I'm reverting to my youth ....

Well it would be nice to have the vigour.

I went twitching again yesterday. News of Rough-legged Buzzard not 25 minutes away and a sunny and available afternoon was sufficient motivation. Following my current good run in respect of the twitch, I got my gear out of the car, just about got organised and picked the bird up coming in from behind and had pretty decent views for about three or four minutes before it disappeared in to the distance. A drive further up the appropriate dale allowed me to reconnect and I enjoyed another hour of very good views. At one point a Common Buzzard appeared and for five minutes or so the two species were hunting together allowing rather nice comparison of structure, behaviour and jizz..

On the way home, whilst enjoying the harrowing drama documentary of the Piper Alpha tragedy on Radio 4, I dropped in at Lockwood Beck, another vice county site I'd not been to before. 4 Pochard and about 7 Goldeneye were the highlight here.

Chatting and listening to birders at these two sites was a rare experience as these days I'm usually in the field on my own. A theoretical second R-l B was proposed by one observer, today proven correct. Birding holidays in exotic but cold locations made me somewhat jealous. A proposed Black and White Warbler in someones garden last autumn made me wonder what they were on.

My listening pleasure interrupted again by this birding business as a further stop was required at the recently neglected Scaling Dam. Not too much reward for the effort but in excess of 500 Lapwing and a late forming and rather diminutive gull roost of about 250 Common Gulls and a scattering of the three other commoner species. I soon retreated to the warm environs of the homestead, having missed the end of the drama - I'll dig it out on Listen Again.