Sunday 9 January 2011

Deer

Every morning I count the wildlife I have seen and relate the tally to Polly. The relating usually mentions deer. I'm not always sure what the deer are although I can recognise the muntjak close up. First time I saw one of those was in Hertfordshire and I mistook it for a giant hare. Frightened the life out of me. remember Night of the Lepus? That film had rabbits instead of hares but the misnaming wasn't the scary thing here it was the size. Now I take meeting deer in my stride. Saw a whole herd of 10 deer in the field next door. I also have a joke routine that goes:
saw 1 muntjak; 1 kingfisher; 2 swans; one million assorted ducks...
I am sure I misidentify a lot of birds and mammals because they aren't quite close enough for sighting memorable bits to aid in identification. For example I also saw a wading bird coloured like a seagull ordinaire but it was standing like a heron - but nowhere near big enough for my notion of heron. So what was it? Maybe it was a junior heron. When we lived in Donegal the herons were always big and readily recognised.
Out with the great book of British birds again.
There is always this site - RSPB -  which whittles down the search criteria pretty darn good.
That's all for today folks.

edit: the bird might have been a Little Egret

Monday 3 January 2011

Failed

Just as I thought: I did not keep any of my new year's resolutions.
The 90 ciggies remain unsmoked and the 5 bottles of wine undrunk.
Slack, slack, slack.

Sunday 2 January 2011

2011

No new resolutions: the old ones are the best
90 gaspers a day
5 bottles of wine

That's the ticket!
Happy New Year