Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Part 1 of how many, I don't know. But certainly at least two.
When I leave this patch to go here, I will miss this.
Yep, that is the view of the shopping trolley Coot nest from Friday. Empty, no eggs or chicks visible but the adults were still knocking about (as they always are). The nest really is enormous now, and is likely to last the winter to leave a much better base for earlier success next year.
I would think that this is the last time that I will set eyes on this (eventually painful) scene for two reasons. Firstly is that there is little point in going this far up the Wandle if the Coots are not nesting, and secondly the Coots are not nesting.
It has been quite a rollercoaster watching these bloody birds over the last few years, and to a certain extent they have come to represent the the blog itself (although the image that adorned the header for quite some time was from a bird that lives some 8 miles away), although qualifying that statement might be a bit tricky to be honest. What I do know however, is that the day that I found that they had actually produced young was as high as the day was low when I found that they had all gone to the big shopping trolley in the sky. Which might tell you something.
Anyway that's enough navel-picking-shoe-gazing-introspective nonsense for one day. Yes I'll miss them but they bollocked my nut in for most of each year, see ya!
Monday, August 16, 2010
What was the relevance of the title of Friday's post? What is the relevance of this one? Firstly, none whatsoever and secondly none until I'm done here today. You still with me?
Here is how it all ties together. Trying to find witty or even slightly different titles for posts can be a bit taxing. Now, on the way to work on Friday, rather than the dulcit tones of John Humphreys, I was listening to some of Screamadelica by Primal Scream, as you do. In the track Don't Fight It, Feel It the backing singer(s) sing the line (taken from the superb Rocket Reducer No. 62 by the MC5 as some of you know) 'Rama Lama Lama Fa Fa Fa'. And it stuck in my head. So for my own amusement, I put it as the title of the post. So far so innocent. That's the first bit out of the way. The second answer, and a little installment of wierdness is that because of that post title a link to my blog ended up on a kind of daily whereabouts blog thing for the Dalai Lama.
No shit - click here.
How totally bizarre.
Erm, have a picture?
A Heron doing itchin' an' scratchin'
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Maybe that's over-egging it a bit. Maybe a mile-pebble. Or a yard-stone. I'll explain in a bit. Firstly, birds...
Like many other London birders yesterday I was hoping for some migrant action yesterday. Specifically I was hoping for a singing Blackcap and possibly a hirundine. I failed miserably on both as you might have expected. There was a brief and excellent view of a male Sparrowhawk which may well be nesting in the same place as last year as the female has been seen intermittently too. Other than that there was a Black-headed Gull. Just the one. And just the once. The numbers have been steadily going down and now all I am left with is the stragglers. Of course when the gulls leave the patch for the summer they are replaced by...well nothing actually. I just lose about 60-70% of the physical numbers of birds which can be annoying when the remainder are in trees or are Coots.
Believe it or not this is the 300th post on this blog, no honestly. To mark this rather dubious milestone I've added some more birdy blog links on the birdy blog links on the birdy blog bit on the right. It includes the excellent Tower 42 project, some patch birders local and not so, an Amurkn and Ray. My mother thinks Ray is amusing. I think he's a bit bonkers, in a nice way. Feel free to make your own mind up...
Here is your utterly relevant picture.
A Heron doing in focus and sharp and perhaps even verging on a decent photo!
Normal service will resume shortly.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Yesterday, same as the day before and the day before.
Staking out areas that migrants can be seen from, whether they are passing through or expected to stay. No joy. Not a sausage. The birds in the sky are gulls. Or Cormorants. Or both. But not raptors. The birds on the ground are pigeons. Or Moorhensn. Or both. But not waders.
My only consolation yesterday was a pair of Stock Doves on the foreshore. Delicate little things. Nervy. Not like the bolshy pigeons. Nice, subtle birds.
Not migrants though.
It is at this point, as this is the second year of incarnation, I think that the patch blog must become repetitive. The seasons change, and pretty much the same things happen time and time again, year after year. For all I know I could be writing exactly the same shit this year as I did last year with perhaps very minor differences in dates and numbers, but I'm not checking. As far as I'm concerned, if it was good enough for Gilbert White...
A Stock Dove doing subtle so well that it isn't even one of the birds I saw yesterday.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Some time ago, there was a theory that I may have been Bill Oddie. I didn't say either way if I was Bill Oddie or not. It was fun for a while. However, I must now confess, that I am not, have never been, or indeed shall ever be Bill Oddie. I am not him. No siree, not me. He does not write (or likely even read) this blog.
Why have I confessed this after all this time? Because my cover has been blown! That's why. I am no longer just an anonymous bloke that witters on from an obscure corner of London about some rather ordinary ornithological occurences all the time. Someone knows what I look like, the anonymity is over.
