The big sighting for me since then was a fine summer plumage Black Necked Grebe on my local patch, a new tick for me.
Beautiful birds, if you think Dabchicks have a fluffy behind you ain't seen nothing yet!
I recently grumbled about how unfriendly birders can sometimes be, particularly male birders of a certain age, but I have to quite gladly admit those drawn in by the rarity on my reservoir were far more talkative. I suppose we all assumed we were there to see the grebe, we all knew it was there, so we couldn't spoil the sighting for each other - indeed I directed several grateful spotters to where I saw the bird.
No pictures of the grebe, but here are those birds I did capture,
Collared Dove
It seems to me that foreplay for Collared Doves is arguably the easiest in the known animal kingdom. The sweet spot, that which, ahem gets her going, is very practically marked out, how convenient for the males!
Oh, go on then...
On the big list of British mammals you only ever see when they're dead, you can add the Common Shrew. Poor guys, they live only a matter of months, must eat their own weight in small insects everyday and are lucky to raise one family, that's the life of a beetle, not a furred creature.
