I've made another graph using the same data as I had in the previous post ( see previous post) ..this time, I've plotted the % of common Gulls in the flocks over the few weeks we've had so far .... ...here it is ... in all its wonder ... WOW .... to the untrained eye, you would be thinking, whoosh goes the population. ! Blimey ... before we know it, Flintshire will be buried under a 30m heap of Common Gulls. How will we get to the shops ? But, of course, these aren't a picture of how many gulls there are ... it's how many there are relative to the total number of all the different sorts. It just shows how you need to have a good look at those "bits" around the "sides" of a graph ( sorry about the technical terms) before you jump to any wild conclusions. And the bottom line is, that graph doesn't give you any idea at all of how many Common Gulls there actually were. Oh, the calumny ! Let's look back to the original, "actual numbers" graph I put on here last time ... Phew ! What a relief ! We'll be able to get to the shops after all. Naturally, I'll be doing other ones as well ....and continuing those ones. Well, it's raining now, and it has indeed been raining for days. What we need now is a belter of a song to crank up our well-being quotient. And yes, I know this has been on here before, as have I, but it's just what we need in such Biblical times.
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Yet again, I have ventured out into the howling rainstorms and other adverse weather systems to carry on the vital work of counting those Common Gulls. The latest count was specially timed to coincide with a nice low tide, which draws in billions of gulls ..but when I got there the river was quite high ... and that was because of the 3" of rain we've had in the last couple of days. But enough of my problems ... you're busting to see the graph ... obviously... Although those three 5's look like all is static and boring, but no! The first "5" were in a flock of 280+ gulls, whereas the last "5" were in a flock of a mere, footling 61. Had I made a graph of the % of Commons, rather than the bare numbers, the graph would be quite different. In fact there's all sorts of ways of graphing the results, some more illuminating than others. And I'm going to make some.... .. ... now there's something to look forward to.... ... but I need to rest awhile first...... I got rid of my jackets and coats I threw out all of my pants
I got sick of my stinkin' clothes I had to get rid of them I'm not yet considering replacing them I'm only glad to be rid of them Rest awhile Rest awhile I lay out in the sun too long And burned off all of my skin I felt so dizzy I got into the car And got into an accident Out of the burning wreckage I fell Wanting only to lay where I fell Rest awhile Rest awhile Rest awhile! I became friendly with Ruy Lopez The author of works on chess Ruy said you're incorrect He cut me off and acted mad He won't even talk to me now But I don't care 'cause I'm sick of that guy And I need to rest awhile Rest awhile. If you care to nip back to post 625, you could scroll back, or you could use this supersonic link to get there .... or not. 625-briefly-baffling-bird-brain-basher.html .. you could then tackle this ... or not. Which UK bird /birds would get the biggest score ? I was going to save that up as part of the Krismas Kwiz but you never know how long you're going to last at my age. You've got to live in the now. Or not. Either way, I hope you'll like this ..... sing along if you like ... or not. ... you might have spotted a few birds in there ... or Knot. ........sorry about the overlap ... ........ my alignment skills are crap ......... I couldn't get the perfect snap ........ it nearly drove me round the tap ! Well, that's all very nice, but ... it's not the main thing is it ! No. The main thing is the decline of all the ordinary stuff ... So, here's another bit in the same newspaper ... ... and yet ...and yet ... I still see loads of premature, ill-considered mowing and hacking going on far too early and totally unnecessarily. What sort of blundering dumbos/behemoths/dimwits have we got running/ruining our towns and cities ? Dozy-arsed prats, that's what. Surely they could be replaced with, er, people with ›½ a brain ..... easier said than done. wh ot y sn ow kn h he et yy ll ca ti e ta cs ge in ng si ir m ra me um u ts n ra ib ev s th gh ou hr tt gh li sf ke ta rk la ky as t. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This song just might be about a skylark.. .. ...but then again, it might not. First up ..an obvious target even 18 years ago ! Not that I've got a clue to whom they are referring of course ! I'm not at all sure as to whom this one is referring ... not even an inkling .... Before reading this next one, you could have a think about where all this stuff came from ... because it tells you the answer. So ..think now, before it is too late. It highlights the brilliant work of the world-famous Duck Escape Agency and their tireless investigators .... This one is the sad tale of a sort of Birding Nowheresville ... it reminds me of Wonderful Widnes in some ways ... Excellent .... I found that first copy when I was sorting out the huge heaps of books etc in the kitchen. A strange place to keep them, but everywhere else is full. I also found Knot BB 2 & 3. Here it is... the very first edition of the infamous ....... Astute readers of this blog might be wondering if I have adopted a similar " House Style" and they might, in part, be a little bit right (ish). But as you all know, I was doing "that sort if thing" way back in my schooldays at the esteemed " Wade Deacon Grammar School for Boys", Widnes, Lancs. And its highly regarded "School Magazine" .. "The Griffon" was my first venture into the fictional world. So maybe that Knot BB lot got their ideas from me. Here's the Go-Faster Gate to what I wrote about it a while ago ... 290-the-griffon.html Hey-Up ! It has stopped raining ..... I'm off out ... but first ... this ... apparently it's all about a slightly exaggerated Berkshire ........ A few posts ago (618) I wrote about The Penguin Book of Bird Poetry, and I featured a particularly gormless, mawkish and pathetic example. 618-ulterior-motives.html I had to provide my own scholarly footnotes* to help my dear readers*. Yes. I also tagged on at the end a reference to a shocking clonker of a mistake that happened ..... an upcoming author got an email suggesting that she should write a book .. The Penguin Book of Bird Pottery. And she did. She spent over a year trawling the archives, visiting museums and galleries all over the world, and another year writing the book. She was most surprised to get an urgent email .. which was sent by the baffled and flummoxed publisher who wanted to know what had happened. He was, of course, expecting a collection of Bird Poetry, not Bird Pottery. That's the problem with predictive text ... if you don't check it, it'll wreck it. Red faces all round,emails flying to and fro, and an extremely irked author with an unwanted book. BUT ...having got that far, they decided to go ahead and publish it ... which they did...to great success ... well, reasonable sales anyway. Phew ! After all, who can forget " Ant Hunting in Nepal" ? It was supposed to be " Plant Hunting in Nepal" but it was a bad line when they rang the author. They BOTH got published though, and the "Ant" version won several awards. You might think "that sort of thing" couldn't/wouldn't happen ... but it does. Here's a few "magnificent" examples ... * * If anyone knows why they're called " footnotes", please let me know.
