Saturday 12th November (The Bottle Bank List of Singers)


Mr. Kite looked out of his bedroom window into a bright blue sky. The leaves on the trees were few and still in the calm air. After drinking too much beer Mr. Kite had to take the bottles to the bottle bank so he decided to make a list of singing birds that he heard and saw on his walk.

On this sunny morning the birds were on show and singing. The first sound was the 'chirp, chirp, chirrup' of the house sparrow. Looking around Mr. Kite noticed a host of them flitting around the gutter on a house. Further down the road a carrion crow called, 'kraa, kraa' with a deep harsh voice from a t.v. aerial. Near the bottle bank a number of robins were marking their territory by singing and flying around 'their manor' staking claim to what they considered theirs. Today their song was a short sharp, 'tic, tic, tic' with the occasional melodic rippling song. Lastly the soft 'coo, coo' of the wood pigeon was sang from the branch of a lime tree.

La Becasse
Now just after eleven o'clock Mr. Kite heard another bird call. This call was complicated and varied. It started with two clunks similar to a glass and a bottle being placed on a wooden piano. Then there was a metallic rattle resembling the loose screw thread in a wine-bottle opener followed by more metallic tap sounding like a wine-bottle opener touching a crown cap on a beer bottle. Shortly after there was a short 'schhh' sounding like escaping gas followed by water trickling and a few glugs. In fact it was the bird song of la becasse, the woodcock, prior to being drunk. This fabulous cherry flavoured beer ends the song bird list for today. Cheers from a happy Mr. Kite sitting by a table full of Mexican food drinking la becasse and a woodcock on The Mantlepiece.