Yesterday, about a mile from where I live, I came across a flattened, run-over, Tawny Owl. It was fairly fresh too, the blood was still liquid. What with the local Tawny Owl population rapidly collapsing, this was a sorry sight. I have written about this before, but the background is, for 35 years we've always had Tawny Owls around the house ... but in the last 3-4 years they have relentlessly declined, and nowadays we might, if we're lucky, hear one or two passers-through in a whole year. There's no obvious reason for it ... there seems to be no significant change in agricultural terms ... but something's happened ... all it takes is a few random runnings-over, a few age-related deaths or whatever, and they're gone. And as I said, there's the odd one every few months calling away like mad for one night, but it's calling into nothingness ... there's no "other" owl to hear it. And on top of that, Little Owls have almost disappeared too. But the good news is, that the " Specky" male Blackcap has made a welcome re-appearance after an absence of three whole days. So we have at least two males around. If you're one of the tiny minority that doesn't know all about Specky ... here's the links.... 767-the-minutiae-of-garden-birding.html * 770-those-blasted-blackcaps.html And typically, in this year when we've had at least 3 males and 1 female in the garden at various points, Grumbling Stumps hasn't bothered to have its usual " Garden Blackcap List" at the reception desk where visitors can write down their sightings. Bah. Damm and Blarst ! Today's music has nowt to do with any of that ... we like the acoustic version, of course .. .. and I know you'll all want to sing along to it ... and here's your big chance .. * I should really have typed it like this ... minutiae
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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