Film of a red Kite sitting in her nest on Eggs

While not the best film I have ever shot, nor is there much happening, but you can see the yellow wing tag, otherwise the Red Kite would be very well camouflaged. The film was shot at some distance, so that this protected bird was not disturbed. If I can return and watch over the bird again I hope to film the chicks when they hatch too.

The Bees Knees

As today is the last day of winter, here is a a Bee resting on a flower to remind us of the summer to come.

Common Toad

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had seen and filmed a frog in my yard. Well I seem to be having a brain storm as what I meant to say was that it was a Toad. Does that mean I am living in Toad Hall?

Anyway, brain storm over here he is in close up.

Shoveler Duck in Eclipse Plumage

Here is an interesting bit of film of a Shoveler Duck in his Eclipse plumage. When I shot the footage I could see that it was a Shoveler from the shape of its bill but it was the plumage that had me fooled until I was able to look it up in my field guide. This I had left at home as when I first ventured out it looked as though it was going to pour with rain. But it was one of those days when the right things just seem to happen at the right times. Thus when I arrived at the location the clouds had parted and I was blessed with bright sun and even when the clouds did obscure the sun it was a nice diffuse light.

I am hoping to return to this location in the next few days as with winter here now, I just never know what to expect there.

Frog by Night

A few weeks ago I mentioned spotting a Common Frog in my back yard, well it was the Owl that drew my attention to it first. Well I film her and I have finally got the film sorted out and here it is.

A female Common Frog Rana temporaria, at night and hopping away.

Dancing Crane Fly

At the end of July I spotted a crane fly on the kitchen celling vibrating as if she were dancing. It brought to mind a song from the eighties called “Dancing on the Celling”. I did want to film that but there was no way I could get up there to film her.

It is one of those aspects of behaviour that can be misinterpreted. As if it were outside, most people would assume it was just the wind or air movements that was causing the vibrations. When in fact she does this to waft her pheromones out to attract a male and mate.

Well about a week later I had just come back from the supermarket when I noticed a crane fly out side doing the same. It may be the same one, but I just don't know. Anyway, I got the camera out and filmed her. Once I had got some footage I went back and unpacked my shopping and put it away. As she was still there I was able to get some really good close up shots of her.
As I always lean something new from watching wildlife, this time I got to see just how beautiful she was. I also leant that I needed to clean my kitchen windows.

Well here's the film of this female crane fly Anisopus fenestralis

Stinkhorn

One of the advantages of my current situation is that I have had some more time to get on with dealing with my video back log. And here is a film of another of the fungi from my local woods, Stinkhorn, Phallus impudicus.

The Stinkhorn is quite unmistakable with its thick white stalk and black honeycombed cap, covered with a sticky foul smelling jelly. You will often smell the rotting flesh odour first. The jelly contains the spores and it uses flies to disperse the spores. The stalk rises from a jelly filled papery egg shaped sack. Quite common in deciduous woods in late summer and early autumn, quite inedible.

While on the subject of video, I understand that a couple of my videos on You Tube have gone Viral. When I heard that I thought it meant that the files were corrupted, but apparently it means that people are emailing them around. Work must be boring. Actually it just came to mind that if the bankers had spent more time on You Tube...

My new video camera is delighting me the more I get to use it. One of the problems with many is that the auto focus struggles to cope with obtaining a sharp focus on a flying bird. The manual focus normally being operated by pressing buttons is just not fast enough and often requires the videographer to move attention from the subject to the camera. However my pre owned Sony has a ring on the lens that makes it much better for wildlife photography. Another aspect that has pleased me is that the batteries that power the camera also fit the IR light. As these often are brand and model specific, it can cost an arm and a leg to buy the batteries. As well as adding weight to the equipment I have to lug around.

The other function that I am pleased to discover is that the camera can use a wired remote controller. This is something I have seen on top end professional cameras, and well out of my reach, but the controllers are obtainable. Again for wildlife filming this makes the camera ideal. While I did do some research before hand, even I could not have guessed that this really would be so suited to my needs.

