Mid September Doldrums

Well its that time of year when its neither one thing nor the other for me. The fish are still growing down on the farm but slowing down a little now things are cooling off, especially the night time air temperatures. Its an in betweeny time for the bird life as well, the sedge and reed warblers are still there around the reservoir but silent, long gone are the noisy afternoons of May and June. We've had a few oddities of late, I saw a peregrine on consecutive days and a hobby as well but I've seen neither of them for a week or more. Its just the residents now, lots of Jays about in the new woodland which are always nice to see and nigh on impossible to photograph.

Steve has put my Sigma 120-300 through its paces and is more than happy with its performance. It looks like this lens sucks the life out of the D7000's battery so much so that a battery grip and extra horsepower will be required for Gambia. Its a different beast on the pro bodies such as the D4 and even the D700, put it on a prosumer body like the D7000 and it shows up every weakness, especially in the autofocus system.  Gambia will properly put the combination through its paces, if I'm still having issues with the D7000 then it will be gone and replaced by a secondhand D300s. I do wish Nikon would bring out a D400 with a better DX sensor and the new AF system, there seems to be nothing on the horizon at the moment.

I went fishing with Westy the other afternoon, early start was the order of the day, for that read 12 midday! Highlight of the afternoon was Westy's attire, respondent in tropical Camouflage he was. So much so that the sausage dog freaked and sat there growling at him, never having seen anything quite like it. Neither for that matter have I, but I took a photo for prosperity. Just to add insult to injury we blanked, the fish took one look at him and fled in panic, so much for tropical camo, more tropical storm Garry!

Tropical storm Garry - The trousers were matched to a jacket underneath the one he's wearing!

My fish pellets have gone up by 25% in the last year, so much for low inflation. Apparently its the worldwide cereal price. What I find strange is how once they know you pay it,  despite cereal prices fluctuating it never comes back down? Its a bit like fuel prices, some of its down to wholesale costs, a lot of its down to wholesale profiteering. The big two dutch firms are now around £1100 per tonne for pellet, a lot of us in the trade no longer bother with it at that price, I hope they go to the bloody wall, serve them right.

Highlight of the week is " Mester's"  doing its first 40. Its taken ten years but we've finally got there. Anthony rang to confirm the split tail linear caught  at 40lb 1 ounce by Tom, its been out since at 40lb 10 ounce. Everyone's waiting to see what the fish known as one pec will do now, he looks enormous and should he decide to make a mistake could well better that, we'll have to see.

Soon be time for 5 weeks off work and trips to Spain for the catfish and Gambia for the birding and fishing. Much as thats enjoyable, 30 odd days off nights is what I'm looking forward to most, roll on October!