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.
Monday, August 10, 2009
On Saturday there was a Little Egret at Brent Reservoir. It stayed overnight and was still there on Sunday. I understand that this is the first time that a Little Egret has been known to stay overnight, hence the title. Needless to say that it didn't hang around long enough on Sunday for me to see it. Which would have been nice. I did see a Kingfisher though, which is always welcome.
Later that same day, Mrs Thing and I were in one of the local parks, when a Heron was spotted in a tree (not by me initially I hasten to add). I proceeded to digimon it's arse off. As I was observing the Heron, my experience told me that it was going to evacuate it's bowels. As I was quite close, and it was pointing it's rear end towards me, I thought that I would retreat. Sure enough it pointed it's arse skyward and let a couple of pints out. If I had stayed where I was, it would not have got me, but you can't be too careful I reckon.
Knowledge is a wonderful thing...
A Heron doing stretching or something.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Here we are again. By my reckoning this is the third attempt at nesting in the shopping trolley this year. And again, the level of the nest is too low. However, today's interesting piece of detritus is a cucumber. No, really - a full size, cling film wrapped ready to eat cucumber.
Naturally, the first thing you do with a cucumber when you decide that you don't want it, or that you don't like them any more is to chuck it in the nearest water course. Dear reader, I struggle to understand why people do this.
Anyway, the high quality, high definition image below shows the gourd in situ, to the right of the bird.
You may as well have a couple of stunning Digimonoculared™ snaps of a Heron in the Wandle too. It found a lot of something small when I was watching it. Fish fry? Mitten Crabs? Shrimp?
Thursday, April 30, 2009
You might think from my scribbles and rants, dear reader, that there is little other than coots here. However, yesterday lunchtime I clocked up 24 mainly resident species, which is a good enough opportunity to run down what is hot, and what is not. This listing follows the system recommended by Voous (1977), but when he was a bit pissed up, yeah?
Mute Swan. 1 pair, on a nest for a couple of weeks now.
Tufted Duck. 11 pairs kicking about on the wandle, maybe more by the barges. Unlikely to breed.
Grey Heron. 2 regular with occasional others. Breeding not suspected.
Coot. 4 pairs. 1 pair more than last year. The extra pair have been forced onto the Thames. Successful breeding unlikely.
Herring Gull. Mainly non-breeding birds with the occasional adult. If they are nesting, I don't know where.
Wood Pigeon. I know of one nest being built - I suspect there are a couple more, and would be surprised if there are five or more.
Grey Wagtail. Not so prominent over the last few weeks, but did find a male yesterday in good habitat so hopefully the female was on a nest. Good prospects.
Wren. 3 or 4 singers - nesting suspected and likely.
Robin. Half a dozen singing throughout the patch. Likely breeder.
Carrion Crow. One nest known. At least 30 birds in the wider area. Will succeed in breeding.
Greenfinch. Common overwinter, but don't know if the noisy sites they liked then will be good for breeding. Tentative on their success.
Canada Goose. They fly up the river, they fly down the river.
Cormorant. Autumn numbers peaked at 93, but there are a few around but they don't much look like breeding adults to me.
Moorhen. 3 pairs. Have nested, but may have failed.
Lesser Black Backed Gull. 3 or more adults knocking around. Possible breeders but they need to hurry it up a bit.
Feral Pigeon. Don't care.
Ring-necked Parakeet. A few around - probably got a hole in Wandsworth Park somewhere.
Pied Wagtail. Occasionally seen, but wouldn't be surprised if they are tucked up in a corner.
Dunnock. 3 territories? Gawd knows how many birds, but should succeed.
Blackbird. At least 4 males around, almost guaranteed success.
Magpie. At least one pair, likely to nest but don't know if they will succeed.
House Sparrow. One nest known, same as last year - likely to succeed. There seems to be many more birds than nests.
Goldfinch. Present, but fuck knows what they are up to.
Others regulars but not suspected of breeding - Great Crested Grebe, Gadwall pair last week, GBB and the occasional fly by Black Headed Gull. Swifts have been seen in Wandsworth over the weekend so they should be around soon, followed by not bloody much else.
So here is a Heron, a chair, a fence post and a stone.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Yesterday was the day that all the passage birds came through my patch, and it will continue again today. The fly through Osprey, the Boney knocking about with the last of the Black Heads, the first singing Chiffchaff and of course the over shot Hoopoe. I know this will have happened because I didn't get out yesterday and nor will I today (thanks to the supervision of the removal of an RSJ yesterdayand a bidness lunch today).
So instead of an idiosynchratic take on what I have seen in the last 24 hours, have some pictures of a Heron from earlier in the week. My field craft was so awesome in my approach to this one, that I totally freaked out a bloke reading the paper in a quiet spot that he thought I was a wierd stalker and promptly upped sticks and farked orph.
They have been taken with my perhaps unique technique of Digi-monocularising™, or Digimonning™. This technique involves sticking the camera at the end of a monocular and taking two hundred photos in the hope that one is half decent.
