There I was, half-asleep listening to the radio. Radio 4 of course. I can't be doing with that Toddla T and the like. And I've no idea what "carnival vibes" are, or "bangers." Or bloody Radio 3. Brahms' 7th Dirge in a flat. You would think he would live somewhere more salubrious. Anyway, there was this story about vandals in Manchester. They were nicking " mo-bikes" whatever they are. They have been hanging them up on lamp-posts. And they've been throwing them into the Manchester Ship Canal as well. Probably some school project or other. And then, a strange bird call was to be heard. A loud ticking- and- trilling noise. Shite !! I thought, what the hell is THAT ? What weird bird is it ? By the bloody Manchester Ship Canal. Cripes. I sat up and listened intently as this bird did its thing. Double cripes ! Cripes x cripes. Cripes ² Does Rare Bird Alert know about this ? Or whatever it's called these days ? p a u s e f o r t h o u g h t. In my half-asleep state, I hadn't noticed that there had been an abrupt change of story. It was in fact the supposed-to-be-extinct Bahama Nuthatch. It has been rediscovered by some upstart youth. Ha! I bet I could have found that ... I spotted it pretty sharpish on the radio didn't I ? Yes. Here's a video of it and its neat and distinctive call..... plus all about it. I can't actually put the video on here, it seems to be glued to the other end .. so here's the link ... www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bahamas-nuthatch-discovery-endangered-bird-extinct-spotted-uea-hurricane-matthew-video-a8503281.html But the thing is .... it's another example of that "parallel world" us top (?) birders inhabit .... from the 1000's of hours we've spent latching on to every tiniest wisp of sound that zillions of birds have produced, we've stuffed our brains with a huge data-bank of them. And when we hear something that's not in there ... we say ( well, in the North anyway) " Ey-up! " The Welsh would probably say " R'Arglwydd ! ( The Lord) Down South they probably say "Oh my golly gosh" or " how spiffing." As for the Scots ... " Jings ! Help me Bob !! " Very topically, here's the excellent Cerys Matthews .. Arglwydd Dyma Fi ...
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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