Yesterday one football team beat another football team 9-0 . This morning it was all over the "sport" section of the news. Then there was some "footage" ... a wonderful throwback that word. But .... there was quite a bit of "footage" showing the "losing" fans leaving the ground long before the end of the match. I thought that was " a poor do" as we say up in't North. So ... they only like football when they win... is that the current mindset ? And the TV is reinforcing that idea ... ... after all, those "leaving" fans got on the tele ! Oh yes. Then the Rugby came on .... the boss of some team or other was pointing out that this was a " must-win" game ..... winning was their sole aim .... that was all that mattered. They were going to do " whatever it took " to win. This is like the bit in the " religious interval" on the radio .... the vicar or whatever rambles on about how he was in such a hurry he forgot his chasubles or whatever ...and then ,after an average of 38 seconds, tells us what God thinks about it. And this is where I come in and say what I think about that walkout. Well, I've actually already said it. A poor do... A poor show... A bad example ... A lack of resilience ... in the face of adversity. BUT ... I hope us birders/twitchers/birdwatchers/ornithologists don't think like that. If we go out and don't see much, at least we've been out. We've had a go. We don't chuck our binoculars into the bottom of the wardrobe and take up Origami instead. And I'm not knocking Origami either. Whenever I'm in a waiting room or whatever, I make a " Fujimoto's Cube" out of a "Check your blood pressure regularly" leaflet. Apparently it lowers your blood pressure. And the nurses are always impressed. For many years I combined Chess and Birding. There's a lot of similarities between the two. There's excellent satirical magazines about them both. They can both involve travelling round the country with other blokes. To get good at them, a lot of study is required. Black and white are frequently encountered colours. Many devotees of both are a bit eccentric. So, dear readers .... treat your interests as a fascinating process ... ... and not as a " must-win" tussle with fate. Now, the music ... this is really a Celine Dion song .. "Destin" ( = fate in French) ... and here she is, with the words too !!
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I was rambling on yesterday about how I could possibly have managed to write so much in my diaries and also leading a busy, multi-tasking life in, I'm sorry to say, 1976-77. So ... when I got down out of the attic, I picked up one of them and looked at some of the rubbish I wasted my time on .... here's one of my incredibly important temperature charts... I can't begin to imagine now why I would have bothered to make such a time-consuming diagram as this .... ..not only that, but here's one I did for the next few months .. Mind you, it looks very nice. Here's another gripper for you ... more blasted temperatures ... max, min, 6pm, mean, rainfall, etc .... there's loads of those in my diaries. Madness !! This is an even more useless one ... the overnight temperatures on July 12th 1977 - July 13th. Fascinating ! This one's got everything ... rain, wind speeds, cloud amounts, barometric pressure ... and all that's just for 1 measly day. What a shame I couldn't find that all-important "first map" hinted at at the bottom of the page ! oh ... look ... I can't even remember what this one was about ... probably counting flyover birds ... no idea .... brilliant ! Surely if it was vis mig I would have started earlier. ?? Look ! Here's me charting the progress of Mars through the star field over the winter of 1975. Deary me ! Get a life !!! ... and here I am .... mapping out the trees on "Myrtle Terrace" ... wherever that is .... I even measured some of them ... talk about a wasted youth !! There must be a name for all this...... but I'm sure I must have thought it was all very important at the time. Bit I was wrong .... it's most likely meaningless ! But the good news for you, dear readers, is that there is an almost endless supply of "all that sort of thing .. " ... Oh goody ! If any of you out there recognise Myrtle Terrace, please measure the trees and send your results to me so I can "update" my "files."
