Friday 19th November - Bird Accessories and Bog Snorkeling

A foggy and cold morning, only clearing around midday - As well as the various plastic feeders, my bird table is a wooden 'whacker' planted in the ground by its handle with a couple of small pieces of wood attached. So the food falls off and in the wet it gets very sludgy. Its been on my list to do something about it. However, the RSPB  and garden centres, who make an absolute fortune by selling bird related accessories, have never sold a bird table that I like or is reasonably priced - and I don't judge by aesthetics, just practicality - normally the feeding area is too small, the plastic tray inserts are rubbish, they are too flimsy and they cost a fortune. I lost the strategic battle with Mr Fox about 3 years ago and since then the hen-house has been dormant, so armed with a rusty saw, a hammer and some old nails I set to work this morning dismantling bits of hen-house to create new bird table - Have I ever mentioned I'm completely cak-handed ? - Means this was never going to be a precision engineering project. Hammering is tap tap thumb tap and sawing is straight, straight, curve, miss.

Old model - complete with Nuthatch

New model - waiting for a light gust of wind !

An hour or so and few bruised fingers later I had my new 'roofed table', slightly top-heavy and unlikely to feature in 'Britains Prettiest Bird Table Weekly' but I was satisfied (just slightly worried that the slightest wind might topple it into the dirt).  But like all good Michelin-starred restaurants, a name was in order - The Fat Duck is already taken - so after its' first guest I've named it 'The Fat Tit'.

At The Fat Tit, 2 minutes after opening the celebs start arriving - note designer curves and peculiar roof notch specially designed to aid water dispersal.

I agreed with Sally we'd go for walk before collecting the girls from School, obviously having a birdy theme in mind. Having offered up somewhere on the Downs, Pulborough or Waltham Brooks, we actually decided on Thursley Common. For me that sounded fine, despite being across the county border it's close to the kids school and there's been a Great Grey Shrike around the area. Almost two decades ago, I used to visit Thursley quite regularly when I lived in West London, but not been there for a while. So we started out probably picking the boggiest track from the car park and headed out towards where it becomes a boardwalk. Sally was wearing wellies and I was in walking boots. I thought it might be a while before we got near shrike territory but we had a couple of hours and only saw a Reed Bunting and Green Woodpecker before disaster struck. I was following Sally, avoiding the worst of the deep puddles, until I thought two steps right off the path might be a drier route, when the 'dry clump' I tried suddenly vanished and I found myself up to my armpits in bog........ I understand that Bog Snorkeling is a growing sport with National Championships in Wales but normally involves wearing a wet suit................I excavated myself , which might have been difficult in wellies, swore about the potential state of bins and camera and squelched back to the car (It was a good few minutes before Sally couldn't contain herself any longer and fell about laughing). I stripped off and sat with the heated-seat on wrapped in a sleeping bag to get back home ! - Luckily the camera and optics seem ok - I think GGS might be problematic this winter ! - Now waiting for Swamp Fever to take it's hold.