Tag Archives: Big Garden Birdwatch

What is a Weekend?

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I’m reminded of Maggie Smith’s line in Downron Abbey – “What is a weekend?” For the upper classes and, it seems, retired people, the concept does not exist. Every day is a holiday and it is easy to lose track of the days, as I did this week. We were all geared up for our grocery delivery when I realised it was Friday, not Saturday. Part of the problem is the bin day – it has been Friday for the last 36 years in Nottingham, but here it is Thursday. At the back of my mind I am often a day out at the end of the week. Eventually, I suppose, I will get used to it.

It’s the Big Garden Birdwatch today.  It was also yesterday, but I always think of it as a weekend activity. Records of 350,000 birds have been submitted so far (10.30 Saturday) with the House Sparrow coming out on top with Blue Tit second and Starling 3rd. The Wood Pigeon has fallen to 4th, nudged out by Blue Tits overnight. In Cambridgeshire, the county I am in today, the order is currently Wood Pigeon, House Sparrow, Starling. We have had no House Sparrows since we moved in and very few Starlings, so we might be bucking the trend in this garden.

I am going to finish this post, have a late breakfast and spend an hour with a notebook, recording birds. It always seems better when you have something unusual to report, but even if you don’t, it’s all part of the process – even seeing no birds is some sort of result. When you see how some bird populations have declined over the years (and set this against the broader picture of a general decline in numbers) I wonder if there will be a year when that is the report I submit. It’s not a  good thought.

Soup, Birds and Mobility

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I woke early, felt full of enthusiasm and set to work. You’ve heard it all before so I won’t go on, but I often feel that a good start leads to a disappointing finish. In this case, however, it lead to some useful work and a very nice lunch (even though I say it myself) of cauliflower soup. Actually it was cauliflower and leeks with garlic, black pepper and nutmeg and a few shavings of cheese thrown in from the Christmas leftovers.

There is enough to do lunch tomorrow too.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but I’ve been looking into buying a mobility scooter. I need to get out. I don’t remember the last time I went out except to drive to either Nottingham or Peterborough. No, now I’ve typed that, I do remember. I went to the Military History Meeting – drove straight there in the dark, parked, walked 200 yards to the museum, sat, listened and then did it all again, but in reverse. It’s hardly surprising I have little to write poetry about.

Blackcap – the Northern Nightingale or John Clare’s March Nightingale. Times change and we now have them all year round.

I’ve narrowed it down to two models from different companies. One has solid tyres and a a lithium battery, which are both good things that I want. The other lacks the tyres and lithium battery, but has LED headlights (the other has an old-fashioned single lamp,  which has attracted negative feedback for being difficult to replace). The final complication is that one company seems to offer better customer service than the other, though I have just been talking to someone at the one that is supposedly deficient, and it seems OK to me.

It’s very difficult making decisions sometimes, and it isn’t made easier by the amount of information that is now available on the internet. The feedback for one company is freely available on Amazon – both good and bad. The other doesn’t seem to sell anywhere apart from its own website, and the feedback is restricted to glowing testimonials from happy customers.

I’m going to sleep on it and decide tomorrow.

Meanwhile, it’s the Garden Birdwatch this weekend and we are planning on doing it tomorrow, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for some good bird sightings.

Blackbird.