This morning I was reading an ancient diary of mine...... and I came across my gripping account of hearing a possible Firecrest in deepest Suffolk ... but not being quite sure. Back then it would have been a tick for me. But however long I waited, I didn't get a glimpse of it .... I kept on hearing it ... but eventually I heard it no more and I moved on to wherever I went next. When I got home, I got out lots of my bird books, and made a huge table of descriptions of Firecrest vocalisations. They didn't really help very much, and I just had to give up on it. That was back then. I did have a couple of "Bird Song" records ( LPs, vinyl stuff) but they didn't have Firecrest on them. Of course, now we can get dozens of Firecrest noises just by going onto Youtube. That's very convenient and handy-dandy, but somehow it's not the same. But .. on the other hand, most songs and calls are very difficult to describe adequately in words. This morning, for example, I came across a huge flock of about 80 Fieldfares and maybe a dozen Redwings. Smashing. So the Fieldfares make a repeated "chack" sort of noise. But so do lots of other birds. But mostly, we know the "sort of" chack that the Fieldfare makes its own. But you can't describe that "difference" easily in writing. It's all about subtleties of tone, softness/harshness ..... and as for the Redwings, it's usually described as a "weak seeeep" ... OK, but other birds do that too... but when we hear it ,we "know" which it is ... but we'd be hard put to write it down. And talking of diaries, I find it fascinating to be able to read about what I saw many ( many) years ago ... and I would urge any of you out there to keep one too. You'll regret it if you don't. One thing that amazes me about mine, is ... how the hell did I find the time to write all that stuff whilst working full-time and often long into the evenings, and having twins, and reading loads of stuff..... and it wasn't just all birds ... I've got massive grids of daily moth catches, covering umpteen pages of typed-out counts ...what ? There's also reams of stuff about the weather, rain gauge readings, temperatures, cloud photographs and so on. How did I fit all that in ? I've no idea. Anyway .... je n'veux pas rester sage ! Hope you enjoyed the slight cock-up in there ... that's live music for you.
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 âge 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 me faire crever Que reste-t-il ici? Je n'veux pas rester sage J'aime le souffre et l'envie Abuser de mon âge 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 Prend ton mal en douceur Le mal est entré Meilleur ennemi Il sait m'abandonner Je brûlerais avec lui Le mal est ma lueur Son ombre est ma couleur Le mal est ma lueur Mon parfum son odeur Le mal est ma lueur Son ombre est ma couleur Le mal est ma lueur Mon parfum son odeur Le mal est ma lueur Son ombre est ma lueur Le mal est ma lueur Mon parfum son odeur Way way back in the past ( post 645) I was writing about the only UK bird with a number it its name. And since then I've been exploring "number-named" birds from all over the world. My results came as a surprise .. I had various preconceptions about what I would find. So ..let's see if you have too ... [a] Over the whole world, how many species do you think have a number in their name ? A ballpark figure will do. [b] What do you think the lowest number in a bird's name is ? [3] What about the biggest number ? [4] Here's the best bit ... which number attached to a bird is the most frequent ? There we are ... short and snappy. Here's a relevant song for you, featuring what appears to be the young Jacob Rees-Mogg ! I felt the need to "do" a reasonably short post for once.
Ah ..but that extra sentence has made it a bit longer. And so has that one ...and so on.... and so on .... ad infinitum ... Got up, went outside, and looking upwards there was an 80+ flocks of birds going north. They were quite a way up. But that's birds for you. And the Jizzometer kicked in and told me they were Fieldfares. So I nipped indoors and got the bins and had a closer look and they looked like Fieldfares. BUT ..... and here's the odd thing ... they didn't make a sound. I don't think I've ever ever ever seen a silent Fieldfare Flock. Bah ! By this time they were dwindling into the far distance .... in silence. Double Bah ! Bah³ even. And now I'm looking upwards through the attic window as I type these very words, waiting for the Possible Next Flock to go over. And seeing as I'm a bit higher up, I might get a closer look. But ... isn't our own personal "Jizzometer" a remarkable thing ! From now on its going to be Jizzometer©® Whenever we do a bit of birding we could well be adding extra bits of circuitry to it. Upgrading. Rewiring. Restructuring the Internal Architecture. And we don't even notice it happening. But I should have obeyed Rule 177 ... " When entering the back garden, bring binoculars. " Rule 7 , by the way, is » " Keep Looking Upwards" Well now ... my Frequent/Regular Readers will probably know already what the music is going to be ...... there's loads of versions of it, lots of covers, words videos, chord demonstrations ... but this one is always the best..... ..and here's the actual words video ...... ..Aha ! They were indeed Fieldfares .... a similar-sized flock reported moving north from a location a few miles south of me ... with about the right time interval too. Woo.
