Avian Distancing in Derby

First the good news. Just before I finalised this post, I put all the clocks on by one hour. So that’s one less hour in the 12 weeks that we must isolate!!(or .00095%) Now how else can I speed things up…sleeping tablet?

Searching desperately for something to write about, I am going to see if Ornithological events in my garden make interesting reading. So here starteth my diary.

Monday 23^rd March.

           How super to step out into the garden mid-morning, look up (as I always do) to see a perfectly feathered Common Buzzard circling gracefully and lazily over the house. As I watched, another joined in the display and as I stood mesmerised they progressively circled and climbed with the occasional mock dive by one against the other. Still they climbed to what I think must be about the height of aircraft taking off from East Midlands airport.   And then a third bird joined in. So graceful, it should have been set to music but still they climbed until they were out of view

For the last 2/3 weeks a male blackbird is regularly seen on the first post on the fence directly behind the house. So, the house becomes a hide, and from my study I can watch him posing on the fence. Yesterday it was post 1, and also on the roof at 4pm. Today c 2.30 on post 1.  What does he want? A mate? Or is he looking after a mate on a nest? Maybe time will tell.

Dunnocks? I can hear them call whilst I am weeding the border, but the usual chasing (displaying) not in evidence today. Woodpigeons seem to be ignoring the Social distancing rules and formation flying around the roofs.   

Tuesday 24^th March.

            Clearly the avian residents of Braithwell Close have been listening to Boris, I assume on Twitter, as they have this morning been self-isolating.  It was not until this afternoon, when Mary was once again gardening/weeding and thus churning up worms, that our resident Blackbird was back on post 3 and watching the action.

There must have been some action on the feeder, as Will our resident Woodpigeon(s) has been hoovering up the seed that the Tits and the Dunnocks throw out and for that we are very grateful as the number of weeds around the base of the feeder are and continues to be Nil.

Wednesday 25^th March

Having spent the afternoon power-cleaning the patio (and the bird bath), it was wonderful to watch a robin giving it large in the nice clean water in the cleaned birdbath. The splashing does not go as far up the fence as the blackbird achieves, but it is equally vociferous! Then he settled in the hydrangea and completed his ablutions.

But better was to come. Contrary to the social distancing rules there were 3 birds in the bath at the same time, 2 Dunnocks and 1 Blue Tit!!!  This intense competition kept changing, sometimes 2 Dunnocks watched by a Blue Tit, then 2 Tits together.

There has been limited activity in one of the 4 nest boxes, but not so frequent that I could assume nesting was in progress. Tomorrow my monitoring will continue to be fruitful, I hope!

Thursday 26th March

Now I’m puzzled – despite topping up the birdbath with more clean water, my avian family appear to have gone out for the day. There was a short bout of encouragement when one Blue Tit did a Social distance inspection of the better bird box. This one (the box) came from a charity shop in Honiton in 2018 and cost just £10. It is VERY substantial and sturdy and of the 4 boxes in our garden this one has the most potential buyers making an inspection.  

I had planned to collect some sheep wool from barbed wire and bushes in the countryside. I would as I have done in the past, place the wool in a net bag adjacent to a nest box and birds would take the wool to line their nest boxes.    But as my movements are restricted, Mary has offered to save the hair when she (long overdue) cuts my hair!

Friday 27th March

Whilst we watched the in and out activity in the Tit box during coffee, we decided that we knew some of our regulars so well that it would be impolite not to speak about them by name, and we have now given them names which we hope they will respond to in time.

The male blackbird is Rodney, and the female is Cassandra (referred to as Cass). With the Blue Tits as it is difficult to id male and female we have chosen Leslie,  a name that sounds right for either sex, albeit spelt differently.(for simplicity and to avoid confusion, k/a Les)  

We’ve been a bit busy near the nest boxes, so this may account for the poor attendance today.

Saturday 28th March

Only seen Dave briefly, but Les has been in and out of the box. Oh, and Duncan (you can guess who this is) is happily devouring the seed supply and Will ( = William or Willamena) tidies up!

