Yesterday:
1. I went for a walk: gosh it was cold! I went somewhere where a drake Smew had recently been seen, and the weather seemed perfect for a snow-white duck from the far north, but I didn’t see one. I did see a pair of Goosander and lots of other ducks but I actually think I was in slightly the wrong place. That’s my excuse anyway as someone saw a drake Smew there later in the day! The weather was biting cold and I stood in admiration as a party of tits passed by in the wood. There were Great Tits and Blue Tits but also a gang of Long-tailed Tits and a single Goldcrest. I was wrapped up but my hands felt cold on my binoculars. A Goldcrest is tiny and a Long-tailed Tit is almost as tiny but with a long tail. They didn’t look cold but I did wonder whether they felt cold – or do all those feathers work so well that a Goldcrest really doesn’t notice the cold in terms of coldness?
2. I filled up the bird feeders and felt slightly guilty about not doing so before I’d gone out for my walk.
3. I listened to the coverage of the reshuffle on the radio and dozed off. Apart from the inaccurate 20 second announcement of Chris Grayling’s new role (which was very revealing) there was nothing to keep one awake. What a lack of talent the Conservative government has – from the PM right through the cabinet. At least the relatively talented Michael Gove remains carrying the can at Defra.
4. I went to a local restaurant for dinner with my Mum. She remarked about seeing unemployed men in the local library in South Wales in the Depression when she was a girl. Our local library is scheduled for closure under this Conservative government and this Conservative County Council. There is something rotten in the state of England when libraries are closing in the world’s 5th-biggest economy. Is this prudence or madness?
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How is your see a red kite a day project going
Douglas – you’ve a good memory. Assuming I don’t see one today, and the weather is dreary, then the score will be 7 out of 9 positive days.
Very small birds that remain active in winter face a problem. Because their surface area is relatively large in relation to their mass, they lose heat in cold conditions faster per unit mass than larger birds and the amount of extra feathers they would need to insulate themselves would make them immobile.
However, as long as they’re well fed, they’ll be fine. That’s the most important issue.
Who are the insidious dislikers on this blog? Pathetic individuals.
Ed – I have no idea, but they seem to worry some of you rather more than they worry me!
Not really, Mark. I just don’t understand why the most innocent of remarks draw dislikes.
1. In the winter of 1964, in the suburbs of Oxford, I used to find frozen Blue Tits, House Sparrows, Robins and even one Blackbird, on hedges, in gardens, on the pavement, all on my way to School in the mornings. It left me with a lifelong, deep concern about the fortunes of our wildlife during hard winters. In those days I spent my pocket money on Swoop (who remembers Swoop?) to feed birds both at home and in Christchurch Meadows, where the frenzy for food completely overcame the birds’ fear of people (me) and fed around my feet while I was still scattering seed. Feeding birds in winter, then, was not the wonderful habit of people it is today.
2. I try to keep my feeders filled all year round… It is not cheap:-}
3. I heard a really disturbing interview on Radio 4’s Today programme: the Lib Dems Agricultural Spokesman announced opposition to Gove’s environmental announcements. Tim Farron, Remoaner-in-Chief and God-botherer, said that environmental NGOs had now obtained a far too powerful voice in Government to the detriment of farmers(!) Farron, on behalf of the Lib Dems, wanted to maintain the EU’s CAP farm subsidies based solely on acreage (as that was the easiest way to maintain farmers’ incomes) rather than on any measure of environmental ‘good’ they might do. All things bright and beautiful simply doesn’t cut it with Farron. Is that a policy which chimes with the British public to win marginal seats, these days?
4. I have struggled with this issue. Shutting Libraries sounds like a Philistine policy par excellence, but – to be honest – I wouldn’t miss them personally. I access the internet, and I never read fiction. I live in a literary City but the Libraries are not well used. In fact, most people seem to be there accessing the internet, to the extent you sometimes have to book. I did suggest they serve tea and cakes, and I would saunter along and read New Scientist etc while having a bite, but it wasn’t taken up. What I do see is a section given over to children’s play equipment! Pertinently, the only time I really had to use a Library in the last thirty years was when my internet connection was severed!
I remember Swoop. Little cardboard packets that we’re probably appalling value for money. Trying to pay for it quickly in case any of the trendy kids saw me.
One has to remember that Farron represents a rural constituency and I think is from farming stock. Never had much time for him or to be honest his colleagues and him being a “god botherer” means he is definitely a no no for me– this may offend some but to me all religion is organised superstitious clap trap and part of the dark ages believe in it by all means but don’t claim it as a virtue( its anything but) and don’t try to sell it to me!
The Gove plan seems the best on offer although what is the environmental good of current densities of sheep grazing?
The closing of libraries may not effect many of us but as a child I went often and still did well into my thirties. I still do occasionally but the closing of them is deprive some of that vital link to the world of books and the internet, to my mind shows councillors contempt for reading, books and learning and yes in the fifth richest economy it is scandalous.