We start with one of my top drawings ... and a sorry tale of a failed twitch .... a whole load of us sat in somebody's garden for hours and saw nowt .. maybe you, dear reader, were there too. ... at least, the weather was good ... I've put various bird-related crossword clues that I've spotted in the papers on here before ...and here's the latest batch .... [1] On vacation coy man, after switch of heart, finds young bird. (6) [2] Stretch to see wading bird (5) [3] Maybe weekly food for bird. (6) [4] Bird out at sea has ability. ( 6) [5] Shore bird making roughly a mile an hour (4) [6] Young birds heading into tree (4) [7] How Ibsen transformed part in The Wild Duck.(6) [8] A small seabird towards rear of ship. (6) [9] Birds admitting hanky-panky at Queen's like retired academic (8) [10] Bird from river and lake. (5) [11] Heard two deer and an extinct bird. (4) [12] Bird talking nonsense more than once. (6) [14] Geese flying east into cover. (5) Good luck with all that lot then. And here's The Dead Trousers with a seaside video ..... get bird-spotting ! If you like those crossword clues, there's more at the far end of these lovely links ... ..and they're still there even if you don't like them ... ( I found this picture after I'd written all this .. but it sort of "fits" .... ) When I was seeing not a lot down at the freezing cold, soggy salt-marsh yesterday morning, two unusual/odd things happened. [a] I was looking at the full-ish moon ... and noticed that an airliner was heading straight for it. I've never seen one go slap bang across the moon ..... but this one did. For a about ¼ of a second it was bang in the moon's centre. Most impressive. Looked at objectively, the moon occupies an INCREDIBLY tiny fract¼n of the sky. But our so-called "brain" makes us think otherwise. But that wasn't "mysterious" .. it was a tick I was bound to get eventually. But this next bit is/was... we'll call it "[b]".... [b] After "getting" the 2 Siskins and counting rather pointlessly the various chaffinches and about 30 LTT tits going past, and wondering why no more swallows had come through,as well as the complete absence of skylarks etc, I noticed a distant crow descending towards the outer reaches of the marsh.... from a distance it looked as though it had a gleaming white bill ... very odd . But as it got a bit less far away, I could see that it was something it was carrying . It looked like a shiny white button mushroom ...that sort of size. Anyway, the crow landed, almost hidden by the vegetation, and from what I could see of the 8% of the crow that was still visible, it appeared to be eating it/bashing it/or both. And after a little while, it flew back to where it had come from. Sans mystery object. A one-off .... but what was it ? A bit too small to be a golf ball ... and anyway, the golf club is way off in the other direction, and surely a Crow couldn't carry one in its beak. Also, when it was carrying " the thing" the beak looked shut .... or almost shut. And I don't think any button mushroom could be as gleaming as that. But ... there's more! ... a few minutes later, two more crows did the same thing .. both carrying the same sort of white object .. and they both landed in exactly the same place and bashed away at whatever-it-was. ... naturally .. I awaited a third visit. But there wasn't one. ................ but ... whatever was "it" ? .......... and ... I wondered if one of them was that first one. But hey ... what is life without a bit of mystery now and then ? Here's some links to more mysteries ....... 27-ghosts-in-the-machine.html Have you any idea what those crows were doing? If so ... maybe you could tell me ...... [email protected] ..or ..as a comment. Meanwhile ... some music ..... if you hang around long enough, you'll sometimes see mysterious things ... Look at that ! The Common Gull numbers rocketed up from almost nowt to a massive 29 almost overnight ! ...and what about that other sort of graph I've been doing ... I had to build a loft extension to get it on. Glue had to be found. ... and today, just for you, here's another sort of graph of it all ... ..... it plots the number of CGs against the total flock size. You don't connect them up like wot you usually do. It's very different to last year's version ... but let's see what happens in the fullness of time... eventually I'm going to work out the Deadly Regression Line. I'm knackered now .. it took me ages to find that blasted glue. I was down at rhe salt-marsh again this morning, for a bit of vismigging, and sure enough, I got 2 Siskins ... but not a lot else. But two "interesting" things happened. I'll tell you about them next time. But now ...the music ... A very strange song indeed... And a very young Joanna Newsom "a capella" in 2004. .... it's about Glue Too ! Do you know what this is, son?