I went to see these birds right, and there was a bloke there and I guessed who he was cos he told someone his name, and we spoke and he guessed who I was and he was right and now he knows what I look like and I know what he looks like and he knows that I'm not an old grumpy short bloke with a beard. So he knows who I am and I know that he knows who I am and he knows who I'm not but I knew that all along and he knows that this is me doing this and that all this 'cracks him up' and I know that he knows that this is not someone else. He knows my real name too because Thing isn't my real name nor is it Bill and I know his name but none of that was a secret anyway not really but it was anonymous until now and I was totally undercover but now I'm not because someone knows my face and nobody did before. Right? So there you have it, my confession. I say it again, I'm not Bill Oddie. I'm glad I'm not living that lie anymore.
A Treecreeper doing undercover, sort of.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Was pissing about with the Statcounter, and found that it had been counting all the hits since forever and now I've got one of those little total thingies way down on the right hand side. Last time I looked it was at 14000+.
I find it quite astounding that there have been over fourteen thousand hits on this blog. I say it again - astounding. Let's hope there is something worth clicking on Monday....
A Coot being counted.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Although it was just an innocent reference to something non-birding that had happened on the patch (to try and keep the interest going and put the place in some kind of context, yeah?), the statcounter showed that a fair few people wanted to see pictures of the accident on Wandsworth Bridge yesterday, and unfortunately for them they landed on this here blog. It amused me somewhat that they had arrived looking for pictures of carnage and blood soaked bodies being dragged out of a mashed up sports car and all they got was a rubbish picture of a Cormorant. Actually it really made me laugh. It amused me also that the number of hits on the blog went up because of this. It amused me that someone put the wrong bloody date in the search engine and still ended up here.
Cynically, I could now tell you that the young lad that biked round a park in Fulham for miles to raise money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake, was actually in the patch too. It's in a park that it really is called 'South Park'. I could cynically also mention Simon Cowell (because he conveniently jumped on the bandwagon to get his fizgog onto the front of the papers with the young lad - probably spoiling his day good and proper) and then I could cynically tag on some kind of sexual reference like 'Simon Cowell boob job pictures' or even claim to have secret recordings of Osama Bin Laden, but that would only result in the CIA or MK Ultra snooping around my ass. But that would be silly, and little more than occupatio. But it may amuse me some more to see the stats at the end of the day.
I've digressed quite a bit. I reckon that all the people that don't want to know about the 29th best patch in London have already sworn at me across the etherweb and have left. But then again, so might everyone else. Nonetheless, let's get right up to date with the patch. Stock Dove on the foreshore at lunchtime, Sparrowhawk (small male) being hassled by a crow at lunchtime too (nice). Two more patch year ticks. Still got a half dozen drake Teal knocking about, same for Gadwall but no Pintail at the moment. Gullage interesting, but nothing special amongst them all. No Yellow-legged Gull for ages.
The year list stands at 49.
A Cormorant on some nautical traffic lights. With guano.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Ok, that's enough of all this thinking for now, let's catch up on what little has been going on in the patch.
Birds of note as follows.
Monday. 1 Teal, 10 Gadwall.
Tuesday. 4 Teal (Male), 7 Gadwall, 1 Pintail (Male), Grey Wagtail (patch year tick 43), 12 Chaffinch
Wednesday. Zilch.
I seemed to have overlooked the staggering event that was the anniversary of the birth of this blog (two weeks ago now). Yep, this has been going on for a year now, so happy birthday blog. A teething and needy one year old problem child with an occasional attitude problem. But I still kinda like it.
Gulls doing accidentally blurry, but nicely.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Imagine if one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known was a blogger. It would make interesting reading, no? Imagine if this scientist was the scientific officer on a massive world trip in a boat named after a species of dog and every now and then he blogged for your interest, and just for good measure the captain of the boat did too. Sounds good doesn’t it? Imagine if that captain was called FitzRoy and that the scientist was Charles Darwin. Sounds really good now doesn’t it? You may well be scoffing at the idea – Darwin is long dead and they didn’t have the interweb in 1835 and nor do we have time machines now.
This is all true, but through the magic of pens, paper, time and somebody else’s computer you now can follow the travels of Darwin in real time – Charles Darwin’s Beagle Diary. What a bloody brilliant idea!
Lets have an anectode.
From ‘The Beak of The Finch’ by Jonathan Weiner
“When Darwin met Captain FitzRoy for his job interview, the Captain took an instant dislike to Darwin’s nose. The Captain was an amateur phrenologist and physiognomist, and prided himself on his ability to judge the character of his men by their skull bumps. FitzRoy felt sure that he was looking at the nose of a lazy man. He almost sent Darwin home.”
[Edit: Thanks to Harry for holding the link]
A Med Gull doing what it does.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Some of you may know about the 'blog carnival' thingies that are regularly published via the prolific 10,000 Birds. They are worth reading, and worth hitting those links as you never know what you are going to find beyond ones normal blog reading. The current offering, however is quite excellent (and not just because this humble blog is involved).
Check it out for yourself here - I and the bird #115
A Kestrel doing obligatory post photograph. On a post.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
That's right folks - Des is back on the blogoweb.
Birding Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens
A welcome return.
So here is a picture taken at said location.
Tawny Owls and a Magpie doing staring out
