Saturday, August 02, 2008

Birding in Cambs - Day One

Today was my first day birding in Cambridge, and I spent it around town with a birder friend of mine, Richard Hall, who lives in the UK but did some post-doctorate work at UC Davis, where I met him through friends. We wandered along the River Cam, and through the various college gardens and picked up 24 lifers for me, great, blue, coal, and long-tailed tits, dunnock, European robin, goldcrest, greenfinch, treecreeper, spotted flycatcher, sparrowhawk, house martin, chiffchaff, magpie, song thrush, carrion crow, wood pigeon and more!
It was a delightful introduction to British birding, especially the part where it suddenly began pouring and we ran for shelter at the nearest pub, The Mill where we grabbed a half pint and waited out the rain. Eventually it lightened enough for us to carry on, turning to full warm sunlight not too long after. Futher along, I tried my first Pimms with fruit at a pub called Red Bull, which was delightfully refreshing...
I LOVE it here. LOVE LOVE LOVE. =)

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