This is the Panopticon And all around us blink the brash And shifty eyes of common cash So do we die or do we travel Down the path by which one dabbles In the arts of antediluvian crafts With yarn and glue? So gather twilight to your breast And couch the rabble-rouser's nest And we will take a day of rest And we will all be heaven-blessed And we will gather round to dine And pass the time with wicked rhymes And toast in dandelion wines To hear their mellifluous chimes We toast the fallow furrows that we sow, And we toast the monies that we owe, owe, owe And we toast the creditors we daily face Who topple down with gruesome grace And we toast the aristocrats with blood of blue 'Cause we know that our collars are that color, too And we toast the artisans of antediluvian crafts With yarn and glue Weird and wonderful .. well, everything is, when you think about it. That's him up there .. The Flat Controller. And his cat, Wiggins. He's an absolute legend, mainly because, unlike many top birders, he's dedicated to spreading happiness and wonderfulness wherever he goes. But, there is one thing ... one tiny crack in his benevolence and terrificocity.... And that's his driving. and his passengering. I was stonkled and terrifried when his Top Friend, " The King of Bryher", told me he had got a lift in The Flat Controller's car the other day When you're young, you have this strange and irrational feeling of immortality. I told you he was very flat. (and he's actually flatter than that) That's why he can't wear a hat And certainly not a cravat. His flatness is famous worldwide Especially when viewed from the side He's only a fingernail wide For him 'tis quite easy to hide. Despite being amazingly thin He weighs about 400 lbs Considering the state he's in it's amazing he's not underground. And beware if he asks for a lift his "short cuts" must be firmly dismissed he'll bust your suspension offer NO compensation and you'll be incredibly miffed. It's even worse when he is driving you've a minuscule chance of surviving ... He rubs his eyes and picks his nose and wipes the snot all down his clothes. He scrapes the windscreen with his sleeves From lane to lane he ducks and weaves And yells and shouts at other drivers and calls them layabouts and skivers but because he's as thin as he is they can't see him, he's almost invis ! They're baffled, bemused and completely confused so "off" he is able to "whizz" and leaves them all for dust as all such drivers must. So ...never get into his car or let him into your's you'll not get very far before he starts to snore which can be quite surprising especially when he's doing the driving. Seriously folks .... apart from all that, his gravitational pull can have a serious effect on your attempts to get away from his famously unpopular bird mortuary. Hang on .... bird sanctuary. I'm sure many of my avid readers have got an equivalent "Controller" of some sort or another in their area. He may well be called Derek or Gerald ..and let's not forget the female sex ... there might be a Deirdre or Gwendoline.
The main thing is, they've got to be "self-appointed." That's their key feature ... Anyway, whatever, I'd love to hear about them .... but only if they're crap. There's lots of different and entertaining ways of being crap, so there's plenty of variety. And don't forget to give them a nickname of some sort. In my little circle .. it's very small, or if you like, exclusive, I'm called Disparate Dan . They think I don't know, but of course, I do. ..which was more accurately " audible migration" really. ...because most of it was PUOC ! .... Picked Up On Call. The first thing was, when I got up, I went out into the garden ...open skies, pretty calm, not raining ... and then a Siskin called .... and there it was, right overhead. Excellent. ... so I thought .... this looks good ! For the first time for many mornings, it was the right kind of weather. So I went down to the the salt-marsh .... and over the next half-hour there were .. ... a few Swallows going south at about treetop height, and later a few more ...18 in total. About 30 Skylarks went through in little groups ... hard to count as they circled around whilst erratically moving south. Little groups of Chaffinches also going south, amounting to around 40 in all. 2 Canada Geese whizzed past me just above head height. Unusually for this time of year, there were no geese at all on the salt-marsh. And then at 9 am it all died down. As it tends to. OK ... nothing remarkable ..and it was very cold ... but good to see. Let's hope there's a few more early mornings like that to come. Then I went shopping ... and 2 Jays flopped over the supermarket. And then I went down to the river .... to check on the Common Gulls of course. So far, the max count has been 5. But this time, the flock was 307 strong, but that included 29 (!!) Common Gulls. Crumbs !! Briwsion !! Groß Gott . Mince ! Zut ! That's going to put a rocket up the graphs ! I feel quite victorious after all that.... |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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