The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3018 by Angharad Copyright© 2016 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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I filled the kettle and boiled it while the toaster charred my bread, it would be spread with butter and mashed banana very shortly. It was warm enough to take my breakfast out onto the patio and from there I could see up towards the hill on the nature reserve. Above that was soaring something with very large wings and I dashed into the house to retrieve the new binoculars. It was as I thought, by the time I had them ready to look through the bird had disappeared and instead I practiced using them on a Spanish sparrow which perched on the wall at the far side of the garden. The quality of the lenses was quite good, admittedly not quite as good as the Swarovski, but it would do and I’d leave them at the house to save bringing my own next time.

Glancing up at the hill again as I finished my breakfast and the large bird soared into view once more. This time I identified it as an Egyptian vulture, adult variety. The light coloured wedge shaped tail and forepart of the underside of the wings confirming my diagnosis. They feed mainly on carrion and rubbish tips, so I don’t think I’ll be kissing one of them anytime soon. I snorted at my silliness.

“Wotcha laughin’ at, Mummy?” announced Hannah’s appearance.

“Nothing, darling, just a silly idea that went through what passes for a mind in my case.”

Obviously my rhetoric was too much for her as she scratched her bum through her nightdress and asked about breakfast. She’s quite capable of doing her own so I told her to and then to come and eat it out on the patio. She grumbled to herself and returned to the house. I heard voices and Danni emerged still in her nightie bearing a bowl of cereal and a cup of tea. She deposited them on the patio table and seated herself alongside me.

“These the new ones?” she pointed at the binoculars.

“Yes, just been looking at an Egyptian vulture.”

She looked up at the sky. “I can’t see nothin’,” she said deliberately to provoke me to complain about the school fees and the fact that she still can’t ‘talk proper.’

“It was up there,” I pointed towards the hill. “The up-draught is sufficient to help them gain height as they’re quite big birds.”

“How big?”

“Getting on for two metres across the wings.”

“Thass big,” she said her mouth half full of cereal.

“As vultures go it’s not that big, the Californian condor is quite a bit bigger and the white tailed eagle is bigger too.”

“We gonna see one of those?”

“Not here, could up in Scotland if the game keepers haven’t killed them all yet. Here we might see golden eagles or Spanish imperial, booted or Bonelli’s eagles.”

“Haven’t seen an eagle wearing boots before,” she teased and I ignored her silliness.

“Hoopoe,” I said pointing at a bird flying with an undulating flight.

Danni grabbed the binoculars and stood up focusing them as she did so. “Hey it’s quite pretty, pink an’ black. How did you know what it was?”

“Watch the flight, it goes up and down as it flies, the broad wings and head mean it couldn’t be anything else. Looks like a giant moth.”

“Yeah, it does sorta.”

“Wotcha lookin’ at?” Hannah had returned with a bowl of cornflakes and a glass of blackcurrant squash.

“A hoopoe,” I offered.

“Yeah, like a giant moth, this big.” Danielle held out her hands about twice as big as any hoopoe I’d seen and Hannah squealed and winced. She isn’t too keen on moths but at least she doesn’t kill them on sight anymore—so I am teaching her some tolerance. At home they have a small plastic pot in the bedroom, had sweets in originally, I think, with a relatively shallow lid, so they can trap insects and spiders and pop them out the window. Here they don’t have anything, so I must sort that. I hate to think of her bashing a mantis because it perched on the curtains.

I have some speci-pots in my bag, I bought them for Trish and Meems yonks ago, when we only had the two girls. They’re designed for children to use and have magnifying lids on them. Have to show them how to use them.

Over the next half an hour the rest of the brood arrived, as did Stephanie and Emily and once we’d cleared up the breakfast mess, I asked what everyone wanted to do knowing full well that it meant half a dozen suggestions.

Danielle wanted to go bird watching on the reserve, Trish nodded as well but Livvie and Meems wanted to go to the beach. We have to cross the beach to get to the reserve so Stephanie agreed to take the rest to the beach and the three of us would wander on to the albufera or lagoon. We’d collect them on the way back in three hours.

In the end I had to use the Swarovski binns and telescope because Danielle purloined the new ones, Trish bringing an old pair I’d given her a couple of years ago, which were good but a little small for watching from distances. But they were light and she seemed happy enough.

Everyone had to carry a bottle of water with them and we slapped on half gallon of sun cream, factor 50, plus hats and some three quarters of an hour later we trekked off across the beach towards the reserve, Danni with the binoculars round her neck and the tripod with the telescope resting on her shoulder like some mobile cameraman.

Once we saw where Stephanie was going to set up camp, we set off a bit quicker and clambered up towards the hill and the hope of more birds. At one end of the lagoon is a viewing spot, with a fence and slots cut in it for people of various heights. We all set up our equipment and began to sweep the lake for new birds.

“Wossat, Mum?” asked Danni, “black and white thing with funny beak.”

“Avocet.”

“Isn’t that what that bird charity uses as a badge?” asked Trish.

“It is indeed, one of their first species to be conserved, we get those in Poole harbour and also at Langstone harbour.”

“I’ve never seen them there,” she replied indignantly.

“How often have you been birdwatching there?” I asked in response.

“I haven’t,” she conceded and Danielle laughed.

“That would explain it then.” I said and we all chuckled.

We saw a few ducks and gulls which I tried to identify for them, hopefully correctly and three terns which I tried to explain were more lightly built than gulls with generally finer bills, and just then the three of then went skimming across the water and my two daughters admitted they could see a different sort of flight to the gulls.

The three hours passed too quickly and we began to return to the beach, it was now more heavily populated and it took us a few minutes to find Stephanie and the girls. Emily saw us trudging across the sand and ran to greet us.

“Everything okay?” I asked my friend.

“Yes fine, eh girls?” they all agreed it was, however as we headed back to the villa she confided in me, “I think I may have seen your two honchos with the pickup.”