Over the last two days we've had a mini-dinky-invasion of ladybirds .... it hasn't amounted to much ...maybe 20 or so on each of our windows...and there's been lots of stuff on the media about those Harlequins ... most of it not very helpful. This picture , from the "Buglife" site, isn't especially helpful for a start... they tell us there are loads of colour variants ..and then only show us two ! They want "the public" to do a survey . Personally, I think the public have got better things to do. And judging by the information available, any such survey results will be crap. Up here, by the way, I've never seen any of those mainly-black ones ... I don't think much to what they wrote about them ( see below) either ... why they compare this to the spread of the Grey Squirrel I've no idea ... squirrels can't fly you know ! Plus, I don't like the way they call them bugs ... the term "bug" applies to one particular type of insect .... the Americans might call them all bugs, but we shouldn't. Also, seeing as they point out how variable the 7-spot ladybird is, maybe ..just maybe ... they should have shown us all the different sorts of them as well. Anyway, have a read for yourselves ... Fast facts
The Harlequin was introduced from Asia to North America in the 1980s to control aphids that were feeding on crops. However, the ladybird quickly spread across the United States to become the most common ladybird there. Its arrival in Britain in 2004 was probably accidental though it might have blown over in strong winds following its spread across Europe where it was introduced from North America, again for aphid control. Over 100 different colour patterns have been recorded which makes it difficult to identify, especially from the Seven-spot ladybird, which is also variable.. Unlike most other ladybirds, the Harlequin doesn’t stick to one type of food. Once it has finished feeding on aphids in the crops it then turns its attention to other ladybird eggs and larvae and even the eggs and caterpillars of moths and butterflies. The main reason Harlequin ladybirds pose a threat to our native ladybirds is that they have such voracious appetites that they easily out-compete native ladybirds for food. It is almost certainly the reason why our Two-spot Ladybird is now so scarce. Although they are not dangerous to humans they do hibernate in large numbers in houses and other buildings. There are cases of tens of thousands of ladybirds being found in homes during the winter. In the spring the ladybirds become active again and look for a way out of the house. If there is a moral to this story, it is the dangers of tampering with nature and moving species around the world without considering the impacts these might have on native species. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So ... I'm helping you out here by showing you some of the pictures on various "survey" sites ... here's the first one ... phew .. only 4 different sorts .. that's OK then ... .. hang on ... looks like there's a dozen or so .... .... oh no ! even more .... wouldn't it be ,er, helpful if they showed you them in order of abundance ... the most likely, commoner ones first ... then the less common ones ... then the rare ones. Makes sense ... but I can't find anything like that. But I'm a cynical old Hector, me...... .. and I expect you've all noticed that that last chart doesn't have lots of the other varieties you've already seen ... I don't know why .... and take a look at this one .............go on, have a guess as to what that middle one is ... the big one ..... I'll tell you what it is after the music spot.... I really will .... So, maybe this survey will be accurate and wonderful... but with this sort of rubbish appearing on the net I very much doubt it. What a surprise !! But ... maybe there's a brilliant, well set out and helpful survey site that I haven't found ... that shows you what our usual, everyday UK species look like, then they show you the few commonest types of Harlequin, the ones you're most likely to see, then the rarer ones .... come on, how hard can it be ? Let's continue looking on the bright side ... Anyway, with any luck, a huge wave of exotic and rare birds will sweep in from Africa or Siberia and eat them all ... and then, bog off again so they'll stay rare ..... unlike those Little Egrets that stayed on and became common as muck ... we'll get a few ticks, they'll get lots of food, and everybody's happy. Well, nearly everybody. What's an appropriate bit of music.... a Jitterbug perhaps .... The Ugly Bug Ball ..... The Beetles....... Steve Harley ( quin) .... hang on, I know what to have .... Altered Images ... " Insects" ... I saw them more than a billion seconds ago at Lancaster University....maybe a billion and a half ... she was brilliant but the band looked shit scared all the way through..... Hey .. you'll all be gasping to know what the hell that monstrosity was in the centre of that picture ... well, it was ,,wait for it .. it's the "average" of all the others ! Cripes ! Jings ! Briwsion ! R'Arglwyd ! Mon Dieu ! Socorro ! Mensch !!
