THE SCARY HOUSE

2012 Birding Day 2. The weather forecast was not good for the North West but better apparently for the North East, where also apparently, there was a Desert Wheatear. He should have been in North Africa, Arabia or Mongolia, but had chosen to spend Christmas and New Year at Bempton Cliffs RSPB Reserve.

On the way, not eight miles from home, we encountered sleet, then snow, but apparently we were going to "burst through". We then came to a fire engine, several police cars, and a policeman taking photos of a car on its roof. I suggested we turn back and watch the weather from our house and G agreed ...... but then we "burst through".

From then on all we had were blue skies and sunshine. What a contrast. Until we got out of the car on reaching Bempton and were hit by ferocious, icy winds. We were lucky that we bumped into an RSPB volunteer as we arrived who showed us the shortest route to the Desert Wheatear. Had we gone on the usual path we would have missed him by a couple of minutes. This was a first for me and a bonnie little bird he was, though what on earth he was doing on that freezing cold cliff top instead of a desert is beyond me.

In my five photographs of the bird, only one did not just have his backend and are not good. Instead, this is my drive-by blip of The Scary House. We pass this every time on the way to the East coast and it looks so very, very blippable, but there is, apparently, nowhere to stop.

I am going to tag "apparently" for research purposes.