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

The Monthly Flyer. November 2019 No 4(b)

A clean pair of heels? - well, legs-yes!!

After my unusual bonus blog a couple of weeks ago, here we go back to (sort of -) normal. I did have a couple of positive comments on my culinary delights, so maybe I should try my hand at fiction!!

Good bits of news from Carsington.  On 2^nd November a Great Northern Diver was reported by Carsington Bird Club.    Much earlier than in recent years, but the experts id’d this one as a juvenile, so maybe we have yet to see a/the returning adult which is normally in the first half of December.

I popped in for a while on Sunday when Amanda and Mac were on duty, and we located the Diver in the area they often frequent, in the middle of the reservoir near the line of red buoys.

The other Carsington news is that for almost the first time since May 2016, with the water this week at 97.2% full the level is so high that you can see from the Wildlife Centre that it actually IS a horseshoe Island.   Whilst this good level stops people encroaching on the islands, it is not exactly conducive to waters edge waders.

As you know my 2019 UK target of 200 species has well fizzled out, so it was good to hear that Amanda is currently on the magic 200, and she still has time to spare to get even higher. In 2018 she scored 207, so a higher figure in 2019 is still a possibility.

In the last 7 days I have twice read a news item from the Dubai air show which made me ponder.

The Airbus company observed that migrating birds, geese in particular, have a tendency to fly in a  V-formation so that the birds that are behind the leader, by flying in it’s wake, use less effort in propelling themselves forward.

OK, that’s a given, well understood by birders. Now, Airbus are advocating that aircraft should emulate this technique by flying close behind each other. Really?  How can you have that situation?   

I can think of only 2 circumstances when this technique could be applied in reality.

The Red Arrows flying in formation

A Royal fly past down the Mall!

I mean, let’s face it, can you see 6 Thomson holiday flights all taking off from East Midlands airport at 6.00am within 5 minutes of each, loitering until they are all assembled in a V and heading off SSE to the Middle of France.  Then “Douglas Bader” despatches Tail-end Charlie to Faro, next to Majorca, number 3 to Milan. The remaining 3 re-group, down the Adriatic, when No 4 veers off for Naples, 5 lands in Athens and “leader” goes solo to Pathos. 

With a stretch of the imagination that could work, but I couldn’t see different airlines coordinating the timetables. Mike O’Leary would always want the best deal for Ryanair and would therefore always want to avoid being the leader.

And what about coming back?  Should all flights have a “meeting area” above  say Corsica, where they would circle until all 6 had re-grouped. Now THAT would waste some juice.

Sorry, can’t see this being a goer.

What else in the news?   I’ll bring you up to speed on some recent leg purchases.

For a long time I have wanted a walking cane with a handle in the shape of a leg, but until recently they have eluded me. Then I came across one, and then a second, and those are the 2 metal handled examples in the picture. The third one is, I think, a nicer one because it is carved, and whilst I am not used to walking with a stick (yet!) in a short trial run, I found the handle nicely fitted in the palm of the hand.

The other photos include something that I had never seen before. I have seen many examples of trench-art, particularly those ostensibly made by soldiers in the trenches from discarded pieces of brass etc, from military shells. So when I came across one in the shape of a shoehorn, whilst we at an antique fair near Exeter last week, it had to be added to my collection.

…. And the same with the weeny leg shaped piece of mother-of-pearl which s shown on the shoe-horn to compare the size.

Whilst we were away in Exmouth last week, I went on another of the bird watching trips up the Exe to Topsham and back.    Not very different from the February trip and nothing to add to my static 2019 count. A Rock Pipit was a nice sighting on a marina wall, a Peregrine was visible on one of the spires on Holy Trinity Church, and there were lots of Oos and Ahhs for the Avocets.

Just wish the “spotter” had been the competent David Smallshire; our spotter lost his bearings in using a clock face basis (North 12.00; East 3.00 etc.) Let’s hope it is DS when I go next February.

I had a call from Gill, who was thrilled to have a Jay drop in for a brief landing in her garden. She has seen them doing a fly-through to a nearby oak, but this one was obviously getting more sociable…or hungry!!

Finally……………  147 years ago - on the 30^th November 1872 - the first ever International football match -  watched by 4,000 spectators - Scotland v England.  Result 0-0  

Merry Xmas!!   (well, if all goes to plan, the next blog will be around Hogmanay!!)