Sunday, 24 April 2005

Personal

Twitch

Today's been a good day to learn about something I'll never be.

A warm Sunday in late April is a good time to go for a stroll, and what better place than somewhere managed by a nature preservation charity? Off then, to Ynys-hir RSPB reserve.

It turned out to be almost as busy as the Ingleton waterfalls walk. But worse than that, helpful people kept stopping and whispering to us in hushed tones, "It's a wood warbler" or "look, a male and female".

[Twitchers at Ynys-hir]

Take this dozen for example. They were looking at a pied flycatcher (just out of frame, alas). I felt quite rude walking past. (Maybe I should have walked by without laughing.)

We tried to take it more seriously. I asked Emma what kind of bird she'd just seen. "A brown one," she deadpanned. This kind of amateur talk would never do; we needed a cover, and we needed it fast. Suddenly we were seeing all kinds of things. I'm sure I saw a golden eagle swoop down and make off with a swan. Emma saw a pied bum-pecker and I caught a glimpse of the lesser spotted poo tail.

I'm not sure our cover convinced the other twitchers, but by the time we were back on the car we'd correctly identified a pheasant and a chicken so our time wasn't entirely wasted.

Just don't take me out for a serious spot of bird-watching.

Posted by pab at 22:13 | Comments will be back later in the year. Please email me instead!