Normal Service will be resumed, when possible!

You may not realise it, but this is the 200^th post I have put on my blog, the first one over 4 years ago, on 24^th 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.

 The given title was:   "Social distancing does not apply Dad - we are all family."

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 5^th 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)

Now that IS a good question!!!

Good Afternoon.

It is Wednesday afternoon.

Mary & and I are OK and we hope you are too.  Sadly there is nothing avian-wise to currently report.

To check if you are operating as normal, below is a puzzle to see if your little grey cells are running OK.

This puzzle came from a cousin of Mary's, which, when it was put on a family group wattsapp produced a number of different answers.

You may put YOUR answer as a comment on this post.

Take care

D

A Rewarding garden bird watch.

Whilst on the one hand I think of next Monday as the end of week 3 of our 12-week virus isolation, it sounds better when you say 25% of the period has passed. On the other hand, 21 days out of 84 doesn’t sound so good! 

As we had 4 days isolation in Lanzarote and came home to go straight into UK confinement mode, I like to think we have done 25 days….it all helps.

I expect like many people, we started off on a positive note thinking how many things we could do to keep us occupied, made a list, added to it, and ticked off those completed. But there is a limit, and we have been so active while keeping occupied, our “to do” list is getting shorter. We long for rain, so that the grass will grow, and we can put “mow grass” back on the list. If the car does not move, then there is no car wash to add either. 

                        Oh blast!!! Sunday pm, strong wind has broken the sun brolly stand… on the list for Monday!

I could do more writing, but as I expect to be telling you next week, there are limits!!

A Mini-Bird survey.

HOWEVER…. I had an enjoyable hour on Saturday morning sitting in the garden with paper, pencil, coffee and bins, doing a census of all avian visitors in 60 minutes.

Every species I anticipated, did appear apart from Great Tit, and the only unexpected was a Feral Pigeon fly-by - I ticked off 7 species.

There was no clear winner, but the most interesting were Blue Tits  Leslie and Lesley (7 sightings), who repeatedly visited nest box No 4, on 3 occasions carrying nesting material, and sometimes they were both in the box at the same time. We are still not clear what stage they are at in the box. In a previous year, when the Blue Tits had youngsters, they were in and out non-stop, but that level of activity is not happening yet, and there is certainly no sign of food carrying.

One Blue Tit had a brief look in Nest box 2, but we are not sure if this is another family or not.

The next regular, also with 7 sightings, were the Blackbirds  Rodney and Cassandra who were just - busy. We suspect that they have more interest in another hedge, which is not very visible. Only saw Cassandra once in the hour.

Woodpigeon Will came 7 times in the hour and became quite predictable. In his last 4 visits, there were 8/9 minutes exactly between each visit, and he would arrive from right to left, low across the lawn, up and over the Lupins, and settle at the base of the feeder. Watching the Dunnocks through binoculars, it was clear that was a fussy eater and very adept at throwing out seed that did not appeal, an- d Will was quite happy to pick up this rejected fare. As I have said before - result = no weeds!

Dunnocks kept busy, interspersed with a bit of singing, but lacked any sign of amorous intentions in the 60 minutes monitoring.

With just 3 minutes left, it was good to see the Robin fly into a hedge, fly away, then come back for a good bath. When he had finished he hopped over the fence, only to come back 30 seconds later to wash the bit he had forgotten!

Very intermittent views of Magpies and carrion Crows completed the survey.

It was interesting, and I’ll do it again next week to see if things have changed.

Finally, if you have any birding experiences savour them …. they are few and far between at the moment!!

QI.  

12^th April was a key date for space travel. In 1961 Yuri Gagarin was the first person to do an orbital space flight, and 20 years later in 1981, the first space shuttle, Columbia, took off.

Next week I will tell you the result of my requested reader census, and in the light of the results, what I intend to do. Please let have your comment if you have not yet done one. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!!!

Happy Birding, as good as it can be!

My wonderful garden experiences

HELP….

…no wait a minute, we’ll leave that to later!!!

We’ve all come to the end of week 2 of our 12-week isolation, and I hope you are all as fit as you were at March 5. Mary and I are still cohabiting!!, and whilst we have plenty to do, I think we tend to say there is always tomorrow. I’ve made all the jigsaws I have, not having been sufficiently perceptive to stock up at the beginning of March, especially as I supervise the library sales stock of jigsaw, which currently stands at 45 jigsaws. 