Closing libraries is a philistine action but it is hard to blame local authorities, who’s finances have been cut to the bone. There are certain services which local authorities have a statutory obligation to provide but sadly many of the things that contribute to civilized, healthy communities such as libraries and leisure centres are not included in this and so are natural targets for cuts when councils are trying to make savings (park ranger services too). In order to keep services open councils need to be innovative – for example, Leicester City Council has moved one of its local libraries into the leisure centre in the same neighbourhood thereby enabling it to keep both services running whilst also making savings. However, if local authority funding continues to be throttled by central government a wide range of local services will continue to decline and disappear.
Madness.
(Yesterday) Jan. 8. Received five gallons, & seven pints of French brandy from Mr Edmd Woods. [Gilbert White 1785]
Lots of things have got better since then. But that’s no excuse for closing public libraries and undermining the basic fabric of society.
I have been out most days so far this year, well five days anyway, yesterday I only ventured to the bird feeders to top them up, yes it was seriously cold. I am recovering from a cold ( no ladies not man flu) a cold! but as I say I have been out a fair bit really to get my bird year list off to a good start and it is the first January I have been retired, so no pressure to be at work either. So far I’ve seen 111 species, including some very good birds, four species of heron at Leighton Moss on 1st and a good supporting cast including the Heysham Chough, my first in England. Other special birds so far have been Desert Wheatear, Hawfinch with both Snow and Lapland Buntings. oddly failed so far with GS Woodpecker but I’m sure one will turn up.
I now move to Wales very soon but no date yet.
Tory reshuffle, well bah humbug musical chairs amongst the talentless demonstrates the weakness of Terrible Theresa, never mind negotiating Brexit( which will still be a disaster) they seem unfit to govern, but then they are Tories and I am biased against anyway.
I think tomorrow is the next court date for the Bleasdale keeper accused of Peregrine persecution, NOW the outcome of that I am very interested in, I cannot say more other than the estate has history!
our youngest daughter came home one day recently and said she couldn’t borrow a book from the school library because there was no-one there to staff it during break times or lunch. The library is now only available for visits during lesson time.
School librarians, like school music teachers, are now a dying profession.
Work is hard to find for manuscript illuminators. I blame Tim Berners-Lee, innit
Libraries; in hard times we can’t really escape the fact that library use has fallen enormously. I used to use one, but now that my internet is, at last, faster than a dead hippo I don’t any more. Good libraries are surviving by finding new models as community hubs with lots of volunteer input. But if I had to decide between closing the women’s refuge and keeping a library open, as so many Councils do these days, it’d be the refuge for me. Or Park. Or Local Nature Reserve. Or… well quite a few other things really. I suspect that, like high street bookshops, the old model of a library service is obsolete and won’t be coming back however nostalgically we remember them.
On an entirely unrelated note, I keep having trouble opening this blog website. It’s happening on different computers both at home and at work. I get an error message – something about an unavailable or insecure site. Is it just me or are others having trouble too? A few reloads and I can usually get the page to open eventually, but not always.
pps I remember Swoop! We used to get loads of starlings when I put it out. Now I spend a fortune on sunflower seeds and fat balls but not starling to be seen (but plenty of other species do come).
How times change.
I have the same problem Jbc. I get starlings but only if I put out fat pellets especially the pink ones..
Fat balls seem to be the only draw for Starlings from the range of foods I supply. Goldfinches seem to eat anything as long as it is expensive, and are by far the most common birds in my North Scottish garden.
I use the local library regularly as if we don’t use it it will disappear.
Just wait a few seconds and it comes up
“On an entirely unrelated note, I keep having trouble opening this blog website”
Yep. Unable to connect. Usually, I have to send everything twice.
I still use the libraries and always will – also the mobile library, which comes within a few metres of my home. Our library van has a copy of “Behind the Binoculars” on the shelves at present. I can ask for any book in the library catalogue for 60p. Also in my previous town the library provided a bit of a warm, safe refuge for the homeless – not everyone has a home to go to. When I was a student, I got indefinite loans of textbooks from my library. Saved me a lot of money. Plus not everyone can afford a computer at home and someone to help them use it. Long live public libraries!
PS: Mark, your mother is a Saint.
“One has to remember that Farron represents a rural constituency…” but he was speaking as the Lib Dem Agriculture spokesman on a farming policy for all of the UK. I don’t think that the CAP is especially beneficial to the hill top farmers of south Cumbria rather than the barley barons of East Anglia: it provides the biggest subsidies to the largest landowners! Do the Lib Dems now really believe that conservation organisations threaten to have “too much” influence over agricultural policies, to the detriment of farmers, as Farron states? He sounds like Charles Moore.
Our library in Powys had a 2017 edition of Donald Watson’s “The Hen Harrier”! Even though I have my own copy I borrowed it just to keep the loan numbers of the library copy up! Libraries will get less common books for you and they can even be ordered, reserved and renewed on line.
I was surprised to see this book though, proudly displayed in the library entrance in what is a ruthlessly hunting, shooting, fishing and pheasant rearing area. Maybe it had been ordered by a Game Keeper.
Quite so JohnW. Plus they will order up any scientific paper you like, no matter how abstruse (for a small fee to cover photocopying). And when it comes to rare or valuable books, they will order them and keep them in house for a week or two for people to study. Inter-library loan service — it’s brilliant.
Except we are no longer the 5th largest economy, over taken by France since Brexit vote and soon to be overtaken by India. http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/22/news/economy/uk-france-biggest-economies-in-the-world/index.html