Hooded Birder returns

Hello again! Sorry about the extended blogging lethargy but in my defence many individual factors have added up over the past few weeks to result in a lack of blogging;

1. Olympics - I must admit that I found the Olympics jolly good fun and even found myself staying at home to watch rather than going out birding! Particular highlights for me included Mo Farah running like the Border Agency was after him and female boxer Nicola Adams who should have won gold for her personality alone. Hooded birder actually went to an Olympic event - one of the womens football quarter finals at the Ricoh Arena! We got lucky with the draw and got the Team GB vs Canada game which was good but unfortuantely the ladies went and got stuffed 2-0, which was bad.

2. Hooded Birder actually spends some time working (volunteering to be precise) now - Its everso easy to find some time to get out birding when you're a student who has 8 hours of lectures a week and an aversion to, well, further study so it has come as quite a shock to my birding system! I shall be starting at Rutland Water come September as a Trainee Reserves Officer and in preparation for that I've been volunteering with the team over there a couple of days a week to get my eye in so-to-speak.

3. Birdfair - For the past week alone somewhere between 9 and 11 hours of the Hooded Birders day has been spent on the Birdfair site, initially helping to prepare the site and then being part of the site team over the Birdfair weekend. Despite the early starts and late finishes it was an enjoyable experience (at this moment my aching feet would disagree), most exhibitors and punters were very friendly and grateful that the fair was on at all (there were fears of a cancelation due to waterlogged site) and the fair seemed to go well, with only a few minor hitches!

Now I'm bored of waffling so I'll post some photos from the last few weeks, all taken on the galaxy;

Olympics!

Site office gets delivered

Marquee 4 before there was anything in it

Swarovski tower and the worst nightmare of every volunteer - laying fake road

Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar taken on Saturday (it was still there along with two companions on Sunday) down the side of Art Marquee

Privet Hawk Moth

To final orders of business - I can exclusively reveal that the Hooded Birder will be going birding this very day! My good non-birding friend Jack has got the week off work and we'd long arranged to go out today so he doesn't "spend all week on his arse at home playing Call of Duty". Now calling him a "non birder" is actually doing him a bit of a disservice - he's got a burgeoning interest in natural history, has been out owling with me on several occasions, aided in the counting of Buzzards the other week on the way back from Yeovil and described, with undisguised glee, his first encounter with a Kingfisher at a local sand-quarry the other day!
So today, because I can't be bothered to drive to Norfolk, I'll probably take him to see something thats got a high chance of trying to murder something else whilst we watch it, the Ozzas at Rutland would be a good bet! Then perhaps Crane hunting on the washes, they're also suitably impressive!