Song Bird Survival?

I read a bit in the paper recently about a new website 'Song Bird Survival' (.songbird-survival.org.uk) The website states that there is a need to exterminate or control song bird predators such as birds of prey, crows, and other predators - including grey squirrels & domestic cats. Now I won't go into the rights and wrongs of the latter two in terms of small bird predation, but why save songbirds at the expense of our indigenous predators?

The web site contains many flaws in its reasoning. There is no definition of what a song bird is to start with.

'Song birds', whatever they are, have been around long before we came along. And so have their predators such the Magpie, Crows & birds of prey.

I'm thinking of a 'Save our Worms' campaign and the aim is to reduce the number of Thrushes, blackbirds and other worm predators. After they have as much right to live as those birds that prey on 'song birds'.

Messing around with nature just messes it up!

Easter Walking

Easter Sunday dawned sunny so setting off from our new house at RHB we immediately saw our first Swallow and took the now well used coastal path to almost Ravenscar before turning off up to the railway. A small clump of willows in a gully produced, surprisingly a male Tree Sparrow, followed by a male Reed Bunting and then a pair of Stonechats. Returning to RHB via the railway produced a couple of Willow Warblers in suitable habitat near the old Stoupe Brow quarry, now home to several Fulmars. Trish of course heard the Willow Warblers, I had to make do with spotting one before it vanished again. This quarry has two rather large boulders somewhat larger than some houses and comparable to similar such boulders in the lake-district such as the Bowder Stone and others. A line of old rusting bolts up the shear face of one an indication of a practice climb in the late 1960's.
Total distance about 8 miles

Easter Monday I joined North Yorkshire Moors National Park volunteer ranger Richard Simpson on a patrol around Goathland district, taking in Darnholme, Julian Park, where I saw 3 Yellow hammers and a newly hatched clutch of Mallards in the nearbye pond, on to Hazel Head, Hunt House and Simons Howe where we saw our first few walkers. Returning via the old mere created in victorian times for winter skating, and the old golf course built at the same period,, we encountered our first mass hoards of visitors.
We covered around 9 miles.

Before returning home I had a quick excursion to the old whinstone mine but discovered the entrance had collapsed and the exit along the fault line had been blocked off and was unable to locate this. I've had many interesting trips through this mine.

On my way back to my car I noticed a young male inside a car, who judging from his lack of clothes and jerky movements was pre-occupied with having sex with either the rear seat or a hidden passenger. I waved hello as I passed but he did not respond. The lack of manners today is........!!

Another Chance?

I read my Whitby Gazette on Tuesday only to discover that two thieves who robbed a Whitby store after traveling from Preston Park in Hull have been effectively let off by Judge Steven Ashurst by having their sentence deferred for 6 months provided they stay out of trouble. (Whitby Gazette - Tuesday 7th April)

Michael Smith ( 21criminal convictions + 8 kids!) and Daniel Turner (93 criminal convictions) go free because the judge at York was considering, "Giving both men a chance to prove themselves".

Good god! They've already had a total of 114 chances, how many more do they need?

Birds singing in the night

I've spent many nights on the moors in all seasons and weathers. But spring is my favourite for listening to birds. Many birds sing or can be heard at night. 'Drumming' Snipe, the sound coming from feathers as the fly, and of the Grasshopper Warbler's lovely 'reeling' sound - which sounds just like the ratchet on a fishing reel slowly being turned are well known bird sounds and can be hear in the dark on the moors. Lapwings are another night time favourite. Nightjars too can be heard in recently felled parts of Dalby and other forests, their songs again sound mechanical, almost like a scooter or small motor bike. These birds too are curious and I've had them hover close over my head several times. Binoculars are handy at night too and I've often watched them sitting on forest tracks. (binoculars should make the scene a little brighter!!).

Fox, Badger and Deer will often approach you at night with much more confidence than during the day. My first encounter with the sound of a Barn Owl was initiated at night by the strange 'Shhhhhhhhhhhhh' sound coming from a barn late on night which I soon discovered coming from their nest in a nearbye building, now turned into holiday cottages at Stainsacre.

Many birds are far easier to identify by their sounds and songs. The Chiff Chaff which I first heard this year on the 17th of March is a migrant from Africa. A 'little brown job' (LBJ), as birders call it and other, similar looking birds. But it's sound - a 'chiff-chaff', is unique and unlike any other LBJ. So you don't even have to look for it in the canopy above. The Chiff Chaff looks similar to a Willow Warbler but the song is totally different and makes them easy to tell apart.

In fact identifying most birds by song is far easier than by sight. In addition once you can identify a few birds by sound it makes birding much more interesting as you identify the bird without seeing it. Something which is often very difficult for many woodland birds once the leaves are out.

There are some birds which are very rarely seen but are easily identified by sound. An obvious one would be the Grasshopper Warbler. Less obvious would be the now rare Corncrake - which calls day and night - and very few birders have ever seen one! Another is the tiny Quail with its 'Wet-my-lips' repeated over and over from grass or crops. Again, easy to hear but almost never seen.

Age takes it toll unfortunately and with each passing year my hearing gets worse. I even have difficulty hearing Skylarks, one of my favourites and Trish, my partner has now become my ears. It looks like a hearing aid is my next purchase.

Whitby Dog Shit

Its clear from the Whitby Gazette that I'm not the only one disgusted by the amount of dog shit in and around Whitby.
What annoys me more is that the council has spent several years asking people to put the dog shit into plastic bags and dispose of it properly. Now the hedges & fences around Whitby are full of plastic bags containing dog shit. These festoon the paths and byeways around Whitby. Hanging from branches and fences they litter the landscape and are an eyesore. Non bio degradable these plastic bags hang from bushes for month after month. If it is possible to pick up dog shit in a bag why cannot the owners simply use the bag to throw the offending dog dirt out of harms way and later put the empty plastic bag in a bin? If they can't be bothered to carry their dog's mess to the nearest bin why don't they purchase bio-degradable bags - at least these rot down.

Management Training

Having spent many years as a management trainer I wrote a bit or two for an Irish training magazine, First Train whilst I lived in Ireland. Some of the articles in this magazine rather exposed their lack of experience in some fields. In this instance it was role playing. The owner of Beyond The Board Room Training read this article and invited me to contribute it to his 'Learning know how'.

To read my first contribution click here.

My next article was on the current usage of quad bikes, paintball games, firewalking and so on under the guise of 'team building' events. To read more of this click here.

Whitby gazette article

The Whitby Gazette, our local paper, did a bit on my winter x-country skiing adventures.

If you want to read the bit they did click here