It's that big thing at the top...... I expect most of you know about this by now ....here's a press release .. A fire has destroyed an internationally-renowned bird observatory on Fair Isle in Shetland. Firefighters were called to the Fair Isle Bird Observatory, which is located on the north east of the island, at about 11:20 on Sunday. Extra fire crews were flown in from Sumburgh by helicopter with others arriving on the island by boat. Observatory president Roy Dennis said the building had been "lost to fire", adding it was "absolutely tragic news". A family including two children who live in the flat adjoining the lodge were unhurt. There are no guests staying at the lodge for the winter season. 'Colossal blow'Mr Dennis said: "Thank goodness no loss of life but heartfelt sympathy to David, Susannah and family and the islanders. We will rebuild. We have lost much and will lose a year. Close to my heart - very very sad." And Shetland MSP Tavish Scott described it as a "colossal blow to the isle". Isle Bird Observatory (pictured in the background) recorded migration patternsOne local told BBC Scotland a Fair Isle boat crew spotted smoke while out on the water just after leaving the harbour, and turned back to raise the alarm. The fire is understood to have started in the roof. Photographer Rob Fray could see a plume of smoke from the blaze from the Sumburgh Hotel in Shetland - approximately 30 miles across the water. A statement on the Fair Isle Observatory & Guesthouse website said: "A major fire has tragically destroyed the Obs." A Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: "Operations Control mobilised crews from Fair Isle and Shetland, with the crew from Lerwick transported via the Maritime Coastguard Agency's Search and Rescue helicopter. "Further resources were later mobilised to help tackle the fire, with two crews transported from Shetland to Fair Isle with the assistance of the RNLI." The observatory is a popular tourist spot for bird watching and for scientific research into seabirds and bird migration. It is also important to the economy of Fair Isle, which is famous for its knitting and has a population of about 60. It was established in 1948 with the current building constructed in 2010, offering three-star accommodation to visitors. The observatory is run by an independent charity but has close links to other organisations such as the National Trust for Scotland which owns the remainder of the island. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, I must confess, I've never been there ... I would love to go there, but when I was young and full of vim the logistics were all against me ... and now I'm old and knackered, the old-and-knackered-ness is all against me. There was probably a couple of weeks when the logistics were OK and the old-and-knackeredness hadn't kicked in and I SHOULD HAVE GONE. But ... I didn't spot it. That pivotal interval. Bah ! Once we had something rare and beautiful ! Whatever happened to it ? We spent it all !! Infamy, infamy ! They've all got it infamy ! In fact, my Northernmost Attainments In The UK are the Isle of Skye/Inverness. I can feel my Birding Credentials crumbling like a crumbly thing. But ... never mind ..... they'll rebuild it, using the revenue from a huge, nationwide raffle, and I'll win it, and the prize will be ... a fortnight on Fair Isle !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very bloody likely.
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I wrote a few days ago about a hypothetical new dog we were about to "get." Well, on Friday afternoon we got it .... and almost immediately it started to rain, and it hasn't stopped since ..someone's trying to tell me something. Mind you, he's strictly " on trial." And if you want to know what sort of dog he is, well, we've no idea. He seems to be a mixture of about 73 various breeds. But then, aren't we all ? After 200+ days of NOT having a dog, it comes as a drastic lifestyle re-adjustment. For a start, 80% of the "walking" is going to be done by ME. I got soaked last night... and again this morning at an unearthly 7 a.m. ( By the way, it's ± "Birding Light" at about 6 a.m. now. ) But ...I did say it was going to be swings-and-roundabouts-ish. Yesterday, for example, I got a rare "2nd-time-only-in-the-3K*" sighting all because of walking the dog ... as it was raining ( again) I took said dog to a local lake + wood area ...the "wood" providing a modicum of shelter..... Target bird ... Sand Martin. Actual bird .. a bloody great female Marsh Harrier zoomed over said lake .. in the "wrong" direction by the way, giving me a top sighting, and the ducks quite a scare. So ... without that dog, and the need to walk it, and the rain, I wouldn't have seen it. I wasn't bothered about Silly Sand Martins after that. And "The Dog" got a celebratory biscuit. On the other hand .... on Sunday we went to Grumbling Stumps. But ...... due to "The Dog", there was little birding possible. And ..... due to the dog, I could only pop into the "bijou dining area" for a measly