Monday 2nd January (Will the Year List Progress)


Mr. Kite looked out of his bedroom window into a clear white sky where the sun was rising in the east. This was a winters dawn; cold, quiet with bare trees. Against the white sky birds were silhouetted as they hurriedly flew. Today Mr. Kite had a plan that involved Larus argentatus, Larus michahellis and Larus cachinnans.

Herds and Decorated Trees


Firstly Mr. Kite and His Lady took a ride in The Joint to a place near the Riverside Inn where a herd of swans were feeding in the same place as last year. Mr. Kite set up The Super Scope and scanned the swans. "Mute, mute, mute, mute, mute; ah whooper" This excited Mr. Kite the sight of a yellow bill. Now the question was: "How many whoopers were there?"

The field was undulating so some birds were hidden from view but with the occasional head popping up with a yellow beak Mr. Kite counted six whooper swans; four adults and two juveniles. mr. Kite and His Lady then went to put flowers on the grave of The Star in the churchyard of St. Gregory the Great.

On the track leading to the church Mr. Kite stopped to look at the first snowdrops of the year with clean white flowers. Near a stone wall these flowers caught the sun and absorbed the heat of the wall. Not too bad snowdrops in bloom on the second day of January.

The grave was tidied, fresh greenery placed on it and a bunch of yellow roses placed in a container. In the chilly sunshine mr. Kite enjoyed the sight of a sycamore tree laden with mistle-toe complete with white berries. To make the sight better a mistle thrush flew out of the mistle-toe into a near sycamore tree. After nearly one hour Mr. Kite and His lady walked slowly towards The Joint. A few metres away from The Joint was a fabulous English apple tree laden with small red round apples; this tree was better decorated than any Christmas tree. Mr. Kite picked one and ate it; it was crisp, sweet and scrumptious.

Priorslee


Then it was to Priorslee lake to spot and identify gulls of the Larus species. Informed with details of Larus argentatus, Larus michahellis and Larus cachinnans and notes Mr. Kite intended to pick out herring gulls, yellow-legged gulls and a caspian gull. All three are a similar type of 'seagull' with a white head, light grey wings with a white underside.

Setting up The Super Scope Mr. Kite found a great crested grebe in summer plumage looking very handsome and ready for spring. Then it was time to study the thousands of gulls that were flying in and out of the area or just sitting on the water flapping around. This was a time consuming task watching the lighter grey gulls in flight looking for leg colours as they wheeled around. Sometimes the legs were pinky so herring gulls were identified. Other turned in the sunlight so Mr. Kite would ask: "Yellow of pinky?"

"Not sure", would be the answer. The conclusion was that only herring gulls were positively identified. Then it was time to scour the herring gulls and look for a caspian gull; an egg shaped head and a small eye was the starting point. To cut a long story short hundreds and hundred of gulls were studied and a caspian was not identified.

Lastly: "Could Mr. Kite find the tundra bean goose?" Searching the grassy surrounding Mr. Kite looked and looked and looked. "There it is", muttered Mr. Kite. Then looking closely Mr. Kite could see it's orange bill without any black marks. A greylag goose.

After two hours Mr. Kite and His Lady returned to The Residence for a tipple of Tetley tea. Cheers for a good day out.