What birds (are you/have you been) watching? What birds have been watching you?

[vinteuil]

... many redstarts. Pretty birds, but (these ones at least) have the most irritating call - a double 'wheet wheet', like a bicycle pump.

[Sir Velo]

Cuckoos aplenty in this neck of the Surrey woods around Frensham and Hindhead. Not sure if that is a cause for celebration or not as some other little blighter has no doubt been kicked out of the home he'd painstakingly built for his brood. Marvellous sound though, echoing across the heath in the twilight.

[Padraig]

delight.

[Richard Tarleton]

... many redstarts. Pretty birds, but (these ones at least) have the most irritating call - a double 'wheet wheet', like a bicycle pump.

A pedant wites - you mentioned you were in Bologna, vinteuil, are these common redstarts you're seeing, or their rooftop cousins the black? Praps you're out in the countryside. I must say of my many mountain hikes the Appennine Trail (we started not too far from Bologna) the most birdless

Just back from the island of Marmora's warbler, Audouin's gull and black vulture.

[Richard Tarleton]

Cuckoos aplenty in this neck of the Surrey woods around Frensham and Hindhead. Not sure if that is a cause for celebration or not as some other little blighter has no doubt been kicked out of the home he'd painstakingly built for his brood. Marvellous sound though, echoing across the heath in the twilight.

More pedantry: it's the brood that gets kicked out, not the nest builder! The cuckoo's (and other brood-parasites') strategy is dependent on the foster parents continuing to feed its young. I heard my first cuckoo this year while leading a dawn chorus guided walk early this morning, but they're rare enough these days.

[vinteuil]

A pedant wites - you mentioned you were in Bologna, vinteuil, are these common redstarts you're seeing, or their rooftop cousins the black? Praps you're out in the countryside. I must say of my many mountain hikes the Appennine Trail (we started not too far from Bologna) the most birdless

.

... well spotted, Richard Tarleton!

The screaming swifts were in Bologna. Have left Emilia-Romagna to be in the very rural Marche, half way between Urbino [culture] and Iesi [verdicchio]. And it is in these rural parts that we seem to have the redstarts. I'm no birdologist, but our hosts tell us these are redstarts... I assume Phoenicurus phoenicurus ?

[vinteuil]

...

Club Gascon in Smithfield used to play a tape of screaming swifts in their shop - I'd sometimes pop in there on a grey Winter's day just to get my spirits raised

... the Club Gascon, forsooth! I always said that that Irritable Duncan Syndrome was far too generous to the Ammies of this world - I mean to say - I was once able to eat at Club Gascon - at HMG's expense, entertaining an Important Contact - I have never felt able to dine there "on my own bottom", as 'twere - and lo! here we have our Ammy "sometimes popping in"!

[Nick Armstrong]

... the Club Gascon, forsooth! I always said that that Irritable Duncan Syndrome was far too generous to the Ammies of this world - I mean to say - I was once able to eat at Club Gascon - at HMG's expense, entertaining an Important Contact - I have never felt able to dine there "on my own bottom", as 'twere - and lo! here we have our Ammy "sometimes popping in"!

It's one o'me locals

I think the birdsong is in the shop ("Le Comptoir") rather than the restaurant ... where I agree, someone else's "bottom" for expense purposes is a pre-requisite of enjoyment

[Sir Velo]

More pedantry: it's the brood that gets kicked out, not the nest builder! The cuckoo's (and other brood-parasites') strategy is dependent on the foster parents continuing to feed its young.

I knew that but you try typing all that on a Blackberry with indifferent coverage.

I heard my first cuckoo this year while leading a dawn chorus guided walk early this morning, but they're rare enough these days.

They're all over the shop here. Fancy, overpopulated Surrey being a birdwatchers' haven!

[Richard Tarleton]

... Phoenicurus phoenicurus ?

Sounds like it. Certainly prettier than its dusky cousin. I can still picture my first one, on a spring day in Wytham Woods in 1969.

Apologies Sir V! The Mediterranean great spotted cuckoo a much nicer bird, only removes one egg from the magpie nest it parasatises and the young cuckoo grows up alongside the remainder of the brood. One turned up on Tenby golf course in March, having overshot by about 1000 miles, and our local magpies recognised it as an enemy.

[Anna]

I have a great many sparrows here, quite a colony nesting and very noisy they are too! The only unusual occurance was two weekends ago when a heron flew over. There is one that I see daily standing patiently on the riverbank - I assume it was him.

[amateur51]

... the Club Gascon, forsooth! I always said that that Irritable Duncan Syndrome was far too generous to the Ammies of this world - I mean to say - I was once able to eat at Club Gascon - at HMG's expense, entertaining an Important Contact - I have never felt able to dine there "on my own bottom", as 'twere - and lo! here we have our Ammy "sometimes popping in"!

This memory comes from my days of full-time employment vints when I was a good deal more flush than I am these days. I paid my way in those days and a good deal of income tax and NI quite happily.

"Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?"

[vinteuil]

... explanation very happily accepted - and apologies for any nasturtiums which may have been cast...

PS - I thought le Club Gascon was, as we say - well good...

[Nick Armstrong]

"Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?"

Et où est le foie gras d'antan, more to the point...

I just had a squid at their menus -

http://www.clubgascon.com/menus.php

- am I missing something, or is there no foie gras at all to be had there nowadays ?!

[amateur51]

... explanation very happily accepted - and apologies for any nasturtiums which may have been cast...

PS - I thought le Club Gascon was, as we say - well good...

I'm more of a Gay Hussar-chap these days. Substantial portions of rib-sticking grub and a certain Eastern-European atmosphere