BIRDS : ~
I mentioned the Blackcaps overwintering recently, and I have just had a report of a Chiffchaff singing by the riverside.
Normally a summer visitor only , it's just possible that this was one of the Siberian subspecies, which like the Blackcap are starting to overwinter here.
Both these birds , like all our summer warbler visitors , are insect feeders , and the severe cold must have hit them hard, since the insects vanish .
There are however reports from the Midlands of birds living on sewage farms , near to main river courses. The warmth generated by the farms processes is enough to keep insects hatching al year round.Since we have exactly those conditions, perhaps the report is credible.
I shall keep my ears open.
Kingfishers are about on the river again : seen two in the last week.
The Goosanders are still with us.They seem rather more nervous than last year,
and fly off at the slightest disturbance , very fast and low. Most powerful fliers.
Many birds are starting pairing and nesting behaviour.
I watched some Jackdaws yesterday inspecting a nearby chimney pot, and talking to each other...doubtless discussing how to remove the wire thingy put there to prevent them nesting !
Jackdaws are intelligent and highly social birds, and I've always liked them ,ever since trying to rear a foundling when I was a boy. Like many at that time , I had read Lorenz's " King Solomon's Ring " about his studies of his local Jackdaws in Austria , a bestseller in the 1960s.
I kept the bird in a disused bathroom at school, and fed it three or four times a day,and it was doing well, jumping on to my shoulder and nibbling my ear. Whilst I was absent , it drowned in the toilet whilst trying to fly.
But I had about a month of its company , and it was a moving experience.
Plants :
The snowdrops are well out, and the first Aconites are now opening in a few shady spots. Otherwise the season is running perhaps two weeks late , and the overnight snow is somehow depressing : this feels like the longest winter I can recall.
RANT :
Litter :~
I have just spent a pleasant hour in the winter sunshine with a binbag clearing litter
from the riverside track , something I have taken to doing a couple of times a year.
This is not some selfless public act , I just hate the stuff, and I'd sooner not look at
it every day, and it's not a deal of bother to carry a binbag .I made a small dent, but there's lots more to do.
Now is a good time, since the vegetation is at its lowest , and you can get at the stuff.
Litter that persists is of three kinds :~
Bottles , glass and plastic, and beer cans.
Crisp and sweet wrappers of the metallic/plastic kind.
We know that these are largely dropped by teenagers :it's just one of the things they do,
like lying in bed all day and grunting. The Sports Field suffers most, and parts of it are a mess and would benefit from a cleanup.
And the third , most curious kind : the plastic bag containing the Doggy Deposit, often hung
from a branch.
I cannot fathom the attitude that produces these.
The By-Laws say you should clear up after your dog , and there are a couple of bins in places round the village.
Fair enough , and many conscientously use them , despite the fact they are often overflowing.
But why obey the rule to bag it , then , presumably in a fit of resentment against authority, leave the damn bag to hang in perpetuity for all to see ?
Frankly , where surfaces are not paved and there is plenty of vegetation, much better just to leave it unbagged, since at least it has a chance to rot away naturally.
If entombed in a brightly coloured bag , it will last for years.
There are several spots which have obviously been used as a dump over long periods.
I don't buy the excuse that they were going to pick it up on the way back.
Forget once , fine, but many times ?
And there are obviously several of these phantom decorators at work. I suspect that no-one would ever catch them at it...
Perhaps dog-owners should revive the use of the houlette , the old shepherd's tool for flinging the valuable fertiliser where it was needed :~
Lest I be accuse of being another anti-dog whinger, I'm rather fond of them ,
as many friends will I hope attest, though not an a dog owner myself.
This is not anti-dog, but anti-squalor.
***********************************************************************************************************
I mentioned the Blackcaps overwintering recently, and I have just had a report of a Chiffchaff singing by the riverside.
Normally a summer visitor only , it's just possible that this was one of the Siberian subspecies, which like the Blackcap are starting to overwinter here.
Both these birds , like all our summer warbler visitors , are insect feeders , and the severe cold must have hit them hard, since the insects vanish .
There are however reports from the Midlands of birds living on sewage farms , near to main river courses. The warmth generated by the farms processes is enough to keep insects hatching al year round.Since we have exactly those conditions, perhaps the report is credible.
I shall keep my ears open.
Kingfishers are about on the river again : seen two in the last week.
The Goosanders are still with us.They seem rather more nervous than last year,
and fly off at the slightest disturbance , very fast and low. Most powerful fliers.
Many birds are starting pairing and nesting behaviour.
I watched some Jackdaws yesterday inspecting a nearby chimney pot, and talking to each other...doubtless discussing how to remove the wire thingy put there to prevent them nesting !
Jackdaws are intelligent and highly social birds, and I've always liked them ,ever since trying to rear a foundling when I was a boy. Like many at that time , I had read Lorenz's " King Solomon's Ring " about his studies of his local Jackdaws in Austria , a bestseller in the 1960s.
I kept the bird in a disused bathroom at school, and fed it three or four times a day,and it was doing well, jumping on to my shoulder and nibbling my ear. Whilst I was absent , it drowned in the toilet whilst trying to fly.
But I had about a month of its company , and it was a moving experience.
Plants :
The snowdrops are well out, and the first Aconites are now opening in a few shady spots. Otherwise the season is running perhaps two weeks late , and the overnight snow is somehow depressing : this feels like the longest winter I can recall.
RANT :
Litter :~
I have just spent a pleasant hour in the winter sunshine with a binbag clearing litter
from the riverside track , something I have taken to doing a couple of times a year.
This is not some selfless public act , I just hate the stuff, and I'd sooner not look at
it every day, and it's not a deal of bother to carry a binbag .I made a small dent, but there's lots more to do.
Now is a good time, since the vegetation is at its lowest , and you can get at the stuff.
Litter that persists is of three kinds :~
Bottles , glass and plastic, and beer cans.
Crisp and sweet wrappers of the metallic/plastic kind.
We know that these are largely dropped by teenagers :it's just one of the things they do,
like lying in bed all day and grunting. The Sports Field suffers most, and parts of it are a mess and would benefit from a cleanup.
And the third , most curious kind : the plastic bag containing the Doggy Deposit, often hung
from a branch.
I cannot fathom the attitude that produces these.
The By-Laws say you should clear up after your dog , and there are a couple of bins in places round the village.
Fair enough , and many conscientously use them , despite the fact they are often overflowing.
But why obey the rule to bag it , then , presumably in a fit of resentment against authority, leave the damn bag to hang in perpetuity for all to see ?
Frankly , where surfaces are not paved and there is plenty of vegetation, much better just to leave it unbagged, since at least it has a chance to rot away naturally.
If entombed in a brightly coloured bag , it will last for years.
There are several spots which have obviously been used as a dump over long periods.
I don't buy the excuse that they were going to pick it up on the way back.
Forget once , fine, but many times ?
And there are obviously several of these phantom decorators at work. I suspect that no-one would ever catch them at it...
Perhaps dog-owners should revive the use of the houlette , the old shepherd's tool for flinging the valuable fertiliser where it was needed :~
Lest I be accuse of being another anti-dog whinger, I'm rather fond of them ,
as many friends will I hope attest, though not an a dog owner myself.
This is not anti-dog, but anti-squalor.
***********************************************************************************************************
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