Thursday 3rd November (Not a Twitch to Twitch but some Birding Correspondence)


Mr. Kite looked out of his bedroom window into a lightish sky and wet road. The rain had passed by and the  few remaining thin clouds sailed smoothly across the sky. Now looking into the lime trees Mr. Kite thought that recently the birds had not perched in these trees. Today there was nowhere to hide in the almost bare trees for the large doves and pigeons. Looking carefully into four trees Mr. Kite could not see any sign of bird life.

Now this morning Mr. Kite received a letter from his M.P. asking for his permission to raise the issue of the release of non-native into Floreat Salopia with The Minister. So Mr. Kite's name will soon be spoken in 'The Corridors of Power'.

Also another birding issue reached Mr. Kite this morning. Yes an e-mail popped into the inbox from a bird. JayW contacted Mr. Kite offering him the Early Bird Savings on a Christmas crate of wine. Now this is strange correspondence; a jay offering a kite a crate of Early Bird wine. At the moment Mr. Kite does not need any early bird wines as the early bird has stocked up with Becks and Abbot Ale.

After answering the birding correspondence Mr. Kite saddled The Beast and cycled to Venus Pool where the dry soil is being replaced by wet mud. To cut a long story short Mr. Kite scanned the outside of the pool and recognised the usual residents before watching a grey heron fishing in the centre of the pool.

This grey heron casually plucked sprats from the shallow water without moving far. Then two goosander dropped in to join the heron and quickly dived below the surface and circled the static heron raising their heads occasionally to reposition small fry so that they had an easy route to the stomach. Now the submerged goosander disturbed the small fish so much that they leapt out of the water to escape their sawbills. This attracted the attention of black-headed gulls. These birds then flew slowly or barely hovered above the water surface dropping quickly onto fish that had leapt out of the water as they splashed back into the water before they had time to gain control of their movements. This feeding frenzy lasted about ten minutes.

When the goosander had finished their gourmet meal they flew away leaving the gulls to fend for themselves. The gulls soon returned to the mud for easy prey leaving the grey heron happily picking out luscious silvery sprats and sometimes a much larger fish. It seemed to Mr. Kite that perhaps the grey heron had ate so much it could not move.

With rain starting to fall Mr. Kite returned home for a tipple of Tetley tea. Cheers from a Mr. Kite who enjoyed bird-watching today at V.P.