Oh dear. It’s 6.30 on Sunday evening and I’ve just looked out of the study window to see what bird life is around, only to see between the houses a flashing blue light go past. Oh, it’s sad, you only think one thing.

As I’ve read all my fiction books, prompted by the TV programme the other night with Jonathan Ross at Pinewood studios, and where I worked in the film industry for 2 ½  years, I’m re-reading the history of Pinewood.  

Last week was a good start to my garden sightings, but for some reason, some of the cast have deserted me.

Don must have other things on his mind, because whilst he is seen passing through, and taking the occasional swift half from the bird bath, he is not loitering.

Will… he is so predictable, a fast landing by the Lupins and a quick hoovering up of the seeds discarded from the feeder, and he’s off to our neighbours’ roof.

Robin is clearly taking this washing regularly instruction very seriously and takes far more than the stipulated 20 seconds. Thursday, it was a good 3 minutes in the bath, which was great to watch. Not sure if this is due diligence, he’s dirty, or just likes the fresh water I top up daily.

I’m not sure if Blue Tits have an exclusive on the feeder – I know they think that they have sole occupancy of the nest box, but we do get the occasional visit to the feeder from Colin the Coal Tit who is obeying the government stand-off rules, by just going to the feeder hole and taking seed on a take-away basis.

What is for sure is that something IS happening in the main nest box. Les is quite frequently spotted flying across the garden, and straight into the nest hole. I guess he must have an alternative non-vegetarian source of food in a neighbour’s garden. I also saw one having a bit of a battle with his/her better half= one was quietly choosing seed from the feeder and was subjected to a side swipe by the other.

Friday, finally with some relief from my back pain, I was able to do some tidying up of the plant pots.   Rodney dropped in with Cas, but she didn’t stay so he came a bit closer along the fence and we had a few words. I told him “Dave, I’m going to clean up the feeder and top it up with fresh food” (which I did), so I’ll see if he comes back tomorrow. He did.

(I appear to have morphed into the world of fiction.. must be something to do with this self-imposed exile)

To other matters…

QI News         

On this day 5^th April 1997 the Grand National was postponed until the 7^th April 1997  due to a bomb threat.    On 5^th April 2020 it was postponed until who knows due to Corona 

Virus.

By the way, all the supermarkets round here are completely out of sombreros, tequila, pinatas, paella etc. They put it down to Hispanic buying.

I was pleased to have a poem what I wrote (!!) a couple of years ago, published in the Derby Telegraph this week. It was about the patient care by Derby NHS and I had slightly amended it to include a reference to Corona. I’ve had one follow up call.

HELP….Do I have any followers???

It is sad that so many businesses, charities, tourist locations etc are closed because of the virus, and my blog last week would not have existed but for the garden news  (Not much better this week!)

I struggled enough with my monthly blogs for last September> December, but the next  10 weeks are going to be even harder.

As my blog has been running for over 4 years, since December 2015 and with 197 posts, I have never known how many people are still interested and read my missives.

What I would like you to do please, is to put a comment at the end of THIS communication and send it to me, so that  I have my first ever feedback of the number of my followers.

All I want you to do please is to enter in the comment box a pin number made up of the first 2 and last 2 numbers in your full birth date, together with your country of residence.  For Example, mine will be 2639 England.   And that’s all. It tells me nothing about you, but each number that gets posted relates to  one follower.

Please do this whilst it is fresh in your mind. I have in my mind how many followers I want to keep me writing, otherwise the end could be in sight.

You have no excuse not to do it... you have plenty of spare time!!!

I will let you know the total response.

Thanks

Happy birding, if you can!

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”!

Slimbridge 10? Devon 23?...... after the Lord Mayors show 1!

As I exceeded my word entitlement last week, I had to carry over the QI items. So, I am doing them at the beginning!!

Simons Trivs

In his varied working life, my brother Simon was an occasional coach driver, and when we go to see him in Brixham, we invariably get the courier treatment in his beautifully maintained XJ8 4litre Jaguar round part of South Devon. These are examples of the snippets from our tour guide!

Starting with the top birding spot of Berry Head, Berry Head lighthouse is reputedly the shortest lighthouse at only 16 feet high. But if you add the depth of the weight that holds the rotating light, in a shaft 148 ft deep, it becomes the tallest.

