Needless to say, several of the "good stuff" didn't turn up. But we're used to that. And strangely, we "got" the fewest ever species (9) ... But the highest ever number of individuals (34) ... hmm. No blasted Bullfinches, Wrens, Long-tailed Tits, Starlings (!!!), Feral Pigeons (!!!!!!) the normally reliable Blackcaps, etcetera etcetera. Grrrr. And that's all I've got to say about the whole thing. So ...let's have a lovely, and probably foreign, song .... Denkmal means a "think-monument."
Denken = to think Mal , in this context , is a Monument.
0 Comments
This isn't the conglomeration of Sparrows that I'm writing about ..... but it is vaguely appropriate. It is the only relevant snap I could find ....... so, read on ... There I was, strolling along a rather narrow path between two hedges, and in the distance I could hear a huge cacophony of House Sparrows. Not all that gripping I suppose, but when I got nearer I could see where they were. Somebody had made a 3m by 7m mesh enclosure and filled it full of hedge cuttings. And the Sparrows were there in noisy numbers ! I've no idea of how many there might have been in there ... 50 + maybe...100 ? I watched it all going on for a while, but didn't actually see any of them, such was the density of the contents. I suppose I could have bashed said enclosure with a hefty stick ..... so they would fly away and I could make a rough count of them. But I didn't. It would be mean and nasty and "anti-life" .... There were several more of those enclosures, all bunged up with sparrows as well. Perhaps it will become a "thing" and every country path will have them. Maybe the occupants of alien UFOs will be looking down at us humans and thinking " Crikey, there's huge conglomerations of aliens down there, many of them crowded together in tiny enclosures called houses .... and they all have names.. " Nicky Nook" or " "The Lodge" or "Buckingham Palace" or " Tranmere Rovers." Unfortunately I couldn't find an appropriate image to go with that. So we'll have this .... ..and here's the music .... it is vaguely relevant .... Edith Piaf ... La Foule Both Piaf and Foule are relevant French words (!)
I was strolling back from the estuary gate, when deeply hidden in a tall and thick hedge was a bird singing like mad. Literally !! And, dear readers, I had no bloody inkling of what that bird was !! How humiliating. Normally, you would expect to see the thing eventually, but after a baffling 20 mins of a barrage of all sorts of notes, I still had no idea what it was. Another birder turned up .... and he had no idea either. And still, it refused to appear. I did a bit of pishing and squeaking to no avail. It just carried on and on. Both of us were discombobulated. I suppose I could have done a bit of bush-bashing ..but it would have zoomed off out of sight on the WRONG side of said hefty hedge. So we just walked away. Here's an incredibly relevant song ......... Yesterday I became a grandparent for the 2nd time .... we think they're going to call him Robin. I'm getting terribly old.
Here's a book for all you birders who want a challenge...... .. and here's a few of the questions that you will find inside it ... categorised as General Knowledge... (??!!) ... and I freely admit that I found them a bit tough. [a] What species does the kingfisher on the label of Kingfisher beer most closely resemble ? [b] Which of the following does not exist ? Blackish Antbird, Black Antbird, Jet Antbird or Blackest Antbird ? [c] The Nuthatch Sitta europaea now bears what descriptive adjective ? [d] How many British species were on the Amber list indicating 'medium conservation concern' in the 2002 review ? [e] What is the logo of the Neotropical Bird Club ? [f] The population of which species in Kensington Gardens fell from 2603 in 1925 to 4 in 2002 ? [g] Whose photograph of copulating Lesser Kestrels won the Bird Photograph of the Year competition in 2002 ? [h] What type of pasta shares its name with a penguin ? [i] There are 5 species of parrot that have been bred in the wild in the UK. Name three of them. [j] Members of the Women's Royal Navy Service are known as which birds ? OK .. pens down ..... bring on the music ....... There's plenty more where that came from.
