumbling incoherently. All I remember was seeing a mirage of Samantha Fox lying on a sunbed surrounded by several beautiful Pineapple Sage bushes that were home to a flock of Snowcap hummingbirds. Classic symptoms from somebody stranded in a desert. A desert free of birds. Hell I'm in the midst of a birding drought, the worst I've suffered in years.

The drought has been briefly interrupted by the odd fleeting glimpse of a House Finch on a feeder, a Turkey Vulture soaring over the house and our long staying Ruby-throated Hummingbird fussing outside the bedroom window.

Being a Dad though is great though. The shitty nappies I could do without! Maisie enjoys peeing all over me as I fumble with the soiled nappy, wiggling her legs which makes the stuff fly everywhere. Is baby turd used to manufacture velcro? It bloody well should be! The colic though is the biggest challenge. Medical experts really aren't sure what causes colic, so I'm buggered if I know. It's basically 2-3 hours of baby breakdancing accompanied by what I can only describe as a million Starlings screaming in a mist net to the tune of a Pete Tong acid mix of Kate Bush, Bjork and Pavarotti. The screaming gets to you after a while so the missus and I have been trying all manners of tricks to calm Maisie down and hopefully that sets her off to sleep. So far dancing to Led Zeppelin has worked, making noises like Thomas the Tank Engine and dancing around the dishwasher at midnight.

So thats been my lot in life for several weeks until this last Monday and Tuesday. By the sweet beard of zeuss and the holy spirit of avia I was able to spend two mornings birding with Seminole Audubon. I lead them around St Marks NWR on Monday morning and to be honest I haven't enjoyed a morning's birding as much for ages. We didn't see anything that spectacular (yeah write me again sucker). The American Avocets were rather splendid as were the Marbled Godwits and the newly arrived male Prothonotary and Prairie Warblers. I flushed a Short-eared Owl off the road on my way to the lighthouse as well. BONZER!

On Tuesday morning we birded my usual Apalachicola National Forest route enjoying Swainson's, Prothonotary, Hooded and Pine Warblers. There were lots of Northern Parula's, Great Crested Flycatchers and Brown-headed Nuthatches. Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Bachman's Sparrow proved surprisingly elusive but we eventually connected and had great looks. My first Swallow-tailed Kite glided over. It was fandabidosi!

It was two days of pure heaven. Maybe you should try fasting for a while although I don't recommend it to be honest. The dreams/nightmares are a bit weird. Try explaining being chased around a pyramid by a 20 foot Canada Goose to a Psychiatrist. Yeah fecking Canada Geese in Egypt! Ive never even been to Gippo Land either. What's that all about?

Anyway gotta go and bury myself in another turd filled nappy.

Coming dear!

10-Mar-2008 - Birding baby style!

So I took the missus and the bairn birding to St Marks NWR yesterday for an hour, it was way too exciting for Maisie as she slept through the entire outing! It was all Julie and I could do to stay awake, what with all the shitty nappies in the middle of the night and the general lack of birds to look at. The highlight, as always, were 4 spectacular female Hooded Mergs swimming 500 feet away on Stoney Bayou. Wow they are so spectacular. Maisie gurgled in agreement! A Northern Harrier gave splendid views as did a Red-tailed Hawk. No shorebirds to speak of or wading birds, infact it was dead, the quietest I've ever seen the refuge. The March Doldrums!

We heard a Northern Parula singing outside Target this morning and the yard has been hopping. Both the Black-chinned and Ruby-throat are still here as well as the Baltimore Oriole. Goldfinch #'s have been fluctuating between 10 -30 birds. The Northern Cardinals, Carolina Wrens and Carolina Chickadees are nest building and the White-breasted Nuthatches and Red-bellied Woodpeckers already have hungry chicks. Spring has definetly arrived in North Florida.

4-Mar-2008 - Maisie Lark Wraithmell in da house!

For once words fail me! She arrived at 1131pm on Thursday night last week and came home with mum yesterday. She is an ickle sweeheart and we can't stop smiling, which is highly unusual behaviour for me! I even enjoy changing the shitty nappies even though they're a bit smelly. I've recieved dozens of emails from family,friends and fellow birders congratulating Julie and I for which we are truly grateful and I shall endavour to reply to all of them over the next few days.

I obviously haven't managed any birding for a while but we did see the Black-chinned Hummingbird today as well as Baltimore Oriole and all the other usual backyard suspects. We hope to get Maisie's life list off to a bang with the BCHU tomorrow.

