Nobodies Fault But Mine - Led Zeppelin

Nobodies Fault But Mine

but over the holiday period we have fallen behind by

2 or 3 Posts and will endeavour to catch up over the next few days.

Firstly!

Were it not for Channel 4 News and University Challenge my Idiot's Lantern would have been consigned to the gash bin long before now. It is thought that most of my very few 'close friends' know this and that is why a text asking "is it OK to phone you now"? was received on the evening of December 29th rather than a direct phone call. Of the latter, Jeremy Paxman already had the question cards in hand and was introducing the teams about to contest the Christmas Final, so all else had to wait. Phoning Dave Foot a full 30 minutes later, found he was enquiring about taking me on a 'twitch' the following day, something I have pretty much got out of my system in recent years. However, like every rule........ after explaining the quality of the Birds in prospect it was simply a case of 'hook - line - and sinker'. As an aside, it is a wonder he wants to take me anywhere at all as on our last sortie, the Hudsonian Whimbrel in Cornwall, at our rendezvous in Dorchester it was discovered that my binoculars were safely tucked away back at Slight Return II. There was to be none of that this time as just before 04:00 on the day mentioned the optics were securely fastened around my neck, and so we set off. As usual the conversation was buoyant from the start and reaching the spur-road some 2 miles down the road my drift shifted to a photograph taken a few days ago which in turn alerted me to the fact that this time it was the big camera which remained safely stowed back at Slight. Again, Nobodies Fault But Mine. Without batting an eyelid Dave turned about and the camera was retrieved, but that was not the only hold up as the FOG was also hampering our progress! 4+ hours later we arrived at

in the heart of the

Derbyshire Peak District

and joined the mini

THRONG

in a Horse Paddock where the Bird had last been seen the day before.

A couple of false calls of misidentified Redwing were followed by the

relocation of the real thing, and what followed would have put the squaddies

at the Trouping of the Colour to shame.

As one, the now growing rank of Twitchers made a smart 'left turn'

and marched over to the dry-stone wall where best could be seen the

 DUSKY THRUSH

only the 7th ever to have been recorded throughout our

Green and Pleasant Land.

Given the birds World Range that is hardly surprising, but having 

travelled through much of this area this wonderful creature was a

'World Lifer' for both of us!

Now in fairness, maybe my own 'best' photograph should have been shown

before the one above, nicked from Wikipedia for illustration purposes, but

in the name of avoiding a stampede for SpecSavers it was thought best to publish that

NOW!

 Avoiding disappointment throughout the Readership - what a Beauty??

and 'cropped', just behind that clod Missus!

It did remain distant and mobile throughout our stay but good views 

were afforded via Dave's Kowa Telescope and we were happy to move on.

As we headed for Stow-in-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, the Sun did its best to burn off the residue fog,

but at the precise moment we passed the welcoming road sign

it dropped again like a Theatre Fire Curtain. Not at all difficult to find as when passers by saw

our equipment they came running over to point the way

Maybe in any other 'crowd' of no more than a dozen twitchers the

 BLUE ROCK THRUSH

might easily have been seen but one had to wait ones turn to
gain best views at the gate, as the garden was

surrounded by high hedges and filled with bushy plants.

A little bit better than the Dusky

but we wont bore you with all the pathetic excesses.

The Distribution Map shows

that this bird occurs a little closer to home but nonetheless
had to put in a bit of an effort to get here.
This again is thought to have been only the 7th for Great Britain
and while I had seen the Cornwall bird in 2000 this was an addition to
Dave's GB List,

 This is how it should look (Wiki)

and how it could look in months to come (ditto).
The continuing fog combined with rapidly fading daylight 

deterred us from trying for the Blythe's Pipit too many miles further on,
but by way of consolation it was report not to have been seen that day or thereafter.

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