Always end on a bang!

Monday 7^th November,

What a sad coincidence…I signed off my blog on Sunday 6th with the catchphrase that I often use on e-mails etc. and which  Jimmy Young used to use - TTFN, and the next day I heard he has passed on.

Tuesday 8^th November.

With the news last week that the Tower hide at Attenborough is now accessible, Chris and I decided to have a morning birding. The tower access was a bit like climbing a building site through the scaffolding, with no hard hats, but all very secure and plenty of hand rails…………….. and well worth the climb!

From the hide, we picked up a pair of Goldeneye, the male looking strange, still with some black feathers, presumably still in moult. 4 non-birders came in saying they would love to see a Water Rail. After about 5 minutes, I spotted one swimming by the reeds,  then working its way along the reed edge. It was a privilege to see how absolutely elated the visitors where.

In the space of about 2 hours, we saw 40 species, which was an excellent count. On the main path, we were buzzed by a wren, and watched a cute little Goldcrest searching for food. Aint it better when the leaves have gone!

RACING FROM TEESIDE

The Oracle has been following form over the last 2/3 weeks of the 2 runners in the 200-Species flat race.

29^th October saw CS Supremo have a good outing at Skegness, and the odds improved dramatically from 195 to 199. Super AP Grandma had a 3-day training session at Teesside last week, and came through strongly with a good boost also of 4 points, to 196. With just 48 days to go until the end of the season, the favourite has to be CS Supremo, but don’t write off Supergran she has a very good stable mate. It’s anyone’s race.

Ed; Does anyone know what he’s rambling about now? I don’t like subliminal messages.

Thursday 10^th November.  I gave the 27^th talk about the Carsington Osprey Project to 35 members of the Derby Probus Club. This the second time I’ve talked to a Probus Club, which is made up of PROfessional and BUSiness men. They meet for a good lunch then have a speaker afterwards. 

The 3 gentlemen enjoying a few after-lunch zzz’s were invited back to my talk, by my moving in their general direction and slightly raising my voice! Anyway, thank you – they did collectively donate £50 towards the Carsington Osprey watching plans.

Reverting to Tuesday and my visit to Attenborough with Chris, I must admit that as we were leaving, our conversation was reduced to an hilarious level about something nothing to do with birds.

As we got back to the car park, Chris looked at her watch, and said “that’s good, I’ve done xx footsteps this morning”. She explained that John had given her a watch incorporating a Walking Step Counter with a secondary dial showing the steps. She then turned on her i-phone to show a histogram record of her steps on an hourly basis. As examples, for the previous day, one tall column was when she walked home instead of using transport, whereas in the evening virtually no bites indicated she was watching TV. I looked at later times and commented, “I see you only got up once during the night!!!!!!”, which produced the answer, “ That’s wrong…………..wait a minute - I don’t wear my watch in bed”. 

I think a counter could be good for Mary, she often asks how far is it from a to b, or how far have we walked? 

Ed: Don’t think you’re getting off that lightly for a Xmas present.

Why do some people get their kicks in such selfish ways? Skylarks, a fairly new nature reserve near Nottingham, made the regional TV recently, thanks to some idiots setting fire to and destroying a new pond dipping platform. Maybe, just maybe, one day they will appreciate that their children would have enjoyed a facility like that.

I see Slim Bridge corrected my geography last week about Lynmouth v Lynton – I stand corrected. 

Got my own back, because I found that in a string of replies, if I delete one in the middle, all the following threads go as well. So his question, and my reply, to “What is a Petard”, (it’s a small bomb) was deleted!

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