Red-legged Partridge

I had a bit of fun bird spotting this morning. The Man keeps a weekly printed tick list everyday for the number of birds seen of each species at any one time in the garden. He keeps marking them down as he sees them.  19 species today!

So I'm busy at the table editing photos and casually look out of the window: "Oh, we just had a nuthatch on the bird table!" We can go months without seeing one.

I went into the kitchen to make lunch: "Oh, wow! there are about eight long-tailed tits in the sorbus, come quick!"  Not seen them here for several months.The man was too late and, in any case, he would have the wrong lens on!

I'm on the phone, casually stiring onions in the frying pan: "Hang on, please. " "M, get through here, there's a tree-creeper working up and down the trunk of the sorbus!" Haven't seen one in the garden for years!

By this time The man was getting a bit fed up of it being me that was seeing the unusual visitors. "Tell me when you see an ostrich, I can make room for it on the bottom of the list!"

After lunch I thought I would get a blip of some very colourful fallen leaves in the bottom of the garden, that done I had a wander round to the front garden.

Click!  Click!

"I've got something else new to add to today's list!" Was the man hoping for an ostrich? Maybe, but he was surprised enough by my shot of two red-legged partridge. I hadn't seen these in the garden for many, many years.

I was out tonight in the studio again. I'm told my best look is my "mildly amused" smile! I supposed that look sums up my sense of humour. Some things I just don't think are funny and other things bring on a closed-lip, I'm trying to suppress this, sort of smile.