West Ham Online

"I thought you might like this video.



It's a compilation of different birds singing. Beautiful photography. If you expand the 'title' under the video it gives a list of species and the times they pop up in the video. Most of the species are familiar to us in the UK, but there are some 'exotics' (the cranes - wow, what a noise!) It was filmed in Belarus. The guy has a channel you can subscribe to. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and maybe it'll take your mind off you-know-what for a few blessed minutes."

Yes indeed. I could always offer them on Freeeycle.

"According to the law of something or other, you no more than a few acquaintances away from someone near you who owns a LIZARD or other mealworm-eating REPTILE whose animal you could BORROW to help you out with that."

"According to the law of something or other, you no more than a few acquaintances away from someone near you who owns a LIZARD or other mealworm-eating REPTILE whose animal you could BORROW to help you out with that."

"Well this spring and summer has been a revelation regarding what can be done to turn a small garden in grotty London (ALL London is grotty, noisy and foul, so don't bother arguing) into a haven from the appalling, bleak, soul-destroying shitness that is urban living. In addition to visits from beautiful birds to my feeders, I have seen wonderful stuff such as robins mating; great tits bringing their fledglings en masse and witnessing the chaos as the parents scrambled to feed more than half a dozen begging, squeaking, shimmying, impatient little babies; the beautiful, stately courtship ritual of wood pigeons (they also engage in the politest fights I have ever seen between animals); and most gratifying of all, the adult birds I've been feeding are now bringing along their fledglings, so now I am MOBBED. I'm currently having to refill two large, 4-port sunflower hearts feeders EVERY DAY. I decided to up my game and buy live mealworms instead of dried. I think this is probably not the best time to offer them, now that the chick-feeding frenzy is (probably) over, but I'll get my arse in gear earlier next year, and will also get them in for winter. The tits and robins are taking them, but slowly. The mags and jays haven't noticed them yet! They've only been out for a day. However, it's been a steep learning curve, as they say. Not knowing what I was doing, really, I ordered far too many mealworms. They need a lot of space in a container, plus bedding and food. The result is, I currently have two very large plastic containers of live mealworms in a state of torpor, taking up half the available shelf space in my fridge. What a numpty."

I don't think so. They might have tested whether their owners thought their cats preferred it though.

Do you think they ever tested whether 8 out of 10 cats really do prefer Whiskas?

Coffee 1:09 Fri Jul 31 Uninteresting FACT of the day is that 9 times out of 10 I'm right.

"I found a fish walking along by the lea yesterday still alive which must have been dropped by a bird. Chucked it back in, hopefully it made it. Was up by Amwell nature reserve. Lot of big wig twitchers there, looking at something rare. I didn’t see it though. I would recommend a visit if you are passing that way."

Uniteresting pedantry of the day: that is not a stat.

Shed loads of red kites where I am. On a good day I can see over 10 of them sunning themselves on the village green. Uninteresting STAT of the day is that they pretty much only eat dead animals.

"Just saw a young goshawk on patrol over the house - the local breeding pair seem to have had a good season, which is great news."

"A mixture of Welsh, Swedish and Spanish around Maidenhead then. Their doing good according as far as I can see."

Conservationists have been introducing Spanish and Swedish red kites to prop up the UK population. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/red-kite/conservation/

"Gph, could it be correlated? When I never saw red kites, I only had one dog."

"Could be, I’ve got 2 dogs."

"If you don't have a dog, you don't get to see a red kite. They are invisible to dog-haters. Obviously."

"Go to Maidenhead and talk a walk in the surrounding country side and you should see a few red kites. Really are a quite magnificent sight. There are plenty now, but never used to be any? Not sure why that happened?"

"Pretty sure they let you into public parks, even if you have no need for an emotional support canid."

Oldie - You forgot about them doing a Freddie Krueger on your furniture

Take a dog for a walk in the park and they'll show you all the best birds mother nature has to offer. Own a cat and stay a prisoner in your own home as it spits up fur-balls on everything making you too scared to touch any unguarded surface and contract its covAIDs.

One day...

"There seems to be a fair few Nurse, in and around the Chilterns, I take the DOG on some walks around there, they have a magnificent wing span."

I've never seen a red kite.

I've never seen a red kite.

"Loads of Red Kite's over Thame way, saw a fair few whilst driving down to Dorset"