Sorry about yesterday's truncated Blog but when I got home from the camera club it seemed too late to sort it. It was a good evening. They had a competition (not including me) to see who had got the best results from a disposable camera. Some of the photographs were incredibly good considering the cameras have no controls except a shutter button and a sliver of plastic for a lens. In some cases the cameras has made better exposure decisions than I used to make with a pre-digital job. And nobody had cheated because Brian at the shop developed and printed them all. Also Lynne, who I knew from my last sojourn with the club, pointed me in the direction of a photo-site called Geograph click here where local photographers enter their work. So all you need to do is enter a postcode in the Search Box and you are rewarded with good quality pictures of wherever you are interested in. It's quite addictive ! I've already had a quick look at Llandudno.
Picture 1 is some ducks which are a hangover from yesterday. Bungus says they might be gulls. As you all know I'm no ornitholigist so he might be right.
Picture 2 is self explanatory. Now, - if you were a coal-tit would you not find the restaurant irresistable? And would you not remain at your table, ignoring the paparazzi 25yards away quietly operating a camera through a discreet window? Of course you would. So why don't Brinsley coal-tits conform?I know I get obsessed, but while in Nottingham today, I bought an electronic shutter-release cable for my Nikon so that I can be even more unobtrusive. Jill has been kind enough to already 'comment' favourably on the set-up and calmly reports Woodpeckers on the lawn and Goldcrests the other day. And this is in London. If she were to put out the remains of a roast, she would no doubt attract a Vulture!
Bungus raised the issue of his mother's burnt cooking. Until I was 14, I thought the way to make toast was to put it under the grill until it caught fire; then take it outside the back door and scrape it. Because that was the way she made it every morning.
Before everybody loses interest I have strong opinions about the Sterne Report on Global Warming. They had two decades of weather like this summer in Tudor times. No doubt they blamed all those plantagenet 4X4s. I would have more confidence in the report if it didn't say at the end 'Commisioned by HM Treasury'.
Last news item - the dahlias are done-for...............
I like your bird-feeders - do you have trouble with squirrels unscrewing/chewing through the bases to get at it? I have a contraption a bit like a hat stand, you shove the metal spike in the ground and there are four 'branches' and I hang different feeders on each one. This is supposed to be squirrel proof, but nobody has told the squirrels. Delighted to see a green woodpecker on the lawn this morning, don't see them very often. Not a very bright specimen, digging away at the still frozen lawn, whereas the jays were doing the same thing round the edge where the sun had unfrozen the grass. But he seemed to be getting something - do the worms come to the surface when it is frosty? Would have thought they would have burrowed deeper.
ReplyDeleteThis pic ain't gulls, its some sort of ducks, me duck. (It woz the white bods on your second pic yesterday as I reckoned might be Gulls). My first thought here was the dark heads could be Mallard (but bills look too white, so possibly Tufted Ducks?) and the redheads are most likely Smew (I think!). I want to know for sure (Wild Things) so please email me the pic and I'll forward it to my ornithological expert. I'm never sure about the plurals for ducks; I've always had a feeling that Mallard are like Sheep - must look it up.
ReplyDeleteThe Coal Tits are difficult to find, hidden in the foliage as they are, but you don't often see so many together - I counted 13.
I smile at the idea of you being unobtrusive. Have you tried hiding behind a lamp post?
I know you are a considerable sceptic. Did Frank Sinatra shoot JFK? Should we all start smoking again? Is sucking lead soldiers a good idea after all? I found reading 'How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World' made me even more suspicious. On the other hand, I think anything that gets Chelsea Tractors off the roads and back in the fields where they belong is a good idea. I certainly find mini motorbikes less of an irritation. Discuss.
Sorry, butI have just read part of your blog more carefully and need clarification to try and decide whether the conspiracy theory is yours or the Sterne gang's. What is the evidence for 2 decades of exceptionally hot weather in Tudor tmes? Have we not been told that this year has been the hottest ever recorded in Britain and is further evidence of an exceptional trend? All I can do is go on the bus and use low energy light bulbs.
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