I have just had a marvellous Thursday morning We were resuming our monthly bird survey out by the river (we missed last month because of lock down etc.) The weather was perfect and eleven Little Egrets got us warmed up. The explosive sound of a Cetti’s Warbler drew our attention to the reeds and we saw him darting in and out. Two cuckoos were spotted (sadly not in our patch to record) but easily visible. Four Avocets were flushed by the rising tide. Then magically a Bittern flew over and circled above our heads-a real rarity! This was followed by two Marsh Harriers! I don’t think you can get better than that (well maybe a flamingo!)

The second part of the morning Clare and I had a super walk on Rodborough Common finished with a legendary Winston Ice Cream!

The Teeth (part2)  (Part 1 was in yesterday’s blog)

I am now in a North London hospital looking a mess (what’s different I hear you say). The doctor tells me I will need to see a dentist there is nothing they can do. Two policeman were waiting for me and asked me what I recalled about the incident. I wasn’t helpful because I didn’t know what had happened! I was then driven round North London in a police car looking to see if I could spot anyone (there had been a crowd of more than 30,000!!!!!), one policeman then actually made a derogatory racial comment about one young man walking past and suggesting it must of been him! It was 1974 but I was shocked to hear that from a policeman. Eventually they dropped me off near Finsbury Park Station. At that time my sister Liz was living in student accommodation near there so I went to her place. In her house were a couple of Australian lads who when they saw what happened to me said “That’s not on, come on we will get our cricket bats and go find these Arsenal guys and give them what for!”  it took some time for Liz and I to persuade them it wasn’t a good idea! I had to go back to college on the following Monday with my teeth still in a state (the emergency dentist at home thought they would have to come out).

I got a phone call from the divisional police commander a couple of days later asking me if I recalled anything about the incident! I couldn’t he was really sympathetic. I think in later years I suspect this sympathy and follow up might not of been there possibly your own fault going to football.

My teeth were later saved by a dentist who painfully straightened them (I’ll spare you the gory details!) But all those years later they were needing attention hence me being at my dentist with the magazine (see part 1)  (part 3 tomorrow)

Quiz answers

a) Danube flows into the Black Sea   b) Vladivostok is on the Sea of Japan (you can have Pacific)  c) The Tasman Sea is between Australia and New Zealand   d) The smallest and shallowest ocean is the Arctic   e) The Straits of Hormuz is the passage out of the Persian Gulf.

No quiz tonight -promise I will do one tomorrow!