Eastern Delights

Finally got on to the PC to upload a bit of video of the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler taken on the iPhone 4S using the excellent Kowa TSN-IP4S adapter and my Leica Ultravid 10×42 Binoculars. I’m pleased with results… any shakiness was me in all my excitement of finally getting a life tick this year and it being my 450th BOU bird.

Here’s a couple of stills too. The first is not zoomed in on the camera, the second is zoomed in. No photoshoping done though.

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

 

Stay (Just A Little Bit Longer)

Tomorrow we’re off to Edinburgh for a long weekend and if this little baby stays, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler could be an unlikely 450th BOU tick. Thanks to my Edinburgh based friends Alan and Margaret, I’ve got a lift on Sunday for the price of a Sunday lunch… that’ll do nicely!

 

For the musically minded here’s Stay by Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs… just for fun what film did this version appear in?

Radio Ga Ga

All we hear is radio ga ga – radio blah blah

Midland GXT600

Well to be truthful – no we don’t. On the Scillies everyone who turns up now, pretty much, has a two-way radio and bloody useful they are too for getting news out quickly and efficiently. Of course in the old days it was CB but they were heavy and pretty unreliable and to be honest – just a bit naughty. It also required people like Dick Filby and John ‘Radar’ Judge lugging round kit a US Marine would be proud of.

Once we get back on the mainland though the radios seem to be packed away and forgotten about until next year. Well certainly Dave Gray and I keep ours in the car and on occasion we use them, you can cover more area and keep in touch. We’ve used them on Shetland too and bugger me if they aren’t useful, probably more useful there than anywhere else.

Outside of this the regulars on Spurn have radios (you have to be a friend of Spurn to get one) and again they are invaluable… if a little on the pricey side. Also the regulars around the Broomhill/Wath Ings area used CB in the past to good effect.

So why is it we pack the radios away and why does no-one ever take them on a twitch? Take the Rufous-tailed Robin twitch, sorry to rake up bad memories – I wasn’t there, but surely to cover more ground trying to re-find the bird the radios would be ideal. If it was re-found no need to shout and marshalling the twitch should, in theory, be easier. Whether there’s a twitch on or not in somewhere like North Norfolk where mobile phone signal can be patchy – radios have to be the future? What do you think?

Radio, someone still loves you…

Hide Rage? What The Fuck!

Well done to the Daily Torygraph and LRGE for coming up with another crock of shit about twitching…

I don’t know what Lee’s agenda is but he does nothing to put a positive spin on birding. For fucks sake Lee, if you’ve nothing good to say, keep your mouth shut. I guess he’ll be on Birdforum all day now saying he was taken out of context. Well Lee if you were you are very stupid, did you not learn from Twitchers: A Great British Obsession?

Twitchers: A Very British Obsession

Well, last night’s documentary could have been horrendous but I think overall most people came out of it ok. I was very surprised about how well Garry Bagnell came over, I know there’s the whole T Shirt thing but in reality he never tried to pretend he was anything other than an obsessive twitcher. He seems like the kind of bloke you could have a beer with – clearly Harry Hussey felt differently!

Now I know that I’ve knocked Lee Geoffrey Richard Evans in the past and in the programme he did himself no favours in repairing his reputation… after his comments, I would understand if he was off Garry’s Xmas card list. I’d be really interested to hear full disclosure as well about LRGE living his life like George Michael, that could make a programme on its own.

I certainly learned nothing new about LRGE but I did notice that given the state of his optics they must have stopped designing telescopes for people with one eye…