Sunday 27th November (Where have all the leaves gone?)


Mr. Kite looked out of his bedroom window into that grey November sky with traces if white and light grey. What few leaves that held on the the lime trees were blown off in last nights wind. Where are they? Piled up in Mr. Kites front doorway.

Sunday morning is usually the day when the black-headed gulls and carrion crows have the opportunity to eat discarded chips but today the wind had blown them down the road or under the hedge. The only item left for scavengers was a bottle of White Lightning cider left on the path half full. Only a desperate creature would bother with that on a Sunday morning.

So the birds were scarce near Mr. Kite. However thirty miles away was a desert wheatear but Mr. Kite was not going to go twitching today or a little closer there was a red-throated diver. Today Mr. Kite had a little plan to be fitted in amongst the newspaper reading, t.v. watching and the occasional drink.

In the November sunshine and breeze Mr. Kite cycled to Monkmoor Lagoon. Towards the end of the lane a group of four bullfinches flew into a low hedge, redwings and blackbirds picked leisurely at red berries. The lagoon was almost empty with four birds in total. One mute swan, one cormorant and a pair of mallards. In the bright low sunshine Mr. Kite scoured the well lit reeds looking for bitterns, coots, water rail, moorhens, grey herons and little grebe. None could be seen.

The sky around the lagoon contained black-headed gulls, carrion crows and wood pigeons. With his thirst developing Mr. Kite locked the reserve and cycled along the lane towards home when he met a fellow birder walking his dog. The main subject of the conversation was the steppe grey shrike and the mega twitch. And what a fantastic spectacle it was when viewed in a decent scope.

Mr. Kite reached home took off his flying suit and settled down to a double tipple of Leffe Tripel. Cheers from Mr. Kite.