You may not realise it,
but this is the 200th post I have put on my blog, the first one over
4 years ago, on 24th December 2015. 200 posts encompassing 148,000 words!
So reluctantly, I have
decided that this will be the last of my regular posts. I kept publishing
despite cancer and pneumonia, but Coronavirus has defeated me. The restriction
of not being able to go birding wherever and whenever I want to, has taken away
the pleasure of my hobby that I have enjoyed writing about for 4 years. It does
not help that the future is so unclear and so there is no target to aim for.
The blog has had 19,500 “hits”, of which the UK - 8,600, Russia - 3,300, and USA - 2,100. Most hit? November 2016, entitled “Goosed in Exmouth” with 98 hits!
Readers have been very
tolerant of my filling my posts by including non-birding experiences ( Legs,
Hotels, Meals etc), when that was not the objective of “The Bird Man of
Allestree”. I will continue to write the
occasional article, if there is something of substance to write, about birds,
but you will not read these posts unless you maintain your link to my postings,
or you check my blog occasionally.
At least I will no
longer have the commitment that I MUST do my blog on a Sunday night, a
commitment that I have maintained about 98%!
So, before I go!!!
(notice the carefree use of the word “so”!), some bits of news.
Derby CC. Derby
City Council Parks department asked me to write an article about bird watching
under the Coronavirus climate entitled.
It was a pleasure to
write the 1200-word article and centred round 3 bird watching sessions in my garden. You can find the article at
https://www.inderby.org.uk/parks/news/ Birdwatching during lockdown.
Writing that article motivated me to think whether I
could write an article for the local paper to give examples and encouragement to residents
and children to try birding in their own gardens, or whilst on an exercise walk. I circulated many friends to ask them to
send me their birding experiences, and I received some good and interesting accounts that
I hope to use to build into an article. Not sure which paper I will pitch it
at, but I will let you know when and if.
My enthusiasm appears to have motivated my daughter Sarah
and her husband Julian to have a well-stocked bird table and this is a
brilliant picture taken by Julian only the other day.
Holidays. I
am pleased to tell you that all our now abortive travel plans, have been
resolved. We did not want money back so the continuation in the future on
revised dates produced credit notes all round. Sure, you might say, what else
could they do. Well there has been some news about tour operators making life
difficult for travellers who wanted to opt out, so we were pleased that our
plans ran smoothly.
Whilst we have no idea
when we will be going away, from the weekend in Scarborough we have an extra
10% and from Tui in Majorca an extra 20%, and an extra 7 months annual travel
insurance for peanuts!!
Taxation. What? I am not a tax adviser (now!) but having used some of this downtime to include checking my PAYE for 2019/20, I again noticed an
Inland Revenue error which I have had 3 years in a row, each one leading to me
making (and getting) some tax back. This year it is over £100 so it was worth
the effort.
All I will say is that
if you have income from savings (dividends and deposits) and they exceed the annual
tax-free allowances make sure the Inland Revenue are using your figures. Code
notices have provisional adjustments for tax due on these amounts of income and
the actual amount for the year is not known until after the 5th
April. Only then can the correct tax be worked out.
There are too many
reports of tax liabilities being wrong. CHECK YOUR TAX CODING NOTICE and check
it again at the end of the year when you have the exact figures.
So, until further
notice..
T T F N
Pip Pip
Chin chin
Toodlepip
Tattyby
David
(The Ed: sends her love)
Hi David!
ReplyDeleteIt's been a while since I commented but I've been keeping up with the blog and enjoying the posts - sorry to hear you'll be ceasing regular posting, but given the circumstances it's understandable :(
Take care & stay safe - hope to see more posts in the future!
(P.S - popped in to let you know that there is a Great Spotted Woodpecker pair nesting at Markeaton Park once again. I recall you mentioning on a Sunday bird walk once that it's an unusual occurrence for them to do so in the park, so I thought you'd like to know)
Best wishes,
Casey
Tks Casey. the sole benefit of the virus is that I have been dedicated to birding my garden, and it has been worth every minute.
ReplyDeleteSwifts and Buzzards pass over, but an hour garden watching has been so worthwhile.
First was a wren repeatedly stocking it's nest with bedding (the dead grass area in the lawn is evidence), 2 Dunnocks constantly vanishing into the Cotoneaster, just one Blue Tit ignoring my feeder and visiting the feeding station 2 doors away, where they are serving fatballs and suet blocks, on a take-away basis! He's been doing this for over 3 weeks, but on his own. Had a flurry of diminuitive Coal Tits ravaging the seed feeder.
For entertainment, all the species that use the bird bath and require me to do midday top ups, but the best was thr wren that shot into an empty nest box, quicky emerging and going in the one next door!! Stupid boy!
Great to hear about the Great Spotted Woodpeckers. I would not like to guess where it is nesting, but about 8 years ago, a pair nested in the woods near the Mundy centre, and were filmed by the BBC for a bird watch programme. The noise of the calling hungry youngsters was incredible.
Keep birding