Evening/Morning all: Off to check out recent posts.
Weather quite good today – a few drops of wet stuff this morning, but otherwise bright with much lighter wind than yesterday. The wind in Lockerbie last evening was really rough and icy. We used the back roads, but when we were alongside the M’way on the way home, we could see the signs advising “Stranraer ferry – all crossings cancelled”. And it sounds like its continuing bad where you are, Patriciat, I hope you are keeping dry and safe.
The talk we went to was very good – the RSPB officer for the East Coast White Tailed Eagle reintroduction project. She gave an overview of the history of WTEs in the UK, early attempts at reintroductions and the successful West Coast birds, then talked about the actual process they go through choosing the birds in Norway, caring for them until they are older, preparing them and then releasing them. Finally she talked about radio tracking and the current distribution of WTEs in Scotland. Al this was accompanied with maps, graphs etc but also some great photos of WTEs.
Roadmen continue outside – including a bucket parked at the end of our front path! Some of today’s work has including digging bits which had previously been filled, while other parts are getting filled now! Roundabout has been marked out but not painted yet – we think they lost it on the way here as there was a big spill of white paint on the road from Lockerbie, where the depot is!
Cleaner is busy, and OH is filling the car with recycling for the tip – included stuff from the loft which he identified while up there adding flooring – such as boxes and polystyrene packing from things we no longer have. I am now going to catch up with more correspondence.
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
I know this is distressing but there is picture of the osprey shot in Sussex on Birdguides. THIS HAS TO STOP.
http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=2410
OG I was really interested to hear of your fascinating talk on the introduction of Sea Eagles. In 1983 I bought The Stonor Eagles by William Horwood of Duncton Wood fame. In his acknowledgements his first was to John Love who was in charge of the Nature Conservancy Council's Sea Eagle Project on Rum (variously written as Rhum). Horwood wrote that if sea eagles finally re-establish themselves permanently in the British Isles it would be due primarily to the years of work Love had given to them. I have just dusted down the book and inside I have a photocopy of a New Scientist article of 13 October 1983 which said that "This year the white-tailed sea eagle nested in Britain for the first time since 1916." The article included a photo of Beccan who was released in 1977 having been imported in 1976. Beccan was named after a monk who lived on Rhum in early Christian times. I really must read Horwood's book again! It was set on Skye, part in the recent past and part legend. OH and I spent a week on Mull this year and joined one of the many wildlife safaris, and we were lucky enough to be taken to a view point (not at Loch Frisa) to be able to see a bird on a nest.
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/
Sheila - so pleased you used the real spelling of Rhum - I thought there was agreement a few years back to revert to the Gaelic name, but I keep seeing the English spelling, and it was so on the speaker's maps last night - in fact, on one she had an arrow from facts about Rhum pointing to Glen Etive (where an earlier introduction attempt had failed)!
Weather here has calmed down - and dried up! We even had some of the shiny light in the sky (nearly forgotten what it looked like.
Glad you enjoyed your talk last night OG. It sounds fascinating. Advance warning about ferry cancellations was wise as I understand there was no room in the Stena parking for HGVs. P&O sailings were also cancelled, with warnings about both services put out on Tuesday, before the depression reached us. Don't think the wind was as bad as last week's storm.
For all who commented about our red squirrel sighting, I'm wasting time (or not, depending on priorities) standing at windows overlooking the back gardens, in the hope that he'll turn up again. It's many years since we had a visit from a grey, although I see them when walking the dogs in our country park - Indy is convinced she can climb trees after them.
We have the first heat of our dog agility Winter League on Saturday (if it doesn't rain again in the meantime. The stream along the side of the venue burst its banks yesterday but is a bit like a Highland spate river and subsides quite quickly when the rain stops. I take the entries and do all the paperwork for the League so I spent most of last evening setting up an email group of competitors in case it's necessary to postpone at short notice. Fingers crossed!
Good Luck with the weather for your Dog Agility Event at the weekend, patriciat! Think it should be a bit drier on Saturday than it has been, everywhere.
Lindy's Film Review:
Friend & I went to see "Red" which is a comedy thriller, and had Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and the wonderful Helen Mirren in it. It is only meant to be a bit of light hearted fun - there is a lot of machine gun shooting, and things being blown up, but it's in a sort of cartoonish way, so if you like that sort of thing, was very funny indeed. Personally I'm not keen on violence, but as it was all in fun, we enjoyed it very much as you can tell. They played CIA agents who had retired, but got drawn into a plot & had to come out fighting. A good script and plenty of fast moving story.
Next week, we are off to watch the latest "Harry Potter" instalment, so shall report again.
Thanks to Alan for link to report about the osprey shooting incident - how heartbreaking it is, to think that anyone could even do such a thing. Unfortunately, its hard to catch people shooting and so unlikely they will be brought to justice for this terrible crime.
Lindybird I will certainly look forward to your film 2010 review for next week's outing! The media reviews have certainly been positive. Apparently it is very unlike all the other films and much darker. Enjoy!
Patricia like you, I rarely seen grey squirrels in the garden - one could say fortunately! Not sure why as they are in the village. Perhaps it is a lack of trees between it (the village) and us! I hope the weather holds for you for Saturday and that all goes well.
Have been out most of the day then had problems logging in for a while so am only just catching up now.
A great big THANK YOU to Diane and Tiger for your lovely comments about my stuff. Really made my day :)
Yucky and drizzling here so good to be home warm and dry and enjoying all your posts.
ChloeB & Tiger's Osprey Data