* If you want MORE footnotes, get in touch right away, while stocks last. There might well be shortages*, what with Brexit* looming. * Brexit, the "new" "improved" breakfast treat. It might give you a few dodgy "grumblebum" nights, but before you know it, you'll be dead ! Sorted. * Why do we never hear about "longages" ? I'm sure they happen all the time * Not actual size, obviously. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This next bit is the "answer" to a puzzle I'll write in the future... ... well, a partial answer .... I 've decided to write a quite rambling poem in this cold November that's freezing the phloem my first bird today was a Great black-backed Gull ABC and the second, Black-headed, which some would think dull BCD I was doing quite well, when a Black-throated Diver CDE swam into view, so I bet a fiver that the next one we'd see would have to be a Red-breasted Flycatcher, soon spotted by me DEF it was hopping about in a Mulberry bush 'till a White-fronted Goose , in a terrible rush EFG scared everything off, and darkness descended and we failed to ID an invisible bird FGH and later, a Nightingale v. briefly heard. GHI This poem has in it a sequence to find To get it you'll need to use "knowledge" and "mind." But there's quite a few gaps, that just don't exist but don't worry, you should get a half-decent list. After the music, there's a link you can click which will reveal my dastardly trick ! But ..having grasped the idea, how many others in the sequence will bear fruit ? If UK birds don't get a look-in, you might branch out to the rest of the world. Maybe you'll find an result for that FGH one. Or not, as the case may be. Moa =3 Coot = 3 Wren =4 Heron =5 Gannet =5 Magpie = 6 Avocet = 6 Kestrel = 6 Nuthatch = 6 Whinchat = 7 Starling = ? ? = 8 Well, that was short and sweet..... as is this ....... I hope you all are aware of The Genius of HUNKIN .... If not, here's the sort of things he does .... ... more on Penguins .... Moving on ... Herons .... ..and here he is, telling us all about woodlice ... I hope all my readers are keen subscribers to the "Isopod & Myriapod Review. " I reckon that ALL Field Guides should be like that ... Imagine how he would show us all the subtleties of vagrant Wheatears ! Just think about all those Stints/Wagtails/Pipits/Waders etc that are just crying out to be Hunkinned ... bring it on, say I. Hey- up ... I feel a "poem" coming on I hope it won't be o v e r - l o n g POEM IN PRAISE OF HUNKIN And as for Jizz He'd be a Whizz with Feather Tracts he'd make the facts PiCtOriaL not dull at all. And Sub Species he'd draw with Ease Separating Those from These Despite them being far too similar Which many of the beggars are... as well as being far too small and hardly visible at all. And bringing in new ID points Like the angles of the joints between the various leggy bits he even sells Protractor Kits which you can fasten to your scope Using the Right Length of Rope, and then the Intertarsal Angles will settle all your ID tangles in a jiff, without those whiffs of dispute, fights or fusticiffs Which cast a blight on every outing And lead to harglyments and showting. So, Mr. Hunkin, please write and draw This New Approach we all yearn for We know that you're the man to do it And then we'll all rush out and buy it ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm all poem-ed out now. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And what on Earth would he make of us ! The Actual Birdwatchers ? Here's the book The Very Big Book That they came from. But what about the music, on this last lovely day of warmth until, we are told, next Spring ? Are we really so naive to believe that ? I was trundling along into "town" , binocularless, of course,and looking around, of course, and then, of course, I saw something on the gate ..... so, I got my dinky camera out, of course, and took a snap. ..asking myself, of course ...what is that bird on the gate in the middle of the picture ? Of course, I'm wondering if you have any ideas of what it might be . Then I zoomed in a bit, of course ...... I didn't want to scare it off,of course .. so, what's your opinion now ? All sorts of possibilities were ... t r i c k l i n g ... through my CBSA , which is, of course... .... Cranial Bird-Spotting Archives. Of course, having reached the "zoom" limit, I was stuck. Approaching it would of course put it to flight and out of sight. I watched for a bit longer ... and then, of course, wended my way onwards . I had things to do, of course, and was already short of time . So, readers .... what is your verdict ? No pressure then ! It is, of course, music time now.......... after which, all will be revealed. So ... here's the link to the early recesses of this wayward and strange blog, and at the end of the fascinating contents, after the music and all that, you'll find out what it was .... and , of course, what it wasn't .... 24-an-unusual-big-birdwatch-entry.html |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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