A game of cats and elephants

[Tom Kellie]

@@Tom Kellie Thanks for asking. Sadly progress has slowed right down. I have been back in hospital for keyhole surgery on one of the bypass grafts which had shrunk somewhat. Hopefully that is now stabilised.

 

I saw two specialists last week, one a plastic surgeon who wants an MRI scan of the left knee to see why it is no longer healing, and the second a neurologist who wants the results of the first surgeon's study as it will tell him what nerves are still capable of functioning and perhaps which can be repaired. I think there has been quite a bit of progress in the nerves of my foot but one major nerve, the tibial, is not connected.

 

However with the holiday season beginning and bringing casualties from drunken parties which people seem to indulge in at this time of year blocking normal hospital staff, it could be some time before I receive an appointment. So I am already writing off the first quarter of 2016 and certainly not making any arrangements until I can replace the crutches I now use with a walking stick.

 

My camera remains in the kitchen for now, though with the mild weather I have nothing more exotic than a few tits and finches.

 

~ @@JohnR

 

Thank you very much for updating your recuperation status.

While it does seem to have slowed, nonetheless progress is being made, albeit at a limpet's pace rather than with a peregrine falcon's speed.

The perilous blend of seasonal festivities and inclement weather overloads the daily appointment calendars of orthopedic specialists.

May you receive the diagnostic assessment and subsequent therapeutic care you need sooner than you might expect!

It's good to know that your camera remains at the ready, as truly one never knows, when it comes to winter bird visitors.

A colleague was a graduate student in Britain many decades ago. After a mid-winter meal they tossed out diced apples without thinking, as graduate students do.

Within a day, several redwings and fieldfares appeared, feasting on the apple tidbits. That was the only occasion when those species were ever observed.

Yours truly especially admires fieldfare plumage, as shown in bird guides. Having never observed one, I'm uncertain if they're thrush-sized or smaller.

If any redwing, fieldfare, blackcap or goldcrest passes your way, I hope that you'll spot them before any cats do and share a photo or two.

Wishing you a full recovery in early 2016,

Tom K.

[JohnR]

@@Tom Kellie

 

Yours truly especially admires fieldfare plumage, as shown in bird guides. Having never observed one, I'm uncertain if they're thrush-sized or smaller.

 

There are actually 4 thrushes seen in the UK, redwing, song thrush, mistle thrush and fieldfare and I've never seen the together so had to go and look at the BTO website who have some identification videos (sorry if you cannot access this site). The redwing and song thrush are similar in size and smaller than the other two. The redwing, if the red patches under the wings cannot be seen is distinguished by a strong white supercilium. The similar-sized mistle thrush can be distinguished by white edges to the tail which no other thrush has and its colouring is colder.

[Tom Kellie]

There are actually 4 thrushes seen in the UK, redwing, song thrush, mistle thrush and fieldfare and I've never seen the together so had to go and look at the BTO website who have some identification videos (sorry if you cannot access this site). The redwing and song thrush are similar in size and smaller than the other two. The redwing, if the red patches under the wings cannot be seen is distinguished by a strong white supercilium. The similar-sized mistle thrush can be distinguished by white edges to the tail which no other thrush has and its colouring is colder.

 

~ @@JohnR

 

I'd never read about those other thrush species.

Thank you for bringing them to my attention.

The mistle thrush sounds as though it's an attractive bird.

If fate in winter 2016 brings any of them through your yard, do let me know.

However improbable that might be, stranger happenings have been known to occur.

Evidently British thrushes tend to be migrants, rather than locally breeding species.

The redwing sounds like it's another highly attractive species.

With Appreciation from Thrush-less Beijing,

Tom K.

[Marks]

Hope you get your appointment soon and continue your recovery, @@JohnR!

[Tom Kellie]

~ @@JohnR

 

Looking back over 2015 and being a member of Safaritalk, it was this trip report which got me started.

One might describe it as being my ‘Ur-trip report’ in the sense that when I read it, my sense of what my experienced and described in Africa enlarged.

I'd balked at writing a trip report as my mistaken impression had been that trip reports centered around bloody kills, very rare sub-species sightings, or ever more remote locales.

As none of those particularly appealed to me, there seemed to be no point in preparing and uploading a trip report based on my more blandly conventional safari experiences.

After reading about your assorted adventures while serving as a volunteer in Namibia, it became clear that the concept of ‘safari’ might encompass all manner of experience.

I'll remain grateful for your writing and posting this trip report, which was and is a 2015 highlight.

Tom K.