27-Feb-2008 - Merritt Island NWR under threat from NASA!

An important issue has come to my attention so I feel compelled to let the world know about it. I don't want to bore you with the details so I'll sum it up in a sentence or two.

NASA plan on developing a new launch site on one of the best birding areas in the United States thus sending millions of birds and other animals to their deaths. Merritt Island NWR is home to the WORLD'S largest population of the Florida Scrub-jay. It is visited by millions of birders, fishermen and nature lovers from all over the world. NASA plans on destroying one of Florida's most important wildlife areas in the name of Space Exploration. Give us a break!

You can act and voice your opinion if you are against this proposed madness by clicking on the following link.

http://audubonaction.org/campaign/nasa_threatens_birds

Florida Scrub Jay

20-Feb-2008 - Birding Rocks!

A lot of people think us birders are a bunch of nerdy geeks who are only interested in bird spottering. The other day this fella looked at me like I was some kind of weirdo when I told him I was looking at birds. "What for?" he asked. They just don't get it. One day I'm gonna write a book about birders, yes there are some geeks but I know birders from all walks of life. Bloody Britney Spears is a birder! Rock and Roll goes hand in hand with birding much like Morecambe goes with Wise, Milk with Cornflakes and Ian Rush partnering Kenny Dalglish. I've tried listening to all kinds of music whilst on my way to and from birding venues and none of it goes with ornithology like Rock does. Birds rock out all the time. Next time you are watching a bird moving around try to imagine what music it goes with. Peregrines, my favourite bird, are Rocking birds. A stooping Peregrine goes perfectly with an Eddie Van Halen solo and a landfill full of gulls is a perfect complement to Iron Maiden. I often think that Rock and Roll Stars are just frustrated birders. Maybe we should write to Bob Geldof and Midge Ure and try and get them to do a concert. Bird Aid. If I was organizing it the following bands and tunes would be the headliners.

without doubt the greatest Zeppelin song ever and THE best ever guitar solo from Jimmy.

If you don't believe me that this Maiden tune doesn't go with birds click on the following link and scroll down to Birds and Maiden. Next time I go to Volusia County Landfill I'm gonna blast this out on my truck stereo!

http://www.skills-bills.co.uk/2007.Jun.htm

Totally Bad Ass!

Women and Birds definetly go together just like Rock and Roll and Birds. Add a six pack of Stella, a bag of pork scratchings and sit yourself down on windswept headland and you've got heaven on earth!

Keith Richards is renowned for his expertise on the Herring Gull complex!

This song sums up a migrant free spring at Dunge but like with all springs at Dunge it is suddenly brought to life by megas summed up by the superb guitar solo on this Floyd classic.

Next time you go on a twitch play this really loud whilst you're hitting 100mph on the M6.

And play this on the way home.

Play this if you dip

Classic. Sounds even better after a bottle of Tequila!

Tune in next time for birding whilst listening to Indy Music.

20-Feb-2008 - Half an hour's digiscoping

After having a very tasty salmon butty and a coffee I had a go at trying to get some more backyard bird pics courtesy of my digiscoping kit.

American Goldfinches

Baltimore Oriole

Downy Woodpecker

19-Feb-2008 - An hour of digiscoping

After I finished doing chores around the house, I decided to spend an hour trying to get some pics in the ole yard. Here are the fruits of my labour!

Black-chinned Hummingbird - 1st year male

Carolina Chickadee

Chipping Sparrow

Orange-crowned Warbler - likes grape jelly!

American Robins - won't be long before they head north, a few usually stay to breed in our area

19-Feb-2008 - Bankert on Idol?

Dude, so breaking the Florida Big Year record wasn't enough eh? You had to go on feckin' Idol!!!

I mean you look a bit different, had your hair dyed black and got rid of the goatee but he sounds just like ya! We didn't know you could sing as well! Sorry Bro but Julie and I have been laughing our arses off all night and I couldn't resist posting this clip from you tube.

Phil....you owe me big time!

18-Feb-2008 - Western Kingbirds

12-Feb-2008 - Spectacular!

