All flaxen was her poll

For those long-term readers of this blog (both of you), the following may come as quite a shock. If you remember some time ago I stumbled upon this sad sight. Well, today I could barely countenance the scene laid out before me; not content with driving the poor soul to suicide, this morning they returned and flailed her pathetic lifeless form! THE HUMANITY OF IT!!!


The only comforting thought is that she was incapable of her own distress.

More news from the eastern front

Yet another sojourn to the eastern wilds produced the goods. Whilst wandering down to the estuary near Mathern a rather dumpy passerine caught the eye. As it flew across a field I clocked white bases to the primaries and (self-doubt to the fore) momentarily thought I was seeing things, as it turned out, I was - a Hawfinch. Luckily it dropped into the next hedge, where it remained happily consuming Field Maple seeds until we got bored and wandered off.


Earlier the Neddern produced nothing more exciting than the Black Swans, the Scaup appears to have departed. Matthern village was nothing special either, however, it did add another point on my 'places on the levels where I have seen Coal Tit this autumn' map.

Whoops shopocalypse

Ok, who let me go shopping all by myself? Found a great toy-shop in Pimlico, I do like shiny gold boxes. Well, what's money for? Actually, it's worse than it looks,... the 300mm f2.8 doesn't turn up until Thursday.


How could anyone resist this little cutie?

Fox in the Snow (well frost)

Fox in the snow, where do you go,
To find something you can eat?

A day of fieldwork on a frizz hillside required some full-on anti-frostbite gear including EXTREME mittens,... oh yeah! Unfortunately, in the pic you can't make out the EXTREME string which runs up my sleeve, across my back and down to the other mitt but it is there and it is... EXTREME!

Cause the word out on the street is you are starving,
Don't let yourself grow hungry now,

It was so cold out there today that my egg and cress sandwiches (also EXTREME) had a slightly crunchy texture thanks to ice crystals in the filling.

Don't let yourself grow cold,
Fox in the snow.

PS. Also had a fox trot past resulting in four hours of humming Belle & Sebastian songs, nothing like Scottish indie pop tunes bedecked with Glaswegian omnibus inspired lyrics to warm the cockles.

Well duh!?

Saw this 'news' story on the BBC website today (see below),... finally the scientific community awakens to the bleeding obvious. Given the penultimate paragraph, it would appear Professor Reinhard Genzel is a birder of sorts.

Newhouse - St. Pierre Pill

Saw a fair few of these today...


Amongst which were one or two of these...


And we saw a goodly number of these...


Amongst which were three of these...


PS. Also had a Chiffchaff and a dose of Snipe at Collister Pill.

Highlight of the week

Bagged a brace of Jehovah's Witnesses today, unfortunately, they escaped before I was able to convert them to the righteous path that is western scientific thought. Hopefully though, I did manage to share some small part of the joy that stems from the teachings of the great patriarchs (Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Popper, et al.); and hint at the everlasting light that shines on those of us lucky enough to embrace evolutionary theory and all that flows from it. Unfortunately though, I fear my attempt to draw them from the darkness may have failed as John (not his real name, I instantly forgot that) expressed the view that "the fossil record was the single biggest hoax of all time" and, following my effort to point out evolution in action, with reference to changes in beak morphology of Darwin's Finches, he uttered the truly wonderful repost "Yes,... but they're still finches aren't they". Well, there was nothing else for it, I had to concede that, yes, climatic changes on the Galapagos had not instantaneously turned finches into dragons.

One thing I do like to do, when visited by evangelical types, is to try and work out what it was that triggered their bizarre beliefs. It would appear that recovering alcoholics and heroine addicts are strangely attuned to the word of God, as are the educationally sub-average and those lacking in robust social networks. Am I the only one who finds it slightly puzzling that God has chosen these people to share his boundless knowledge with? He would also appear to want to populate heaven with people that have been inappropriately touched by their uncles/PE teachers and plain-looking women whose husbands have left them for a younger model. Oh, and why does he have a penchant for uptight young-men that appear to be struggling with their sexuality? Can you imagine what the next world will be like? What if all the addicts and ex-boozers fall off the wagon? I can see it now, the ivory halls caked in vomit; the saints gingerly picking their way through hordes of crack-toothed insufflators of crystal meth; and piss-sodden aficionados of Tennents Extra hurling handfulls of their own shit at passing cherubs. [Did someone say "Newport on a Friday night"?]

I didn't manage to work out what had triggered John's delusional psychosis, but I'm guessing he spent his formative years fine-tuning an, as yet unpatented, cocktail of tricyclic antidepressants, vicodin, human growth hormone, benzodiazapams and chloral hydrate. This obviously drew him closer to his God, or possibly just made him easy prey for evangelists,... one or the other.

Anyway, the real shame of the episode was that, despite me asking, they declined to call again, apparently they didn't think there was much point. Christ knows what gave them that idea, I didn't even show them my "Jesus Saves,... but Torres nets the rebound" t-shirt.

