14 April 2009

It's a numbers game

I have just realised that I've been visiting the patch for almost a decade. The earliest mention in the notebooks, of the less-than-hallowed turf, is 18th September 1999 on which fateful day I bagged a White-rumped Sandpiper and dipped a Pec. I must have been mighty put-out by the dip as I appear to have returned the following day - only to repeat the Pec-less performance,... and so it all began. Perhaps I should have a party (or wake) on the second or third platform (not the first,... never the first,... we must never speak of the first platform again) on 18th September this year,... or maybe not.

Anyhoo, the reason I was perusing my notebooks was to work out my 'birds I have seen between the mouth of the Usk and Goldcliff Point list' (which, if I was of the sort to show any deference to brevity, would have simply been referred to as my patch-list). Well, whad'ya know, it is a less-than-colossal 185 (and it is littered with serious gappery),... oh dear, hardly worth the effort, certainly not worth reading a blog post about.

Definition of the day - prolixity ('prəʊlɪksɪtɪ, prəʊ'lɪksɪtɪ) n. the quality or state of being prolix; so long as to be boring; long-winded.

3 comments:

Sam B said...

A few years back - pre Goldcliff/Uskmouth - it was quite an achievement to top the 200 mark in Gwent as a whole. How things change! Well done on the 185. A Wood Warbler was one of the highlights of patch watching in the Dingestow area.

Darryl said...

The warbler was a bit of a pleasant surprise, I guess the vast majority just pile straight into the breeding sites. Any chance of you getting a team together for the Gwent bird race this year?

Sam B said...

Maybe some time in the future... my last/only attempt at bird racing in Gwent left me halucinating through exhaustion somewhere near Trelleck :-( a 2 am visit to the pouring rain of Trefil to not hear any Ring Ouzels or Wheatears was too much for my 18 year old patheticness. I did Gwent tick Eider that day though.