Get-off 869: - Northern Wheatear

A wheatear [©FraukeFeind] - not THE wheatear

For at least a fortnight the Oenanthe² [ie: a Northern Wheatear, in the street vernacular] languished in peace & quiet. This particular Old World Flycatcher had held court on the derriere of its normal range, flitting, strutting & otherwise going 'bout its business near the Kruger National Park's Vervoer [Transport] Dam.

Two weeks on a private tour to darkest Africa - in seasonal rain, wind, some grit in its eye & under the watch of the grim reaper, this bird's sensitivities were never more at ease. Lions lurked; leopards leaped; crocodilians crunched & falcons frolicked. Ah yes; them carefree summers - 'Hakuna Matata, watta a wonderful phrase.. '

Now I lay me down to sleep - pray protect me from them peeps

Publicly announced some two weeks after the twinkle in its eye 1^st graced an African lens; & still on the keep the day after the Eye of Sauron swiveled eastwards; here, at last, a true vagrant to get us off the dreaded 869; an uncomfortable no. to hold still on for long & 1 worse-off than the more titillating 870.

For the progeny-free, carefree, couldn't-care-less-me & the otherwise foot & fancy-free, time plays no role. The rest of us find some common ground between fridge-magnets, bedtime-stories & the boardroom; usually on a weekend. Getting into Kruger at this time of the year is no small feat. Even so, our luck held - the house -booked, paid-for & looked-forward-to. On your marks, list set - hold the sweaty phone! It's FO [flown off, that is].

In betwixt Sunday's bulletin & tomorrow's long-weekend, 5 short days; time a-plenty for any bird to rethink it's sedentary hold on paradise-lost & so it's proved (again & again). Must be the sodding weather - only I'm thinking storm's playback thunder & bolts of flash-lightning arrives in cumulative cars, rather than from cloudy skies. Another dam(n) washout.