Spider spinning her web

Yesterday I spoke about my pet spider, or am I the pet human? A couple of months ago she appeared in the kitchen and as well as building her orb web in the corn of one of the windows, by the frame she spun a cocoon where she laid eggs. Well I could not bring myself to evict this single parent, and her only rent was to catch the odd fly that ventured in. While she would come out on to the web when it was dark, mostly she stayed quite and still for hours on end. Occasionally while doing the washing up or filling the kettle (I save energy by only boiling the water I need), she would rush out to grab a tiny fly that would stumble into her trap. As she is only half an inch long, that's about 12mm, it was not until I trained the camera on her did I realise that she was herself in a little woven shelter too.

I have filmed her a couple of times over the months, and yesterday I filmed the hatched spiderlings. Only the day before they were in their cocoon Today when I looked she was gone. There are still a few of the young spiders there, but it is all over for this nest. At last I can clean the window now.

I had wanted to get the film on to the computer, but I already have over thirty gigabytes of video that I have uploaded out of order, its the pedantic filing system that I have got. Also when I checked I just had no room on the hard drive, so that bit of film will have to wait for now.

However I have another film of a Spider, Lepthyhantes leprosus spinning her web all in glorious close up that I shot a couple of months ago. While on the topic of spiders, following my post about loving the unlovely, a comment was made about getting bitten by spiders. Well in Britain our spiders don't bite nor are they venomous, so while I do encourage folks to respect the diversity of critters, if you do live in a place where creatures can injure you it is best to respect them from a distance.

On the topic of videos, I had an email from You Tube as Friends of the earth had posted another Video and I try to watch there stuff. But in looking around I discovered that I have had my stuff watched nearly four thousand times. Well that's a lot of people I must have bored.

Loving the Unlovely

While it can be relatively easy to get people excited about all the cute, cuddly and obviously beautiful wildlife, it is more difficult when we are talking about creatures that are seen as ugly or that generate loathing.

I well remember as child visiting the Sun trap Centre in Epping Forest, on a school trip and seeing a Kestrel for the first time. I pointed it out to the teacher and that thrilled everyone. I then, to the obvious horror of the teacher and most of the other pupils, took a large Beetle to the teacher to show her. But the tutor, probably an education officer, at the Sun Trap centre was thrilled as it was a male lesser Stag Beetle. It was a quickly learned lesson that the majority of people don't like many of the creatures we share the planet with. Also as several of the boys and a couple of girls, tried to grab the beetle as they wanted to stamp on it. This incident lead to me having a fight at school a few days latter, well not a fight but where I was beaten up by a girl as I refused to fight. I had always been told never to hit girls.

So while I had been praised for spotting the Kestrel, I became a figure of ridicule for like and protecting a beetle. Add to that I had been beaten up by a girl. It has never been easy being Green. Kermit and I are soul mates.

As I have grown up and older, I have discovered just how selective people are about what creatures they love. I have know people who love their pets, yet in their gardens they wage war on every insect that walks and flies. When it comes to slugs its genocide. Even with a beast as magnificent as an Eagle or a Harrier they suffer because of what they are perceived to do, at the hands of some.

So while I value each and every aspect of the Flora and Fauna we share our globe with, I don't particularly want to share my home with beasts like flies, midges or beetles. Just as I do not want a fox coming into my house. They are better in their habitat and me in mine. Nor do I use insecticides to kill flies in the house, not least because I don't want to breath in these chemicals myself. That's partly why I tolerate a spider or two in my home. Another creature that seems to generate loathing and hatred in some. My Ex who never wanted to harm anything would run screaming from the Bathroom if one that had fallen into the bath. I earned my hero status many times with women by rescuing many spiders from a watery grave. On a similar note recently on a bus I rescued a wasp that get trapped on the bus. While it didn't cause any screaming, everyone moved from one side of the bus to the other as the wasp flew around trying to get out of the windows. As I had one of my test tubes in my pocket that I use for collecting insects or other environmental samples, I was able to catch the wasp and release it at the next stop. The Bus driver told me that I should have just killed it.