minute or so, so I hardly managed a word with my fellow birders huddled around the "PBT" or "Proper Birders' Table" ..... all soaked, of course, as was I. Mysteriously, the table was soaked as well. But on the plus side, there was hardly any time for The King of Bryher to slag me off... though he did manage to get a couple of Ornithological Left Hooks in. And the odd Under-the-Radar Swingeing Sideswipe. I responded with a brisk " hyrtin" as I departed . That showed him ,eh ! [ It's the evening now ... and Storm Gareth (??) is raging outside .... and I'm going to get soaked again in a couple of hours ..... urk. Eek, even.][ And in the morning] *The "3k" is, as I'm sure both of my readers will know,my own special 3km radius circle around my house ... it's mine, and nobody else's ! I recommend it to all. If you want to know why, and who wouldn't , here's the link to my gripping and,er, amazing account of how it came about ... 16-the-3k.html Once again, I'm "doing" a very short post to make up for a few long ones .... ... so, what's this bird then ..not, I must say, on the UK list ... H R N E O ..... there you go ....... all right then, I'll do another one ....... At my latest count, there's 13 different sorts of this next bird in the world ...... ÔR .... that must be the shortest clue ever ..... joint 1st with this next one ...... easy ! Sµ There you go ..... and now, " Lucha de gigantes" ... Zahara & Santi Balmas ... a stirring song indeed ... My first proper job was in London, as a researcher/lecturer at London Polytechnic in Regent Street, opposite Madame Tussaud's. But the first thing I really wanted to do, after getting a flat, was to see the Nuthatches in Kew Gardens ! I know, I know ...it sounds mad now ...but even though I'd been birdwatching at slowly decreasing level of incompetence and poverty, I had never seen one. Personally, I blame Widnes. Any Nuthatches, or any conspicuous bird at all, was promptly shot and eaten in Widnes. And Warrington. And Huyton. Fortunately, Skelmersdale didn't exist then. Skem is so bad, so truly awful, that when a rare bird turned up there a few years ago, visiting birders were warned not to leave their cars unattended and not to walk anywhere alone ! Just a week or so ago the people of Widnes "saved" the Rugby Club by raising lots of money.... mainly, I suspect, to maintain the "normal" level of thuggery in the god-forsaken dump. But...back to Kew Gardens. Put simply, we went there, The Significant Otter and me,and we saw some ..and we heard them too. Woo !! I think my list probably reached the dizzy height of, er, 57 ?? Let's not go mad ... call it 42. My next target was the Heronry in Regent's Park ... actually, when I read about it I didn't believe it.... but I strolled over there during the dinner break at work, and there it was... my main response was... "Blimey" . Well, no wonder ... there was no chance of any blasted heronry in Widnes.They even eat Wrens there. Probably the human versions as well, if they can find any. The next day, I got my first Hoopoe as well. But it was in the Zoo. And a very sad-looking, bedraggled Hoopoe it was too. We didn't last long in London. Why is it that, when you live in a flat, all your neighbours are completely mad ? It's true you know. Barmy, the lot of them. It's one of my many " Rules of Life." So ... I've hardly ever been to London since. After all that, I want a lovely, life-affirming bit of music ... and yes, I know it was on here a bit ago ... but I don't care ... it's downright gorgeous ..... You know what "splitting" and "lumping" are I'm sure. But just in case ... SPLITTING .... an excellent idea that can increase your list. ... that's when one species gets split into two ... or more... woooh !! LUMPING .... a disgusting and anti-life idea that can seriously damage your list. .... when two or more species all get demoted to one single species. But the big question is ... how come there's a lot more splitting than lumping. ? Well, I think there is anyway. Actually, is there any "lumping" at all. I certainly don't remember any. Can any of you out there ... hello !!?? ...... think of any "lumpifications ?" I rest my case. Combining two species into a single one is a duff idea for all those who work with taxonomic decisions. If they "split" a species, it gives them lots to write about, new distributions maps to be researched and drawn and coloured in, which involved lovely state-sponsored free trips to exotic locations, coincidentally full of dusky maidens , and then they can write papers about it all and "publication" is vital to academic progression. Oh yes. Not that I'm suggesting that serious academics would "do" a bit of splitting to enhance their own devious ambitions. Surely not ! But lumping two species into one ..well, that's going to cause a lot of ill-feeling within that same little tribe of taxonomists ..... it might lead to a bad case of what has become known as "Toxic Taxonomics" where researchers try to undermine the discoveries of their colleagues !! And telling Prof A that their two