Apparently Hooded Merganser's are spectacular! I actually thought they were ducks, beautiful ones at that. But I'm told that I shouldn't use the words Nothing too spectacular and Hooded Merganser in the same sentence. This is what I have to put with. You see for some reason only known to myself, I started to post to the Florida Birdbrains listserv again after swearing an oath never to post any messages to any listserv ever again. Pray tell us more oh limeyone. Well you see, for the most part, the messages sent to the various Florida listservs are sent by normal run of the mill birders who just want to share their days birding with the rest of us. BUT and there is always a but, there are a few Wankers who feel it neccessary to make posting to the listserv a pain in the arse. My last stint of posting to listservs ended when one Wanker tried to get me fired from work, another total twat accussed me of being a psychotic alchoholic and I often got daily emails from little old ladies complaining I wasn't waxing lyrical about all of the birds I was reporting. So months of not posting went by and I began to wonder whether it was safe to come out again and put fingers to keyboard and post. WRONG!

Since my boycott I have posted 4 messages to the best of the bunch, Birdbrains. That has provoked 15 emails from various folk, mostly of a friendly nature but this morning I was reminded why I hate posting to listservs. Apparently I shouldn't have dared write that Hooded Mergansers are not too spectacular. The sentence read like this.

"Earlier in the day we visited Hickory Mounds WMA in Taylor County. Nothing too spectacular, 31 Hooded Mergansers, 2 Spotted Sandpipers, 500+ American Robins heading south and many Redheads and American Wigeon close in, offshore".

Not that controversial I thought. I could've easily written the following.

Earlier in the day Ross and I, for some strange reason, decided to visit Hickory Mounds WMA in Taylor County. It was fecking shite and the mounds were completely devoid of birds mostly because of all the arseholes from nearby Perry who shoot them. The only highlight was a flock of Hooded Mergansers who flew off before we could get a decent look at them. They were so spectacular I suddenly felt all the more better for dragging my arse out of bed at 5am to drive 60 miles to see them. I was so glad I didn't walk the 1/2 mile to the local pond to watch a dozen or so spectacular male Hooded Mergansers that are currently residing there.

The replies to listserv posts have a geographical bias as well. It seems the majority come from Naples, Florida, Memphis, Tennessee and a variety of towns in Georgia. Clearly these are hotbeds of spectacular birding, which is why the authors of such emails spend all day on their computer rather than out in the field.

Anyway yesterday was fecking amazing, not spectacular mind, AMAZING! We saw an AMAZING 105 species which were all AMAZINGLY SPECTACULAR. Apart from the Hooded Mergansers, which were shite! My favorite bird was the female Boat-tailed Grackle that flew by, second to the House Sparrow I heard chirping in Perry.

I took a couple of spectacular digiscope pictures. Unfortunately I couldn't get any of the AMAZING Hooded Mergansers because they fecking flew off before we got within 100 feet of them.

MEGATACULAR SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS

WORDS FAIL ME

KEEP OUT - KINGFISHERS ONLY

AN AMAZINGLY SPECTAULAR HOODED MERGANSER LOOKING SPECTACULAR AND AMAZING AT THE AMAZINGLY SPECTACULAR WILDLIFE HAVEN OF WAVERLY POND IN THE SPECTACULAR CITY OF TALLAHASSEE, THE CAPITAL OF THE MOST SPECTACULAR STATE IN ALL OF THE UNITED STATES, WHICH IS ONE OF THE MOST AMAZINGLY SPECTACULAR COUNTRIES ON THE PLANET, A PLANET THAT IS BOTH AMAZING AND SPECTACULAR.

8-Feb-2008 - Get a grip Malta

Hate is a strong word but my feelings for Malta come pretty close to that. The first story I heard from the island was of a boat full of shotgun toting hunters racing across a harbour to blow away a Mute Swan. Then I saw a program on BBC of this guy who tries so hard to take care of injured raptors, all shot by hunters. They mostly do it for sport, shooting for shootings sake, but some of the birds they do eat. Like the Turtle Dove, which has become so scarce in Britain it's almost worthy of being posted on Fillmepockets RBA Pager. Enough is enough. Mr McKinney posted a linkl to some mickey mouse website in Malta that is asking for people's vote. Are you for the widespread slaughter of migratory birds or are you against it. Here is the link. Please vote. The numbers of migratory birds are declining rapidly and once common species are disappearing. Scroll down,the Poll is on the right hand side of the page at the following link.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/index?action=results&poll_ident=217

Here are some more articles covering this outdated, neanderthal hobby

 http://marathonandmore.tripod.com/ornimalta-tourism.html

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/04/29/malta.oakley/index.html