BUT ..... Why is so much of it in the dark ? Next time I'm going to time the "dark" and "daylight" bits and see what the percentages are. Right now we're getting plenty of dark in our little Northern hovels, and we don't want any more of it. It seems there's actually been a bit of controversy in the camp ... read on ..... WINTERWATCH fans left shocked after Michaela Strachan made a "naughty innuendo" during tonight's show. The fourth episode of the new series aired tonight - and many viewers were left gobsmacked by the host's choice of words in the opening credits. Winterwatch viewers were left gobsmacked after Michaela Strachan made a "naughty innuendo" tonight They managed to get the beavers caught on camera last night. The 55-year-old, and co-host Chris Packham, 60, were over the moon that they FINALLY caught the beavers on camera during the night and couldn't wait to share it. While they played out the footage, Michaela said: "All good things come to those who wait. "Our patience has paid off and now we celebrate the sight of a beaver! Not a glimpse but in full view! "Cleaning... scratching... getting ready for its cue to give us some beaver action! "It's what we've waited for! So stick with us for the hour because we'll bring you hat and so much more." But fans of the BBC Two show were lost for words over Michaela's "naughty innuendo". Good Morning Britain's Laura Tobin left red faced after making very rude slip up One wrote on Twitter: "Laughing at the beaver references, like the twelve year old I am at heart. #Winterwatch. Clearly I need get out more." Another said: "A promise of Hot Beaver Action on #Winterwatch." A third added: "#Winterwatch Michaela’s promising some Beaver action lads," and a shocked emoji. "Michaela Strachan offering "hot beaver action" on #Winterwatch tonight. I think I need a cold shower. You naughty minx Michaela," a fourth chimed in. Another added: "Looking forward to some big beaver action tonight." This isn't the first time it's happened on the wildlife programme either. Earlier this week viewers went sent wild after the pair made some VERY rude innuendos as BBC show returned. The duo shared a clip of a river cam which showed the moment that a tawny owl tried to "snatch" a brown rat from the side of a bank. Fans were immediately bemused by Chris and Michaela's choice of words, after they first mentioned the word "snatch" to describe the owl's mission and then referred to the rat as "spunky". Viewers were also left gobsmacked on last night’s episode when presenter Chris described a rat being torn to shreds They were desperate to know if "Ray the rat" had survived the night, but the presenter hinted at some tragic news. The naturalist introduced the programme, explaining that the rodent could have been “ripped apart” and reciting a poem about the little creature. He said: "As the realm of daylight snores and sleeps, at the water's edge something rusty creeps. "Long of tail, reputation foul, it's the brazen rat called Ray. Life is full of rats right now which may explain just how we've taken this rodent to heart. "And asks, has he been ripped apart or has he survived another day?" But enough ! Let's have some cheery-up music .... here's a wonderful song ........ and a remarkable video ... watch out for that shaking tree ... A few mornings ago I had a strange "sighting" ..and I've been a bit reluctant to broadcast it .....but I'm going to, in the hope that somebody out there might know what was going on .... 9am, and I'm watching the garden birds etc . As usual, a steady scattering of B.H.Gulls were flying above the embankment and I was watching them. Perfectly normal. But then, as I was scanning them with the "bins", and then... and then .... one of them had a mysterious greyish version of itself about 8" below it ..... and after a few seconds both the gull and the "shadow" had flown out of sight. . Blimey ! Over the next 20 mins or so I carried on watching to see if the same thing would happen again ... but happen it did not. Then I thought through various possible ways that could happen. Without any actual success. But "something" must have been happening. It couldn't be a problem bin-wise, or double-glazed-window-wise ... because it wasn't happening with all the other gulls going through. So, dear readers ..... what on earth was going on ? So, dear readers ..... what on earth was going on ? I've got several " atmospheric phenomena" books and I've not found anything in them to account for it. I think it beats that blasted UFO I watched in N. Ireland years ago ... I often think about it. Why did I walk away? I had a camera .. so why didn't I use it. That's why I keep it in the car .... ??? 313-my-very-own-ufo.html One of my current re-reads is Wild America .... by Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher. My copy is a hefty hardback. Here's what one reader ( on Amazon) thought about it ..... If I were to pick the top five books that have influenced my life...for the better, this one would probably be at the top of that list of five. I first read it as a relatively young man and have given it several rereads over the years and just finished my latest. I like books pertaining to natural history, history and travel books. It this single volume I get all three of my reading loves dished out in a grand manner. This book has been around for over 50 years now and in many ways it is a fresh today as it was the day it was published. Now this is not to say that it can be used as a "current" travel guide - alas, far from it. The geography of North America has changes somewhat over the years. New roads, strip malls, dried up rivers and creeks, urban sprawl, pollution, new roads, logging, and on and on and on...all have taken their toll. The America