Yesterday I ventured out of doors to "do" another of my World-Beating Common Gull Counts. If you missed out on the first one, just nip back a few posts and there you will find a GRAPH. It only had one dot, but it was an important, World-Leading Dot. Then yesterday, I did it again. I'm intrepid, me. So ...here's one of the graph updates .... this one shows the number of CGs plotted against the Total Flock Size. Gripping, eh ? It seems to be telling us that, had the flock size been 100, there would have been approx 0.8 of a Common Gull present. But here's another take on it .... this one plots the number of CGs as a percentage of the Total Gull Flock. ... or as we veterans call it, the TGF. Regular readers will remember those uncomplicated times when there's was only 1 dot. That one, rather controversially, seems to imply that things are going downhill rapidly, and by the 28th or so there will be no CGs at all. And even more surprisingly, had I started counting in mid-August the % of CGs could well have been a massive 2.8 % ish. And presumably, had I started a lot earlier, the flock would have consisted entirely of Common Gulls. I'll leave that exact date as a project for you. Lots more on all that later. And now, a fine Daisybox live performance of "Pause" ... Je suis bien parmi vous
C'est si beau vu d'en dessous Je suis bien quand tu poses Je voudrais que tu exploses Donne-moi cette rose Mets ta main métamorphose C'est si beau, je suppose Je voudrais que tu exploses Je sais bien, je sais tout En un mot si je suis fou Aussi beau qu'une pause Je voudrais que tout explose ( Mmm . I wonder what that was all about ?)
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Hier's a perrfeckli noormall Dootschh Birtink artinckel ... Ich haff trad too peek a furrlich eazy von to starrt wiz .... and dere's an eckstensiff "Vokabblerie" I haf stukk hatt die Ende off eet vitch vill be ein teriffook booost to nichts-Dootsch spreckers ..so therss nozzinckt vor to be worryinck aboot .... eet worrkz bester eef yoo reed eeet oot loowd ..... ...................... schloot ooferlapp heer .... As you will have noticed, you soon get the hang of it, and it's well worth the trouble. Naturally, I included it in that Brattish Bird 2 wot I wrote about 70 years ago, and both volumes are soon going to be published by The Bird-Lovers League now that they have had all this media exposure on here. Let's have a bit of top Dutch music shall we .... you never know ..there might be a few actual Dutch Birds in it ... Niets is beter dan met jou de kou trotseren Er zijn mensen die naar warme landen emigreren Maar we hebben geen geld in onze koude handen Dus we gaan maar naar je ouders in Zoutelande, in Zoutelande En dan zitten we hier in het oude strandhuis Wat je vertelt houdt me nuchter en warm Boven m’n hoofd zie ik de grijze wolken Ik ben blij dat je hier bent, blij dat je hier bent Wij zitten hier in het gammele strandhuis Maakte me toch al nooit uit waar we waren We verzuipen onszelf in de drank van je vader Ik ben blij dat je hier bent, blij dat je hier bent Niets is mooier dan met jou het land doorkruisen Op mistroostige plekken je bij me te hebben En te zien dat het goed is, te zien dat we bruisen En met wodka en met bokking Tussen reddingsbanden, oh En dan zitten we hier in het oude strandhuis Wat je vertelt houdt me nuchter en warm Boven m’n hoofd zie ik de grijze wolken Ik ben blij dat je hier bent, blij dat je hier bent Wij zitten hier in het gammele strandhuis Maakte me toch al nooit uit waar we waren We verzuipen onszelf in de drank van je vader Ik ben blij dat je hier bent, blij dat je hier bent [Post-Chorus: Paskal Jakobsen, Geike Arnaert] Ik ben blij dat je hier bent Ik ben blij dat je hier bent Ik ben blij dat je hier bent Ik ben blij dat je hier bent En dan zitten we hier in het oude strandhuis Wat je vertelt houdt me nuchter en warm Boven m’n hoofd zie ik de grijze wolken Ik ben blij dat je hier bent, blij dat je hier bent Ik ben blij dat je hier bent Ik ben blij dat je hier bent Ik ben blij dat je hier bent Wij zitten hier in het gammele strandhuis Maakte me toch al nooit uit waar we waren We verzuipen onszelf in de drank van je vader Ik ben blij dat je hier bent, blij dat je hier bent In Zoutelande In Zoutelande Zoutelande At this sort of time last year I encouraged all of my avid readers to make a " Tour de France Bird List". However, I found it hard work . For a start, the occasional snippets of bird songs/calls were usually drowned out by either the commentators, or the vociferous crowds, or the team cars, or the motorbikes ... and the incredibly few actual views of birds went by in a millisecond, maybe a tad longer. So my list was utterly duff. My Lithuanian experience was no use at all ! [ Hardly surprising] I'm not doing much better this year ...but a bit ago I did manage to get an actual picture of an actual bird which appeared and disappeared like a shot.... but I got it ..... here it is! .... so that was good .... ..... but what is it then folks ? ... and today I found this bird dead as a doornail on the tideline... ..... a sad but interesting encounter. ...... I wonder what percentage of seabirds ever get seen by any human being. ....... I suspect it would be a remarkably low figure. But enough of duff Tour de France bird-spotting and sadly deceased seabirds ... let's try to dig up a reasonably relevant bit of music ...... .. but what was that bird that appeared in the first few seconds ?