Even my window cleaner thinks that I should clean up my yard, although he never told that to me, it a village and these things get back to me sooner or later. But if I had a neat and tidy yard it would also be sterile and I doubt that I would have a newt and a frog in my yard. Nor would my resident Robin find the insect food that keeps him there and feed.

Well here is a film clip of a House fly Musca domestica feeding on the nectar of Hawk weed. I think it is a beautiful critter, in its place.

However, to placate the folks that don't share my definition of beauty, here is something I am pleased to share too. From a podcast that I listen to Birds and Nature from a Pittsburgh radio station, I heard of this Blog by a woman called Monarch Chaser who is currently down in Mexico with the monarchs where they overwinter.

Bibionidae Fly

One of the joys of watching wildlife it that I can lose myself in the moment. Sometimes my mind is working overtime, trying to work out the details that will help me latter identify a species, or by observing the subtleties of behaviour discover what this particular animal or bird is doing. But most of all, I can find myself my inner humanity.

There are many times when I do worry about the state of the planet, and there is a lot to worry about, but getting out and seeing the wonders of our world both excites and calms me. It reinforces my reason for fighting for the environment, in a small way, I have no delusions that I can or will do more than apply a sticking plaster to the wounds we inflict upon our planet. However, getting out and seeing what we share the planet with makes life worth living.

While I have covered some serious topics in my posts of late, for a while I want to just concentrate upon what is so special about wildlife. Not least because I am researching some much more serious topics for latter postings. Thus I need to have something positive to balance the negative of the acts of environmental vandalism that is going on.

So as a start, here is a film of a Bibiondae Fly, I think the species is Dilophus febrilis feeding on the nectar of a cow parsley.

Grove Snail

Here is a film of the White lipped Grove Snail. The Grove Snail, while a common mollusc has a great deal of variability in the banding on the shell so it can be difficult to determine the species. It is a scientifically important species, as it is one of the species that proves Evolution and natural selection.

The banding provides camouflage from thrushes, it main predator. The greater the variation in the banding the better hidden the mollusc is in the grass. Thus more likely to breed and hence the snails evolve to avoid predation. As agricultural practices have changed over the past century so the variation has kept pace with these changes, thus providing an example of evolution in action.

Cattle in Conservation

Because the landscape in the UK countryside is shaped by the activity of man, using domestic animals to manage nature reserves is vitally important. In the past traditional farming and agricultural methods created habitat that wildlife was able to utilise.

At Seaton Snook, a nature reserve near Tees Mouth, cattle are used as they eat the long grass. This in turn encourages new fresh growth of new grass and of other herbage that in turn provides habitat and food for the invertebrates that are the start of the food chain.

As Tees Mouth is an important National Nature Reserve, this provides food for the birds in spring and summer, while the fresh growth vegetation encouraged by the cattle grazing in turn provides grazing for migrant geese and swans in the winter.

Badgers and Orchids

Because of a couple of long very busy days, by five in the afternoon I found myself falling asleep. So I decided to go to bed. Getting back up at ten, once I had eaten I decided to use this time productively. Therefore I went off to check out the two new badger setts. While there is nothing significant to report with them, I am curious why these have appeared at this time.

In the normal course of events, less dominant female badgers will move to other setts and this helps prevent in breeding. Also males will be driven out from a family group again preventing these males from mating with sisters and other closely related group members. Additionally, while the family group maintains a large central home sett, that group will have smaller satellite setts where different members of the family can go off to cool off or get away from tensions. Much like the way that humans can and will avoid other members of the family to maintain harmony.