Peterson and Fisher observed and recorded is in many ways not with us any longer. I suppose I am fortunate in a way (or unfortunate - depending upon how you look at it) to have had the opportunity to travel though and visit many of the places this duo visited both then and more recently. I am acutely aware of the changes. And this is one of the strong features of this work. It records a country in a state which we will, if we want to be realistic about it, never see again. It records our history and thereby will give the thoughtful reader much to ponder both as to our current situation and that of the future. The premise of this work is well known. Two of the world's greatest naturalists drive from the extreme North East section of N. America and roughly follow the coast line all the way around via automobile with a side trip to Mexico and of course Alaska. They observed and record. They of course pat particular attention to birds of other wildlife and plants are not ignored nor are the geographical oddities of this vast land. The book is well written and both med and contributed - the get the American "take" as well as the European (English). I love the way the book is designed and formatted...very, very readable! You need not be a birder to enjoy and appreciate this one. It is a chronicle of our land at a specific time. I wish there were more book like it written by naturalist of this caliber. Here's a most unusual rendering of West Side Story's " America" .............. A few posts back (1774) I showed you a BB article about " The Death of Ornithology" ....and a few pages on there was an attempt to predict what Britain's birds would be in 2100 (??!!) Imagine, if you will, the British avifauna a century hence. Long-term forecasting is not without its pitfalls, but the weight of evidence suggests that today's predictions are likely to be more accurate than those in the past .If they are fulfilled, then our avifauna will certainly be very different form what we know today. There will be fewer breeding species. Many northerly ones will either have disappeared or have much reduced populations. Others, especially those which currently have a southerly range, will have expanded northwards and increased in population. There will be new additions to our breeding avifauna, mainly species currently expanding their ranges on the continent. Many species dependent on a specialised habitat, however, such as farmland, heathland or wetland birds, will have decreased in numbers and range. Resident breeding species, especially highly adaptable ones such as pigeons, crows and gulls, will have increased, and ,together with a greater variety of alien species, will dominate our birdlife. In winter, formerly crowded estuaries and coastal wetlands will support a much reduced variety of species and numbers of birds. Meanwhile, some of out rarer winter visitors will have to be replaced by increasing numbers of former summer visitors spending the whole year here. Long-distance migrants will have undergone a series if catastrophic population crashes. Well ....... that was written 20-odd years ago. Have any of those projections started to come true ? So .... let's try not to worry too much ...... and let's listen to a spot of music ... have you worked out what that bird was in the song I put on the previous post ? Oh yes there was. And I thought ..... I've been stuck on something very close to "The Magic 400" for ages, and I might possibly be able to go and see it. But then I read the small print .... only to find that it wasn't even in the UK. It was in blasted America. That's miles away. I didn't go to get one years ago, on the far side of the Pennines, but exactly why I cannot remember. Probably "family reasons". Oh, there's been plenty of them over the decades. I've written about that. I suggested that my family circumstances should allow me to "virtually tick" all those birds I've missed or not even gone for from no fault of my own. I call them " upjustments". 771-in-which-i-do-a-bit-of-upjustment.html 775-those-extra-32-ticks.html Of course, I haven't actually put them on my list ...... ... but when I'm on my last legs with only a few minutes to live, I might just, er, add them surreptitiously to said list. Fair do's ! So ..... let's have a bit of music .... a truly beautiful song, something to soothe our sorrows ......... and it is, partly, about a bird ... but, you clever lot, which bird is it ? ... come on then ... what's the bird !!??
Yes, I did .... and I awakened from a very vivid dream, which, remarkably, I actually remembered ! And even more remarkably, a bird was involved. Here we go then .... Before I woke up, the dream started with me opening the curtains and there, right outside the house was a big white van, half on the pavement. And partly squashed underneath it was a male Mute Swan. And being dead, it was even Muter. So I went outside and had a gander at it ..I can't resist a gormless pun. And it had a nice big blue Darvic ring ,with TSO on it. And on the other leg, the usual metal ring, which I didn't read the number of ..that's dreams for you. They ain't logical. There was no blood, no entrails ( what a strange word) and nobody. And that was it.... I woke up before lots of other things might have happened. Me getting the rings off. A crowd gathering round ,some of which would have been upset. Where the van driver was seemed unimportant.. And TSO, as keen readers will know, is my online nickname for my dear wife, The Significant Otter. Strange things, dreams. And that was it. IT. Here's links to some previous bird dreams ..... 255-the-dream-list.html 270-dream-list-update.html After that sad bit, a more cheerful thingy ................... |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
|