Whatever that means !! What's the use of that ? Crapulous ... or what ? Can you imagine each plate of birds in an ID guide showing you the "average" of all the buntings, or of all the thrushes, or of all the woodpeckers ?? Hey ...somebody's got to do it ..... somebody out there .... !
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Yes, I read the other day about a new "thing" ... nocmigging. It's dead simple ... you put a recording device outside overnight. And in the morning you play it back and listen to all the calls that migrant birds have made as they flew over. Or, with the right thingys and whatsits, you can print out sonograms of the calls ... you can sell your bins and scope to get the cash for the gadgets you'll need. Tell you what though .. it must be right boring going through all that lot ! However, I have it on good authority that "somebody" detected an Ortolan Bunting using that method. " a soft tsee-ip and tsip and a piping "tseu" But you've got to make sure you don't confuse it with ... " an insistent "styip", less soft than Ortolan's call" ...which would be Cretzchmar's Bunting ..obviously. Hang on ... there's this too .. " a repeated, high-pitched tzip, tsip,tsip" which is Rustic. As you know. But the thing is ..... can you put Ortolan on your list on the basis of some crackly squeaky things on a tape ? Or a splodge on a strip of graph paper ? But don't worry ... read on... I've got it sorted... So, you can cut out all that farting about with my special new invention... here's what you do ... you wire up the recording device to a great big amplifier that simply sends all the noises it hears back up into the heavens but at 300x the volume. Then you go and get a good night's sleep. All the migrants will then whizz down to see what's going on . And get trapped in the cunningly erected cage you've put round the whole gubbins. Sorted !! Hah !! You don't need to bore yourself catatonic listening to 8 hours of silence and/or road rumbling plus the occasional " tseep tsip tweep tss." You know it makes sense. It's nocmigging ++ What's not to like ? Here's someone who has gone the extra mile with all this ..... Now there's enterprise for you. You can just stay at home, asleep most of the time, and rack up a 477 life list without using any petrol at all except for nipping into town to buy a few Mars Bars and cans of booze. That's the life, eh ! Here's a slightly appropriate bit of music ... Well you're born with nothing, and better off that way Soon as you've got something they send someone to try and take it away Well you can ride this road 'till dawn without another human being in sight Yeah just kids wasted on, hmmm, something in the night Woah nothing is forgotten or forgiven, when it's your last time around, hm And I got stuff running 'round my head that I just can't live down When we found the things we loved, they were crushed and dying in the dirt We tried to pick up the pieces, and get away without getting hurt But they caught us at the state line, and burned our cars in one last fight And left us running burned and blind, hmmm, chasing something in the night Woahhh Woahhh Woahhh Woah yeah Woahhh So! There's obvious questions to be asked here ... as with most of Springsteen's songs .. Is that first line nicked from the current Conservative Manifesto ? Who is this mysterious "someone ?" who takes everything away. ? Where do they put it all ? There must be a hell of a lot of it. And if that really happens, where's his car come from ? How do you know when it's "your last time around ?" What were those mysterious " things we loved ?" "Running burned and blind" is not a good idea. "Running" will just fan the flames... and blindness can make running more dangerous. What about that final, defiant , So! ? So what ? I bet you're all wondering how I took that photo .... There's a bit of a clue ...look at the dilapidated guttering..... I suppose it was once lapidated..... But now ... it's dilapidated..... A while ago I had to sort out the guttering round the back of the house .... so I hired one of those tower-things you build up to the correct height by slotting various bits together ..... a good way to slice fingers off/fall off and break legs etc/perish from the cold and the like. Perhaps that was The Significant Otter's cunning plan. Think of the insurance ! And the immediate rise in her quality of life. I really ought to have done the right thing and fallen off. Once the guttering had been returned to it's pristine, "lapidated" state.Obviously. Luckily none of that happened ...well, it was very cold. Every time I got down safely, she did look a bit miffed, come to think of it. Anyhow, I was working up there for several days, and the view was amazing. I could see yonks