The (last-) Monthly Flyer No 5 December 2019

So where are we now?   

Well today is Monday Dec 9 and I’m starting to think positively about birding in 2020. (with twenty-twenty vision I suppose!)   I do seem to have gone right off the boil since my trip to Frampton  and Norfolk in July, when I hit my 2019 peak with No173, a Grey Partridge.    Of course, I did have the enjoyable cruise on the Exe in November and a couple of trips to Attenborough with Chris and Gill in the Summer/Autumn, but nothing seemed to increase the 173.

Which is why 1^st January 2020 is “here we go again” time, and it will be Markeaton Park by 8.30am for the first 25 species of the day, and the hope of adding Hawfinch, Dipper and Great Northern Diver to bag 50 or more for the day.

When I left/retired as a Carsington Volunteer Ranger, John Matkin the Senior Carsington Ranger was generous in recognising my 21 years’ service.

Severn Trent gave me a superb framed photo of an Osprey, they erected Swift nests at the Visitor Centre in recognition of my services, and introduced the David Bennett award, for the Volunteers’ Volunteer.

This award is to be awarded annually to the Volunteer who has made the greatest/a notable contribution to Carsington during the calendar year, with the first award to be for 2019.

All  Volunteer Rangers were asked to cast their vote for 2019 and on Saturday 14^th December I made the first award, to Andy Mckay, a volunteer for some 5 years and the choice of his fellow volunteers.

In many of the bird talks and walks I have organised especially the Osprey talks, I have found myself talking about the Ring-Necked Parakeets (RNP) that are continuing to spread northwards across the country. There are many stories about where they came from and how they came to spread, and the first one that I saw was 25 years ago in August 1994 near the Thames at Walton-on-Thames in Surrey.

At that time, talk was that the RNP’s had escaped from films studios in Shepperton and I saw them frequently in large flocks at dusk, at the Walton leisure centre, and later when they moved to roosting at the tall trees around Walton Rugby Club.

A further suggestion was that a number had been released in Carnaby Street by Jimi Hendrix. 

Over the years I got my annual tick anywhere near Putney, or Leatherhead Crematorium, and down the A30!!

Now the theories have been debunked by scientists, who have opined the view that the eruption was due to a random string of releases, some influenced by public panic when it became known that they could carry a contagious parrot disease. 

The research found a lot of justification for this conclusion and that when people owning a parrot got to know about the risk, rather than find a way of destroying the bird, they just opened the window!!

Followers will (I hope!) have read my November “Special” when I recounted my culinary Coming Out at a London restaurant. I did not mention that it was at the Famous posh and expensive Sky Garden Restaurant at the top of the Fenchurch building. Looking at the building it is clear why it is called The Walkie Talkie!

It was therefore a surprise to see last Wednesday, during the final of the The Apprentice series on BBC1,  Alan Sugar’s preamble had been filmed in the same restaurant, and this is a screen shot of one of the finalist teams making their plans in the restaurant area….. EXACTLY at the table where we dined. I know how much our meal cost – I guess that hiring the restaurant for a film set would have been more than my credit card limit!! 

This is Baroness Brady (Karren) taking notes about her team.

As I write it is Sunday December 22, 3 days to go for food, booze and gifts…. And in my case snoozing!!

I’m sorry my Avian reporting has been so non existent for the last 4/5 months, but from Wednesday January 1st, 2020, it will be all systems go… well that’s the plan!!

And finally, some info to ponder on..   

1.   Our local church has installed a credit/debit card machine on the wall, for worshippers (or visitors) to make donations if they are short of ready money.   I recall the days when religious giving in church was into a bag, and even earlier into a slotted box. Yet now it can be an open dish, and this new giving method will (I assume) provide the church with the amount and the name, of each giver.  Personally, I’m not comfy with this procedure, although it is probably a further precursor of a cashless society.

2.   Two FYI for 31^st December!!

a.    260 years ago, Arthur Guinness began brewing

b.   And just one month before I was born, the first motorist breathalyser was introduced in Indianapolis by a Dr Harger.

So,  Tuesday 31^st December 2019… a very happy New Year to any readers who I have left and who have stuck with me !!!,  and I hope that the title of my blog can continue once again in 2020.   See you next year

Happy Birding