Very loud cricket song

Cricket (Alamo) by Weedons World
This is a recording I made of an extraordinarily loud cricket which made a home in the skirting board of my appartment in Alamo, Texas. It was unbelievably loud. Play this at high volume on headphones and you will get an impression. Now imagine sleeping through that racket. Luckily on the fourth or fifth night of sleeplessness, after I attempted to block its hole with pillows, it climbed onto one of them for a good perch to chirp from. I was then able to carry it outside and never be troubled again. Bliss.
And this is what the noisy fellow looked like. Anyone know the species?

Now, I'm feeling sleepy...

Back home

I am back to a very frozen Peterborough, after a very productive ten days in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, South Texas, where the weather was beautiful and warm and sunny and I felt afronted when forced to put on a fleece for the first time yesterday as a cold front passed. This digiscoped Eastern Screech Owl detail is a taster for things to come. Watch this space.

Resting Cormorants

Ego trip

Gordon Bennett, it has taken a long time to catch up with our local Cattle Egret, this autumn. It was initially found (by Charlie Kitchin I think) on and around the Nene Washes what seems like (and probably is) months ago. I have made at least 11 trips to search for this elusive fella. But at least now it has been tied down to a consistent field (and one which I suspected it was favouring weeks ago!).
So, I borrowed the car from Jo today and took a long lunch to finally bung the egret on my year list. After a bit of fannying around, an obliging lady refound it for a few of us birders, including me and local year lister John Saunders.
Hurrah, finally a respectable 174 for the PBC year list. I still want 180 as a minimum, though...