Who am I to disagree....

..with the rules being changed?  I might as well take advantage of the change of rule that allows us to assign a photo to any old day.  This was taken on 11 March, I am posting it on 1st April as a backblip for 31 March, - which certainly isn't any old day and it simply has to be marked with a bird blip.

This was the day that word circulated in Blipworld that  Longshanks will be birding no more in this world.  A year ago he was enjoying the first Spring migrants, in May he was chasing wood sandpipers.  Then a couple of weeks later his world contracted suddenly to a hospital bed after diagnosis of cancer.  He blipped on intermittently, even this year managing some bird blips from his bed at home.

I'm posting this photo of a starling singing from the edge of our neighbour's neglected roof because I think Longshanks would have been interested to hear his song.  The day I took this, I heard a buzzard mewing as I was getting into the car; then, the kewick of a tawny owl.  It was the starling showing off his mimicry skills.  When I watched him yesterday, Tuesday 31st, he was doing a perfect imitation of an oystercatcher piping, just with less decibels.

With Longshanks' passing, I predict we will hear no more from the Redcoated Birder either.  The RCB accompanied Longshanks on all his birding trips, borrowed his scope and camera (sometimes hogging the big lens), and always retreated to the shadows to protect his anonymity if anyone else was about.  When we met Longshanks on 3 September 2011, the RCB had made his excuses and gone looking for a dipper on the River Kent.  He dipped on that.

Farewell, Mr L, we shall miss you.  I hope the birding is good wherever you are now, keep an eye out for the massive moas in New Zealand,  delightful dodos in Mautitius, prepare to be awed by the unending flocks of passenger pigeons darkening the skies of North America, and don't forget those penguins of the North Atlantic, great auks.