Mutter
Well-known member
Morning all,
thanks for all the kind birthday wishes and congratulations on my impending fatherhood.
I had a great weekend but didn't over indulge too much.
Well maybe a little!
Anyway back to the title of this message, I was lucky enough to get to play a round of golf with my two elder brothers and my dad on sunday. The golf was nothing special but at my dad's golf club there's always a wide range of wildlife to be seen and Sunday was no exception. The course is on the edge of the chilterns and bounded by traditional deciduous english woodland, where Beeches and Oaks abound. As many of you have mentioned, the colour of the autumnal leaves this year is particularly spectacular and the views on this cold, crisp but beautifully sunny morning evoked memories of a distant visit to New England in the Fall.
Squirrels, magpies, Jays, crows, wood pigeons, finches and tits were a plenty but the best was yet to come. On the fourth hole which is one that I just can't seem to play without losing my ball, I hear an almighty racket coming from the woods. A split second later, over the top of the beech trees not 50 feet above my head, a mature adult buzzard came "hurtling" towards us, chased by a very agitated group of about a dozen crows. It was an amazing site which will stay with me for a long, long time, the buzzard was not for giving in though and was harried for the next 5-10 minutes by the crows who were clearly unhappy at being disturbed by this unwanted visitor. After some time the buzzard moved away from the woods and soared majestically above the course in the clear, sunny sky for the next twenty minutes or so, only to disappear gracefully over to the next valley along.
After another few, very average holes and a few not so bad holes, we were on the homeward stretch and I was quite looking forward to a decent pint of beer and a bag of crisps in the bar! But the course had one last "birdie" for us, sadly it wasn't for my valiant attempt at a chip in on the 17th, :eek!: but a stunning red kite circling above the course and fields adjacent to it.
The most memorable thing for me about red Kites is the way they use that beautiful forked tail of theirs to turn so majestically and so quickly and this fellow did not disappoint me, I could have stopped for ages just to watch him (or her) glide across the sky but we had to keep moving and so I bade farewell to the great "birdie", and ended up saying hello to a double bogey on the last! Ahh well, it was worth it.
And finally, as we were walking off the course my brother also pointed out a flock of redwings gathering in the trees as the light was just beginning to fade at the end of the afternoon, their calls carried afar in the still autumnal air.
A truely memorable round of golf but more memorable this time for all the right reasons.
Sorry if I've droned on a bit.
andy
thanks for all the kind birthday wishes and congratulations on my impending fatherhood.
I had a great weekend but didn't over indulge too much.
Well maybe a little! Anyway back to the title of this message, I was lucky enough to get to play a round of golf with my two elder brothers and my dad on sunday. The golf was nothing special but at my dad's golf club there's always a wide range of wildlife to be seen and Sunday was no exception. The course is on the edge of the chilterns and bounded by traditional deciduous english woodland, where Beeches and Oaks abound. As many of you have mentioned, the colour of the autumnal leaves this year is particularly spectacular and the views on this cold, crisp but beautifully sunny morning evoked memories of a distant visit to New England in the Fall.
Squirrels, magpies, Jays, crows, wood pigeons, finches and tits were a plenty but the best was yet to come. On the fourth hole which is one that I just can't seem to play without losing my ball, I hear an almighty racket coming from the woods. A split second later, over the top of the beech trees not 50 feet above my head, a mature adult buzzard came "hurtling" towards us, chased by a very agitated group of about a dozen crows. It was an amazing site which will stay with me for a long, long time, the buzzard was not for giving in though and was harried for the next 5-10 minutes by the crows who were clearly unhappy at being disturbed by this unwanted visitor. After some time the buzzard moved away from the woods and soared majestically above the course in the clear, sunny sky for the next twenty minutes or so, only to disappear gracefully over to the next valley along.
After another few, very average holes and a few not so bad holes, we were on the homeward stretch and I was quite looking forward to a decent pint of beer and a bag of crisps in the bar! But the course had one last "birdie" for us, sadly it wasn't for my valiant attempt at a chip in on the 17th, :eek!: but a stunning red kite circling above the course and fields adjacent to it.
The most memorable thing for me about red Kites is the way they use that beautiful forked tail of theirs to turn so majestically and so quickly and this fellow did not disappoint me, I could have stopped for ages just to watch him (or her) glide across the sky but we had to keep moving and so I bade farewell to the great "birdie", and ended up saying hello to a double bogey on the last! Ahh well, it was worth it.
And finally, as we were walking off the course my brother also pointed out a flock of redwings gathering in the trees as the light was just beginning to fade at the end of the afternoon, their calls carried afar in the still autumnal air.
A truely memorable round of golf but more memorable this time for all the right reasons.
Sorry if I've droned on a bit.
andy
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