An Eventful Few Days

The title of this post has nothing to do with birding... if it had been something to do with the birding on patch of late it would read "A Dull And Boring Want To Stay In Bed And Drink Coffee All Day Few Days!"...

I will start with the birds....it won't take long! Today's highlight flew over whilst I was watching 14 Common Scoter loafing about in the bay mid morning, it was my first Siskin of the autumn. Yes - that really was the highlight of today.... in fact it's my birding highlight of the last four days!!!

I have to say, tonight did see a minor improvement during an estuary wander. Still very few waders about, with just five Lapwing, one Ringed Plover, two Barwits, one Blackwit and two Green Sands (along with the usual Redshank, Snipe, Curlew and Oystercatchers). Three Shoveler, 27 Wigeon and 60+ Teal represent the interesting wildfowl on the river today. But I am pleased to report that the large numbers of Gulls of late have finally pulled in a Med Gull - a colour ringed adult was north of Coronation Corner tonight. It was a bearing a red colour ring, but remained too distant to read. Arse!

So with the birding so poor, what do I do for photos.....well it's simple! Either take a mediocre photo or two of a relatively common bird, like this....

We are graced with lots of these lovely birds...they rarely stop still for long though!

Or take a photo NOT of a bird at all...

'Red sky at night' over the River Axe from Coronation Corner

Anyway, back to the title. It has been eventful indeed.... mostly because yesterday was my 24th birthday!!! : )

It was an excellent day! I spent part of the afternoon jumping up and down on a trampoline in James McCarthy's back garden, and enjoyed a yummy carvery in the evening with 13 others at the Hare and Hounds. I've got a wonderful selection of cards, and thought I'd share my top three with everyone....

At three....

I have to admit it took me a while to 'get' this one!...

In second place....

Nothing special... until you try and open it...

I was actually confused for a very short while! And when I did open it...

Very funny!

But top spot goes to this one, bought by fellow Co-op 'inmate' Jess, it made me laugh and laugh and laugh...

Genius choice in card!! : )

The fact it was my birthday wasn't the only thing to make the last few days eventful...

The moth I mentioned in my last post, the one that no one could ID, I sent it off for a closer look... It was indeed a Square-spot Dart. Quite a rare species - especially on the south coast of Devon.

Lastly, and in a totally different league of seriousness, Kym and I witnessed a nasty car accident on Saturday night - though amazingly no one was hurt!

Kym was driving me home from Sidmouth Carnival, we were driving up the steep and dark hill out of Sidford towards Seaton. Suddenly we could see a figure dressed in all dark jump out the way of an oncoming car, then that car rolled and landed on it's roof....right in front of us! We were both ****ing ourselves! If we had been a few second later.... or if the rolled car had continued to roll down the hill....

After I dialled 999, we were relieved to see the driver clamber out of the car with only a small cut. I was impressed with the emergency services; Ambulance within three minutes, Police and Fire another two minutes later. We waited around for 40 mins to give our statements, then continued home for a much needed cuppa!

And that's then end of this 'eventful' post...