Pages

Showing posts with label Facts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facts. Show all posts

not what I had intended

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

I was going to waffle on about discuss imprinting in wildfowl.  I was perhaps going to mention Konrad Lorenz (younger viewers may not remember black and white film of a bloke walking around with loads of geese following him).  I might have even mentioned his membership of the Nazi Party.  I was going to read some books and get some info and stuff.  To elucidate and enlighten and perhaps entertain.  Unfortunately, to justify all that nonsense, I needed a second view of a bird at a local park to check that my initial assumption was correct.  Basically, because the initial assumption was interesting, but unproven (that's science kids).  

Instead of all that, I proffer a picture and a brief synopsis (an abstract mayhaps) of what I might have waffled on about discussed had I found this bird last night, when in fact I found not much at all.


You see that Tufted Duckling? It thinks that the Mallard is it's mother. 

Perhaps.

0 comments

another series of random observations...

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

...and another moth free post.

There have not been many blog posts here lately, because not much is happening.   Unless you call grebes flying 'a happening'.  I've looked, but I haven't found much.  Not much happening, not much blogging.  That's how it works, innit.

A Yellow-legged Gull was recently seen on the patch, not by me either - see here.  Usually, if they stay for a little while, they stay for a long while.  If you get me.

There is a Chaffinch by my house that cheeps for most of the evening, almost constantly.  It is getting annoying.

I don't know anyone who wants Uruguay to win tonight.

That oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is still leaking.

Home made scotch eggs are quite lovely.

There is a programme on the telly on Thursday about Harpy Eagles.  It is an hour long.  Yummy.

The moths from the other day were a European Corn-borer and Dark Arches.  One is a pest, and the other looks nothing like the picture in my book.


Birdlife now have a blog going on called the Birdlife Community.  It's ace.  Get on it.  It's not just conservation, or doom and gloom.  Just check out this Woodpecker.  And their tag cloud is immense.


Micro moths are not necessarily really small.


This picture is of a butterfly, not a moth.




A tatty White Admiral doing, phwoar look at that underwing!

I lied about this being a moth free post.

0 comments

Ay up chuck!

Monday, April 12, 2010

An update on recent ornithological happenings that I have been witness to.

The Shopping Trolley Coots are on the third nest (as of Friday).

At a local park, there are more Pochards than last year, much courtship is going on.

Um, if I had ran a loo-list year list, it would now have Blackcap (h) on it.

Erm, I found a hole in a tree in a patch with a nesting Parakeet in it last week.

Errrrr, I have noticed this spring more than most the amount of birds that are feeding on the berries of Ivy and are still doing so in April.  I've seen some fierce competition between Blackbirds over bushes, obviously Wood Pigeons are stuffing down as many as they can but I've also seen Robins and Great Tits getting stuck in.  On Sunday however, there was a male Blackcap getting stuck in whilst the Blackbirds ignored it.  Strangely it constantly uttered it's alarm call - for those that don't know it is like two stones being hit together, perhaps even specifically rounded flints and a glancing blow chuck chuck chuck - and didn't seem to stop when feeding.  Nice, though, fresh from Africa.  Good bird.

Have a picture of a Wren instead.


A Wren doing digimonned by some thorns and water.

3 comments

Facts. Have them.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Due to a mixture of illness, training, weekends etc, I haven't really contributed much to the blogosphere (not that my witterings could be considered a contribution, but I digress). So here, especially for you dear reader, are some avifaunical facts that I have gleaned during the down time. Have them.


The relative size of a birds testes is the hallmark of female promiscuity.


Bullfinches are so highly strung that they can die in the hand for no apparent reason.


Sandhill Cranes are the longest known surviving species. A leg bone discovered in Nebraska was 9 million years old.


Woodpeckers have an ear at the end of their tongue.


The rectal pressure of an Adelie Penguin is 7psi. The same that is in a keg of lager.


Zugunruhe is heritable.


According to William Harvey, the Ostrich phallus is 'like a cow's tongue'


Mozart had a pet Starling. His work K.522 may be based on Starling song.


There is one accepted record in North America of an Eurasian Blackbird.


An annual productivity rate of 0.65 chicks will maintain a Stone Curlew population.


Adolf Hitler is partly responsible for the presence of the breeding Avocets in Britain.


I have difficulty in spelling the word 'wierd'.


Coots evidently taste better than Moorhens.


I may, or may not, be Bill Oddie.



Coot young doing ugly.

2 comments

Eat my facts.

Friday, May 08, 2009



Another high tide yesterday lunchtime, and as I trudged towards the river bank, I was filled with thoughts of 'can I be arsed with this today?'. Probably a reflection of the dour mornings work more than anything else...

As I got to the river, a Common Sandpiper flew along my side of the bank and when it got within about ten feet of me, it changed direction and shivered off to the other side. Suddenly I really could be arsed.

Fact - the first passage Common Sandpiper on this patch in 2008 occured on exactly the same date.

Fact - that fact is awesome.

Of course, I should supply you with a stunning flight shot of a Common Sand here. I don't have one. So here is a swift. In flight. Natch.

0 comments

Patch tick!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Eat these facts!


Fact - there was a Blackcap singing in the trees by the Hurlingham Club at lunchtime.



Fact - I have never heard or seen them in this area before.



Fact - that makes it a patch tick.



Fact - that makes it 72 for the patch. Seventy two!



Fact - that makes it 50 for the year.

Fact - er, result.



Fact - um...

Fact - this semi-albinistic Blackbird has held it's territory from last year.





That'll do on the facts I reckon.

0 comments

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Related Posts with Thumbnails