Newton Abbot Racecourse.  Apparently this is the only UK racecourse in which Prince Charles in his short racing career, stayed on board for an entire race.

The Church of Our Lady is a catholic church in Brixham. It is unique as it has a car park on the roof. This can be seen on YouTube.           

In 1847, the vicar of All Saints church in Brixham, Henry Francis Lyte, wrote the words of “abide with me” a hymn sung at sports matches throughout the world. He died in the same year that he wrote the hymn.

           

And now to some Hornifology!!

Another snippet from my favourite nature writer in the Daily Telegraph. I think we have all heard that the Wren is the most common UK bird, in fact with 11 million ….. PAIRS!… that’s 22 million wrens.

The top 5 common birds include Chaffinch, Robin, House Sparrow and Wood Pigeon. Yep, I have all of these in my garden.  But the species with falling breeding numbers sadly includes perhaps surprisingly Chaffinch, Lapwing and Oystercatcher. Not surprising is the Turtle Dove with a breeding reduction from 75,000 pairs in 1997………. declined to just an estimated 3,600 to-day.

I told you in my last blog, almost entirely about Slimbridge, about the demolition of the Holden Tower hide and it’s replacement by an ultramodern bird hide, and a blog follower asked about the name Holden.

My research indicated that The Holden Tower was built 54 years ago in 1966 with a generous donation by Mr Duncan Holden in memory of his father, Mr Peter Wood Holden who died in 1965 aged 92. The son wanted the observation tower to be erected in memory of his father, close to the sea wall with views over the Dumbles and Rushy Pen, which indeed it has.

I suppose when I told you about the cracking 10 days that I reported in my last two posts, with 33 species, it’s a bit of a come down to have a day out and get a count of….Nil., Zilch, Zippo, diddly-squat.  And it wasn’t for the want of trying.

I set off on Tuesday February 18^th and drove to Broomhead Reservoir, NW of Sheffield. 

The target was Crossbill, which I had seen there on 2 out of 3 previous visits. But not today. Some consolation was that it was dry, although water was cascading across the path in places, off the steep hillside filled with fir trees. Those firs were the saving grace, as they were virtually infested with Tits, in particular Coal Tits, and for good measure 2 very visible foraging Tree Creepers. (sounds like the same Tits and Creepers scenario from last week at Haldon Forest but without the Siskins that were prominent there).

I then drove to Old Moor and checked the daily sightings log.  Maybe because of the absence of Amanda, there was nothing reported to get out of bed for, so after a quick snack I drove the 7-roundabout journey to the Old Moor satellite site at Adwick upon Dearne.

I’d been there twice before with varying success, and the RSPB website reports indicated that both Partridges had been sighted… but not by me. It was a nice walk with large areas of water to scan, no doubt enhanced by the recent rain. 3 Little Egrets and good numbers of lapwing and Greylags, but sadly not what I wanted to find in the bushes – Fieldfare, Brambling, Redpoll etc. 

Sunday 23^rd February, I spent the morning at Carsington.

By the way, a new parking system starts at Carsington on the 25^th February. Your cars’ arrival and departure are logged by Big Brother, and you pay for your time calculated when you leave.  I have no doubt that takings will increase, because there are sadly too many incidents of non-payers, and the exchanging of tickets with unutilised time. These will not happen with the new system. 

From a selfish point of view I hope that Carsington does not move to paying by credit card only. I encountered this system 2 years ago, in Dorset, at Hengitsbury Head, and not having taken a credit card with me, I could not park = lost revenue to the site.

For those of you who read my blog, I spoke to the centre manager this morning, and he tells me that there are no price increases added to the changes, and also there is a free 15 minutes (not there before) if for example you just want to pop in, say to collect seed from the RSPB, or drop someone off.

There was a fun run on this morning, so the site was very busy at 9.45am. And the wildlife centre was also busy, mainly with scope toters hoping to see the Jack Snipe. According to Simon Roddis, there were 3 on Horseshoe Island yesterday, but nobody had any joy today whilst I was there. As you will see below, probably because they have been flooded out.

Birders did see 3 Curlews that dropped in, and there was a loud "heads up" to catch the passing Kingfisher, and one chap and I both saw the Sparrowhawk disappearing into the woods at Shiningford North creek.

Finally, a Carsington Water view that I have never seen in 21 years…  yes it really is.....  Horseshoe Island, with a 100% full reservoir….and more water to come??

 Happy Birding.