Last time I showed you a load of long-buried-in-the-depths-of-my-attic photographs of birders birding ...most of which I have no idea of who they are or where they were. Each picture only had a few people in it ...but this next lot has more ... clumps, crowds, conglomerations.... that sort of thing ... here we go ... As with the previous lot, I'd love to know where these people were, and why, and when. If you, dear reader, know any of these things, you could let me know using the magic formula [email protected] ... aha ..this next one has people-pointing and people-facing-the-wrong-way etc. It looks to me as if they've been waiting a long time and are losing hope. ...and now, a really whopping lot. There's always one who turns up in a bright red jacket is there not ! This looks like another duff scenario .... but I might be wrong ..... The odd thing about this next one is the person right at the bottom ... is he butterfly-spotting or something ? Or is he having a furtive crap but trying to look as if he isn't ? ..and they aren't really all that many, but I missed them off that first lot. I bet those householders were dead chuffed to see that lot turn up for 7 hours. Who is that looming ghostly figure at the front ? And what is that bloke at the back doing with his apparently scope-less tripod ? I honestly can't find anything to say about this one ... What/who is that strange apparition on this next one ? Is it you ? Coming up ... urban bush-bashing by the looks of it ... Now who could this be ? Some smashing bits of gurning on this one.... This next one got missed off that first lot .... so here it is now ... These lot are "in-betweeners" going from one island to another .... and so was I on that faraway day. I've still got loads of attic-sorting to do ... there's heaps of it behind me right now and I'm turning up all sorts of stuff that I've not laid eyes on for decades. I know they're old ...some of them are in Latin ! And there's some right crap bird books in there .. and loads of ancient BBs etc. There's a good chance I'll dig up more snaps, and that ultra-rare copy of my 2nd issue of Brattish Birds , and the Isopod and Myriapod Reviews and "Hoverfly News" amongst other things. Just 20 minutes ago I dug out that famous 2-piece bird jigsaw that I made a video of years ago. Hey-up ... I've dug out the post I did of it .... you know you can't resist it ... 9-what-birders-do-when-they-get-old-1.html BUT ... what music could possibly do justice to that cavalcade of , er, stuff ? Well, there were some ghostly images in there .... so we'll have a " ghostly sonata" ..and a beautiful song it is .... " Una sonata fantasma" and it has got the words, so you can sing along ..a truly fine experience ...
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As some of you know, I've been "sorting out" "my" "office/attic/tip" and in the process I've found lots of things that I've totally forgotten about or not seen for years. And yesterday I found a whole box full of lost photographs .. most of them total crap .. blurry, indecipherable, boring .... that sort of thing. Moths, orchids, butterflies, birds, various unknown people, clouds .... But many of them quite passable. And quite a lot of them were of you lot ... birders birding ! Even I am on some of them ...me ! Me and my shadow, actually. So ...here's a few of them ...maybe you'll spot yourself ..well, a younger version. This selection is the ones with only a few people .... The shadow in this next one is ME ... and if I remember rightly, we were both looking at a Black Redstart and an ordinary Redstart. Side by side on the sea wall. Them, not her and me. I was using my "throwaway" camera. But I suspect she wasn't.... Some of them I can remember where they were and what we did/didn't see. But there's quite a few I've no idea about. If you know, you could fill me in, as they say. [email protected] is the go-to communication opportunity. I suppose we could send letters ... I've just realised that I should have had " Me and my shadow" as the music. Can you work out what the mystery bird is .... it starts calling at around 6m 40s and carries on rather monotonously for some time. It is a 3-note call, you can't miss it. But what is it ? That was short and sweet ( maybe) for a change. Here's a thought for you .... [a] You know those birds that are graced with somebody's name... like Savi's Warbler. Yep. And, of course, Baillon's Crake. [b] Well ... how many do you think there are on our UK list ? Ballpark figure. You've got a minute to think about it. A measly, miserly minute. [c] OK ... how many of them can you list in the next 5 minutes ? [d] Now let yourself have another 5 minutes to see if you can think of any more. [e] You're off to a good start .. I hope .... so, without any time limit, OK, a day, see how many you can get as a "final" list. Without, of course, looking any up ! [f] THEN ..and only then ... you can see how many you missed. You know you want to ...... I enjoyed doing it. What a smashing song ... and now, with this "words" video, you can sing along with it .... Here's the thing ..... I bloody hate the winter. And it isn't old age or owt like that. I've always hated it. It is FAR TOO LONG for a start. Here we are, approx half-way through the blasted month... ... it gets light incredibly late, and dark about 20 minutes later. ... a slight exaggeration, but not far out. ... the romans called their stony roads "aggers" ... and when their carts strayed off the agger, they had ex-aggerated. ... I suppose you could spend the winter indoors learning Latin. ... then you could read " Winnie ille Pu" and "Domus Anguli Puensis". .... as have I. And what's more, there's 1000s of hours of winter still to come. Each one of them cold, mainly wet, and mostly dark. If it wasn't for bloody Scotland, we could keep BST going over the whole year. But those wittering sods won't have it. We should ideally have Double Summer Time ( 2 hours on) all summer, and ordinary BST in the winter. And, of course, what with the bad weather, restricted daylight and ice, snow, rain,mud, and gales, it restricts our birding both vastly and unpredictably. Plus, in the summer ( remember that ?) if there's no birds about, you can watch butterflies, or admire the flowers, and you can sit down somewhere and contemplate Mother Nature without freezing half to death. And December isn't the worst bit ..no ... 