I've been wittering about the absence of so many migrant birds recently ... and very strange and sad it is. Anyway, I found an ancient example right back at post 141.... ... and here it is ... it took me a while to find it... blimey. I was talking to somebody who knows these things ... we'll call him Curly .... he's got a mention here before .. and we got round to this " where are all the blasted Swallows ?" thing. I mean, yes, some more Swallows have, eventually arrived, over a month late ... but in nothing like the usual numbers. My theory was, they're all lying on their backs, dead as door-nails, in some desert somewhere. It's happened with other species in the past. But Curly tells me that the Swallows arrived v. late in southern Europe, and because they were ± a month late and needed to get breeding sharpish... they stopped there and got nest-building and egg-laying etc. It's as if you were off on your Norfolk holiday but the car kept conking out and there were massive traffic jams so you had only got as far as Stoke-on-Trent and most of the fortnight's holiday had been and gone ... so you decided to just have the rest of your holiday right there in, cripes, Stoke-on-Trent. You know it has to be the sensible choice. So ..let's hope that they will gradually turn up ...but probably not in good numbers. Swifts, for example, are on the decline for various unfortunate reasons. So here I am writing this and looking out of the window and seeing NO MIGRANT BIRDS AT ALL. Having visited various top birding spots and seen just 1 (ONE) Swallow and ONE House Martin so far today, I can't help thinking that us ( and the birds) will be having a crap time over the next few weeks. Here's a smashing Roy Harper song .. "Feeling All The Saturday." I've been walking all over the place
Now I'm walking back again I've been smiling all over my face I wonder where the hell I've been? Won't you take me by the hand, divided by my brain I'm feeling all the Saturday of failing to explain And I've been walking up into the air Following my aeroplane One of these days we're gonna land somewhere I do believe you're all insane And I've brought home a piece of cloud to stick it in a jar And stuff it on the mantelpiece to tell me just how far And mum's just bought herself a leaning-post It's made of words and pages It says God gives us all our daily toast But dad still earns the wages And I've just bought a jigsaw puzz It's made of cotton wool And when I've undone every piece The truth will fill my skull And I've got a brother and he's one year old He wears a zappy little nappy He squeezes the content through the cot rails What a very crappy little chappy And lately I can even rest my toes on the horizon I think my hands are just the job to rest my nothingness on .....
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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