Therefore, while having one new sett starting within an existing territory is rare, it does happen. However, having this happen twice appears outside what happens normally. It could just be that it has not been recorded before, so at the moment I am working on the hypothesis that something has happened that has disturbed or disturbed another sett elsewhere.

I may never find out what has caused this to happen, and the two new setts are settling down quite well, thus while this may be a curiosity it could also be that this is quite normal. What also has me wondering is why the dominant male has allowed this? As the old Brock became a road kill in February and a younger male took over it could be that this is the special circumstance that is at the root of this. In some ways it shows just how little we know about even common animals.

This relates to other work I have been doing. I have been busy preparing a report for a site looking at what species are there, what species are missing and what improvements can be made to increase biodiversity. While much of the work is looking at what foods are there for a particular species, then overlaying these matrix networks, it is possible to work out where there are gaps in food plants or insects on a site. Therefore, it then becomes relatively easy to see where habitat restoration work is needed.

However, sometimes it is not that easy, as you can provide the right foods, the right conditions and a species that you would expect to be there just is not present. It is often what we don't know or yet understand that is the important factor.

Equally, a species may be present yet because we don't have any knowledge of behaviour or lifestyle and behaviour, to know what is needed to encourage this species. On this site there is, apparently, a rare orchid but I cant find any substantive information regarding its needs to be able to offer any real help as to what needs to be done not only to ensure its survival or how to improve the habitat to encourage its numbers. This also means that not knowing what the needs of this plant are, any other work that improves conditions for other species could inadvertently harm this orchid.

I have not yet visited the site in Yorkshire, I can not and will not reveal more than that about the location, but I hope that by seeing the site will provide some clues as to what work if any could and more importantly should be done.

While I don't claim to be an expert, there are holes in what we know about natural history that means we can not assume we have all the answers. That is why watching and studying wildlife is so exciting and fascinating.

Relocating Mammals

For the past several weeks I have been watching for the Dragonfly Nymphs that have been living in one of the many ponds and pools locally. My wish was that when they emerge I would be able to film them as they emerge from the chrysalis stage as adult dragonflies. All was set for this to happen, the emerged as nymphs an while I missed that stage I have visited everyday so that when it happened I could film them. However on Wednesday I had to go with some other people to visit another rich wildlife site to offer some aid and advice. So I was not able to go to the pool on Wednesday or on Thursday as I was away. On Friday, my investigations just showed the empty chrysalis case, the ghost skin of the dragonflies. They had emerged while I was away. So unless I can find more this year it will be next year before I can get that film.

However the trip away was more than worthwhile. The Ministry of Defence here in Britain has several sites where for safety reasons the public are not normally allowed. This means that the natural history on these sites flourishes free from disturbance by most human activity. Further, the military people who manage this land are very sensitive to the needs of the wildlife most of the time too.

Therefore, being allowed to carry out a limited survey in one of these areas is a privilege.

However, the main work that needed to be done was catching rabbits. For reasons that will become obvious, the army, following advice, had built what was effectively an artificial burrow sites for the rabbits and our job was to live catch the rabbits so they could be moved to this site. It was all done by a very traditional method of using purse nets and feeding a ferret down the burrow system, the rabbits exit the burrow and into the purse nets. Our role was much more that of wildlife specialists with the job of finding all the entrances. Or exits as they become, as if you fail to net even one hole that's where the rabbits will emerge.

It took the two days, but we must have caught ninety percent of the rabbits and moved them to their new home. They now have three acres of fenced in land to happily live and breed on. Now the reason for this is simply that there is a bird of prey that has been nesting near the site. The problem was that during exercise it was flying in to take the rabbits and endangering its life. So a novel solution was devised to create an alternative nest site, this it used this year and the pair raised two chicks. But they persisted in hunting within this danger zone. So to protect this rare bird decision was taken to move the food to a safer place. This had worked reasonably well with work done in the past and this work I was involved in was the finish of that.

