Sunday March 3…. Welcome to World Wildlife Day
Wednesday afternoon, and I’m not ‘appy and I’m getting cross.
I’ve spent a long time trying to connect a
new light to the wall by the front door, aggravated by trying to connect a
typically thick power cable, to a footling little wire in the replacement unit.
The connection block (what I used to call a chocolate box) broke and I lost a
screw. Then when I got the replacement block and fixed it up, my stock of light
bulbs is all bayonet. Guess what, the
new unit is screw. Back to Wilkos!!
6 people in the queue… 7 tills I
cashier, and there are no fast cash payers...the cashier rings the bell for
assistance, but clearly there are only deaf staff on duty. FINALLY…...I’m in the roof top car park,
start the car engine and…………………… what the hell was that?????? Flying right,
straight across my eye line, one…. and then another… 2
Ring Necked Parakeets. ….about say 300 yards away
Which means, fortunately for
Mary, that my blood pressure was back to normal by the time I get home!!
I had seen Parakeets nesting in
Allestree Park last year and there have been further reports already in
2019. At least this year I will not
have to wait until my annual visit to Surrey to the Leatherhead Cemetery to
tick them off my year list.
Also, on Tuesday, I booked a few
days away in late spring at The Haven Hotel at the entrance to Poole harbour in
Dorset. Towards the end of our stay, I’m booked on yet another of my favourite
birding transport methods… by boat!!
The cruise this time is a new venue for me,
round Poole Harbour, Brownsea Island and up the estuary to Wareham. I remember in 1952 (Ed;
Why that year? It was the year of the Lynmouth flood
disaster), going on an enjoyable and
memorable (Obviously!) boat trip from Studland (Shell Bay) all the way to
Wareham, but feathered birds had not been invented then, well not be me!!
I hope to get news whilst I’m in
Poole on the ambitious Osprey project in the Harbour which started in 2018.
And the cruise booking went
wrong! ! found the web site, found the
trip, found the vacancies, booked a place. £10 very good value for 3hrs+. Wrong!! I’d booked a child ticket. I
considered whether I could blag it when we boarded but decided that arguing on
the edge of the quay side in the proximity of the harbour would be unwise, so a
humbling apologetic e-mail solved the problem, with an extra £6 cheque in the
post.
Just going back a tad, on Tuesday
we got some excellent service from a local picture framing business in Darley
Abbey, who reframed a water colour picture of Irongate and the Cathedral.
Martyn told us to come back in 20 minutes and it would be done.
You will recall
how exceptional the weather was on Tuesday, so we decided to stroll to the cafe
in Darley Park and sit outside with a couple of cups of Horniman’s Ed: Not Tetleys? …………… and……. watch 2 x Sparrowhawks circling over the A6!!
So that’s YTD = 108. Isn’t it amazing how calming and therapeutic
it is to have a birding experience when you don’t expect it?
Last week I started a grumble
about Hides. As I went there last week, I’ll start with the Holden Tower at
Slimbridge, and to a degree some of the other older hides there. Being short of
stature, in most cases I find I’ve really got to hike myself up on their high
stools. And then when I am there, I cannot fix my scope clamp to the shelf such
that I can look down in the viewfinder!!
OK, I know it’s partly me, but I do see others struggling. I went
through my personal mistake in the past, of buying a scope with a straight
lens, and changed to an angled scope. With angled, you should be able to stand
behind the scope, get a rough view of what you want to home in on, and then
just drop your head to the scope eyepiece.
What I have to do in the Holden Tower,
is loosen the scope barrel, and twist the body so that I then look sideways
into the scope. (Hope you understand
this… it’s clear to me!!). This is all because the window is so high above the
hide floor, and in the case of the Holden, with an added floor layer to step
up.
Getting down, I have more than
once lost my step because in what is a dark place, I misjudged the distance to
step down.
I notice a couple of the hides are
now closed (in the Zeiss area), so perhaps it is time for a bit of
modernisation in the bird watching area. We are the paying customers and as I
commented last week, Slimbridge (WWT) is a tad on the high side.
Food for thought, I hope.
Called in at Carsington this morning
and found that Amanda in anticipation that the weather was predicted to be
rough, had moved the BwB walk to the Sheepwash area. Quite productive with 42
species thanks no doubt due to 4/5 leaders.
I was pleased to hear that the
DWT have been in this week and given two of the Osprey nests a make-over, both
in the same day. The most natural one, the old oak at Fishtail Creek, and the
most popular one at Lane End. Keep watching!!
And talking of keeping watch,
Simon Roddis was cock-a-hoop having seen a Sand Martin this morning flying
through. 3rd March!!!, 8 days better than the previous record for
Carsington.
Oh, by the way, when I screwed
the replacement bulb in………… the bl***Y light didn’t work!
Happy Birding.
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