Birdwatch

My RSPB Birdwatch results:

Blackbird 4 - Blue Tit 3
Chaffinch 5 - Coal Tit 2
Collared Dove 2 - Dunnock 2 (AET)
Goldfinch 17 (SEVENTEEN) - Great Tit 2
Greenfinch 2 - House Sparrow 19 (NINETEEN)
Longtailed tit 0 - Magpie 0
Robin 1 - Starling 20 (TWENTY)
Thrush 1 - Wren 1
Jackdaws 2 - Redpoll 2
Feral Pigeons 3 - Female Blackcap 1

Replays to be held on the week starting 20/1/10

It's not surprising that goldfinches, starlings and sparrows come out on tops. We support a great colony of goldfinches with feeders constantly replenished with nyger seed and sunflower hearts. Despite reports of their decline, starlings and sparrows have always been numerous in these parts. They eat the bread and porridge we provide for them at a fierce rate.

There used to be many more greenfinches, but sadly their numbers seem to be in decline. Meanwhile, blackbirds are doing very well, not just in the garden but in the surrounding district. Maybe the damp weather provides them with plenty of slugs and snails to eat. The male blackbirds are healthy and round, and are already attacking each other prior to the mating season.

There are a few thrushes around. These were once numerous, but declined sharply, and now their numbers seem to be recovering. Maybe the cats decimated them.

My favourite visitor to the garden, a male sparrowhawk, did not put in an appearance. He alights and hops around on the cherry tree as the little birds take cover in the midst of the hedge. I wonder what they are thinking as he searches for them? Is it like taking shelter in a cave as an angry lion prowls outside?

There were a load of redpolls earlier in the winter but now only a few remain. The female blackcap arrived a week ago and continues to hop around.

Last Night's Dream

I was watching TV and there was live footage of riots in China. One of those coves implicated in the Chinese milk scandal was being transported to court in a cage, on a cart, pulled by a horse. The rioters swamped the horse and cart, there were so many of them you couldn't see what happened next but things weren't looking good for the fella in the cage.

Then the camera panned to the prison where the other Milk Scandal Felons were being held. It wasn't much of a prison, more like a modest two story house, with a low pointed metal fence around it. The rioters soon stormed it, and again in wasn't looking good for their victims, but we were spared the full details by dint of massed throngs.

Sudenly noise of riots could be heard outside my house. I didn't panic, because I knew I wasn't implicated in the milk scandal & my obviously western features would convince the rioters of this. But I thought it might be best to get the feck out of Dodge so I left the premises and headed towards Groomsport at a light jog.

It was a lovely summers day. Sure enough, some of the rioters caught up with me but they pretty much left me alone after some light jostling.

I kept jogging. The street was much longer than real life. The noise of rioting faded away and I became calm. At the end of the street, Philip Schofield was parked up in a nice red convertible mustang. Only he wasn't the Phil Scofield off the telly, he was a cool, snakeskin, hepcat Phil Schofield. He opened the boot (trunk) of the Mustang and a sassy, pretty 1950s woman came out of a house. She seemed to know Schofield and was wary of him. They flirted in a Tennesse Williams fashion. The conversation seemed to be about the mystery object in the trunk. They ignored me.

My crapola pingu/fleet foxes interface

If I was doing it properly I could have downloaded loads of Pingu vidoes and chopped and changed them to fit the lyrics. But I haven't the enthusiasm, so I used one Pingu video that sorta works.