main study species are actually only 1 measly species will throw all their "work" into the "dustbin of taxonomic gaffes." Oh dear ! Oh dear oh dear !! Jings !! R'Arglwydd !!! It all hinges around the concept of " adequate distance" between two closely- related species ... nowadays, of course, with cheap and easy DNA sequencing available, it's even easier to ditch other researcher's findings.... and thereby boost your own prestige. So ..have a think about all that .... do you value an extra "tick" more than the career of a poor, over-worked researcher trying to earn an honest crust by jetting off to remote dumps like Florida and Australia and Warrington to sort out once and for all the vital question .... are there actually 78 or 77 versions of the Herring Gull ? In my view, it's blasted Warrington that should be split, not the birds. Here's a totally non-thematic song wot I've chose . Nothing, of course, to do with 'owt else. By the way, my solution to all that is to invent your own blasted birds. It saves you whizzing around the world polluting the atmosphere just to tick a few birds which will prob get lumped the minute you get back home. In case you've forgotten, here one of mine ... the Spring Crosby ! Since I invented it about 10 years ago, there's been loads of sightings.
I've heard it might get split soon into three !! [1] Malagasy Hunslet [2] Widnesian Tricolor [3] Warrington Snail-Pecker I can't see it happening myself. Some of these are actually "true" .... and that's a rare thing ... .. and unusually, I've given each one its own title... [1] Bruce hits the deck A birder, remarkably fat in our Bird Club meeting was sat his chair smashed to pieces, the audience, in creases as he rolled on the floor like a prat ! [2] Mothing beats Waxwing ! My favourite bird is the Waxwing But what does it rhyme with ? Nothing ! I should pick another But it's too much bother I think I'd be better off mothing ! [3] Low-lister pisses on his chips ! There once was a man from Porthcawl Whose list was pathetically small so he bought some binoculars and soon he caught up-with-us BUT WE DIDN'T LIKE THAT AT ALL ! [4] The longest bird in the whole wide world There's a bird called the Western Gray-Headed Puff-Back Flycatcher, if you can credit it, it's the longest-named bird in the whole of the world, and if you don't agree, you're a half-wit ! [5] ..and its rivals ... ( There's also some Birds of Paradise that are the same length, which is nice, you're unlikely to tick-em whatever your stratagem And I'll tell you why ... it's the price ! ) [6] The elusive bishop .... The Anomalous Bishop is not on my list I've tried and I've tried, but I've always just missed I've been to the places Where some have seen traces So "off" I am thoroughly "pissed." !! [7] Two calls is not enough... The Equivocal Babbler's hard to find as well, it has two calls, the "tinkle" and the "bell" I know every wrinkle of both Bell and Tinkle but have I ever seen one... have I hell ! [8] Drawbacks to living for ever.... and a solution ! If I could live for ever, and for eternity I would have the longest list, well, eventually, but perhaps it would get boring and then, I'd start imploring God to send me up that magic "disappearing tree" ! [ but would I "get" the Ovenbird that you can see from up it ? I might not see it from the top then I'd be a muppet ! ] If you don't know about that magic tree, it's on the end of this nifty link.... I think ... 259-the-trogs-have-a-strange-adventure.html Here's more of those bits of "Birding Jargon" that I've given names to ..and, in the long tradition of "The Meaning of Liff " they're all called after place-names. Ratoath Well, it certainly sounds like you're angry ! And so you should be. You've just driven 280 miles to the "wrong" place. You've therefore missed out on whatever-it-was you went for. There's at least 10 "Newports" in the UK for a start. As in ... Oh Dam and Blarst ! I've been "Ratoathed" again !! Brinklow. A series of Ratoath scenarios can lead you to the desperate and sad condition of " Brinklow".... because your recent birding experiences have been disastrous/feeble/useless/embarassingly bad. And you're therefore on the brink of packing it all in. As in ... "You're Brinklowed mate !" Acle. Acle is the bad-neck-experience you get from gawping through an angled scope for long periods. You don't notice it creeping up on you until you lift your head from the lens and let out a wrenching "oouuuuchchchch" ..or often, something more expletivicated. You've got a serious case of Posture-Related Acle ! Clackmannan ...... is almost the same as Acle, but you get it from gawping through a straight scope for hours. For some reason unknown to science, you get a "clicking" sound in the neckal regions for about 11 days after you get it. Why this never happens with Acle is baffling the scientific world . Really ! Birdlip This is an easy one ... after pishing for dinky rarities on St. Agnes for hours on end, many practitioners develop rather unsightly sores on their lips. Really severe cases often