Bank holidays are rubbish

Good Friday, pah! Utterly turgid Friday more like.  Bank holidays are really crappy, why do we bother having them, just give me 7 extra days holiday I can take when I want not when some Vatican decree or government tells me I can have one.  The weather's always dire, the trains don't run,and what's worse they are given to all and sundry, so the park's full of dogs and children, kite flyers, model plane enthusiasts, the (un)fair blots our landscape for ten days, and strange men have an extra day to loiter round Long Wood.

... and the birding's rubbish at the moment too, and it gets worse, someone picked up a Pied Flycatcher just down the road at the Eagle Pond.  We will have to annexe it!

As per the last 2 days I let the youngsters take the early morning hit of disappointment while I had an extra few hours in bed.  Today I shared the misery of no migrants when I finally did manage to get out on to the patch, but immediately provided Jono and Tony with the best birds of the day: 3 Linnet and a group of tardy Fieldfare. Yup! it was that good.

Should have called it a day then and gone somewhere else, but like the true patch worker I am, I went for a tea at the little tea shop of happiness.  Here I met Bob Vaughan, a local reformed twitcher, who had been moved to pick up his bins again after reading our exploits on this very blog (or probably Jonathan's).  His was the Cattle Egret that's mentioned in the site list and Red Throated Diver that isn't!  Always good to have a few extra eyes, so welcome to the team.

Met up with Raptor Davis too, he had already had a Buzzard over the Alex, but with me could only muster a Kestrel and a sprawk.  We went looking for the Mandarin and found them asleep on a log, sensible birds. And that was the highlight, the bar set incredibly low though.

Trolled round the old sewage works, and back for another cuppa.  Here I met Walthamstow stalwart Lol "Dusky Warbler" Bodini and his charming mother out to see the Lesser Spots - with no luck.  I hadn't heard anything either.

Now the clouds were gathering and I decided to make like a Mandarin and head for home and particular log I call bed.