And there my knowledge of the San Fran rockers ends and my knowledge of birdwatching begins as I go counting crows and other feathered friends.
The weekend that’s in it is the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch.
And so twitchers up and down Britain and those who flock (sorry) or nest (soz again) here from abroad have been getting their binos out.
The ornithologist in our family is, of course, the tweet Mrs M.
And she has spotted, and chronicled, more birdies than I’ve had hot dinners – not that I’m advising eating any of them.
Apart from maybe pigeons, it’s the only way to shut the ‘rats with wings’ up.
Save our birds
There is though a very serious side to this weekend.
Shockingly 38 million birds have been lost from British skies in the last 50 years,
And no feather-brains our twitchers with last year almost 700,000 people taking part in Big Garden Birdwatch.
If you’ve not already done so you have until 9pm tonight to spend just one hour to twitch.
Probably best in the morning but if you haven’t already then you can always pop outside after the football.
Centre of featherness
Where then is best? Well, here where we are is probably as good a place as any, North Berwick, east of Edinburgh.
Where golf (maybe it’s the birdies) and gulls are put on pedestals.
And an everyman twitcher takes pride of place by the Seabird Centre, looking out through his binos to Bass Rock.
Where once Robert Louis Stevenson, who would holiday in North Berwick, would look out to the lighthouse his brother David designed.
Bass Rock, only housing the Northern gannet colony in the world.
Once home to a hermit, a castle and a prison now the gannets have marked their territory.
In a very distinctive manner, the smell of which hots you in the back of the throat as you near the rock.
Not that that should put you off, the spectacle more than making up for the odour.
Bass class
The Seabird Centre offers a Bass Rock trip for £140pp including landing fee.
The east coast of Scotland is, of course, a long long way from the East Cape of South Africa.
But just as choppy (no pain, no gain) and best not negotiated after a night on the booze.
Not a problem, of course, for the furry kind with this Raggy Charters mascot leading from the front on their tours out.
To the hub for blue-finned dolphins and penguins in the Southern Hemisphere.
I’ve not been back on such choppy waters since but am requisitioned by my own tweet ornithologist for Bass Rock this year.
Wagtail hour
Birdwatching then can be as sedentary or as adventurous as you like.
And I do prefer the birdies to come to me like they did in Tobago.
Maybe just start with an hour chronicling today and then recording your findings on the RSPB website.
Me, I’ll start by counting crows and other feathered friends.
And leave the big stuff to the happy snappy Mrs M.
The lonely penguin: In the Eastern Cape, South Africa
C’mhere you
You see the humble speksboom only stores solar energy to perform photosynthesis at night.
