OK....

....so I didn't get birding today but at the weekends I never do, so I was at Kendal this afternoon and saw - and was impressed with - this bus. OK so I got interested in William Wordsworth in an earlier life always thinking I had at least a little culture about me. OK so Wordsworth wrote a poem about the Cuckoo, a bird in the 21st century you may not have much guarantee of seeing but just lets hope that's not seeing ever again, but its a species along with many others which are becoming more and more on the decrease and the 'Red List' becomes longer and longer. OK so here are a couple of verses from William Wordworths poem dedicated to the Cuckoo in which he explains its a bird he can often hear but not necessarily see. I'm personally hoping - if I've not seen one previously - to find one in the Clougha/Birk Bank area on my next visit there before the month of April is out.

Thrice welcome, darling of the spring;

Even yet thou art to me

No bird, but an invisible thing,

A voice, a mystery;

To seek thee did I often rove

Through woods and on the green;

And thou wert still a hope, a love;

Still longed for never seen!

OK so you get a bit of everything on Birds2blog, birding records, facts and figures, excellent photographs, and a bit of culture now and again.

Talking of photographs....

Sorry but I really do have to keep referring to images like these as 'excellent' and this one above is no exception and is of an adult Woodchat Shrike....Tower Lodge here I come!

This is the juvenile Red-backed Shrike and both these stunning images are credited to Mark Fellowes....Thanks Mark.