The Dove and Gull.

Hey up folks I was hoping to finally be in either Chipping Norton, Rainham or even better both this weekend but once again the birdin' gods have "pissed on me chips"!!! Not a single regular first team member is available for selection this weekend and with the old finances due to take a battering in the next couple of weeks I can't really run to a solo trip so the dove and gull will have to wait a little longer before they can grace me notebook. This bostin' photie of the dove by Roger Wyatt which I acquired from good old google images(and wasn't covered by copy wright) just adds a bit of salt to the old wounds in a masochistic sort of way!

I suppose if I was really desperate I could put a message on the pager with the offer of a lift but knowin' my luck I'd end up with some psychotic wierdo from the planet zog carrying a large lens and bulging wallet. No Thanks, I'll take a couple of hours at Utch instead.

To make things worse I'm on taxi driving duty tonight so I can't even drown me sorrows in a bath of Holsten Pils. But you never know it could be Lady Lucks way of setting me up for the biggie at Utch tomorrow morning, dafter things have happened.

That's all folks.

Gurneys Pitta or Oik?????

Well after my all clear from the doctor and consent to start bloggin' again' this isn't how it was supposed to be!!!!! Yesterdays Winter Atlas and Webs counts was enough to put me off birdin' for life with the highlight's being a single Oystercatcher at the JCB Lakes at Rocester and a chance meeting with the birder formerly known as "Fair Isle", ' castles very own Steven Turner who was countin' ducks at Utch.

Today's been one of those very rare days indeed! A completely birdless day. With our Ellie stoppin' last night, rain early on this mornin' which didn't stop all day and then our Theo(the newborn babe) needing looking after this afternoon I gave up in the end and decided to try and sort out my "man flu" once the kids had gone home with a drop or two of twelve year old malt from Speyside(Crested Tits etc.....). It seems to be workin' but it didn't stop me feelin' more than a tad envious after a call to me old mucker Andy "######" Latham who's just got back from Thailand!!! His tales of Spoon-billed Sand's, White-faced Plovers............ and Gurneys Pittas put yesterdays Oik well and truely in its place!!!!!!

That's all folks.

Clean Bill of Health!!!!!

Hey up folks, well after my sudden early retirement before crimbo due to certain medical problems related to blogging I can now announce that after a two month rest with just the odd word or two on my attempt at serious bloggin' "Birding Cheadle", which was pretty dour stuff to be honest, that I'm back!! And as you can see from this piccie of moi pedalling to work there were no serious after effects and I'm still looking in superb condition for my advancing years!!!

So hopefully at least over the next couple of months I can entertain you before I get to busy birdin' at Utch and around home.

That's all folks.

That's All Folks.

Well folks after a visit to the doctors today complainin' of bloggers block, I've been told by the doctor that the only way I can be cured is to stop writin' complete crap on the internet! Failure to do so could lead to me eventually developin' huge sores on me arse as a result of spendin' hours on a stool for just a few lines of tosh. So that's it folks, I shall blog no more.

Well that's not exactly true I shall be keepin' me hand in as the unofficial bird recorder for the "Kingdom Of Cheesedale" at http://birdincheadle.blogspot.com/

See you at Utch when I nail the biggie next year.

That's all folks.

Utch 5/12/10 0845-1115.

Despite a slight thaw yesterday there's still around six inch's of the white stuff covering the ground at Utch with all four lagoons now completely frozen. So with no open water at all, today's visit was a bit of a dead duck! A single Dunlin roosting among the Lappies on the ice and a rather weak lookin' Barn Owl seen three times around half ten were the only birds of note.

In the end as you can see I spent more time snappin' away with the old Mugimakki than birdin'!

But all was not lost on the birdin' front pour moi and Mad Malc. A tour of the local berry bushs around home this afternoon paid off when we got in on this winters Waxie action with eight of the pink punksters feeding on Cotoneaster berries!!!

For a couple of dodgy piccies of said punks check out my latest "serious" blogtastic offering at http://birdincheadle.blogspot.com

That's all folks.

Waxies a mile from Utch.............

After checkin' virtually every bearing bush in Cheadle and around Utch this weekend for Waxwings it was no surprise at all when I had a text from RP this afternoon while I was ploddin' around a frozen Utch to say he'd found 35 of the little beauties on the other side of Uttoxeter, along Kingfisher Way and only a mile from UTCH!! Yet another scalp for the lad to pin to his self found belt, top man! A swift trot back to the car had me lathered up like the proverbial sweating pig! You can't have to many layers on this weather, it was minus 14 this mornin' around home.

As usual the waxies had flown by the time I got there but after we decided to split up I eventually picked them up as they flew high over Chaffinch Drive. A text to RP informin' him I'd relocated them was replied to with the news that they were back where they were originally, by the car!!! Back at the car I eventually managed to unleash the old Muggimakki and if I say so myself I've probably got the worst picture ever published of a flock of Waxwings.

The likes of messers Young, Cromack and Seal will be havin' sleepless night if they see this little offerin'.



Hopefully by next weekend they'll be at Utch.



That's all folks.

Utch 27/11/10 1200-1350.

After around two inches of snow overnight I felt quite positive as I headed off to Utch with thoughts of perhaps a decent goose or even a Waxwing feeding on the glut of berries that can be found on the embankment bordering Utch. How wrong can you be? The best I could muster was a single flyover Snipe!

Me "old" mucker RP was on site and had seen nothing to get the pulse goin' so after a speculative check of the distant goose flock we decided to knock it on the head and hope for better things tomorrow.

That's all folks.