Albert Village........and the Enthusiastic Birder!!!!

Hey up folks, after a quick bird less tour of Cheesedale this mornin' me and the Mad One teamed up with jolly old RP Spooner for a trip over to the dark side for a goosey gander at the possible Mew Gull at Albert Village near Swad'.

If you haven't been there before Albert Village lake is similar to Kingswood lake in Cannock in that it provides the local larid population with somewhere to have a bit of a wash and brush up after an hour or two rootin' through all kind of waste matter for a bit of summat to eat on the landfill site over the road. Funnily enough me and Jan were watchin' Sport Relief on Friday and she couldn't believe i was more interested in the Marabou Storks on an African tip than the plight of the kids scavenging over it!!!! Believe me i wasn't, but you know what it's like when the birder in you takes over there's no stoppin' it. Anyway before i get any abuse let me just confirm that i did make a donation!

When we got to the lake where the bird had been comin' in it was obvious that the initial interest from all the top listers had waned a bit and there was only a handful of us there. A quick "hey up folks ast sane owt"? was enough to confirm that we were in the company of Eddie The Enthusiastic Birder, you know the type who never has a bad day and always gets bostin' views of every bird he goe's after!!!! Accordin' to Eddie there was at least 300 YLG's on site and we'd just missed a crackin' Med' Gull by a matter of minutes! Eddie then revealed that he'd been there since the crack of dawn despite the bird tendin' to be picked up early afternoon. The next hour was spent with Eddie gettin' onto the bird every few minutes only for the bird to incredibly disappear every time somebody had a peep through his scope. Then out of the gloom strode Larry The Larophile in adult winter plumage with full beard and amazingly full head of hair(jammy git).

Larry parked himself next to moi and almost immediately got onto a 2nd winter Common Gull with a tail-band flyin' left over the bench!What bench??? Panic set in and i couldn't even find the bench he was on about and in an instant the bird had dropped behind the small island at the top end of the lake. A rapid trot around the lake found us lookin' straight at one of the most uninspiring birds i've seen for a while. I haven't felt so underwhelmed since i last saw a Lesser Scaup. Almost as soon as we'd got onto the bird it took off again and had a quicky fly round before settlin' on the far side of the island and out of site!!!!!

Off we went back to where we'd been in the first place, by this time Eddie was beginning to grate a bit so if we could get onto the bird quickly enough it was obvious that we would be back on the road to Gods own county before too long. If you've been around long enough you'll know that it doesn't work like that and apart from Eddie who was havin' bostin' views every time he looked into his scope we couldn't get onto the bird again. Then i noticed that Larry the Larophile had stayed back from the rest of us and was watchin' summat intently. As soon as i mentioned this Eddie scarpered in Larry's direction and before we knew it he was wavin' his arms like a demented traffic cop, Larry had been watchin' it all this time, ON HIS OWN!!!!! We then spent the next ten minutes listenin' not to Eddie but Sid The Southerner askin' for directions to the bird despite there only bein' four Common Gulls at that end of the lake!!!!!!! Now i know why i love local patchin' so much, nine out of ten times it's just me,Moll' and the birds.

With the bird safely UTB and pencilled in we headed for the car leavin' just Larry to sort through all those YLG's that Eddie had seen. Back in the car and who should be wavin goodbye but Eddie himself in his best Deputy Dawg hat, we waved back and gave him the old " see ya pal" as we headed back into staffs.

Once we were on the road RP tuned into Radio Darkside for a check on the Brewers score with the mighty Chesterfield home of the crooked spire and also a very confidin' Black-throated Thrush many moons ago. It wasn't good, 2-1 to The Spirites. RP was almost sobbin' after last weekends 11 goal debacle against Cheltenham another defeat would be to much for the big lad. Then suddenly the Brewers equalised and he was thumpin' the steerin' wheel faster than he can eat double cheeseburgers,and that's fast!

An abhorted call at Catholme saw us at Branston Gp's at around 1500hrs. By now i was rapidly loosin' interest as the local patcher in me got the better of me and i was findin' it difficult to even pick me bin's up. I'v got to be honest, even when i've travelled to the top of Scotland and the far reachs of Cornwall i'm not really interested in lookin' at owt unless it's the target bird or summat a bit different, all i want to do is get back on me local patch. Well i paid the price today because while i couldn't muster the effort to set me 'scope up RP was uttering the words "Oh two Avocets"! "What"????? "Are you jokin'"? "No, two Avocets over the far side, honest". My Flabber was well and truely Ghasted, not only doe's the lad clean up in me wake but now he's doin' it while i'm there!!! Don't even mention Spoonbills and barbeque's! RP decided to let top mid's lister and aviarazist(snapper) The Blurred Birder in on his latest find via text before we left and with almost Dr Who like ability as we strolled back he came tearin' along the footpath with his weapon hangin' round his knees. "Are they still there? As Jules seen 'em yet"? He asked frantically, "steady tiger, calm down we haven't seen hide nor hair of him, they were still on the Sandy Pit five minutes ago, fill ya boots pal" and how he did! Martyn left them roostin' on the Sandy Pit and as he checked the main pit on the way back to the car he came across another two"! Were they the same birds? Probably, but you never know.

An hour later the big fella dropped me off and it was time to iron me tux' for the inaugural Cheesedale Review of Steve Evans Latest Rare Birds DVD back at Barker Towers. Despite problems with the red carpet the guests started to arrive, all two of 'em, and both at the same time after i picked 'em up. One call to the local Indian Eaterie meant the snappin' was sorted for ron so with the help of a few sherbets we settled down for a spot of reminiscing' over last years birds and birdin'. And needless to say after an hearty meal and the odd sherbert the host fell asleep while the guests finished watchin' MOTD. What a light weight!!!!

That's all folks.