Hearing Stuff

Today was an perfect example of how we rely on our ears just as much as our eyes as birders. I found myself at Swithland reservoir listening to the dawn chorus at a horribly early hour this morning - 4.55am to be precise. The reason for such lunacy? The Golden Oriole that had been present for the last two days!
When the news orignally broke of this bird I thought there was little point in running after it as most Leicestershire records involve birds that rarely linger, as a result I was thoroughly unprepared for going to see it yesterday too when the bird bucked the trend and stayed for a second whole day! Surely this was too good to last and eager to avoid another Savi's warbler incident I made sure I was there at the very crack of dawn this morning! Turns out I should have had an extra hour in bed as although plenty of birds were singing (including a nice Cuckoo, only my 2nd this year), none of them were the Oriole and it only led to increasingly nervous thoughts!

Eventually though the golden flutey notes reached my ears and there was truly no mistaking it for anything else once I'd heard it properly! Lifer! Too bad it joins Quail on the list of stuff I've ticked but haven't actually seen, better than nothing though! By about 7am the Oriole had quietened down somewhat and hadn't shown itself at all so I called it quits at that point and headed off to see if I could hear me some Quail as it seemed like a perfect day for listening to stuff! The site I visited was the National Forest land near Bagworth where there were several singing Quail last summer but none were heard today unfortunately. So I headed home, pleased with my 3rd lifer in a week! This birding lark is easy so it is.

Leave it out Australia

Thanks to my new best friend the stats page i've just discovered that this blog was viewed by someone who had typed "these shirts were tested on animals" into a well known search engine. This travesty has certainly occurred within the last 24 hours and coincides with my first ever page view from Australia. So putting two and two together like a paranoid mentalist I have concluded that It was some Castlemaine XXXX (cos they don't actually drink Fosters in Australia ya know) fueled activist nut who clearly viewed this page in the hope of a hooded reprobate testing his hooded wares on poor, defenceless avian creatures.

Evidence of me rubbing a Lesser Scaup furiously against the fabric of a hoodie to test durability is something you'd want to see isn't it Mathilda, ISN'T IT?

You'd like to see photo's of me stuffing a couple of Golden Oriole into a hoodie and then swinging it around and around shouting "wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" wouldn't you Shane, WOULDN'T YOU?

Your so upset about Australia being a load of duffers at cricket that you are trying to frame me by doctoring photos indicating that I'm trying to raise several illegal Eagle Owl fledglings in my pouch aren't you Brett, AREN'T YOU?

Well you won't find any of that here Skippy, so you can piss off!

On a completely unrelated note if the person who visited my site from the land of OZ isn't a raving lunatic feel free to visit again and I promise to take a dig at New Zealand for you if/when someone reads this from that country!

Edit: And am I the only one vaguely amused by the fact that there is a bloke called Lars Bender playing for Leverkusen against Chelsea tonight!?