Champions of the Flyway!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Hi, Roller


Welcome to the East Yorkshire summer

A choice this morning over breakfast - head out into the rain on another initially hopeful but ultimately fruitless search for a (very) late spring killer on the patch, or accept a ride with Dan and Rich the 30 miles or so down the coast on a pleasant jolly to twitch the European Roller. After a minor wrestle with guilt the latter won out, and we were soon on our merry way onto the Holderness Plain - the flat, monochrome expanse of farmland and glassy-eyed tory intolerance dividing the North Sea from the Yorkshire Wolds - and towards Aldbrough, the present village of choice for confused spring overshoots.


As filthy twitches go, this was perhaps the most painless and inoffensive; onto the verge, window half down, bird in situ, exactly where it was supposed to be - hunched disconsolately on the only available perch a short distance from the road - with the added bonus of not having to tolerate the ticking masses, who were either put off by the weather or mercifully inaudible within vehicles.


Aldbrough - it's just like Extremadura

 

A colourful part of the world