Very Late / Early Breeding Behaviour

Remember that prolific pair of Collared Doves that nested on the neighbours satellite dish and security light last year? After the last nestlings fledged, the neighbours decided that they'd had enough pigeon shite spattered just outside their back door and dislodged the now empty nest. How I laughed when I noticed the Doves collecting twigs and stuff from our garden bewteen 22nd - 28th December. By 29th, the new nest on the same security light was complete, and the female has been sitting tight on the nest since 31st. Surely the latest and earliest breeding bird in VC55 during 2008 / 2009?!

Rutland Water 04/01/2009

After a busy Christmas and New Year break, I was keen to get out and about and half decided early yesterday evening that a day in Norfolk would be great. That went to the wall though after a late night playing Wii games and the voice of sanity (ie - the wife) pointing out that we had other stuff that needed doing before the kids go back to school etc. So, I opted for a more sensible couple of hours pottering around the non-Egleton parts of Rutland Water. I started off at the dam - and it was fecking freezing. There is always a wind in your face along the dam and today was no different. After a short 'stop-scope-stop' walk I picked up a pair of Scaup - nice. No signs of any divers from the dam though, so I opted to head to Whitwell Creek. After scoping for 10 minutes or so, looking out to the open water from the creek, I was surprised by 2 Great Northern Divers that popped up fairly close in the creek. Bloody typical - camera was in the car. By the time I'd legged it back with the camera the divers had moved further out so only a poor distant record shot possible. Great Northern Diver - no fecking loons at RW today I then bumped into Matthew Berriman, Allan Pocock, Andy Forryan and Ben Croxtall who were returning from the other end of Whitwell. I quick chat and exchange of news and I was off to scope the open waters. A few minutes later, I'd added Red-throated Diver to the list for the morning, and then a drake Red-crested Pochard lingering on the opposite coast of the Hambleton Peninsular. By now I'd noted most of the common and regular wintering wildfowl and waterbirds, and also a few other species like flyover Golden Plovers and a small Dunlin flock. And it felt like my toes were missing. A half-arsed look from the end of Barnsdale Avenue failed to produce the two Black-necked Grebes. I nipped into the Egleton reserve with the intention of getting an annual permit - but soon abandoned that idea when I realised the cost had now escalated to £25 (for LRWT members like me who have already paid £18, or £50 for non-LRWT members). Fucking hell - put this into context by thinking of the number, diversity and excellence of the RSPB reserves you can visit for your £34 annual membership. You could even go to Loch Garten and see real Ospreys. Anglian Water can kiss my my big fat arse. A free glance at the feeders produced a handful of Tree Sparrows amongst the common finches and tits - always a favorite. I was now thoroughly chilled and decided to have a quick look at Eyebrook before heading home. EBR was partially frozen over though and not much about. I spent some time scoping the loitering large gulls in vain, and a busy Redshank on the island. Wigeon - add in the evocative whistling yourself I called it a day and headed home, where a quick check revealed a modest list of 58 species for the morning. More importantly, it felt good to feel toes again.

Rewind - Role Reversal

Here's a couple of snaps from the end of November (hence the rewind bit). One is of an extremely common and much maligned bird looking stunning, the other is of a very colourful and appealing winter visitor looking pants due to the distance and fading light that it was photographed in. Waxwing - Whetstone, 24th November 2008 Starling - Whetstone, 23rd November 2008

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to anyone who's listening. Can't believe that this blog has been negelected for so long. I diverted my interest with virtual synthesizers etc and then went down with a serious case of apathy. No resolutions, though I will make some effort to post something here more often than 3 monthly!

On this day / this week - Scillies 1996

October 1996 was a superb month for me, including a great Scillies trip. We'd booked our flights for Saturday 12th, but with exciting news hitting us leading up to the day, we set off early and arrived on St Mary's on Friday 11th. Immediately on arriving we hurried over to Sallyport to obtain stunning views of one of the best birds I've seen in Britain - an absolutely stonking Black-and-White Warbler. This turned out to be the first of five neartic passerine ticks over the next six days, and the first of 16 ticks for me in October 96!! As soon as we'd seen the warbler well, we rushed to the quay for a boat to Tresco. On landing, we legged it to the Borough Farm area and were soon watching a Buff-bellied Pipit. Oh man - what a day. And what a trip, with the other main highlights being Red-eyed Vireo (my 300th tick) at Longstone, St Mary's 13th and Bobolink on Bryher on 14th.

I had to leave the islands on 17th in order to get home for Isabelle's first birthday on 18th. This was in itself a good move as I took a detour through Portland to see the fantastic Northern Waterthrush.

Back in the (pre-digital) day, I used to buy the odd photo from the rarity photographers that were part of the scene. Most though have no details on them so I can't remember who took the photos. Either way, I'm sure they wouldn't mind me posting them here so you can see what I enjoyed on 11th October 1996!

Black-and-White Warbler - superb and OMFL!

 

Buff-bellied Pipit - smart, when it was rare and a good blocker.....

iNDUSTRiE - Now It's Dark

Time for another electronic blast from the vaults of iNDUSTRiE. However - I must warn all that right from the off, this track contains a constant barrage of expletive venom courtesy of Dennis Hopper as sampled from the superb David Lynch film Blue Velvet. In order to save webspace etc, I've uploaded to YouTube having made use of Windows MovieMaker. Don't expect an interesting or dynamic video! It's just a static backdrop for the music. This track developed over a couple of years, and was a regular live track at our gigs. This version was recorded in 1993 directly sequenced from a multi-out sampler (Akai s2800), albeit onto analogue tape. I've recorded into the Clean software, de-noised it a bit and that's all - so not the most balanced mix but you get the idea. Warning - expletive ridden from the first syllable.