include nasty cracking of the lips and malformation of the tongue. The traditional cure, passed on down the centuries, is getting pissed in the pub every night. Anyway, it's called Birdlip amongst the "twitching fraternity" ... now there's an oxymoron for you. If you don't believe there's such a place, it's about 20 km SE of Gloucester. Blockey Blockey is not what you might think. What it really is, is this .... you're "doing" a big day, or some survey or other, and before you even start you "tick" all the common birds you can't be arsed to find... that way you can concentrate on all the "good stuff" and thereby get a disgustingly large list. It comes from the idea of " blocking in" a whole load of things.That's Blockey for you ... and I know at least one person who is a long-term serial practitioner of said " Blockey". Everyone knows what's going on ...but he carries on regardless... a rather unfortunate word in the circumstances. Banff This is an unusual one ... you know when you read all those tiny-weeny-print details of how you age Gallimorphic Petrels by counting the Pre-Dental Remiges, or how you can work out the sex of 87% of Finch-Billed Murres by comparing the degree of duskiness between the 7th and 8th cm on the 6th primary ..well, that's Banff ! It's a mishearing of the word Bumf, which is a slang word used for masses of useless and boring crapulous information that nobody is ever ever going to read let alone understand or use. Well, I expect some of you knew about some of those already ... ... but now, you know too. ..... and knowledge is power. .. and now .... Dolly ... "Inky Mornings" .... Tant de colère pour pas grand chose, Soupçon d'hier, paupières closes, Rester ainsi, tu l'oooses On ferait couler trop de plumes sur nos matins d'encre, laisser tomber l'écume dans ce silence, on pourrait se taire et s'entendre... Plus de prières, trop de rancunes, Un coeur ou la voi à travers, Une issue pour chacune de nos nuits... ON ferait couler trop de plumes sur nos matins d'encre, laisser tomber l'écume dans ce silence, On pourrait se taire et s'entendre...c'est en silence, ce silence... ON ferait couler trop de plumes sur nos matins d'encre, laisser tomber l'écume dans ce silence, on pourrait se taire et entendre les rêves sans sommeil pour des matins qui danse on se faire la paix ....... told you so !
Here's a story steeped in the evil machinations of so-called "Nature Lovers" Scheming gits is more like it .... read on ..... I hope you all remember my "cunning plan" to lure two Waxwings round to my house ,the sole purpose being to get me a house tick ..... There's two Waxwings feeding from a single berry bush ...and not that far away from my house ....so I decided to lure them to MY house instead. so ... here's wot I rote on here a little while ago ... .... I've come up with a Cunning Plan ... Stunningly Cunning. They only seem to have one bush to feed from ... so I thought I might whoosh down to the garden centre and snap up about 100 berry-bushes in tubs, then space them out at about 100m apart between that house and mine. Obviously they would then gradually work their way along the line of highly attractive bushes round to my house. Come on ... you're impressed. And .. it might even work. Plus ... I can always take them back when the job's done. The tubs, not the birds ! Win-Win !!!!!!!!!!! I'm an ingenious old Hector. ~~~ so .. that's the set-up ~~~ but there's been a "development"~~~~~~~~~~~ ... I have been gazumped ... hornswoggled .... swizzed... in broad daylight. It was all going well .... the Waxwings were up to Tub 63 two days ago, well on their way ..... but .... on my next check-up visit, somebody, some interfering old git, had diverted the tubs ....... from Tub 79 onwards some little sod had moved the "Subsequent Tubs" to a new destination. So .. I followed the Line of Subsequent Tubs ..... they slowly entwined their way through the suburbs and eventually ended up at ... yes .. Tub 100 was now parked in the front garden of 43 Acacia Crescent ! Bruce's blasted house. The little devil ! I didn't pay him a visit .... he's not to be trifled with .. and he's bigger than me. But ... the Waxwings had only got to Tub 83 ! Time was on my side ! .... so .... I spent the next 1½ hours shunting the wayward tubs back towards my house... plus, I improved my chances of success by tightening up the vitally important " Intertub Interstitial Interval" .. (well, the gap between them if you like) by re-using a few tubs that the Waxwings had overlooked. Ace ! Hey ... I hope it wasn't any of you lot .... I don't suppose many other people knew about it. What about The King of Bryher ? I did nark him a bit the other day with my incipient threat of Welsh-only communication. He was visibly irked ! Anyway, I am now sitting by the back window eagerly awaiting the Wandering Waxwings which, by my calculations, should be arriving in 3 days at the latest ... but I'm not taking any chances. And here's a lovely, calming sort of song for me to listen to whilst I'm waiting .... I'm still waiting.
