Day 19.075: Project Hail Mary

Exile #2 and I fought off the jet lag to go and see this movie yesterday. I read the book last month as part of Elle’s Sci-Fi Book Club. Exile #2 knew basically nothing about the story. We both really enjoyed it from our different starting points.

Day 19.074: UK birds (outing)

On Sunday, we had an outing at least partly to see some birds. We visited Blithfield Reservoir in a couple of places. This is some of what we saw:

Eurasian blue tit

Long-tailed tit

Redpoll

Eurasian siskin

Dunnock

European robin

Common chaffinch

Coal tit

Common chiffchaff

Common buzzard

Eurasian wigeon

Eurasian wigeon

European robin

Greater scaup & great crested grebe

Great cormorant

Black-headed gull

Common chaffinch

Dunnock

Great black-backed gull, European herring gull & lesser black-backed gull

Great cormorant

Eurasian kestrel

White (pied) wagtail

Great black-backed gull

Eurasian siskin

Again, most are additions to the 2026 list and the siskin, redpoll and wigeon are new for the life list.

Day 19.073: UK birds - incidental

Today is my dad's actual birthday - and although we're missing that, we celebrated well for the three days we spent there.

Here are some of the birds we saw when we weren't really trying (at my sister's house and near the property where we stayed):

Eurasian jackdaw

Coal tit

European greenfinch

Eurasian blackbird

European robin

House sparrow

European goldfinch

Reed bunting

Carrion crow

African peafowl (maybe feral or effectively a farm pet)

Collared dove

Red-legged partridge

Crows in the mist

Ring-necked pheasant

Domestic chicken in the back courtyard of the house - she quickly found her way back into the next-door farm.

Also seen in this way: magpies, wood pigeons and feral pigeons, common chaffinch, 

All of the wild birds here apart from the house sparrow and feral pigeons are new for my year list and the partridge and coal tit represent their first record for my life list.

Day 19.072: Home

We’re home after a journey that felt a bit like a game of Fortunately, Unfortunately the drive, check-in and flight to Dublin all went smoothly, but a delayed transatlantic flight left the group looking like this:

When we were able to depart we were very happy but quickly realized that Exile #4 would not make their planned train (9 pm) or the backup train (10 pm) and would have to decide between the 11:45 pm last train or an expensive taxi or ride share option. However, when we switched on our phone service after landing, it turned out that their friends had made the drive from Worcester to Boston to pick them up. 

The rest of us got home after a drive through falling but not sticking snow in Massachusetts to snow-on-the-ground but no longer falling (clear roads) in Maine sometime after midnight and then I had an out and back to take E5N1 back to his dorm ready for his day tomorrow. Now it’s nearly 2 am and time for me to get to sleep. 

Day 19.071: Snookered

This afternoon, we had a fairly hilarious game of snooker. The skills displayed were off the chart (off the bottom if that wasn’t obvious) but we had a lot of fun. Tomorrow we will make our return journey.

I have some more photos from our stay including our outing this morning to share another day. 

Day 19.070: Watching football; TV

A little more than half the group went to join the away fans as Bradford City traveled to Burton Albion this afternoon. 

Our view of the pitch (during the warm-ups)

The standing section for the away fans - in good voice for most of the match

In other news, Dad opened his birthday present - a significant size upgrade for his TV for when he gets home.