The work was one of the most unusual things I have done, but it gave me a chance to see a bird I have never seen before, a Golden Eagle.

Had I been allowed to take or use a camera on the site, I could have had some wonderful film, but while that was not possible, I at least will have the memory of seeing this magnificent bird.

You Meet Some Great People Watching Wildlife

Firstly, I have just been asked the question most often asked of me, that of how do I get around without a car? Part of today's events illustrate just how easy it can be. While yesterday I had some shopping to do, I had a further trip to make today to the supermarket. I acknowledge that for many people doing a weekly shop at the local supermarket is most convenient, in spite of the advertising claims, it will not be the cheapest. Thus, I shop carefully, buying on quality. Therefore, I buy my Fruit and Veg from Green grocers and Meat and Poultry from the Butchers. I have made comparisons and I frequently find that by going to good small local shops I save around twenty five to forty percent off the price of Meat and Vegetables. To give one example I can buy stewing steak at half the price in the butchers compared to the supermarkets.

However, one of the main effects that doing the shopping without a car, is you are more conscious of the weight you will have to carry. Therefore, you stop buying much of the food that gets wasted. In the UK that's ten billion pounds worth every year. I contribute about ten pounds per year to that, well even the most frugal shopper makes mistakes.

From my village there are two bus routes, one that goes to Consett, the other that goes to Newcastle. But that one goes via one of the many hubs in the region, so I can get to most places, it just take a bit of planning and forethought. Just as with the shopping, it comes down to thinking about what's needed rather than buying on impulse. That said, I always keep options open so that if I see something on a special offer, I can adjust a planned menu to include what's cheap that day.

However going back to the main point, using public transport is not that difficult. If I go into Newcastle for an evening, I just need to ensure that I allow myself enough time to get the last bus. I can use taxis too, but as its over twenty pounds for that fare, why waste the money?
Anyway, I had a trip to the supermarket today. The supermarket provides a free bus twice a day five days a week, so that adds to the ease of shopping. Had my cat been prepared to do her own shopping then I could have left it until latter in the week.

I didn't know what it was, but at the moment I seem to be a child magnet and I found another child that wanted to talk to this strange hippy that is this “Wood Mouse”. I kept her entertained by pointing out the Horses and the sheep, or clouds with legs as I was calling them.

Then on the way back, I had this same chatter box telling me all about some children's television programme that I had never heard of. And she wanted to move in to my house, I told her that she could not as I had only just trained the birds to feed at my feeders.

What's been happening is, because from the first time I used the supermarket bus, I helped the many senior users of this service with their bags, I now have a couple of the old ladies that are trying to play matchmaker and any and every single woman are being steered in my direction. That's why I seem to be attracting all this attention. Fortunately it is a village and sooner or latter they will run out of women to try and pair me with, and using the kids is not fair. I was finally told that this is what's happening. Well I will chose my own partner.

Anyway, the other thing I needed to do was send off a cheque, as I have just bought, second hand, an Infra Red video lighting system. I got it at a price I could just afford, but it will open up possibilities that at the moment I can only dream about. Will I be able to film the badgers? Watch this space.

As the weather forecast had been for rain by lunch time, I wasn't sure about going out. But as it had not yet arrived, I decided I would risk it. So with no real purpose or destination, I decided I would just see what was in my local woods.

There is a delight in just wandering around with no reason, just there to experience the delights of the natural world. While there was nothing exceptional that I saw but I delighted in taking pictures of the wild flowers that proliferate along the tracks. While I had not planned it that way, I went looking at the effects of the thinning that has been occurring. While I am pleased with the effect, I was annoyed to see that it has been happening throughout the nesting season. This will have effected the birds in general but its the impact upon the rarities that we do have here that makes this criminal.

Well I can see that I may need to speak to someone over this.

However, during my walk, I put that at the back of my mind, and just enjoyed being at one with the forest. One thing that was a delight to find though was where the deer are hanging out with the disruption of the current work in the wood. This could be the first job that I use the Infra Red light for.