Way way back in the history of the Universe, I was coming to the end of the 2019-20 Common Gull Counts Season.... when, all of a suddy, we were told in no uncertain terms that we could only go out of our Tiny Northern Hovels for ESSENTIAL PURPOSES and if we didn't obey our smashing and wonderful Pry Mister we would be fined a billion pounds and refined if we did it again. So that was the end of that. By the time those draconian bits of advice had eased up a bit the Common Gull Counting Season was over. Kaputt. Dead as a doornail. But yesterday, it got going again .... a nice low tide , only raining a bit, wind below gale force, and a time slot which was convenient... so off I went. What did I find ? Within a 230-strong flock of assorted gulls, TWO of them were Commons. Which is about right for this time of year. That's roughly 0.98522167488 % of the flock. Call it 0.98522% for now. I can feel a graph or three coming up .... but as I haven't actually drawn them yet, we'll have a bit of reasonably-relevant music .... the birds weren't actually little, and there were only two of them, but that's Near-Enough to being Roughly Relevant .. I've drawn the graphs now ..... they deserve hours of close study ... first up is the " Numbers of Common Gulls /date" .... I think that's enough excitement for one day.
Well, whilst breakfasting this morning there was a thing about Sparrows living down a deep mine ... and fed by the miners. Originally there were two House Sparrows down there. Question 1 ..what is the probability that they were a pair ..1 male, 1 female ? ..that's not too tricky. But later on, a third Sparrow turned up .... Question 2 ... what is the probability that there was now male-female pair ? And what if a 4th Sparrow arrived ... Q3 .... what is the probability of there being [a] no pairs ? [b] 1 pair ? [c] 2 pairs ? There you are ....... your morning totally ruined ... or not. Keen students might wish to draw a graph. They might even fancy a bit of extrapolation ! There have been previous " Maths for Birders" things on here. I've found a few of them .... 169-maths-for-birders-2-conic-sections.html 171-maths-for-birders-3-the-curse-of-the-graph.html 248-dangerous-graphs.html 602-a-new-survey-strategy-the-random-walk.html 116-simple-ways-to-boost-your-uk-life-list-1.html 9-a-paradox-a-paradox-a-most-ingenious.html ( that's a tricky one) .... right then ... time for the music .... why would those sparrows go into the dark ? Love of mine, someday you will die
But I'll be close behind I'll follow you into the dark No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white Just our hands clasped so tight Waiting for the hint of a spark If Heaven and Hell decide That they both are satisfied Illuminate the No's on their vacancy signs If there's no one beside you When your soul embarks Then I'll follow you into the dark In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black I held my tongue as she told me "Son, fear is the heart of love" So I never went back If Heaven and Hell decide That they both are satisfied Illuminate the No's on their vacancy signs If there's no one beside you When your soul embarks Then I'll follow you into the dark You and me have seen everything to see From Bangkok to Calgary And the soles of your shoes are all worn down The time for sleep is now But it's nothing to cry about 'Cause we'll hold each other soon In the blackest of rooms If Heaven and Hell decide That they both are satisfied Illuminate the No's on their vacancy signs If there's no one beside you When your soul embarks Then I'll follow you into the dark Then I'll follow you into the dark Of course, that's another gripping extract from Brattish Birds 2 ...see recent posts for more of it ..... or not, as the case may be. Relevantly, due to my inability to hear Treecreepers and Goldcrests etc due to Old Age and 200W Bass Cabs, my all-important (?) Local Year List still lacks those two species ..... I've traipsed around for many many hours to try and track them down with no success whatsoever. Way back I wrote about my attempts to "get" Treecreepers and invented some interestingly diverse strategies .... 261-treecreeperquest.html .... and I did eventually "get" one .... but not by tootling .... ..anyway, let's have a bit of music ..... ...... in excellent Treecreeper terrain ( and Good for Goldcrests ) ....... Klee ( Clover) and Zwischen den Jahren" .... sehr sehr prima ! No tootling needed.