A 4-way family video chat to celebrate our 56^th wedding anniversary, has been the highlight of another day confined to barracks!

Just to recap on the avian residents, this is the current cast ..

Rodney and Casandra                        Blackbird

Duncan                                               Dunnock

Leslie                                                   Blue Tit

Will                                                     Wood Pigeon

Robin                                                  Robin !!

I hope you are getting in some birding, one way or another.

TTFN

COVID -19 .................. in Lanzarote

You would have thought at my age, with the years of travelling I have done, and the number of health issues I have encountered, I would have wised up by now and heeded the warnings. But NO.

Well for a start, where had we booked for a 7-day break in Lanzarote?.... The Coronas Playa Hotel – what  a significant name that turned out to be.

So, let me give you a fast track account in 500 words, of a  VERY memorable vacation.

Thursday 12^th  March arrived Lanzarote OK and my right arm promptly had an argument with our bathroom door handle. I lost and had a medical compression trauma bandage for 7 days. = no swimming, and shower difficulties.  

Friday 13^th walk North to and recce Costa Teguise. Best bar identified for Margaritas, and ideal restaurant for interesting choice of Tapas. Diarised for final holiday day - abortively as it transpired!.

Saturday 14th walk South to Barcelo Suites (now the Occidental) to renew acquaintances with our Lanzarote hotel first visited in 1996. No sign of the Trumpeter Finch and Southern Great Grey Shrike seen 24 years previously.   HOWEVER, very pleased to id 3 Berthelot Pipits foraging under one particular type of bush.

  

Sunday 15^th…oh dear. After lunch the Tui team said that there would be no more guest activities. Strips (which we were later to learn were distancing strips) emerged on the floor wherever a queue was possible - floors leading into the bar,  the dining room,  buffet counters in the dining room, all bars and at reception. I don’t think there were queues to leave the building!!

Whilst enjoying a pre-dinner libation selection, we were told we could not sit in the Monkey Bar; fortunately, the General Manager(GM) over-rode this stipulation. (OK so far). After dinner with no evening entertainment, and having reluctantly reverted to the bar again, I noticed flashing police blues pass the hotel, only to stop, reverse, and then continue.

Monday 16^th  GM overruled, and no drinks to be consumed IN the Monkey Bar!

All sunbeds on the terrace were stacked to prevent use. A notice in reception stated that guests should stay in their rooms, unless at the supermarket, chemist or hairdressers. Thank goodness we had a sea view and a balcony. Guests without balcony loungers, helped themselves from the lounger stack!!   

Mealtime became a welcome chance to vacate your room, talk to fellow guests and sit down with a drink. This led to guests ALL wanting to dine early, and,  together with a reduction in staff due to the Coronavirus, a 2-shifts meal system was introduced. Plus one third of the dining room was closed.

Tuesday 17^th  Lower beach bar not opened. All chairs on the terrace, reception, bar area, lounge etc, either removed, taped off, or signed “Please take drinks to your rooms”.  Monkey Bar completely closed.

Wednesday 18^th…………………………. Solitude, loneliness, patronising of take-away bar plus periodic exercise laps of the terrace/pool complex. (Apart from the 9 guests to whom the rules did not apparently apply using any loungers just as they liked.)

Thursday 19^th.   Being on a 7-day holiday our return was per our booking, unlike guests on 14 or 21 day breaks, for whom frantic efforts were taking place to bring their return date forward. We understood that the hotel was scheduled to be empty by Saturday 21^st and we found the airport very busy with people going home. Stories were abroad about  people changing airlines, some on standby, repatriation to different airports from the original start airport for others.

Happy Birding…. Wherever you can... on a fenced off beach!!

There's always another week!

(Tuesday) Not yet the end of the week, but it does not bode well on the birding front for this week.

However, life has not been without some interests, at least for me.

Tuesday morning, I had my first session as a patient volunteer participating in the teaching programme for aspiring Doctors at Derby University Hospital. I have been accepted as an Expert Patient, principally because I have had medical issues which the identification and understanding thereof will give the students some hands-on experience. 