Religion, eh? SHIT IT!

Has anyone seen my frisbee?

The pooch has pilfered my Pluto platter; pinched by the perro, it has presumably (possibly permanently) been placed in some particularly private pigeonhole on these very premises.


What? You were expecting something about 'Gwent' or 'birding', who suggested that preposterous idea? Was it Steve perchance? STEVE!

Larking around

A recent brief exchange of emails on the finer points of not identifying Horned Lark subspecies had me perusing some photos this evening. Smart little fellow isn't he? Pity the cameraman was so unbelievably inept.

Ducka, ducka ducka!

The Urban Dictionary has more than 250 entries beginning with the word 'duck' including: duck, duck 'n' mumble, Duck and a half, duck and cover, duck and swoop, Duck and Tuck, Duck Arse, Duck Ass, duck ass nigga, Duck Away, duck batty, duck bear, duck billed platipus (sic), duck bomb, Duck Boy, duck bread, duck bunny, duck but, duck butt, duck butter, duck butter, duck butter brewery, duck butter pudding, Duck Butter Slap, Duck Call, duck cheese, Duck Coily, duck cream, Duck Day, duck dive, duck dodger, Duck Dodgers, duck dont lie, duck duck goose, Duck Duck Grayduck, duck duck moose, duck egg, duck eggs, Duck Face, duck farmer, duck fart, duck fat, Duck feeder, Duck Feet, duck feet hands, Duck Fight, duck fonkies, duck food, duck foot hand, duck fuck, duck fucker, duck funnel, duck head nerd, Duck Hunt, Duck Hunter, duck hunter dog, duck hunting, duck hunting permit, Duck Lips, duck ma sick, duck man, duck man drake, Duck Me, Duck Meat, Duck Monkey, duck mustard, Duck My Sick, Duck Nugget, Duck Nuggets, Duck Off, duck out, Duck Party, Duck Paste, duck phuck, duck pond, duck pond simulator, Duck Puke, duck race, Duck Roll, duck sauce, duck sausage, duck shit, duck shoe, duck shoe mentality, duck shoes, duck shot, duck shove, Duck Shunter, Duck Sick, DUCK SICKER, duck Skirt, Duck Slider, Duck Sludge, Duck Snort, duck soup, duck spit, Duck spot, duck status, Duck Tagged, duck tales, duck tape, duck tape on the windows, duck that meal, duck tour, duck tours, Duck Town, duck tuck, duck under, duck walk, duck weed, duck whore, duck wrap, Duck Xing, duck yee, duck you, Duck'ed, Duck's Ass, duck's breakfast, duck's guts, duck's nuts, Duck-bill kiss, Duck-butter, Duck-duck-goose, duck-goosed, duck-it, Ducka, ducka ducka ducka, duckaduck, Duckage, duckalicious, Duckaluckaphobia, duckary, duckbill, duckbill platapus (sic), duckboy, Duckbutt, author duckbutt, duckbutter, duckdoogan, duckdow, duckduckduck, Ducked, ducked off, ducked out, duckee, Duckeey, duckegg, duckel bucket, ducker, duckers, duckery, duckerz, duckes up, ducket, duckets, duckett, duckettes, ducketts, Duckey, Duckface cuntmuffin, duckfloat, duckfoot, duckfucker, duckfuckery, duckfudder, Duckhead, duckhog, Duckhook, Duckie, Duckiefroggiestinker, duckies, duckin, duckin my fuck, duckin, DuckInferno, ducking, ducking chubi, ducking fick head, ducking it, duckish, duckitude, duckjob, duckket, ducklady, Duckle Nuster, ducklefart, Duckles, Ducklet, duckling, ducklings, Ducklips, duckman, Duckmanton, duckmeat, duckmo, duckmonkey, ducknuts, ducko, duckoff, Duckoutdoors, duckpin, duckplucker, DuckPuke, Duckrabbitism, duckrider, duckroll, duckrunt, ducks, ducks and drakes, ducks and sings, ducks guts, Ducks in a row, ducks nuts, ducks on the pond, DUCKS!, ducksauce, Duckshag, Ducksick, Ducksicker, DuckSloth, ducksnort, Ducksnuts, Duckspeak, duckstyle, ducktail, Ducktales, Ducktape, Ducktard, ducktionary, ducktown, ducktreesha, ducku, duckwad, duckwalk, Duckwarrior, duckwater, Duckwork, Duckworth, ducky, author ducky, ducky butt rubber, Ducky Duck, Ducky Ducky, ducky fist, Ducky Inc, ducky shirt, Duckylike, duckys, duckysex, Ducky_Dan, Duckzilla and duck_k.

It just goes to show: a. how inspiring the Anatidae can be; and b. how much spare time modern humans have at their disposal.


"My name is Ducky. Yep, that is what it is, yep yep yep!" (Judith Barsi as 'Ducky' the Parasaurolophus in 'Land Before Time' [Amblin, 1988])