ASs some regulars may know I sometimes have a few health problems that at times restricts my access to the countryside so many of the restrictions that we have endured, and are still enduring, do not feel strange to Chris and myself. My immune system is pretty shot up at times so I'm quite good at avoiding numbers of people, I'm maybe not as anti social as it seems, and I've never been a lover of shopping unless its books. When we were recommended to shield in our own homes we actually realised we could walk the riverside fields with permission from the owners and had little chance of meeting anyone so we felt quite happy there. When restrictions eased we have four small nature reserves within a couple of miles of home with plenty of space to avoid close contact but still both watch birds and talk about birds with others doing the same, quite a little anti social bird club we are. There has been good birds aplenty and as winter has drawn closer the wintering Thrushes arrived we have been doing counts on them. One of our local reserves has got a wonderful Starling murmuration,60,000 birds at least, which we managed to social distance the grandsons to. We have found by visiting the busiest of the reserves late afternoon most birders have gone home and we enjoy the spectacle of birds going to roost. We do miss visiting our local moorland but they are outside the 3 mile radius we put on ourselves, they will still be there when all this is over and we settle down to our new normal. Because I am in that at risk category we seem to be swimming in hand sanitiser but Chris keeps an eye on what I get up to. I just hope other folk are coping as well as us and getting the support we have been getting, take care out there we will beat this lot somehow.
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can
Kind regards, Ann
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Regards, Hazel
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Hazel C said:Rons been reading "The journal of the Plague Year" by Daniel Dufoe, & has been relating snippets from time to time. It's amazing to read about their understanding of the spread of the disease & the steps necessary to combat it, it's all so similar to these days. They tried some pretty grim things too in the treatment. I'll give it a go when he's finished. We must have had the book for about 40 years, I can't even remember where it came from, probably a box of books bought at auction.
As someone who loves the Peak District, where Eyam is situated, and spent much time walking and camping around there, plus I've distant family roots there, though pre-National Park days, Eyam is a very interesting village.
April 2020 I adapted a short piece from a form walking blog, for a colleague to share with her children: "Eyam; a plague village which went into self-isolation", which is still online if anyone wants to read it.
https://peakramblerblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/eyam-a-plague-village-which-went-into-self-isolation/
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
Yes I remember that piece Mike & it was really interesting. Ron came up with a bits recently that said they worked out in the end that the way to stop the spread of the disease was to not have any contact with other people. They had symptonless spreaders too! And when they thought it was beaten, they all when round celebrating, hugging & kissing & it all started again. Sounds very similar.......
It is a fascinating story today but a tragic one for many people at the time. At Eyam they behaved like heroes for the most part, unlike some now. We visited Eyam something like 30 years ago and it was rather moving to be walking on the same spot where the story took place. I wonder what stories will be passed on about this pandemic.
Hazel C said:Yes I remember that piece Mike & it was really interesting. Ron came up with a bits recently that said they worked out in the end that the way to stop the spread of the disease was to not have any contact with other people. They had symptonless spreaders too! And when they thought it was beaten, they all when round celebrating, hugging & kissing & it all started again. Sounds very similar.......
Yes, there is a lot more to the Eyam story than often revealed. Likewise, we have symptomless spreaders too with Covid, quite a scary scenario when you look at it in the bigger picture.
Mrs PR was watching the drama "It's A Sin", all about the AIDS epidemic of the 80's, again, another similar scenario symptomless spreaders