Volunteers are utilised not only for the advancement of knowledge, but they are also used as live dummies in examinations.

My first session (with 2 other volunteers) was for Dermatological education,  in my case covering skin cancer and also skin damage. 4 students at a time talk to each of us individually, looking at and questioning the evident dermatological issues. As over 35 years I have had all 5 different ways of treating skin cancer, I make a good test case!

After 15 minutes the bell rings, my group ask their final questions, and 2 minutes later it rings again, whereupon they move to the next volunteer and I go through it again with the next group. When all 3 volunteers have been scrutinised, the students return with the tutor to do an over-review what they have learnt.

In the second session, on Thursday morning, each of the 6 volunteers were the centre of attention for 7 students at a time together with a Doctor/teacher and this time entirely based on my abdomen. Students did a mock bedside inquisition saying what they could see, and   with some actual hands on elements. I leave it to you to decide what is the range of an abdomen, but sufficient to say I had to cough hard 7 times for each group!!!

There is a small expenses/honorarium per session, well justified under the circumstances!!

Wednesday, Mary and I went to London to the Haymarket Theatre to see the musical, “Only Fools and Horses”. With Paul Whitehouse playing Grandad (and Uncle Albert!) it was a very entertaining 2 hours. Scenes were changed by a very clever segmented revolving stage and all the favourite characters were included.

Many memorable moments are included; the falling chandelier, falling behind the bar, Boysie firing blanks (an extremely clever and amusing sequence),Del boy getting a beating from the Driscoe brothers, Mike and Del-boys’ unpaid bar tab, and the grotty food in Sid’s caf.

Well worth a visit. Let me know if you plan to go – I can save you £10 on the cost of the visit.  You can borrow my programme.

Mary and I did a bit of a health survey during our London visit. We walked from St Pancras to The Haymarket, (12,200 steps), saw just 8 people with face masks, and it was only in the 5^th chemist that Mary finally got some hand cleanser.  At St. Pancras the assistant told us that bottles were flying out at 20 a go, so she restricted sales to 2. (Mary bought 2.)

Sorry I’m off the birding track, and I wish I wasn’t, but at least I’m keeping occupied!!

Anyway, as I was saying, I have seen Peregrines on the Jury Hotel sign twice this week, in close viewing proximity for them of the nest box on the Cathedral. Good omen.

And another positive snippet. At the Nestles factory in Hatton, 20km West of Derby, 2 Peregrines are seen regularly on the factory roof. Even though the nests have been temporarily removed, the birds are still staying loyal to the location, and the nests will be replaced soon.

Some compensation for the rotten news about the  Peregrine at Belper’s East mill which was found to have lead shot in its body. Despite RSPB surgery and care it could not be saved. The male was about 4 years old and originally ringed in Dorset.

Knowing that another male Peregrine from East Mill was shot in 2015 really does make me who the misguided killers are.    

EH??  What happened to Sunday??  Sorry I missed it….to-day is Monday. I’m definitely losing the plot.

MONDAY March 9^th 2020   (just to remind me)

As part of my birding programme I had intended to try and include a trip to The Wirral, specifically to Parkside to try and take in my favourite experience, the high tide spectacular.  Peak tide time in March was Tuesday 10^th but as I was on Library duty that day, my plan had been to go to the slightly lower tide on the Monday. I arranged an early 7am call from my carer, to enable me to get to Parkside for 10.00am…. but best laid plans etc meant that I did not feel 100% until it was too late to get to my destination for the planned time.

Plan B. See what is around locally.  DOS sightings reports indicated that Locko Park may be worth a visit. Locko park is a private estate on the northern side of Derby, open to pedestrians and including a moderate sized lake.

I have been there on two previous occasions, the first time being when my bird watching knowledge was very much in its infancy, although I do recall a highlight was a Green Woodpecker. And, on a day in April, the birding group saw both Fieldfare and Swallow from the same view point. Out with the old and in with the new.

