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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JWN Andrewes" data-source="post: 3359270" data-attributes="member: 7131">18th February; part IVisiting family in Cambridge for a few days, so what could be more natural than to drive there via Gloucester? Ok, so it goes like this. I've had my covetous wee eyes on those Penduline Tits at Horsebeare for a while now, but couldn't really justify 260 mile round trip. However, now here we are, committed to 180 some miles to Cambridge, with Gloucester 130 odd miles away, and an onward journey to Cambridge a little over 120 miles. So going to Cambridge via Gloucester only adds 70 - 80 miles to the journey. So now the question is "if two Penduline Tits turned up 40 miles from home would we go?" No brainer.We arrived at around 08:00, way earlier than the birds had been reported at for the past few days, so I was braced for quite a wait. Not so. In a moment reminiscent of those old BB rarity finder's accounts "my attention was drawn to an unfamiliar call", a piercing "seeooo" out over the reeds. And there one was, perched up on an umbilifer amongst the bullrushes, in no time at all he took flight, flitted overhead, and settled in the hedgerow along the ditch by the road, joined quickly by his chum. The two of them then spent twenty minutes or so skipping about the bushes, stopping to preen for periods (see attached below). Now, in preparation for (hopefully) seeing these little gems we'd checked them out in the field guides and I had what seemed to be a good idea at the time (ever had one of those?) in relating their appearance to something familiar to the boys. "Look," I said "they're wearing masks, just like The Incredibles." (Note to people without kids who get to only watch grown up films, The Incredibles are cartoon super heroes. They wear masks.) The sharpest amongst you will have instantly spotted my error; I was not so quick. So now I'm bracing myself to have to explain (a lot) that when the boys say "Daddy took us to see a pair of Incredible Tits...." The law of unintended consequences can indeed be a cruel prankster.</blockquote>

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