Sorted!

Up at 05:30 today and left home at 07:00. Arrived at South Wing for 07:20 to find where Tavistock Ward was - even though I've been in there before. Usual gubbins - 'Who are you?', wait, 'Come with me', wait, 'Get undressed and take a seat', wait, 'My names Mr. Setti'. Aha - we-re getting somewhere. 'Sign here. Thank you. I'll see you in 20 minutes'. More waiting.

08:57 - into theatre, jabs, disinfectant, local, tourniquet, incision, poke about a bit, "chisel", waggle finger, close up, dressing - 09:21 in recovery. However, it was another hour before I left the ward, having had two coffees and a plate of biscuits, a de-brief and a longed-for pee. Ring Jenny and wait for her to pick me up (she was out walking the dog). Home shortly after 11:15.

Now I should be able to extract little birdies without too much trouble!

Been catching Sparrows lately. At times there were over 40 birds on the lawn. But it's too small to put my whoosh net out so I have to rely on an old 30' net. I don't mind as handling 6-8 birds at a time is reward enough. Most of the birds are juveniles and for the last 2 weeks the numbers undergoing a full moult has increased to nearly 100%. The pictures below show a very recent juv undergoing full moult (score =13) with severe growth bars in the tail, showing envigourated growth from the moment when the heat evapourated and the rains came - just 14 days ago.