On the plus side, my mate gave me a rather nice bottle of malt whisky, as a thank you for my support, I was also able to get a new pump for the fish tank a lot quicker than in February and, due to the warmer weather, the fish didn’t suffer at all this time.
Yesterday things started to settle down again and I was able to get out birding for a few hours. Once again I took myself off to Willington Gravel Pits - Derbyshire’s premier birding site? I had been hoping to add both Wood Sandpiper and Ruff to my “10-Mile List”, as both species had been reported over the past 24 hours or so. As it happened, I didn’t locate either bird and had to make do with adding Water Rail to my list as a “heard only” tick.
The 4½ hours spent at Willington resulted in a total of 59 species being located with the most notable birds being Pochard, Common Buzzard, Greenshank, both Green and Common Sandpiper, Dunlin, Kingfisher and Yellow Wagtail. A count of 300 Black-headed Gull was my 3rd highest ever for the site. The warmer weather also bought out a few butterflies with Red Admiral, Peacock, Large and Small White, Speckled Wood and Gate Keeper being seen.
The addition of Water Rail brings my “10-Mile List” to 133.
Last night I went into the centre of Derby for the “One Big Place” event in the Market Place. There had been live music and entertainment going on all day to mark the end of the Olympic Games and the handing over of the Olympic flag to Great Britain, but I was there to see NEVERLAND play a half hour gig starting at 7:30PM.
Neverland take the stage.
As usual, Neverland played a superb non-stop rocking set! I lost count of just how many tracks they played in their allotted time but I’m sure it will have been more than any other band/artist that played yesterday! This band ALWAYS give 100%. Highlight for me had to be the band playing “Stars and the Blues”. If every band had to have one track that they were known for then this would have to be the Neverland signature tune - it’s a classic!
Adrian Dent - Neverland.
Justin Monkton - Neverland.
Mick Doyle - Neverland.
More Neverland photos - HERE!
After the Neverland set I hung around for some of Gabriella Cilmi’s show - well, she was headlining it all and is the latest “pop star” to hit the charts. My thoughts... good at what she does, none too bad to look at, but not my cup of tea music wise. The crowd seemed to enjoy what they saw but many of them looked to be less than half my age and I reckon that the “hype” had just a little to do with their reaction! Or am I just getting old?
At 9:00PM I headed off to The Brewery Tap pub for a drink or two and to meet up with some of the Neverland crew. Once again the Double Mash was my drink of choice, this time with whiskey chasers! Ah what the heck... it’s a Bank holiday weekend and I have all day today to recover!
Gabriella who? Certainly nobody to me that's who. NEVERLAND is my kind of band.
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear you got in some birding too. It's a good way to unwind all those tight nerves you accquire from the job.
No you're not getting old. Remeber if you're old that makes me old and YOU are not getting old LOL.
Glad you were able to hang with Mick and Ade for a while. Some people have all the fun. Great photoshots too!
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