After work this evening, I did a bit of twitching. It wasn't too far away, so I went to see the Great Reed at Willington gravel pits near Bedford. I heard it before I saw it. It's been a couple of years since I last heard one, but it definitely brought to mind a faulty dot-matrix printer.
Conditions weren't really ideal, being quite breezy and distinctly cold, but eventually it climbed up a swaying reed stem and sat out in the open to sing.
We [a small gathering of twitchers] were viewing from across the other side of the reed-fringed pit where the Great Reed had taken up residence, but after a bit of singing, it flew across to our side (and out of view). Lars Jonsson was about right when he said they were the "size of a small thrush!" Our 'normal' Reed Warbler measures about 13cm from bill to tail, but Great Reed Warbler is more like 19cm. What a whopper!
Steve Blain has a photo of this bird on Birdguides.com
============================================
On another note, I've had (at the last count) 165 hits on my blog today (including one from the United States House of Representatives!) and three comments this evening! Welcome to you all. That's almost three times the total of yesterday's hits, and there are still 40 minutes to go.
Will somebody please tell me what's going on?
Wait a moment...
Ah... the source is the Blogger homepage! That's pretty cool... I'm shocked!
You are so lucky! I wish there would be a link to mine. Though I have nothing interesting on mine. :(
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the "Blog of Note". :)
This is an awesome site. Glad you made it to the "Blogs of Note" list.
ReplyDeletevery cool space. great pictures.
ReplyDeleteNice bloggin'
ReplyDeleteCool stuff you've got here. Check out free cognition, I think you'll enjoy it.
congratulations...you should see your site traffic increase exponentially...use it while you can!
ReplyDeleteAnd if you haven't seen this post yet, you better see it while you can:
whowilldietoday.blogspot.com
Congrats! Hopped here from the same link, too!
ReplyDelete;)
Congrats on being on the "blogs of note"...you have a great page.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, I will be chosen one day.
Lovely little blog...I´m going to link you...beautiful pictures...I´m going to get a CP995 ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful pictures.
ReplyDeleteLovely blog
Yup, thoroughly deserved. Great site.
ReplyDeleteCongrats!
ReplyDeleteWonderful photos.
You DESERVE to get all those hits! I subscribed to your postings. Your page is wonderful. If you're interested in gardening, try mine, which is not NEARLY as good. I'm still experimenting with photo's.
ReplyDeletencmg.blogspot.com/
Wow! Those are really nice pictures!
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to check your blog's referrering pages, you can install a counter/stats features from webcounter.be.
ReplyDeleteIt has helped me alot, it has enabled me to know which site my blog's guests came from or what keywords they used in Yahoo! or Google.
:)
I can see how this blog caught somebody's eye. There are some stunning pictures on here.
ReplyDeleteAnd just for the record, I klicked from "Bloggers of Note." Congrats.
Beautiful pic! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures again.
ReplyDeletePlease, (if you haven't done this already), please take a look at this quiz--at least once in your life:
http://whowilldietoday.blogspot.com/
Yes, you are listed as sites to take a look at ....:-)
ReplyDeleteSo, the lonely universe of the blog is not so lonely, now is it? Knowing that there are people enjoying your site, which I did...I live on a mountain and talk about nature, but do not photograph it much, not having any talents there....(let's hope the writing talent is there!ha!)
Beautiful photos....
Hmm, and I wonder as well about counting the hits...that would be cool, as not everyone comments that goes to the blog (I'm a new blogger-- LOL....sorry, i have to laugh at that)
http://kathrynmagendie.blogspot.com/
Hey, these pics are very cool. check out my site at www.hamtersarecure.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteHey, these pics are very cool. check out my site at www.hamtersarecute.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteA really nice space. One day I will learn to upload pictures and Images and make mine almost as cool as yours. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteCheck out:
http://orangeballcap.blogspot.com/