Almost daily diary!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Exceptionally 'twitchy' in a birdy sort of way.

A better day at work today. The children are great, it's the adults that grind you down!! By the time I left yesterday I could hardly form a sentence, let alone a coherent one. So my post yesterday was a little on the negative side but I took comfort in not being the only one who had suffered.

According to the RSPB survey the numbers of wood pigeons have increased by 665% over the last 30 years. That seems an awful lot, especially as most of them live in my garden (as discussed on Monday). We tried to complete the survey, back in January, here in our suburban patch. All you have to do is watch the garden for one hour and write down which birds land in it during that time (flying over doesn't count). Nothing landed. Nothing. Well apart from pigeons. Lots of interesting things flew over, Crows, Seagulls, Black Birds, Dunnocks, Heron, Pigs, but nothing landed. How did they know?
However the bird story that has stuck in my mind today is the one about the Albatross chicks. Apparently the plastic 'soup' the size of the UK, which is hanging somewhere in the Pacific Ocean is being mistaken for nice juicy squid and other edible stuff, by Albatross parents. They are feeding this abundant crop to their babies who, obviously, are subsequently dying. I must admit that, although I have tried to remember to take my own bags to the supermarket for sometime, I often forget to actually take them into the shop with me but instead leave them in the car (yes using the car gives me a guilt trip too). Half way round the shop, I remember the bags but I'm reluctant to go back to the car park to get them. Not any more.

Tonight Small Sprog is drumming! It's a school thing and he's not keen. As dutiful parents we shall be there. When Tall Girl was his age she did the drumming thing, but her concert was at Colston Hall which is a proper concert venue. We both went to watch (she is far more enthusiastic about performing than he is) and so Small Sprog had to come to. He was only 4 then. It was a late night and he really needed his bed around 7pm. By 8pm he was on my lap. By 5 past he'd clamped my hands to his ears (we were seated by a speaker!) and just dropped off to sleep! He slept through the whole noisy performance, whilst my arms went numb! Hopefully he'll stay awake for his own performance tonight, I just hope that I can too.

4 comments:

Barbara said...

I saw the article about Ablatross chicks - very sad. I am like you I take the plastic bags with me and leave them in the car. I must make more effort.

I hope you enjoyed the drumming, I saw Steel drummers one Christmas - it was wonderful.

Maggie May said...

I also did that bird survey & it was the week that all my sparrows disappeared. In fact I wrote a post about it at the time. They are still missing. Waste of time putting the feeders out.
Was appalled by the report on the news about plastic washed up on the beaches of beautiful far away places, & hooks and netting being swallowed by the birds. Humans have a lot to answer for, don't we?

Suburbia said...

Dear Maggie, the sparrows knew didn't they!! Didn't want to be counted. It's a shame they haven't reterned though.

Hi Starnitesky
We have returned from drumming and it was good. Small Sprog's concentration was only broken by a few large yawns, poor thing!

Charlie Blockhead said...

Congratulations!!! You have been nominated for a 2007 Best Of Blog Award!! Especially designed to bring attention to lower profile bloggers, The BoB’s as we like to call them are currently taking nominations in over 20 different categories. To find out more about how your site has a chance to become one of this year’s Best Of’s and how to nominate other bloggers, visit us at www.thebestofblogs.com. Remember voting begins April 14th so make sure you pass the word to your friends, family, and faithful followers.

Sincerely,
Bill Beck
Project Mgr.
The Best Of Blog Awards
Email:Bloggerbeck@aol.com