Back for a while

Well, well, well.

If anyone's still out there and would care to pick up where I left off some months ago....

My excuses for prolonged blog-invisibility are several and a lot has happened since last I put hand to keyboard.

1) A near month-long trip to Canada - of which more at some point!

Closely followed by...

2) A NEW JOB. I now have the joy of a commute that doesn't take three hours out of a day

and..

3) A new home. The three of us now live on the edge of Bodmin Moor, walking distance from Siblyback (not that this has meant I've been more frequently) with a proper garden that attracts proper birds in proper numbers.

Not forgetting....

4) Being bone idle

I leave it to you to summise which is most to blame (hint - it's the fourth)

Anyway - a New Year and a new conviction to return to the blogosphere with more tales of past adventures, whimsical musings on stuff vaguely bird related, remembering that I am, of course, an "ex birder". This means that any current bird sightings are likely to come from the immediate vicinity of The Haven, as our new abode is rather nicely named. There may be occasional forays to Siblyback before my enthusiasm wains as it is want to do around May (when I yet again fail to turn up a mega). Last year I had that post foreign jaunt birding hangover to blame as domestic forays seem rather too tame in comparison. This year? I refer you to Point 4 above.

As I write the sound of a Golden Oriole has just drifted downstairs. This is a result of the Assistant Clerk of Works new friend for her stuffed Hoopoe. She can now confidently name a number of commoner species as well as "Oopoe" and "ororol". Her favourite of the many "birdies" that visit the garden is the "fat pigeon". Oh well. But big garden news of today was the Yellowhammer that visited briefly this morning.

Other recent sorties included a New Years Day family walk up around Commonmoor which turned up a nice Brambling amongst a large flock of Chaffinch and a windy trundle at Hannafore on 31st which produced a female Scaup (first for me here and by no means a common bird in Caradon), single Slav and Great Northern and 2 Med Gulls. Highlight though was the hot chocolate served from the sea front kiosk in proper mugs and consumed wrapped in provided blankets.

Anyway - I hope its a welcome return and that some of you may find some of my occasional musings entertaining. I will return to my grand trip tp British Columbia but for now here's a pic of the Clerk of Works with the Assistant on her back striding out into the wilderness near Emerald Lake. We'll have to accept the proof of numerous post cards that the lake is, as its name suggests, a quite vivid blue. We saw it frozen solid and covered in snow! Early May is, it transpires, still winter in the Rockies!