I have an awful lot  to do just now,  paperwork is mounting visibly and I really need to find a new job, so the obvious thing to do on a sunny, cold Saturday morning was go right back to Vane Farm and climb that hill again.  Happily, although we didn’t see the reds this time, we did see baby geese!!  Greylag goslings were well protected by their parents but you can just see one here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Managed to avoid buying an HD monocular but it was a close run thing.  Tally included some close up lapwings, not close enough for crystal clear shots but it was good to watch them, last week as we went by they were performing their aerial courtship dance.  It saddens me hugely that these birds, the peewits, are on the red list of endangered species.  I can recall passing a field full of them in Islay in 1978, they seemed as commonplace as the wood pigeons which I can hear as I type (deka kai octo) .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, that was most enjoyable, I believe a scone was also present, and my day was further brightened by the discovery that an updated version of Scotland the Best for 2016 has been published,  I immediately bought one and have already spent happy hours poring over it, never did a bus journey from Dunfy to the Bay pass so quickly.

Mincers have a tough gig this afternoon.  Paul reminded me yesterday that the Devil sometime has the best tunes, I cannot condone whale fishing in any way, shape or form but this is a cracking song.

Oh all right, I have mentioned it before but the Greek legend of the woodpigeon’s call is thus (and quoted in Gerald Durrell’s autobiographies).

As Jesus carried his cross to Calgary, he and his disciples passed a woman selling water for 18 coins,  she cried “Deka kai otto” (ten and eight).  The disciples only had 17 coins, so they pled with her to go down to deka kai hepta but she stuck to her guns.  As they left, she was turned into a pigeon for her cupidity, destined to cry “Deka kai otto,” for ever more until she relents and cries “Deka kai hepta” when presumably she will return to form and promptly die of shock.  Should she, out of sheer thrawnness, a trait I believe the Greeks are as familiar with as the Scots, cry “Deka kai enna” (19) the world ends.   Multiple opportunities for puns arise here, double deka, dododecahedron etc. but I resist.  And why she was trying to sell in Greek I do not know, but it’s better than “Take two cows Taffy” which is the usual way of describing the call.