This, by the way, is the church where I was christened. Well, the top of it anyway. But if you scroll down a bit, you'll see it all. When I walked down Kirkgate as a kid... I always felt the thing was going to topple over and crush me. But obviously, it didn't. Not so long ago, me and The Significant Otter dropped in, and there was "an official person" hovering around, and when I told him I was christened there he hushered hus hinto the hoffice and selected the christening book for that year and there I was ! With my mum's and dad's signatures and everything !! Redolent. But .... on with the proper stuff... I found out the other day exactly what "steeplechasing" was. Apparently, horse-riders would race from one church steeple to another . The idea behind that being that those tall spires were visible from a long way away, so you were not likely to get lost, even if you had to detour a bit. And horsy "steeplechases" would involve, no doubt, jumping over farm fences, hedges etc which is why that sort of horse-race is nowadays called a steeplechase. They don't actually jump over "steeples". Well, I don't see why bird surveys can't be done in the same way ... why bother with boring old 10km squares and the like when you can go steeple to steeple. You'll also be pleased to learn that Stapel = a "stack" or "pile" in German. Everything's connected you know. Anyway, I'm just saying .... it would be quite an interesting way of counting/surveying birds rather than trudging around some duff/muddy/deserted old transect or whatever. And if you took the extra step of doing it on a horse, well, that would be a thing ! I wonder if it's easy to use binoculars from a horse ? Have any of you lot tried it ? Anyway ... [a] it's a thought ! and [b] it's a short article ..which is good. and [c] I've had another idea for a survey method. But now we want a bit of relevant and wonderful music ..er .... oh yes ... Patti Smith ... "Horses"
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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