I had expected to only be out for a few hours, it was nearly eight before I got home. Even that was delayed when I stopped to talk to a chap who told me of a couple of other good wildlife watching locations near by. Its one of the great things about any form of wildlife watching you just meet some great people.

Beavers in England

Recently I posted an essay on the reintroduction of Beavers into Scotland. While trying to access the data learnt about the impacts upon the environment of this, I learnt that in England for the last two and half years there have been Beavers living here. While they have been fenced in, the sixteen European Beavers from Bavaria, so like our Royal family they are German, have been living happily and without damaging the environment. In fact the improvements the Beavers made to the habitat has provided homes and habitat for thirty other endangered species. This was all unexpected.

Any reintroduction programme always faces opposition from some groups, therefore this test site was used so that we could learn what the impact would be upon the environment and more importantly the biodiversity. Thus on a five hundred and fifty acre fenced in site, the beavers were released.

As beavers will do they adjusted the landscape to provide themselves with the pools and lodges they need to live. The first aspect of their natural behaviour that was noted was by cutting down the trees around the pools on the site, it regenerated the vegetation. Wild flower seeds in the seed bank spontaneously germinated. Some were plants that were thought lost to the site, and this had the additional effect of enabling invertebrates to come in and the population of water voles, a species in serious decline in the UK, started to increase. There were also unexpected benefits for fish as the Beaver lagoons created habitat that allowed fish to breed.

The aspect that really surprised everyone involved was that during flood events, the way that these mammals had managed the watercourse greatly slowed the flow of water helping to lessen the effects of the flooding.

While I dare say there will be people that are still not convinced by the wisdom of reintroducing these animals, all I have seen thus far is a genuine win win situation. I am hoping that I will be able to take up the invitation to go and visit the site myself and get my own view of an English Beaver.

First Cuckoo of the year

As the forecast had been for heavy rain, my plan was for going and getting some food shopping. But I had also promised that I would take two of the people I have been aiding recently to a place where we could all get a good look at the Red Kites. The difficulty is that it wouldn't work if the weather was very wet, but equally getting everyone together at the same time was nigh on impossible.

So yesterday it was all left open and dependent upon the weather. Therefore, when I saw that the rain had not yet arrived I called my fellow watchers and said I was willing to give it a try. So we all headed off to a place that I knew there was a good chance of seeing them, but as there are no guarantees I wanted to increase the odds and took some pieces of cooked chicken. Just as putting out seeds and nuts for birds in the garden attracts visitors then I knew there was more opportunity by doing this.

We settled down and waited, while nothing happened with the Red Kites for a time, while we waited we saw other birds. Two exceptional ones was a Kestrel and a green woodpecker. It was nearing the time that I would have to head home, as would one of my fellow watchers. It really did seem as though we had lucked out, but just as we were saying we would give it another half hour, we had been there for over six hours, we spotted one in the distance. After about fifteen minutes it was joined by two more and they came to the field were we were. From the hedge we watch as they flew fifteen or twenty feet overhead. It did not take them long to find the chicken, they did not ever land to take it but plucked the chicken pieces from the ground in swift passes.
We were all more than thrilled by this and while we were all now running late it was worth it.

Anyway, with my fix of Red Kite, I headed off to get some shopping. I got that done s quickly that I had time to treat myself to a carrot cake and a coffee. The bus home goes through a rather run down council estate (Housing Project) that is set in a rather nice landscape. If it were not for the crime problems I would love to live there myself as the views are heart warming. While on the bus just by a large green on the edge of the estate and on a steep hill, I spotted what I at first thought was a thrush. It was newly fledged as its feathers were still fluffy. But it didn't look right for a thrush, I thought it looked like a cuckoo and this was confirmed when this warbler, probably a willow warbler, provided the comical vision as it fed this over grown fledgling. The bus was passed before I could see more, but having not herd a cuckoo this year at all, it was great to see that.