further than just looking out of the windows. Also, birds weren't expecting me to be there, and perched on the aerials/gutters/chimney-pots at point-blank range. That was all good. Then I got to thinking .... I wouldn't mind keeping this. Actually, I wouldn't mind having it a lot taller ! So I got to wondering ... that's an advance on "thinking" of course. ... can you keep on getting higher ? ... are there rules and regulations about "that sort of thing?" ... why do they talk about rules AND regulations ? ... would the neighbours object ? ... have other people done it ? .... if you can't keep going up and up, how far can you go ? .... does it have to be "official" scaffolding ? .... could I make a wooden one ? ... would I get any ticks out of it ? ... how much would it be per tick ? ... what if I said it was a work of art ? ... would that Banksy get away with it ? ... I could say it was a religious monument. ... they've got to let me have one of those. It's my right as a citizen. ... I could even invent my own personal religion. ... didn't "stylites" sit on poles ? ... maybe they still do. Yes, I wondered all right. But of course, I never actually did it. The Significant Otter was The Big Obstacle. If it wasn't for her, that bloke down there could have been me ! That's St. Simeon Stylite that is .... there's stacks of birds up there. Blimey ! (My mum Doris would have said ,,, where's he going to go to the toilet ?) Here's some "home-made" towers of various levels of sophistication ... I still quite fancy the idea .... and we all like Tower hides do we not ? Now that Juliet ...she had a balcony ! I wonder if she kept a "balcony list ?" A lovestruck Romeo sings a streetsuss serenade
Laying everybody low with a lovesong that he made Finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade Says something like you and me babe how about it? Juliet says hey it's Romeo you nearly gimme a heart attack He's underneath the window she's singing hey la my boyfriend's back You shouldn't come around here singing up at people like that Anyway what you gonna do about it? Juliet the dice were loaded from the start And I bet and you exploded in my heart And I forget I forget the movie song When you gonna realise it was just that the time was wrong Juliet? Come up on different streets they both were streets of shame Both dirty both mean yes and the dream was just the same And I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is real How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals? When you can fall for chains of silver you can fall for chains of gold You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold You promised me everything you promised me thick and thin Now you just say oh Romeo yeah you know I used to have a scene with him Juliet when we made love you used to cry You said I love you like the stars above I'll love you till I die There's a place for us you know the movie song When you gonna realise it was just that the time was wrong? I can't do the talk like they talk on TV And I can't do a love song like the way it's meant to be I can't do everything but I'd do anything for you I can't do anything except be in love with you And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be All I do is keep the beat and bad company All I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme Julie I'd do the stars with you any time Juliet when we made love you used to cry You said I love you like the stars above I'll love you till I die And there's a place for us you know the movie song When you gonna realise it was just that the time was wrong Juliet? A lovestruck Romeo sings a streetsuss serenade Laying everybody low with a lovesong that he made Finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade Says something like you and me babe how about it? At the end of yesterday's gripping harticule I mentioned that a Med Gull had flown over the car ( twice) as we were driving through the town centre. Both times I could only snatch a dinky glimpse of it, but I knew it was a med ... like you do.... but it was nice to find it this morning on the river .... it must be the same one I would think...they aren't that frequent inside my dinky 3K circle. Well, not on the rivery bit anyway. And it's 2 years since I've seen one that far upriver. That photo up there is a huge blow-up of the tinky-winky original .... here's another snap which has been even morely extraexpansionated ... hardly visible in the original. I remember exactly where I saw my first one ... it was on the roof of the Blind Centre in Blackpool attracting quite a crowd ... they were much rarer then. But even nowadays they're smashing birds to see. And now ..a beautiful Vetusta Morla song .... "Copenhague" + letra so you can