what a great days Ditching!



my type of birding has been affectionately called Ditching by Holly Page this basically means i usually end up sat somewhere in a ditch hidden from view and waiting to get a good photo, or should i say hoping, well today was no exception and as useual i am sat hidden in a ditch hoping for photos, after 7 hours of Ditching i had had enough, my bum was numb, my legs were starting to seize up, and i had seen nothing exciting at all, then as it was still light i thought just one more drive along carr lane, and then it all happened, a short eared owl sat 40ft from my car, 2 hunting barn owls giving close views and if that wasent enough a Great grey shrike, there was only 2 of us left when the shrike appeared, The local birder made a few frantic phone calls and then the local twitchers started turning up also getting to see the bird, its good to see the lincolnshire birders are all just as mad as us manchester birders, 2 turned up within only 10 mins of the first phone call, a site first, all this happened in the last half hour after a full day of hunting and getting nowt, int birdin great, i almost went home and missed all the fun, persistence sometimes pays off, well if your persistent enough to drive over 200 miles, 6 different visits totalling over 1200 miles alltogether, probably over 40hrs of ditching and then in the last half hour of the last visit,

-- Edited by Dennis atherton on Monday 28th of March 2011 08:06:02 PM