As you all know, I've been putting bits of my remarkably wonderful long-lost "Brattish Birds 2" on here .... but this one's a bit of a stumper. Well, they're more than that ... having written these two questions about 1000 years ago, I seem to have completely forgotten what the "answers" were ..... Damm and Blarst ! So... perhaps you will come up with whatever they are ....... Here's the 2nd incredibly obscure one ... well, I think it was incredibly obscure ... it might be bleedin' obvious but I haven't rediscovered whatever it was supposed to be. What we need for both of these is a fresh approach, a clear mind, a complete grasp of all knowledge from Harris Tottle to Capt. Mainwaring ..... at least this one has only 1 answer. If you are stumped, just be happy with that silly "Millington" cartoon. What it was originally about, I've no idea yet again. Right then .. music ... this song should have gone with yesterday's thingy ... but I only came across it this very morning ... There was A Narticle in the paper this morning about Lego flying off the shelves all over the UK. So I thought ... but are they making birds with it ? So ..I had a look on that internet thingy ..... so now you can hone your ID skills with this gallimaufry of goodies ... ..and if your brains are whirring wround with wondering .... here's a song ...... " Whirring" This much delight, fills columns to new heights All these things about me you never can tell
Colors run prime, paint a picture so bright All these things about me you never can tell You make me sleep so badly invisible friend Turn the dial on my words I can feel they fall short Turn the dial, chime alarm, chime alarm Watch these hands move apart Turn the dial on my words I can see you staying here Fierce steps shadow, life's will gone shallow All these things about me you never can tell You make me sleep so badly, invisible friend You make me sleep so badly, invisible friend You make me sleep so badly, invisible friend Turn the dial on my words I can feel they fall short Turn the dial, chime alarm, chime alarm Watch these hands move apart Turn the dial on my words I can see you staying here It might take you a while to spot the tiny error in this gripping picture of some random posh kids ... but it will prepare you for the incredibly tricky things that come next ..... Here's some more from The Only Copy In The World of Brattish Birds 2. It's like the Bayeux Tapestry as far as rarity goes ... but it's smaller. The idea is, there's a bird hidden in each of the 15, er, thingys. It was tryped out on an Emmanuel Tripetapper about 20 years ago ...so I must aspolosige for a few spellig mistaks and misigg lttrs ... You'll be pleased to hear there's lots more of that sort of thing .... ... and this sort of thing as well ... seeing as we're getting a Comic song next... .... it's called "When I'm cleaning widows" ... performed by Pete Ersellers ... When I'm up there on my ladder For miles I can see I've seen all sorts of cracking birds My list is 73, I bring my dinky telescope when I go out to work I've seen two sorts of Phalarope It's a funny sort of perk. if it's rain or shine, I don't mind as long as I have plenty of time to tick those feathered friends of mine when I'm cleaning windows ! [ It would be lovely and smashing if some of you lot out there could add a verse or two to my hurriedly improvised efforts .... either as a comment or email [email protected] ] |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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