sing along to it.... Here's a tiny bit of my diary entry for a long-gone January 4th .... it's basically a list of excuses, feeble and otherwise, for why I didn't get to see various birds .... all rather familiar whinges to us all I'm sure ... you'll also find some recurring bouts of laziness ..... along with disbelief, time, and the classic " not believing it would be accepted" ! Yes, a sad parade of ineptitude and turpitude and lassitude there I'm afraid. Back then, I couldn't even claim old age as a problem. However, I do suspect that "twins" had a lot to do with it. Ages ago I had a bit of a rant about the importance for all birders not to have twins ..... I wonder if I can find it .... no. Yes ! Here's the link to my withering critique of twin-having ... 118-another-way-to-increase-your-list.html But, on the plus side, yesterday a smashing Sparrowhawk landed on an an overhanging branch in the garden so close to me I could have counted its fleas if it hadn't whizzed off after a few seconds. Also yesterday, a blasted Med Gull flew in front of the car ... not once, but twice .... so we could be sure ..... I think that might be a moving-car tick. But ...the vis mig is still duff. Hey-ho. Here's Dolly ... "Je n'veux pas rester sage" .. me neither ... this is a "gentle" treatment of a fierce song .... and ,being live, there's a mini-cock-up .... chouette ! le mal est entré ... meilleur ennemi ...il sait m'abandonner....me ramener près de lui
je n'veux pas rester sage....j'aime le souffre et l'envie....abuser de mon age je n'veux pas rester sage....le mal est ma lueur.....son ombre est ma couleur le mal est ma lueur ....mon parfum, son odeur...prend ton mal en douceur le mal est entré....et je sais qu'il détruit.....qu'il pourrait m'faire crever....que reste t-il ici je n'veux pas rester sage.....j'aime le souffre et l'envie ....abuser de mon age je n'veux pas rester sage...le mal est ma lueur....son ombre est ma couleur le mal est ma lueur ....mon parfum, son odeur.....prend ton mal en douceur prend ton mal en douceur(x3) le mal est entré....meilleur ennemi....il sait m'abandonner.....je brulerai avec lui le mal est ma lueur....son ombre est ma couleur.....le mal est ma lueur mon parfum, son odeur......prend ton mal en douceur(x3) We all know about the way we can be influenced in our identifications of birds by those around us .... if everyone's convinced "it's" an Iberian Chiffchaff, you might well go along with it. It works the other way round too ... if you think it's an ordinary Redpoll, even though it's actually an Arctic, others might go along with you. It's amazing how you can really start to believe that the clinching eye-stripe, or the crucial tertial markings, or the all-important marmite-coloured hind-claw is actually there, in front of your very own eyes. So, when rarities are involved and someone has to decide what the truth was, they need to be aware of this " collective hallucination" effect. That train of thought was triggered by this letter ( by John Cantelo) I found in an ancient British Birds ... ( July 2000) about this very "collective hallucination" effect ... sorry about the overlaps, the paragraph size made it all really awkward to photograph ... I would suspect that many birders would err on the side of caution ..after all, one duff "discovery" will be ridiculed gleefully by all and sundry .... the same "all and sundry" who have undoubtedly made terrible blunders themselves. I well remember one of my ringing companions way back, who once told me that his main pleasure was to find rare birds, and then not tell anybody !! It seems mean, but in the current climate it could well be the most sensible thing.... one excellent reason being that, rare birds, actually, taking things in perspective, don't actually matter. Blimey ..... maybe I should have written that veryry tinyly and faintlyly ... It seems mean, but in the current climate ) it could well be the most sensible thing.... one excellent reason being that, rare birds, actually, taking things in perspective, don't actually matter. Phew ! Just in time ! We've had 4 October mornings so far. Four potential vismigging mornings. And I've shown you all my magnificent " vismigophone" which will make all the difference. But ...each one of those 4 mornings have been crap, in the vismigging sense. Drizzle .... cold ...wind..... sludge. Bloody typical. As I write this, in my writing attic, the rain is rattling the widows.. and the windows. I really must get those bloody widows off the roof. Not good vismigging conditions at all. (Unless you're lucky and it's clear upwind and suddenly crap where you are.) (Then it brings the migrants down. But you still get soaked and frostbitten.) ( And you can't see them anyway because