RRS

I was Manchester-airport-bound to pick a few of the lads up after a jaunt to Thailand. I decided to break the journey up with a couple of stops.  First up, Potteric Carr NNNNR.  On arrival in the first hide, a Cetti's Warbler perched up in a bush that was poking out of the reedbed and started singing (warbling).  Ooh, nice.  Then a Buzzard went up over the treeline which isn't really news.  On the lake, about 50 Gulls with Black Heads were going Wraaaaagh!  Wraaaaagh! Wraaaaagh! Wraaaaagh! Wraaaaagh! WrrrrrAAAAAAAGHHHH!  WrrrrrAAAAAAAGHHHH!  Wraaaaagh! Wraaaaagh! the noisy bastards.

At least 4 Blackcaps were singing and holding territory along the pathways and didn't seem to mind the mindless squawking from the Gulls with the Heads that are Black. Not much else.
Onto Rother Valley Cuntry Park and that's not a typo, it's just that they charged me 3 whole English groats to parketh thine chariot.  Robbing counts.  At the first car park a small crowd had gathered which featured a wide cross section of society:  an elderly couple of which the bloke was reasonably sharp, 2 proper birders from Barnsley, a proper dudey-type middle-aged couple, an elderly bloke by himself that never spoke and scared me a bit by looking through his bins for an unhealthy length of time, a gay butcher from Wakefield and a mass murderer from Chapetown. 

The Red-Rumped Swallow was showing distantly, with a few H. Martins.  It seemed pretty settled over the meadow type area, so we decided to have a wander down to the public footpath that was close-by, which was a great idea because it showed really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really well. The sun at our backs, great light to see the bird, Red Rump performing, flying close to our nose-ends, warm sunshine, some bloke set up a bar serving ice-cool lager drinks, free of charge, page 3 mogels abound, topless in the sun, offering fellatio to passers-by, it doesn't get much better than this.

Went for a drive up over t'moors with the ubiquitous Red Grouse as the year tick target.  Couldn't find a suitable place to pull in and have a wander, but I did manage several from the moving carriage.




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