Lade - 0900hrs - mild, sunny, s 4 - With a warm, southerly airflow flooding the peninsula, and continuing with our weekend Shanks`s pony birding regime, we decided to head south and work around the margins of Kerton Road pit. The plan was to try and bag the first LRP of the season, just not today anyway, a little early I know but hope springs eternal and all that. However, there were one or two pleasant surprises with at least 10 singing Skylarks and as many again running around on the quarry floor, along with 25 alba wagtails, four Meadow Pipits and one very smart Rock Pipit, a bird I rarely see here. Six Shelducks were cavorting on a small pool, while four pairs of Oystercatchers displayed over the water which held a small flock of Gadwall, Tufted Duck and a single Goldeneye. Around 100 Black-headed Gulls were already pair bonding on one of the islands and I spent some time checking the large gulls on another island but without anything of note.
Back at Lade pits it was pretty much the same as yesterday with the Slavonian Grebe still in situ at the north end of north lake amongst the ducks.
Greatstone -1400hrs
Mrs PT (lifelong Man City and Colin Bell fan) and I spent an entertaining afternoon at the Jokers abode watching the League Cup final which City thankfully won, so there wasn't too much swearing. Mrs PT`s footballing punditry for many years has centred on players hair styles, so their midfielder with the bad pony tail, Demichelis, came in for some fierce stick throughout the afternoon. It was a pretty good game to be fair with some cracking goals, just a shame not a single Englishman featured in the City team.
I remember the great City team from the late 1960s - Bell, Summerbee, Doyle, Book, Corrigan, Young, Coleman et al. One birder (who was also a footie fan) told me that the best game he ever saw was when City beat Newcastle 3-0 at St.James's Park, with Bell playing everyone else off the park.
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