I did a bit of gadding about this morning.... in between the hefty showers. I went to a nearby lake .... hoping, in vain, for a few Sand Martins .... nope. Then I went to the coast ..hoping for Wheatears ..nope. But it wasn't all "nope." Nope. Scanning the high-tide sea, there was a raft of Eiders .... 14 males, 13 females, as far as I could tell as they bobbed about about 4000 miles away. Smashing. Plus, I showed them to a passing person, who had never seen an Eider before, and could hardly believe she was seeing some now. I wish I'd kept a record of all the people who have looked through my binoculars. And then, there's all the people who looked through them before I got them. There ought to be a ghost story based on that. Wooooo ! Then, walking back along the pebbly/stony beach, a little group of at least 4 Turnstones. They should be in that picture up there, but I can't find the little beggars. Let's try another ... Aha ! There's at least 3 of the dodgers in there.... and that's with my dinky-winky screen and crap resolution !! Actually, I spent most of my shore-time picking up vast amounts of plastic .... as usual. Including a huge wodge of plastic mesh. And loads of those splayed-out tubular things that are specially designed to get stuck in the throat of a Cormorant. And lots of plastic straws, shards of broken-off chunks of plastic, bottle-tops, mysterious plastic loops etc. Then I had a wander for poss Tree Sparrows ... no luck there. They've declined up where I live. Probably because, when asked to conjugate, they declined !! ( That's the 2nd silly Latin joke I've come up with recently. ) ( You can get the first two Harry Potter books in Latin !) ( But only the first one in Welsh. )(Bah !) Anyway ... moving on ... My time was running out .... and it was bound to rain v v v soon. And I had lots of boring things to do on the way back. And I expect you have things to do as well. If only I lived in a " village by the sea" ... "Pentref wrth y Mor" Well .. our search for a car is over. We've got a replacement for the old, terminally ill Vauxhall Agila, so I've been able to zip about a lot more in the last fortnight. Which is good. Birding-wise. But ... we might well be getting a lovely "new" dog in a week or so..... and that, of course, will not be good for my birding exploits. Just saying ! It will, however, increase my " local coverage" ...which is obviously good. And we have missed our previous dog terribly. Over the past few dogless months I've been walking around all the bits that don't allow dogs ...... and there's plenty of them. At least taking the dog out at 10pm will increase my owl count ... which so far this year is big fat zero locally. But on the other hand, getting home at 10:25 pm soaked to the skin isn't good. But on the plus side, she did, eventually, learn to tolerate the hair dryer. But it took her ... and me ...... 10½ years to get the breakthrough.. Fair do's .... "we" sometimes "got" some good birds out in't dark ... whimbrels etc. Looking at it another way, she wasn't very good at flushing Jack Snipes. Or anything, for that matter. This is how it goes .... ups and downs, ins and outs ( they're highly problematic), comings and goings, rough and smooth. Reciprocity. I told you this post would be short ...and indeed it is. It's longer than the previous one though. And there's more pictures. They are the "rebus." There's not even any music. You could sing a song yourself. As will I. |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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