Kick-Off

Locally, nothing quite says spring like a Wheatear on the beach, preferably in the first half of March and not too long after sunrise. And nothing quite says idle slacker like waiting until March 20th to make your first effort, and turning up at 2pm. Yep, it's taken a while to get my birding act in gear, but finally I made it to Cogden yesterday afternoon to hunt Wheatears. And amazingly I found three. No, of course they weren't still on the beach...

It was a calm, grey afternoon, and the rather listless mood was deepened by some woefully half-hearted Chiffchaff song. Deceitful flotsam littered the shimmery sea, most of it lifting momentarily into view at the corner of your eye and looking exactly like a scarce grebe. I walked miles and miles without seeing a single proper bird offshore. Drossy gulls don't count.

The Wheatears were good though. As they always are.