the lenses are fogged up ...see above) ( But it hasn't been like that. It's been crap.) Your deckchair sinks into the mud. That takes you further away from the birds overhead. The legs get even soggier and fungificated. That's the chair legs I'm talking about. Your special slender vismigging bins get all wet and steamed up. But it's not steam you know. We shouldn't really call it that. And your hands get too cold to turn the twiddly thing to focus them. In case conditions improve, taking you ( and me) by surprise, make sure you've dried out all your vismigging tackle, assuming you've bothered, and empty all the water out of your optics. Most of them have special tap at the side. By the way, some of you have been wondering why we use those thin binoculars for vismigging. Well, there's a whole raft of reasons .... ...... they're lighter ... especially important when looking upwards. ...... they're speedier to raise to your eyes, what with them creating less air resistance.... and being lighter ...see above. ....... if you drop them, they don't sink so far into the inevitable mud. .......the lenses are cheaper, because the use less glass and other gubbins. ...... the strap is cheaper, due to its shorter length. ...... the case is cheaper, because they don't come in a case. ...... you can often get them two for the price of one. That should be enough for you. But now, a song you've had before, but I don't care, because it's beautiful, and ultra-relevant, which is enough for me ..... and I hope, you... I roll the window down And then begin to breathe in The darkest country road And the strong scent of evergreen From the passenger seat as you are driving me home. Then looking upwards I strain my eyes and try To tell the difference between shooting stars and satellites From the passenger seat as you are driving me home. "Do they collide?" I ask and you smile. With my feet on the dash The world doesn't matter. When you feel embarrassed then I'll be your pride When you need directions then I'll be the guide For all time. For all time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I couldn't resist showing you what the vismigophone looks like .... again. I'm a big-headed old Hector ! We haven't had much Welsh on here lately , but this is "relevant"as you will see . It was a late morning in June, last year, and I was out walking The Shredder, when a bloke came up to me, and, seeing my binoculars and scruffy appearance naturally assumed I was a birdwatcher .... and he came up to me and asked if I had seen the Golden Oriole. Aha. Obviously, I hadn't. He went on to tell me there was one here half an hour ago. He's seen it, watched it in the trees and flying around for a while, but had not seen it for about 20 minutes. Obviously, I surreptitiously asked him various things .... its size, for a start, its colouring, what it was doing etc. His replies were all bang on for a Golden Oriole. I couldn't think what else it might have been, unless it was an escaped contraption. I did sort of mention Green Woodpeckers.... but he insisted it wasn't one ... ho-hum. There's not that many other blackbird-sized black-and-yellow birds that perch in trees to confuse it with. Anyhow, we wandered around looking for it, The Shredder had a longer walk than she'd expected, but there was no sign of it. But here's the thing .... whenever I go there now, my hope of finding something goes up about 700%. Just because of that single, maybe incorrect, sighting. I'll hang around there longer than I used to. I'll linger longer ! And I reckon this is definitely a "thing." This feeling that there's been a rarity here in the past, so there might be again. And it's not so daft, because in many cases those spots are " magnets" for vagrant/wandering/lost/blown-off-course birds. But, on the other hand, one-offs can happen almost anywhere. And never again. The clue's in the " one-off" thing. Anyway, that "feeling that there was something rare here once, so I'll hang around a bit longer" really ought to have a name. And it should be a place-name... like those others I invented for various "situations." I've chosen a very simple one ... a name that suggests ambiguity ,a fictional name in this case .... Dylan Thomas's fictional village in Under Milk Wood.. "Llareggub" The ambiguity comes from what it spells out in reverse. And that's what you'll usually find in your own " might-be-a-good-spot" As in ... "I spent an hour hanging around that Golden Oriole spot, even though I feel a bit Llareggub-ish about it." Thematically, here's Welsh band Accu and " Adain adain" ... "wing,wing" I've come up with another amazing scheme. What's really odd is that no-one's thought of it before. We all spend oceans of time compiling a big list, do we not ? And we spend a fortune doing it. And our minds are 98.3% occupied with the whole thing during waking hours. And 84% of our sleeping hours too. So ...here's what's missing ... What we need is some reliable, dedicated person to assemble a list of all our lists ... and then rank them in order so we can see how we are getting on compared to all the others. And then this person could, out of the goodness of their heart,compile a monthly magazine all about lists, listers and all that, and little articles about what they've been spotting lately, and pictures and all that sort of thing. Yes, it would have to be a very very nice and good person to take on such a task. But , in this birding lark we're all good, generous types on the whole. Of course, there'd be friendly, good-hearted rivalry. Obviously. Nobody would take it all too seriously ... of course not. Everyone likes a bit of a competition. So it would all be absolutely smashing ! What could possibly go wrong ? I can't think of anything. If any of you out there (hello) can think of anything ...it's unlikely, of course ... you could let me know as a comment. Or by email . Then if there are any little problems or possible tiny awkward things, I could put them on here to get them sorted out. It shouldn't be a problem really. So ... the idea is out there now, on the table if you like. It's my idea of course, but we won't let any "ego-trippers" spoil it I'm sure. Anyhow, here's some music .... It's totally unrelated to the subject for today though... or is it ? It's Joanna Newsom ... and a "words" video ... "Good Intentions Paving Company" That's a deep, deep song that is .... just flowing like the river.
Have you come up with anything that might go wrong yet ? After a flurry of those " celebratory dances" that you do when you get a "new tick" appeared on here, I got a few more sent in by readers .... and now, after a gap of a couple of months, I've been sent another one. It's a good one too . I'll put some links to the previous "Tick-dance" ones at the end of this post . Lucky you ! Don't forget, though, that this is the one you do at the site, soon after the tick ... as opposed to the celebration when you get home ... which involves climbing a tree ..... which sort of tree depends on where you live. In Flintshire it's the Jum-Jum Tree. No other will do. I'm sure you know which yours is. If you don't know, just ask a local. You don't want to get those two the wrong way around ... oh no ! This one is especially good if you're short of space ... on a pelagic trip for example, or on a tiny offshore rock, or on top of Adam or Eve at the summit of Tryfan.. .... we've all been there. This short video shows you how to do it .... of course, you don't have to wear the outfit . Unless you really want to. The really neat thing about that one is the sheer exhilaration it expresses. I wonder what he ticked ? What's a "biggie" out there where he lives ? Here's a few obvious candidates ... Lady Gaga's Pheasant ? Barry Manilow Shearwater ? AznaVour-toed Salamander ? ( that's not a bird) Richard Herring Gull ? Simply Red Grouse ? Tottenham Hotspur-winged Plover ? Jumping Jack Snipe ? Epidural Owl ? Jonathon Kingfisher ? Ralph Little Tern ? Sandy Shaw Lark ? Mr. Bean Goose ? Sergeant Wilson's Petrel ? No ! No more of this twaddle !! Hey ... I've got a Twaddellometer you know. Two, actually. I've no idea where they are though. But now .... some sort of dance-music I suppose .... I do try to be thematic if possible ... this lot are really showing us their thermometers ... in the " struggle-to perpetuate-their-DNA" sense of the phrase ... Here's the links to some previous "tick-celebrations" posts ...
174-tick-celebrations-a-selection.html 180-the-exeter-cirl-bunting-another-tick-dance.html The Twaddell scale is a hydrometer scale for reporting the measured specific gravity of a liquid relative to water. On this scale, a specific gravity of 1.000 is reported as 0, and 2.000 reports as 200.[1] Concentrated sulfuric acid with a specific gravity of 1.8 has a Twaddell scale measurement of 160 (as per the linear relationship between readings and sp. gravity). The Twaddell scale is only used for liquids with specific gravity greater than water. The scale was used in the British dye and bleach manufacturing industries. While the Baumé scale was adopted throughout England, the Twaddell scale was used in England and Scotland.[2] The scale is named after the scientific instrument manufacturer W. Twaddell of Glasgow, who first developed hydrometers on this scale at the start of the 19th century. ............ so there ..... I bet you thought I'd made it up ...as if ! |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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