Behaving like a Child acting as Adult

Now I know that I sometimes, for the sake of the wildlife, get myself into some silly situations. Just such an incident occurred a few weeks ago when I climbed into a tree to ensure that my sent was above the wildlife I was trying to see. When I got up there was enough light to see what I was doing. I stayed there until well after dark, and while I did get to see the Deer, they were to far away to film. Trees in the way, to much vegetation, but my field craft had been accurate in predicting the general location. So once I knew the deer were clear of the area, I decided to climb down.

This was not as easy as it sounds. I lowered my camera, and as I tried to get down myself, my gaiters (used to stop the midges feeding on me) got caught up. So I tried to get back up, not so easy in the dark, and I ended up with my left foot on the ground but my right foot rather elevated. Well lets put it this way I suffered a groin injury.

In the past I had to have a hernia operation, and while at times is has caused some discomfort all had been fine. However, I though I may have undone that by my antics. Therefore yesterday I went to see my GP. I explained what I had done, and his first question was and how old are you?
Well I do childish things, but its my excitement at seeing wildlife that brings out the juvenile in me. At least I don't need to have another operation but isn't it always the way as soon as the warranty runs out that's when things go wrong, and mine expired when I reached middle age.
So today I went to see someone who I had met in one of the local pubs some time ago. One of the aspects of anything to do with wildlife is just how enthused people get regarding natural history. It my just be the Red Kites, or that people love seeing the birds in their gardens but the British love their wildlife.

Anyway, this couple that I fell into conversation with told me that just as the pub we were in, they to ran a community library. And that most of the books had been donated. However, they had a significant number that were natural history titles that no one seemed to want to borrow, so did I want them. Now while books on natural history interest me, there are some that are not really that good. But I did agree that I would take a look at them. That's what I did today.
Well I was expecting there to be a few but there were nearly a thousand books there. By no means were they all Natural History books, but every topic under the sun. They were thinking of selling off these books at fifty pence each. So I suggested that they check what they were actually worth first. So using the internet we went through them, and many were worth far more than fifty pence.

Therefore I hoping I offered the suggestion that they sold them on line. This would provide greater income and enable them to buy more of the books they knew people wanted to read and borrow. I was enlisted to take pictures of them and together we worked out a fair price for them. It was clear that they had been good well looked after books.

Then came the box of the Natural History titles. These had not come from some mere dabbler, many of these books were incredible reference works. What shocked me was they were saying I could have them. I refused pointing out how valuable they were. This caused them some confusion as they had already had a book dealer look at them and he had offered twenty five pounds ($40) to take them off their hands. I picked out three and showed that they were mint first editions and was able to show that these three alone were selling on the internet for just under one thousand pounds.

Going through the rest there was a combined value of well over a thousand pounds. All in all they could raise about Four thousand pounds for their community library. While they had realised that some of the books could have been worth something, no one had been able to help them. In fact it seemed that all the help they had had previously was from people trying to help themselves.

I did not come away empty handed though, as one of the books was a mimeograph (a shorter cheaper students edition) of the New Naturalist Badger a book that I have long looked for but, out of range of my pocket. And I paid twenty pounds for it.

I also have my eye on another book but I will have to save up my pennies for that one.
Now I can see how I am doing it all wrong and misunderstanding what I am seeing. Anyway to celebrate getting this book, here's a picture of one of my sows taken six weeks ago.

Lapwings and Skylarks

While there are some days that I have to wait to see what happens in the day to provide inspiration for a posting here, today I could write five or six posts just from what happened this weekend. Also there is some good news I will be bringing you soon about some important conservation work that is happening.

Further, events in the news could have elicited my posting today, but as I personally am fed up of hearing bad news and I having had enough of people in my life dumping their emotional baggage at my feet, I have decided that where possible I want to try and keep this web log about wildlife, the environment and more importantly all the positive aspects of conservation. While I know that will not always be possible as events unknown may well dictate this.

