I wrote this in late January, after watching a short promotional item on the news about The Big Garden Birdwatch ...as you will see, I was not impressed ! Well.... this morning there was a little 5-minute "thing" to promote the Big Garden Birdwatch. I don't want to be rotten but .. it was very very poor. "V. Poor" as Vic and Bob would say. Where do we start. They talked about Hawfinches ...whilst showing a picture of a House Sparrow. Then they talked about house sparrows whist showing a picture of something else. I can't even remember what it was... maybe it was a Hawfinch. Then they talked about really unusual birds spotted on previous BGBWs. They mentioned White-Tailed Eagle. But, they pointed out, it was flying high over the garden. I don't think they count. They also seemed to imply that you count all the birds you see. But you don't. The funniest thing was right at the end. They had this family, mother and 3 little kids in their dinky garden. The presenter ...no doubt some nurk with a degree in Nature Studies said " OK, off you go and fill up the bird feeders." So up they got, and we watched them go up to the bird feeders. Which were already totally full up. So they just started swapping then around aimlessly. Brilliant. So that was all very entertaining and totally expected at Mini-Birding Mansions. But here's another thing ...an inherent flaw in the survey protocol. (In my humble opinion.) Species like House Sparrows which are sexually dimorphic will rack up more sighting compared to ,say, Robins, because with Robins the sexes look the same. So a male and female Robin turning up separately will only be counted as 1 Robin. Whereas a male and female House Sparrow turning up separately will be counted as two. Hah !! This means that Robins,Magpies etc will be unduly under-represented relative to House Sparrows, Bullfinches and the like. Just saying. Today's music is an essential pick ... Joanna Newsom ... "Swansea" ... the American one, not the Welsh one by the way ... If you want to come on down,
down with your bones so white, watch the freight trains pound into the wild, wild night How I would love to gnaw, to gnaw on your bones so white, and watch as the freight trains paw, paw at the wild, wild night. All these ghost towns, wreathed in old loam (Assateague knee-deep in seafoam) -- Ho Swansea! Buttonwillow! Lagunitas! Ho Calico! And all these beastly bungalows stare, distend, like endless toads -- endlessly hop down the road. Borne by wind, we southward blow. And yonder, wild and blue, the wild blue yonder looms. 'Till we are wracked with rheum, by roads, by songs entombed. And all we want to do is chew, and chew, and chew! Dear one, drive on, when all we want to do is chew, and chew, and chew. And if you want to come on down down with your bones so white. Watch the freight trains pound into the wild, wild night. How I would love to gnaw, to gnaw on your bones so white, and watch as the freight trains paw, paw at the wild, wild night, paw at the wild, wild night, paw at the wild, wild night.
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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