Well
Robert did arrive and was allowed out of Heathrow!
I will let him tell you where we went on his return.
Suffice it to say that my wife and I now have this rare American vagrant ( first for Britain) ticked on our list for the BF200 club!!!!
(The plumage was a bit more winter than I expected but don't tell Robert I said that!!!).
James
Must have been my walker that gave it away. I just figured that adding racing stripes to the handles would convey a sense of vitality - so much for fashion, eh?
Great trip, everyone. Two and a half weeks in the back country of Botswana's Okavango Delta was exhilarating, even if grueling. Still, perhaps as many as 125 species of birds and lots of charismatic mammalian megafauna (including Wild Dog and Leopard) have been listed in my notes and will be posted in a new thread when I come back to life. 39 hours from camp to home has taken it's temporary toll.
In the meantime, James and Jeannine were the perfect hosts to your wonderful country. With mere hours to devote to our task, a little bit of England was found at Runnymede along the Thames west of Heathrow, culminating in 17 ticks (about a dozen of which were new to me). A casual tea and clotted cream with scones concluded the brief but memorable visit. Species seen were:
Rook
Carrion Crow
Jackdaw
Canada Goose
Egyptian Googe
Pied Wagtail
Common Coot
Common Moorhen
Mallard
Grey Heron
Wood Pigeon
Black-headed Gull
(European) Herring Gull
Barn Swallow
Common Chaffinch
Common Kestrel
House Sparrow
I'll be returning the favor just one week from today when James and Jeannine arrive in Seattle for their two-week birding tour of Washington State. Talk about winter plumage -- I'll be taking some pictures of my own when these English endemics arrive in my neck of the woods, albeit plane-assisted.
Finally, the opportunity to cavort with another BF'er presented itself when my return flight from Jo'Burg routed through Frankfurt. Ladies and Gentlemen, behold the clever and mischievous ThoLa! Here we sit in Frankfurt's famed Chez Terminal 1 - (the cafe at the end of the runway) - enjoying fine Swiss wine at 5 AM and flirting with a small but lovely Swiss woman named Heidi (inside joke to those of you "in the know" on the Forum). And my return couldn't be more timely - having glanced at some of the new threads and seeing precious little whimsy (what's all this talk about "bottles"? -- tsk, tsk). Fire up the kitchen stoves and dress the tables, the RF brigade is reassembled and ready for some meaningful "tongue-in-cheek".
:t:
