I thought I would work out how many times I have visited the patch over the years, it has of course waxed and waned along with my enthusiasm for local Birding, also my earlier records do not necessarily have a note of all visits, unlike my more recent notes, which almost always do.
The results...TaDa!
You’re impressed, I can tell. It has made me reappraise my quitting patch work, I most definitely won’t but I will be more the Dog and not so much the Tail in future, though the blogging is definitely going. I reckon, making allowances for gaps in the data, that I had it about right in the 90’s. So about one visit a fortnight is a good balance, probably more so in the Winter and Spring, certainly less so in the Summer and let’s just watch the weather and play it by ear in the Autumn.
Whenever people ask; “Wouldn’t you like a job involving Birding?” I always answer certainly not! Birding is my escape from day to day living, even the nice bits, it is my way of switching off and relaxing. Lately patch work has become less of the escape and more of the ‘day to day’.....solution? Switch it round. Do less enjoy more. (Maybe that’s where ‘less is more’ comes from)
The only problem of course is that it makes it a bit less likely that I will get so many patch ticks (err, how many did I get this year, with all my hard work, oh yes! 1.) I will have to rely on the generosity of others to a) find them and b) let me know.
Today after being stood down from DEFCON 1 (Rufous-tailed Robin in Norfolk...gone) I decided on a second attempt at Red-flanked Bluetail in Kent, having dipped one yesterday, this too was gone, so plan C it was, I should go and have another look for the Wilsonish Snipe on the Waterworks N.R. naturally this typical indecisiveness, led to sitting at the computer and staring out of the window which, as often as not it seems nowadays, led to me seeing a Buzzard slowly wandering South after a couple of encounters with the local Crows and a Sparrowhawk. Yesterday I had 6-7 Swallows go West and a week ago 17 Redpolls likewise.
Patch work is dead, long live the patch.
On this date: 15 10 20000 25+ ‘alba’ Wagtails in Seymour Park, quite a few of which were White Wagtails, 20+ Meadow Pipits on Walthamstow Marsh and 3+ Stonechats.
PW
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