Tacumshin

I took a spin down to Tacumshin yesterday, I had a hit list of three to get, BW stilt, LB dowitcher and the GW teal, all would be welcome additions to the year list, one, the stilt would have been a lifer!  Notice the use of the term ".... would have been"

I arrived at 7.45am, there was no sign of anyone else so I headed straight for the forgotten corner hoping to get the stilt and get the day off to a good start.  No show!  I spent about 30 mins in and around the corner with no sign of the stilt.  I headed back to the car for some breakfast, just as Dermot, Noel and John from arrived.  After some chat we headed back over to the forgotten corner for a final check before heading for the ferry and a trip to the Saltees.

We came to the flooded ditch at the end of the track and tested out the solidity of the ground before crossing.  Dermot was the first to cross, no problem.  I was second.  I planted my left welly exactly where Dermots had been only moments before, solid enough....  I passed the scope across.  Now obviously in order to walk you put one foot in front of the other, so my right leg was going to have to follow the left and plant somewhere on the ditch in order to cross it.  What could possibly go wrong?  Dermot had only just crossed and was now safely on the other side.

Around came the right leg, yeah that felt solid enough, water up to the ankle but hey the wellies go right up almost to the knee so no worries.  Then I got my very own Titanic feeling, I was going down and there was nothing I could do to stop it.  My right leg sank and in moments I was left with my left leg on solid enough ground whilst my right leg was knackers deep in thick black stagnant ditch water.  I don't know how the other three didn't just fall around laughing, I would have.  Instead after a few minutes I was pulled from my watery berth and back on solid ground.  Still no one was laughing, I definitely would have been.  Thankfully no one thought of taking a picture, imagine browsing Irish Birding and seeing yourself  ..... a sighting from Tacumshin.... the lesser legged Ashbourne ditch stilt!!

No children or animals where harmed during this dramatic reconstruction!

So there I was, one leg dry, the other covered in black slime all the way to the the afore mentioned crown jewels.  Usually this wouldn't have presented a major problem (not that this usually happens to me) I'd just go back to the car and change into the spare clothes that always sit in the rucksack in the boot.   But I'd taken the clothes out of the car last week and hadn't put them back in!  Disaster.

I got cleaned up as best I could, put a pair of footy shorts on and said my goodbyes.  I wasn't in any condition to continue on, no Saltees Islands for me today, and not one of the three target birds spotted.  It was a lonely drive back up the N11, just me and the smell rising from my left leg of stagnant Tacumshin ditch water.