'tis bloody blasted February. The Atlantic is c ~ o~~l~~~d in February .... and W winds go over it and get cold too .... and they're heading for US. On the plus side, "a" male Blackcap turned up in't garden this afternoon. Was it, I wonder, the same one we had a bit ago ? And out on a bitterly cold walk, there were loads of Fieldfares about ... and some Redwings in the mix. And I mansplained to The Sig Oth that it wasn't the wings that were red ... ..and we discussed my idea that all bird names should tell the truth . .. so as not to plant the wrong ideas in upcoming birders. ... so here's a thing ... ... is the Redwing the most misleadingly named UK bird ? .... and if not, which one is ? ..... it's a Long December, so you've got plenty of thinking time. I've put a few bits from one of my two "witty" home-made birding magazines written way way way back in the past ... which came to light after many years of being effectively lost .... but yesterday I found one of the actual real ones ..... not just odd bits of paper !! I can tell you're amazed and chuffed at this stunning discovery. Apart from 'owt else, you can now see the front cover in glorious panavision ... Also, there's the slight problem that I can't actually remember which bits of stunning prose I have already put on here. I'll do a bit of a search ...hold on .. .. it's coming ..... here they are. I can hardly believe it.... well worth a look ... 490-another-brattish-birds-excerpt.html 484-more-gripping-bits-from-brattish-birds.html 483-brattish-birds.html right ...now I know what I HAVEN'T put on here, we'll have the two silly birding songs that I mentioned in the title. Here's how they appeared in the original.. not all that helpful ... so ...here they are in a more user-friendly format ... they are both set to the tune of Beatles' songs ... ...here's the other one .... the right way up this time ... There you are then ...and you will no doubt be looking forward to all the other bits of old rubbish that I've found in it. Not only that, but I might now be able to find the other one. Crumbs ! I know those two songs emphasis the "twitching" side of birding, seeing the whole thing as a sort of endless ladder which goes on interminably and in some respects, pointlessly. But at least this ladder is ours. Here's another " What bird book has this as its frontispiece ?" question. As is usual with these sort of things, the answer is going to be squirreled away somewhere in the rumbling bowels of this labyrinthine heap of old crap .... in fact, you'll find it on the far end of this link ... right at the end of it ... but there's a brilliant "poem" of mine to read before you get to the end... of course.... 159-theres-no-better-bird-than-the-skua.html ... one of my best actually.... which isn't saying a great deal, come to think of it. And now, surprisingly, 'tis the music .... and I can't think of anything even remotely relevant, so we'll have something happy and cheerful instead in these dark and troubled times .... the song itself is brilliant, and both sections of the video are both odd and wonderful ... what more could you wish for ? ..and here's your big chance to sing along with it ...you know you want to ... Here's a tense encounter ..... but what are they ? Maybe you could have a stab at ID-ing the tree as well ... You should be able to narrow it down a fair bit. Any road up, there's going to be a marginally helpful clue after the music which happens to be "Trees" by the excellent Twenty One Pilots ...... OK ... I promised you a slight clue ..... and here it, at the end of t h i s t r a i L O F L E T T E R S There was some snow on the car roofs this morning ... and 100+ Pinkfeet went over westwards, and "the" male Gt. Spot made a rare appearance on the feeders ..... and the Rowan tree has had almost all of its berries gobbled up ...which is a shame, as it has been a brilliant source of avian entertainment ... Fieldfares, 1 Redwing, Bullfinches, both genders of Blackcap .... and that's just when I was looking .. who knows what was there when I wasn't ?
Here's a strange "bird" poem by Jaques Prevert I wish I'd written that .. although it is a bit soppy. And extremely anthropomorphic. Which us humans shouldn't really be. But we can't be perfect all the time. And ... it was in French originally .... here it is .... I reached the decrepitudinous age of 70 yesterday, and trained up to Glasgow, seeing a fine Merlin on the way. . .....where exactly it was on the way to I don't know. We were never designed to reach that age, despite what the bible says. Most authorities agree that we start going downhill around 28-ish .... which, by an odd coincidence, is the 2nd perfect number. How appropriate. It has a crohnik efektt on yoer splelignl as wlele. Irh Duescht auhc. .... and now, after all that mawkish stuff, "how terribly strange to be seventy" .... That was pretty mawkish as well.
Here's my shovel-full of John Innes no. 3 for the Nation's Nature Nut .... in the timeless style of E.J.Thribb, age 17¾ ..... So ... farewell then David Bellamy. Flowers and trees were your thing but you branched out . Was it wise to turn to the skies ? Probably ill-advised. You were a man of the soil. And now you will have plenty of it. Keith's mum says he's going back to his r o o t s..... |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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