Val Pete Excell – Bewilderbeast Droppings

Draft post

Paddock Wood in Kent – Hosted by Pete & Val Excell, old Cape Town friends of Aitch’s

Nearby dam or lake – lots of birders! Standing three deep with binocs n scopes. Looking at a Little Ringed Plover, I think. He says, dubiusly.

Road trip in Pete’s station wagon – a Ford, I think – Cortina? Grenada?

Across Dartmoor to Cornwall. Ponies and a shirt walk on the moor.

In Bodmin, we are generously hosted by Den and Mary Bluett, Mel Spaggiari’s folks, on a beautiful small farm. There’s a stream and pond on their property. We see a newt and a hedgehog

And Yay! Another Dipper! After seeing one in America, we see one here! And he’s even more beautiful. He has a nest under a bridge and is feeding chicks.

By Mark Medcalf – Dipper https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15739681 – thank you!

But no kingfisher – we searched, we heard, but we dipped out!

~~oo0oo~~

Here are the pics from our big old paper album:

~~oo0oo~~

Long-time friends of Trish’s from Cape Town days, Val & Pete Excell came out from the UK to visit in 2009. Trish was finished her chemo and was ‘in remission’. She had been with Val when their little Claire – now about 30 – was born. Val had bought two new Nikon P90 cameras, one for her and one for Trish, so they were excited about the four million pictures they were about to take.

We stayed in a beautiful bush camp – Nhlonhlela has solitude and its own cook and guide – sheer luxury! Patrick the Shembe was great and taught us plenty about his ‘home patch’. He showed us a green, a bronze and a black dung beetle and two yellow and black beetles, and taught us how to tickle a scorpion.