Fish-on!

Browsing through some photos this evening, and then checking back here, I've realised that somehow I've never posted or mentioned anything about a PSL trip down to Portland back in June 2015. I think I must have just posted various photos from this trip on the Facebook PSL group.

I've not got time to go through the whole thing now, but one of the great things we (Seth Gibson, Bill Urwin, Keith Lugg and I) did on this particular meet-up was buy some very cheap fishing gear and throw some ragworms off of a cliff near to the Portland Obs and at Weymouth Harbour. We managed to catch a few species, but I was particularly amazed that having never fished before I caught the biggest individual of the weekend. No fish were harmed during the growing of our lists. Can't say the same about the ragworms. Fish ON!

Large Ballan Wrasse with large fat bloke (courtesy of Danny Cooper).

Corkwing Wrasse

Corkwing Wrasse

Tompot Blenny

Personal Records

I've still got a load of 2019 moth records to get onto MapMate. But aside from moths, my personal recording is a bit ad hoc to say the least. Sometimes when out and about I will make a concerted effort to record everything I see and get these onto MapMate, other times I just note down a few bits of interest and especially anything that I know is new for me. The personal records that I do have on MapMate are now up to 78417.

With a bit of renewed enthusiasm I will try and be a bit more dilligent next year. I'm generating around 3500 moth records a year so with additional effort I'll try and get my records total up to say 84000 by end 2020.

I despair

I am not surprised that the rural Daily Mail readers that surround the seat that I live in, and others like it, continue to blindly vote for any old Tory regardless of policy, record or ability.

I am not surprised that there was no majority for any progressive party.

And I am not at all surprised that Brexit appears to have overshadowed everything else.

But I am surprised that regardless of the last nine years, the swingeing cuts and the rise in the equity gap between the top and bottom, people in what have been Labour stronghold seats turned to the Tories and delivered their biggest Parliamentary majority for decades. What the actual fuck!? I at least expected another hung-parliament.

People seem to have voted based on the mass media's terms: their destruction of Corbyn's character and their complete failure to properly scrutinise the Tories and in particular Johnson himself.

As for Johnson:

• Liar = Proven fact
• Racist = Proven fact
• Homophobe = Proven fact
• Elitist wanker = Proven fact
• Fridge hugger = Proven fact

If people have voted on personalities rather than policies, then apparently being a shambling incoherent scarecrow is good enough. Either that, or people were sufficiently brain-washed by the continued use of robotic three-word mantras (Get Brexit Done, Dither and Delay, Oven-ready Deal).

Anyone actually thinking that Brexit will just 'get done' and that we'll never hear about it again is clearly deluded. There will be a rapid unopposed clearing through of the Withdrawal Bill and we will depart from the EU, on Johnson's terms and with the continued risk of crashing out with no finalised trade agreements with the EU in the transition period. Yes, the transition period where there will be more negotiating.

Meanwhile Johnson and his far-right cronies will be working on trade deals globally. Particularly with the US, where I have no doubt we will be completely screwed over and that will be the root of the deregulation, further privatisation of the NHS, reduced protection for the environment, lower consumer rights and protections etc that I fully expect the new Government to deliver. I can picture the negotiating position now ......

"Get down there BloJo, and be sure to swallow."

I am lucky enough that whatever the result I and my family will not be likely to be massively impacted, but that's not the point. Thousands across the country will be, and it baffles me how many of these people may well have put the cross in the box that seals their continued impoverishment.

Catch the Pigeon

We have an abundance of pigeons around here. Woodpigeons that is. We have always had much fewer Stock Doves, and Collared Doves are less common then they were a decade ago. Feral Pigeons have never been common around here, unlike in and around the city. Over the years we've been here I have had at least three 'lost' racing pigeons that I can remember hanging around in the garden for a while. At least I am sure that they were racing pigeons on account of their crass stupidity and complete lack of response to an approaching human gesturing at it to feck off.

I've had a day off work today, and this morning I looked into the garden and noted this:

It stayed say there looking gormless whilst I pointed the camera at it. I couldn't see any obvious rings, although it was a bit hunched up. Either way, over an hour later just before I headed off for a relaxing blast around the city to spend money, it was still sat in the same place.

Seems another highly likely racing pigeon. It was gone when I got home in the early afternoon, and I'd like to think that a large female Sparrowhawk was involved ......

Woburn Fungi

Home this evening after a great family break at Woburn Centre Parcs celebrating my youngest sister-in-law's 40th. As usual at family gatherings / Centre Parcs, I've enjoyed the water slides and rapids, eating too much and drinking far too much. I also managed to watch LCFC give the Villa a pasting with a pint or three on Sunday afternoon in the Sports Bar whilst the girls were in the Spa.

The lodge we were in, as they usually do, had a number of habitualised Grey Squirrels and tits loitering for an easy feed making breakfast times entertaining. We had a number of Pheasants and Red-legged Partidges knocking about, and aside from the many squirrels we had a visting Muntjac and a Stoat running about our patio. The lake had the usual ducks, Coots and Moorhens (including a weird albinistic individual), and a few Little Grebes that were clearly very used to people.

Like all Centre Parcs, Woburn has a bit of woodland to walk around and I found myself a quiet hour or so on Saturday morning too have a leisurely mooch about with a camera. The bit I was in was mainly damp birch and sycamore; nothing too exciting bird-wise apart from Green Woodpecker and Common Buzzard, but the many fallen and cut logs left around were housing a fair bit of fungal interest.

Mottled Umber

Been far too busy getting through some chemoradiotherapy to do anything to blog about. And whilst I've been absolutely fine, aside from a little fatigue, the garden has been completely waterlogged for a fair while now so garden trapping has not been possible in any case.

I have been putting on a 12W blacklight LED on the front wall of the house and it has been picking up a few bits, but nothing particularly exciting or worth bothering the camera with. Last night was a little warmer, with a bit of drizzle, but I was pleased to find this sitting on the wall this morning:

Mottled Umber

This is now the third consecutive year that I've recorded this here, after the first in Jan 2011. But I'm still waiting for the first Spring Usher to pop up here.