Anyway, over the weekend while out walking to get some petrol, I spotted a Lapwing sitting in a field. There was in fact several there, but this one was very close. I thought that it was likely that I had found a nesting colony. So I returned today to take a closer look.

While the weather remained fantastic, and the Lapwing were still around the location, as it was on a working farm, the farmer was working on the field today. My assumption that it was being used as a nesting site and the farmer to his credit and my praise here, actually times his work to enable the birds to nest and fledge. Further, he also does many other things to accommodate the wildlife on his farm. From the information supplied he was able to guide me to a bird that is familiar and normally seen on its song flight, the Skylark.

The farmer has taken my details and has told me that he will let me know next year when the Lapwings return as he would love some pictures for his farm website. I told him that I would put a link to his from here, but he told me that he didn't want that, as it risked to many people coming down to the farm, especially as he had just had all his heating oil and his diesel stolen. Not only that but to get to the fuel they had damaged the storage tanks making them unusable. While the farmer was insured it has made him wary of strangers. While this made him initially appear quite hostile towards me when I first showed up at the edge of his field. But also had that event not occurred then he probably would not have stopped to find out who I was.

Lastly, I want to thank his wife for the lovely fresh bacon and egg breakfast that they treated me to. It is not that often that I get that sort of treatment from people whose land I have strayed onto.

One final comment I want to make, he asked me where I most enjoyed watching wildlife, I told him a on a small group of islands on the north western edge of Europe. The British Isles. While that may sound corny it is also true.

A Difficult Day Became A Red Kite Day

Today I was expecting to be a difficult day, but my stars were saying would be a lucky one. As I was meeting with my bank manager, I thought I would need some luck. I changed my bank account a number of years ago to my current bank when they were a building society. However I was just outside of the date that would have given me free shares when they floated on the Stock Exchange. As this was only by a few days, I made a complaint then. That marked me out to the local Manager as a difficult customer.

The situation never improved. Then when my ex and I split up, because of the debts and bills she had I aided her by acting as guarantor for her rent and other commitments so that she did not end up homeless. However, when my bank heard of this, my bank placed restrictions on my account that made a difficult situation nearly impossible.

I helped my ex clear her debts but because I never had any extra cash, the bank kept the restrictions in place. This also meant that it was impossible for me to move my account as the restrictions normally only apply to people that have been irresponsible. When in fact I was being responsible.

In spite of complaints made at the time, I was stuck in a situation not of my making. Therefore, when I got an invitation to go and see the Bank Manager, I was not looking forward to it. However, because of the Credit Crunch, the bank has been reviewing its customers accounts and couldn't work out why these restrictions had been put in place. I told them why, and even then the advisor I was speaking to could not understand what was happening, as that seemed just plain wrong to her.

Well the upshot is that the restrictions are to be lifted and they will be investigating as it appears that the then manager overstepped his authority. I did ask if I was going to be compensated, but all they were prepared to say was that they would look in to that. Well if I am I think I will buy a pig and give it flying lessons.

On my way home I actually felt more angry about it, but while passion can be useful, I could not see any way to channel it positively. Also what I had expected to be just a couple of hours had dragged on to being all afternoon. As I had planed to go and film at one of the birds nest sites, I had missed that chance.

So, I switched on the computer and looked up out of the Window: RED KITE. I grabbed the video and was out the back door like a bullet. I cant help it but the moment see the Red Kites I am five years old again. There are some of my readers who know that I am childish anyway, but I really do get excited by seeing these birds. Anyway I got some film out the back of my place, including some shots of the kite being harried by a crow. It also serves to illustrate just how large the wingspans are of these magnificent birds. I would have gone chasing the bird and got more but I realised I was standing in the street with bare feet. Well at least I keep the neighbours occupied and while they are talking about my antic's they are not gossiping about anyone else.

So what started out as a difficult day became a Red Kite Day.