Thursday, April 08, 2010
It is well documented that tired migrants will often use drilling platforms out at sea to rest on when on their migration, especially in more inclement weather. It is well documented that I don't see many (or perhaps any) migrant birds in this patch.
Put these two facts together, and I reckon it could all change because of this...
That's right kids, someone has gone and stuck an oil rig in the middle of the Thames right by Wandsworth Bridge. I shit you not. Alright it might not be an oil rig, but to the layman it really really does look like one. And it wasn't there yesterday.
There is nobody on it. It is just sitting there in all it's Mary Celeste like incongruous isolation doing nothing more than promoting questions amongst the commuters as they pass over the bridge. They are generally along the lines of 'What the...?', moving towards 'How the...?' or at the extreme end of the imaginations 'Is this how the Pharoah is going to pay the debt off at Craven Cottage?. I asked some nearby and busy looking cockney workmen if they knew anything about it, but they knew nothing either.
Intriguing for sure. The reality is something to do with a super sewer. And it is going to be noisy. Great.
Kept this goose interested though.
A Goose doing intrigued.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
I took some photographs of gulls yesterday morning. You could probably do without another one of my dodgy gull posts right now dear reader (the beady-eyed bugger is back by the way) so let me change direction a little.
I have been informed both by Natalie and by some signs up by the river bank, that there is a flash mob going on in Fulham tomorrow.
Now, I’m not entirely sure what a flash mob is to be honest, but if they had been about when I were a lad I doubt very much if I would have been allowed to go on one, because it would probably been filed along with 'Stranglers in dungareens' or some such. I think I am right in saying that a flash mob is akin to the T-Mobile advert on telly with the big twat singing a Bonnie Tyler song at the top of his annoying big twatty voice with a mobile phone waving in the air. Because it’s ‘like, uh, amazing’ or nonsense the kids trot out these days.
Anyway, I digress that this flash mob is going to be a little more sensible and constructive as all these people are going to turn up on the banks of the muddy Thames and pick all the rubbish up! For nothing! Loads of them, all at once! Honest.
Who are these people I here you cry? Well it's a charity called Thames21 and they are pretty organised too – interwebs everything! And they don’t just do it in Fulham. They do it all the time all over the river, and I have nothing but praise for them. At the time they are doing all this excellence, I will of course be a slave the Queen's coin, and cannot join in.
Here's a small example of what they are up against.
Rubbish doing rubbish.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
It seems that most London birders seem to be able to just look into the sky to pick up raptors at the moment, Kites, Buzzards, Ospreys and not long before some Honey Buzzards are popping through I guess (ie
http://cloaca65.blogspot.com/2009/04/big-blue.html).
Of course, large raptors have never ever been seen in
Fulham.
Ever.
So I have had to suffice with Geese. There are other birds around (including Coots - worry not dear reader - my inbox is inundated with no requests for an update, but an update on the mentalists you will get!) but the geese are the only ones that hang around long enough to take a shite picture of. So here goes - shite pics ahoy!
Greylag, with the obligatory traffic cone in the river.
Canada. They fly up the river, they fly down the river.
Egyptian, this one was doing a spot of preening after falling out with it's missus.
And er, that's it.
Have a picture of some Brent Geese that I didn't take in Fulham.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
A new webolink is on the right, which thanks to Jim and James shows blogs in a map format and it's filling up quick!
In the UK there seems to be a massive bias to the north west - are you guys the only ones with anything worth seeing? Do northerners have a disposition for blogging? I dunno, but at the moment I'm the only one in London.
The idea is that the maps show birding blogs that are reasonably site specific around the globe that have a birding bias, so should anyone be heading to an area they can have a look at what's likely to be there. The chances of anyone actually wanting a day out in Fulham is negligible. However, in the spirit of the map here is a picture of what to expect.