This time and 8,500 steps later in a lot of very muddy ground I had nothing to add to my year list in the 2-hour walk.  The lake had 3 Goosanders, and a Tree Creeper was quite oblivious to my presence. But that was it.

Apologies for diverting from my normal routine and timetable.      I’ll have to put an alarm on my phone to make sure I don’t miss next Sunday!

Happy Birding.

And I thought Coronavirus was something you got from a bottle of Ginger Beer - showing my age!

You will know than I have a propensity for words (obviously!) and I enjoy picking up interesting and amusing stories, especially those in the news.

Which is why I thought I would share this one with you. 

Last week I saw a news item in the press about Amazon opening its first cashier-less shop in Seattle, and  I pondered how we Brits would adjust to such a system.

It came as no surprise to see a news par in the paper to-day, about a US reporter trying to see if he could buck the system, and to a degree he did.   

The procedure is that the store charges customers with the goods that they pick up and take out of the store. There are scanners and cameras watching every action the customer takes.

To try and fool the technology the reporter juggled a bunch of bananas and hid one. He did not win that one – he was charged for the hidden banana.

In the second case the reporter was not charged for 2 items he picked up when he left a bathroom. He put on his jacket and held his backpack differently, and the system/sensors lost him!! There were apparently no sensors in the washroom.

Back to birding.

I was lucky this week – I had a day out birding on probably the best day of the week. 

Thursday February 27^th I went to Cromford to try and find a Dipper or Hawfinch. No luck on both counts but I did watch two quivering Grey Wagtails; I suspect the Derwent was too fast for the Dipper.

I then went to the moors above Darley Dale, hoping for the Bramblings, at Screacham Lane or Bumper Castle Farm. Nope!

Next stop the Peak Shopping Village at Rowsley, where Dipper and Mandarin had been reported. 50% success!  6 male Mandarin Ducks on the river were nice, and I assume that whoever reported the Dipper must have just been lucky at that moment, a bit like my Kingfisher at Carsington last Sunday.

Let’s pop in a QI item for the day – well tomorrow anyway.  138 years ago, today Queen Victoria survived the 8^th assassination attempt on her life, whilst sitting in her railway carriage at Windsor.

Yes? The link to the previous par (about Rowsley) is that there is a building in the middle of the Rowsley shopping village that was the waiting room in the original Rowsley North station in the 1800’s. And that station was built for, and used by, Queen Victoria when she visited her friends at Chatsworth. So, I trod in some famous footsteps last week.

……….. and not a lot of people know that.

Yesterday was a quadrennial event, in this case a leap year.  So, for Saturday February 29^th I decided to make it special by driving 68 miles to try and add a new 2010 sighting to my bird list.  Yes, we went to Buxton, despite the threatened adverse weather, and the brief snowstorm whilst we were there.

And we succeeded !! Apart from a Jemima puddle-duck, and a single female Goosander, my YTD increased to 113 with a Muscovy Duck.  And we took in lunch and an antique fair for good measure.

Sunday 1^st March (Happy Month!)

And finally,  Amanda fresh back from a couple of weeks with Noel visiting their relatives across the pond, and c40 lifers in the bag was running her usual BwB. A good number turned out, most of whom had to wrestle with the new parking system. Quite straight forward, except that the ticket machine is inflexible and precise, and does not have latitude that existed under the previous system whereby exceeding the paid for parking time by a tad, did not incur a charge. Consequently, Amanda has, from April 2020 changed the walk to 90 minutes, so that there is enough time in a 2-hour slot  to come and go without incurring an extra cost.

Carsington was still well waterlogged, with the Janet Ede hide flooded, and pathways very boggy, which was why Amanda led what must be called a birding meander!! We started with the wildlife centre, then took our time to trundle(??) along and round Stones Island, finishing at 11.30. BOD was Little Grebe, although I opted for the almost camouflaged Snipe.

I have 4 appointments this week for charitable tasks, so don’t be surprised if there is a blank blog post next Sunday!!

Happy Birding   

Good grief ……………….. spell check shows 2 x “so”!