After the mornings burst of birding activity, it was then working at home putting up a big shed, also a call-out.  We worked until five, had tea and I read the birdguides site.  There had been big movements of terns through the country.  Having seen Black Tern and Common Tern this time of year at Whitemoor, I decided to spend a bit of time by the pool.  Birds I saw were Magpie, Swallow, Mute Swan, Yellow Wagtail, House Martin, Mallard, Carrion Crow, Green Woodpecker, Wood Pigeon, Common Sandpiper, Lesser Black-backed Gull and Black-headed Gull.  Not very good and I missed the tern movement.  Wader numbers were also disapointing with only one Common Sandpiper.  I have put this down to the high water levels at the moment.

Blithfield was good yesterday but it was a bit too far for me to venture whilst on-call.  Thursday night will hopefully be Blithers night.

With renewed vigour I headed for Croxall.  The sun was shining well and the birds I saw were Wren, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Great-crested Grebe, Lapwing, Wood Pigeon, Tufted Duck, Chaffinch, swift, Bullfinch, Cormorant, Sedge Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Dunnock, Mute Swan, Grey Heron, Pied Wagtail, Cormorant and Goldfinch.  This was upto the Main Hide.  I did not go into the hide but headed to the East Hide.  I added Rook, Buzzard, Little Egret, Green Sandpiper, and Kingfisher.  Back through to the main hide and I saw Sand Martin, Common Sandpiper, Robin, Teal, Canada Geese, Common Whitethroat, Greenfinch and Blackbird. 

Foot to bottom - smack!  Brain to bottom - message understood.  No hangovers, no fishing, on call but nothing in as yet, and no rain so I loaded up the dogs and it was off to Whitemoor for a walk and a bird watch.  I have been struggling with a condition in my foot called Plantar Fasciitis.  If you have had it, you know how I have been struggling for the past three months.  If you have not had it, it is sometimes pure agony.  It is an inflammation of the tendons in the bridge of the under foot.  I have had some insoles and this was my first walk in them.  On to the birds and, as expected, it was quite song wise, but they were their, somewhere.  Birds I saw were Wood Pigeon, Swallow, Carrion Crow, Wren, Jackdaw, Tree Sparrow (I reckon I saw around 40 walking around), Black-tailed Godwit (6 flew over early on), Skylark, Garden Warbler, Canada Geese, Kestrel, Stock Dove, Robin, Linnet, Buzzard, Dunnock, Starling, Magpie, Common Whitethroat, Blue Tit, Cormorant, Grey Heron, and Reed Bunting,  I stopped off at the quarry lake and added Swift, Pied Wagtail, Great-crested Grebe, Mallard, Greylag Geese, Black-headed Gull, Lapwing, Peregrine, Mute Swan and Long-tailed Tit.

Although on call, I managed to get some cover and have a day out a Birdfair.  It is the third year I have been and it is a brilliant show.  There is everything a birdwatcher needs at this show at Rutland Water, a magical place in its own right.  My summer birding has been virtually non-existant for various reasons.  Another couple of weeks of weekend activity then I will be freed up to do more birding.  If you are reading this and have never been to Birdfair, when you open your diary on Chirstmas Day, Find mid-August and scribble in Birdfair, Rutland Water.  You will not be disappointed.

The weekend saw me being a bit of a tourist in London, with my camera in one hand and the underground map in the other.  The main reason I plus a few known drinking associates went down was because of the Great British Beer Festival.  I have been wanting to go here for a few years and this year we got it together and went.  450 breweries were at the show and yes, we got a little drunk, but a great time was had by all.  One of us (no names) even found himself in the corridor naked after some sleep walking.  Not a pretty sight.  We were all up nice and early the next day and we visited Hyde Park.  I do not do cities.  There is always a noise and people, there is no where to hide.  Hyde Park was brilliant.  The noise was in the background but the people were not as busy here and , yes you guessed it, there were birds.  I saw Blue Tit, Canada Geese, Greylag Geese, Barnacle Geese (sorry Martin), Wood Pigeon, Coot, Moorhen, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Carrion Crow, Starling, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Black-headed Gull, Ring-necked Parakeet (noisy bleeders), House Martin, Swallow and Mute Swan.  Back to the tourist bit and we visited the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Covent Garden Hyde Park again for speakers corner (bunch of nutters), and then Camden Town, which was an amazing place, before on the train and back home.  I will honestly say that it was aa nice time but it was even nicer to get on the train home.  Bloody yocal.